Beekeeping at FiveApple

Requeening is a skill beekeepers need to keep their hives in good shape. You may be trying to introduce a young queen with good characteristics who can take your apiary from okay to amazing. You may need to introduce a queen into a hive that has gone queenless. Or, you may need to introduce a gentle queen in place of one that has gone five-alarm spicy. Introducing caged, mated queens the...

This week I had the pleasure of listening and making notes on the presentation: "Honey Bee Overwintering Thermodynamics" by Dr. Scott Debnam, University of Montana. It's available to watch on YouTube and I highly recommend: https://youtu.be/uVWfC8IAmb8?si=WkdC6icEq1xPaeTrI talk you through some of the main points of his talk that I found interesting. It's part of how I'm starting to study to...

Did you know honey bees are able to detect lung cancer by smell? Today I share that amazing study as well as more about the scents our bees use to communicate vital info: food! danger! home! here it is! Plus updates on the bee yards, black jar honey contest, new requeening presentation, Bee Expo 2027 and more.Links mentioned in this episode:MSU researchers discover honeybees can detect lung...

The light and the leaves are both saying Autumn has started. Our winter bees are already emerging and there are things we can do to give them their best chance. In today's episode I'm talking about the things I'm getting done to get ready for the bees journey through Winter.kind regards to you all in every kind of weather,Leigh Also: for my past episode on Condensing Hives vs Ventilating Hives...

Found a research article that was food for thought on how warmer autumns may be having effects on our bees that aren't so good: creating smaller late-winter clusters by increased wear and tear on the precious winter bees who should not be as active as the temps drive them to be. But also, it goes into novel solutions (well, not novel in Canada but novel in more Southern climes) to help. Do...

Ep165: Bee Radio Reader "Reflections on the Past Seasons" by Richard Wahl (Off the Wahl Beekeeping Column, Nov 2025. Read by permission of Bee Culture magazine. )Today it's a radio reader episode on learning to reflect on the past in a way that makes it useful for the future. As well as a bit of clarification on the last episode.Link to the article:...

[Last Thursday Apple podcasts had an outage and the episode didn't show up as a new one in your feed. Here it is again for the Apple folks -- just a duplicate of last weeks episode that was missing for many! --Leigh]Listeners,This has been a test year in my bee yards, to see if my old treatment-free methods that worked so well for 16 years in an isolated bee yard would hold up in areas with more...

This has been a test year in my bee yards, to see if my old treatment-free methods that worked so well for 16 years in an isolated bee yard would hold up in areas with more beekeepers. Answer: Nope.[Deep sigh and regroup. ]I now feel so lucky to have learned a hybrid system that still allows me to work on my long term project of stock selection towards mite resistance–while also utilizing organic...

Today it's about the bee's most awful behavior: ROBBING. I found a tip on reducing robbing while doing inspections and it works great!!The PerfectBee.com website I mentioned. The article was from their email newsletter but here's a link to an article on robbing on their blog. BetterBee's article on robbing and preventionRusty of HoneyBeeSuite.com on robbing and another post on preventing it.May...

Today Episode:July bee yard updateWilliam's tips on honey harvest (see Williams letter here) Tip on making bee boxes last longer "painting with glue" — this whole presentation is well worth watching! ( YouTube Link)Invitation to see Julia Mahood present on drones (see below for info) Reminder to take care in the heat with electrolytesThoughts on "Chasing Sourwood" and the impacts on stationary...