(no subject)

[helen99]

We attended the Beekeepers meeting last night at Brookside Gardens Nature Center. We're exploring the possibility of having a hive or at least having access to a hive, and possibly extracting our own honey, because rialian wants to get an entire meadmaking cycle going so he'll know what goes into the mead. The main attraction for me was an observation hive located in the meeting room, which has a bee-sized exit to the grounds of Brookside Gardens. I saw two types of comb in the hive: the honey storage section and the nursery section. Each section was a different color. The nursery was grey (and I'm told it turns black as it ages), and the honey section was gold. I saw some bees dancing and tried to determine from the dance which way the nectar source might be (if that's indeed what they're saying -- we assume a lot with insects since we can't ask them). I couldn't understand a word...

I saw some workers polishing empty cells or feeding babies or applying wax caps (hard to see what they were doing since all I saw were their butts protruding from cells as they worked inside). I saw bees up in the honey section dehydrating the nectar into honey. Then I saw this large bee with a white dot painted on her - She wasn't that much larger than the rest of them - just a little longer. This was obviously the queen, and she was busy laying eggs in empty cells...

The rest of the meeting went well - everyone went crazy for rialian's mead (we brought a metheglin and a melomel) and asked for a workshop. You could tell they were total master geeks - they showed us an example of a hive with 10 frames, methods of making the bees go to the nursery while you're trying to take the honeycomb out, how to shear the caps off the honeycomb with a heat-knife, two kinds of (huge) extractor devices, and how to strain the honey so it doesn't have wax, lint, or other impurities in it, and finally, the best way to package it for selling at fairs and farmers markets and such. They also talked about queens and how to treat them so they won't stop laying eggs, and how long you can keep a queen out of a hive before she gives up and goes sterile, and how long she can survive without attendants, and such. Some of the lecture sounded a little too impersonal to me. You could tell they loved their bees, but ... at the same time it felt like they were being thought of more as commodities than as part of a spiritual process. There were a few there who were actually bee-touched though (you could tell). I'll have to look in to this more..

For example, they talked about using a product called "Bee-Gone" to get the bees out of the honeycomb. This stuff purportedly smells really awful, though. Even if it didn't, if the bees don't like it, chances are I shouldn't like it either.

Another thing I noticed was that nowhere in the discussion or in the catalogs they were handing out did I see any mention of metarhizium anisopliae, which purportedly is a good shield against Varoa mites. Any mention of Varoa treatments were of the chemical variety. They did, however, tell us how to test for the mites, which is useful.

Beekeeping could be something could I get interested in, even if rialian decides not to. I really did like staring at those bees. I think I could learn the bee dance eventually, and maybe even figure out what they were saying. Then I'll ask politely if I can have some honey (maybe I can ask them to make extra for me).

Comments

[lyssabard.livejournal.com]

Bees are fascinating and something I keep meaning to read more abt. Have some mythology on them in a book somewhere I can pass on sometime, and I also liked Tori's use of the bee themes in her latest album.

And, um...honey. Oh my, yes.

Faire cannot come soon enough.

I am glad it went well. Keep sharing this info!


Lys - who liked to watch bees dance since she was a kid.

[helen99.livejournal.com]

The mythology of bees would be wonderful!

The beehive we saw is located at Brookside Gardens nature center if you want to see it sometime. I'm not sure what the regular schedule of meetings is, but I'll try to find out.

Yes, Faire is much looked forward to

[dogemperor.livejournal.com]

Bees *are* remarkably fascinating little critters. One of my favourite things to do at the state fair every year (one of the largest in the country) is to go look at the honey judging which always have a few exhibits of live bees (they do hive judging as well). How the little gals work to get everything stored up, how it at first looks chaotic but with watching you can see each little bee has her own job...little bees breaking out of their comb cells for the first time and being cleaned off by other bees...other bees storing the honey...others being little bee fans and keeping things circulating...it's all very fascinating.

If you're looking for less chemical ways of getting a bee colony out of its hive (say, if you're putting in another frame, or if you keep nursery frames and honey frames) one way is to smoke them out; an old, tried and true method is to take a cigar (!), puff on it, and blow it in the hive. The bees go away from the smoke, allowing you to get the honey frames, and it doesn't hurt the bees.

Most of the stuff I've seen on metarhizium is through people focusing on organic apiaries (yes, there are organic beehives and organic honey, and they have to use natural methods; locally harvested organic honey is actually a bit of a niche market here in Kentucky). If there is a co-op extension or organic farmer's market in your area they may be able to put you in touch with sources for apiary supplies for organic beekeeping or with organic beekeeper associations.

One thing you'll want to watch (if you raise your own bees) is where they feed and all--there are a few plants that bees will happily harvest from which can make poisoned honey (mountain laurel and rhododendrons in particular) but in general wildflower honey should be ok. Also, one possibility is taking the bees to organic farms (a lot of orchard groups do rent bees, including the organic farmers).

[dogemperor.livejournal.com]

And in regard to bee dancing:

http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/entomology/apiculture/PDF%20files/1.11.pdf
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/bees/dances.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2701bees.html

Bee dance actually turns out to be surprisingly complex; bees, among other things, use actual trigonometry to denote where a nectar source is and take into account things like the angle of the sun, etc. Bees also are known in part to carry scent clues, too (which is now how it's thought they "home in").

[helen99.livejournal.com]

I'd heard of smoking out bees, and also of a device called a "smoker" which is kind of a little bellows you can use to get a lot of smoke going toward the honey end of the hive. I wondered why that wasn't mentioned during the lecture. That method sounds much better. The organic farm idea is probably the best option for us. I'm not sure how a beehive would do in my yard, which is right next to a day care center (and I have a small rhododendron).

[dogemperor.livejournal.com]

Yup, that's actually what a lot of beekeepers use around here--smokers which have a little smoky fire going in them, you use a bellows or battery operated fan to blow the smoke into the top part of the hive.

Here's a good place in Western Kentucky that sells them:
http://go.netgrab.com/secure/kelleystore/asp/home.asp
(webstore of http://www.kelleybees.com/)

Other good catalogues/websites:
http://www.mannlakeltd.com/
http://www.beemaster.com/honeybee/beemail.htm
http://www.beemaster.com/ <- has specific info on backyard beekeeping
http://www.lagrantshoneybees.com/
http://www.betterbee.com/

[helen99.livejournal.com]

Thank you for all these resources - they'll be useful when I start getting some gear together and also for learning the ropes.. :)

[dogemperor.livejournal.com]

Resources on specifically raising organic bees:

http://www.beekeeping.com/thiele/index.htm
http://www.thehealingpath.com/OrganicBeekeeping/
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Vines/9167/
http://www.beesfordevelopment.org/info/info/enviro/the-need-for-organic-beek.shtml (in fact, http://www.beesfordevelopment.org promotes the keeping of organic apiaries as a fair-trade industry)
http://www.biavl.dk/english/varroa-treatment.htm
(of note, mentions formic acid--naturally produced by ants--as a control for varroa; several of the bee supplies sites I mentioned sell formic acid specifically as an organic treatment for varroa for organic beekeepers)
http://www.biavl.dk/english/vid-1.htm#olie-eng (use of vegetable oils as another natural control for varroa)

[kiarrith.livejournal.com]

yay! sounds awesome. Id love to learn more....my dad was a beekeeper, but not to this degree of complexity...

[helen99.livejournal.com]

If you go to the page where this discussion is
http://helen99.livejournal.com/227718.html
and go to dogemperor's comments, there are links to bee info that might be a good starting point.

One of the people who spoke said that he kept a beehive while living in an apartment. I guess he had constructed some kind of exit for them, but I can't imagine how he must have done it since he didn't own the place. I'm sure it's not common, but that proves it can be done...

[kiarrith.livejournal.com]

*heh* Sadly, my landlords right now are Mark's folks and they would not allow such things [and they do visit] not to mention we dont have space. BUT! I do wish to learn a great deal so when we move we could do it.

[kiarrith.livejournal.com]

o! and I saw the links and bookmarked it for later review ;)