Combining Hives (newspaper method)

It’s nearing winter, the bees are ANGRY, but we’ve got a weak hive that won’t make it unless we combine it with a stronger hive. Here’s how we do it using the newspaper method.

Checking for Queens

Keeping bees starts with a happy queen. In this quick tutorial, beekeeper John Klapperich checks on his queenless hive installing a new queen to take over.

How to Conduct a Basic Inspection

We’re teaching you how to be a beekeeper and not a bee haver! Here’s how to conduction a general inspection on the health of your hive. From start to finish, The Bee Store’s John Klapperich shows us how he inspects his very own bees!

How to Install Your Bees into Your Hive

So – you’ve got bees. You have the hive. Now we need to get the bees into the hive. Here’s a quick tutorial on how to install your newly delivered flying friends into their new digs – start to finish!

Prepping Honeybees for Winter

❄? A little bit of a longer video but for good reason – we’re prepping our girls for winter! Take it from me, there are many ways to do this, and I’ve tried them all. My recommendation is labeling frames with those 3M PostIt Flags (Amazon Link: http://bit.ly/3MBees) to differentiate the frames because permanent markers aren’t going to be the same year after year and you’ll get confused.

How to Make a Quilt Board

See, all winter the bees will keep an average temperature of 92 degrees Fahrenheit in the hive – yep, pretty warm when you consider the outside temps will be at or below freezing. This temperature difference is a breeding ground for condensation which is a big bee no-no. As the moisture forms in the hive, it begins to condense on the roof of your hive slowly dripping down onto your bees cooling them at a time when they’re struggling to stay warm.

Mite Treatment with Oxalic Acid

When it comes to beekeeping, bee health is very important, and while we’re reaching the end of the “flow,” our bee populations tend to slow while our mite populations are just getting started wreaking havoc on our hives.

In the past, we’ve shown you how to test for mites using mite strips and the powdered sugar method – these are still the most accurate ways to test for mites, but today we wanted to cover mite treatments.

Introducing Ant Can't

We humans aren’t the only lovers of the sweet honey our bees create. ??? Ants can be a huge problem when it comes to hive maintenance and pest management.

Wonder how we care for the Observational Beehive?

We get a lot of questions about The Bee Store LLC’s observational beehive. “How do you care for it?!” Well, we can’t exactly just open it up in the store, now can we?!

Types of Bee Frames and How To Assemble Them

Plastic, wired, wax – here are the types of bee frames, the benefits, and how to assemble them! We always say – we do what the bees like, not what the beekeeper likes so go out there and give each of these bee frames a test run!

Testing for Varroa Mites

Hey! Welcome to our quick tutorial on testing for varroa mites in our honey bee hives using two methods – the alcohol wash method and the sugar roll method. Remember – mites are the number one cause of hive deaths, so mite counts are IMPORTANT to beekeeping!

Honey Extraction using an Extractor

Now – we all know the bees do a lot of work, but there’s a lot more effort before the honey gets to you. Here’s a quick look into our Honey Extraction Process (a new service we’re offering at The Bee Store LLC by the way)!