BLIND BEE HONEY

05/30/2026

Friends - I need your help. A fake page created 5/29/26 has copied my content and is posting it as theirs in order to promote a scam beekeeping business in Malawi. I have reported the intellectual property violations to Facebook along with a DMCA Takedown Request (criminal activity). I've already blocked this fake page from accessing more of my content, but they may keep trying with new IDs.

How you can help.... I need multiple Fraud violations submitted against this fake scammer page to support my IP violation notice to Facebook. It's an easy and anonymous process. I've attached a screen shot to walk you through the 5 step process. Just follow this link to that offending scammer's page and click the reporting menu items as shown. You can report the whole page or pick any copied post of mine.... there's already 12 there now.

Thanks in advance for helping me get this scammer removed.


GOLDEN HIVE farm official
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590497580162

05/29/2026

Most beekeepers are familiar with the problem of Laying Workers... unmated female worker bees laying eggs in the hive that only produce drones (male bees). But the Cape honey bee (Apis mellifera capensis) of Western South Africa is unique among all honey bees worldwide because those unmated workers can lay female eggs (diploid) by means of thelytokous parthenogenesis. Female worker bees of all other honey bee subspecies can only lay haploid, or male eggs.

05/28/2026

I'm not a doctor, but I am wiling to experiment on myself for a good cause. We had storms knock down some trees which were blocking access to one of my apiaries. So after a couple hours dancing with a chainsaw I got it opened back up.... but in the process was gifted poison ivy on both arms.

Now for the experiment - Honey is antibacterial and good on burns so let's see what it does on poison ivy. I coated one arm with some of our honey, and then wrapped it in cling wrap so I wouldn't be sticking to everything - the other arm I treated with Ivarest ointment.

A day later here's my results - The honey wrap did nothing to reduce the itching/burning but did a nice job of reducing the redness/rash. The Ivarest helped with the itching/burning but didn't help much with the rash. I don't think mixing the two together would be a good option because my arm might fall off... any home remedies to recommend?

UPDATE: After 2 days in poison ivy hell I'm now on a week long cycle of MethylPrednisolone... prescribed by a real doctor.

05/27/2026

Here's a view of the honey kitchen that we built inside our barn. It's not a big production area, but for our small size local apiary it works well enough.

05/26/2026

Here is my Oral Exam presentation for the Cornell Master Beekeeping program. Presentations were limited to 15 minutes - mine was just less than 13. My research topic was on Colony Drift Behavior.... what it is; how it effects a hive; and how to fix it.

This is my Oral final exam as part of the Cornell Master Beekeeping certification program. We selected a topic from a list of approved subjects and then had...

05/25/2026

Monday Memes - Famous Beek Quotes #31

05/24/2026

Here's proof that when a colony decides that it's time to swarm it will only wait just so long and it's going to go regardless of the weather. We've had thunderstorms, high winds, tornado warnings, earthquakes, and generally nasty weather over the past couple weeks... and this colony decided that was the perfect time to swarm into one of my traps. Still raining and they're out flying even today.

05/23/2026

I finally finished the Cornell Master Beekeeping program this May. There are many different techniques and tools we use for HOW to keep bees, but my personal goal in this program was to focus on better understanding the underlying WHY's around the nature of honey bees.

We studied anatomy, physiology, behavior, genetics, reproduction, nutrition, diseases, pests, pathogens, communication, colony management, hive products and more through our coursework and multiple research projects. I also gained many new friends in the program cohort, and that has made the journey together even more rewarding.

05/22/2026

I use these vented shims on top of my honey Supers to improve air flow so the bees can cure honey by reducing the moisture content. To keep the bees out of that vented “attic” space, I make screened inserts that fit into the inner cover’s feed hole. The bees can propolize the screen to adjust the air flow to their liking. If I didn’t screen that hole opening, the bees would start making burr comb in that shim space.

05/21/2026

When bees sting they release an alarm pheromone (isoamyl acetate) to mark the threat for other bees to target when defending the colony. This means that every so often I need to wash my bee jacket, or I risk being a pheromone pin cushion.

I soak my bee jacket in a 5 gallon bucket of hot water and unscented Oxi Clean. Then I seal a lid on the bucket and put it in the bed of my truck. As I drive my truck the bucket rolls around the bed like a washing machine gently cleaning my gear - then I can rinse & repeat if necessary.

BTW - I recently was reminded by the bees that my ball cap I wear all the time needed to be cleaned of alarm pheromone too. Some reminders can be painful.