Robo’s World

January’s Wildlife Pro Network Beekeeping podcast will be a discussion on Sustainable Beekeeping, Queen Rearing & Overwintering with our special guests David & Sheri Burns from Long Lane Honey Bee Farms.

David and Sheri began keeping bees in 1994 in Ohio and the hobby went wild in 2004, 10 years later. For the last 5 years, they have ventured into every aspect of beekeeping. First, it was honey, then beekeeping equipment, then packages and queens, then classes and the list keeps growing. They have 6 children and 4 are involved in their bee business.

They maintain around 100 colonies a year and produce and sell hundreds of queens each year. They also sell 500 packages a year along with nucs. David is currently serving as president of our 70 member bee club, Central Eastern Illinois Beekeepers Assoc., and Central Director of the Illinois State Beekeeper’s Assoc. Presently they are the only large scale queen producer in Illinois. David is also serving as a lead member in the Illinois Queen Initiative, an effort underwritten by a SARE grant to produce a better queen for beekeepers.

- Listen now

Recordings of other beekeeping podcasts can be found here.

March’s Wildlife Pro Network Beekeeping podcast will be a discussion on Bee Acupunture with our special guest Dr. Amber Rose, author of BEE IN BALANCE, A Guide to Healing the Whole Person with Honeybees, Oriental Medicine, & Common Sense.

Amber Rose has been a healer all her life. After graduating form the Universities of Chicago and Iowa with special honors, she went on to study at the Traditional Acupuncture Institute in Columbia, Maryland. Amber is a licensed acupuncturist in three states and the District of Columbia. Amber also became an ordained interfaith minister through the New Seminary in New York City and finally got her Ph.D. in Theology at Columbia State University in Louisiana.

After stumbling on the amazing healing power of honeybees, Amber opened her home in Bethesda, Maryland and created a free clinic to sting people with bees. Inspired by the remarkable recovery of her patients, Amber wrote the award winning book, BEE IN BALANCE. Considered by many to be “The Bible” on Bee-Acupuncture, this book is bound to be a classic.
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I just finished building 20 double 5 frame nucs that can be disassembled for storage and/or transporting. I used polystyrene deeps as they can be knocked down and reassembled in about 1 minute. I built a simple bottom board out of 1/2″ plywood with 3 inch entrances on opposite sides.
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December’s Wildlife Pro Network Beekeeping podcast will be a discussion on Making Products from the Hive with our special guest Monica Warner.

Monica Warner is the co-owner of The Carolina Bee Company. She and her husband, Todd have been keeping bees since May of 2004. They are a small beekeeping operation located in Franklin County, North Carolina (about 20 miles north of Raleigh).

This little enterprise was started with just two hives of honey bees. Over these handful of years, the Warner’s slowly expanded the number of hives as well as their experience.
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Special Thanks to Jim Hensel for sharing this idea, photos, and directions.

Background: I am making my own hive boxes. I have researched handles and the choices are as follows:

1. Cleat
2. Dado slot
3. Canoe shaped routed pocket

But I wanted something more. I noticed that many “store bought” boxes have a routed pocket, but the bottom side is sloped.

I live where it rains a lot and this sloped bottom handle seemed to avoid water pooling at the bottom of the slot… I WANTED THIS STYLE HANDLE.

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