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Author: Ray Hewitt

3 Mistakes in Late Winter Beekeeping!

Is your bee colony ready for spring, or are they on the brink of starvation? Join Master Beekeeper Ray Hewitt from Honey Top Bees in Chapin, SC, as he shares the 3 essential Do’s and 3 critical Don’ts for late winter hive management. Don’t be fooled by the melting snow—this is the most dangerous time of year for your honeybees!

In this video, you’ll learn:
How to check if your bees are alive without opening the hive (including using a thermal camera!).
The “heft test” for checking food stores.
When to feed fondant vs. sugar water.
The danger of opening hives and swapping boxes too early.
How to clear hive entrances to prevent colony loss.

0:00 – Introduction: The Dangers of Late Winter
0:53 – Do #1: Checking if the Bees Made It
2:13 – Using a Thermal Camera for Hive Inspections
3:13 – Do #2: Assessing Food Stores (The Heft Test)
4:41 – Do #3: Cleaning Out Hive Entrances
6:00 – Don’t #1: Opening the Hive Too Early
7:06 – Don’t #2: Feeding Sugar Water Too Soon
8:35 – Don’t #3: Swapping Boxes Too Early
10:30 – Final Tips for Spring Success

#Beekeeping #HoneyTopBees #WinterBeekeeping #MasterBeekeeper #HiveManagement #Honeybees #BeekeepingTips #SaveTheBees

10,000-Year History of Beekeeping – From Cave Paintings to Langstroth

📜 Brief History of Beekeeping!

From ancient cave paintings to today’s modern apiaries, beekeeping has one of the most fascinating histories of any agricultural practice. In this video, we explore the evolution of beekeeping — how early humans first discovered honey, how civilizations like the Egyptians and Greeks advanced hive management, and how modern beekeepers use science and technology to care for honey bees today.

Whether you are a new beekeeper, an experienced apiarist, or simply fascinated by honey bees, this deep dive into the history of beekeeping will give you a new appreciation for the craft and the creatures that make it possible.

🐝 What You’ll Learn:
The earliest evidence of humans working with honey bees
How ancient civilizations practiced beekeeping
The development of early hives and tools
The invention of the modern movable-frame hive
How beekeeping has changed in the last 100 years
Why honey bees remain critical to agriculture today

🌍 Why This Matters
Beekeeping is not just a hobby — it is a practice that shaped human survival, trade, medicine, and agriculture. Understanding its history helps us become better stewards of the bees we depend on.

🔍 Keywords beekeeping history, evolution of beekeeping, ancient beekeeping, honey bee history, apiary, honey bees, beekeeping for beginners, how beekeeping started, modern beekeeping, beekeeping education, honey production, ancient civilizations and bees, beekeeping timeline

👍 If you enjoyed this video:
Like, subscribe, and share it with fellow beekeepers and bee enthusiasts.

Photo Credits – photos in this presentation were curated from various websites. Some were created by AI as well.

New videos every week on beekeeping, honey bees, hive management, and bee education.

My Bee Yards Got Hit With Snow – Here’s What I Found

It doesn’t happen often, but South Carolina just got hit with a “Snow Blast!” Today I’m heading out to the Honey Top Bees yard to see how the colonies are handling this rare winter weather.

I’m used to our mild Southern winters, but this snow brings back memories of beekeeping with my dad in Vermont. In this video, I’m checking Hive 1 through Hive 23, clearing out some of those snow-blocked entrances and assessing the draft.

The Big Question: To my friends up north: what’s your go-to move? Do you let the snow provide insulation, or do you keep those entrances clear for ventilation? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

Preparing hives for the big ice storm

#beekeeping #winterbeekeeping #hiveinspection #honeybees #deadout #apiary #honeytopbees #winterbeekeeping

Winter is the “make or break” moment for every apiary. In today’s video, we are heading into the yard for a transparent look at how our colonies are faring. Beekeeping isn’t always about the honey—sometimes it’s about the hard lessons learned from a winter “dead-out.”

We’ll walk through several hives to show you the difference between a thriving cluster and a colony that didn’t make it. We’ll perform a hive autopsy to look for signs of starvation and moisture issues, and we’ll also highlight the “gold standard” of winter survival.

In this video, we cover:

Queen Status & Cluster Size: How to identify a healthy, heat-producing cluster without chilling the bees.

Brood Patterns: Looking for the first signs of spring buildup.

Food Store Assessment: Checking honey and pollen levels to determine if emergency feeding is required.

The “Dead-Out” Analysis: Analyzing a loss to prevent it from happening next year.

Action Taken: Adding sugar fondant patties and adjusting moisture management.

Honey Fraud Is Worse Than You Think

Great Honey Heist: Why Your “Pure” Honey Might Be Rice Syrup
:
Is the honey in your pantry actually just flavored rice syrup? 🍯

🚫 Honey is now the third most adulterated food product in the world, and the scale of the fraud is shocking. In this video, we talk about the “Honey Laundering” supply chain, explain why 70-80% of U.S. honey is imported, and break down the chemistry fraudsters use to trick the lab tests.
We dive deep into the difference between C3 and C4 sugars, why “Packed in the USA” doesn’t mean what you think it does, and how this billion-dollar fraud is crushing American beekeepers.

📌 KEY CONCEPTS EXPLAINED:
• The Math Problem: Americans consume roughly 600 million pounds of honey a year, but we only produce about 134 million pounds domestically. This massive deficit is filled by imports—primarily from India, Vietnam, and Argentina.
• C4 vs. C3 Sugars: Old-school fraud used corn syrup (a C4 plant). Regulators catch this easily with Carbon Isotope testing. Modern fraudsters have switched to Rice and Beet syrups (C3 plants), which mimic the chemical fingerprint of natural honey and evade standard FDA testing.
• Honey Laundering: To avoid tariffs, Chinese honey is often shipped to third-party countries (like India or Vietnam), re-labeled to hide its origin, and then shipped to the US. This is known as transshipment.
• The Regulatory Gap: Unlike many foods, the FDA has no mandatory federal “Standard of Identity” for honey, making prosecution difficult.

📊 SOURCES & DATA:
• FDA Import Alert on Honey Adulteration
• USDA Sugar and Sweetener Outlook
• NMR vs. SCIRA testing methodologies
• Investigation into “Operation Honeygate”

⚠️ DISCLAIMER: This video is for educational purposes only. The information presented is based on public government reports, scientific studies, and market data.

#HoneyFraud #FoodFraud #Beekeeping #SaveTheBees #ConsumerProtection #Chemistry #FoodScience #HoneyLaundering

Ray Ultimate Beginners Beekeeping Video Course

My descriptive promotional Video for my all new video based beekeeping course.
Are you thinking about starting beekeeping? Don’t let a bad first year ruin your experience! This video introduces a comprehensive beekeeping course for beginners, featuring over 40 lessons to guide you. Ray, a certified master bee keeper, aims to help viewers have a successful and sweet first year with this essential beekeeping training, covering all the beekeeping basics you need to know.