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PODCAST

Honey Bee Obscura Podcast

The weekly podcast exploring the joys, challenges, and curiosities of keeping honey bees. Hosted by Dr. Jim Tew and produced by Jeff Ott, Honey Bee Obscura delivers short, focused conversations that dive into the details of beekeeping—from practical how-tos to quirky observations. Perfect for learning something new on the way to the apiary, at home, or wherever your bees take you.

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All Episodes

21:09

Small Furry Pests (077)

Honey Bee Obscura Podcast ·

2022/06/09

It doesn’t take long after getting into beekeeping and then repeatedly, as long as you have beekeeping equipment laying around or stacked neatly, until you have to deal with small furry pests. Mice, rats and other critters love the shelter, warmth, relative safety and often food, found in beekeeping equipment. In today’s episode, Jim Tew talks with Jeff Ott, from Beekeeping Today Podcast, about Small Furry Pests. There are ways to deal with mice and rats. What works in a bee yard? The guys talk

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18:03

Exploring Honey Prices (076)

Honey Bee Obscura Podcast ·

2022/06/02

During a recent trip to a big-name US drug store, Kim saw honey on the shelf for $4.99 per pound. It was a blend of honeys from Argentina and India. A US commercial beekeeper shoots for a price of honey (in the 55-gallon barrel to a packer) for about the going price of diesel fuel, which, at the end of May was pushing $7 per gallon. In today’s Honey Bee Obscura episode, Kim and Jim dissect this problem a bit. This quickly leads to the question we should all ask ourselves before we casually hand out

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18:40

Dealing With Feisty Bees (075)

Honey Bee Obscura Podcast ·

2022/05/26

Jim’s beeyard is the center of attention this week, because his bees were bothering his wife and a very patient, longtime neighbor. That’s not a good thing. So, exasperated, Jim asks Kim for his ideas about all that was going on and to help figure out why. Two of his colonies were swarming or at least it looked that way. Plus, he is experiencing a nectar dearth at the moment. Is robbing part of the problem? Regardless, his bees are feisty and others are paying the price. It was a mixed bag of bee

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18:31

How To Plan Raised Pollinator Beds (074)

Honey Bee Obscura Podcast ·

2022/05/19

If a pollinator garden is in your future this summer, constructing a raised bed is one way to keep it under control and is a much easier approach to providing food for your bees, beauty for your yard and not an aching back for you. There are all varieties of raised bed gardens. The one pictured below is made of metal, purchased from a gardening company that specializes in these and will last years with little maintenance. Simpler models have only metal corner posts, the gardener supplies the wooden

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16:10

Final Thoughts on Package Bee Season (073)

Honey Bee Obscura Podcast ·

2022/05/12

So you have already put in your two packages (you did get two, right?) and a few days, or maybe a week later you checked them and…..something’s wrong! What can go wrong with a new package? Kim and Jim chat a bit about the things that can and for some, will go wrong with new packages. First check, the queen’s dead in her cage. Get a new one, find some brood from another colony, join with another colony? All work, but which is best? After a week you check and…..no bees! They all left! Where did they

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20:45

Installing Package Bees in Inclement Weather (072)

Honey Bee Obscura Podcast ·

2022/05/05

Package season is about over for 2022. Perhaps thankfully too, depending on where in the country you live. Installing packages does not always go well or as depicted in bee books or Internet videos. Sometimes, the weather just does not cooperate. In this week’s episode, Jim talks with Jeff Ott from Beekeeping Today Podcast about installing packages in bad weather. When you order and pay your deposit in January and February for your packages later in the spring, you envision they will show up on a

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21:44

Planning A Successful Bee Association Meeting (071)

Honey Bee Obscura Podcast ·

2022/04/28

Have you ever been involved in planning and carrying out a beekeeping meeting? If not, there are a host of things to consider that you may have missed when you simply ‘attend’ a meeting. Kim and Jim have attended probably thousands of meetings, and over the last 30 plus years, have seen everything that can go wrong, go wrong, and what those who make good plans did to fix it. They’ve seen lots of meetings run as smooth as glass. Plus, Kim has served as President of both the Connecticut and Ohio State

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18:45

Finding Bee Yards (070)

Honey Bee Obscura Podcast ·

2022/04/21

What are the important considerations for finding a new bee yard? There are a whole lot of right answers to this question and Kim and Jim explore almost all of them. For starters, year-round access, locked gates, dangerous animals, safety, and liability (yours and the property owner)? There are many questions you should ask. The answers, of course, are going to be all over the map (sorry) and you will need to know (and probably have in writing) the answers to all of them. Plus, talk to as many

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20:23

Supplemental Spring Feeding of Honey Bees (069)

Honey Bee Obscura Podcast ·

2022/04/14

If your colonies make it through the winter, or if you simply purchased more bees as a package or nuc, their next challenge is making it through the changeable spring weather. (Especially this year, it seems.) Your management challenge is deciding what and how to feed them. In this episode, Jim Tew and Jeff Ott discuss supplemental spring feeding. Specifically, they discuss the feeding of carbohydrates or sugar water. (The supplemental feeding of protein (pollen) will be covered in a future

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18:58

Adding Package Bees to Deadout Equipment (068)

Honey Bee Obscura Podcast ·

2022/04/07

This time of year, experienced and new beekeepers are receiving their packaged bees and nucs. Only a few of these packages and nucs are going home to new equipment. Many will go home to equipment left over from last year's failed colonies. Is it safe to use this equipment? In this episode, Jeff Ott (from Beekeeping Today Podcast) fills in for Kim Flottum and asks Jim, can he use his old equipment. What about the old honey? Will it hurt if the honey is fermenting or crystallized? What about mold

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22:45

Capturing and Hiving Swarms (067)

Honey Bee Obscura Podcast ·

2022/03/31

A beekeeper's most exciting moment is undoubtedly, capturing and hiving a swarm... especially when it is someone else's bees! In today episode, Jim Tew and Jeff Ott - who is filling in for Kim Flottum this week - discuss capturing swarms and how you can be prepared this year. How can you be prepared? Get some basic equipment pulled together. A container of some type (preferably bee-tight), such as a hive body with a frame or two of brood comb foundation, pruning shears, a tarp - white is best for

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16:58

Swarm Traps aka Bait Hives (066)

Honey Bee Obscura Podcast ·

2022/03/24

In today's episode, Jim Tew and Jeff Ott (who's stepping in this week for Kim Flottum) discuss their experiences using swarm traps - sometimes called "bait hives". Swarm traps are used by beekeepers to lure the scout bees looking for a new home. There are multiple types of swarm traps from the commercially available 'flower pot' type traps, to home-made traps to simply setting out old hive bodies with a frame or two of brood comb or foundation. Jim and Jeff talk about what they've used, what'd

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22:13

More Listener Questions (065)

Honey Bee Obscura Podcast ·

2022/03/17

This week, Beekeeping Today Podcast's co-host, Jeff Ott sits in for Kim Flottum and joins podcast regular, Jim Tew to answer listener questions. Kim and Jim have often discussed the pros and cons of using all medium equipment. Today, Jim and Jeff answer the listener question about how to move from deeps to mediums (or 'western') boxes for the brood boxes. What do you use? What do you like? What don't you like? What is your favorite beekeeping tool not found in a beekeeping catalog or your local bee

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16:23

Mind Your Bees Wax (064)

Honey Bee Obscura Podcast ·

2022/03/10

So, what do you do with your old wax? For some of us, as little as possible, but for others, there’s money to be made. There are different kinds of wax based on a couple of factors, including how long it was in the hive and how it was used by the bees. Bees wax from the brood area tends to get dark fast, in a couple of years, it’s nearly black from old cocoons, pollen, uneaten honey and the like. In fact, after a couple of years those old combs will have enough dirt, grime, propolis and especially

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14:53

Dealing With Old Equipment (063)

Honey Bee Obscura Podcast ·

2022/03/03

What can you do with all that old beekeeping equipment you don’t need, don’t want and is in the way most of the time? There are several ways to look at this, and the first way, of course, is to simply trash it, burn it, bury it. That works, but there’s maybe a better way. In this week’s episode, Kim and Jim discuss how they deal with old equipment! First question to consider: Is it clean? In some states, you’ll need an inspector’s seal of approval if you’re giving it to someone so you don’t spread

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17:56

Make Money with Honey Bees! (062)

Honey Bee Obscura Podcast ·

2022/02/24

In today’s episode, Kim and Jim discuss making money with honey bees. Almost every beekeeper has had someone (usually a spouse…) say, “I thought you were going to make money as a beekeeper.” Well, it is possible to make money with bees, but you have to put some thought into it. Do you have the time for the extra work required and can you afford to spend less time with your family? Do you have the equipment you’ll need to do the things you can do to make money? Do you have the energy? Well, start

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15:55

Raising Non-Graft Queens (061)

Honey Bee Obscura Podcast ·

2022/02/17

A good rule when raising a few queens is to keep it simple. And not having to graft larvae from one cell to another is as simple as could be. So, how can that be done? The Hopkins method is one way, where you simply put a frame with eggs and larvae in a queenless colony and let them do their thing. You even have some controls of the genetics that way, depending on where that frame comes from. Or you can simply do a split, remove the queen from one or both and get out of the way and let them raise a

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17:36

Late Winter Colony Management (060)

Honey Bee Obscura Podcast ·

2022/02/10

It’s early February and it’s winter. But winter in northern Ohio is a lot different than winter in the south, where bees are flying, foraging and raising brood. And where it’s cold, you can’t be doing things with your bees, but you can be doing things for your bees: Getting ready for spring. Food can be a problem right now. How much did you leave last fall? It’s tough to look, but if you can get a glimpse inside, how would you feed them if you had to? Fondant works, usually, by cracking a super and

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18:49

Going Big Time - Large Observation Hives (059)

Honey Bee Obscura Podcast ·

2022/02/03

Managing large observation hives is very different than working with those small observation hives that you can take to a school or county fair. Very different indeed. Especially if you are going to keep this hive in your home or classroom. To begin, there’s really no standard design. They can be a single frame wide or 2 or more frames wide. And how tall? Two, three frames tall? More than one frame wide and you’ll probably never see the queen, if only a single frame, the bees never get to cluster

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19:37

Let's Discuss Small Observation Hives (058)

Honey Bee Obscura Podcast ·

2022/01/27

Small, portable, usually single frame observation hives are ideal for meetings, demonstrations, lectures and even for study. They can be homemade or produced by bee supply companies, but there are a few things to keep in mind when using them…. especially when children are your audience. Kids are full of energy and accidents happen. Make sure you observation hive is rough and tumble ready, securely held in place for when kids are pointing, showing and asking questions. How many bees should you have,

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