Our Intro Video

Well, bee enthusiasts, we on the verge of our final stage of launch. As part of that launch, we have created an introduction video explaining, in brief, what we are all about. We hope you enjoy it!

Host: Steven Daniels
Written by: Scott Salvesen
Cinematography and editing by: Jared Jakins of Paper Hat Films
Produced by: Bee Champions, LLC

The Bee Box: An 1840's Beekeeping Technique

As I was driving home from the Florida Keys, having completed an internship, I decided to stop in Nauvoo, Illinois. It is a sort of pilgrimage to those of the Latter-Day Saint faith, so I was eager to be able to go and see this wonderful place again. Little did I know that I would learn something of beekeeping in this tiny town stuck in 1840's America.

I walked into the home of a Wilford Woodruff, who would eventually become an LDS prophet in Utah, to learn about him and see how he lived. The wonderful senior missionaries pointed out this curious little device:

 

They called it the bee box and they explained a little bit of how it worked: on a warm spring day, a mother would send her children out with the box to observe the bees. They would pay attention to what flowers were being targeted by forager bees on that day. They would place one of those flowers in the box and wait for a bee to fly into it, whereupon they would close the box. The children would bring the box back to their mother, who would shake some flour into it, covering the bee. The children would then release the bee outside. When a bee is distressed, it will automatically want to return to its hive, and when it is covered in flour, it flies low and slow and is easy to pick out. The children would follow the bee to its hive, most often in a tree. In the 1840's, when someone found a beehive, they would generally carve their initials into the tree, signifying that they had claimed it. If no one's initials were on the tree, the children would report back to their mother the location of the hive.

It was amazing to see how, even in the 1840's, bees were an integral part of life in the Midwest. And you never know what you may learn, even on a religious pilgrimage.

People Are Paying Attention

When you think of people who are into bees, it's mostly farmers or hobby beekeepers. Most people have almost no knowledge of bees and why they are dying. However, now the situation is so dire, that major companies are now starting to take notice.

I was recently send an article written by, of all people, Rolling Stone magazine. If Rolling Stone are paying attention, then we definitely should be.

You can read the article here.

The article details the struggle of beekeeper Jim Doan, who saw his 5,600 hives die off to just 275. It also details his battle with EPA, and the subsequent lawsuit, which contests that the bees are dying off because of all the chemicals going in the crops, which the bees are subsequently pollinating, but getting killed by.

The article also very accurately details the consequences that can come from losing the bee population.

Hive Transfers: 8 July 2015

Not too long ago, we were able to assist an up-and-coming beekeeper with a hive transfer. She had a top bar hive and wanted to transfer her colony into a deep middle bar hive. The reason for this is because she didn't have the time to maintain the top bar hive, which can be fairly intense when it comes to maintenance, simply because you have to make sure that the comb doesn't get stuck to the bottom of the hive.

Here is the video of the transfer:

As you can see, because she didn't have the time to maintain the top bar hive, it took several hours to transfer the colony to the deep middle bar hive because Stan Moulton had to cut out the comb individually. The flaws of the top bar hive are fairly obvious as you watch. The maintenance is difficult and harvesting honey is destructive to the comb. However, with a deep middle bar hive, harvesting honey is not destructive and there is no fear of the bees building comb that adheres to the wall and bottom of the boxes. Though there is maintenance involved with the middle bar hive, it is clearly much less than it is for a top bar hive.

You can purchase middle bar frames here and a deep middle bar box here.

The Mason Jar Beehive

I was browsing Facebook the other day and noticed that one of my friends posted an article about how to make a beehive with mason jars. Curious, I read up a little bit on it.

The theory is that since bees generally build honey in the upper parts of the hive, this is a remarkably easy to harvest honey without the need to go into the comb and pull it all out. The jars are a fairly easy way to avoid the mess that comes with it. It is also a creative observation hive idea.

You can learn how to make the jar lid here.

The Frame Perch

When Bee Champions was born, several ideas were given of which one of our products would be the best seller. Surprisingly, the most popular product we carry at Bee Champions has been the frame perch.

Then again, perhaps we shouldn't be so surprised at all! The frame perch is a simple, yet extremely effective tool when it comes to backyard beekeeping. It's one of those things that is not a necessity in the strictest sense, but is very inexpensive way to make beekeeping more accessible.

The frame perch is designed to hold three frames on the side of the hive. When you are inspecting your hive, you don't necessarily want to put your frames down into the dirt or the grass, which can make the honey and nectar on a frame dirty and cause the bees unneeded grief to clean it out. With the frame perch, you can simply set your frames aside, both upright and away from dirt and grass. It is also useful when you need to inspect multiple frames at once because it eliminates the inconvenience of having to hold both frames.

You can purchase a frame perch here.

Here is a useful video of Stan Moulton explaining how to use the frame perch:

The Queen Bee

One of the most important, but least understood aspects of beekeeping is that of the queen bee. Without the queen, the hive will falter and die, since her sole purpose is reproduction.

Queens are essentially sexually mature regular bees. Workers are females that never receive sexual maturity. Queens are usually created when a hive is ready to swarm or when the old queen starts to fail and a new one is needed, a process called supercedure. You can tell which one is being created by where the queen cell is being built.

A queen cell that is being built on the frame is typically a swarm cell. At this point, it is too late to stop your colony from swarming, as it will likely happen before the new queen emerges. Cells built on the comb, like the one on the left, are typically supercedure queens and will unlikely affect the production of your hive. In fact, once a supercedure queen emerges, she will often work with the old queen side-by-side until the old one dies. Other times, the workers will "ball" the old queen to kill her once the new one becomes available.

There are usually multiple queen cells made at the same time. When the virgin queens emerge, they will fight each other to the death. The winner will destroy any queen pupae that remain. This is the only time that honey bees fight each other, as workers of different colonies never fight each other, and can even be combined to save a weak colony. The winner will fly to a drone congregation area to mate. This also usually the only time that the queen will ever fly. She will mate with drones for several days and will never have to mate again for her entire life.

Queens are usually not that difficult to find. She is quite a bit larger than the workers and her abdomen will usually give her away. She will be surrounded by attendants, so if the frame she is on is not disturbed too much, you will see her move across the frame and a tiny gap between her and all other bees will form, creating a path where you can see her. Many beekeepers also mark their queens with paint so it is easier for them to find her.

Here is a series of videos of Stan Moulton talking about and interacting with the queens:

Feel free to contact us if you have any more questions about beekeeping.

The Smoker: A Beekeeper's Best Friend

A common phrase used amongst bee keepers is, "A smoker is the beekeeper's best friend." Why is this a sentiment that is frequent stated and shared?

The simple answer is that the smoker calms the bees. But how does blowing smoke on the bees calm them? Essentially, it is a defense mechanism. When the bees detect the smoke, they start to believe that their home is about to be destroyed by fire. So, they start to gorge themselves on honey to prepare for a time without a home. This also causes them to be lethargic, as their flight is somewhat limited when they are full of honey. Another thing the smoker does is mask any pheromones that the bees give off. When a bee stings you, it gives off a scent known as the "attack pheromone", which signals to the other bees that there is an intruder in the hive and that they need to attack as well. This is why people are often stung multiple times when they approach a hive without smoke. When the pheromone is masked, this risk is dissipated quite a lot.

In terms of materials to use in a smoker, it is best to use something natural rather than synthetic materials. Stan Moulton, our beekeeper at Bee Champions, prefers to use burlap with bits of grass and bark in his smoker. Other beekeepers use pine needles and 100% cotton, both of which are good options.

Here are some training videos on how to start and use a smoker:

You can purchase a smoker here.

Adding Supers to Our Hives

Yesterday, we began to add supers to the hives we keep at our facility in Lindon, Utah. While doing so, we found it as a great opportunity to film some more training videos, specifically on how the smoker works and exactly what you need to do in order to add supers to your hives.

You can view the videos here:

You can purchase all of the materials we used in these videos with the following links: smoker, middle bar frames, and varnished deep boxes.

Bee Bearding

Are you seeing this on your hive?

 

We have received several calls over the last few weeks from new beekeepers seeing their colonies hanging out outside their hives. In general, this is not a cause for concern. This is a natural thing that the bees do, called bearding.

There are a variety of reasons for bearding, which are illustrated in this fantastic article from Bee Thinking.

Here is a video illustrating bearding from two of our own hives, one in Lindon and one in Provo:

Contact us if you see any behavior in your bees that is not illustrated in the article or video. It may be a sign that they're about to start swarming.

The Barn Hive

One of our specialized products at Bee Champions is the Barn Hive. It is exclusive to us and we believe that it is a very effective tool when it comes to beekeeping.

Here is the Barn Hive when it's closed, as if a bee colony is already occupying the hive. We have taken great care to create a high-quality, bee-friendly product to assist you in all needs of your beekeeping, whether it be commercial or hobby.

This picture is what the Barn Hive looks like when it's opened. As you can see, the Barn Hive fits five frames and has two areas made for storage and use.

One of the features of the barn hive is the storage area on one side. Here, you can keep your hive tool, bee brush, and frame grip. In our unique Observation Barn Hives, this area has a plexiglass screen so you can observe your comb without disturbing the bees.

In this area, you can fit a feeder or use it as an extra storage area. This can be a vital area for you to make use of, as you will not have to remove any frames to fit a feeder into your hive. When a feeder is no longer needed, it is a simple matter to close off the area. This way, you don't disturb the bees when you replace the feeder. Bees will also not build comb in the feeder.














The benefits of the Barn Hive are countless. It can be used as both a nuc (especially useful because of the added feeder area) as well as a honey super. It is also especially useful in wintering bees, since you can add the feeder and give the bees a smaller space to warm throughout the cold months. It is also waterproof, so there is no need to worry when storms come through. Not to mention that it looks fantastic!

We have several varieties of the Barn Hive available to you:

The Observation Barn Hive Painted

The Observation Barn Hive Raw

The Basic Barn Hive, as a raw version, but a painted version is available upon request.







Here is a video of Stan installing a package of bees into a Barn Hive:

Myths and Truths about Killer Bees

Occasionally during a nuc transfer or when someone purchases one of our products, I've been asked about killer bees. There is a lot of false information about killer bees out there, so I'm going dispel any myths about them and give some advice on what to do during a killer bee encounter.

What Are Killer Bees?

Africanized honey bees, as they are officially called, came from Brazil in the 1950's when a set of scientists were studying African bees in order to boost honey production among the native bee species. African bees are much smaller but more aggressive than their European cousins. In a freak accident, 17 queens were accidentally released into the wild. It was believed that since they don't store an excess of honey, that they would eventually die off. Unfortunately, the queens bred with the local species, making a very adaptable species of bee. They retained their aggression from the African species while inheriting the size, and ironically, the honey storing capabilities of the European species.

The Myths and Truths of the Killer Bee

Contrary to its name, the killer bee does not maliciously seek out targets to kill, as some have been led to believe. The term "killer bee" simply comes from the bee's aggression. When left alone, it acts like any other regular European honey bee. The difference comes when it is disturbed. While regular European bees will send a few guards to attack, the Africanized bee will send thousands of guards. They are also known to pursue their threats. If you move even a few yards away from a European hive, the bees will leave you alone. Africanized bees will chase you for up to half a mile.

Another myth is that killer bees have more poisonous stings than their European counterparts. This is absolutely not true. Their stings are the same as any regular honey bee. The myth came about when victims of killer bee attacks were admitted to hospitals with far worse injuries than a regular bee attack. The reason for this is simply the sheer number of stings sustained, rather than the potency of the sting itself. If you are stung by only one killer bee, it is no worse than being stung by a European bee.

There is also a myth floating around about Africanized honey bees killing thousands of people on their path of destruction. This is absolutely false. Killer bees are responsible for the deaths of less than a hundred people in the entire time of its existence. However, thousands of pets and livestock have fallen to killer bees, mostly due to the fact that they are contained with nowhere to escape in the event of an attack.

Are You at Risk?

Unfortunately, if you live in California or any of the southern-most states, you are at risk to encounter killer bees. Arizona and Texas are the two states with the highest populations, but they have been found in southern Utah and south Florida as well. Unfortunately, the Africanized honey bee is very difficult to distinguish from a regular, non-aggressive European bee, so be careful when approaching any wild hive.

This graphic shows the spread of Africanized honey bees from the early 90's to the early 00's. Today, they are throughout Louisiana and the lower parts of the South as well.

What to Do During an Attack

Fortunately, killer bees do give you a warning before they attack. The guards will fly directly at you and slam into your face. This is a sign that you are about to be attacked. However, if you are attacked, do not freeze. Run as fast as you can for shelter. One popular theory about killer bees is that they will wait for you to surface if you head for water and hide there. This is actually true, so going for a water source will not do you any good. In any case, once you are free from the attack, get to the hospital as quick as you can. As illustrated, killer bee attacks can potentially be far more deadly than a regular bee attack.

How You Can Help

When all is said and done, you shouldn't worry about encountering killer bees. You are more likely to be killed by a drunk driver than attacked by Africanized honey bees. However, it doesn't mean you shouldn't be cautious. But the question is this: can killer bees be stopped? The answer is hopeful: YES! The simple solution is flooding their foraging grounds with European honey bees. The sheer numbers of the European bees prevents them from being able to compete with them. In fact, that is one way that Utah has prevented a huge entry into the state. They set up European hives all across the Arizona and Nevada borders to prevent killer bees crossing into the state. As a result, only two recorded attacks have ever occurred in Utah.

Because of this simple solution, it means that you can help too! You can start your own non-aggressive and non-invasive European honey bee colony in your backyard, or participate in the "Just Bee-Cause" Hive Sponsorship Program. This way, the threat of the so-called "killer bee" can be diminished in your area.

Here is a fascinating video about killer bees and how they are removed:

Though it is difficult to tell Africanized honey bees from European honey bees, the University of Florida did a study on how to identify the differences between attack patterns and hive placements.

Chemical Warfare

In previous posts, I discussed how varroa mites have infested bee populations all over the country. But here's the big question: how are they doing it? If an object or insect foreign to the bees infiltrates the hive, the bees are usually fairly quick to remove them. However, this is not happening with the varroa mites.

A study by Michigan State University found that the varroa mites are disguising themselves by smelling like bees. Bees do almost everything based on pheromones, which the mites have emulated so that the bees don't see them as foreign objects or threats.

You can read the whole article by clicking here.

When You Should Add a Second Box to Your Hive

Your hive probably currently looks like this, right?

This is typical of this time of the year, but the question is this: when should you add a second box to your hive? That question has a rather simple answer: when the bees have filled 80% of the frames or are starting to build on the outer frames of the current box.

You should put your new box on top of the old box and move one of the outer frames with as little brood as possible into it to encourage the bees to start moving up. You should not take out a frame from the middle of the brood chamber because this will throw off the queen's movements within the chamber. The queen will eventually start laying in the new box, but will primarily stay in the bottom box.

The purpose of additional boxes is to encourage expansion of the colony. The bees will grow until their living quarters restrict them from doing so. At this point, they will swarm. The second - and eventually, the third, fourth and fifth - box allows them to expand without having the need to swarm. They will also build honey almost exclusively in the upper boxes, as the queen has already established a brood chamber in the original lower boxes. This will allow you to extract honey without disturbing the queen's brooding habits, killing any brood unnecessarily and potentially having brood in your honey. This is why it's important not to remove any frames from the queen's brood chamber. She will typically stick to the lower two boxes while honey is stored in the upper boxes.

If you are using middle bar frames, it is important to check that the comb is being drawn properly. You may have to adjust this as needed. It is also important to check that the hive is level and that the new boxes are securely on the hive.

Eventually, your hive could look like this:

Have any questions? Contact us and we'll be happy to answer any questions you may have.

How to Deal with Swarms

Seeing a swarm for the first time can be quite the alarming experience. A big problem we have seen historically about human perceptions of swarms is that they are dangerous and need to be exterminated. This is absolutely not the case! Swarming is the way bees naturally grow and reproduce.

Why Bees Swarm

The simple answer is that there are too many bees in the hive. When a hive outgrows its capacity, the bees have to split off in order to survive. They will create a new queen when the time comes near for them to swarm. After she is mated, as many as 60% of the workers will leave with the old queen and search for a new home. They will gather close to the old hive and send a few of the most experienced foragers to search for a new home. When one is found, they will perform a waggle dance for the other bees to show them where they've found their new home. The more vigorous the dance, the better the location. This usually occurs in a day or two.

The Impact of Swarming

For a recreational beekeeper, this process is really not that impactful. The old colony will continue to grow and work as it always has. For the commercial beekeeper, it can be quite the setback. Essentially, that hive's production for the year will be lost, as they will not have the workforce to create an excess of honey. They will have enough for themselves, but not for harvesting.

What to Do When You See a Swarm

To reiterate what was already said, swarms are not as dangerous as public perception believes they are. This is the bees' least aggressive stage of life, as they have no brood to protect. That said, they will attack if they feel threatened so it is best to keep your distance. They have no reason to attack you if they are left alone. Whatever you do, DO NOT CALL AN EXTERMINATOR! Contact us and we will send out a beekeeper to retrieve the swarm. It is far better for the bees and their sustainability for us to give the swarm a new home rather than to kill them.

The Middle Bar Frame

Just after our nuc transfers on 8 May 2015, we received some pictures from Dale Wright, who received a colony at that event. They show how the middle bar frames work and what the bees do to build onto them.

These pictures were taken just after the nuc transfers. From the looks of things, it seems that the bees are building smaller comb on the middle bar frames, really not built to hold anything other than the essentials. However, the following pictures were taken when Dale checked his hive after two weeks.

Look at the difference that just two weeks makes! The bees have almost completely filled up the frames with comb they built without any help!

A lot of people have asked us why we prefer to use the middle bar frame instead of using a plastic or wax foundation. This is all going towards our sustainable bee research and helping the bees become healthier. In general, using the middle bar frames are beneficial to the health of the bees. They build the comb on the middle bar frame the way they want instead of the way that we want them to. Stan Moulton, our beekeeper, has done extensive experimentation and has concluded that these frames are indeed healthier for the bees' sustainability. As he likes to say, "We need to stop telling the bees what to do. We need to leave the bees alone."

You can purchase middle bar frames by clicking here.

Here is a series of videos of Stan explaining how the middle bar frames work and their benefits to the bees:

The Biology of Honey

Over the weekend, I was able to help Stan Moulton with our last nuc transfer of the season. I found myself with a significantly deeper knowledge of bees this time around, but I also left with a lot of questions. One of the big ones was: "How is honey made?"

We're doing nuc transfers! More bees being given new homes today! #savethebees #justbeecause #utah

A photo posted by Bee Champions (@beechampions) on May 22, 2015 at 4:43pm PDT

In doing some research, I discovered that the process of making honey and its many uses is actually quite fascinating. My research helped me learn things that I would never have known and deeply broadened my understanding and respect of bees.

The Significance of Honey

As we have already learned in previous posts, honey is absolutely vital to our survival because of the service they do in pollinating our food supplies. But it is culturally significant as well. In fact, honey has been found in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs. This gives us another thing that is particularly beneficial to us: the unlimited shelf life of honey. The pharaohs recognized it and venerated it, being buried with jars of honey that are still edible today, thousands of years after they were laid to rest with the deceased kings. Another amazing aspect of honey that it is one of very few food sources that has all significant nutrients to live off. In other words, you can literally eat honey your entire life and you would not be any worse for wear for it. According to Matthew 3:4 in the King James Version of the Bible, John the Baptist lived in the deserts of the Holy Land living off honey.

How Honey is Made

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a scientist by any stretch of the imagination. Chemistry was one of my worst subjects in school, but even I was surprised by the simplicity of the process. Below is a fantastic video on how the chemistry of honey works.

The science is simple: flower nectars are basically made up of sugar water. When a bee extracts it and takes it back to the hive, chemicals secreted by the bees break the sucrose into fructose and glucose. Further chemicals are used to convert the glucose into the honey substance that we know. The process is also surprisingly fast: a large hive can produce up to 7 pounds of honey in a day!

Honey has been a significant part of our society for thousands of years. Used for healing and food, the honey is made by a simple process that nature has refined over thousands of years of use. It makes honeybees that much more important, not only as a pollination source, but as a food source when times are tough. Or if you just wanted a natural sweetener that will never expire.

Anand Varma's Photographic Journey into the Lives of Bees

Everyone loves a good TED talk, right? Well, there's a TED talk about bees! I was e-mailed the link to this absolutely fascinating video on a National Geographic photographer who was asked to document the first 21 days of a bee's life to illustrate how destructive the varroa mite has been to the bee population.

While watching this video, I was given a new insight into one of the issues that is causing the bee population to drop so dramatically: the Asian varroa mite. It is this deadly parasite that has caused the bee population to weaken over the first 21 days of a bee's life. They feed on the bees when they pupate, which is probably the most critical time of a bee's development.

As you can see in this picture, the varroa mite is tiny, only about the size of a pinhead. But they have weakened the bees and are causing them to die off in droves.

Despite this, there is hope. In the video, Anand Varma talks about his work in conjunction with UC Davis and in their breeding program to help the bees regain their strength. There have been some drawbacks with this invasive research, but work is being done to ensure that the bees can withstand the onslaught of these deadly invaders.

However, the big question is this: how can you tell if your backyard beehive has been infested with varroa mites? Stan Moulton, our beekeeper here at Bee Champions, gives great trainings on how to see if your hive has been infected. You can find those videos here, here and here.

Why the Bees are Dying

In my last post, I discussed the depressing prospect of the dying bee population and how that would impact us as a whole. For this post, I will discuss what exactly is happening to cause the bees to die off in such vast numbers.

Yesterday, one of our founders at Bee Champions, Steven Daniels, forwarded another article to me about the bee losses in America, this time by the New York Times. The article goes into more depth about what is exactly killing off the bees, and discusses this with the men from Penn State University who are studying the sudden loss. They ended up reaching two conclusions: pesticides and varroa mites.

There was also another overarching disease that was spreading: Colony Collapse Disorder. Without a firm cause or consistent symptoms, they simply used this term to describe the collective sicknesses that the bees were dying from.

I will not rehash the findings in this post, as you can read them in the article itself. There is also a ten-minute video roughly halfway down the article that was absolutely fantastic, and I highly recommend that you take the time to watch it.

Click here to go to the article by the New York Times.

As illustrated in the video and in my previous post, you can do your part in preserving the bees! You can begin your backyard beekeeping experience by buying beekeeping equipment here and starting a new colony, or you can participate in the "Just Bee-Cause" Hive Sponsorship Program to contribute to sustainable bee research and population growth.

The Impact of Losing the Honeybee

As I was working today, my father forwarded me an interesting article from the Associated Press that really caught my attention. The article illustrated just how seriously the issue of the loss of honeybees should be taken.

The Effects of Honeybees on Us

First of all, how do honeybees affect us? To really understand the impact of this terrible occurrence, we have to understand what they do for us. If you were to ask a regular person how a bee impacts them, they probably wouldn't have an adequate answer. Most would answer that bees pollinate things. But do we really appreciate what that actually means?

By definition, pollination is the process of taking the pollen from the anther (male part) of a plant to the stigma (female part) for the intent of reproduction. Virtually all plants are fertilized in this way. Though there are other animals that fertilize plants - beetles, wasps, bats, etc. - none are as important as the honeybee, which depends on pollen as one of its major food sources.

Let's bring things into perspective for a second. Most of our food source is plant matter. And any food that isn't plant matter was fed from plant matter. So, in a very literal sense, our entire food source is dependent on plants. And the plants are dependent on fertilization so that they can continue to grow and spread. A very good friend of mine owns an orchard in Idaho and he depends on the bees to fertilize his trees so that he can feed his family. What if, one day, there was no fertilization going on? We would exhaust our food source very quickly with no way of sustaining it.

Albert Einstein has been attributed as saying: "If the bee disappeared off the face of the globe, then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man."

Now, I don't know about you, but Einstein was a very smart man. If he saw the consequences of bee annihilation fifty years ago, then that time has certainly come that we need to pay attention to what is going on around us.

Are We Truly Losing the Honeybee?

The answer to this question is a resounding "YES!" The article from the Associated Press claims that as much as forty percent of the bee population has been lost in the last year!

Let's take a moment to illustrate just how dire this is. As of today, 13 May 2015, the world population was estimated to be about 7,243,000,000 people. That's quite a hefty number! Now, what would happen if we lost forty percent of our population by May 2016. Our population would sit at 4,345,800,000. That's a casualty number of 2,897,200,000! In one year! I don't even want to think of what kind of disaster would have to occur to destroy our population by that magnitude!

Can We Help?

Of course you can! Though the situation is dire, it is certainly not irreversible. Everyone can do their part to help bring back the honeybee. One program that we are pushing for here at Bee Champions is the "Just Bee-Cause" Hive Sponsorship Program. Even if you can't or have no desire to keep bees, through our program, you can do your part to help create a sustainable solution for the bees. Click on the previous link for more information on the program.

If you are interested in reading the article from the Associated Press, you can read it here.

Nuc Transfers, 8 May 2015

On Friday, 8 May 2015, we had our first major nuc transfer of the 2015 season. Taking place in Pleasant Grove, Utah, where we keep a large number of our nucs, it was a blast for everyone involved. A great variety of people of people showed up, from first-time keepers to seasoned veterans of beekeeping, from families starting a new hobby to individuals continuing a treasured pasttime, from as far as Las Vegas and Wendover to as near as Pleasant Grove. It was exhilarating to see the excitement in the faces of everyone involved. We hope you enjoy the pictures taken of this wonderful event.

As we started out, using the four-wheeler was the fastest way for us to be able move everyone's bees effectively.

As our customers came to pick up their new colonies, they checked in here.

Even the children involved had a great time!

New keepers would receive instruction from the experts as their nucs were transferred to their new hives.

Because it was a rainy day, the bees were docile enough that even
those not dressed in beekeeping clothing could stand close enough
to participate.

We had several families show up as a whole. What an awesome way to begin their new hobby!

Stan Moulton, our resident expert, gave amazing instruction to the novice keepers.

This is just a preview of the sheer number of nucs we had available to
transfer to new hives.

New beekeepers were instructed on how to effectively transfer their colonies safely into their new hives, paying close attention to not hurting any of the bees.

It was an extremely busy day for the Bee Champions employees as so many people came to collect their new colonies.

Stan Moulton was often surrounded by hordes of eager beekeepers
ready to learn all they can from him.

There was a lot of excitement surrounding our amazing new observation hives. To purchase one, click here!

This is an example of our raw deep box, of which, many were
purchased for new colonies. Click here to purchase one yourself!

This is an example of our medium boxes. Click here to purchase now!

New beekeepers were so excited to purchase new hives that our
employees struggled at times to keep up with all the new orders!

Each participant at our event went home with one of our new bumper stickers!

Some of the new beekeepers brought their own hives. Some were truly exquisite, like this one.

Beekeeping can be a great hobby for even children!

This shows the assembly of our new feeders. You can purchase them here and here.

There were a variety of ways that our customers transported their
bees home. Most opted to bring trucks, though some simply taped
the entrance and drove home in their cars!

It was great to see families working together to have a great beekeeping experience.

This picture shows the sheer beauty of our facility in Pleasant Grove, Utah, at the base of the Wasatch Mountains overlooking Utah Lake.

For more information, be sure to check out our website and our online store. For more information on classes and our nuc transfer dates, click here.