Average Joe Beekeeper

08/15/2026

Avg. Joe Beekeeper Hint 26-08: Commuter Honey & BeekSpeak [087]

Some more well-known beekeeping terms, or BeekSpeak, include “Beek” a contraction of Beekeeper, “Nuc” (pronounced “newk”) which is a shortened version of “Nucleus Hive” (which is the heart of a hive box), or “AmBEEsador” (Beekeeping Ambassador) which is mentioned in Hint 26-04 [083].

The practice of creating new words is Neologism and, in that realm, Portmanteau, the blending of two existing words to form a new one, is often experienced in many endeavors including beekeeping.

A perfect example is “BeeCabulary” which is in the title of a text called “BeeCabulary Essentials”. As the title suggests, the publication outlines various terms and expressions that are considered fundamental to the practice of beekeeping. Another handbook containing BeekSpeak is “Do You Speak Bee?” Both books can assist beekeepers at all levels understand the “jargon” of the journey with bees.

The definitions for various methods, processes, procedures or experiences are still being coined hundreds of years after formal records of these techniques were created and, in that vein, I’d like to another term to that list.

How about “Commuter Honey”?

When you commute to work in your nice clothes, if you try to eat toast with honey while driving, the honey can run onto your clothes and ruin your polished look. That’s where Creamed Honey comes in handy. It won’t run off your toast, thus Creamed Honey can be perfectly defined as “Commuter Honey”!

What about another one? Beeople!

The folks who deal with bees, whether Beekeepers, Bee Scientists or folks looking to Save the Bees, they are Bee People or Beeople (pronounced “bee-pull”)!

Rounding out this set of BeekSpeak with a few more --
Beezilldo.

An old beekeeper I knew in Colorado used to say "Bees Will Do What Bees Will Do" when the bees did something unexpected. With a bit of a drawl and speaking fast it always sounded to me like he was saying "Beezilldo". I liken it to the 1988 Horror, Fantasy, Comedy film "Beetle Juice". If you say it fast three times, bad things can happen. So I never say it in quick succession three times, especially in the bee yard. Since the "Bees Don't Read Our Books" (that's another story) the Bees Will Do What the Bees Will Do or Beezilldo!

Ranch and High Rise 10-frame hives

Another one that I like is the Ranch style and High Rise 10 frame hive "boxes". In my way of thinking, a two story 5 frame nuc is a high rise 10-frame while a single deep is a 10 frame ranch... I guess if you have 4-frame nucs you could also have 8-frame Ranches & High Rises!

There are more BeekSpeak terms just waiting to be uncovered or invented. What new terms might you discover or create? See less

08/15/2026

Avg. Joe Beekeeper Hint 26-07 - Honey Shows [086]

What is a Honey Show’s purpose?

Many will tell you that it is a contest to pick the “best” honey.
At a County Fair, winning a blue ribbon is considered a selling point for those who then market their product as the “best honey in the county”.

Honey “Shows” have been around since the 1300s in Wales when on September 13th annually, beekeepers were allowed one tax-free day each year to sell their honey. This tax-free day transformed into an informal competition to show who had the “Best Honey”.

But the “best” is subject to individual preference and there are so many factors and variables involved that today’s best may be tomorrow’s worst and vice versa.

Technically, a Honey Show, whether a Fair, Festival or run by a Beekeeping Club or Association, is about demonstrating food safety. Judging of a bottle (or bottles) of honey shows product integrity and sanitation, demonstrates that safe food processing has been followed, indicates thorough attention to detail has been pursued and reveals a vast level of pride in the workmanship of the beekeeper.

Yes, the aroma of the honey is sampled along with the honey being tasted but not to determine which exhibit tastes best, but rather to ensure the product hasn’t been overheated or burnt during processing and bottling. It also implies that the water density is in the proper range to avoid fermentation and will allow long term storage without spoilage.

The bottom line is that the consumer can trust that the producer has practiced safe food handling if the honey they’re buying is a prize winner in any Honey Show!

07/24/2026

For those of you in Winston-Salem, NC and the surrounding areas, the Average Joe Beekeeper, Joe Komperda, will be presenting "Bee Engaged: An Average Joe Beekeeper's Guide to Marketing Your Hive Products" at the Forsyth County Beekeepers Association monthly meeting on August 1, 2026 at Kernersville FD #42, 1180 NC-66, Kernersville, NC 27284.

The evening meeting kicks off with a Pot-Luck at 5:30 and the presentation at approximately 7pm. for more information on the program go to:

Please join us as we host Joe Komperda “The Average Joe Beekeeper” this month as he discusses various aspects of Marketing your Hive Products as a means of supporting your beekeeping efforts and perhaps even making some money! He’ll talk about Honey, touching on both extraction and labelling y...

07/24/2026

Avg. Joe Beekeeper Hint #26-06 [085]: Which Bee is for Me?

Scientifically, the Western honey bee (not honeybee), Apis mellifera, is one of between 7 to 10 worldwide bee species (depending on the reference you’re using) that produce excess honey that can be harvested.

Earlier referred to as the European Honey Bee, A. mellifera is divided into 5 evolutionary lineages that are found in Africa, Western Asia/Middle East and Europe. These are further divided into 33 distinct subspecies as of 2020*. These subspecies are not only based on their geographic location (see the accompanying graphic) but also on physical characteristics like body part measurements and wing shape analysis called morphometry.

With modern technological advances, six specific bee enzymes can be evaluated, and different subspecies have been assigned using the results of these analyses. But this isn’t definitive for some of the subspecies. Mitochondrial DNA methods can be used to further identify the various subspecies but because of geographic crossovers in the three continental groupings, there still isn’t complete consensus on which subspecies belong to which lineages.

But in practice, most beekeepers in North America and Europe generally keep bees from the European lineages including Italians (A. m. ligustisa), Carniolans (A. m. carnica), Russians (A. m. artemisia) or from the Western Asia and the Middle East lineages including Caucasians (A. m. caucasia) and the Black Bee (A. m. mellifera).

Additional Hints and Tips will provide insight into some of the traits and characteristics of the most popular subspecies to help you decide “Which bee is for Me?”.

* Reference: A revision of subspecies structure of western honey bee Apis mellifera, Rustem A Ilyasov et al, 2020.

07/14/2026

Been a busy few weeks - about 3 weeks ago I learned of a potential location in the mountains to chase Sourwood honey. I’ll be writing about the process and my personal experience in the next few weeks. Besides that, I sat for the American Honey Judges Association (AHJA - honeyshowusa.com) exam to become a Certified Honey Judge & then attended the largest ever North Carolina State Beekeepers Association summer meeting and presented 2 workshops. This weekend I’ll be the Secretary for the South Carolina State Beekeepers Summer meeting so, as I indicated earlier it has been busy with travel, conferences, presentations & preparation on top of beekeeping and regular “chores”.

These experiences and activities have provided me numerous opportunities to think of new Hints, Tips & Bits of Info so look for a flurry of activity here in the next days & weeks!

Remember to “Bee Happy & Buzz Along” and "It is Hard to Say 'Bees' without Smiling"!

American Honey Judges Association The HJA trains judges and secretaries across the United States to help manage and judge honey shows with consistent professional standards. Get Honey Show Help Consulting, staffing, training, and event support for your honey show. Get Certified Build honey show judg...

06/28/2026

After completing all the preliminary requirements and taking my final exam in Lebanon, TN at the Honey Judge Summer Conference, I was officially certified as a Honey Judge by the American Honey Judge Association (AHJA) [formerly the American Honey Show Training Council - AHSTC]. I guess I can now say I am also an Average Joe Honey Judge!

06/26/2026

Arrived in Lebanon, TN (greater Nashville area) after a 5 1/2 hour drive to the American Honey Judge Association (AHJA) 2026 Conference on Saturday & Sunday.

Arrived early to take the Honey Judge Certification Exam at 3pm today. Was stressing about traffic and unanticipated travel problems when I found out the test location was on Central time (not Eastern time) so I had an extra hour of leeway.

Looking forward to the weekend of learning more about Honey Judging.

Always a pleasure to get together with such a great group of folks at Conferences like this! Always a Learning Experience and an opportunity to reconnect with friends and colleagues from all over the US!

06/09/2026

Oh No – Honey Pails can Crack!

This past Saturday, Tony Jackson and I collected 63 frames from various hives in two of my apiaries. We spun them on Sunday and gathered about 215 lbs. of honey.

Today I was cleaning up all of the bakery "proofing" trays that I use to keep the work area clean and sanitary. I put them on my work tables and started lifting some of my buckets to finish settling.

When I was placing one of the buckets on the tray, the bucket cracked and honey started pouring out the side. Since I had some clean empty buckets right next to the table, I was able to get most of the 42 lbs. of honey into another bucket before it all spilled out on the clean tray.

The extra bucket, quick reflexes and a whole lot of luck resulted in only losing a couple of pounds of honey that overflowed the tray. I was able to collect that overflow and will feed it back to the bees.

Tony casually mentioned that I should be careful with my older buckets as they have been known to crack and cause the loss of honey.

I don't know if that jinxed me or if it was just a coincidence but now, I am reconsidering reusing my collection buckets. I might need to start labelling them with the year I start using them and cycle them out after 2 or 3 uses in the way that many beekeepers cycle out old comb.

Oh well, catastrophe averted and bottling will begin in a couple more days!

Average Joe Beekeeper

05/31/2026

For those in and around Ashboro, NC - the Average Joe Beekeeper will be talking about Summer Management at the Randolph County Beekeepers Association meeting on Tuesday, June 2, 2026 - meeting details are in the attached flyer. Hope to see plenty of folks there!

05/19/2026

The Iredell County Beekeepers Association invites you to a Special Edition of our monthly meetings on Tuesday, June 9, 2026, where we will be hosting Ashby Miller, a well-known North Carolina beekeeper and speaker.

He is the co-owner/operator of Ashby Farms and runs more than 500 hives in multiple locations in North Carolina, Southern Virginia, Georgia and Florida producing local wildflower honey along with specialty honey including both tupelo and sourwood.

Ashby has over 8000 subscribers on his Ashby Farms NC channel with over 185 videos that he has posted describing all aspects of beekeeping. Our meeting will start an hour earlier than normal at 6pm to allow plenty of time for Ashby to share his beekeeping insights while allowing interaction with all our attendees and guests.

We meet at the Iredell County Extension Office at 444 Bristol Dr., Statesville, NC. Refreshments will be served! This is a free event and we hope to see many of our members, beekeeping friends and folks interested in learning about honey bees on June 9th!