It’s late summer in Phoenix and my bees are hungry. I’ve set out pollen substitute and they are rolling around in it like pigs in mud. It’s quite endearing really. I’ve also been feeding them sugar syrup off and on and I’ve noticed that some of my hives are not…
Posts by cricket
What’s the Best Fuel for Your Smoker?
This is a question that beekeepers each have an opinion on. New beekeepers often buy the pellets because that’s what is in the catalogs next to the smokers. But I have yet to meet a seasoned beekeeper who uses them, though I’m sure there are some. I’m more of a…
Creating a Bee-Friendly Low-Desert Garden
One of the great things that happens when you become a beekeeper is that you become acutely aware of what is blooming in your area. This also means you probably also become a gardener or at least a garden consultant to all your neighbors. In the low desert areas of…
Frame Feeder Hack
Beekeeping is a learn-as-you-go experience. Some do a lot of reading and research up front and do a little better than others who jump right in (that’s me by the way.) Either way, you don’t know what you are doing until you do it, month by…
Trap-outs using a Bee Escape
I love learning new ways to remove bees from structures in order to rescue them from extermination. I’ve removed bees from trees with a forced abscond as well as with a cone mesh trap-out. Both of these were very successful, but haven’t been so lucky with block walls because cones…
How to Render Beeswax the Easy Way
In the last post I wrote about my new honey press, which is actually a fruit press made for crushing apples and grapes. It works great for pressing honey. So after all of the honey is pressed out of the comb, what do you do with the smashed, crushed…
My Ted X Talk
Ok, I am a little shy to post this, but I put so much work and stress into it that it would be a shame for me to not share. To be honest, I never considered doing a Ted X talk. My friend, Dave Stone said he was going to…
Crushing Honeycomb
I love it when I get the chance to open up a floor, wall, or ceiling and find an entire colony of bees living there. For the homeowner its a scary experience, but for me, it’s an adventure. I don’t know exactly what I will find. There could be…
Where to Get Bees
It’s springtime here in Arizona and everyone is “buzzing” to get bees. I’ve received lots of questions about how to start beekeeping. Coincidentally I have also had lots of requests for bee removals. I love it! In both cases people are showing an interest in helping bees. …
Struggling Hives
I love our community of Arizona Backyard Beekeepers! We share our questions, our solutions, our successes and our failures. It’s how we grow. If nobody ever lets us in on things they are struggling with, we end up thinking we are the only ones having a hard time. What…