Be aware that both of these publications were for the North, and would need to be adjusted considerably for the West and southerly areas, but the main principles still apply. Other than varroa, however, basic beekeeping practices were well figured out long ago, and I highly recommend two classic USDA publications for best management practices. In addition, the bee population now faces the additional novel stressors of persistent European foulbrood, loss of forage in many areas, the effects of climate change (shorter winters), increasing CO2 (which decreases the nutritional value of pollen), and perhaps pesticide exposure (this fear is greatly exaggerated as far as most areas are concerned, but may occur in areas with intensive commercial agriculture). Although honey bees are essentially wild animals living in a box provided by their “keeper,” bees are in the midst of an evolutionary struggle due to the introduction of varroa (which completely changed colony stress and virus dynamics). You are beginning beekeeping at a time in which honey bees are struggling to stay alive–beekeeping is more difficult than it was prior to the parasitic varroa mite (which invaded around 1990). I’ve written a step-by-step plan for colony management further down on this page.įirst, educate yourself! A honey bee colony is a living animal that deserves to be cared for properly. If you live somewhere else, the timing of the honey flow and length of winter may differ. If you do this, most other problems go away.īelow is a brief visual of hive management responsibilities in the Northern California Foothills. This page provides some quick step-by-step notes for your first year of beekeeping, written specifically for those starting with a nucleus hive or package bees purchased from me, but is generally applicable.īottom line: Once you get a colony started, other than adding space, the two most important things to pay attention to are varroa management and colony nutrition. I’ve attempted to distill 50 year’s of beekeeping experience into a short set of instructions for starting out with bees in the Sierra Foothills. For mite treatment options, search “Varroa Mite Management” Beekeeping in a Nutshell I continually update this page, so please refer to the current version. I truly hate walking into repair places and immediately see the dollar signs flashing in a sales person's eyes.Updated. I just want to be confident I'm going to a place that will just sell me my tires at a reasonable price. I am a woman that doesn't know a lot about cars, so it makes me a pretty big target for shady places to try to upsell me on things I likely do not need. I wanted to reach out here to see where real live people recommend I go to get my tires replaced (2013 Toyota Prius if that makes a difference). I have started looking at reviews online, but as one would expect you either find 5 star reviews that seem like they may have been paid for mixed with 1 star reviews from people that may or may not have reasonable expectations for service (insert Karen meme here). The tread on the other 3 tires is getting low, so I may as well replace all of them. I found a nail in my tire this morning and consequently need to replace it.
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