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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

18:33

A Close Look At The 2020-2021 BIP Annual Loss Survey ...

Honey Bee Obscura Podcast ·

2021/07/08

How many colonies had to be replaced last year? How many in winter, summer, total? How many beekeepers were surveyed? How many commercial operations, how many sideline operations, and how many hobby beekeepers? It used to be called the annual colony loss survey, but even that has changed because one thing they have found is that colony counts aren’t decreasing, because they are replaced, and are now considered turnovers, not losses. The Bee Informed Colony Management survey went looking for the

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12:41

Dealing With Neighbors (028)

Honey Bee Obscura Podcast ·

2021/07/01

A question from a book written 107 years ago comes up for discussion. “How do you keep your bees from bothering your neighbors?” Back then, it was mostly cattle and horses beekeepers were worried about Today? It’s the people in the house right next door, their swimming pool, their bird feeders and waterers and the water for their pooch. First, is it legal to keep bees where you are? Then how do you get along with your neighbors? Where are your bees? Do you have a fence? (It’s still true – Good

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11:34

Euthanizing Honey Bees (027)

Honey Bee Obscura Podcast ·

2021/06/24

It’s rare, very rare, but sometimes beekeepers have to kill all the bees in a colony. It can be a tragic, emotional and usually it’s an expensive experience. Or it can be a life saving act to save the lives of friends, neighbors and family. At the very least, it will render a box of dangerous or sick bees no longer dangerous or reduce the chance of spreading disease across the county. At any rate, it is painful to have to do this. There are usually only 2 reasons this has to be done. The presence of

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13:25

Beekeeping Good Neighbor Golden Rules (026)

Honey Bee Obscura Podcast ·

2021/06/17

Let’s face it. Unless you live in an isolated part of the world, if you keep bees, you will need to eventually deal with encounters between your bees and your neighbors. Encounters don’t have to be negative. There are strategies you can use to minimize ‘bad publicity’ and ‘hard feelings.’ Some beekeeping clubs have written down these strategies and developed rules, Golden Rules, for beekeepers to help guide them to keep friendly relations with their neighbors. In this episode, our fearless hosts,

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10:16

Package Queens (025)

Honey Bee Obscura Podcast ·

2021/06/10

Packages arrive with a queen and together are installed in a hive of some kind. In a few days to a week the queen is released from her travel cage by either the bees or the beekeeper. Then the evaluation of that queen, and the bees, too, begins. How good is this queen? And when should I be able to decide if she needs replacing. A week? 2 weeks? A month? And how do you decide? There are some basic parameters you can use to evaluate her performance. You can look at the egg laying pattern she is

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13:44

Questions from 1910 (024)

Honey Bee Obscura Podcast ·

2021/06/03

Today, Kim & Jim review questions and answers asked in an ancient A. I. Root Co. publication, published in 1910. What’s changed, and what hasn’t? Kim and Jim tackle questions asked 121 years ago. You’ll be surprised at what they find. Do gentle bees make as much honey as mean bees? A question you still hear because sometimes it seems mean bees are more productive, right? Maybe, maybe not. What’s the best smoker fuel? Oily rags? You’re kidding, right? Pine needles, sawdust and the like too, but a

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12:38

Tanging - What's All That Banging? (023)

Honey Bee Obscura Podcast ·

2021/05/27

What is tanging? Basically, beekeepers use some sort of device, an old cooking pot for instance, to make a loud noise by beating it with a spoon or stick, while chasing an escaping swarm. It is thought this may convince the bees that a storm with thunder is approaching and they need to find a place to land, now, and then the beekeeper can capture them and return them to their home. When a beekeeper sees a swarm leave one of their hives, they will chase the swarm to recapture and return it to the

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15:09

Plastic & Wooden Packages (022)

Honey Bee Obscura Podcast ·

2021/05/20

Honey bees are purchased from commercial operations in business to sell bees to beekeepers. They can be sold as complete eight or ten frame hives with a queen, frames with comb, bees and brood and some stored food. Or, they may be sold as a 5-frame small colony, traditionally called a nucleus colony, or more commonly a Nuc, with a queen, comb, food and bees. Bees can also be bought in bulk – by the pound, traditionally in a container of some sort, without frames or comb. A queen accompanies the

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15:24

Old Comb (021)

Honey Bee Obscura Podcast ·

2021/05/13

Old comb. What is old comb? Old comb is that which is darkened through generations of tiny bee's feet (ok, for the technically minded, tarsus and tarsal claws...) running across its surface. Is it good for years or should beekeepers pull and replace it? At what point should it be pulled? In this episode of Honey Bee Obscura, Kim and Jim discuss all things Old Comb. After listening to the episode, make sure you check out this Honey Bee Obscura video moment on the OneTewBee YouTube channel:

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18:18

Spring Inspections (020)

Honey Bee Obscura Podcast ·

2021/05/06

Spring inspections, especially early spring, need a balance of not too often, but often enough to avoid problems. The first thing you see is…what’s left from last fall. In the south, these inspections took place some time ago, and in the north, they are just wrapping up, but what you find early on will help determine what needs to be done now. Mite testing is certainly on the agenda, but for today, we’re going to pass on that and look at food, the queen, where the bees are in the hive and what all

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16:03

Honey Bees Sting! (019)

Honey Bee Obscura Podcast ·

2021/04/29

Why do you keep a box full of bugs that you just know will sting? It should be an easy answer, but there’s more here that you might think, especially if you’re just getting started. Even if you’ve been doing this for years and you’re doing everything right, someday, you will get stung, no matter what. But what about the beekeeper dressed in only shorts and a T-Shirt, who will take a colony apart, remove the queen, put it back together, and walk away with a smile – and no stings. You have to admire

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13:56

Eating Comb Honey (018)

Honey Bee Obscura Podcast ·

2021/04/22

So, how do you eat comb honey? It isn’t a mystery, but until you have tried eating comb honey, it can be a tad daunting. At first, it’s a beautiful product. Snow white cappings, beautiful honey, the perfect sweetener. But then, you take a sample and that chunk of comb honey begins to leak, and the honey runs out and covers the bottom of the dish you have it on, along with tiny chunks of the wax from the cells and the cappings and the foundation. Suddenly it’s messy. Very messy. And the beauty of the

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16:06

Pollen Traps (017)

Honey Bee Obscura Podcast ·

2021/04/15

Trapping pollen will give you a source of good food for your bees, and it’s for free. And why more beekeepers don’t do it is interesting, but understandable. There are a host of pollen substitutes on the market that a beekeeper can simply buy and feed to the bees. Pollen traps add a layer of work and cost to their beekeeping efforts that many don’t want to undertake….and that’s too bad. Of course trapping pollen changes what’s going on in the hive. Removing some amount of the only protein source

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15:48

Nectar Flows (016)

Honey Bee Obscura Podcast ·

2021/04/08

If you keep good records every year, you’ll know about when to expect the various nectar flows your areas has almost every year and that your bees need to make a honey crop. Of course, your bees will tell you when a nectar flow starts, and when it’s over. Tell you they will. Open a colony before a flow and the bees are busy looking for food. Open one during a good flow and you will find the happiest bees in the world. Open a colony just as a flow stops and you better have a good beesuit and veil,

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16:47

Robbing! (015)

Honey Bee Obscura Podcast ·

2021/04/01

Imagine this… you walk out to your beeyard. There is a lot of activity. No problem. That’s good right? Probably a nectar flow, you think. But as you get closer, there is something else going on… more frantic, more commotion, more… frenetic; All directed at one or two hives. There are hundreds of bees trying to get into those hives, through any available crack and crevice. Bees are all over in the air and it is definitely not a swarm. About the time you notice a faint smell of something like almonds,

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16:43

Swarms (014)

Honey Bee Obscura Podcast ·

2021/03/25

Have you ever tried to capture a swarm while hanging on to the top of a 10-foot ladder that’s standing in the back of a pickup? No? Well, Jim Tew has and he’ll tell you all about retrieving swarms this week. Kim Flottum has a story about Richard Taylor walking into the middle of a swarm issuing from a hive, reaching up and catching the queen! No, really! It happened! If you are a beekeeper, swarms are a fact of life. Keeping bees from swarming is a challenge and capturing them when they leave is

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14:11

Dealing with Bee Space (013)

Honey Bee Obscura Podcast ·

2021/03/18

How much space do bees need inside a beehive? Well, it’s between 3/16” and 5/16”, so you can figure just about a quarter inch should do. But what happens when bees don’t have bee space in a beehive? Propolis is what happens: Tighter than a drum if it’s too small and full of burr and brace comb if it’s too big. Make it just right for the bees and they’ll make it right for you! Are there differences between equipment manufacturers? (Yes) Where is the bee space? Above the frames or below the frames

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15:12

Outyards (012)

Honey Bee Obscura Podcast ·

2021/03/11

When you have more bees at home than you want, or your family wants, or your neighbors want, it’s time to find an outyard. There’s a lot to consider when choosing an outyard. There are many things to consider, such as: Are you able to get there in all seasons? Does your family knows where it is so they can find you if your truck or car won’t start? What about access? Are there gates? Combinations to locks? Here’s a consideration… What about cattle or horses or bear? Will you need some kind of fence

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14:10

Requeening (011)

Honey Bee Obscura Podcast ·

2021/03/04

Everybody who has bees at some time will have to requeen a colony. You killed her when moving frames, she quit laying, a colony that swarmed didn’t make a queen, you stepped on her when she fell off the frame. It happens… and now you have to requeen that colony. If she’s gone it’s easier than if she’s there. If she’s there, you got to find and replace her. Right, find her first. Good luck with that. Then, it’s where do you put that new queen in the colony and how long should she stay in that cage

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14:10

Smokers and Smoker Fuel (010)

Honey Bee Obscura Podcast ·

2021/02/25

A smoker is that extra hand you always need when working bees. It’s the right tool for the job. But how smokers get used is mostly influenced by what the beekeeper is doing whether you are working hard, fast and in a hurry, or easy going, slow and gentle. Each approach demands different behaviors and different amounts of smoke. What about smoker fuels? Certainly, what’s available helps decide what gets burned. Pine straw, wood shavings, punk wood, rolled burlap, sumac pods, even dried cow dung are

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