Posts By: Peter Brezny

I get asked this question a lot, and perhaps somewhat surprisingly, the answer isn’t ‘ become a bee keeper’ (there’s a lot of evidence that feral bees are doing just ok, often better than kept honey bees), and our transport of bees/honey/pollen around the world in the age of globalization has done a great job… Read more »

WNC experienced pretty significant honey bee colony losses over the past winter.  The Buncombe County club reports an average of 70% loss.  Our bees were wiped out as well, so this year, I’ve teamed up with friends Joseph and Erik, to raise queens from local, treatment free survivor stock. For a better understanding of why… Read more »

Last Sunday, Carl Chesick from the Center for Honey Bee Research here in Asheville, NC invited a bunch of volunteers who support his research to participate in a demonstration of making increase using five frame nuc colonies.   If you’d like to get in on invites like this while brushing up your hive management skills,… Read more »

In response to another one of those “you treatment free cooks…” posts, I put together some text and a lot of links to real facts (below). It’s hard to see folks claim to be scientists, and spend a considerable amount of time on a ‘pretty article’ that turns out to be little more than an… Read more »

At least here in Western North Carolina, bees are in such high demand in the spring, it’s very difficult to get all you need from local sources.  This year, I’m determined to be ready for the swarm season when it comes around in early spring.  With any luck, I’ll be able to entice some feral… Read more »