Water, Minerals and the taste of Honey
Water, Minerals & the Taste of Honey You probably already knew that the honey bees collect not just nectar but water as well. But did you know that the quality of the bees’ primary water source directly affects the quality and taste of their honey? The honeybees that collect clean water and unpolluted natural nectar […]
USDA Pure Russian Bees
Russian Bees are Coming! The beautiful new peaked roof Layens beehive is from Paul Maida, a fellow treatment-free beekeeper from neighboring New Hampshire. The hive’s detachable peaked-roof opens and closes smoothly and is a joy to work with. Unfortunately, several of my bee colonies with Italian genetics did not survive this past winter in […]
Bees, Christmas and Gifts of Nature
Bees, Christmas and Gifts of Nature. Moving Beehives. It’s below freezing and the first layer of ice started to form along the shores of our secluded forest lake. Our beehives are winter-ready. Raw wool insulation is both inside the double-walls and directly around the bee nest. I harvest once a year in the Fall and […]
2023 Fall Honey Harvest — Maine Wilderness Honey
2023 Fall Harvest – Maine Wilderness Honey In the Fall, the hunting season in Maine is in full swing and in the video my dog is wearing a reflective orange vest, so that the hunters don’t accidentally shoot at him. The Fall is also a perfect season to harvest honey while simultaneously prepping the beehives […]
Pandemic in managed bee colonies. Honey factories & what’s in the honey.
Pandemic in managed bee colonies and honey factories Honeybee pandemic, honey factories, what’s in the honey? Typical conventional high honey-yield apiaries are mostly located on the edge of conventional farm fields where the bees would forage and where the crops are grown with the help of the following human-engineered argo-chemicals: Herbicides (to kill weeds), Insecticides […]
Can Honey Comply with Vegan Ethical Principles?!
Can Honey Comply with Vegan Ethical Principles?! Can Honey Comply with Vegan Ethical Principles?! Can real honey be produced in compliance with vegan ethical principles? Although a lot fruits and vegetables are produced largely with the aid of the honeybees, the world’s most versatile pollinators, in vegan community beekeeping is sometimes characterized as 1. Exploiting […]
Working with Horizontal Layens Hives
Working with Horizontal Layens Hives Feral Hive in a Natural Tree Hollow Layens horizontal hives were designed to imitate how the feral bee colonies live in natural tree hollows. Layens horizontal hives with deep 16″ frames have been in continuous use since the 19th century, as they are easy to manage with minimal disturbances to […]
Vertical and Horizontal Beehives & Math of Overwintering. Honey Bee Clusters, Shapes & Frame Design
Vertical & Horizontal Beehives and Math for Overwintering. Cluster Shapes & Frame Designs The above video discusses the following: The shape of a bee cluster varies depending on the depth of the frame. In conventional Langstroth vertical hives, due to a relatively shallow (just 9″ deep individual frame) the bee cluster tends to take a […]
Raising Good Bees in Horizontal Hives. Swarm Traps, Queens & VSH Genetics
Raising Good Bees in Horizontal Hives At ForestBeehive apiary we are miles away from industrial & agricultural pollution, we have sufficient Spring-to-Fall foraging resources for our bees and we don’t use any supplemental sugar feedings. We also don’t use any human engineered chemical treatments or even organic pest control substances in and around our beehives. […]
Splits or Artificial Swarms for Horizontal Beehives
Splits or Artificial Swarms for Horizontal Beehives Splits are also called ‘artificial swarms’. Artificial swarming does what the honeybees are trying to do naturally: to prevent overcrowding by swarming i.e. self-splitting the colony so that they can establish an additional new colony elsewhere and be fruitful and multiply. Swarming Honeybees With uncontrolled natural swarming, only […]