Brooklyn Beekeepers -- Breakin' the Law!

It would probably be best to have this song stuck in your head as you watch this video of rooftop beekeepers in NY, NY.

Brooklyn's Urban Beekeepers: Breaking The Law For The Planet (Part I) from SkeeterNYC on Vimeo.

Enjoy people doing the right thing and having a good time doing it,

Bp

[via my faithful Canukistani Operative "Yuri"]

Japanese honeybees roast a hornet

Japanese honeybees have a very unusual way of killing one of their worst predators, the hornet. They cook them. The bees raise their temperature to 117-degrees and literally roast their enemy. Way too cool. (Sorry for the brief commercial at the beginning).



Enjoy watching nature doing what it takes to get by,

Bp

[via Beebs]

Backwards Beekeeper shows how he harvests honey

I just stumbled across this video on Boing Boing, and am now intrigued. The video is a nice watch about how the "Backwards Beekeepers" harvest their honey. One gets the sense that they do much of their beekeeping in an unconventional, bee-friendly fashion.

Here is a link to the Backwards Beekeepers blog -- I've only just started researching their methods and philosophy and I do like it, and their attitude. Biologically, their philosophy of maximizing and propagating already-naturalized populations of bees makes perfect sense. I strongly suspect I'll have more to report after I've spent some more time with their information.



Enjoy folks using their heads, and making awesome local honey in the process,

Bp

My Housemate is better than Yours: The Rose Wall

T. is rocking the garden this year.

Check out this noise -- a beautifully executed rose wall behind the bee hive on the South side of the house. Seems he set it up right, and chose the right varieties to make it happen. Just amazing.

What can I say, my Housemate is better than yours. Sorry, but it's true.






Enjoy friends who help make your life immeasurably better,

Bp

The most probable Colony Collapse Disorder culprit yet

So that last post I made about a possible CCD agent is on pretty thin ice, it turns out. This pesticide, however (imidacloprid) looks very seriously like a possible cause. In this Salon.com article, they present some pretty compelling information.

Bayer CropScience, the producer of both imidacloprid and another suspect pesticide clothianidin, doesn't want you to think this, however. They've got big money on the association between CCD and their products just going away.

Although I can't say that case connecting these pesticides and CCD is waterproof, it sure deserves a WHOLE LOT of attention.

Enjoy possibly finding the solution to a problem with one of our most important agricultural animals,

Bp

[image credit in linked article]

Installing a Nuc in my back-yard bee hive

Here is a series of photos showing me installing a nuc in my back-yard hive.

The term "Nuc" is short for Nucleus Hive. It is basically a box containing 3-6 frames which include not only a good number of bees and a queen, but brood cells (I.E. baby bees) as well. The presence of the brood cells means that the bees aren't going to pick up and move any time soon, because there are youngin's to take care of.

In my understanding, the advantage of installing a Nuc instead of a "package" is because the queen has a head start producing new bees (a 21-day process) and the hive can get down to business quicker than the package bees can. A package, however, has many more bees to work for their queen.

My experience last year with package bees and top-bar hives (basically, they took their queen and left -- "absconded") led me to the conclusion that for my next attempt, I was going to use a Langstroth hive (I.E. "standard") so I could start it with a Nucleus instead of a package. Bees with babies just don't abscond.

Here is what I had laid out before I started the process: the nuc (the waxed cardboard container there, they are also often in wood containers), my hive and stand on its screen bottom-board, extra frames, pollen pack (in the wax paper on the ground), and a frame feeder (the black "frame" inside the hive at the top).


Here is a view into the prepped hive, showing the gap I left (turned out I needed to remove one more frame as the nuc had 5 frames, not 4 as I expected) to receive the nucleus frames. You can see the screen at the bottom there -- screen bottom boards are becoming standard as they allow both debris and especially mites to fall through and not get back up into the hive.


Opening the nuc.


A couple pictures of carefully pulling frames from the nuc box (I pulled two at a time when I could) and installing them in my hive.





Tapping bees from the nuc box into my hive.


The hive, closed up, with the nuc box set nearby so the remaining bees could make their way into the hive. There is a lot of queen scent in the nuc box so if there were a lot of bees the next day still in the box I was going to do another "tap" into the top of the hive. As it turns out there weren't very many so I didn't feel the need to do this. I wanted to let the hive alone for a bit to settle in.



A note on feeding the new hive: I used one package of pollen and 8 quarts of syrup to feed the hive as a precaution. Although the weather has been variable lately, I didn't want to trust that there'd be good flying weather any time soon after the install. This way if they need the food it's there, if they don't -- well, who doesn't need food when you're starting a new project, right? There was already tons of forage nearby for the bees to work if they did fly (maple, hawthorne, apple and comfrey to name a few) so I didn't feed a lot, nor do I expect I'll need to feed any more this season.

The bees look dandy and I'll post reports as the project progresses.

Enjoy pursuing your passions,

Bp

Possible cure for Colony Collapse Disorder?

According to this article in Science Daily, scientists in Spain have isolated a specific parasite, Nosema ceranae (Microsporidia), in two separate apiaries inflicted with CCD. They treated the remaining bees in the apiaries and the bees recovered from the affliction.

This is only the first study, but you can be sure that this success will be tested many times over.

A cure for CCD affects us all. Even though other news items have grabbed the spotlight, if we lose our bees a massive hit in agricultural production is guaranteed.

Even though the cure used wasn't organic, if it works then we have avoided a serious, real catastrophe (unlike hysterical over-reaction to the "catastrophe-that-isn't-yet" like the swine flu).

Enjoy a chance that worldwide agriculture was saved by a couple microbio geeks in Spain,

Bp

[Photo credit in linked article, "Pig plague and Twitter" article via Uncle Ted]

The Bee Photographer -- Eric Tourneret

Here is a link to Eric Tourneret's website The Bee Photographer. His "Bees in the World" series highlights the different ways in which humans interact with bees in different cultures -- from first-world beekeepers in France, to Boat-based bee keeping in Argentina, and of course the fantastic climbing honey harvesters of Nepal.

The website is fantastic, I'll only grab a few photos to show off, you should head to the source. Thanks to Dani the Canukistani for pointing this out to me.








Enjoy great representations of interesting subjects,

Bp

[photo credits in linked website]

Bee Time + Eddie Izzard on Bees

Spring is not just Garden Time and Nettle Time -- it's Bee Time. I'm excited.

I went down to Ruhl Bee Supply with Estu to pick up his hives, equipment, and some packages of Carniolans. He, too, will be mixing a Langstroth hive into his home bee keeping, while continuing to work with his Top Bar hive.

I still need to assemble my Langstroth for the garden, and paint it, before I get a nuc to ensure a nice solid take with the new bees. I'm very excited, only a couple weeks and I'll be in business.

Looks like I'll be lending out two of my top bar hives to friends, and will keep one to gather a swarm into this season. The idea is to see if there is any way they'll stay in a top bar up in its current location -- it would be fantastic if they'd stay, because I could get a few hives up there without much trouble at all.

Anyway, plans and dreams aside, below is a great Eddie Izzard skit about bees to finish off this post.



Enjoy the care and feeding of small creatures,

Bp

Colony Collapse may have reached Oregon

Stu turned me on to this article about a Madras, OR beekeeper who got hit by CCD this season. Until this year, it had looked like Oregon had dodged the bullet of this phenomenon.

It seems it was only a matter of time, as Washington has been hit with big bee problems as well, Oregon was pretty much surrounded.

Send some good thoughts out for those working on this problem,

Bp

[photo credit in linked article]

What it looks like to crack open a beehive in a house wall

Here is a T.V. interview of some folks who had an enormous bee hive inside a wall of their house. They noticed the hive when the honey started seeping through the wall. You can see the size of the combs when the beekeepers are removing them -- very impressive. Apparently, all it took was a little gap in a bad siding job to give the bees the entrance they needed to go to work.

The owners were cool, and made sure the bees weren't destroyed.

Enjoy food building up inside your home unannounced,

Bp

Bee lightning strikes thrice -- time for research

As Guy predicted, there would be many more disappointments in my future with top bar beehives. I checked the beehive today, and no one's home. My big beautiful swarm I just collected left, after only 1 day.

Now it's time for some research -- that's a whole lot of effort to put in and not have any hives stay.

I know why the second colony left, but not the first or third.

I hear that there are "professional" beekeepers who are very enthused with the top bar hive and are starting to accumulate data on them. I'm going to (after finals) get a hold of some of these people and find out what the problem could be. I'll document my research on the blog. Time to get back to studying.

AFOFG baby,

Bp

Took a quick study break, TO GATHER A SWARM!

I know, all caps is gauche, but I don't care. I just boxed my first wild swarm of honey bees and I'm pretty psyched.

Since I was on my own, I didn't document any of the process -- but if you want more of a visual than my little box there [click to get a better look at the little ladies], just refer to my archived post regarding gathering a swarm.

Actually, you have to do more than that. You have to imagine the same scene, but with me in a bee suit, and with scads less aplomb than the maestro demonstrated in that post.

But I did get the job done, and am very thankful for his mentorship.

The box is now on a front lawn, full of bees, gathering up the stragglers as night falls. Later tonight, when it's darker and colder, I'll go back, put a lid on it, and bring it to one of my back yard top-bar hives.

Will they stay? Will they abscond? Will I somehow mess this opportunity up? Only time will tell.

Enjoy getting a second chance,

Bp

Addendum: The bees are now in their hive in my back yard. When weighed before and after on a bathroom scale (highly scientific I know) the swarm weighs out at 5-8 lbs.!! That's much much larger than the 3lbs. per package I bought and lost. This is not one of my lost sets of girls -- the colony is much too big.

I'm very happy, now to monitor them to make sure they build right.

Using bees and satellites to track climage change

Here's an interesting article on using bees combined with satellite data to track climate changes. When I expand into having "regular" Langstroth hives in the future, I'm going to put some on scales to watch them more closely. Looks like good, geeky fun.

Enjoy low-tech, animal allies,

Bp

[photo credit in linked article]

Beekeeping lessons continue to be hard

Well, as I suspected would happen, clearing out that much comb from the remaining hive encouraged them to abscond. No more bees this season unless I can get some swarms. An expensive lesson.

Lesson learned: with Top Bar Hives, check the comb production right after introducing a package of bees or a swarm very often so you don't have to disrupt well developed comb to get them back on track. If you disrupt brood comb, they'll (reasonably) bail on you.

May or may not be able to get my hands on some swarms early enough this season to establish hives this year. They need time to build up their comb and honey stocks enough keep themselves healthy throughout the winter, so the later in the season you get a swarm the less chance of them surviving the winter. We shall see.

Bp

Gathering a swarm of bees, in pictures

Glen Andresen is a man of his word. I had called him asking about swarm gathering a week or so ago, and he said he'd call me when he was going out so I could watch him do his thing. Sure enough, he called. There was a swarm biking distance from my house that he was going to gather, so I met him and took some pictures and notes.

Below are the pictures, but I'll give you the outline here (tired of wrestling blogger to interpolate text in pictures):

1. Picture of the swarm, not a huge one but a swarm nonetheless.
2. Glen, without smoke or a suit, knocking said swarm into a bucket.
3. Tapping the swarm into a hive box from the bucket. At this point we can assume he's gotten the queen into the hive box, so her pheromones will attract the rest of the bees.
4. One of Glen's nice tricks, he taps a few bees outside the entrance of the hive, so they can gather around, open up their little butt glands and fan pheromones into the air to alert the rest of the swarm that's still flying around where to go.
5. Another nice trick, he cuts the branch where they were swarming, because it's covered with queen smell and will continue to gather bees, and lets it sit near its old location for a while gathering up stragglers. Then he drops that second gathering into his box and removes the branch so the bees only have one source of queen smell, and that's coming from inside the hive box.
6. Here is the box, with a good amount of bees outside the entrance fanning. Glen leaves it til nightfall, then takes it to his bee field.

The patience he shows and little tricks he uses to make sure to get every last bee greatly increases "the take" of bees when he gathers a swarm, and decreases mortality once he takes the swarm box away. I assume many beekeepers would dump the bees, wait a few minutes, and close up the hive box and leave. This strands many bees (to their death) -- but doesn't require that second trip.

There you have it, gathering up free wild and healthy bees to bolster your own hive field a-la my bee mentor Glen. [Remember you can click pictures to get a bigger view]








Enjoy insect workers and their portability,

Bp

More beekeeping lessons, "creative" comb and the Top-Bar hive

So I took a peek into my remaining hive yesterday, to find a big beautiful 1/2-drawn comb that they created. It was 5" x 8" and looking dandy. Except -- it was drawn perpendicular to my top bars -- meaning, it is unacceptable as a starter comb. This is what the Barefoot Beekeeper calls the bees "getting creative" about their comb placement.

The instructions for beginning a top-bar hive say to check in on a new set of bees often, and remove any comb started in the wrong direction. Once they start a comb in the correct orientation (parallel to your top bars), then they are off and running and you can leave them alone.

Lesson: when the instructions say "check often," that means every other day or so. Don't let it go for a week to "give them a rest" like I did. Now I'm going to have to remove this big beautiful comb so they'll start comb in the right spot. The bees don't re-use their wax like they would honey, so it's just a waste for them. I feel like a big jerk.

This period is one of the down sides of a top bar hive. You have to keep checking the bees, and removing comb, until they get it the way you want it. Sometimes, they take the prompt from the bees wax right away, and start in the right spot. Sometimes, they don't. With a modern hive, there is wax foundation that tells them exactly where to build, and even exactly what size comb to build. You don't have this problem of "incorrect comb placement" in a modern hive.

So later today, when it's warm and the little ladies are flying, I'll have to get suited up and remove this perfectly good comb to get em to start over in the right spot. Lesson learned on the backs of the bees, poor things. I'll be checking them every 2 days until they start a correct comb from now on.

Bp

The Bees absconded!!

I went up on the roof to check on the bees today. I did it nervously, because one of the hives didn't appear to have any activity. Sure enough, it was empty -- empty of a queen, or any live bees. My $75-worth of bees had decided they didn't like the digs I provided, nor the conditions they were unceremoniously dumped into (quite literally) and they bailed on me.

As Stu said when I told him what happened, "Yeah, I figured we would have some expensive lessons this first year." Very true. Ruhl Bee Supply isn't taking any more package bee orders this year, so I was put on a (long, apparently) waiting list, in case someone flakes out on picking up their bees. Not super likely. I also got on their swarm list, meaning they'll call me to deal with swarms in the East Portland area. There are plenty of other bee keepers on the list, but maybe something will come my way.

The other hive is doing well. The first comb they developed, however, was in an unsustainable spot, so I had to snap it off and hope they'll start one on a top-bar like they're "supposed to." Harsh measures, but I'm assured that once they start building comb on the bars in the right direction, they'll continue to do so. You just have to keep an eye on them in the beginning to make sure they take your cue of pre-set beeswax in the top bars.

I'm going out soon, hopefully, with Glen Andresen to watch him gather a wild swarm. There is a huge demand for gathering swarms, and I intended to learn how to do that anyway, this event just pushed up my time table a bit. I had a third hive set aside for a wild swarm, now I just have two.

I cracked up when I found out that the official bee-keeping term for a queen and her workers bailing out on you was called "absconding." Same word as when criminals take off... too funny.

Enjoy your F.O.F.G.'s, even when they're costly,

Bp

[image Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2008 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.]

Poor bees, more bad news for the Pacific N.W.

Apparently, West-side Washington bee hives are being lost at a catastrophic rate according to this article in The Oregonian. Stud Farmhand turned me on to this article, and since his hives are out in Walla Walla I'm betting he is unaffected. My hives, however, are in the strike zone. Yikes.

Nationally, a third of the food supply depends on bees for pollination, from melons to cranberries to carrot seed, according to National Research Council. Native pollinators, from wasps to bumblebees, are not present in the numbers needed for industrial agriculture -- and those pollinators are also in decline.

You know, most of the apocalyptic talk in the last few decades involves nuclear bombs, or nuclear waste, or anarchist loss of societal control... but what about the bees. The simple bee -- who would have thought such an enormously disastrous effect would happen through a domesticated insect of all things.

Get those backyard gardens rolling folks, looks like it's going to be a bumpy flight.

Bp

Bee Crazy

I'm getting a lot of behind the scenes interest in Backyard Bee information, so I wanted to post a list of some of the sites I've found the most helpful:

First and foremost, www.biobees.com, because the emphasis there is on Top-Bar hives. Once you read some articles there, you may come to the same conclusion about that hive style as I did -- this is as much about having healthy bees as it is getting tons of honey.

Next, for the P-town folks, is Ruhl Bee Supply. They have everything you need outside the top-bar hive itself. I bet, very soon, they'll start carrying top bar hives if the demand is there.

Here's a cool article by The Peace Corps on Small Scale Beekeeping.

Here's another top-bar oriented site: backyardhive.com.

Washington State Beekeepers association has a ton of good information.

For that matter, here is the Oregon State Beekeepers Association.

Remember too how to use "labels" in blogger blogs. Scroll down this page and look on the right hand side, eventually you will see "topic labels for easy cruising." There is a "back yard bees" label, and although I have only just begun posting about them, all my posts regarding the bees are there.

Enjoy helping out a belaboured caste of unappreciated workers,

Bp