Ask any beekeeper in the United States what keeps them up at night and the answer, almost universally, comes back to the same eight-legged parasite. Varroa destructor has been reshaping the economics and psychology of beekeeping since it jumped from…
There’s a particular kind of frustration that settles over a beekeeper in late August when they pull a frame and find it lighter than it should be. Not alarming, not yet — just a colony running thinner than you’d want…
A beekeeper in Vermont once described it to me as “the worst kind of quiet.” She’d gone out on a Tuesday morning to check a hive that had been thriving four days earlier — heavy with brood, bringing in pollen…
I still remember the first time I watched it happen in person. A weathered apiarist in rural Georgia, no veil, no gloves, stood still while a queen was pinned beneath his chin in a small mesh cage. Within eleven minutes,…
Found a swarm hanging in your yard? Here’s exactly how a 20-year beekeeper catches and rehives it safely — equipment, timing, and the mistakes that cost you the colony. The first swarm I ever caught wasn’t even mine. It was…
Robbing can wipe out a weak colony in under 48 hours. A 20-year beekeeper explains how to spot it early, why the summer dearth makes it worse, and the exact setup that actually stops it. I lost a hive to…
A woman at a farmers market once pointed at a small bag of dark, sticky chunks on my table and asked, “what’s the brown stuff?” I told her it was propolis, raw, straight off my hive scrapers. She picked one…
A reader named Priya emailed me a photo last month of a jar she’d just bought at her local pharmacy. Small jar, maybe 250 grams. Sixty-two dollars. She wanted to know if she’d been robbed. I didn’t answer right away,…
A beekeeper explains the real mechanics, risks, and economics behind migratory pollination, and why California’s almond bloom has quietly become one of the most important events in modern beekeeping. A beekeeper I correspond with in the Dakotas sends his hives…
A beekeeper explains the real science behind crystallized honey, why it’s not a sign of fake or spoiled honey, and the right way to bring it back to liquid without destroying it. My mother-in-law called me in a small panic…
