Latest Flottum Podcast Episodes
Dealing with Old Frames (118)
Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - March 23, 2023 10:00 - 21 minutes ★★★★★ - 100 ratingsSo, you take a quick look at that top box this spring, and it’s pretty much empty and you don’t need the room for a bit, so remove the box. Then you take a look at the frames, to see what can be done with them, or, what should be done with them. What you do, of course, it depends on the type o...
Should You Paint Your Hive? (117)
Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - March 16, 2023 10:00 - 22 minutes ★★★★★ - 100 ratingsYou've spent lots of money on your woodenware and you want it to look good, last many years, and be safe for your the honey bees and the environment. What are your options? In today's episode, Jeff Ott (from Beekeeping Today Podcast) joins Jim Tew to discuss the topic of what to paint your hiv...
Preparing for the First Nectar Flow (116)
Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - March 09, 2023 12:00 - 20 minutes ★★★★★ - 100 ratingsIt’s early March, bees are flying every few days, early maples are blooming. Are you asking yourself, “Are my bees ready for the nectar flow?” On today’s episode, Kim and Jim look at what’s going on in their hives now that spring is starting to get serious. What should the colony be doing, wha...
Managing The Small Colony (115)
Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - March 02, 2023 12:00 - 20 minutes ★★★★★ - 100 ratingsThe more colonies you have, the more you will notice differences between them throughout the year. On today's episode, Kim and Jim talk about what do you do when you open one of your colonies and it seems 'smaller' than the other colonies around it. Is it something that should concern you? What ...
Considering Atypical Bee Yards (114)
Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - February 23, 2023 11:00 - 20 minutes ★★★★★ - 100 ratingsThere’s lots of places you can keep bees that aren’t the typical backyard. Today Kim and Jim take a look at a couple of these places. The first is in an unused single car garage. The hive boxes sit on a bench inside the garage for easy access and he doesn’t need a cover, just a board over the ...
Finding Bee Yards (113)
Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - February 16, 2023 11:00 - 24 minutes ★★★★★ - 100 ratingsIt happens to most beekeepers are one point, where you have to find someplace else to keep your bees. A new, different beeyard. Where do you start? Whether you have too many in your backyard and need to put more someplace else, or the world changed and you can’t keep them in your backyard any ...
Spring Bees: Are Nucs A Good Deal? (112)
Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - February 09, 2023 11:00 - 23 minutes ★★★★★ - 100 ratingsThere are a lot of good reasons to start a new colony in your beeyard using a nucleus (nuc) colony, consisting of a mated queen, brood and drawn comb rather than buying a package of bees. But there are some issues to pay particular attention to also. How old is the queen? How much of all kinds...
Bee Management on Warm(ish) Winter Days (111)
Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - February 02, 2023 11:00 - 19 minutes ★★★★★ - 100 ratingsIt’s going to be 50 degrees tomorrow. Kim and Jim are going to have to check their bees for the first time this very early spring. So what do they do, how do they examine a colony this time of year way up north? The beekeepers in the warmer parts of the country are already adding supers, there...
Dealing with Package Queens (110)
Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - January 26, 2023 11:00 - 24 minutes ★★★★★ - 100 ratingsThe queens that come with packages today seem to be different that those we could get five or ten years ago and we think that points to some changes need to be made regarding a simple concept – Patience. It would appear that it’s taking a bit longer for the worker bees in the package to become...
Considering New Honey Bee Queens (109)
Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - January 19, 2023 11:00 - 22 minutes ★★★★★ - 100 ratingsThis is the time of year to think seriously about the queens you have in your colonies, or the queens you had in your colonies last season. If replacement is on the table, what should you be looking for? The simple and probably best answer is… a good queen. But what makes a good queen? Populat...
Dealing With American Foulbrood (108)
Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - January 12, 2023 11:00 - 23 minutes ★★★★★ - 100 ratingsAmerican Foulbrood is in the news lately… and for a good, positive reason. But what does it mean if you determine or a state apiarist determines you have a case or two or more of AFB in your bee yard? A vaccine is not a cure. It is a means for prevention. In today’s episode, Jim invites Beekee...
Beekeeping New Years Resolutions (107)
Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - January 05, 2023 11:00 - 19 minutes ★★★★★ - 100 ratingsIt’s the beginning of a new year and Jim and Kim are thinking about New Year’s Resolutions. Almost everybody makes a few Resolutions every January – even beekeepers, but many times resolutions are made and never achieved. Kim wants to do better with the bees this season, take better care of th...
Bears in the Bee Yard (106)
Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - December 29, 2022 11:00 - 24 minutes ★★★★★ - 100 ratingsWhat would you do if you received a call from a neighbor saying that your bee equipment was scattered across multiple yards? What would be YOUR first thought? In today’s episode, Jim invites Beekeeping Today Podcast’s Jeff Ott to the show to talk about bears in the bee yard and how, no matter ...
Our Genesis Stories in Beekeeping (105)
Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - December 22, 2022 11:00 - 24 minutes ★★★★★ - 100 ratingsNot a lot of people start keeping bees without some outside influence. A relative, neighbor, college class, or getting a job in bees. Jim started out with a college class, to fill electives. Kim got a job working for the USDA because he could grow the plants they needed for bees to visit for a p...
Beekeeper Record Keeping Considerations (104)
Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - December 15, 2022 11:00 - 22 minutes ★★★★★ - 100 ratingsKnowing what you did or saw, added or removed from a colony is useful. Whether that happened earlier in the day or the prior season. Keeping track of what, how why and when you did something in the bee yard, for a specific colony will help keep you from making repeated mistakes. Historical inf...
Building Your Own Bee Equipment (103)
Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - December 08, 2022 11:00 - 22 minutes ★★★★★ - 100 ratingsWhat beekeeper hasn't nailed together a hive body and thought, "Heck, I can cut these boards myself and it'd be cheaper!" Especially if they already have a wood shop with a table saw and a few other tools. But is it really? What are the pros and cons of building your own equipment? Why should ...
Managing Winter Colony Die-Offs (102)
Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - December 01, 2022 11:00 - 21 minutes ★★★★★ - 100 ratingsIt’s winter time and sure as the sky is blue (or grey – as the case may be), there will be many dead colonies out there next spring. If not in as early as in the few weeks. Winter kills in the US are running something like 40+% right now. A winter killed colony is a time, financial and frustra...
Consumer Honey Challenges (101)
Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - November 24, 2022 11:00 - 25 minutes ★★★★★ - 100 ratingsOn today’s show, Kim and Jim discuss the most common ‘complaint’ a beekeeper who sells honey encounters. This is true whether you are selling from the back of your truck, at a roadside stand or even a local farmer’s market. What do you tell your customer who brings you or asks you about granulat...
5000 Years of Beekeeping in 24 Minutes (100)
Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - November 17, 2022 11:00 - 24 minutes ★★★★★ - 100 ratingsHoney Bee Obscura celebrates its 100th episode with this release! Jim Tew and Kim Flottum invite, Beekeeping Today Podcast’s Jeff Ott to join them to take a look at 5,000 years of beekeeping history, sorting out some of the highlights, discoveries, and mistakes, along with some of the people beh...
Winter Reading: What's On The List? (099)
Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - November 10, 2022 11:00 - 20 minutes ★★★★★ - 100 ratingsWinter tends to have a bit more time inside than outside and one way to spend that time inside is to catch up on your reading. Jim and Kim talk a bit about the books they read, the authors and publishers they like and where they get the books they read all winter. Along with the new books, the...
Colony Winter Water (098)
Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - November 03, 2022 10:00 - 17 minutes ★★★★★ - 100 ratingsWhy on earth would honey bee foragers go out on a freezing day in winter to collect water? Ice and snow everywhere, but there they are, trying to get a drink and bring some home for their sisters. Why? Kim and Jim explore some of the reasons why. They explore the uses of water by winter bees a...
Midnight in the Bee Yard - A Halloween Special (097)
Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - October 27, 2022 09:30 - 21 minutes ★★★★★ - 100 ratingsWithout a doubt, some of the most peaceful places on Earth are bee yards. Tranquil, serene and quiet with only the soft hum of the bees fanning the air through their hives floating on top the silence… Peaceful, except when it is not. Have you ever worked in a distant bee yard, late at night...
Winter Is Coming - Winter Prep (096)
Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - October 20, 2022 10:00 - 17 minutes ★★★★★ - 100 ratingsWhen you’ve been keeping bees for decades, sometimes you do things because that’s the way you’ve always done them, right? But the world continues to change. It has to keep up with whatever is going on wherever it’s happening. And because the world is changing, every minute of every day, doing th...
How Phenology Can Help Your Manage Bees (095)
Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - October 13, 2022 09:30 - 20 minutes ★★★★★ - 100 ratingsDoes your state Agriculture Department have a bulletin they share with everybody on the phenology, or bloom dates, of the wild flowers, trees and shrubs that grow in your state? Today Kim and Jim discuss the chart used by Ohio beekeepers. Ohio’s chart shows what is blooming each month, the adu...
Living With Your Smoker (094)
Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - October 06, 2022 09:30 - 20 minutes ★★★★★ - 100 ratingsBeekeepers have a love/hate relationship with their smokers. Beekeeper families don’t have split emotions… they tend HATE smokers and their lingering ‘perfume’. How beekeepers manage their smokers impacts more than their bees. In today’s episode, Kim and Jim talk about smokers. Arguably more ...
Liquifying Crystalized Honey (093)
Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - September 29, 2022 10:00 - 20 minutes ★★★★★ - 100 ratingsJim has pails of crystalized honey, but only wants enough liquid honey for his oatmeal this morning. How does he get that to work? Kim has a lot of good ideas. There are pail blankets, band heaters, boxes and more to warm a pail to liquid honey on the market, including our sponsor, Betterbee. ...
Bee Suits and Protective Clothing (092)
Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - September 22, 2022 10:00 - 21 minutes ★★★★★ - 100 ratingsOne of the first pieces of equipment a new beekeeper buys is a bee suit. If they don’t buy a bee suit, they will at least buy a veil. Stings on the face are not only painful (and memorable to all who see it), they can be dangerous if it is directly to one’s eye or around the eyes. In today’s epi...
Extracting Honey (091)
Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - September 15, 2022 10:30 - 26 minutes ★★★★★ - 100 ratingsMoving boxes full of honey is usually a lot of work. The bees aren’t happy, the boxes are heavy, it’s hot and you have all your gear on to be safe. The one sure way to make this easier is to use devices that have wheels. Two-wheelers, carts, your truck, all make moving boxes of honey less work. ...
Removing Honey (090)
Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - September 08, 2022 10:00 - 18 minutes ★★★★★ - 100 ratingsHarvesting your honey crop isn’t about keeping bees, in fact, it is hard work. It’s when you start questioning your spring decision to expand your number of colonies. On the other hand, it’s a good measure of how well you kept bees during the season. And there are a lot of ways to convince the b...
Rim, Feeding Rim or Spacer (089)
Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - September 01, 2022 10:00 - 20 minutes ★★★★★ - 100 ratingsSo, what’s that thing you put between two supers to give additional space between top bars below and bottom bars above so there’s room for…something you want to add to the hive. Is it a spacer, a rim, or what? Kim has always called it a ‘rim’ and thought he had one until this week. Because it’...
Related Flottum Topics
- Apiary 2
- Beekeeper 2
- Beekeeping 2
- Bees 2
- Beeswax 2
- Honey 2
- Honeybees 2
- Insects 2
- Pollen 2
- Pollination 2