Has Bee Week whipped you into a frenzy and you’re ready to start keeping your own bees? This kit will get you started, with a hive, leather gloves, smoker, veil and guide book.
The Golden Bee Suit means business. It’s ventilated, “virtually sting proof,” flame retardant, equipped with chap and knee pads, made in the U.S., tested “successfully” on Africanized bees, and are made to order.
But maybe the standard bee suit isn’t for you. Maybe you prefer to make more of a statement when tending to your hives. In addition to being extremely pink, this jacket has practical features like elastic at the wrists and a fencing-style veil that zips open and shut.
Manuka honey from New Zealand is valued for its antibacterial properties and ability to treat wounds. Reach for this tube next time you have a cut.
Tamp down your locks (or perhaps prop up your beehive?) with pure beeswax from Australia.
Beekeeping equipment can be pricey. For the handy, this book shows you how to construct your own and keep costs down. Beekeeper Tony Pisano walks you through 35 projects.
The Omlet Beehaus was designed specifically with the design-conscious rooftop or backyard beekeeper in mind. It offers function in a sleek (if pricey) package. The lightweight Beehaus accommodates up to 22 frames and is the equivalent of two hives.
Forget ceramic beehives or little bears, this streamlined modern honeypot will hold your honey in style and comes with an easy-to-clean silicone spoon.
The Stone Barn Center for Food and Agriculture in Upstate New York makes this cream, infused with conditioning products from the hive like wax, raw honey, and propolis (a substance bees produce to close up holes in the hive).
This beeswax-based lip balm is never sticky, fits in your pocket, and when you’ve used it all up, you’re left with a cute tin.
This is part of Modern Farmer’s Bee Week. Click here to see everything from our entire week of coverage all things honeybee. Bee Week: It’s like Shark Week, but with bees.
Hear that hum as a bumblebee settles onto a tomato blossom? It’s a faint but powerful sound: The bee is working hard. It’s grabbing the flower with its jaws, vibrating its flight muscles and producing a tone that’s close to middle C. That vibration causes the flower to release pollen ”“ a process called sonication, or buzz pollination. More than 85 percent of the world’s plants either require or benefit from animal-mediated pollination.
Thanks to countless news articles and a spate of documentaries on the baffling disappearance of the domestic honeybee, most of us have heard about bee death, Colony Collapse Disorder and the grave prospect of extinction. More than Honey may cover familiar territory, but this 95-minute film is generally hailed as the most comprehensive on the topic and has the distinction of being nominated for a 2013 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. It doesn’t take
You can hardly say “honeybee” anymore without hearing the reverb “colony collapse disorder.” Back in 2006, American beekeepers began reporting staggering losses, ranging from 30 to 90 percent of their hives. Since then, the alarming phenomenon – in which adult bees disappear, leaving the brood behind to die – has afflicted Europe as well. And honey’s far from the only reason to care. In America alone, the pollinators enable
My four year old daughter and I love to wander the neighborhood on the lookout for bees. She is absolutely enamored as she listens to the sound of their buzzing wings, watches their waggles as they communicate, and sees their bright coloring. Because of the fascination my daughter, and now I, have with bees, we want them to frequent our yard more. We love these interesting little insects and they offer such a simple way to observe nature around us. Besides the natural interest of my daughter, th