Honeybee colonies do not hibernate in the winter months, but stay active and cluster together to stay warm. This requires a lot of food…honey…stored from the summer before. Honeybees are special in that they over-winter as a colony, unlike wasps and bumblebees. Although a hive needs 70 to 80 pounds of honey to survive the winter, the bees are capable of collecting much more. This “surplus” honey is what the beekeeper takes.

There have been incidents of Africanized Honey Bees (AHB) in the County. While AHB do attack more aggressively than regular bees and will pursue an enemy further, they attack only when threatened. For precautions and what to do if you are stung or attacked, click here .

It is best to feed a mixture of sugar and water in a one to one ratio by volulme in the spring. Half fill your container with sugar and add water to completely fill the container. You can mix the syrup by stirring the one to one sugar/water mixture for the spring feeding. The bees will use the sugar syrup mixture until natural sources are available. You can also stimulate the honey bees to raise brood in the spring by feeding them Dadant's Brood Builder.

Use a two part sugar to one part water sugar syrup mixture if the bees do not have adequate winter stores. Fill your container to the half way mark with water. Pour the water into a pan to place on stove to warm up or boil. Completely fill your container with sugar. Add sugar to hot water and stir. Hot or boiling water will help to dissolve the sugar better. Allow mixture to cool before feeding your bees.

Many pesticide labels include warnings to avoid spraying flowering plants or crops outdoors where honey bees are likely to be foraging for nectar and pollen (e.g., in a garden or planted field). In those situations, it is important to obey the labeling to help protect the bees. However, when bees invade a home, or a colony is a threat , you have the right to remove them (preferably) or to kill them if necessary.

The best time to hive the honey bees is late afternoon or early evening. Spray the honey bees with sugar water while still in the shipping container. This will make it easier to put the honey bees in the hive.

Yes. Yellow jackets sometimes build a nest in a wall cavity, as do honey bees, and many people are not able to distinguish the two insects. The difference is important because yellow jackets do no build wax combs, do not store honey, and their colonies die out each year by spring. If you have questions about which insect may be nesting in your wall, collect one of the adults and send it to your county Cooperative Extension Service Center for identification.

Though they are best known for their honey, honeybees also produce Propolis, royal jelly, and bees wax. These substances have many uses. Propolis is used as an anti-bacterial substance, royal jelly is used as a natural health supplement, and bees’ wax makes great candles. All the substances that honey bees’ produce have powerful natural healing properties.

Honey can be used to make Kombucha, however, it should be pasteurized first to kill any wild yeast cells as well as the enzymes which are responsible for the production of hydrogen peroxide in honey.

No, but our bees do! :) We need the bees to pollunate the blueberries, so the honey is an added bonus. You can see what the honey looks like and how much it costs on the pricing page.

Bees are often killed in the production of honey, in the worst case the whole hive may be destroyed if the keeper doesn't wish to protect them over the winter. Not all beekeepers do this, but the general practice is one that embodies the attitude that living things are mere material and have no intrinsic value of their own other than what commercial value we can wrench from them. Artificial insemination involving death of the male is now also the norm for generation of new queen bees.

They are on their way, but there is no set time line when they will arrive. While AHB do attack more aggressively than regular bees and will pursue an enemy further, they attack only when threatened and are not as dangerous as depicted in some recent movies. For precautions and what to do if you are stung or attacked, please call the OCFA Community Relations and Education Office at (714) 573-6200 for a brochure.

House Bees" are young bees, not yet old enough to forage. They collect nectar from foragers near the hive entrance, and place it in comb. Other, even younger House Bees do things like draw foundation out into comb. While these bees can fly, they tend to stay in the hive. These bees are crucial to success in producing large honey crops, since there is quite a bit of labor required to move nectar around, combine evaporated nectar, cap cells of "ripened" honey, and so on.

The number 1 Source to purchase Manuka Honey in the USA is at Manuka Honey USA according to the following published articles, books and health magazines. Our company is featured in the text and/or reference section of the following publications: Dr. Whittiker, Newport Beach, CA, Newsletter about Active Manuka Honey for Gastro Intestinal distress http://www.whitakerwellness.com

If by "sugar" we mean white table sugar, the answer is definitely NO. Table sugar is sucrose, a substance made up of two molecules attached together. When we eat table sugar, our stomach has to use its own enzymes to separate the molecules apart before we can use the sugar's energy. Honey is quite different. The bees have added a special enzyme to the nectar that separates the sucrose into glucose and fructose, two simple sugars that our bodies can absorb directly.

One reason honey is called a "miracle food", is because in its natural form, it is fully preserved. No organisms can live in it and the product will not decompose. However, if the moisture content is raised above 20%, yeasts can begin to grow and cause fermentation. Honey can also change texture over time, and separate out into solids (glucose) and liquids (fructose and moisture). Stirring the product will mix up the components and return it to its former creamed state.

Store honey at room temperature. Refrigeration speeds up crystallization. If honey crystallizes, remove lid and place jar in warm water. Or, microwave 1 cup of honey in microwave-safe container at high (100%) 2-3 minutes or until crystals dissolve, stir every 30 seconds.