Cherokee Beekeepers Club

Mead … with hops.

beeadminAugust 15, 2016

Still, there are only about 150 meaderies in the U.S. — whereas there are about 4,000 craft breweries. To gain a foothold with beer enthusiasts, Geffken is blurring the line between the two beverages. Right now, mead consumption is still limited primarily to wine enthusiasts,…

Bee News

NPR: The mistakes of backyard beekeepers

beeadminAugust 15, 2016

While experts welcome the rising national interest in beekeeping as a hobby, they warn that novices may be inadvertently putting their hives — and other hives for miles around — in danger by not keeping the bee mite population in check. Many hobbyists avoid mite…

Bee News

Are probiotics the ‘cure’ for honeybees?

beeadminAugust 8, 2016

There are so many factors involved in the decline of our hives, it’s important to keep a skeptical mindset but open to new innovations in honeybee care. Slava and Vera Strogolov think they’ve cracked the case: bees are digesting too many antibiotics. “We saw that…

Bee News

African Honeyguide birds cooperate with humans to harvest hive products

beeadminJuly 26, 2016

What an amazing story about a relationship of cooperative hunting between two species: humans and the honeyguide. Scientists have determined that humans and their honeyguides communicate with each other through an extraordinary exchange of sounds and gestures, which are used only for honey hunting and…

Bee News

Honeybees turn into ‘water bottles’ during heat and drought

beeadminJuly 22, 2016

Honeybees never cease to surprise me. There’s been a lot of study about their foraging habits on nectar and pollen, but very little done with honeybees and water storage. I highly recommend reading this article. After a day enduring hot and dry conditions, several dozen…

Bee News

Thieves steal $10,000 worth of honeybees from beekeeper in Canada

beeadminJuly 11, 2016

Hutchings, a fifth generation beekeeper who operates Debbee’s Bees, says the culprits got away with more than just her insects. “They had taken a bunch of my equipment and 10 big hives and the 16 nucs.” Nucleus colonies — or nucs — are small bee…

Bee News

Pollution affects honeybee ability to forage

beeadminJuly 7, 2016

While foraging for food, insects detect floral scent molecules in the air. Wind currents can carry these molecules up to thousands of feet from their original source to where bees have their hives. “Many insects have nests that are up to 3,000 feet away from…

Bee News

Varroa Mites again detected in Australia, erradicated

beeadminJuly 6, 2016

The hive of about 5,000 bees along with two varroa mites, which were detected on two of the bees, were destroyed by staff from the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources. Mr Weatherhead said testing will be done to see if the bees had any…

Bee News

Did you know that bees dream?

beeadminJune 28, 2016

Honeybees continue to amaze, inspire and astound me. Who knew that bees sleep? and that it affects their learning ability just like us people. But it is not all work, work, work. Busy bees have to sleep, too. Similar to our circadian rhythm, honeybees sleep…

Bee News

‘Zombie Bee’ scourge reaches Virginia

beeadminJune 24, 2016

As if beekeepers didn’t have more to worry about. There’s a fly that is laying it’s eggs on honeybees, which in turn kills the bee. Flies attach themselves to the bees and inject their eggs, causing erratic “zombie-like” behavior in the bees such as flying…