As any experienced beekeeper will quickly tell you, the word beekeeper is a misnomer. We don't keep bees in cages or on leashes. We have little control of their welfare; we only influence it in the hope of some reward such as honey and pollination. This symbiotic relationship can be elusive and occasionally challenging.
Our passion at Hive & Garden is to help you navigate through the challenges and decisions of beekeeping, such as type of hive, type of honeybee, and approach to colony management. All these decisions present a trade-off in hive management. Our mission is to help you understand these trade-offs, and pick the type of beekeeping that feels right for you.
In the next few weeks, we will be posting a new line of hive top covers, a completely new Vivaldi board, a new bottom board with the best mite tray on the market, and a queen introduction frame that doubles as a queen sequestering frame.
We have found that, here in the Willamette Valley, one of the better plants for honeybees in late spring and early summer is Phacelia tanacetifolia. The bees work it well, it is easy to grow from seed in our soil, and is a good source of nectar and pollen.
