Isn't honeycomb AMAZING? How do these tiny honey bees take an empty space and fill it with this honeycomb-shaped cells? Why do they put the work into making it this shape, and what is the benefit?   The Purpose of Honeycomb When a colony of bees is looking for a home, they are searching for an empty cavern. The first thing they do when they move into the space is build honeycomb. Honeycomb serves multiple vital functions for a bee colony. It's where the queen lays her eggs, providing a crib for the unborn bees. It acts as storage for food - pollen, honey and nectar - which susta ..read more

How do you care for bees? Let's break down the role of the beekeeper into 8, easy to follow parts so that you know how to take care of your bees. Step 1 - Give Your Bees a Home The first thing you have to do is provide your bees with a home that is easy for you to access and keeps them safe from other bees, wasps, predators and the elements.  What does this look like? You want your hive to: be at least 8" off the ground; have a small entrance that is not too large but allows enough space for the bees to come and go; little to no gaps for wind, rain, or sun to get in other than ..read more

Finding eggs in your beehive is tricky. They're so darn small, and they're in these little tunnels that are so dark. What's a beekeeper to do? In this video, you'll see me go through a hive and look for eggs. I share with you my process to finding eggs and include a lot of tips to help you find eggs in your hive too.   Click here to download my FREE Inside a Beehive Identification Guide.   ..read more

This is my absolute favorite lip balm! It's soft, smells nice, soothes my dry lips in the winter and is really easy to make. If you're new to making body products, this recipe is perfect for you. It doesn't require purchasing a lot of obscure ingredients or any equipment, and makes a great addition to a gift or party favor.      My Absolute Favorite Lip Balm Recipe Ingredients: 26g beeswax 26g sunflower oil (or almond oil) 26g coconut oil 8g lanolin 1g castor oil .1g vitamin E 16 drops peppermint essential oil 2 drops rosemary extract Steps: Melt 26g beeswax in a double ..read more

A very important part to helping your honey bees survive cold, winter weather (also called overwintering a beehive) is making sure there is enough ventilation. Although most beekeepers allow the main entrance to stay open over winter, some beekeepers have a secondary source of ventilation at the top of the hive (also called an upper entrance). However, this is also letting cold air into a space the bees are working hard to keep warm! Let's look at the pros and cons to having an upper entrance, as well as some studies on humidity in the beehive, so you can decide if an upper entrance is be ..read more

So you want to become a beekeeper? I broke down the process to getting started keeping bees into 10 actionable steps for you to take. Ready?       How to Get Started Keeping Bees Step 1 - Know What to Expect Beekeeping is a great hobby, but it's also a lot of work, especially your first few years. In the months when the outside temperature is 65F or warmer, you should expect to spend about 30 minutes inspecting each beehive. You should inspect your hives every 1-2 weeks. There will also be problems and you might have to call a beekeeper friend ..read more

 One of the first steps to becoming a beekeeper is understanding the hive - where a colony of bees lives. The hive is a fairly simple structure, but its parts can be confusing to a beginner. Let's go through all the parts of the beehive. In this video, you'll learn: The parts of a hive & their purpose How to put a hive together How to use a hive      Learn All 7 Steps to Becoming a Beekeeper in my FREE Book. Download It Here.   I am using the Langstroth-style hive because it is the most common beehive used in the United States. When getting started, I recom ..read more

It doesn't matter if you have just a few hives or hundreds of hives, there are lots of ways you can make some money from your bees. Our new course is totally FREE and teaches you all about running a beekeeping business.  View the full course on running a beekeeping business here!   Our First Lesson in the Business of Beekeeping - The Start I had a rocky start to beekeeping, but that didn't stop me from moving 5,000 miles away to work for a commercial apiary 2 years later. In the first lesson of this beekeeping course, I talk about how I went from living in Philadelphia and keepi ..read more

Splitting a beehive is when the beekeeper takes some brood (the baby bees) and honey from a beehive and puts them into an empty beehive in order to increase the amount of hives that they have. There are a few ways to split a hive, but in this video I'm going to show you the way I recommend splitting a hive so that it grows quickly and has the greatest chance of survival. You don't have to take brood and honey just from one beehive and put into your new hive. You can take a little bit from multiple hives. You can't put a queen from one hive into your split and then take bees from othe ..read more

The crush and strain method is the best way to harvest honey when you have one or two hives or are in your first year of beekeeping. The set up and clean up is fairly minimal, the equipment you'll need is pretty cheap, and you might even find some of these things in your kitchen. Plus! You don't have to shell out $100+ on a big extractor your first year when you're already spending a lot of money on bees and beehives. How It Works The crush and strain method of harvesting honeycomb involves squishing the cells of the comb so that the honey comes out. The comb is destroyed in the process and ca ..read more