Crazy Surge In Beekeeping www.honeybeesonline.com 217-427-2678

Hello from Long Lane Honey Bee Farms we are David and Sheri Burns. You can run out to the farm store and buy a hive, order a book on beekeeping, and get a package of bees from Billy Bob’s truck whenever he comes through town. But is that really what  you want to do? Why not start with one of our brand new, clean hives, fully assembled, American made right here in Illinois, painted and sturdy, built by beekeepers! We provide a fresh 3 lbs package with a mated queen that you pick up only a couple of days after it is packaged. And take a class by a certified master beekeeper when you pick up your hives . We are here for you.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Some of our customers desire to purchase equipment online but want to avoid shipping cost by picking items up here locally. Many of our online items have fixed shipping. It is best to call us to place a pick up order. 217-427-2678 With gas prices so low, consider coming over and picking up your hives. Thank you!

This year has started out as a phenomenal year with interest in beekeeping. I have never seen such a huge interest in beekeeping. It is very exciting. Not only are we seeing this surge in people buying hives and bees from us, but our classes are filling up like crazy! Our first two beginner classes in February and March are sold out. If you are thinking about taking a class I would suggest you secure your spot quickly.

Our next beginner classes with spots available are:
Mar. 18  Basic Beginners Class  Friday 8 a.m. - 1 p.m. (Only 4 spots left)
Apr.   2  Basic Beginners Class  Saturday 8 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Apr.   3  Basic Beginners Class  Sunday 1 p.m. - 6 p.m.

New to our class menu is: Spring Management. We scheduled this class for March 19th and it quickly sold out. So we added another one last week for March 26th and it is now over half filled. If you’d like to learn what to do with your hive in the spring such as making splits, swarm control and more, sign up now  Spring: Splits, Swarms, Supering and Survival (Spots Still Available).

INFO ON ATTENDING ONE OF OUR CLASSES

People from around the US have taken our classes and even a few from other countries. If you live out of the area, we are only a couple hours from O'Hare International airport in Chicago and only an hour and fifteen minutes from the Indianapolis International airport.

There is a beautiful winery less than a mile from our farm where you can stay. Some of our students have stayed there and it is new, and can sleep 5-10 people, and has a full kitchen etc.

This is a great place to stay for those attending our Beekeeping Institute. June 10-12 Beekeeping Institute 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. each day


Check it out: Sleepy Creek. But there are also name brand hotels near by. If you live far away, make it into a working vacation and come take a class.

If you are still undecided about taking a class consider breaking up the monotony of winter. The winter doldrums can really get us down. This is a great time to take classes, socialize with other beekeepers and just see something different than your frozen yard.

By taking a class you WILL avoid making many mistakes. Some mistakes your bees may not recover from and you will regret losing your bees to your mistakes. A state inspector informed me that the best hives that she inspected were from my students. The right information is powerful.

To view all of our 2016 classes click here, but remember they are filling up so fast! http://www.honeybeesonline.com/bee-classes/

Thanks for all the birthday wishes everyone! My bday was Jan. 20th and you loaded up our Facebook page with so many kind comments. Thank you.

NEW BEE VIDEO BLOG

We are having a blast making daily Vlogs. Usually they have something to do with bees, but not always. And we are back to producing more beekeeping podcasts as well. We are hoping to have 50,000 subscribers to our video channel on YouTube by the end of the year. We just cracked 5,060 so spread the word and subscribe and get your friends and family to subscribe. Follow this link to subscribe or to watch our popular beekeeping videos.


Here’s a few ways you can help make this a huge success in promoting beekeeping:

1. Send us your questions, or submit your questions at the bottom of each video. I’ll try and answer them as quickly as possible.
2. Leave your positive comments below our videos.
3. Subscribe to our YouTube channel.
4. Feel free to stop in and visit us during business hours and with your permission we’ll add your visit to our vlogs.
5. Tell others. Word of mouth is powerful.

BEEKEEPING VOCAB
Five words to learn are:

Precocious- When bees develop certain abilities at an earlier age than normal, usually out of necessity.
Trophallaxis- The exchange of food from one bee to another.
Polyethism-  Describes a division of labor within a colony carried out at different ages.
Thelytoky- A type of parthenogenesis in which females are produced from unfertilized eggs. More common among cape honey bees but it is possible among apis mellifera (Our European Honey Bees)
Parthenogenesis- With honey bees, it is when a drone develops from an unfertilized egg.

Now you can really show off at the next association meeting.

WINTER TIP
In the next few months colonies in the north will slowly start raising more and more brood for spring, thus increasing the demand for more food and heat. In other words, February and March are when most colonies crash because they simply starve out. And the number of bees are lower resulting in less heat in the hive. Keep Winter-Bee-Kinds on your hives during these critical months. Once it warms up and bees fly, you can switch to our Burns Bees Feeding System and feed 1:1 Sugar water for spring build up.

WINTER-BEE-KIND UPDATE

We are still selling lots of Winter-Bee-Kinds. It’s never too late to add one to your hive as long as it is cold outside. As soon as your bees finish one be sure to refill it with the recipe we provide or purchase another one. Do not think that one is enough if they eat it all early in the winter. Keep feeding your bees for maximum spring build up. Visit our Winter Feeding Solutions now.

PACKAGE BEE UPDATE
We sold out of individual packages of bees in less than 20 days. A new record. Because of the surge of new beginners taking classes and seeking equipment, we have reserved packages of bees only with our hive kits. So if you are looking for a complete kit with packages of bees (pick up only), then click here. If you are looking for just individual packages without hives, we do NOT know of a source we would recommend at this time.

WE HAVE EXPANDED OUR HOURS
We have expanded our hours to help meet the needs of those who cannot call during work hours.
Mon 9am-6pm Central Time
Tues-Thur 9am-4pm Central Time

We work so hard that we are closed to the public on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  217-427-2678

Before you visit us, please be sure we are open and if you are coming to buy certain equipment please call first to be sure we have what you want in stock.

Now, since we serve the entire US, please remember we are in the central time zone. So check out what time it is here if you live outside the central time zone or you may be calling outside of our hours.

BEEKEEPING EXPERTS AVAILABLE 4 DAYS A WEEK
Four days a week we have beekeeping experts available to answer your questions. Recently I saw a big box store bragging that they had a beekeeping expert one day a year. To be successful, you need more than one talk. You can call us Mon-Thur and we are dedicated to help our customers. In fact, our customers prefer to purchase their bees, hives and equipment from us and pick it all up when they take a class. Daily we have prospective beekeepers who call us, not knowing anything about beekeeping, and we are able to walk them through the entire process. There is no reason to stumble around not knowing what to do next.

OUR FACEBOOK PAGE IS A COOL PLACE TO HANG OUT
Stop by and visit our Facebook page. Almost daily we share cool photos, videos and important beekeeping tips, discoveries and important facts. Be sure to check us out.

Thank you for making Long Lane Honey Bee Farms a fun, family business!
David and Sheri Burns