New thoughts about old comb

If you look at most any list of “best beekeeping practices,” you will probably find this item: Remove old comb from the hive and replace it on a regular basis. It’s one of those items that gives people like us — who are trying to be good beekeepers — a guilty conscience. We may remove

The ‘social mobility’ of worker bees

This won’t be any surprise to beekeepers or people who know anything about bees: About 20 percent of the worker bees do most of the foraging. And when these foraging bees need to be replaced, other workers step into those roles. This short video (1:32) from the New York Times makes that point and shows

Bees need water: a video by Jim Tew

We recently posted a short piece on the fact that bees need water, and it’s up to the beekeeper to make sure they have it. This is a good follow-up to that post — especially since it reminds us that bees need water, no matter what season of the year. The video below has our

Jim Tew describes the inside of a feral beehive

What’s the inside of a natural beehive like? According to beekeeping expert, it’s quite different from the hives that we construct for our bees. In the video below, Tew draws out the comparison. Tew spoke to the Blount County Beekeepers Association  on Aug. 11, 2014), and the five-minute video segment below is part of one of his

Tew: Beekeeping is different from what it was 30 years ago

Beekeeping is different from what it was 30 years ago, and bees seem to need a lot more “babysitting.” Beekeeping expert and author Jim Tew made that point at the beginning of his second presentation to the Blount County Beekeepers Association on Monday, Aug. 11, 2014. (Read our article published just after his presentation.) Below

Beekeeping expert Tew talks about bees and their environment at August BCBA meeting

Jim Tew told Blount County beekeepers that the environment for bees is a complicated one, and not every plant a bee visits is good for it — and some plants can be downright dangerous. “So much of this (the environment for bees) is so complicated, that it’s a wonder that bees can do anything at all,”