Welcome to Long Lane Honey Bee Farms, also known on the Internet as www.honeybeesonline.com We are David and Sheri Burns and we know honey bees. We are here to help you get started in beekeeping and to enjoy the experience. We hope to earn your trust and business so we can be your one stop shop for all your beekeeping needs, including hives, bees, queens, beekeeping classes and more.
We were amazed how quickly our Feb. 9th Basic Beekeeping Class filled up. We have registrations still available in our Feb. 23rd Basic Beekeeping Class as well as in our March classes too. But do not wait too long or you will be disappointed. Also plan to pick up your honey bees supplies at the class. What you save in shipping pays for the class.
While we have taught beekeeping classes for year, we are so excited to have expanded into our new beekeeping education center. Workers are busy every day working hard to have the building finished for our new season. All of our students this year will enjoy the smell of fresh paint. This will add so much to the learning experience.
It’s winter time and the bees are facing very cold nights. If your bees are healthy and well fed, they should do well. However, if their numbers or resources are low, they will not be able to eat enough honey and pollen or produce enough heat to stay warm. Please consider using one of our Winter-Bee-Kind candy boards with insulation and ventilation to help them through these cold months of winter. Click here for more information on our Winter-Bee-Kind or to order.
LESSON 129: BEEKEEPING SUPPLIES
In today’s lesson I want to talk about beekeeping supplies. Which supplies are needed and which ones are not? Is it better to use new equipment or used beekeeping supplies? What exactly is needed to keep bees? What is the beekeeping equipment terminology. Beekeeping for beginners can be confusing, what all the pieces to a hive are called. What are the essential beginning beekeeping supplies?
First and foremost, before you purchase your beekeeping supplies, be sure you have ordered your package of bees. Bees sell out fast, usually in the winter months. But, do not make the mistake of buying your bees but forgetting to order your hive in time. If that happens, you’ll have bees but no place to put them and they will perish before you may be able to have a hive shipped to you.
Read our lesson on installing bees, or watch our video.
Here’s a quick glossary of the essential beekeeping supplies needed:

• Hive Stand

A hive stand is often unnecessary. Some feel the ramp helps the bees make it into the hive, but in nature bees do not have a ramp.

• Bottom Board

          This is the lowest item on the hive, the bottom board where the hive parts all rest. It can be screened or solid, but screened is best, allowing more ventilation and helps reduce varroa mites.  Can be closed or left open in the winter.

• Deep Hive Body (Also called a hive body, a deep, a large honey super)

Most colonies require two deep hive bodies, containing 10 frames each. This is where the bees will live, raise their young and store pollen and honey for their own use. You should not remove honey from these two deep hive bodies.

• Medium Super (Also called an Illinois super, a honey super or a super)

The honey super sits on top of the two deeps. This is where excess honey can be store which you can remove.

• Inner Cover

The inner cover fits between the super and the top cover. It usually has an oval shaped hole to accept a bee escape which can help in removing your bees out of the honey super when you are ready to harvest the honey. The inner cover allows an air buffer zone just above the hive.

• Telescoping Top Cover

This is the final, outside top to the hive. It is covered with metal and keeps water off the top of the hive.  Since it hangs over the edge of the top deep hive body, we refer to this as telescoping or hanging over the hive slightly.

• Entrance Feeder

The entrance feeder slips into the front opening of the hive and can only be used in the spring or early super. If used later, it can invite other hives to rob your hive. Usually it holds 1:1 sugar water (one part water and one part sugar) and any small mouth jar fits well.

• Entrance Cleat

And entrance cleat is sometimes called an entrance reducer. It reduces the size of opening in the front of the hive to keep mice and cold weather out during the winter.

• Frames

A wooden (sometimes plastic) frame that holds the comb.

• Foundation

Foundation usually refers to the material, wax or plastic that is fixed inside the frame. When we refer to foundation we usually mean that no comb has been built yet.  When the foundation is made into comb, we call this drawn foundation.

• Suit

A suit is a one piece pant, jacket and hood. Most are not sting proof, but sting resistance.

• Jacket with Hat

This is much like a suit only without the pants.

• Hat and Veil

Most beekeepers find this to be the workhorse of protective clothing. It covers your heat and neck.

• Gloves

Most gloves are sting resistant, but some can be sting proof. I enjoy wearing no gloves at all, but as a new beekeeper you may want to build up to this level of confidence.

• Smoker

Essential!  A smoker is a canister with a billow. Smoker fuel can be pine needles, cardboard etc. Smoke helps calm bees.

• Hive Tool

A hive tool assist beekeepers in separating the hive pieces which the bees have glued together with propolis. (For more information on propolis, read our article.)
NEW OR USED?
We all want to save a buck and when we find old beekeeping supplies, we can usually obtain them for next to nothing. However, some diseases can live for 80 years in empty, used equipment. We feel it is best to start with new beekeeping equipment. Why invest so much time and effort and end up losing your bees over poor equipment which could spread American foulbrood disease.
Like any hobby, there are many more supplies and equipment you can buy but we want you to see the basics which are needed. There are some additional supplies which can make it easier, but they are not necessary.
In our next lesson, we have had so many ask for a lesson specifically on “How To Find The Queen” so that’s our  next lesson.
Like us on Facebook, and encourage others to like us. Our Facebook page has good, up to date beekeeping information, recipes, tips, gift certificates and much more. We are up to 1,119 likes. Help us watch those numbers soar. Click on the Facebook image or go to: http://www.facebook.com/longlanehoney Every 100th like receives a gift certificate. THANK YOU IN ADVANCE!
The second way you can help us is to place a link on your website or your association or club’s website back to our main website:
Thanks for joining us for another beekeeping lesson. See you next time!

OUR HIVE KIT SPECIAL WITH BEES AND SHIPPING IS INCLUDED! Click on image below

Read what the National Geographic says we can do to help save bees and what happens when we lose our bees.
Long Lane Honey Bee Farms
www.honeybeesonline.com
217-427-2678
Please visit our online beekeeping store and lessons at: www.honeybeesonline.com
Read More »

Hello from David & Sheri Burns at Long Lane Honey Bee Farms. We had a wonderful Christmas and we are looking forward to 2012. Already the new bee year is in FULL SWING!
In today’s lesson, I’ll be sharing 6 ways you can help save the honey bees.


1. Start Keeping Bees
There is a tremendous interest in beekeeping. So many people are getting back to nature, planting their own gardens, buying small farms, eating local food and striving to be more self sufficient. As a result, more and more people are putting bees on their farms for pollination and to provide a natural sweetener.
Remember as a kid how you had to be careful when you went barefooted across the backyard not to step on a honey bee. Not too  long ago, it was common to have a jar of honey on the table as a natural sweetener and often it had a big chunk of comb in the jar. Remember seeing your grandpa or dad out there having so  much fun working the bees. We need to rally folks to help restore beekeeping back to the way it was, when there were plenty of bees to pollinate our crops.
If your garden and orchards are not producing like they should, it may be that they are not being adequately pollinated. Please consider placing a couple of hives in your area. Bees can fly up to three miles, so you’ll be helping out others in your area too. Maybe you’ve always wanted to keep bees. Perhaps you’ve thought about it each year but waited too long. Read our special article for those interested in starting this year.
2. Encourage Others To Keep Bees
If you are a beekeeper you are in a perfect position to encourage someone else to keep bees. Ask them to assist you as you work your hives and give them a jar of raw honey. They’ll noticed the difference from store bought honey. Help set up their new hive and help install their new package. A couple of buddies that live near each other might want to keep bees. So many great friendships have been started through beekeeping.
Also, consider encouraging young men and women to keep bees. We need more young people to enter into beekeeping. Young beekeepers ensure a solid future in beekeeping. Beekeeping is a beautiful way to teach many categories of science to young children. It is also a great way to teach responsibility and work ethics.
3. Be An Ambassador For The Honey Bees
Even though public awareness of honey bees is really good, honey bees are sometimes viewed in the wrong way. Some people immediately are scared of honey bees and pass along wrong information such as all bees are killer bees. That’s not true at all. We now have queens that are so gentle that there is no reason to have a defensive hive. It is very easy to requeen an overly defensive hive and in 45 days the new queen will have produced bees that reflect her gentleness.
Speak positively about beekeeping and honey bees. Share with others that 1 out of 3 bites of food is a result of honey bee pollination. Tell others that raw honey never spoils and has many proven health benefits.
If you are a beekeeper, do not pass up opportunities to speak at schools, clubs and civic organizations. Talk with your local newspaper or TV stations and see if they are interested in doing a story on honeybees.
If you remove honeybees from homes, always call the news stations and ask them to do a story on the removal of honeybees from a home. When they interview you, speak positively about the need for honeybees. Be a good ambassador of the honey bee.
4. Buy USA Raw Honey
With so many beekeepers bottling US raw honey directly from their hives, there is no reason to purchase honey from unknown sources. Support your local beekeepers by buying local honey. It has even been suggested that raw honey from your local area can help relieve some allergies. By buying honey from a local beekeeper you are helping them continue their hobby or business.









5. Let Roadways, Ditches and Fields Grow Wild
For bees to have sufficient nutrition a variety of pollen and nectar is needed. Bees that have only one type of floral source are not able to receive the balance of nutrition needed. One way you can help is to allow wild flowers to grow freely along roadways, ditches, yards and fields. Every spring dandelions fill yards. These dandelions are needed by the bees for their first real strong source of nectar following a long winter. Yet, so many people use chemicals to destroy dandelions. Do your part and allow these and other flowers to grow freely, giving the bees the variety of nectar and pollen they need for a good start in the new year.

If you have fields available for cover crops consider planting clover, alfalfa or buckwheat.
6. Reduce Harmful Spraying Around Yards, Gardens & Orchards
Finally, be careful when spraying your yard, garden and trees with insecticides.  When you use an insecticide powder dusting, bees can pick up this toxic chemical and carry it back into their hive which will kill the hive. Avoid using chemicals which are harmful to bees.  If you live near agricultural fields start an open dialog with the farmer. Have your farmer notify you when chemicals will be used. This will give you time to either temporarily move your hives during the spraying or to seal the entrances to your hives to protect them from spraying.
Please forward this information on to others so they too can help save the honey bee!

 





Read More »

I’ve never written a lesson on propolis, that sticky stuff that ruins your nice, new, white bee suit, that stuff that won’t come off your fingers unless you use alcohol. But, propolis plays an important role in the colony’s health. This lesson will be very important for understanding how propolis can improve the health of your bees and be a fun lesson examining where propolis comes from, how the bees use it in the hive, the health benefits to humans and much more. But before we get started let me say...
Hello friends, we are David & Sheri Burns from Long Lane Honey Bee Farms in central Illinois. Folks tell us we have the best website, most complete information on beekeeping and the best price on beekeeping equipment. Whether you are just thinking about getting into beekeeping or have kept bees for many years, we are here to help you. When you buy from us, we do not consider you a customer, but a friend!

LESSON 112: The Sticky Subject Of Propolis
(I’d like to thank some of our top bee experts in the country who spent time feeding me great information in preparation to this lesson. I’ve added their names at the end of this lesson.)
When we think of products from the hive we are most familiar with honey, wax and maybe pollen. But two more products from the hive are more obscure to us, royal jelly and propolis. Today, we’ll take an in depth look at propolis. Soon we’ll take a look at royal jelly.
If you have ever opened a hive of honey bees you have encountered propolis. You probably still have some on your bee suit. If you have a hive that produces copious amounts of propolis then you know what it’s like to fight gummed up frames and lids. Caucasians bees are known as excessive propolizers.
Propolis is sticky and it makes hive inspections more challenging. If you work your hives bare handed like I do, then you know what it feels like at the end of the day to have your fingers coated with propolis. All the dislikes aside, I love the appearance and smell of propolis. Each year I scrape off propolis and keep a ball of it handy to use in our queen rearing operation, to help set the cell cups and bars tight in position.
What Is Propolis And Where And How Do Bees Gather It?
Bees gather propolis from plants and trees such as the poplar, alders, birch, willows, and conifers. Trees and plants produce a sticky resin to protect their buds against bacteria and fungus. The makeup of propolis varies depending on the plant source, and therefore varies from region to region and colony to colony.Particular foragers are assigned the task of gathering propolis. Since propolis can only be gathered when it is pliable (between 77 and 113 degrees F), foragers gather it on warm, dry days. They fly out to the plant source, then use their mandibles to scrape off pieces of plant resins.
They pass the propolis from their mandibles to their forelegs, then to the inner surface of the middle leg or basitarsus. Here the propolis is packed into their pollen basket or corbicula on the back leg. When the foragers returns to the hive loaded with propolis, they go to the area of the hive where it is most needed.
Since they are unable to remove the sticky substance themselves, nearby house bees remove the propolis. The propolis foragers may even perform a dance to communicate to other foragers where the propolis is located, including robbing it from old abandoned equipment if it is sticky enough.
How Is It Used In The Hive
Propolis is undeniably the bee’s glue, sealing cracks, smoothing over rough wood and used to encase foreign objects too large to carry out of the hive. Bees have been known to kill mice inside their hive and since they cannot remove the mouse due to its size, they encase it in propolis so that the decaying mouse cannot spread disease. Notice in this photo how the bees have used propolis, here a bright reddish brown color, to smooth out the wood grain on a frame.
Bees coat much of the inside area of their brood nest, especially in more natural habitats such as trees and Warre hives that have rougher surfaces in the hive. When I remove colonies from homes, I always find that the bees have coated all the wood in their colony with a layer of propolis mixed with their own wax. We often find this even in traditional Langstroth’s hives over time, especially frames and lids. Here’s a picture I took showing how the bees have varnished the surroundings of their hive in a house.
Tests are being conducted to see if coating the insides of hive boxes improves the overall health of the colony. Many people are now recommending that we score or scratch the smooth service of the insides of our hives, forcing the bees to add propolis as they would in a natural hive in a tree. Bees also add wax to comb to give it strength. It is believed by some that house bees use propolis to polish brood cells between brood cycles.

It has also recently been discovered that bees will imprison small hive beetles in propolis jails by trapping SHB with walls of propolis. Unfortunately, every time we open a hive we release small hive beetles from their propolis jails, and even if we didn’t, the beetles have learned to rub their antennas with the bee and trick the bees to feed them while in jail.
More than a substance to seal openings and cracks bees need propolis in the hive for the overall well being of the colony. With over 180 different compounds, it is the colony’s chemical warfare against various pathogens. It is antiseptic, antifungal, antibiotic, antibacterial, antiviral, and antimicrobial.  Beyond being used as a medicated sealant there is still much more to learn about propolis and how the bees use it in the hive.
Propolis is from the Greek words pro (before) and polis (city). Ancient beekeepers observed the wall of propolis the bees built at their entrance to protect the “city”, their hive.Last year I noticed how some of my mating nucs were sealing down their openings so small that only one bee at a time could pass through.
In the late 19th and early 20th century, comb honey production was at its peak, and beekeepers did not want comb honey darkened with excessive travel stains from propolis. Queen producers responded by raising queens whose colonies gathered very little propolis. Larger beekeeping operations found propolis to be a bother, slowing down hive inspections and honey harvesting. Yet, recent research reveals this was not a good idea because it has recently been found that bees benefit from propolis in the hive. We may have accidently removed an important part of the colony’s defensive mechanism.
How To Harvest Propolis From The Hive
Propolis can simply be scrapped from frames, lids and hive boxes. When I harvest propolis in this manner, I am careful not to also scrape up bee parts, paint or wood into my propolis. It can be filtered out, but it saves me time gathering the purist of propolis.
Another way propolis is harvested from the hive is by placing a propolis trap inside the hive. The propolis trap is plastic and flexible and placed inside the hive near the top. Since bees like to seal out drafts and light, prop open your top slightly above the propolis trap and this will encourage the bees to place propolis in the trap as a way of sealing off the top opening. Then, once filled, you can remove and freeze the trap, flex it and the frozen, hard propolis will fall off the trap. Propolis is soluble in alcohol. Click here for more info.
I placed a piece of cardboard on the bottom of a top cover to add some insulation to an overwintering colony. I left it on in the spring and summer and the bees plastered it with propolis. The bees did not like that it was corrugated and attempted to smooth it out with propolis. Click on the image to enlarge.
Health Benefits Of Propolis
Propolis is being studied extensively for its health benefits to humans, even with the AIDS virus. The health benefits may date back as far as Old Testament times as Jeremiah 2 may be referring to propolis as the balm of Gilead. Many people give strong testimony as to the health benefits of propolis in helping with colds, sore throats, wounds, pimples, ulcers, burns and even cancer. Some people can be allergic to propolis and too much can be toxic, so always consult your doctor before using propolis. Many health stores sell various propolis  supplements and even Colgate makes a tooth paste with propolis that is said to promote healthier gums.
Acknowledgments:
In preparing this lesson on propolis, I learned so much. Most of the information on propolis was easy to research. But, in one area I hit a wall. I’ve always heard that house bees coat or polish brood cells with propolis between brood cycles. But as I read through books and literature I could not find a definite citation proving bees coat or polish brood cells with propolis. I found several websites that support the idea, but just because a website mentions something does not lend enough support. I contacted my friend and bee expert Jon Zawislak, at the University of Arkansas Extension, a fellow EAS certified master beekeeper and he flooded me with propolis papers and research, but he could not find a solid citation for house bees using propolis to coat brood cell linings. I then contacted David Tarpy, at North Carolina State University. He could not find an answer for me off the top of his head and said he would mention it to the world renown authority on propolis, Mike Simone-Finstrom. Mike was kind enough to flood me with many studies and his own thoughts that there is no studies verifying the use of propolis to coat individual cells between brood cycles. Jim Tew also sent me his extensive thoughts on whether bees add propolis to brood cells as did Diana Sammataro, and Keith Delaplane. Clarence Collison, who writes a column in Bee Culture went out of his way to scan and email me many pages on propolis. Jerry Hayes, the American Bee Culture Classroom answer man also gave me his feedback too. Thank you all!
We all know bees polish cells in preparation for the queen to lay an egg, but is it truly propolis that is used in the polishing stage? I think it is safe to say that it is believed that housecleaning bees coat the insides of their brood cells with propolis between brood cycles.
Thanks for joining us for another beekeeping lesson from Long Lane Honey Bee Farms. We appreciate your business, so please give us a call to let us help you enjoy beekeeping to the fullest.

David and Sheri Burns
Long Lane Honey Bee Farms
Here’s our contact information:
PHONE AND ORDER LINE: 217-427-2678 WEBSITE: www.honeybeesonline.com
STUDIO BEE LIVE PODCASTS: www.honeybeesonline.com/studiobeelive.html
Read More »

Hello from David & Sheri Burns from Long Lane Honey Bee Farms. We saw that some may have had trouble seeing this lesson if it was posted via your Email, so we are attempting a duplicate resending, hopefully working this time. Thanks for your patience.
We’ve had some hints that spring is getting closer. Bees are out flying a bit more, and warmer weather! Finally, as it has been another long winter.
In today’s lesson I want to once again teach on the biology of the honey bees as we take a look at the fascinating leg of a bee. Before our lesson, let me ramble on a bit.
Let me tell you that I have some neat videos I’ve taken of our hives this winter. So, be sure and read through all my ramblings so you can see what one of our queens can do taking her gang through a terrible Illinois winter. And if you have trouble viewing the videos because you received this via your Email, go directly to where these lessons are posted:
http://basicbeekeeping.blogspot.com
Many (and I do mean many) people desire to visit our honey bee operation. In fact, already people are showing up to tour our place. Some have asked to go out and work the bees with us. Please understand that we certainly welcome tours, but it is seasonal. Hives cannot be opened and regularly inspected until it is around 60 degrees on a regular basis.
During the spring our operation is buzzing! Grass is green, trees are leafed out, and we are in full operation. Until May 1st, however, our place is not tour friendly. The grass is brown, trees are bare, everything is wet and muddy, bees are tightly clustered, sticks are in the yard…winter has left its mark.
So Sheri and I sat down and discussed how we could better prepare for those who wish to walk around (take a tour) and ask a bunch of bee questions. After all, that’s our goal, to help more people get into beekeeping. Please understand that we offer an array of various beekeeping courses and classes. This is how we educate those who want hands on experience learning to work bees. But if you MUST take a tour read on...
TOURS
We have 3 levels of tours we offer from May 1 through Sept. 1
Friendly Farmer Tour
This tour is available Monday – Saturday any time between 1pm – 4pm. The Friendly Farmer means you can talk to us while we work, and you’ll get to see what we do. It might be grafting queens, painting or building hives, packaging hives from shipment, working hives or mowing grass. In other words, feel free to come, but we must keep working and we’ll talk while we work. We cannot stop what we are doing to show you something else. For that, see our other tours below. Wear your work clothes and bring a hat and veil. If you come unannouced, we might be speaking in a different state and you'll not be able to tour our place, so call first. COST: FREE
David and Sheri’s Vacation Money Tour
This tour is available by appointment only on Saturday. Cost $100 whether it is one person or 100. In other words, a group of 30 people still only pay a total of of $100. The reason for the name is because money paid for this tour goes to our vacation fund. On this tour David or Sheri will take you around the operation and show you how everything works. It is a one hour tour and questions are answered during the tour. If you’d like to see a particular aspect of our operation, we just ask that you let us know when you schedule your tour. COST: $100
Call 217-427-2678 to arrange your appointment.
David’s Brain Picking Tour
This tour is available by appointment only on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. COST $200  This is a 2 hour tour where David will show you all aspects of beekeeping, raising queens, harvesting honey and more. For 2 hours you can pick David’s brain and he will rattle off whatever comes into his mind at the moment. The cost covers 1-5 people.
Again, all tours do not start until May 1. If you wish to purchase beekeeping equipment, packages, nucs or supplies while you are here, be sure to let us know in advance so we can have everything ready when you arrive. Call 217-427-2678 to arrange your appointment
LESSON 71: Amazing Leg of the Bee & What to Expect from Your Overwintered Hive
The honey bee has 6 legs, three on each side. Bees use their legs like we do, to walk and run. However, there is more to the bee’s leg than just movement. On the very end of the leg is what we might call a foot. The foot is made up of three claws. This enables the bee to cling and grip on to things.
It gets more interesting. On the front leg, called forelegs there are antennae cleaners. All three caste of honey bees (workers, queens and drones) have this special cleaner device. Since the antennae serves an important role in communication it must be kept clean. You can look at bees up-close and usually see them cleaning their antenna.
The front legs also have stiff hairs which the bee uses to clean their head, eyes and mouth and to gather and transfer pollen to the back legs which have the pollen baskets.
The middle legs have hairs or brushes which are used to clean the middle of the bee, her thorax. The bee’s middle legs are also used to continue transferring the pollen to the back legs. The middle leg also has a spur for to pick the wax that is produced on the abdomen. The middle legs are also used by the bees to clean the wings and to dislodge the pollen from the baskets on the back legs.
The back legs are most well known for their pollen baskets. These “baskets” aren’t actually baskets, but hairs that surround bare spots on the leg. So the hairs hold the collected pollen which is placed on the back leg. Often, nectar is added to the pollen to make it stay tightly together. Only the work is equipped with these rear leg pollen baskets. Propolis is a stick substance which the bees gather from tree sap and sticky plants and the bees also carry the propolis back to the hive in their pollen baskets.
As expected the honey bees is magnificently made and every part has many purposes.
What to Expect from Your Overwintered Hive
Many beekeepers are finding that as it warms up, they are peaking into their hives to see if there are still bees alive.
Newer beekeepers are sometimes alarmed by what they find, things like dead bees…lots of dead bees. Even hives that survived the winter and are alive still may be filled with dead bees, certainly on the bottom board but sometimes even between frames.
Often time in the winter the bees break cluster to gather honey from frames that are beyond reach of the cluster. But when the temperature drops, they sometimes fail to regroup as one cluster, and instead form two or more smaller clusters. These smaller clusters cannot generate the heat needed to stay alive, so the smaller clusters die and usually freeze within the hive.
If your bees died with their heads stuck in the bottom of cells, this usually means they starved to death. They died licking the last drop of food from the bottom of cells.
It is very common for the bottom board to be full of dead bees. They either died of old age or winter kill. Left alone, the bees will eventually clean out the dead. However, I like to remove the bottom board and shake out all the dead bees. This keeps a cleaner hive and makes life easier for the bees.
Mold and dampness. It is common for beekeepers to find dead and moldy bees in frames too. This means that your hive had too much moisture over the winter and that you needed better ventilation. Every winter, in our yards, the hives that do best are the ones with opened screen bottom boards, drafty holes and propped lids.
What to do about moldy dead bees in a hive. Shake them out or rub them out, at least as many as you can. You can’t get them all out. They are dead, they won’t sting you. Be careful not to break the comb if you try knocking out the dead bees. Typically, we don’t worry about the mold unless it is really thick. A slight glaze of green or white mold doesn’t worry us. We reuse the frame and let the next package clean it up. Dead bees stink bad! Sometimes beekeepers ask me if they have American Foul Brood since there is such a stink in the hive. But I remind them that there is little to no brood in the winter to smell. The smell is the dead bees.
If you forgot to seal off your entrance to keep mice out, you may find some fury friends in the hive, and even a sizable mouse nest with little baby mice. If so, serve the eviction papers and throw all the mice overboard.
You might also notice bee poop all over the top and sides of your hives. It’s a light to dark brown and thick almost waxy substance. Do not panic and conclude you have Nosema. What you are seeing is that the bees have finally had a chance to defecate outside the hive and they didn’t bother to fly away very far. You wouldn’t either if you’ve spent  4 weeks waiting for a bathroom break. Excessive spotting might happen on some of your hives and not others. Don’t worry, it will clear up with additional warm days. In the slow motion video below you can see my bees have messed on the front of their hive. This was taken on March 4, 2010. If you have trouble watching the videos in your Email, go to our website at: http://basicbeekeeping.blogspot.com and you can watch the video there.

Now, if all went well with your bees over winter, then this is what you’ll see in the video below. Lots of bees, and a queen and lots of stored honey still available. This is an example of the queens that we produce. We graft from hives with strong winter hardiness and good honey producers and very gentle bees. They also show hygienic behavior which means they are more mite resistant. Again, if you have trouble watching the videos in your Email, go to our website at: http://basicbeekeeping.blogspot.com and you can watch the video there. Notice how gentle our bees are even at 40 (f) degrees! No gloves. These hives are as strong coming out of winter as most beekeeper’s hives are in the summer. Our candy boards that we sell also help absorb winter moisture.

Let’s have even more fun. Here’s a video I’ve made into slow motion of bees flying into their hive.

Beekeeping techniques that we teach at our beekeeping classes will help beekeepers have the success in overwinter hives like we do as well. And of course, having the right queen helps, like our Pioneer Queens. In fact, here’s another video of our Pioneer Queen and her overwinter gang. Notice how many bees there are and how much honey they’ve stored for the winter and the key is…how little they have eaten to survive the winter. Watch this…

Before I finish today I do want to let everyone know that we have set aside a large number of packages for customers who also purchase hives from us. In other words, if you want a hive and bees, we have that combination available. Other wise, if you need just bees, we are all sold out. But you can get bees from us if you wish to also purchase a hive.
Here’s the info on our upcoming beekeeping classes:
e limited.Until next time, remember to behave yourself!
David & Sheri Burns
Long Lane Honey Bee Farms
14556 N 1020 E. Rd
Fairmount, IL 61841
Phone: 217-427-2678
Website: www.honeybeesonline.com
FREE ONLINE LESSONS: www.basicbeekeeping.blogspot.com
Read More »