Swarm Trap: Box Size, Height and Lure
Every spring, colonies within a few miles of your yard split and send out swarms looking for a new home. …
Beyond the Hive
Mason and leafcutter bee houses, observation hives, swarm traps and what to do with your own wax.
Rendering Beeswax: Solar Melter or Double Boiler
After a harvest you are left with a bucket of cappings that is half wax, half honey and entirely sticky, …
Observation Hive Plans and What Goes Wrong
Observation hive plans look deceptively simple. Two panes of glass, a wooden frame around them, a tube to the outside. …
Observation Hive: Living With Bees Behind Glass
An observation hive is the piece of equipment that turns a hobby into a household fixture. Frames stacked one above …
Mason Bees or Honey Bees for a Small Yard
Plenty of people arrive at beekeeping from the pollination side rather than the honey side. The fruit trees are not …
Mason Bee House Problems: Mold, Mites and Empty Tubes
A mason bee house tells you what went wrong, but only if you open it. From the outside, a panel …
Mason Bee House: Tube Size, Depth and Placement
Most of the decorative bee hotels sold in garden centers are the wrong shape for the bees they are named …
Leafcutter Bees: The Summer Half of a Bee Hotel
Somebody has been cutting neat half-circles out of your rose leaves. It looks like damage, it is not, and the …
Building a Mason Bee House From Scrap Wood
A mason bee house is one of the few pieces of bee equipment that is genuinely better homemade, because the …
Beeswax Candles From Your Own Cappings
The cappings from one good harvest make a surprising number of candles, and they are the single most persuasive thing …