Every year in late winter, we make management decisions about selling bees in the spring. We decide between selling splits (nucs) from our own bees, buying bees from California to resell (packages), etc. We decide based on on bee health, availability, the weather, and more. We want to get the best quality honeybees to our […]
What a great spring! This year we brought in 770 packages of bees and are excited to see your beekeeping successes! In the packages, we guarantee that the queen bee will be alive and healthy when customers take them home. But there are some rare customer error problems that can happen with the queen. Hopefully knowing about […]
We love it when our customers ask awesome, thoughtful questions! Here is a Question from Dave in Pocatello, ID. He said, “I am looking for a package of bees to start my first hive. I’m really interested in treatment-free and am planning to use top-bar hives. I just read the explanation on your feral queen project. […]
Our queen and package supplier is part of the Managed Pollinator CAP program, which tests for hygienic bee behavior. We are excited to be part of the bee decline solution by supporting these producers. They test breeder queens for the recessive genetic trait, hygienic bee behavior. Hygienic behavior is when workers bees sense a missing […]
First of all, if you are a brand new beekeeper, please consider purchasing a nuc. See Lesson 1: Nucs and Packages. You will have more success with a nuc. Promise. Then next year, when you are addicted to bees, get some packages. If you have decided on packages (find our more about packages here), you […]
We only use and sell deep boxes. This is a management preference. All beekeepers do things a bit differently and this is our favorite way. We think our way is more efficient because we don’t have to store several sizes of boxes and frames. (And we’ve had 25 years plus 4 generations of experimentation. Trust […]
We traveled to Northern California to pick up 2013 packages. Here we are, back in Utah and unloading. About half of our packages were sold as such and half will be turned into nucs and then sold. All who ordered picked up their packages successfully. This is a feat in itself with order changes, date […]
We are getting ready to install some packages. One of these three will be installed into the box behind. Many of our customers have requested a video demonstration on how to install a package by the shaking method. Here it is! (While you’re at it, Subscribe to our You Tube Chanel Here.) Do not use […]
Wonder what goes on in the life of a beekeeper? Here is a quick summary of what we do on the Wasatch Front in Utah. January, February, March. In January, many commercial beekeepers are preparing their hives to send to California for pollination. I read yesterday that the California almond groves will require 75% of […]