Colony Cluster : April 2020

For this Cluster, we were joined by Senior Contributor Ron Lane and PerfectBee Ambassadors Judi Bogardus, William Gullick  and Joe Bates. We had a wonderful discussion and covered the following beekeeping topics.

• Hive updates and discussion from PerfectBee Ambassadors (1:25)
• New Article : Swarm Management in Spring (6:05)
• Solar-Powered Electric Fences For Bears (10:48)
• Potential bee supply issues during the COVID-19 Crisis (14:26)
• PerfectBee Store product fulfillment unaffected (16:33)
• Feeding bees in spring (19:41)
• Do NOT feed store-bought honey to your bees (22:14)
• Feeding with capped honey from the hive (24:47)
• The dangers of Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) when heating honey (26:12)
• Feeding and checking on the consumption of fondant (27:59)
• Joe’s Fondant recipe (29:49)
• The use of supplements – and the smell of Honey-B-Healthy! (30:52)
• Feeding splits with colony-raised new queens (33:00)
• Spring in some places, 4″ of snow elsewhere! (35:23)
• Working with colonies who make their own queens (39:34)
• Encouraging new beekeepers to consider splits (47:22)