Sweet Stingers Honey & Apiary

09/17/2025

09/17/2025

Lessons from the Beehive
🐝 The Guard Bees 🐝

As winter approaches and dearths become stronger it can be common to hear about colonies becoming a bit more defensive. Say hello to the Guard Bees the honey bees "security team" Guard bees are the hive’s bouncers, protecting the entrance and keeping the colony safe. Here’s how these vigilant defenders work:

🕒 Age & Role
Age Range: Worker bees become guards at about 2–3 weeks old, after spending their early days nursing brood, cleaning cells, and foraging.

Job Description: They patrol the hive entrance, inspecting every bee that tries to enter. Using their keen sense of smell, they check for the hive’s unique scent and will challenge intruders—including robber bees, wasps, or any animal that comes too close.

🔑 How Colony Size Affects Guards & Defensiveness

Increased Guard Population: Larger colonies naturally field more guards. Even if only a small percentage of bees become guards, a big hive means more defenders at the door.

Enhanced Threat Detection: More guards scanning the entrance means quicker detection of predators or robber bees.

Greater Overall Response: A larger workforce can launch a stronger defensive action, with more bees ready to sting if needed.

🌍 Other Factors That Influence Defensiveness

Genetics: Some queen lines are naturally more defensive than others.

Environmental Stressors: Food shortages, pests like varroa mites, or overcrowding can raise the colony’s irritability.

External Stimuli: Strong odors (like perfume or sweat), sudden movements, loud noises, or vibrations can spark an alarm.

Seasonal Changes: Bees are often more protective in late summer and fall as they guard precious honey stores for winter.

💡 Takeaway: Guard bees may be small, but their organized teamwork keeps the colony secure. Next time you peek into a hive and spot a few bees standing firm at the entrance or looking up at you between the frames, give a nod to the ultimate tiny sentinels of the bee world! 🐝💛

09/17/2025

Anyone relate 🤣

09/17/2025

What is your favorite style of bee hive besides the traditional Langstroth Hive? Let us know

For me, right now, it is Layens. Although I believe either our AZ or Primal will take the spot once we really get them going next year. Due to my back, AZ has very quickly grown on me

There are more than a dozen styles of hives - Langstroth, Warre, Top Bar, Layens, AZ, Primal, Hex, Golden, Ivry, National, Lazutin, Skep, Log, and more Im not even sure of them all. Then there are variations to the Langstroth like Flow, Apimaye, Poly, Keepers Hive, and more. There are a lot. One thing for me is that I am on a mission to keep bees in as many different hive styles as I can. I started adding various hive styles a few years ago to mix things up. Then we started to show people in our teaching yard, and we kept adding new ones. We currently keep bees mainly in Langstroth, but my backyard and our teaching yard are where we set up other hive styles. We currently have 9 different styles running.

Anyway, let us know what your favorite is outside of Langstroth and/or let us know what style you would like to see more of or us to add. I may start showing more of the non-traditional style hives on social media if there is an interest.

09/16/2025

Lessons from the Beehive
Recommended Honey Stores for Winter

It's common to be asked, How many pounds of food does a colony need for winter?

🐝For single deep or “Single Hive Body” management

General guideline: 60 lb (27 kg) of capped honey.

Cold regions: Up to 80 lb (36 kg) if winters are long or severe.

Mild climates: As little as 30-40 lb (13–18 kg) may be enough.

🐝Double Deep or “Double Hive Body” Management

General guideline: 90–120 lb (41–55 kg) of capped honey across both boxes.

Many northern beekeepers aim for a full deep of honey on top and a mostly full bottom deep with brood and some stores on the ends.

🐝Factor in Your Region

Northern U.S./Canada or high elevations: Long, cold winters mean more stores (upper ranges).

Consider snowfall. An area that gets a lot of snow fall one may need to have additional food boxes on the colony. Not necessarily for the bees to consume but to get a top entrance above the snow drifts.

Southern U.S. or mild coastal climates: Winters are shorter, and forage returns earlier, so lower ranges may be acceptable.

Local nectar flows & backup feeding: If you can feed early spring syrup, you can stay closer to the lower numbers or if your areas spring flow starts early.

🐝Importance of Fat, Healthy Winter Bees.

Winter bees are physiologically different:

They develop large fat bodies, which are protein - and lipid-rich reserves. They have food stored for winter.

Those fat bodies allow them to live 4–6 months and supply energy and vitellogenin for brood rearing in late winter.

Well-nourished winter bees consume less stored honey, so a colony with robust fat winter bees may use the low end of the recommended range.

🐝Quick Tips for Beekeepers

1. Weigh or lift the hive: A full deep frame of capped honey weighs about 6–8 lb (2.7–3.6 kg)

2. Distribute stores properly: Place heavy honey frames directly above or beside the cluster so the bees can reach it without breaking their heat ball.

3. Insulation & wind protection: A well-insulated hive with reduced drafts conserves energy and reduces consumption. We tell beekeepers this all the time. Our insulated colonies always consume far fewer stores than non insulated colonies.

Healthy, fat-bodied winter bees plus adequate honey stores = a strong spring colony ready to thrive.

09/15/2025

Lessons from the Beehive
How honey bees prepare the colony for winter

Tightening the Nest
As days shorten and nectar sources dwindle, honey bees constrict their nest size. They will start doing this after the summer solstice. Workers will start to backfill empty brood cells with honey and pollen, making the brood area smaller and easier to heat. This starts to show in many areas in late August and into September going forward. This is for Northern Hemisphere. Southern Hemisphere is the opposite as they are in the spring build-up currently.

Entrance management: The bees will coat gaps with propolis (a sticky resin) to reduce drafts, and some colonies will shrink the hive entrance with propolis.

Honey positioning: Stores of honey are kept close to the cluster so the winter bees can reach food without breaking the warm ball they form. We start to arrange the hives placing brood frames in the middle surrounded by food stores for our singles. In doubles, we would place brood frames in the bottom and food frames directly overhead, as the colony will move up in winter as heat rises.

Queen Slows Egg-Laying
The queen’s daily egg production can go from 1500 - 2000+ eggs per day in spring/summer to just a handful, or even none, by late fall.

This happens because worker bees bring in less food and reduce her feeding, shorter days, and cooler temps, signaling her to pause.

Fewer larvae means the colony spends less energy on brood heating, conserving precious stores.

Summer Bees vs. Winter Bees
A remarkable population shift occurs:

Summer bees live only 4–6 weeks, working themselves to exhaustion.

Winter bees are born in late summer and early fall. They are physiologically different—loaded with fat bodies (energy reserves) and higher levels of the protein vitellogenin.

These adaptations allow winter bees to live 4–6 months, surviving until spring to care for the first new brood when nectar returns.

09/14/2025

Didn't take long today has been found. Thanks for playing. Stay tuned we are dropping every Sunday never know where our Black Bag with Yellow Tag will show up at.

09/14/2025

One thing I have never shared openly on this social media page is my sobriety. I have a friend ask me every year on my sober day why I never share with the followers on Sweet Stingers Honey. After all, you are open about it. It doesn't bother you, and the bees are a major reason for your sobriety. I always told him I dont know. Maybe I wanted something that wasn't associated with that part of my life. But the truth is sobriety, and Sweet Stingers is all intertwined. Without one, there wouldn't be the other.

Today is national sober day. If you struggle with addiction, I hope you find your way out. Maybe this post will help someone. I won't tell you it's easy or all your problems will disappear, but it is worth it.

I hit 12 years last month. I dont keep track of the days outside of a little reminder on the phone calendar. Chips kept in a bag over the years. I put it in Gods hands, tell myself not today, and go about the day ahead.

I don't necessarily find sobriety/recovery in a room or with a group anymore. I find it with my God, in the garden, at the hives and with the dogs. Sharing our little bee world, helping others with God leading the way.

God works in mysterious ways, but one thing I have learned is he is always working for you to find your way back to him. He has already been through all the storms. He knows the outcome. You just have to have faith follow Him he will get you through.

He knew one of my biggest, hardest, longest storms would be addiction, so he put a garden, bees, and a dog in my life as a kid. I never knew why those were in my path. It dawned on me a few years back. Those 3 things I have never been without. I have worked bees most of my life, I have been in a garden most of my life and I have never been without a dog. The day I decided to get sober, I told it to my bees, in my garden with my dog. I didn't understand why I did it at the time, I had never talked to the bees before, ever. I never questioned it, though, and I understand now why it happened. I had to destroy the old me, and that was the beginning.

Recovery is not a one and done thing. It's one day at a time. It can be one hour at a time, and sometimes, it can be each passing second. The journey is worth it, though.

Today is the tomorrow you were so worried about yesterday

We can recover. We do recover. Stay Blessed. Y'all BEEKEEPING It Real

09/13/2025

Starting to make the last round of 3 frame nucs. The Hive Butler makes transportation of brood frames and bees easy. We love our hive butler's

09/13/2025

Which jar team are you on
Glass ❤️
Plastic 👍

We get asked which we sell more of. Its pretty equal probably a slight advantage goes to Glass. My preference is Glass personally. Glass stores better easier to decrystalize and can be reused. Plastic one doesn't really have to worry about it breaking if dropped and easy to use

09/12/2025

Lessons from the Beehive
Yard size

For me personally, I keep small yards over all. Average is 4 colonies, but yes, we have holding and growing yards that house more.

The reasons I keep small yards are many. First, people get tunnel vision when looking at things over and over. Mistakes are made, and things are overlooked. Second, I mainly manage bees for others who want honey and / or need pollination for their garden. Almost every colony we have sits in neighborhood backyards. So, I can't go crazy with the number of colonies. Third, I enjoy honey bees, and I think they are valuable for pollination, but I also enjoy our native bees. I don't agree with beekeepers who say honey bees don't compete for forage or will not push the native bees out of the area. Native bees are more valuable pollinators than honey bees in the US they just can't keep up anymore.

Many beekeepers look at colony numbers when they should look at output. All areas have a maximum output. Some areas can handle a whole lot of colonies and other areas, I don't care how many acres it couldn't handle two. If I had a yard, say 40 colonies, and averaged 25 pounds per colony, to me, that's a whole lot of work for not a lot of return. To me, that yard is overloaded. Drop the colonies down, lessen the workload, and get bigger crops off them.

There are also the goals of the individual. Some honestly just want 2 colonies. They want to see them coming and going, and honestly, that's all. Some people want a handful, but they dont want to travel between yards. Then there are people who want to make it a business, and they want to scale, run bees all over for pollination, and do it all.

I believe that the last factor is really the answer for almost everyone. It really just depends on the individuals goals and the ideologies behind it. For me, we found a niche in backyards managing bees for those who want them around and want local honey from the yard without doing the actual beekeeping. It works for us. It gives us enough honey to sell at a few events year round but keeps us out of the non-stop grind rat wheel so many small businesses find themselves in. Many of our properties buy the honey harvest. It lets me work the bees that I enjoy, not to mention we get some beautiful scenery, and people get honey from their yard, which is honestly what the mass majority of people who get bees want.

Beekeepers have their extremes, some keep small yards, and some massive with hundreds and thousands even tens of thousands of colonies in areas. What's right? The area will ultimately determine the holding rate, whether a beekeeper goes above or below, that's the choice they make.

09/11/2025

And in other news not beekeeping related Is this the equivalent to a Chastity Belt for the TaTas? Just curious

BTW this is one of the many things we are sent in our DMs daily. Maybe I should set aside a day of Sweet Stingers Honey DMs. The people on the internet will never fail to make me question WTF?