Just like the bees, Beepods.com may have seemed quiet this winter, but deep inside we've been buzzing with activity. Now that its nearing Spring, just as the bees will take a cleansing flight outside the hive on a warm day, let me take some time to tell you what we've been up to while appearing to be dormant.

Many people know that 2010 was our first year in business. We began in earnest to create Beepods.com, the business, on the day following the passing of an ordinance to permit Beekeeping in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Working nights with David Hinterberg of Burnwerks.com in his family's Quilting Machine manufacturing plant in West Bend, Wisconsin, we developed the Top Bar Hive known today as a Beepod. We produced a number of prototypes til we settled on a design that we introduced to a dozen amateur and experienced beekeepers. We assisted them, photographed and studied their interactions—making a number of revisions and new products to help them keep beekeeping fun and easy. As autumn began and the bees were busy readying for winter, we too began setting up the procedures and means to begin full-scale production of the Beepods in time for the holiday season. For in beekeeping, planning bee-gins during the Winter, in advance of the following spring.

Unfortunately, economic hardship was taking its toll on the family's Quilt Making Machine business and soon Hinterberg Design found themselves forced to sell the business to a supplier in Iowa. Beepods were at a pivotal point in development, gearing up advertising and marketing for a big push and now we were forced to find another business with the specific machinery to be able to manufacture the parts. This proved to be harder than anyone anticipated as few woodshops utilized such expensive computer controlled devices of the size required to setup multiple parts to cut in one execution.  Those that did, were not setup for manufacturing production items, rather they were setup for one-off custom cabinetry or had their own product line everything was setup to produce.

After a long search we teamed up with another local manufacturer and began the arduous task of translating the prototype into a machine code that their equipment and shop could successfully produce. Along the way we had additional meetings where we were able to further enhance the Beepod's functionality, performance and construction.

The new Beepod represents the culmination of several years of critical observation, study and construction know-how, teamed up with some brilliant designers, thinkers and beekeepers, produced in an excellent fabrication shop that again helped us to stand firmly in our conviction to BEE BUILT OF WISCONSIN, BY WISCONSIN, IN WISCONSIN!

We've created the best natural beehive product using sustainably harvested wood from local native American forests in Northern Wisconsin, by a skilled labor force at an awesome manufacturing facility in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin.

Lastly, we've moved our offices to Milwaukee's Sweetwater Organics Facility to team up with their Aquaponics Production and Educational Faculty as their Pollination team. We are expanding our education and advocacy programming to reach out to schools, communities and urban ecology centers to teach the value of bees and the methods of natural, sustainable beekeeping in Top Bar Hives.

So now we return from our cleansing flight to the cluster of activity that is our final details of applying wood treatments, assembly, packaging and creation of instructional materials in time for delivery this Spring.

We beg your patience and understanding as we deal with the final details before shipping out our first production run of new Beepods. Your wait will bee well worthwhile, we promise!

Many have asked what needs to be done to prepare the Beepods for overwintering? There are basically five steps and and extra credit option you can do.

1) Remove Bars—On a nice sunny warm day open the Inner Chamber and remove any bars that are unused or empty comb. If there are some with nectar and bees working on them, you can elect to leave one... but remember, the open space is harder to control temperature so the less-the better.

2) Relocate Honey— Bees will move from one side to another during winter. Eating the store of pollen and honey as they go. Typically on an End-Entrance Beepod, they'll have one or two Pollen/Honey bars against the end-wall for insulation, then brood, then food stores. If they have more than two at the start, or have brood mixed in with food along the way, you should look to migrate the food toward the back and brood after the first two insulation bars. Bees will work away from the entrance eating food as they go. Come Spring, they'll be at the other side and need to be moved to the entrance in April.

3) Add Honey Stores— After the first frost, most of the necar and pollen will have gone as the plants freeze and die. Now is the time to add your saved honey stores to the far end of the Inner Chamber. This gives the bees additional food to make it through the winter.

4) Close Entrances— Now's the time to close off the entrances both sides and ends. Any entrance they use should be reduced to enough space for a couple bees at a time to pass through. This can be a challenge for the side slider entrances if the bees have filled the grooves with propolis... then you need to carefully tap on the handle with a hammer to free it up. End Entrrances either have a cover placed over them with a 5/16" hole, or use the Follower board with a hole drilled in to allow access. Also make sure the vent board is closed or has the smallest of openings for ventilation.

5) Moisture/Insulation Material— Either use pantyhose filled with fine sawdust, or Biltrite® moisture-absorbing boards to wick moisture from the hive. Place cloth strips between end and inner chamber for additional insulation. Pantyhose legs on either side of the lid-rails on top the Inner Chamber. Or buy the BuiltRite Inserts and put them in the lid before closing up.

Optional) You can put straw bales or natural wind-blocks around the beepod to stop the brutal cold... or bring the Beepod into your cold shed or garage. BUT- don't bring it into the house or anyplace that gets warmer than 40 degrees regularly, as the bees will tend to eat their reserves faster if they all are moving around more...

Thanks to everyone at FarmAid, Joel, Cornelia and all the Staff and volunteers. Thanks to all the wonderful, respectful and awesome people who come from across this great nation to gather together in solidarity for our farming community!

We were honored to be able to share our vision of ways to help preserve nature's pollinators in urban and rural farmlands. We believe it is essential to revive decentralized beekeeping with the same urgency we place on family farms.

Beekeeping was essential to the earliest settlers in the USA. Honeybees were brought to America in 1644 by settlers to insure crops thrived and prospered. Today Honeybees pollinate more than one of every three bites of food we eat. Whether the Alfalfa that feeds our animals, the fruits and vegetables, the nuts and grains, even cotton would not be possible were it not for honeybee pollination!

Thanks to everyone who stopped and visited with us during the Homegrown Event at FarmAid. We hope you found our Beepods and localized beekeeping ideas helpful.

We just ordered the raw materials to begin a production run of 40 Beepods for completion December 1st.... Just in time for the holidays.

Remember bees must be ordered in january for delivery in April. Tat leaves plenty of time to take bee classes and ready for next season...

The weekend hauled in a bounty of Harvest Festivals in Milwaukee... Beepods were busy displaying at three areas events.

The Urban Ecology Center had their Harvest Fest in conjunction the Victory Garden Initiative and Transition Milwaukee who hosted a rummage fest and Hazel nut tree planting. Jesse Spanaus led two large groups of people on Hive Inspections of the rooftop Beepod.

Dave Hinterberg was at Weber's Havestfest... the GreenBay Road greenhouse held a two-day equinox gathering which featured many great exhibits and showcased the historic plant place's new owners vision of locally sustainable urban farming.

Wauwatosa's main economic hub was closed to cars and instead filled with tents and vendors sharing their methods of becoming green and sustainable. Terri Kinis held down the tent talking up bees and changing the beekeeping ordinances in Wauwatosa... all while consuming copious amounts propolis and honey to fight back a"schools back in session" cold.

Meantime Slow Fooders set off to the Lynden Sculpture Garden for an intimate afternoon event in the newly remodeled farmstead overlooking their beautiful public grounds. Beepods was represented by Charlie Koenen, who demonstrated the simplicity ad style of the top bar hive to several interested gardeners and local slow food lovers who enjoyed also LW Dairy, Growing Power, Wisconsin Maple Syrup and Rishi Tea products. later that evening they held a fundraiser for the local movement and Walnut Way.

We had several interested people place orders for Beepods and others take info on classes and trainings. Our next order of Beepods is due to ship December 1st just in time for the Holidays... think Beepods now for beekeeping next year.

The other day a madison beekeeper forum reported a HUGE swarm of bees descended upon a beekeepers freshly harvested supers as he left them next to the hive he took them from to allow the bees to "lick the plate" so to speak... Apparently many time the number of bees from that hive just appeared and began gorging on the open food buffet.

The frenzied bee pile was at least several hundred thousand strong and there was much fighting too. Wasps and hornets also joined the party but were kept at bay by the sheer mass of bees.

So what is the deal? One thought is that this might be a shot across the bow of Urban Beekeeping... if too many urban beekeepers let swarms go free... then entire colonies might run rouge in the cities making a bad name for the good beekeepers. I hope this is not the case, but fear... the lack of choices to use Top Bar Hives rather than stacked box commercial hives could cause trouble as swarms can happen more frequently as new beekeepers decide not to inspect their hives on a hot August weekend.

So spread the word about Beepods... get people doing safer beekeeping in horizontal hives that can easily be maintained in the hottest weather in a fraction of the time.

Or... perhaps the bees are just totally hungry because its so late in the plant's seasons... and they're desperate to find anything and several hives visited to rob this source...

Either way this beekeeper did the right ting and put the messy supers back on the hive to let the bees clean it up from the inside. He reported the large mass of bees buzzed around for about and hours before leaving he and his neighbors in awe.

Whats up with that? There are multiple reports of Bees swarming in Madison, Milwaukee and elsewhere??? Have you heard about one?

Bees are supposed to be storing up for winter during late summer early autumn. Traditionally this is the "popcorn" honey... you'll smell and uncanny scent of hot-buttered popcorn as you approach the hive... the honey is at its darkest and the area's floral diversity begins to dwindle to the final flowers of summer and fall... goldenrod, thistles, sedum, sunflowers and mums.

But this year things are kinda crazy... many hives have little honey storage while others have just swarmed? Is it due to the crazy climate conditions? Scientists have recently speculated that the changing global temperatures are causing the plants to react faster than the insects who rely on them.

Possibly the bees are off by a month and still think this is August? Monarch butterflies were recently seen on migration along Lake Michigan... and that's a bit late in the year too... only time will tell. Most hives have been gathering a bumper crop of pollen and are days from hatching their winter bees.... maybe they know more than we about when that killing frost is coming?

Sure is an interesting time for beekeepers.

Another dramatic dance is happening in nature right now. As autumn progresses, less flowers are in-bloom and the Nectar Flow diminishes—many insects become desperate to find food. Now is the time when wasps really give bees a bad name. Hungry wasps will soon be headed to your picnic or gathering to find sugary soda cans, dinner meals and open containers on porches, parties and outdoor eateries everywhere.

Also playing at a beehive entrance near you, wasps are trying to find food. Even other bees will sharply increase the practice of robbing from other hives to ensure they heave enough resources to make it through the winter. Watch the entrances of you hives and see if your bees seem to reject certain bees trying to enter the hive. They are likely from another hive hoping to gorge on some food in a neighboring hive.

Great battles ensue between brave bees guarding their entrances. With sheer numbers, these guards and their single sting attack wasps who can make pin-cushions out of their adversaries. But bees do have strong mandibles or jaws that can tear a wasp up if given the chance. Quite the wrestlemania at the hive doors these days.

Now's the time here in SE Wisconsin when the hive is beginning to ready for the long winter. The Drone brood is being destroyed by worker bees and within days, the live Drones will be ushered out the entrances and told never to return. You'll soon see lots of sad big-eyed bees hanging out at the entrances begging to bee let back in... but they provide no value to the hive over winter and so must go. Meanwhile hungry wasps and hornets are fighting over the larvae, pupae and defenseless Drones. Quite an interesting time for Beekeepers.