100% Local Ohio | Your Cincinnati Bee Connection
Posted in Equipment on Oct 18th, 2011
The good news is…I am almost satisfied with my beekeeping hat. The bad news is…almost isn’t good enough. Which means the quest for the perfect beekeeping hat continues. Currently, I wear a dang good hat. I found it online, ordered it, and have worn it for months now. Then I went to the Apple store [...]
Posted in Equipment on Oct 12th, 2011
I know, I know. I’d planned to visit with you about the “colony vs. hive” nomenclature challenge when it comes to writing about the bees. But I’d rather tell you about smoker bombs instead. Keeping bees is challenging…which is probably why I’m so hooked. One constant challenge is keeping the dang smoker lit. Funny, this [...]
Posted in Protective clothing on Oct 8th, 2011
Posted in Visitors to the beeyard on Jul 18th, 2011
We spent much of the weekend on our farm in Waco, Kentucky. Now that Deb owns the farm outright, we feel we can begin making a few slight changes in the way things work down there. For instance, I think we’re gonna ask all the relatives to come and get whatever they want from the [...]
Posted in Equipment on Jul 15th, 2011
You should smell my car. Well, first you should know that I drive a 12-year old Nissan Pathfinder (it has over 160K miles on it, but I’m not giving it up…I figure I can get 250K miles out of it. I don’t quit on things). My car smells like smoke and beeswax, and it’s a [...]
Posted in Top-Bar Hives on Oct 24th, 2010
My new top-bar hive is being met with general displeasure. The plywood doesn’t seem to be aesthetically pleasing to too many people. I like it. I’d prefer to use some rough-cut lumber, I guess, but that’s not easy to find, Reader. Others want me to see my next hive made of pine. I think my [...]
Posted in Top-Bar Hives on Oct 20th, 2010
I know you want to see my first Kenya Top-Bar Hive. I’ve already got plans for a wider, shorter one…one that will accept the frames from my medium-depth Langstroth hive boxes. I want the flexibility of swapping frames from any hives in my yard. I learned, though, from Michael Bush (I think of Michael Bush [...]
Posted in Hive Management on Oct 4th, 2010
It’s turned cold these past few days. By “cold,” I mean the low temperatures are in the high 30s or low 40s and the highs are in the 50s. We haven’t yet turned on the heat, but we are sleeping with the electric blanket on low. And a few of my hives have those augur [...]
Posted in Hive cycle on Oct 2nd, 2010
I went out to the beehives at 3:15 PM yesterday in order to film for you the young Amazon bees orienting. They were so active that I wanted you to see them, too, Reader. I got a brief video of them, but then a bee went in my ear and freaked me out. I slapped [...]
Posted in Education on Sep 25th, 2010
I don’t love the telephone. However, these past few months I get a lot of calls about bees, and I like those calls a lot. Why? I don’t know…maybe because I’m never sure what situation will present itself, and that’s fun. These past couple of weeks, I’ll bet I get 2 or 3 calls each [...]