The Archive
136 guides · page 8 of 12
When to Treat for Varroa: The Timing That Decides Winter
Every varroa product works, and every varroa product fails, and the difference is almost never the chemistry: it is the calendar. Treat in August and the colony winters; treat the same hive with the same strips in October and it dies anyway, because the winter bees were already damaged as pupae. This is the timing page: thresholds by month, the temperature window on every mainstream product, the broodless oxalic windows most keepers waste, and a full-year treatment calendar you can tape to the shed wall.
Updated Aug 202623 min read
How to Requeen a Hive Without Losing the Colony
Every queen problem in beekeeping has the same fix and the same fear: replace her, and pray the colony agrees. The praying is optional. Requeening done by protocol, right diagnosis, clean dispatch, a caged introduction with a candy-release delay, and disciplined hands-off patience, succeeds most of the time, and the failures mostly trace to one of four impatience errors this guide names. Here is the whole craft, from reading a failing brood pattern to releasing a marked, accepted, laying queen.
Updated Aug 202620 min read
How to Catch a Swarm of Bees (and Keep It)
A swarm is a colony's whole future hanging from a branch: a queen, ten thousand workers, and stomachs full of honey, looking for a home. Catching one is the cheapest way into beekeeping and the most fun thing the hobby offers, and it is mostly technique, not courage. Here is the whole craft: when swarms fly, how to take one off a branch with a shake and a box, when to run a bait hive instead, and the aftercare that turns free bees into a colony that lives.
Updated Aug 202620 min read
How to Winterize a Beehive: The Full Survival Protocol
Winter does not kill honey bee colonies. Mites, starvation, and condensation kill colonies, and all three are decided in fall while the weather is still pleasant. This is the complete winterizing protocol in order of importance: the August mite knockdown, the weight targets, the entrance hardware, the moisture plan that outranks any wrap, and the restraint that carries a hive from November to the first dandelions.
Updated Aug 202621 min read
How to Harvest Honey: From Capped Frame to Sealed Jar
The whole harvest, in order: how to know the honey is actually ready (the 80 percent capping rule and the 18.6 percent moisture line), getting the bees off the frames without a war, uncapping, spinning, straining, settling, and bottling, plus the arithmetic of leaving the colony enough to live on. Read it before you pull a single frame.
Updated Aug 202620 min read
How to Do a Hive Inspection in 10 Minutes
The one skill that is all of beekeeping: open the hive with a purpose, read the frames like pages, answer four questions, and get out before you cost the colony more than you learned. Smoke, propolis, eggs, brood pattern, stores, space, queen cells, pests, and the over-inspection habit that kills more first-year colonies than mites get blamed for.
Updated Aug 202619 min read
How to Install a Nuc: The Calm Way to Start a Hive
A nucleus colony is a working hive on five frames: laying queen, brood, stores, and an organized workforce. Installing one is ten unhurried minutes of moving frames in order. Here is the complete walkthrough, from reserving the nuc in winter to the moment you add the second box.
Updated Aug 202617 min read
How to Install a Package of Bees, Step by Step
Three pounds of loose bees, one caged queen, and ten minutes that feel like an hour: the complete install-day walkthrough, from the syrup spray to the candy release, plus the day 3-5 queen check and the day 7-10 first inspection that tell you whether it worked.
Updated Aug 202618 min read
The Best Pollen Patties and Substitutes (2026)
Sugar keeps bees alive; protein makes more bees. We ranked the pollen patties and substitutes that drive late-winter buildup and carry colonies through pollen droughts, covered when protein feeding actually helps and when it backfires, and flagged the small hive beetle rule that decides how much patty ever goes on a hive.
Updated Aug 2026~14 min read
The Best Queen Rearing Kits (2026)
Raising your own queens is the skill that turns a beekeeper into a bee breeder: cheaper requeening, locally adapted stock, and a yard that never waits on a shipping label. We ranked the grafting kits, marking tools, and mating hardware that make backyard queen rearing work, and covered the grafting, starter-finisher, and color-code basics behind them.
Updated Aug 2026~14 min read
The Best Robbing Screens and Entrance Reducers (2026)
A colony defends its entrance or loses everything through it. We ranked the robbing screens, entrance reducers, and mouse guards that turn a hive's front door from a liability into a checkpoint, and covered when dearth, fall, and moving day each demand different hardware.
Updated Aug 2026~13 min read
The Best Winter Bee Feed (2026)
Once cold weather ends syrup season, a light colony lives or dies on solid feed placed directly over the cluster. We ranked the candy board and fondants we would actually trust a winter to, covered candy boards versus fondant versus dry sugar, and laid out the hive-weight math that tells you whether you need any of it.
Updated Aug 2026~14 min read
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