Rachel Cunning – Keeping Backyard Bees

Varroa Mite Treatment for Package Bees

Rachel Cunning — Thu, 13 Feb 2020 18:00:48 +0000

Varroa mites can weaken your colony and make your hive susceptible to secondary pests. Oxalic acid is one of the best ways to manage your varroa populations in your hive. Oxalic acid kills 90-99% of the phoretic mites in your beehive. To reach these levels of effectiveness, however, the colony must be broodless. Your beehive […]

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The Backyard Beekeeper: A Book Review for Beekeepers

Rachel Cunning — Sat, 24 Mar 2018 11:40:36 +0000

I wish that the first book I had ever read on beekeeping was The Backyard Beekeeper: An Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Keeping Bees in Your Yard and Garden. Kim Flottum’s expert advice is a comprehensive introduction to getting started with your own backyard hives. Although I am not an absolute beginner, I still gleaned useful […]

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Prairie Blazing Star: Native Plant Review

Rachel Cunning — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 15:02:37 +0000

Prairie Blazing Stars are spectacular spiky, towering flowers that, to my imaginative mind at least, look like fireworks exploding across the prairie. These native flowers attract a plethora of native insects and honeybees for their nectar sources. If you are considering adding additional native flowers to your pollinator garden this year, Prairie Blazing Stars can […]

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Persevering Through Hive Losses

Rachel Cunning — Fri, 02 Feb 2018 22:08:03 +0000

My beehive died again this year. The death of this hive marks the third year (and the fourth hive) that I’ve failed to shepherd one through the winter. I have attended multiple beekeeping classes and workshops, a mentoring session, and read several books on beekeeping. I am by no means a novice. For the last […]

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A Beekeeper’s Book Review of More Than Honey: The Survival of Bees and the Future of Our World

Rachel Cunning — Tue, 31 Oct 2017 18:25:18 +0000

Markus Imhoof outlines many of the problems facing beekeepers today in his book More Than Honey: The Survival of Bees and the Future of Our World, which Imhoof had originally produced as a documentary. His slant is strongly pro-bees and anti-pesticides and, in conjunction, anti-commercial agriculture. In particular, I found his interviews with a large […]

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The Beetle Jail Follow-Up: A Review

Rachel Cunning — Sat, 21 Oct 2017 15:59:33 +0000

We recently checked back on our hive after installing the new beetle jails to replace the beetle blasters. As I wrote about earlier, I haven’t been entirely satisfied with the beetle blasters and was looking for alternatives. In the comments to my post, many other beekeepers have shared their own strategies there for trapping small hive […]

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Native Plants for Native Bees and Honeybees: New England Aster

Rachel Cunning — Wed, 06 Sep 2017 18:02:11 +0000

In addition to keeping a hive of bees in my backyard and a flock of chickens, I have quite the vegetable garden, mini orchard, and space devoted to native plants. When I began planting native plants, I specifically looked for natives that were useful not only to my backyard hive but also for the plethora […]

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How to “Read” a Frame from Your Hive

Rachel Cunning — Tue, 29 Aug 2017 13:57:28 +0000

How to “Read” a Frame from Your Hive On Sunday, we checked our hive to see if our queen had begun laying eggs in earnest yet. The honeybees had clearly been intent on demolishing the pollen patty I had made them a week and a half ago, so that was a good sign. When we […]

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Moving from Beetle Blasters to Beetle Jails: Small Hive Beetle Management

Rachel Cunning — Tue, 29 Aug 2017 13:51:43 +0000

Moving from Beetle Blasters to Beetle Jails: Small Hive Beetle Management Small hive beetles are a pest and a terrible nuisance, but as we learned oh so painfully, they can destroy a weakened hive if they become established and do as they are wont to do: reproduce prolifically. I’ve never had a sadder (or more disgusting) […]

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