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A full 10-frame deep weighs 80 pounds. An 8-frame version cuts that by 20%. Here's why more beekeepers - hobbyists and commercial operators alike - are making the switch.

Inside the contracts that move 2.6 million bee colonies into California every February. Frame counts, inspection protocols, pesticide clauses, and the $200-per-hive details growers and beekeepers actually negotiate.

In 2015, a father-son duo from Australia raised $12.2 million to revolutionize honey harvesting. A decade later, over 120,000 hives have shipped worldwide. Here's the full story of what actually happened.

European beekeepers used oxalic acid for decades before the EPA approved it in 2015. Now it's the foundation of winter mite management in the US. Here's how a simple organic compound changed varroa control.

Explore why package bees cost $145-$225 in spring but aren't available in fall. The economics trace back to California almonds, queen mating windows, and biology that won't negotiate.

A winter colony can survive 2-3 months after losing its queen, but the timeline depends on when it happens and how many winter bees remain. Here's what actually occurs inside the hive.

Twenty thousand bees clustered on a branch three houses down. The neighbor calls. You have maybe hours before they move on. Here's what the actual capture process looks like and why timing matters more than technique.

A 2024 study tracking 64 hives found queen excluders had no effect on honey yield or brood production. So why do beekeepers call them 'honey excluders' and what's driving some operations to abandon them entirely?

Double brood boxes were the standard for a century. Now beekeepers across regions are consolidating to single-box systems - here's what changed and what the production data actually shows.

Heavy propolizers glue frames so thoroughly that breaking them apart kills dozens of bees per inspection. Here's what actually happens when you pry apart stuck equipment and why some beekeepers are changing how they manage it.

A full small hive beetle trap reveals active infestation patterns and triggers specific timeline windows for intervention, from the 2-4 day egg cycle to the 3-6 week pupation period in surrounding soil.

You can set up frames for 60 cents each or nearly $2 per frame. Both contain hexagonal cell patterns. Both work. So what's that extra $1.40 buying you?

Commercial beekeepers lost 62% of their colonies between June 2024 and February 2025, the highest rate ever recorded. The professionals who typically lose the fewest bees are now experiencing catastrophic losses while hobbyists fare better.

Pollination services now generate more revenue than honey for US beekeepers. California's almond boom transformed the economics of beekeeping, with a single crop paying $165 per hive while honey production struggles with $3 wholesale prices.

The $600 million direct loss to beekeepers is just the beginning. Lost pollination for apples, blueberries, and cherries. Farmers scrambling for replacement bees. Operations closing permanently. The ripple effects extend far beyond the initial numbers.

You're looking at two boxes of bees - one costs $150, one costs $225. They both contain bees and a queen. What's the actual difference you're buying?

Sensors that predict swarming three days early. Scales that identify robbing behavior from weight patterns. Temperature monitors that prevented 60% winter losses. Smart hive tech moved from research labs to working apiaries.

India exported 45 million pounds of honey to the US in a single year. India doesn't have enough bees to produce 45 million pounds. The math doesn't work. It never has.

A single yellow-legged hornet reported by a Savannah beekeeper in August 2023 became 50+ nests across Georgia and South Carolina by 2024. The invasive species that devastated European apiaries now threatens US bee populations.

September 1987 changed everything. A parasite the size of a pinhead transformed beekeeping from a part-time endeavor into a chemical management operation where treating for mites became more important than managing for honey.

The workers vanished overnight in 2006, leaving queens and honey behind. What researchers found wasn't a single cause but six different murder weapons, and the colony had been sick for years.

Buckwheat honey tastes like molasses. Orange blossom carries citrus notes. Tupelo never crystallizes. The nectar source matters, but so does soil composition, rainfall timing, temperature during bloom, and whether bees worked the flowers at dawn or noon. Honey isn't just honey.

The American bumblebee dropped 90% in two decades. The rusty-patched lost 96% of its range. Four species that once dominated North America now teeter near extinction, and the reasons reveal why some pollinators crash while others persist.

Tomatoes require something honeybees physically cannot do. The pollination mechanics reveal why native bees outperform managed honeybees on crops we assumed needed those white boxes in the orchard.

Maryland spring arrives a month earlier than it did in 1970. Apple bloom advanced 6.7 days per degree of warming. Wild bees emerge 6.5 days earlier for every 1°C rise. The calendar that governed beekeeping for generations no longer matches what's happening in the hives.