Welcome to my site and to my blog on beekeeping. As you browse the site you will find access to all of the goods and services that we have from this fascinating hobby the I started in 2020. I hope you enjoy our products. I wanted to use the blog as a space to just talk about beekeeping (or other topics), give ideas on how I am doing things in my yard, and plans to make equipment or supplies that you might want to use in your bee yard. If there’s only one thing I’ve learned in my short time as a beekeeper; it is that there is certainly more than one way to do something and pretty much none of them are universally right or universally wrong. This can be really frustrating for a new beekeeper because the conflicting information can get really overwhelming, really fast. So if you’re a new beekeeper- take a deep breath and don’t worry so much. There are a lot of ways to manage your bees and you need to feel out what feels right to you. When I talk about something in the blog its not the only way you can do something.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this space to read about my experiences and discuss all things beekeeping. If you would like to see a post about a certain topic, shoot me a message on the contact form and I will get right back with you and hopefully will be able to write about it as well.
One of my biggest market surprises in 2023 was the overwhelming popularity of comb honey products. These products only represented a small fraction of our sales, but they sold out quickly and generated a lot of interest. If you became a fan of our comb honey products in 2023 or before, fear not, I am planning a massive expansion into my production of all of the comb honey products for 2024 to try and meet your needs. I wanted to take a few minutes and describe the products we have and how they are made and that is why I am writing this post.
General
Comb honey is a beautiful product visually and represents the most natural way to enjoy honey. You are able to enjoy honey with the least possible amount of processing outside of sticking your arm into a bee tree and grabbing a comb. The lack of processing involved with comb honey allows you to get all of the benefits from honey’s natural bouquet. All of the great enzymes are intact and any pollen or propolis that incidentally makes it into the cells is still there. By it’s design, comb honey requires new combs for each harvest (this is part of the reason it is so special and the entire reason it takes longer to produce). For this reason, there is absolutely no concern about the potential incidntal build up of chemicals from the environment over time.
Since producing all types of comb honey requires the bees to start from scratch, producing it is a bit of an art (especially some of the specialty products that we will talk about later). The two main ingredients required are a large bustling colony and a strong honey flow. I select my most vigorous colonies to produce our comb honey products and most of the comb honey is produced during the strong prolonged clover nectar flow that our area experiences from late May through early July. This is, in my opinion, one of the best honeys produced in southwest illinois adequately sweet with a noticeable floral nose and complexity. I will try and trick the bees into producing some comb honey during our black locust flow in early May- that will be a real work of art, but if successful be on the lookout for that sweet, light honey in a comb honey product during June or July.
I will have several different products available in season. I will have our most popular cut comb as well as the classic old world basswood sections of honey. I will also have Ross Round sections and the visual masterpiece of chunk honey (which is comb honey inside of a jar of extracted honey).
Cut Comb
Cut comb honey
Cut comb honey is one of my fastest sellouts every year. Cut comb is the most economical way to enjoy comb honey as it is the easiest to produce. Comb honey is simply sections of honey comb that are cut from the frames, drained and placed into clamshell containers. Cut comb honey can be eaten with a spoon, added to tea or oatmeal, cut into chunks for a salad, or used on a charcuterie board. This product is the easiest for the bees to produce so it will be the first available. Look for both 12-16 oz sections and our new 8 oz sections at farmers markets and online around July- but be aware this will likely be sold out by September as it is a very popular product.
Basswood Sections of Comb Honey
Basswood sections of comb honey are a real treat. This product is a 4 inch square frame of basswood that the bees build comb honey. This is a traditional, old world style of honey product. It is not as popular in the United States as it once was; mainly because it is more difficult to produce and therefore demands a higher price than some other comb honey products. It’s not just the beekeeper’s efforts that cause this product to cost a bit more though, the sections are thicker, heavier, and don’t have as noticeable of a center due to foundation. We dedicate a couple of hives towards making this product to compete in honey shows and the rest is available for sale – usually beginning in July. As it takes a bit for bees to get up to speed and size to produce this honey, ours typically reflects a more summer honey profile that is light amber in color with heavy clover influence in the flavor.
Ross Round Sections
This year will be my first attempt at Ross Round sections. They are similar to basswood sections in that the beekeeper manipulates the bees to build small sections of honey comb in a container. But unlike the wooden squares of basswood sections, ross rounds are built in smaller, round plastic sections. These sections will weigh approximately 8 ounces and like their basswood cousins- run a little more expensive than cut comb products.
Chunk Honey
A beautiful jar of chunk honey
Chunk honey is a really visually beautiful product. It is a combination of comb honey and extracted honey. We began making this product to compete in honey shows and found that it is a niche product that quite a few of our customers really enjoy. I produce two sizes, one pound and two and one half pound – both in glass jars. Look for this beautiful treat beginning in July. This product typically reflects a summer honey profile, however if I am successful at producing comb honey early enough to snag some light spring honey, I think it will fair very well in the honey shows and be a delectable treat to lucky customers who grab when available.
Comb honey is a product that I really enjoy producing. It is the purest and most natural form of honey that you can find. I sell out of it very quickly each year; so in addition to being pure and natural, when you eat ours you can count on it being fresh- which makes a huge difference in the flavor! Whether you’re curious to try comb honey for the first time or looking to restock; come and see me at a market or order online this summer when we are able to harvest this delicious treat again.
The new year is a time to reflect on the year past and look forward to the year to come. Last year I decided to make goals for my beekeeping and tack that sheet up in my work shop to remind what I wanted to accomplish and to help stay on track. I was pleased to accomplish the vast majority of those goals especially the goals for amount of honey produced and number of hives that my apiary expanded.
A few weeks ago I sat down and wrote out a new set of goals for 2024. I have again set goals to aggressively expand in the number of hives managed and the amount of honey produced. One thing that I noted during the 2023 season was the overwhelming popularity of comb honey products. I am planning to produce much, much more comb honey this year. If you aren’t familiar with comb honey products, look for my upcoming blog post regarding these special treats.
I also plan to double the amount of nucleus colonies sold. If you are interested in starting as a beekeeper, this is great way to start. Also a quick way to expand your apiary or replace your colonies that did not survive the winter.
Natalie is also looking to expand her “Natalie’s Naturals” line of cosmetic products. Look for these items on sale on the website, at our farmer’s market booth, or on etsy.
I am looking forward to a great year of growth and learning at Mayhew Honey and I wish you and your family a happy and prosperous 2024.
I haven’t been doing as well updating my experiences using the AZ hive as I had hoped. But I do want to provide an update on how my first year using the hive went.
My AŽ hive
The Good
During the first year, I was able to experiment with how the hive worked and some things that are maybe unique or at least more feasible to do in an AZ hive than in a Langstroth. I started the hive by adding a captured swarm to the bottom compartment and they did exactly what you would hope and began quickly drawing out combs. Having a few “pre started” combs from the langstroth hives was a big boost as well. A bit later in the spring I received a call about a smaller swarm and decided to really do an experiment and hive that swarm in the top compartment of the hive- creating a two queen hive. I do believe this is probably easier to do in an AZ hive as there are not as many and as drastic of manipulations to the hive as trying to maintain separation for two queens in a langstroth hive. The two queen system was quite easy in the AZ. I simply put a queen excluder both above and below the 2nd chamber. This allowed the two brood nests to develop in the top and bottom chambers and a shared workforce to draw combs and store honey in the middle chamber. The results were great. The bees drew out all 33 deep combs and I even harvested about 60 pounds of honey from the hive. At the end of the clover nectar flow, I removed the queen from the top chamber and made a split into a AZ nuc that I designed.
After the success using a two queen system during the nectar flow, I was interested to explore the possibility of overwintering two colonies in one AZ hive. I was leery of failing and losing two good colonies of bees so I compromised by trying to see how the colony would do overwintering in a single chamber. At the end colof the fall nectar flow last year, I began to reduce the colony’s size down to the single chamber. As the brood nest size reduced in fall, I replaced empty combs in the bottom chamber with honey filled frames from the middle chamber. I ended up giving the bees six frames of honey (3 on each end). I also kept 3 or 4 additional honey frames in reserve and have wove those in during the early spring this year. Our winter has been extremely mild this year, I’m convinved that is actually harder for the bees as they are exerting more energy looking for forage that isn’t there. At any rate, the 6 frames of honey on it’s own would be cutting it really close- I’m glad I kept the extra reserve frames for insurance. As spring progresses, I will still need to keep a close eye on their stores and feed syrup if necessary. Things are looking promising on the one chamber overwintering- if this ends up working, I could logically progress to overwintering two colonies in two separate chambers during next winter’s experiment. As noted, this will probably require a bit of food management, but I think there could be several advantages to overwintering colonies together like this. First- the bees will “share” the heating bill. It’s no surprise the nuc producers utilize double screen boards to share heat between established and growing colonies; so why not leverage that across the entire winter. Another advantage (and this could be a big one with proper hive management) is that allowing both colonies to build up in spring and then split the queens out prior to swarming would result in a massive hive that was poised to capitalize on the spring nectar flows. In my area the black locust flow is a big one (and delicious honey as well) that can be difficult to capitalize on. Many beekepers can miss out on this bounty because their hive has recently swarmed and people can also miss out on the full potential with out supers of drawn comb.
I also found it very appealing to work in a system that didn’t involve lifting heavy boxes to inspect the hive. The chambered system let me check on honey stores without disturbing the brood nest and vice-versa. I did find the frame stand to be a useful tool to hold frames while inspecting as well as to transport frames to the extractor. The hive stand that I started my hive on last year was designed for langstroth hives and turned out to be a little lower than ideal for looking into the bottom chamber of the AZ hive. This year I have built a beehouse type stand specific for my AZ hives and specifically designed it so that the bottom chamber is right shoulder level when I sitting on a stool or bucket.
New AŽ hive stand/bee house. Provides a taller platform to inspect and more insulation.
Another thing that I liked about the AZ hive is the temperament of the bees. I do believe that they are much easier to work from a hive that opens from the back. It’s just a lot less disturbance to the bees and they react accordingly. Only time will tell if this has just been a calmer hive or if the hive setup makes the difference. I suspect it is probably a combination, but I am optimistic that overall using these back opening hives will prove to be easier on the bees and the beekeeper as well.
The Bad
There are a couple of things that were a little tougher with AZ hives. Small hive beetles (which don’t yet exist in Slovenia) and propolis.
The apiary where I started my AZ hive does seem to have more small hive beetles than my other bee yards and this past summer seemed to be particularly rough with beetles. However, I definetly noticed that the nooks and crannies available in the AZ hive seemed quite attractive to the hive beetles. I often found dozen of them hanging out on the back side of the inner doors or scurrying under the screened floor when I opened the door and removed the foam plug. Much like the top of the inner cover of a langstroth hive, these spaces seemed to provide the beetles a nice refuge from the bees. All of the methods for trapping small hive beetles worked just as they do in a langstroth hive- I just think that theres some added potential for a small hive beetle problem in this hive since there is so much space for the beetles to escape into. Although all of the conventional beetle traps work, I will note that that the swiffer sheets were easiest additions to use for me. I simply set these on top of the frames and changed out at each inspection. The beetle jail traps worked as well, but the bees really liked to propolize these shut- often before they could catch any beetles. If you are inclined to use these style of beetle control- I would highly suggest the variety with “hooks” to hold onto the frame. In the AZ hive you aren’t adding and taking away from the top of the frames (as in a langstroth hive)- you are working from the back. The hooks provide a much more stable method of working with the traps in the AZ hive configuration.
I doubt propolis is any more prevalent in the AZ hive than any other hive, but it does have a somewhat greater effect than in a langstroth hive where you can vigorously scrape it away from the frames and hive bodies. The inner doors are the most precarious. The bees propolize the spaces around the doors and removal requires a delicate patience. It’s not impossible at all, but the technique is different and certainly involves a bit of a learning curve. I’ve read of some slovenian beekeepers omitting the inner doors altogether and simply pushing the foam plug directly against the frames. I can see how this could work- but I doubt that I will try it, as I like the idea of keeping frames lined up using frame spacers on both ends of the frames that are provided with inner doors. I will say, for those considering an AZ hive in the United States; after only a year of use in the AZ hive- please DO NOT buy into any AZ system that claims to use conventional langstroth frames in an AZ system. It’s ok (what I use) to use LANGSTROTH SIZED AZ frames- but the coved top and bottom bars are absolutely critical to the AZ hive. A flat langstroth frame would be too much surface area and the bees would glue it all into a distratrous mess. Even though I have never directly tried these hives using langstroth frames in an AZ hive; between my brief experience with the hive and many, many comments in online groups I can concur that beekeepers looking to try an AZ hive will want to avoid these.
I once read that there is no perfect beehive waiting to be developed and that makes a lot of sense. Although there are many upsides to the AZ hive, there are some drawbacks. The system may not be for everyone, but I’ve enjoyed my first year enough to build a small bee house type stand and commit to expand my AZ hive footprint from one hive to three in the coming year.
Every spring honeybee colonies have an intense desire to propogate their species by dividing their colony in half and attempting to form two separate colonies. This is called swarming. During the swarming process approximately half of the bees leave with the queen in an attempt to establish a new colony. This group of bees is referred to as a swarm. When the swarm leaves the colony they find a nearby site (usually in a tree or elevated surface) that will serve as their bivouac until they find a permanent site for their new home. When looking for a permanent home (typically and in nature- a tree cavity) bees look for a hollow spot that will be safe from predators, weather tight, and big enough to accomodate their nest.
Catching a swarm of bees is a great way to expand your apiary. This article will focus on catching swarms using a trap. To catch a swarm in a trap, you are looking to simulate an ideal permanent home for bees and entice them to move in.
So what is an ideal site for a bee home? I won’t go into great detail on the research behind all of this, but if you are interested in the background, I strongly encourage you to read “The Lives of Bees- The Untold Story of the Honey Bee in the Wild” by Dr. Thomas Seeley. This book goes into great detail how honey bees live in a wild state, which is exactly what you are trying to emulate when you design and place a swarm trap. When looking at a swarm trap, look for one that is about 40-50 litres in volume (big enough to accomodate the bee’s nest), and has a small entrance (protect from predators, weather tight). There are many ways to accomplish this including modifying a deep langstroth box. I’ve made two similar designs and really like the way these work. The taller, thinner shape seems easier to handle on a ladder. The first design is found on the horizontalhive.com website, this site has a lot of great information about swarm traps in general. The other design that I like, is actually very similar- but with simpler construction techniques. Here is a link to youtube video detailing how to make the design. Links to both of these designs/plans are also located at the end of this article.
Once you’ve gotten your swarm trap there are just a few more details and you will be ready to try your hand at catching some bees. In each of the recommended designs, deep langstroth frames are used. If you happen to have some frames of drawn comb from a dead out, use them! I honestly, think this might be one of the single most important contributor to success in catching a swarm of bees. Remember, bees are looking for a new home- imagine how enticing it would be to find a new place that was already furnished! If you don’t have drawn comb, that’s ok- bees can still be enticed to move in a box with bare foundation with no problem.
A frame or two of drawn comb is a great attractant in a swarm trap!
If you do any reading on catching swarms, you will certainly run in to swarm lure products. These products mimic the scent of the queen bee’s pheremones. I do think these are a big attractant to catching a swarm and well worth using. I have had great luck using a product called swarm commander. It is pretty pricey, but one swarm captured would pay for the product several times over. I have also caught swarms using standard lemongrass essential oil. Another trick that I have found very effective is placing the lure in a slow release tube as recommneded and available for purchase on horizontalhive.com. As you can see in the photo, I have taped the slow release tube filled with swarm commander just above the entrance to the trap. I also recommend putting a few drops or a spritz of lure on the top bars. If everything you have is new, it wouldn’t hurt to rub some propolis and/or beeswax on the equipment to make everything smell more like bees.
Swarm Lure placed in a slow release tube by the entrance
The next aspect to consider is where to place your hive. The simplest answer is – in a tree. I think, ideally you would want to find a tree where you can put the trap about 12-15 feet up in the air. If you are using the horizontal hive plan you will need to find a tree with a branch suitable for setting the trap on. Some other aspects I like to look for is a large or conspicous tree on the edge of an open area (along a field, yard, or pasture). I think bees, like other animals like to travel along lines, if you can find a tree near an area where multiple edges meet, I belive that is an area which would be more likely to be found by scout bees looking for a new home. Also, if possible try to face the entrance to your trap either south or east. These have been found to be statistically preferable as homes to bees. Word of wisdom though- better to have a great tree where your entrance faces north than a mediocre tree with a south facing entrance. My most successful trap location faces almost directly north, but it checks all of the other boxes in terms of trap location. I only mention the direction of the entrance because if you have the option to face any direction on a tree pick either south or east.
Great place to set a trap. Tree on the edge of an open area
The prime swarming season for bees in my area is May and June. Your area may be slightly different, so do some reading on beekeeping sites or ask a local beekeeper. But generally speaking- spring is when you will have the most success.
Once you have gotten your trap set, it is simply a waiting game. One of my favorite aspects of using traps to catch the swarm is that it really takes the urgency out of chasing swarms. If you are trying to catch swarms from their bivouac site- time is of the essence! The bees could leave the bivouac to move in to their new home at any time. With a trap, you are simulating the permanent home so this is not a factor. With a 40-50 litre swarm trap, you can really get by with only checking the trap every couple of weeks. Checking traps is really easy- go during the day and observe for bee activity. No need to climb the ladder, just look for bee activity. If there are bees present, watch carefully to how they are acting. If bees have moved in you should see constant activity and foragers returning with pollen. If you don’t see pollen, I would return a few days later and observe again. Even after I’m certain that bees have moved in, I often wait several days to let the bees settle in before removing the trap. One word of caution though, if you leave the bees too long, there is an increased possibility of wild comb being built in the space below the frames.
Behavior of bees that have set up residence in a swarm trap
When you remove your trap, I recommend either very early morning or right at dark so you can have confidence that all of the bees are back home in the trap. Depending on what your entrance is, you will then need to shut the entrance. For the slit style of entrance, I’ve found that ripping off an appropriate sized strip of duct tape on the ground and climbing the ladder and slapping the strip quickly over the entrance to be a great way to do this! At that point you just need to safely bring your trap down to the ground. One big thing I will recommend on swarm trapping is that you will need to move the bees atleast 3 miles from the location you set your trap to hive them. You must consider that the bees have oriented to that spot as their home and if you set up too close, they will go right back to the location where your trap was. Installing bees from the trap is really straightforward (another great aspect of using a trap). You simply put the frames from the trap into the permanent hive box , shake whatever bees you can from the trap into the hive, and place the trap in front of the hive to allow the stragglers to enter the hive. If you see bees fanning (photo below) at the entrance after you make the transfer you can be confident that the queen is in your hive and all of the stragglers will march right in!
If you decide to give swarm trapping a try this spring- good luck!
Work continues on my AZ hive project. In an AZ hive the frame sit on steel rods as opposed to hanging by ears in the langstroth frame. The steel rods fit into grooves that I routed into the sides of the hive body. They are 3/8″ rods which provides the appropriate bee space between the stories in the hive. The rods were pretty easy to fit into the hive, I simply got 3/8″ steel stock from home depot and cut them to length and then slid them righ into the grooves in the hive. I am really interested to see how this system will work out!
Cutting the steel rodsRods installed in the hive body
The next step is to build the inner doors. In the AZ there are a set of inner doors, one at each section of the hive. These can be a very simple door- which is how I have made the doors for the middle and top sections. The doors for these sections are simply a frame of wood with screen and frame spacers attached to the inner facing side. I bought an inexpensive pocket hole jig from Amazon and this was very helpful in assembling these inner doors. The spacers help to keep the frames aligned while they are resting on the steel support bars. There are two spacers (one upper and one lower) on the front face of the hive body (see photo above) as well as on the inner door for each section in the hive.
Making pocket holes to assemble the frames of the inner doorsPicture of the top and middle screen installed
I am looking to add a feeder in the inner door of the bottom section so the design will be more complex. Although if i can come up with something good it will be really convenient. This would allow you to change the feed for bees without opening the hive at all. The disturbance of feeding would be minimal to the hive. I’m hoping to come up with a good design that will allow me to feed syrup in jars or water bottles through a modified inner door. Working on this design and build as well as a screened varroa board to go under the bottom section of steel rods are the next steps in my project
I am really enjoying this project so far and I’m quite excited to see how this hive design works in action.
Despite being intrigued by the AZ hive for some time, it took me a long time to understand the ins and outs of a beehive enough to realistically attempt to deviate from the langstroth hive that i started with and that nearly everyone else around me also uses. I think it is really important to get a handle on how things work, before going out and changing a lot.
The AZ hive that is used in Slovenia uses frames that are slightly larger than the Langstroth deep frames. This may seem minor, but there are a lot of caveats that make it a much bigger consideration on deeper evaluation. It is easy to take for granted how convenient it is to have interchangable parts readily available from every beekeeping supply company you can find. This is certainly the biggest drawback to using an AZ hive. I was determined to work around this roadblock to a certain degree. I knew this would mean building my own equipment or paying dearly for it to have already assembled. SInce, I’ve really grown to enjoy woodworking this “inconvenience” actually was an exciting prospect. The one roadblock I was not willing to bear was having to get different extracting equipment and go way out of my way to interchange frames with my langstroth equipment – which still comprises the vast majority of my hives. Fortunately I found a great Facebook group called AZ hive creators. A place to design and build AZ hives. I was able to find plans for a AZ style hive that was configured to use langstroth sized frames.
This idea was a huge boost to my project because it meant I would be able to use the same extracting equipment and with slight temporary modifications to the AZ style frames I would be able to start my AZ hives in my existing langstroth equipment (making splits and nucs with that equipment). Another deviation that these plans took from the traditional slovenian hive was a third layer of frames. I found this to be pretty appealing for the conditions in Southwestern Illinois where May, June, and July nectar flows can be heavy and explosive. The extra room would certainly be something to be apprecriated in those conditions. Time will tell, but I could also see this being useful in overwintering two queens in one hive or using a two queen systems to capitalize on brief, yet desireable nectar flows. At any rate, I settled on the plans provided in this facebook group and I think they will foot the bill. As I’m going through the project, one modification I would probably make is recalculating the pieces that use 1 inch width (mainly surrounding the front “dead air space”) It would just be a lot simpler to have recalculated those to fit readily available milled lumber as opposed to making special cuts.
And so begins my project! After weeks of studying the plans I dove in. This first post is going to show the construction of the main hive body. I settled on making this with 3/4 inch plywood. I went to my local home depot and had them cut the sheet into pieces that reflected each of the faces of the hive- with the exception of the back, which will be a like a cabinet door made out of 1 x lumber. Many of the measurements from the plans were down to the 1/8 of an inch. The Home Depot employee was a little reluctant to cut with that accuracy, so I had him cut each side a little longer than the plan and then trimmed to precision with my table saw.
Trimming the hive body pieces with table saw
After trimming the pieces up, I began laying everything out and cutting dadoes to piece everything together and grooves for the steel rods that the frames sit as well as the bars that hold the inner screens. Another variation made away from the Facebook plans was to buy stamped frame spacers instead of cutting those intricate little shapes out twelve times. I found some stamped metal spacers at very reasonable price from a website called, of all things AZframespacers.com. I also cut some aluminum angle stock to support the queen excluder and slatted board. These are necessary in this design because, without them, the space between tiers of frames is too much and the bees would likely build burr comb in those larger spaces.
Laying out the dadoes and grooves
After all of that assembly was pretty straightforward, although the size of the pieces made it pretty cumbersome. I glued each of the joints with titebond 3 and then fastened them all together with 1 1/4 inch construction screws. As an added layer of weather protection I rubbed the entire exterior surface down with boiled linseed oil. I think this is an added layer of weather protection that you can utilize on top of whatever paint or stain you would choose to finish your hive with. All in all, I’m pretty pleased with how this project is progressing. The next steps are going to be building the inner screens and the back door. Stay tuned for more updates.
I have been fascinated by the Slovenian AZ hive nearly as long as I have kept bees. I was intrigued by this design which touted less disturbance to the bees and therefore generally a gentler beekeeping experience. I also liked the idea of a hive that involved less lifting than the US standard langstroth hive. And, naturally, my slovenian heritage lended to more intrigue than some other hive designs (top bar, layens) that accomplish many of the same things.
When I began beekeeping I got all langstroth equipment, and this would be my recommendation for anyone new beekeeper, at least in the United States. It is just a lot easier to learn on the equipment format that is so readily available and that all of your peers are using. After I gained a few years of experience I felt like I had learned the nuances of beekeeping at a more macro level and was ready to try a new experiment. I’m creating a series of posts over the coming year that will chronicle this experiment.
I’ll go through the design and build of my first hive in the winter of 2022, introduction of bees in the spring, and build up of the colony throughout the beekeeping year.
