Christy Hemenway's guest appearances

Christy Hemenway

Regenerative Skills

Beekeeping Today Podcast

Gabe Brown

Brad Lancaster

Permaculture Homesteading

John Moody

Joel Salatin

Curtis Stone

Steve Gabriel

Leah Penniman

Brian Von Herzen

Peter McCoy

Rob Roy

Michael Smith

MARK SHEPARD

John Miller

Eric Toensmeier

OwlTail

We continue with our five-part series on hive types other than the standard Langstroth, with Christy Hemenway. Christy has been working with top bar hives for just over 14 years now and has developed a good sense of how they work. She started out liking them because – It’s all about the wax – clean wax was important to her and top bar hives produce clean wax. No foundation to fuss with and no contaminants to worry about, so it’s perfect for cut comb honey, or the crush and drain method of harvesting liquid honey. But there’s a lot more. NO heavy lifting is a definite plus with these hives, because all you ever have to lift is a single frame at a time. The top bars are set such that they snuggle up next to each other, so no openings in the top of the hive when you open a top bar hive, which keeps the bees inside, not flitting around, giving you a hard time. And, because they are beveled on the bottom, there is actually more surface for the bees to attach the comb than if just a straight wooden stick. There are a few tricks to learn when handling top bar hive frames, but overall, pretty straight forward with lifting and turning and rolling frames. The only downside she sees is that these hives won’t produce a ton of honey for you and they are a tad more difficult to move around than a Langstroth, but they are perfect for a smaller scale backyard beekeeper who worries more about the bees than the honey. In a lot of ways, these are very different from a Langstroth hive, but again, if it’s good for the bees, it’s probably not so good for the beekeeper. Which would you prefer? Links and websites mentioned in this podcast:  Gold Star Honey Bees - https://www.goldstarhoneybees.com Christy's Amazon Books Author's Page - https://www.amazon.com/Christy-Hemenway/e/B008C8BNAS     Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com   __ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee’s mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode!  We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. ___ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: questions@beekeepingtodaypodcast.com Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com  Thank you for listening!  Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

We continue with our five-part series on hive types other than the standard Langstroth, with Christy Hemenway. Christy has been working with top bar hives for just over 14 years now and has developed a good sense of how they work. She started out liking them because – It’s all about the wax – clean wax was important to her and top bar hives produce clean wax. No foundation to fuss with and no contaminants to worry about, so it’s perfect for cut comb honey, or the crush and drain method of harvesting liquid honey. But there’s a lot more. NO heavy lifting is a definite plus with these hives, because all you ever have to lift is a single frame at a time. The top bars are set such that they snuggle up next to each other, so no openings in the top of the hive when you open a top bar hive, which keeps the bees inside, not flitting around, giving you a hard time. And, because they are beveled on the bottom, there is actually more surface for the bees to attach the comb than if just a straight wooden stick. There are a few tricks to learn when handling top bar hive frames, but overall, pretty straight forward with lifting and turning and rolling frames. The only downside she sees is that these hives won’t produce a ton of honey for you and they are a tad more difficult to move around than a Langstroth, but they are perfect for a smaller scale backyard beekeeper who worries more about the bees than the honey. In a lot of ways, these are very different from a Langstroth hive, but again, if it’s good for the bees, it’s probably not so good for the beekeeper. Which would you prefer? Links and websites mentioned in this podcast: <ul> <li>Gold Star Honey Bees - <a href="https://www.goldstarhoneybees.com" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.goldstarhoneybees.com</a></li> <li>Christy's Amazon Books Author's Page - <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Christy-Hemenway/e/B008C8BNAS" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.com/Christy-Hemenway/e/B008C8BNAS</a></li> </ul> <ul> <li>Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - <a href="https://www.honeybeeobscura.com" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.honeybeeobscura.com</a></li> </ul> __ We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee’s mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at <a href="https://www.betterbee.com" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">www.betterbee.com</a> Thanks to <a href="https://www.strongmicrobials.com" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Strong Microbials</a> for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our <a href="https://beekeepingtodaypodcast.com/strong-microbial-with-drs-vera-and-slava-strogolova-s3-e12" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Season 3, Episode 12</a> episode and from their website: <a href="https://www.strongmicrobials.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.strongmicrobials.com</a> This episode is brought to you by <a href="http://globalpatties.com" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Global Patties</a>! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at <a href="http://globalpatties.com" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">http://globalpatties.com</a> and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode!  We want to also thank <a href="https://www.2millionblossoms.com" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">2 Million Blossoms</a> as a sponsor of the podcast. <a href="https://www.2millionblossoms.com" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">2 Million Blossoms</a> is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum. ___ We hope you enjoy this podcast and welcome your questions and comments: <a href="mailto:questions@beekeepingtodaypodcast.com" rel="noopener">questions@beekeepingtodaypodcast.com</a> Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of The Beekeeping Today Podcast. Available in print and digital at <a href="http://www.beeculture.com" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">www.beeculture.com</a> Thank you for listening! Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC

Hive Types - Part 2: Top Bar Hives with Christy Hemenway  (S3, E49)

The world of honey bees has always been a mystery to me. I feel confident taking care of plants, animals, building and even fungi, but bees? In todays interview I spoke with one of the most outspoken advocates of beekeeping Christy Hemenway, found of Gold Star Honey Bees and author of the book “The Thinking Beekeeper: a guide to natural beekeeping in top bar hives.”In this interview Christy introduced me to the way that bees have been managed at an industrial level and some of the many nuanced causes of colony collapse disorder. She also goes in depth about the many benefits that bees have for our environment and agriculture that go far beyond honey production, and wraps up by giving some invaluable advice on how to start and manage your own home scale hive. Christy has tons of great resources including a great TEDx talk she gave a few years backResources:Get the book, "The Thinking Beekeeper"Christy's TEDx talkgoldstarhoneybees.com

The world of honey bees has always been a mystery to me. I feel confident taking care of plants, animals, building and even fungi, but bees? In todays interview I spoke with one of the most outspoken advocates of beekeeping Christy Hemenway, found of Gold Star Honey Bees and author of the book “The Thinking Beekeeper: a guide to natural beekeeping in top bar hives.” In this interview Christy introduced me to the way that bees have been managed at an industrial level and some of the many nuanced causes of colony collapse disorder. She also goes in depth about the many benefits that bees have for our environment and agriculture that go far beyond honey production, and wraps up by giving some invaluable advice on how to start and manage your own home scale hive. Christy has tons of great resources including a great TEDx talk she gave a few years back Resources: Get the book, "The Thinking Beekeeper" Christy's TEDx talk <a href="http://goldstarhoneybees.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">goldstarhoneybees.com</a>

An intimate peek into the world of bees with Christy Hemenway, the author of “The Thinking Beekeeper:” 059