To skip the introduction and get right to the babbling, click here.
Articles under this category are written primarily for my beekeeping protegés / mentees. I choose to share them in a public forum in case that they might be useful to other beekeepers. Read the caveats before taking anything here to heart. Often, when one of my protegés has a question, I will reply with a lengthy email or a sequence of texts. When I am asked a similar question later in time, it would be nice to have my old email or text handy so that I don’t have to rethink and rewrite everything. In future years I hope to have new protegés, and some of these answers may still be relevent. Conversely, I learn, almost constantly, that something I have said needs some clarification or refinement. That is to say … I was mistaken or misinformed or I have rethought my previous opinion. Sometimes the entire beekeeping community learns something new from the science that is constantly expanding our knowledge.
The permanent link for this page is https://ferthalangur.spotch.com/beekeeping/bee-babble/ and it is archived in the Wayback Machine.
This page and all the posts in this category have comments available and I welcome discussion that is constructive and potentially helpful to my primary audience. You may also contact me directly.
Caveats and Disclaimers
- Everything here is strictly my personal opinion. These are formed from a synthesis of sources including: reading books and articles, attending classes and listening to presentations, random stuff off the Internet, my own experiences as a beekeeper, conversations with other beekeepers, my vivid imagination and speculation of how things are, and the permutations of my brain at the time that I consider the question.
- These articles are not be pretty, polished or carefully proofread. In some cases they may not even be complete. I will try to include a warning if I got interrupted mid-thought.
- Some of the names will be changed to protect the guilty.
- What is written is definitely subject to change as I learn more. Corrections may be made to the original article or in a later version.
- Caveat Lector! (Reader, beware!). Do not take anything that I write as fact or the “final answer.” Making mistakes is how we learn, and I have made more than my fair share. I am often dismayed at how much personal opinion and misinformation passes for reliable knowledge in beekeeping. At the same time, I acknowledge that I am subject to the same human failings that lead to that mess. Use this as one source of input data. Do more research and analysis before you accept my word.
- When in doubt, ask your mentor for their opinion. If I am your mentor, well … that was your first mistake. 🙂 No … if you are one of my beekeeping protegés, please do challenge me. If I make an assertion ask me why I say something, I should be able to explain why I think so. I might not remember how I got there, but we should be able to explore it further.
- I make no claim that anything you read here is correct, safe for bees or humans, or will work. You choose to believe anything I write at your own peril!
- I write when my Muse inspires me and I have the time to humor her. I often find myself writing article fragments in my head while I am working my bees, building or fixing my woodenwork, etc. If that was all it took to generate a blog post, everything I know about bees would be here. Free time is scarce … and getting scarcer.
Bee Babble Articles
Spring 2021 Revival
What are your beekeeping goals for 2021? Is it too early to be setting goals for the remainder of your…
The Foundations of Managed Bees
This Bee Babble was started on October 25 2020. It needs a little more work before I am happy with…
Mighty Mites and Waxing Poetic
This Bee Babble was started on June 4, 2020, updated on June 21, and probably needs a little more work.…
Splitting Errs (Rhymes with Hairs)
This is the Bee Babble for May 22, 2020. I am a little embarrassed that it has been almost two…
Stay Home and Learn Something
This is the Bee Babble for April 1, 2020. A couple of online learning opportunities for beekeepers, free, are available.…
Bee Responsible – End of Life Planning
I do not want to write this particular Bee Babble. You probably don’t want to read it. As human beings,…
Swarm Season is On!
What Flowers Are You Seeing? What are you seeing outside your hives? What are you seeing in the plants and…
Clean-Up on Aisle “Bee”
So this is my fourth “Bee Babble for My Mentees” article. The first three will appear at a later date.…
Tucking Them In For Winter
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone The weather has been warm enough this week for some of the foragers to come out…