Honey Bee Obscura Podcast

After all of the nectar has flowed, the honey spun and you’re just waiting to put the bees to bed for the winter, you might look around at the clutter of equipment in your bee yard, bouncing in the b…

This week, Jerry Hayes sits in with Jim while Kim is out. In this episode, Jerry talks about one of the most unusual hive designs he's ever built and worked with... a hive made out of a old 55-gallon…

(This Archive Special first released, September 2, 2021.) Beekeepers are very often asked to help friends or neighbors that have “bee” problems…. honey bees, carpenter bees, yellow jackets, hornets,…

In this episode, Jim invites Beekeeping Today Podcast's Jeff Ott, to sit in for Kim to help answer a couple of recent listener emails.

In response to a recent episode where Jim talks about dealing wi…

This week, we continue with the theme of Fall management. Kim is out so, Jim invites Jeff Ott, from Beekeeping Today Podcast to join him to talk about dealing with heavy honey supers that remain and …

What do you do when the honey is all harvested, but it is still warm and not quite time to button up the colonies for Winter? On today's episode of Honey Bee Obscura, Jim has invited Beekeeping Today…

This is honey harvest time of the year, for the majority of the beekeepers in the Northern Hemisphere. Undoubtedly, you will end your uncapping and extracting time with frames with broken end bars, b…

After building your colonies up in the spring, managing them through the early summer, collecting them out of the trees and out of the bushes after they swarm and all the effort maintaining their hea…

What’s changed in the past 150 years or so? For some of us who have been around awhile, it seems like a lot. Most honey is still produced in the boxes Langstroth put together. Size and shape maybe di…

It seems that everyone talks about managing bees and selling honey. There's also a lot of discussion about extracting honey - such as: removing bees from the supers, what kind of extractor works best…

Continuing their discussion on the micro and to some extent the macro environment of a beeyard, Kim and Jim take a long hard look at what do bees need to eat, and how much should there be. They look …

Every season, it seems, is different than the last, making it difficult or at least challenging. Honey harvesting is no different: what and when and how and where to harvest a honey crop. Deep south …

It’s the time of year when summer is nearly over, but the fall flow hasn’t started. Colonies are big, there’s lot of foragers, and not much to forage on, yet.

A colony that is ripe for being robbed i…

What else is in a beehive other than... honey bees?

If you stop and look closer the next time you are in your beeyard, you will in all likelihood begin to notice all manner of living creatures sharin…

In this episode, Kim and Jim discuss the pros and cons of mid-summer splits. Are they good or are they bad? It can go both ways.

Mid-summer splits are used to divide a colony for swarm prevention, co…

How does a beekeeper deal with the seasonal population shifts, weather and resulting needs of the honey bees in their care. How does a beekeeper balance the needs of the colony with the needs of the …

Listeners, Kim and Jim are busy in the bee yard this week and have chosen this episode from the archive, for your listening pleasure.  Thank you for listening!

It’s been hot in Ohio so far this summe…

Summer is in full force in most of the country now. Nectar flows are on and the honey is starting to ripen in the supers. It is the time of year beekeepers have been planning for all winter long!

Sum…

All beekeepers must one day, cross a threshold: dealing with bee stings. For some, it is a small, hardly seen threshold. For others, it is a major challenge that takes time to overcome. On today's ep…

Replacing a seemingly good queen can be a difficult decision to make. If her brood pattern is good, the colony temperment is nice, they've produced a good crop... and the only fault against her is th…