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…
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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…
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…
Honey, Moringa, and Healthy Skin!
HONEY is amazing …Duh! …and when you combine it with other amazing ingredients you get a synthesis of those combined benefits. Honey is so beneficial when you put it inside your body, but it is just as fantastic when you put it ON your body. Did you know…
A Power Elixir with Turmeric, Moringa, & Honey
Make your own Power Elixir Ok, so we keep bees because they are fascinating, they pollinate our food crops, and they produce HONEY! That sweet, liquid gold that has been cherished for thousands of years for its sweet taste as well as for its healing properties. We all…
Arizona Backyard Beekeepers: Fall and Winter hive care
Get your hives ready for an Arizona Winter Last night’s Arizona Backyard Beekeepers meeting was all about making sure we are ready to get our hives through the winter months. It sounds a little crazy when you say “winter” in central Arizona. We don’t have mounds of snow…
Hive Inspections: A checklist for how to do it and what to look for
The Importance of Hive Inspections One of the considerations before deciding to keep backyard bees in Arizona is the commitment to inspect your hives weekly. Other parts of the country can get away with doing monthly checks, but because of the constant threat of Africanization, we need to visit…