The Bee Journal

If anyone is interested in learning how to make mead (honey wine) here are some resources: What are the Basics? Mead is the oldest alcoholic drink known to man. When honey has water added, or...

http://thebeejournal.blogspot.com/2018/05/making-mead-honey-wine.html

How bees talk to each other about flowers. Fun Fact: A small percentage of older bees will act as scouts and search for new flowers. When she finds a good source of nectar or pollen she'll ret...

http://thebeejournal.blogspot.com/2017/12/fun-fact-honey-bee-waggle-dances.html

Fun Fact: Bees have pockets. Bees produce beeswax from their own bodies. On the underside of their abdomen are four pairs of wax glands. Under the wax glands are tiny pockets which hold the wa...

http://thebeejournal.blogspot.com/2017/12/fun-fact-bees-have-pockets.html

Fun Fact: When building combs in the darkness of the hive bees don't use visual sense. They have cushions of sensory hairs at all their joints which are stimulated by gravity to move like a pe...

http://thebeejournal.blogspot.com/2017/11/fun-fact-how-bees-see-inside-hive.html

We looked at two types of chores bees do to heat up the wax and assist with keeping the brood temperature consistent. When a bee dunks into a cell to warm up the adjacent cells, she burns off ...

http://thebeejournal.blogspot.com/2017/11/fun-fact-do-you-know-about-filling.html

Fun Fact: Bees will leave about 10 to 15% of brood comb with no eggs. This is deliberate. Heater bees who are hot from warming up will dunk their bodies into these empty cells and rapidly tele...

http://thebeejournal.blogspot.com/2017/11/fun-fact-more-about-heater-bees_25.html

Fun Fact: Do you know what the largest organ in the hive is? It's the beeswax. Recent studies have shown that the bees communicate through the wax by vibrations that they make. Wax also holds t...

http://thebeejournal.blogspot.com/2017/11/fun-fact-did-you-know-about-heater-bees.html

Did you know that bees deliberately build their honeycombs with a 15 degree slant? This helps keep the honey from dripping out of the cells. Did you know that when bees fly their bodies crea...

http://thebeejournal.blogspot.com/2017/11/did-you-know-quick-facts.html

A REALLY GOOD ARTICLE ON A NEW DISCOVERY ABOUT HOW FLOWERS ATTRACT BEES.  I'VE PASTED IT BELOW AND THE LINK TO THE STORY IS AT DISCOVERY OF BLUE HALO ON FLOWERS A “BAT SIGNAL” FOR BEES...

http://thebeejournal.blogspot.com/2017/11/blue-halo-on-non-blue-flowers-attracts.html

I love this handmade leather tool belt. It's made specifically for beekeepers and they are sold by a friend of mine who has been keeping bees for close to 30 years and also teaches beekeeping...

http://thebeejournal.blogspot.com/2017/10/beekeepers-best-friend-tool-belt.html

It's late August and the bees on all the hives are washboarding, They move almost in synchronization back and forth.  It looks like a dance. I find this a good sign of a healthy hive because...

http://thebeejournal.blogspot.com/2017/08/washboarding-cleaning-hive.html

Have you ever seen your bees all standing around on the front porch and thought, are those bees lazy? Well guess what - they're not.. Foragers will hang out on the front porch ready for...

http://thebeejournal.blogspot.com/2017/08/lazy-bees-not.html

This chart shows the daily progression of honey bee growth and cell building for workers, drones and queens. It comes in very handy for queen breeders who refer to the chart when looking for y...

http://thebeejournal.blogspot.com/2017/08/chart-of-bee-growth-for-all-castes.html

New beekeepers can get a little worried on hot summer days when they see a thick mass of bees that resembles a swarm hanging off the edge of the hive or hive platform. That's not a swarm becau...

http://thebeejournal.blogspot.com/2017/08/bees-hanging-out-on-front-porch-bearding.html

I keep any large water bottles and refill them with tap water.  I keep a couple in the bee vehicle and also in each beeyard.  Here's why: in case of a spark or fire from the smoker to poor o...

http://thebeejournal.blogspot.com/2017/08/something-really-simple-to-have-on-hand.html

Here's a really interesting article on how beekeepers in Slovenia keep their bees:  Slovenian Beekeeping The article lists the advantages and disadvantages of keeping bees this way.  Major ...

http://thebeejournal.blogspot.com/2017/08/maybe-we-need-to-rethink-how-we-keep.html

One thing I know for certain: Bees will never go up your pant legs when your hands are empty. It'll always happen when you're holding a super so flowing over with bees that you can't set anythi...

http://thebeejournal.blogspot.com/2017/07/we-wear-socks-in-bee-yard-for-reason.html

If you've taken up beekeeping then it won't be long until you see a chore bees do outside the hive.  It's called washboarding. The bees will be next to each other with a bit of space between ...

http://thebeejournal.blogspot.com/2017/07/washboarding-housework-for-bees.html

A couple years ago our bee club had a presentation by one of the Tech Team members of the Ontario Bee Association. The team had done an extensive study  to find out what is the best protein s...

http://thebeejournal.blogspot.com/2017/07/best-homemade-protein-patty-recipe-for.html

I'd read about visual cues for bees and I started to put different stickers on the fronts on my hives to help bees get back to the right hive. Ever since I lost a queen who I found dead from ...

http://thebeejournal.blogspot.com/2017/06/visual-cues-for-bees.html

While camping on an overseas trip my friend got out this metal thing that looked like a canister and in less than five minutes we all had hot coffees in our hands.  Wow.  Very nice to have a w...

http://thebeejournal.blogspot.com/2017/05/kelly-kettle-beekeepers-friend.html

If you didn't know already, there's an excellent and free bee newsletter that you can sign up for to receive an email each day. Bee Culture is a magazine and the author Kim Flottum wrote the m...

http://thebeejournal.blogspot.com/2017/05/bee-culture-e-newsletter.html

This short video is very interesting.  A beekeeper and scientist happened to notice how wax moths chew plastic very effectively and now they're exploring the possibility of using them to solve o...

http://thebeejournal.blogspot.com/2017/04/wax-moth-caterpillars-saving-us-from.html

 I've done a couple postings on making body products with oils and beeswax.  Generally the recipes are very similar.  The bottom line is that the amount of wax added to the oil will determine...

http://thebeejournal.blogspot.com/2016/12/how-to-make-salves-with-beeswax.html

If you've made lip balm then you can make a lotion bar. The process is the same - you make a semi solid cake with moisturizing oils and beeswax. The finished lotion bar melts on contact with y...

http://thebeejournal.blogspot.com/2016/12/how-to-make-body-lotion-bar.html