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Beekeeping Blog

AŽ Hives and Bee Houses: Beekeeping the Slovenian Way

September 10, 2026 | HiveBloom

Our bees live in a wall, and our backs have never been happier. That’s the short version of why we keep AŽ hives. The long version involves a Slovenian schoolteacher-turned-beekeeper, a small building we now spend an unreasonable amount of time in, and the slow realization that most of what makes beekeeping physically hard is optional. Here’s a quick tour of our setup before we get into the details. Your browser does not support embedded video.

Robbing Bees: How to Spot It, Stop It, and Prevent It During a Dearth

August 24, 2026 | HiveBloom

The first time we saw a full robbing frenzy, we thought the hive was being attacked by wasps. It wasn’t. It was our strongest colony tearing into our weakest one, and by the time we figured that out, the weak hive had lost most of its stores. Robbing is bees from one colony breaking into another to steal honey. It ramps up fast, it’s hard to stop once it starts, and it can kill a colony in an afternoon.

Varroa Mite Treatment: How to Pick the Right Option and When to Use It

August 10, 2026 | HiveBloom

Here’s the short answer: treat when your mite counts tell you to, not because the calendar says it’s treatment season. The threshold most beekeepers use is 2-3%, which works out to 6-9 mites in a 300-bee alcohol wash. Below that, keep monitoring. At or above it, pick a treatment that fits your conditions and get it on the hive. If you’re not counting yet, start there. We wrote a full walkthrough on how to track your mite counts, and everything in this post depends on having a number to act on.

Preparing Your Hives for Winter: A Beekeeper's Checklist

August 7, 2026 | HiveBloom

Winter doesn’t kill most colonies. Poor preparation for winter does. The work you do between August and the first hard frost determines whether your bees make it to spring. Here’s what matters, in the order you should do it. Start Earlier Than You Think Winter prep begins in August, not October. By the time cold weather arrives, most of the critical decisions are already behind you. The reason: winter bees are different from summer bees.

HiveBloom Is Now in Your Browser

July 9, 2026 | HiveBloom

The HiveBloom web app is live today at app.hivebloom.com. It’s the full HiveBloom experience running in your browser: your apiaries, hives, inspections, queens, harvests, and analytics, all on whatever screen you point at it. Nothing to install. Nothing to configure. Open the page, sign in, and your bees are there. Why a Web App Your phone is the right tool in the beeyard. Gloves on, smoker going, one hand holding a frame, you want something that fits in your pocket and takes dictation.

What to Do With Your Beeswax: Candles, Lip Balm, and More

June 26, 2026 | HiveBloom

Most beekeepers are sitting on more wax than they realize. Cappings from honey extraction, old dark comb you’ve rotated out, burr comb scraped off frames during inspections. It adds up fast, and it’s too good to throw away. Here’s how to turn that wax into something useful, starting with the basics of getting it clean. Rendering and Cleaning Your Wax Raw wax from cappings and old comb is full of debris: propolis, cocoon fragments, pollen, and bits of dead bee.

How to Package and Label Honey for Selling or Gifting

June 23, 2026 | HiveBloom

You’ve pulled frames, extracted, filtered, and settled your honey. Now comes the part that determines whether it ends up on a shelf or in a gift bag: packaging. Getting it right matters whether you’re selling at a farmers market, stocking a local shop, or giving jars to neighbors. Photo: Holly, CC BY 2.0 Choosing Your Container Glass is the standard for a reason. It doesn’t absorb odors, doesn’t leach anything into the honey, and looks good on a shelf.

OTS Queen Rearing: Raise Your Own Queens Without Grafting

June 13, 2026 | HiveBloom

Raising your own queens used to mean learning to graft: picking up a larva the size of a comma on a tiny tool and transferring it without damage. It’s a skill, and plenty of beekeepers never bother. OTS (On The Spot) queen rearing skips grafting entirely. You notch the comb next to existing young larvae and the bees draw out queen cells right there. No special equipment, no grafting tools, no queen rearing setup.

Monks, Abbeys, and Bees: A History of Monastic Beekeeping

June 10, 2026 | HiveBloom

If you want to understand why bees were so important in medieval Europe, start with candles. Churches and monasteries burned enormous quantities of beeswax candles for liturgy, and tallow (rendered animal fat) was considered unworthy of sacred use. Beeswax burned cleaner, smelled better, and carried a symbolic weight: bees were seen as industrious, chaste, and divinely ordered. The practical need for wax made beekeeping a religious obligation as much as an agricultural one.

When and How to Harvest Honey: A Guide for Backyard Beekeepers

June 2, 2026 | HiveBloom

There is nothing quite like pulling your own honey. It’s the payoff for months of inspections, feeding, mite treatments, and hoping the weather cooperates. But timing matters. Harvest too early and the honey isn’t cured. Take too much and the colony can’t make it through winter. Here’s how to get it right. When Is Honey Ready? Honey is ready to harvest when the bees say it is. They tell you by capping the cells with a thin layer of wax.

Swarm Prevention: How to Keep Your Bees (and What to Do When They Leave)

May 29, 2026 | HiveBloom

Swarming is not a failure. It is how healthy colonies reproduce. But losing half your bees in the middle of a nectar flow is still something most beekeepers would rather avoid. The good news: swarms don’t happen without warning. If you know what to look for, you can usually stay ahead of it. Why Bees Swarm A colony swarms when it runs out of room, or when it decides conditions are right to split itself in two.

Queens Are Here, and Inspections Got a Big Upgrade

May 8, 2026 | HiveBloom

Queens are here. Inspections got smarter. Here’s everything new in HiveBloom. Move Queens Between Hives Your queen finally lives where she should: at the apiary, not chained to a single hive. Move her to a strong nuc when you split. Transfer her into another colony. Bring her home from the mating yard. Her whole story follows her, every placement, every inspection where you spotted her, every milestone of her raising journey.

How to Track Varroa Mite Counts (and Why It Matters)

May 1, 2026 | HiveBloom

If you keep bees, you have varroa mites. The question isn’t whether they’re there. It’s how many, and whether the number is climbing toward a level that will kill your colony. Regular mite counts are the single most important thing you can do to keep your hives alive. Here’s how to do it and what the numbers mean. Why Counting Matters Varroa destructor feeds on bee fat bodies and transmits a cocktail of viruses, including deformed wing virus (DWV) and acute bee paralysis virus.

Spring Inspection Checklist: What to Look for in Your First Hive Check

April 10, 2026 | HiveBloom

The bees made it through winter. Now what? Your first spring inspection sets the tone for the rest of the season. Go in too early and you chill the brood. Wait too long and you miss problems that compound fast. Here’s what to look for and when to do it. When to Inspect Wait for a day that’s at least 55-60F (13-15C) with low wind and some sunshine. The bees should be flying.

HiveBloom Is Now Free

March 31, 2026 | HiveBloom

We made HiveBloom free. Not a free trial. Not a limited preview. Free forever for up to 2 hives with unlimited inspections. No credit card required. No expiration date. Just download the app and start tracking your bees. What You Get for Free With a free HiveBloom account, you can manage up to 2 hives with full access to inspection logging. Record what you see in the hive, track conditions over time, and build a history you can actually learn from.