Pollen allergies? Local honey to the rescue!
Pollen allergies? Local honey to the rescue! Pollen allergy? Local honey to the rescue! In the above video, the honeybee is from our ForestBeehive apiary in Central Maine. She is collecting pollen from common ragweed – a wildflower abundant in North America. Although ragweed pollen is responsible for human allergies, for honeybees it’s a major […]
No Manicured Lawns for Honeybees!
No Manicured Lawns for Honeybees! At ForestBeehive apiary in Central Maine we are right next to a large wildlife sanctuary and we have no pesticides for miles. Instead of a standard manicured lawn, we have here quite a bit of wild clover. Maintaining standard lawns requires considerable time, money, extensive watering, and the use of […]
Sneaky soybeans, honeybees and mislabeled honey
Sneaky Soybeans, Honeybees & Mislabeled Honey Sneaky Soybeans, Honeybees & Mislabeled Honey Since 1960s Soybean production worldwide has increased 13 times over, and now in the US alone over 90 million acres are dedicated just to soybeans. Honeybees are not commonly spotted foraging on flowering soybeans. However, during a 4-weeks’-long blooming season, under a thick […]
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. […]
Spring, Bees and Lucy the Beekeeper
Spring, Bees and Lucy the Beekeeper Easy Beekeeping in Horizontal Hives. 1st Spring Inspection. Today we’ll talk about our Spring inspection and feeding the bees in case their honey stores are low but first, just a brief note What Natural Beekeeping IS and What it IS NOT. Natural Beekeeping IS just Beekeeping WITHOUT ANY UNNATURAL chemical […]
Natural Beekeeping vs. Organic Beekeeping vs. Treatment-free Beekeeping
Natural Beekeeping vs Organic Beekeeping vs Treatment-Free Beekeeping Natural Beekeeping IS NOT a carbon copy of how bees live in the wild. While nature can be randomly unforgiving (e.g. 75% of all feral swarms will not survive) , natural beekeepers can mitigate many risks and assure much better survival odds. Natural Beekeeping IS, in short, just […]