How Big Should A Beehive Entrance Hole Be?

According to bee expert Prof. Tom Seeley, the ideal entrance hole size should be close to wild bees’ natural preference, which is about 4 square inches, or 10 to 15 square centimeters. Hives with smaller entrance holes may provide benefits such as easier defense against robber bees and reduced energy expenditure for controlling the internal hive temperature.

Additionally, it can impact the hive’s defense against predators and parasites. Selecting the appropriate size for the entrance can contribute to the overall health and productivity of the bee colony.

How Close Can Beehives Be to a House?

When it comes to backyard beekeeping, a common question arises: How close can beehives be to a house? The placement of beehives is important not only for the well-being of the bees but also for the safety and convenience of homeowners and their neighbors. With the increasing interest in beekeeping as a hobby and a way to support honeybee populations, understanding the optimal distance for placing beehives is essential.

Several factors should be taken into consideration when deciding where to place your beehives, including the temperament of the bees, the size of your property, and local regulations. Ultimately, the goal is to find a location that provides the bees with the necessary resources while minimizing potential conflicts with human activities.

How Late in the Year Can You Split a Beehive?

Beekeeping is an art that requires patience and an understanding of the natural rhythms of honeybees. One crucial aspect of managing a healthy apiary is knowing when and how to split hives. A well-timed hive split can help control swarming, create more colonies, and boost honey production.

However, timing is key. If you split a hive too late in the year, you may jeopardize the health and productivity of the new colony.

How Long Can You Keep Capped Honey Before Extraction?

Archaeologists have found 3000 year old honey that is still edible, so that must mean honey never goes bad, right? Well, yes, if it is stored right. And no one gets it right better than the bees themselves. Bees store honey to get them through months of no nectar. Although honeybees are not indigenous to north America, European honey bees, like those from Russia have to go four months or more without nectar. So if there’s a wild swarm, they can’t afford to have honey that spoils in days or weeks.

With that in mind, capped honey frames can be stored for years, if you can replicate the conditions in a wild hive. Living in a tree has some significant perks. The thick walls of the tree keep it insulated against both excessive heat and extreme low condition. The tree trunk helps to absorb excess moisture and the swarm is constantly guarding the comb so pests dont get a chance to destroy it.

How Long Does It Take for Bees to Draw Comb?

When a swarm first finds a home, they need to work fast to take advantage of those spring blooms. They don’t last forever. For that reason, bees are wired to build comb pretty fast so the queen can lay eggs, providing the colony with the bee power it needs to collect and store nectar.

Comb building requires a lot of energy from the bee, which is replenished primarily by nectar. The more nectar available, the faster they build. In general, it takes between 7 days to 2 months for bees to produce honeycomb and fill it with honey, but there’s a little more to it than that. A populous established colony, during a strong honey flow, can achieve this task more quickly, while smaller and weaker colonies may take longer to build comb under similar conditions.

Let’s begin by diving a little deeper into what honeycomb is and does.

How Many Bee Hives Do You Need to Make a Living?

Any type of business requires scale. If the operation is too small, the cost of producing one unit of anything, let’s say honey would be too high. So, even though each colony will be different, and each harvesting season will vary, the number of hives you need to keep a bee business going is going to determine whether you’re better off keeping your day job, or fully investing your time and money in bees.

Many experts suggest that a full-time income can be achieved with around 200 hives and at least 50 hives for offering pollination services. However, success in beekeeping heavily relies on other factors such as location, weather, and market demand. In this article, we will outline the core elements of a beekeeping business to understand how to turn it into a full-time business.

Bees, Neighbors and the Law: Navigating Apiary Etiquette

Like most of the animals we keep, bees don’t care much for our property lines. Most of the time, when they cross over to the neighbors, they don’t cause any problems. They fly over, collect pollen and nectar, and fly back without incident. If you have a beehive or two in your backyard in a highly residential area, you couldn’t plant enough flowers to feed them, so they’d wind up next door anyway.

Sometimes they’ll go to the neighbors in search of water, especially in the summer, and the site of all those bees can be alarming. Other times, your neighbor will get stung by an insect that may or may not be a bee and immediately point the finger at you. It’s therefore, in your best interest to know and understand your legal responsibilities regarding beekeeping in your locality.

This article will discuss the laws and guidelines that govern beekeeping in residential areas and provide insights on how best to foster a healthy coexistence between beekeepers, their neighbors, and the bees themselves.

Can Bees Sting Through a Bee Suit?

I don’t think there’s a beekeeper alive who has never been stung. Yes, beekeepers, despite their love and adoration for bees, do get stung. Does this happen when we have our bee suits on? Yes, yes it does. But don’t click away just yet, there’s some good news.

A bee suit is designed to offer protection from bee stings, but bee suits are sting-resistant and not completely bee-proof. Bees have a way of finding the smallest openings in a suit, and even the most determined bees might be able to sting through the material.

Cross Comb: The Issue with Bees Building Comb Between Frames

Cross-comb is a common issue faced by beekeepers, especially beginners, which occurs when bees build comb that connects two beehive frames. This improper construction can make it challenging for beekeepers to inspect, maintain, and harvest honey from their hives.

Typically, cross-comb is a result of improperly spaced frames or large gaps that allow bees to build in any direction they want. We’ll take a closer look at the reasons behind cross-comb formation and show you how to prevent and fix the problem.

Can There Be Too Many Drones in Beehive?

Beehives are complex ecosystems with different roles played by a specific caste of bees, such as worker bees, queen bees, and drone bees. Drone bees are the male bees in a colony, and their primary function is to mate with virgin queens from other colonies. While their presence in a beehive is inevitable, can there be too many drones in a beehive?

Having a healthy number of drone bees is essential for the species, as they contribute to genetic diversity by mating with queens from various colonies. In the wild, drones will constitute approximately 10% of the colony, although smaller colonies may not produce any drones. Drone production is energy intensive and ordinarily occurs when there’s enough nectar and pollen for the colony.

Since the number of drones is proportional to the colony’s size, a large colony may appear to have numerous drones, but that is not cause for concern. Too many drones can indicate issues within the hive, such as problems with the queen bee or the presence of foundationless frames. In this article, we will explore the importance of drone bees, their optimal population numbers, and the potential consequences of having too many drones in a beehive.