Does anyone here have any experience in bee keeping?
I most certainly do not. Shortly though I will be embarking on this incredible hobby. I am hoping to use this to log my amazement and missteps along the way. If you are interested I will be using a copper composite topped Top Bar Hive similar to the one pictured at the top. Made by an enthusiastic keeper at https://superiorbeesupply.com/. The hive arrives in a few days for me to assemble and stain, bee's are on order for April installation, and most importantly I am learning new things every day.
So if you end up following along, set your expectations to low with a good chance of catastrophic failure. Ask questions because maybe I haven't asked it yet. Prepare yourself for grammatical failings and poor spelling. Overall though I do hope its informative.
Really, really interested in this and looking forward to seeing your progress. Good luck!
Let's talk research. If there is one thing I know how to do well its to procrastinate. This has been an exercise in getting over that limitation in my life. With that in mind here is the first bit of information that truly fascinates me about bees. You will be getting a lot of info about bees that i think is nifty. Rarely will it ever be annotated with where I got that info. So if you think I am making it up, look into it and call em out on my deception.
Bee's are pretty stinking cool. They are a "superorganism", which according to wikipedia -"The term superorganism is used most often to describe a social unit of eusocial animals, where division of labor is highly specialized and where individuals are not able to survive by themselves for extended periods."
Sounds good enough. So what does it mean? Life and death of bees affects the whole colony. They sacrifice themselves at the expense of the hive. Each unit has its own function to keep the unit whole and stable. Basic parts; Queen, Drones, workers. Apparently good beekeepers can tell them apart. Not me. In general they each perform different tasks to keep them all alive.
Queen, a life that starts with Sororicide and ends when her usefulness does. When a queen is born they emit a sound. This sound cause the other not hatched queens to respond in kind. At which point she visits each cell that responds and kills them by stinging the cell until they are dead. Queens are the only ones capable of multiple stinging. If two queens hatch at the same time they fight to the death. At this point they are still virgin queens. Now to mate they leave their hive with an escort of drones (male bees) and attend basically a huge orgy in the air with other drones. This way when they mate with other drones they are increasing their hives genetic diversity. I am unsure if they mate with their own drones or not. The worst (best) part is the mating kills the drones by ripping out their sex organ. So the queen mates, the drone leaves his sex organ behind, then a new drone takes it out to leave his own behind. This happens till a queens sperm storage sacs are full. For the most part that is the only time she mates. The rest of her life is is laying eggs from her sacs of sperm. When she is aging out and going dry, the hives notices and plans her death. They will raise up cells to be a new queen. When they are getting ready to hatch they will surround her and kill her with body heat. THEY KILL HER WITH HEAT, and not with the sharp death sticks attached to their bodies.
Thats all I got about the queens. But darn thats cool.
My hive has arrived, box was opened on the bottom due to poor packing it looks like. I am hoping all the hardware is there. Will post pictures of the assembly this weekend, or when I actually get around to doing it. My IKEA building skills are mediocre at best so lets hope this goes well.
I'll be interested to read how things go. I took a class once at OSU and a person that did a ton of bee research taught it. It was called Far Side Entomology.
Let us know what your thoughts are on the bee death epidemic. I don't know much about it other than the reason still isn't fully understood.
Let us know what your thoughts are on the bee death epidemic. I don't know much about it other than the reason still isn't fully understood.
Your right it is not understood. Everyone has there own ideas about it. Its called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). I by no means am an expert on this. From my reading and lectures I've heard is the consensus is there is no one cause, but its because of all these little things; pesticides, global warming, poor pest management, new threats, loss of habitat, poor breeding, poor industry management, etc. In my opinion it all makes sense. When you have a creature like this that depends on so many external factors for life, the havoc we do daily on environmental factors HAS to play a major contributing factor.
Some points of note on this,
1. For YEARS we haven't really cared about bees. What we have cared about is honey. So "Best Practices" until recently have been all about maximizing honey harvesting. Modern industrial hive design is all about that, the Langstroth hive. Is it a good hive? Absolutely. Is it the best for the bees? Best answer; probably not.
2. The chemicals we spray our crops with are poison plain and simple. Its whole job is to kill insects, even if its not designed to kill bees or to cause minimal impact on bees it still does.
3. It has only been, in the vast scheme of things, recently that we have been worried about the environment. For a long time we have just dumped toxins into the environment in the most efficient ways possible.
4. Our reliance on single crop agriculture (monoculture) is death to bees. Bees need variety. They need various pollen and nectar sources. The endless fields of corn/soy does not satisfy a bee colony's needs.
5. Most practices are learned habits and skills. 50 years ago Varroa Mites, Small Hive Beetles and other pests were not much of an issue. We are trying to deal with modern issues with outdated advice and tech. That is not to say there is not new research and tech, and science being invested in. Its just that we are doing now, when we already have a problem. Not before the problem to try and stop it from happening.
And these are just the things that I have recently learned. You talk to someone who actually knows about it and they can keep listing the issues.
Thank you for the info and update on the whole situation! Keep us posted if you happen to learn any new information.
Still no 'Oprah bees' gif? I am disappoint.
So, what is the actual goal of your beekeeping? T o just keep you busy? To bathe in honey? To start using bees as money? (Teen Titans reference)
Bee keeping is something that interests me, so long as it is from a distance. Keep us posted. I would love to see more
Bee keeping is something that interests me, so long as it is from a distance. Keep us posted. I would love to see more
Ah, so you're a hunny fan. 
Okay, so I realized I could google search "honey bee macro" and get amazing photographs. These are incredible.
They're absolutely gorgeous insects. I've always been a fan of butterflies and moths, but honey bees are a close third place. My favorite butterfly would probably be the tiger swallowtail and moth would be the polyphemus.
I'm really only squeemish with Yellow Jackets. I had a yellow jacket crawl in my ear and sting me when I tried to get it out when I was around 12. My brother cut the beast in half with a swiss army pocket knife. Damn, that is a really vivid childhood memory.
My sister tried to pick up a honeybee and it stung her when we were kids. 
It was really sad. I'll have to ask her if it still makes her afraid of honey bees.
Any interest in getting into macro photography now, Igneus?
So, what is the actual goal of your beekeeping? T o just keep you busy? To bathe in honey? To start using bees as money?
I will be very pleased if I can keep them alive. If I can harvest a little honey next year that sure would be neat. One of the reasons I want to do this is due to CCD. To do what I can because they are so vital for our plants. It helps that my wife is big on the whole natural foods thing and I've never been able to grow anything. So this is going to be my contribution.
Mostly it'sfor my kids, it is going to be an amazing learning opportunity for my family. I have a very vivid memory as a kid visiting a friend of the families bee yard. Walking along the hives, and being scared, but a gentle hand from the elderly man who tended them saying just let it fly away. I would love to share even a fraction of an experience like that with my family, and my nieces and nephews too.
As far as the photography goes, if I could afford another hobby then yes. But for now I'll stick to bees and boardgames.
When I first started university I spent two summers working at a small bee farm in Saskatchewan. It remains the most interesting job I've ever had, helped by the fact that the owner/operator was a former schoolteacher who was really good about answering questions and explaining things. Bees are absolutely fascinating in so many ways that I had never expected.
I look forward to watching you go through the some of the same discovery process that I did, and to reading about your experiences as an amateur beekeeper. Keep it up and thanks for making the thread!
I cared for a demo hive for several summers at the MD state fair. They are interesting critters. One thing that happened is that they maintain a security perimeter about 5 meters out from the entrance to the hive. They have scouts flying and crawling on the grass and other surfaces. When they encounter something big, like an animal or person, they fly back to the hive with the scent. That alerts the bees near the entrance to go out and collect on the animal that is approaching, to see if they need to sting it. If they do, they put out a scent as they die that tells other bees what's going on and draws them in to sting too...
The cool thing is that if you stand still for a while, they will leave you alone. I always brought them water in the morning (pie pan with wet paper towels, so as not to drown them - the hive was too small for self-sufficiency and was maintained through feeding in the winter and extra care in the summer heat). They learned to associate me with water and no threat. They would just check me out at the perimeter and leave me alone after that unless I did something stupid like walk on them.
This meant that after a few days, I could casually walk with a friend around the back of the building. As we'd get closer to the hive, they'd land and take off again from me, but land and crawl around on my friend. More and more of them. They'd be wondering what the heck was going on and I could spin whatever story I wanted. It was definitely a way to relieve the boredom of long shifts monitoring visitors and pulling rotten veggies from display and sweeping up when it was slow.
And yes, I did check before hand to make sure they were not allergic...
We have a colony of miner bees in the yard. Replanting with bee friends plants this spring to keep them happy. No honey, and the yard looks great.
Following to see if this gives valuable information or a great Bee riff of funny.
I will certainly give information, it bee-ing valuable is another thing entirely.
I will certainly give information, it bee-ing valuable is another thing entirely.
At least we all know this is the place to bee for bad bee puns! Finally that void in my life is filled!
Bee Time Fun Time! Where you are given a random bit of information about bees! *
Remember beeee yourself. - Genie from Aladdin
Honey bees are not native to North America. They are an import from Asia and Europe and have bee-come an essential part of our agricultural system.
*Remember all information given is at best well sourced, at worse pulled out of thin air because I thought I remembered hearing it from somewhere. Citations may bee needed, but will rarely bee given. I will never try to actively deceive you about bees.**
**That is exactly what someone who is trying to deceive you would say.
Bee Time Fun Time! Where you are given a random bit of information about bees! *
Remember beeee yourself. - Genie from Aladdin
Honey bees are not native to North America. They are an import from Asia and Europe and have bee-come an essential part of our agricultural system.
*Remember all information given is at best well sourced, at worse pulled out of thin air because I thought I remembered hearing it from somewhere. Citations may bee needed, but will rarely bee given. I will never try to actively deceive you about bees.**
**That is exactly what a someone who is trying to deceive you would say.
Have you given any thoughts on getting into Hive politics? With disclaimers like that you could caucus your way to Queen in no time.
Bee Time Fun Time! Where you are given a random bit of information about bees! *
Remember beeee yourself. - Genie from Aladdin
Honey bees are not native to North America. They are an import from Asia and Europe and have bee-come an essential part of our agricultural system.
*Remember all information given is at best well sourced, at worse pulled out of thin air because I thought I remembered hearing it from somewhere. Citations may bee needed, but will rarely bee given. I will never try to actively deceive you about bees.**
**That is exactly what a someone who is trying to deceive you would say.
So there are bees that don't make honey? I had no idea! Do they just pollinate stuff?
Igneus wrote:Bee Time Fun Time! Where you are given a random bit of information about bees! *
Remember beeee yourself. - Genie from Aladdin
Honey bees are not native to North America. They are an import from Asia and Europe and have bee-come an essential part of our agricultural system.
*Remember all information given is at best well sourced, at worse pulled out of thin air because I thought I remembered hearing it from somewhere. Citations may bee needed, but will rarely bee given. I will never try to actively deceive you about bees.**
**That is exactly what a someone who is trying to deceive you would say.
So there are bees that don't make honey? I had no idea! Do they just pollinate stuff?
They might bee out there pollinating their wild oats...
So there are bees that don't make honey? I had no idea! Do they just pollinate stuff?
Essentially yes. A lot of people who don't want the work of honey bees put in mason bee homes. The barrier of entry to raise mason bees is a lot smaller. All you need is a home and the bees, as opposed to honey bees which you need a hive, protection equipment, hive management tools. and a bunch more items. They also pollinate more. They are recommended for a lot of garden enthusiasts.
Have you given any thoughts on getting into Hive politics? With disclaimers like that you could caucus your way to Queen in no time.
I would but all the drone-ing on causes quite a buzz with the tabloids. I am pretty sure it would bee the death of me.
karmajay wrote:So there are bees that don't make honey? I had no idea! Do they just pollinate stuff?
Essentially yes. A lot of people who don't want the work of honey bees put in mason bee homes. The barrier of entry to raise mason bees is a lot smaller. All you need is a home and the bees, as opposed to honey bees which you need a hive, protection equipment, hive management tools. and a bunch more items. They also pollinate more. They are recommended for a lot of garden enthusiasts.
Hobear wrote:Have you given any thoughts on getting into Hive politics? With disclaimers like that you could caucus your way to Queen in no time.
I would but all the drone-ing on causes quite a buzz with the tabloids. I am pretty sure it would bee the death of me.
Are we sure this whole thread doesn't need to move to bad dad jokes thread?
Are we sure this whole thread doesn't need to move to bad dad jokes thread?
While it could be a cross pollinated post that is simply beecause I am both a dad and a burgeoning bee keeper. Good news I do actually have my bees on order now. That has been a real chore.
Depending on where you live getting bees is a bit of a hassle, at least in the northern areas. So here in PA while this year has been fairly temperate, it is not the norm. Bees who are not adapted to overwinter well will have difficulty feeding themselves and moving the cluster around the hive. They literally do not know how to move around the comb to get to food in the winter and will starve to death. So if possible to mitigate this you want northern stock. Which are bees born to queens that have been over wintered. There isn't enough supply to meet this demand. So southern bee packages are the norm, and it is fairly normal that they die. A lot of northern breeders only sell their queens in a nucleus box, also known as a "nuc". A nuc is a queen with supporting bees and usually 5 frames of brood, pollen,* and honey. Which is very different from a package. A package consists of just a queen with several lbs of bees, and that's it. It is important to note that with a package the queen and the bees are not related and have not yet accepted her.
A third way to get bees, is a swarm. Which is exactly what it sounds like. You catch a wild (presumably the best at wintering) group of bees that are looking for a home. I am not doing this. While i hear it is fun, and easy-ish. I am not ready to poop my pants while handling a wild swarm of bees.
*Oxford comma: learn it, love it, live it. That is the only grammatical advice I try for**, everything else will be awful.
**To be honest, I don't try that hard.
I grew up on a farm cupping bewildered honey bees in my hand in wild clover patches and finding them in my gumboots (the painful way). One of my scariest childhood memories was picking strawberries when a huge swarm passed overhead for what felt like endless minutes. But they are really harmless when unprovoked and necessary for agricultural production.
I think the main concern with keeping a hive is firstly noise (the humming wings can get very loud and your neighbours may complain) and secondly making sure kids don't do silly things (like poking a stick into the hive to score some fresh honey). Also, you'd want to in a fairly "green" neighborhood where the hive can get enough sustenance.
karmajay wrote:So there are bees that don't make honey? I had no idea! Do they just pollinate stuff?
Essentially yes. A lot of people who don't want the work of honey bees put in mason bee homes. The barrier of entry to raise mason bees is a lot smaller. All you need is a home and the bees, as opposed to honey bees which you need a hive, protection equipment, hive management tools. and a bunch more items. They also pollinate more. They are recommended for a lot of garden enthusiasts.
There are also some plants that honeybees don't pollinate well. For example, if you're a farmer growing alfalfa (certain varieties at least, I'm not sure about all of them) for seed, you'll typically put out a whole bunch of leafcutter bees. Leafcutter bees are smaller bees that are solitary (don't live in hives) and don't stockpile honey. There is no honey to collect from the leafcutter bees, they are put out for the sole purpose of pollinating. The typical european honeybees can still collect nectar and make honey from alfalfa, but they don't pollinate it, so the plants don't produce viable seed.
It was explained to me as a poor match-up of bee and plant physiology. When alfalfa releases pollen it sort of explodes in a honeybee's face. The bee hates this, and wants to avoid triggering it. Since they have a relatively long proboscis they can actually extract the nectar without releasing the pollen. Leafcutter bees can't manage to get the nectar without triggering the pollen. The story I was told is that they just walk inside and it explodes around them, but this doesn't bother them at all. Thus, they are much better at pollinating alfalfa. I don't really know for sure as this was the crop where I was working, but there are probably other plants with similar circumstances.
A third way to get bees, is a swarm. Which is exactly what it sounds like. You catch a wild (presumably the best at wintering) group of bees that are looking for a home. I am not doing this. While i hear it is fun, and easy-ish. I am not ready to poop my pants while handling a wild swarm of bees.
A swarm sounds a lot worse than it is. They are remarkably docile while they are just hanging around waiting for the scouts to return. I've only collected a couple, and it pretty much consisted of: (1) place empty box under bees, (2) shake the tree or whatever they're hanging in, and watch the big ball of bees fall into the box, (3) put lid on box, (4) receive profuse thanks from nearby homeowner, (5) take bees back to base and set them up in an empty colony, (6) profit. OK, I make it sound easy, but I would never try it if I hadn't done it a couple of times with an experienced beekeeper first. This is not the way to get your start.
I think it probably helps that most swarms are really "tame" bees that have only recently escaped because the beekeeper was a bit slow in taking care of the colony.
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