Mountain View Apiaries

09/03/2026

Autumn hive checks:

Summer looks to be winding down here in N. Idaho as the daytime highs are now dropping off while nighttime lows are dropping into the 50's and even the high 40's. That means it is time to start inspecting and prepping your colonies for the upcoming winter.

You will want to ensure that you leave enough honey on your strong colonies and boost the supply of honey/nectar on those who are weaker. Up here in the north, you will generally need around 85 pounds of honey for a strong colony to overwinter upon. I prefer to err on the side of leaving more and not less.

If you need to feed syrup, then make sure you get it on quickly while daytime temperatures are still warm. Most beekeepers unfortunately wait too long to begin feeding syrup. Between not mixing a thick enough syrup and getting it on too late, the bees do not have enough time and temperature necessary to evaporate excess moisture out of it. That results in far too much moisture in the colony. Remember - excessive moisture is what kills bees in the winter - they can deal with cold but once they get wet, they are finished.

You might ask -how does excessive moisture harm them? Bees do not hibernate during the winter. Instead they form a cluster and consume their supply of honey to provide carbohydrates so that they can generate heat in the cluster by vibrating their wing muscles. Their breathing releases moisture into the air and being that it is warm from the cluster, it rises. As it rises, it can come into contact with the cold bottom surface of the outer cover. Warm, moisture-ladened air, hitting a cold surface, causes water to condense in the form of droplets on the bottom of the inner cover. That in turn can literally rain down upon the poor cluster of bees beneath it. At that point, your colony is doomed.

Feeding sugar syrup too late in the season simply aggravates this problem increasing the odds of your bees getting soaked.

One of the ways you can help your bees to avoid this, ( most importantly - do not feed sugar syrup that is too thin or feed it too late) is to provide "attic insulation" and good ventilation. Just like your own home has insulation in the attic above your ceiling and between it and the roof, you can do the same for your bees. There are a variety of ways to do this. I personally use shallow supers with 1/8" hardware screen as a bottom base, filled with absorbent material such as wood chips. I also use the material found in pet care shops that are used for hamster cages. Make sure if you use this that it is an unscented variety. That stuff is manufactured specifically to absorb moisture and is terrific for use in beehives.

You can purchase wintering boxes to add to your colonies so for those who are not particularly interested in making their own products., invest in those for your colonies. But do make sure you get something similar on your colonies. It helps the bees to moderate the temperature of their cluster as well as absorbing excess moisture.

I can provide more info on this in an additional post but I do want to also give an additional pointer for what to look for ahead of the winter. Check to see that your bees do have some pollen stores in frames near their brood chamber area. If they do not, get some supplemental pollen substitute on them now. I do not feed pollen patties during the depth of winter. Only ahead of the winter. I do feed pollen patties in late winter on a milder and sunny day to provide the bees with the protein source for the new larvae that they will be rearing in the buildup towards spring. IN the depth of winter however, the amount of brood they are rearing is negligible so they require more carbohydrates rather than protein.

Lastly,make sure that your colony has a queen present and that you see signs of brood. You do not want to have a queenless colony going into winter. They are dead and just don't know it yet. Sadly, one can rarely obtain mated queens late in the fall so if you do run into a situation where a colony is indeed queenless., combine it with another existing colony.

09/03/2026

One of my gals working some late-season blooming firew**d

08/28/2026

Had much fun working the Honeybee booth at the North Idaho County Fair this week. Seeing some old friends and meeting folks interested in raising bees is always special!

I entered some of my honey into two categories for judging. My entry in the light-colored honey took second place this year ( two years ago I won the coveted first place spot). Mine had a few tiny air bubbles suspended in the honey and that results in point deductions. Congrats to the first place winner as her honey sample was beautiful!

My entry into the darker-colored honey took home first place as well as garnering the Superintendent's CHOICE AWARD.

My thanks to the judges who donate their time to this wonderful event and especially to all those who work so hard in getting the booth set up and manned. There is a lot of work that goes into making the exhibitions so wonderful and a great deal of love as well! There is still time to visit the Fair and drop by the booth!

08/24/2026

Late Summer Predator attacks...

Late summer is the time of the year when yellow jackets and hornets ( bald-faced hornets up here [which by the way are actually considered members of the yellow jacket family]) are rearing next year's queens and drones in their respective colonies. That means that they are after protein sources in particular to feed to their own developing larvae. Bee hives are a rich source of this as they are loaded with larvae as well as adult bees which these aggressive predators can take advantage of given the opportunity.

Also, never to pass up a chance at getting some easy carbohydrates, open frames of honey inside honeybee colonies can prove quite alluring to marauding yellow jacket foragers. Bee colonies that are weak are especially susceptible to these predators and if beekeepers do not take steps to help protect these, they can be easily overrun by very strong yellow jacket colonies that are in the vicinity of their hives.

I have read some posts from some novice beekeepers posing as experts who recommend using entrance reducers made of wood to decrease the size of the opening at the bottom boards. While the concept is the correct one, the cure they propose is entirely wrong.

Hot summer days means hives are working hard to keep the interior of their colony cooler. Reducing the size of the entrance at the bottom board by closing it down with blocks of wood cuts off the volume of air that the bees are able to move through the colony to evaporate the water droplets that are being deposited on the surface of the wax combs to lower the temperature. Having been a beekeeper in the South for nearly 20 years, I can tell you from experience that you are harming your honeybee colonies by following this ill-advised "cure".

What I have learned to use is 1/8" hardware cloth, which is actually a bit of a misnomer, since the "cloth" is metal screen. Using this allows one to reduce the size of the entrance to make things easier for the guard bees to patrol the entrance, while also allowing air to flow into and out of the colony.

The amount of the entrance size that you will need to reduce depends on the strength of your colony. If you have a colony that is being assaulted by yellow jackets, you want the guard bees to be able to post a tight defensive line at the opening. The weaker the colony, the smaller the area that you need to create to help them in this process. Cut a piece of the screen about 2-3" in width to start. Then cut it down to an overall length which will give the colony an area to patrol, perhaps 1 1/2"-2" depending on the status of the colony. Bend the screen in half along its length forming a "V".

Using your smoker, puff a bit of smoke at the entrance temporarily chasing the guard bees back inside and then placing one side of the "V" at one edge of the bottom board entrance, slowly push the "V" into the entrance far enough so that friction will hold it in place. When you have correctly done this, you will have the entire entrance screened off with the exception of the smaller opening that this will create on the far size of the entrance.

That's it! Now you can step back and allow the bees to resume their normal activity. You will notice that initially returning foragers will land on the bottom board at the entrance and will walk along the length of the screen trying to figure out how to get back inside their home. No need to fret - they will very soon figure out where the opening in the screen is and before long, after returning from their foraging trips, they will be landing right smack dab at the now newly-formed entrance.

The bees which are posted there doing guard duty, will briefly check them and then allow them to pass. Yellow jackets which will be running up and down along the front of the colony attempting to gain entrance, will find it much more difficult to get past the guard bees which now have the advantage of having to patrol a much-smaller opening.

You can leave this screen in place for the remainder of the summer and into the fall, for as long as you notice predators attempting to gain entrance into the colony. Eventually the change in weather as the fall progresses, will put an end to the predator attacks on your colonies. At that time you can THEN replace the screened entrance reducers with wooden entrance reducers as the daytime temperatures will no longer be high enough to cause overheating issues inside your colonies.

One last thing - when working your colonies in late summer, you will sometimes encounter yellow jacket foragers buzzing around your open colonies. Some will even drop down right into the middle of them while open. Work quickly while the threat is there so as not to leave colonies opened any longer than absolutely necessary. This is NOT the time to rip open your colonies and tear them apart for lengthy attempts to "see the queen". Look for eggs and a good laying pattern. That is enough to tell you that she is present and is doing just fine.

If you do have your colonies opened up and have set aside upper suppers to get down to the first or even the second story, COVER the tops of those boxes which have been set aside with cloth or cardboard - anything which will keep them covered temporarily will work. This will prevent predators from gaining access to the interior of your colonies.

Lastly, make sure that any large cracks or knotholes in your wooden ware are filled. Yellow jackets can be incredibly persistent when attempting to get into colonies and if they are thwarted from getting into the entrance by the measures you have taken as described above, they will keep at the colony by looking to get into the colony through a hole or large crack or even by getting underneath the outer cover and through the cutout in your inner cover. Do what you need to do prevent this. Your honeybees will love you for it!

08/06/2026

Here's a photo which is a great example of how different floral sources produce different colored (and flavored) honey.

As the bees are filling cells with nectar gathered from the flow, the predominant source will slowly run its course and another floral source becomes available. As the foragers from the colony switch to the new source and then return to the hive, the house bees will collect the nectar gathered from that new source and then deposit it into any available cells. The result is this mix that you see in the photo.

Over the many years I have been raising bees, I have seen some really patchwork colors when extracting. It is definitely one of those things which makes beekeeping such a fascinating rewarding practice!

07/03/2026

Selling five (5) 10-frame supers - ... four (4) deeps and one (1) medium. All in good shape. Phasing slowly away from 10-frame equipment in favor of 8-frame. Will take $60 for all five.

07/02/2026

Some of my bees on Firew**d

06/14/2026

Here's a photo of a good laying pattern from one of my queens. Note that there are some empty cells among the sealed brood. These could be for a couple of possible reasons.
1.) the Queen just missed the cell when laying ( not too likely but possible
2.) something was wrong with the larvae and the nurse bees sensed it and removed the larvae -
3.) some of these cells have the remains of bee-bread (pollen mixed with honey at the bottom). Until those cells are cleaned out by the housekeeping bees, the queen will not lay in them

05/28/2026

The nectar flow is officially on here in N. Idaho.

What this means for beekeepers is that it is time to get honey supers on, if you have not already done so. Also, swarming season will now kick off in earnest so colonies will require attention and management to deal with that.

I personally use queen excluders on all my colonies and have done so for nearly 50 years now without any adverse impact. There are some who refer to these devices as "honey excluders", but I have found that claim to be without any merit. Down south, we often would drill 3/4" inch holes in our honey supers to make things more efficient for foragers returning to the hive to offload their nectar to house bees before heading back out to gather more nectar.They completely were able to bypass moving up through the excluder by using this approach.

I am the first to admit that it is not easy to drill a nice round hole in an expensive piece of wooden ware but if one uses a hole saw and keeps the round cutout piece in a box, it is a simple matter to fit it back into the hole and secure it with a bit of glue after honey harvest is over.

The reason I use queen excluders is simple - I do not want to find that the queen has gotten into the honey supers and is laying in them. It makes honey harvest extremely complicated and just ends up making a mess of things. Keep her down in the lower two stories and provide plenty of room for her to lay in, and she will be more than content to remain down below.

Additionally, providing plenty of supers above the excluder helps to keep congestion from building up in the colony and thereby works in favor of aiding against swarming. Nothing will induce a colony to swarm faster than confining them in an area where they become too cramped for space. My philosophy in this mattter is very simple - -it is much better to err on the side of providing too much space than leaving the colony too confined. One can always come back after the main swarming season has passed and take off excess supers above an excluder if they are not needed.

In terms of the nectar flow going on at the moment - Black locusts are now in full bloom. Lindens are already putting out small floral buds. Those will be opening soon. Clover is blooming alongside many seasonal perennials such as saliva, always a honeybee favorite. Nepeta, or catmint, which honeybees love, is also blooming.

Pollen is being gathered from numerous sources right now. I personally find it incredibly satisfying to see foragers returning from the field with their pollen baskets stuffed with the stuff! It tells me, even without examining the colony, that they are raising brood and building up their numbers.

Now is a good time to check to see what kind of laying pattern your queens are producing. More on that at another time.

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04/23/2026

The Dandelion flow is on!
Here in N. Idaho, we beekeepers, along with our hard-working honey bee gals, eagerly await the onset of the alder, willow, and maple bloom. These provide both pollen and nectar for our bees to spur them to begin ramping up brood production.

But more exciting than this - at least to me - is the start of the dandelion flow. While most homeowners want their perfectly manicured yards to be free of these members of the sunflower family, beekeepers welcome them for a strong source of both pollen and nectar for our colonies. The last thing we want to do is to be spraying them with any sort of broadleaf w**d killer! Those sunny yellow flowers are a boon to our bees.

For beekeepers who want to help their hives get a good jump start on increase, consider putting on some pollen substitute patties to provide nutrition to the brood especially when we experience a bout of colder, rainy weather, which precludes the bees getting out to forage. These can be obtained from just about any beekeeping supply outlet online or in some cases, locally.

If you are establishing new colonies from packages, and if you do not have any frames of capped honey available, make sure that you are providing sugar water for the bees. This time of the year you want to mix the syrup with a 1:1 ratio. This is by WEIGHT. So one gallon of water should have one pound of sugar mixed into it and then given to the hive.

By doing this you are accomplishing two things:
1.) you are simulating a nectar flow which will encourage the queen to start laying.
This, and the substitute pollen patties will allow your colonies to actively ramp up brood production ahead of the main nectar flow which is only a few weeks off.

2.) You will be providing carbohydrates (energy) for your bees. Adult bees need energy to not only draw wax (wax building is extremely energy intensive requiring about 7 pounds of honey to make just one pound of wax).

When the sun is shining, you will see your bees actively foraging on the dandelions for both pollen and nectar. Watching them wiggle their way through the blooms is always a delight to me personally.

When the sun is shining and the temperatures are at least 60, you can take a bit of time to go through your colonies to check to see whether the queen is laying, how their pollen stores might be and whether or not they have brought in any fresh nectar as you will see it in the cells on the frames that you pull out to check.

Now is also a good time to put on some spring mite treatments. Oxalic is good if there is no sealed brood. If there is, you can use Apivar strips. It is not yet warm enough for Formic as it needs some heat to vaporize the product. Same goes for thymol - you need warmer temperatures.

This year I intend to try a new product, "NORROA" which is already mixed into a type of fondant patty that is set on the top bars above the brood chamber area. It supposedly targets the mites directly and has no negative on the bees as it is based on the genetics of the mites. We'll see how it works.

Remember, if you do use any treatment for mites, make sure that it is safe to use with honey supers on that are intended for human consumption. If your hive is not supered yet, and most are not, you do not need to worry about that. But, please, if you do intend to super ahead of the main flow, make sure that any mite treatment product that you might have in the colony that is not intended to be used with honey for human consumption is removed prior to the installation of the honey supers.

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