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Category: Bees

Published on Leave a comment on Learn Beekeeping

Learn Beekeeping. Want to be as busy as a bee?

It’s beekeeping time. Yep, even with snow on the ground - now is the time to get started.

Winter beekeeping is relaxed, it’s about learning, dreaming and planning. It’s the time for researching and experimenting.

It's the perfect time to build hive bodies, supers, and frames. Painting them is fun too. Spring doesn't seem so far away when you're busy.

I was reading about an experiment published in the Fifth Annual Report of the State Bee Inspector for the year 1916.  It was reported that hives painted darker colors
outperformed hives painted white. Our hives have always been white. Boring. Not this year, though. The new hives are bright colors. Vibrant and happy colors. It will be interesting to see if these hives are more productive than the white ones.

Another experiment this spring will be splitting hives using strong brood frames and swarm cells containing new queens.

When the hives were closed up for the winter there was plenty of honey and pollen for feed. This is a critical time of year. Bees can easily starve late in the winter or early in the spring. In the next few weeks the queen will start egg laying again, she'll build up brood.

It was warm enough to open up the hives the other day, just for a quick minute to add pollen patties. The bees were clustered, they looked healthy.

This is a great time of year to learn beekeeping.

Sign up for beekeeping classes, they’re starting soon. There’s plenty of time to learn by taking classes and reading books.

Here are a couple of good books on beekeeping:

Natural Beekeeping by Ross Conrad
The ABC and XYZ of Bee Culture Forty First Edition published by The A.I. Root Company
Bee Keeping for Dummies by Howland Blackiston and Null
Here’s a list of classes in Iowa and Illinois:

The Iowa Honey Producers Association
The Illinois State Beekeepers Association

Here's a list by state:

The American Honey Producers State Organizations

Learn Beekeeping

 

 

 

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Published on 2 Comments on Death to the Drones

Death to the DronesDeath to the Drones!

My style of hive management is relaxed. I start fall feeding when I see the workers killing the drones.

Drones are male bees created from unfertilized eggs. There are between 500 and 1,000 drones in a typical hive of 50,000 – 60,000 bees. A drone's only job is to fly out and search for virgin queens. The luckiest, or unluckiest depending on your perspective, die immediately after mating. It's a good news, bad news, scenario.

Drones are useless to the hive. They don't clean cells, care for the young, gather pollen and nectar, sting, or fan the hive in hot weather. The don't do anything. Drones are larger than workers and steal large quantities of stored food.

So, in the fall, the workers kick them out. They tear the drones wings by pushing and pulling them out of the hive. It's a vicious attack and a violent end to self-serving freeloaders. The workers line up at the entrance to form a barricade against the drone's re-entry. Without the hive's protection the drones die.

For these reasons I don't feed the hive too early in the season. I let the workers do their job first. Otherwise the drones will eat the stored honey, pollen patties, and sugar-water. By waiting I have a reasonable assurance that there will be enough food for the hive to survive through the winter.

Published on Leave a comment on Beekeepers are wonderful, but they lie

Beekeepers are wonderful, but they lie

I've met a few beekeepers over the past few years, wonderful folks, but they're liars. The beekeeping class instructor said that eventually you won't notice getting stung. He said it's not a big deal. Every beekeeper I've met since has said the same thing, "I don't even notice when I get stung."

To this I say, "Liar!"

One of the first questions people ask is, "How often do you get stung?" Followed by the second question, "Does it hurt?"

Here's the truth; you won't get stung often but when you do it hurts. I know the procedure; when you get stung use the hive tool to scrape the stinger away, otherwise the sack keeps pumping venom. The same goes with trying to squeeze out the stinger. It won't work, you have to scrape it away.

It will continue to hurt for a couple of days, your joints around the area will ache. As the swelling goes down your skin will start to itch. As for me, patience isn't a virtue. I've been stung plenty of times and the only home remedy that's worked is time.

I love bees enough to endure the occasional sting. The reward is greater than the pain.

Bee in apple blossom
Bee in apple blossom

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Published on 1 Comment on Sugaring Bees for Mite Control

DSCN2837And now, another lesson from a very bad beekeeper...

Sugaring bees for mite control is a great alternative to chemical treatments if the mite count is manageable. In the battle of bees vs Varroa Mites my weapon of choice; powdered sugar. I calculate the mite load by capturing a couple hundred bees and placing them inside a jar with a few tablespoons of powdered sugar. The jar is fitted with a screen placed over the mouth. The bees are shaken vigorously to loosen the mites clinging to them. The mites fall through the screen lid, onto a sheet of white paper (they're easy to see against the white background) for counting. A quick calculation gives the mite load for the hive. This calculation  determines if I need to treat the bees aggressively (for a large infestation) or if the sugar will take care of the problem. I'm reluctant to use chemicals for treating Varroa Mites because it could cause resistance or weaken the bees.

 

DSCN2827Using an old window screen, placed over the hive body, I dump a pound of powdered sugar on top. It's important to have the smoker ready to force the bees away from the screen. Using a bee brush to gently spread the sugar across the screen so it falls between the frames, I continue to apply smoke. You don't want the bees clinging to the screen because the brush will damage the bee's legs, sometimes amputating them.

The sugar dust clings to the bees causing the mites to fall off or get groomed off by other bees. I use a screened bottom board which the mites fall through. I repeat the sugaring process two to three times in the fall.

Once the hive's been dusted and sealed back up again the jarred bees are let loose to fly back inside the hive. They're angry and unhappy after being shaken. Never free the bees from the jar before all the frames are sugared or they'll work the rest of the hive into a fervor. You don't want to work with agitated bees, I've learned this the hard way. Bee venom supposedly cures arthritis, I don't have arthritis but I think I'd prefer it to being stung seven times in the hand. Learning new things is important, I just wish I'd learn before it becomes a painful reality.

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Published on 3 Comments on Bee Quiz

Bee Quiz

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Knowledge is power - the more you know about bees the more conscientious you’ll be of their habitat.  Here’s another bee quiz.

Q.  How much honey does one worker bee produce in her lifetime?

 a)  1 quart of honey
  b)  half a cup of honey
  c)  1/12 of a teaspoon

Answer: c

Q.  How much honey does a small colony of bees need to survive the winter?

a)  50 pounds of honey
b)  35 pounds of honey
c)  75 pounds of honey

Answer: b  
A productive hive can make 2 pounds of honey a day. Thirty-five pounds of honey provides enough energy for a small colony to survive the winter.  

Q.  There is enough energy in one ounce of honey to supply the needs of one bee flying a distance of..

a)   100 miles
b)  from the Florida Keys to the Pacific Northwest
c)  around the world

Answer: c  

Q.  Queen bees lays up to how many eggs each day?

a)  2500
b)  500
c)  2000

Answer: a  
A queen bee lives for about 2-3 years. She is busiest in the summer months when the hive needs to be at its maximum strength, she lays up to 2500 eggs per day.

Q.  How fast does a honey bee fly?

 a)  10 miles per hour
  b)  15 miles per hour
  c)  18 miles per hour

Answer: b 

Honey bees fly up to 15 miles per hour. Their wings stroke 11,400 times per minute which makes their distinct buzzing sound

 Q.  The sting from a drone bee is more potent than the sting of a worker bee?

a)   true
  b)  false

Answer:  false

Drone's don’t have a stinger. A dron's role in the bee colony is to mate with the queen. Immediately after mating the drone dies. There are very few drones within the bee colony. Drones do not contribute to the hive, other than to mate with the queen.

 Q.  In 1947 there were 5.9 million managed bee colonies producing honey in the United States. How many managed bee colonies producing honey were there in 2008?

 a)  6.5 million
  b)  755,000
  c)  2.3 million

Answer: c

In 2008 the USDA reported 2.3 million honey producing colonies in the United States, a decline of 61% since 1947

Well, how did you score? Learn more about bees at the Iowa Honey Produces website

Published on Leave a comment on Goodbye Queen

DSCN2521It's quiet when I work with the bees, I work alone. Every move is choreographed ahead of time. The bee suit is too hot, the veil makes my head sweat, and I will NEVER wear gloves again.  So, I wear shorts, a t-shirt, and worn out tennis shoes. I'm not brave, actually I'm afraid of getting stung, but with everything you enjoy there are consequences. Getting stung is one of them.

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The best weapon is a calm attitude and a heavy plume from the smoker. One of my hives isn't as strong as the others. I had to re-queen it. Earlier in the spring I was installing a second package of bees and I made a mistake. I lost the queen. Well, she wasn't really lost, she flew away. Worried about getting stung, I wore a full bee suit complete with thick gloves. After shaking the bees into the hive body I got the queen cage ready. I carefully removed the plug end and stuffed a mini marshmallow into the opening. I placed my gloved finger over the opening and moved two frames apart, hung the cage, and removed my finger. Looking down I noticed the marshmallow stuck to the glove, "Damn!" I tried to push it back into the cage, but before I could get it back into the opening the queen moved to the end and lifted herself into the air, "Damn, damn, damn!"  I watched, dumbfounded, as she flew higher and higher until she disappeared from sight. I let out a desperate cry, "Oh no. Stupid marshmallow!"  I thought, there goes my queen, $90.00 just flew away because I was afraid of getting stung. Fear, a glove, and a mini-marshmallow brought my hive's production to a halt.

We covered this in beekeeping class. The instruction was very clear; "If your queen escapes stay very still. She won't recognize her new surroundings. She won't know the bee yard, or hive. She doesn't know the workers, who've surrounded her cage on her trip north, they only met a day ago. Sometimes, if you're lucky, she'll fly in a circle taking a mental picture of the area. The queen will view you, the beekeeper, as a fixture of that area. In her mental picture you belong where she belongs. It's very important to remain still and leave everything as it was when she flew off."

I waited.  No queen in sight. Two minutes - no queen. Three minutes, still no queen. Five minutes, no queen, just sweat running into my eyes and trickling down my back. Bee suits are incredibly hot. Keith was headed to town. He saw me standing still in this ridiculous outfit and called from the truck, "Hey, was there a nuclear accident at the plant?" he laughed and drove off.  I'd have given him the finger, the gloved one with the marshmallow stuck to it, but I was standing perfectly still waiting for the queen's return. Lucky for him I couldn't move for a few more minutes.  After ten minutes I gave up. I remembered one last piece of advice from class, "Never, EVER, let your queen escape."  If she does its goodbye, queen!

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Published on Leave a comment on Installing Packaged Bees

DSCN2065On Sunday night we had snow. Monday's overnight temperature was 20 degrees. It was cold this morning, but I got the call that our bees were ready to be picked up. It seems too cold for bees. I put them in the back of the truck and they were very quiet. A few stragglers were clinging to the outside screen. As the car warmed up, so did the bees. Their buzzing got louder and stronger. I turned up the radio so that I wouldn't hear them. Driving with six-thousand bees in your car is a little nerve wracking. I put them in the garage and watched to see if the temperature would get above 40. It did, so I got ready to hive the bees.

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The sun was shining, it was in the mid 40's. It turned into a fine day for installing packaged bees. I carefully removed the cans of sugar water, took out the queen cages, shook  the bees out into the hive body and  set the queen cages between the frames. The queen cage's have plugs in them to keep her separate from the other bees. I replaced the plugs with a mini-marshmallows. In a few days the workers in each hive will eat through the marshmallow to free her. By that time they'll recognize her pheromones and accept her as their queen.

Buckets of sugar water were set inside the top hive body and pollen patties were set on top of the frames. The maple and poplar trees have pollen for the bees to collect so they won't need additional supplements. We'll continue feeding sugar water until there's a good nectar flow from flowers.

I consider today's installation a great success because I didn't get stung, the bees were active, and I felt more confident than last year. The bee keeping classes prepared me for success.

Published on Leave a comment on Bee Quiz

DSCN1256Take the Bee Quiz and test your knowledge. The bees need our help.

Q. True or false...A queen bee lives for 3 – 5 years, mates only once, but remains fertile for life, and lays up to 2000 eggs per day?

A. True

Q. How many flowers does a single bee visit each day?

A. 150,000

Q. True of false... Honey bees are inactive during the winter?

A. False. Honey bees continue to feed off of stored honey, take care of the queen, and in February the queen begins laying eggs to re-build the hive.

Q. A frame full of honey, inside the hive, has an insulating R value, what is that value?

A. R-19

Q. Will a honey bee die once she stings?

A. The honey bee will die if she's stinging a warm blooded animal. If she's stinging a cold blooded creature she will not loose her venom sac, therefore she'll live to sting again.

This winter I'm taking bee keeping classes. There's so much to learn, honey bees are fascinating. I can't wait for spring to come - It's only 36 days away! Please be kind to the bees when selecting garden seeds. Make sure they're bee friendly.

 

 

 

Published on Leave a comment on Pollinator Protection

6C8644044-130815-bees.blocks_desktop_mediumFriends of the Earth has releases a new study by The Pesticide Research Institute. In the study they found that many “bee friendly” plants sold at Home Depot, Lowes, and other large garden centers contained neurotoxic pesticides known as neonicotinoids which could harm or kill bees and other pollinators. 7 of 13 sample garden plants purchased at top retailers contained these toxic compounds.

The EPA is taking action to protect bees by developing new pesticide labels that indicate ingredients that may harm bees. The new labels will have an advisory box and icon with information on routes of exposure and spray drift precautions. The labels will contain warnings for products containing the neonicotinoids imidacloprid, dinotefuran, clothianidin and thiamethoxam.

Here's a great TED Talk by Marla Spivak - Why Bees Are Disappearing

 

Published on Leave a comment on Bee Trivia

How many different types of honey is there in the United States?

The bees are active again after the morning rain
The bees are active again after the morning rain

The color and flavor of honeys differ depending on the nectar source (the blossoms) visited by the honey bees. In fact, there are more than 300 unique types of honey available in the United States, each originating from a different floral source. Honey color ranges from nearly colorless to dark brown, and its flavor varies from delectably mild to distinctively bold, depending on where the honey bees buzzed. As a general rule, light-colored honey is milder in taste and dark-colored honey is stronger. Source: The National Honey Board