Waxed Canvas: How Beeswax Waterproofs Fabric
How beeswax has waterproofed cotton canvas for centuries, with real ratio comparisons, a step-by-step DIY method, and how to tell when it needs reproofing.
Beekeeping Articles (Page 2)
Read MoreWaxed Canvas: How Beeswax Waterproofs Fabric
Teaching Kids Beekeeping as a Real Homestead Skill
How to teach kids beekeeping as a genuine homestead succession skill tied to real chores and economics, not just nature education.
Building an Emergency Action Plan for Colony Loss
A real action plan for pesticide kills, bear damage, and vandalism -- who to call, what evidence to preserve, and a quick-reference decision table for each cause.
Rudolf Steiner’s 1923 Bee Lectures and the Biodynamic Beekeeping Movement
Rudolf Steiner's nine 1923 lectures on bees became the founding text of biodynamic beekeeping, still shaping Demeter certification and hives like the Sun Hive.
Where to Sell Honey: Etsy vs. Farmers Markets vs. Co-ops
A real side-by-side comparison of Etsy, farmers markets, food co-ops, and wholesale buyers for selling honey, with actual current fees, reach, and control for each.
Bee Import Laws by Country: A Real Biosecurity Comparison
How the US, EU, UK, Australia, and Canada each regulate live bee and used-equipment imports -- a real side-by-side comparison no single-country guide covers.
Darwin’s Bees: How Honeycomb Instinct Became Evidence for Evolution
Charles Darwin ran his own hive experiments to prove bees build hexagonal comb through blind instinct, not design, turning it into key evidence for natural selection.
The 2026 USDA Beltsville Bee Lab Closure and What It Means for Beekeepers
USDA plans to close the Beltsville Bee Research Laboratory as part of a wider research-center shutdown, an active, disputed 2026 policy story, not settled history.
New Varroa Treatments Beekeepers Should Know About in 2026
2025-2026 brought genuinely new Varroa chemistry: an EPA-registered RNAi treatment, the first amino-acid miticide, and USDA research on amitraz resistance.
Randy Oliver and ScientificBeekeeping.com: A Commercial Beekeeper’s Research
Randy Oliver runs a real commercial almond-pollination operation while publishing some of the most cited independent Varroa management research online.
Marla Spivak: The MacArthur Fellow Behind the Minnesota Hygienic Bees
Marla Spivak's decades of hygienic-behavior research produced the Minnesota Hygienic bee line and earned her a 2010 MacArthur Foundation genius grant.
The Honeybee Dance Language Controversy: Wenner vs. von Frisch
Nobel laureate Karl von Frisch said the waggle dance conveys real information. Adrian Wenner spent years arguing bees actually navigate by odor alone.
Iceland’s Beekeeping: A Small, Isolated Apiary Culture Built From Scratch
Iceland has no native honeybees. Every colony there today descends from bees deliberately imported since 1998, in a small apiary culture unusually free of Varroa.
The 18th-Century Race to Explain the Honeycomb’s Perfect Angle
In 1712 Maraldi measured the honeycomb's precise cell angle, then a real 30-year mathematical dispute among Réaumur, König, and Maclaurin followed to explain it.
Bechbretha: Ireland’s 7th-Century Bee Law
Bechbretha is a real 7th-century Old Irish legal tract that set detailed rules for swarm ownership, hive theft, and a neighbor's share of honey.
Thomas Wildman and the Georgian-Era Showman Beekeepers
Thomas Wildman's 1768 beekeeping treatise broke real ground on hive design, while his nephew Daniel turned swarm-clustering into a paid London stage act.
Sue Hubbell: The Librarian Who Became an Ozarks Commercial Beekeeper
Sue Hubbell left a Brown University library career to run 300 hives alone in the Missouri Ozarks, turning the experience into the celebrated memoir A Book of Bees.
Richard Taylor: The Philosophy Professor Who Wrote America’s Best-Loved Beekeeping Books
Richard Taylor was a Brown-trained metaphysics professor who also ran up to 300 hives and wrote The Joys of Beekeeping, one of America's most-loved beekeeping books.
Thomas Seeley and the Discovery of Honeybee Democracy
Cornell biologist Thomas Seeley spent decades proving that honeybee swarms choose a new nest site through a genuine collective, democratic process run entirely by scout bees.
Honey Cocktails 101: Honey Syrup, Bee’s Knees, and Gold Rush
How to make real honey syrup for cocktails, plus the true histories of two classic honey drinks: the Prohibition-era Bee's Knees and the 1999 Gold Rush.
How to License a Meadery: TTB Bonded Winery Permits
Selling mead commercially requires a federal TTB Bonded Winery permit, since mead is legally regulated as wine. Real forms, bond thresholds, costs, and state-licensing steps most guides skip.
Queen Banking: How Commercial Breeders Store Mated Queens
Queen banking holds caged, already-mated queen bees in a dedicated colony for days to weeks, letting commercial breeders decouple mating from shipping schedules.
Extracting Honey During a Power Outage: What to Do
A power outage mid-harvest means switching to crush-and-strain, not panicking about spoiled honey. Real food-safety facts, cleanup tips, and a generator-vs-manual decision table.
Scholarships and Grants for Beekeeping Education
Real, verified funding for beekeeping education: the Mann Lake EAS conference scholarship, EAS research grants, state association youth scholarships, and more.
Planning Fruit Tree and Garden Pollination With Your Own Bees
A homesteader rarely needs commercial-orchard hive density. Here's how many bees a home orchard actually needs, which fruit trees need cross-pollination, and which garden crops genuinely depend on bees.