All Posts

As the days begin to get longer in January some colonies will begin to brood up a bit. Minor brood rearing is stimulated by warm sunny days paired with winter pollen sources such as witch-hazel and mistletoe and ornamentals. The brood will really kick into gear when red maple blooms in mid-February. Winter hive inspections strike a delicate balance between the risks of stressing the bees and the potential to help them avert crisis. I try to do a brief check on bees about once

A story of small hive beetles and lessons learned.

Though it is somewhat “old news” at this point, I wanted to give a shout-out to the volunteers and honey judging winners in this year’s Albemarle County Fair. As in recent years, the fair was held at Ashlawn – Highlands. We’ve become a major fixture at the fair, and this year saw our exhibit humming with guests almost continuously. Numerous visitors to our tent stopped back by our exhibit as they were leaving the fairgrounds to thank us for the time that was spent talking to

Veteran beekeeper, Ron Stilwell has handled literally millions of stinging insects over the years. When not beekeeping, he relieves local homeowners and businesses of the hassle and fear of ground-dwelling yellow jackets, while also providing support for people seeking venom immunotherapy. 2  Photo courtesy of Ron Stilwell  Yellow jacket wasps are collected live, flash frozen, and shipped to a laboratory in Washington State where their venom extracted for clinical use.  Ron S