We welcome Bob Fassbinder, owner of Fassbinder Apiaries, a commercial bee farm with 2,000 colonies in northeast Iowa, as a guest contributor for this blog! Professor Carol and her beekeeper dad ,Bob, bring you insider tips for raising your own honey bee queens!
Read MoreWinter is a difficult time for animals- bees included! For honey bees, they stop raising brood around October in the Midwest and don’t start up again until about March. That means that the bees that are alive in October have to make it through the extreme cold for about 5 months otherwise the whole colony dies. Due to this stress, wintertime is usually when beekeepers see the majority of the annual losses. Therefore, we have put together some preparation tips for novice beekeepers to consider when preparing their colonies for the arrival of Jack Frost
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