Hive Care & Maintenance

Beekeeping techniques and processes

There are many techniques used for beekeeping. We have found there is no "right" way to beekeeping. Our processes may not be the same processes that other beekeepers use ; ultimately it comes down to what works best for you in your particular area and the health of your hives. A lot of your hive maintenance "husbandry" depends on climate variations in your location, diseases in the area, flowers/food available depending on the season, and any wildlife issues.

Early Spring Maintenance

Early Spring cleaning is very important to the health of our hives. We make sure we remove all the dead bees from the bottom boards and check the sugar boards on the top of the hives so there is ample food supply. It important to make sure the bees still have food until the flowers start blooming and pollen is available.

Hive Cleaning

When we consistently stay above freezing at night, we will remove the roofing paper that the hives were wrapped in for winter. We supplement with sugar boards until the weather permits, then we switch to a syrupy sugar water feed that is placed on top the hives. We check the number of bees in each hive and overall health.

Throughout the season, we always check on our hives, make remove any excess comb; the bees will building anywhere there is extra room so we remove the excess so that everything stays in the frames. This process makes it easier to take hives apart for inspections and removing honey supers later in the season.

Hive Treatments (Spring & Fall)

There are many diseases/parasites that affect the health of the hives. The most common for our area is:

Varroosis (disease caused by a mite, causes wing deformity)
American foulbrood (bacterial disease with a very unpleasant odor)

We treat our hives with oxalic acid twice a year, once in the spring and then in the fall to help prevent disease and parasites. We will only administer additional treatments if it's necessary for the health of the hives and the hives in the area.

Installing bee packages, splitting hives

We install new packages each year around April/May depending on the weather. We order different amounts each year depending on the loss over the winter.

Replacing Queens

We typically replace our queens every two to three years, depending on the health of the hives and broad patterns.

Fedex makes sure we are the first stop any time we order new queens.

Hives placement

All our hives our placed in locations where food and water are available. We always try and make sure that they are in an area that is not sprayed and if possible close to BLM land which typically has all the natural plants for the area.

Adding broad boxes/honey supers

As the season continues and the hives grow, we do a quick check to see if they need more room to grow. At this point, we don't want to interrupt the flow of the each hives, unless we see a major issue, so we will take the tops off and quickly add either a brood box or a honey super.

Honey Extraction

Honey Extraction Process:

Remove the frames filled with honey from your beehive.
Place the frames in an uncapping tank or over a large container to catch drippings.
Ensure you scrape off just the thin layer of wax without damaging the comb structure.

Load the Frames into the Extractor:
Make sure the frames are balanced and evenly spaced to prevent wobbling during extraction.
Spin the Extractor:
Close the lid of the extractor. The centrifugal force will throw the honey out of the combs and against the walls of the extractor.
Collect the Honey:
Allow the honey to flow through a strainer or filter to remove any wax pieces and impurities. Let the honey drain into a clean container.

Winterizing Hives

We do not have a facility to hold our hives, nor do we take them south for pollination contracts. To help them stay warm in the winter, we wrap our hives in roofing paper, place a sugar board on top each hive to them additional source of food, and finally we put an insulated pad in the lid of the hive.

On one of our more mild winters, we had fun decorating one of our hives for Christmas.

Building Beehive Supplies

During the winter there is not a lot to do around our farm, so we repair, scrape and build additional boxes and frames needed for our beehives. You can buy everything online, but we like to build them ourselves whenever time allows.