I decided that, as part of my pledge to give at least 1% of my salary to charity each year, I would donate to an organization that encourages beekeeping in the developing world to generate income for small entrepreneurs. To paraphrase, give a man (or woman) a piece of honey comb and he (or she) sweetens his tea for one day, teach a man (or woman) to raise bees and he (or she) will be able to support themselves and stimulate their local economy (and get stung a lot). I was reminded about this by a talk given by Adebisi Aderkunle who teaches Nigerians to build and use top bar hives as part of the Slow Food movement (as heard on the Barefoot Beekeeper podcast). So I started to do some googling to find a suitable charity.
Heifer International now supplies bees and bee equipment to the developing world. The donating process would be easy, but I don't think I agree with their beekeeping philosophy, ie I think they are supplying Langstroth hives. Langstroth is the kind of hive that I own, but they require much more equipment than a top bar hive, and in fact a top bar hive could be built in situ for almost nothing. That would be much more in keeping with the idea of providing the spark for a truly local endeavor.
http://www.heifer.org/site/c.edJRKQNiFiG/b.2668675/
Another site I found is a UK based charity that appears to teach how to make and use top bar hives. However the donation process is a little complicated since they are not a US charity and thus I have to give to a US based charity with the instructions for them to make a grant to the bee charity.
http://www.beesfordevelopment.org/index
I may have to listen to the podcast again to see if I can find the name of her group.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Downsizing
I had replaced one drone frame with another about a month ago as part of the integrated pest strategy of removing drone larvae to remove mites. Ideally, the frames should come out every 21 days in order to keep the drones from hatching and releasing even more mites into your hive. During my last inspection I had peeked at the drone frame and they had not drawn it out much besides some bracing comb which I removed. So, I was only slightly nervous when I was not able to get up to the hive the weekend of 9/11-12 since I figured that they bees were taking their time building the new cells and then setting up shop for the drone larvae.
When I visited my hives with my sister this last Sunday (9/19) we were planning on removing the top box from the combined stack, removing some undrawn frames from the hive and replacing them with whatever frames in the removed box looked good, remove the drone frame, and perhaps do a sugar dusting.
Initial forager counting indicated only 78 bees returning per minute. Lower than I was expecting. However, later in the afternoon after the following inspection and when the sun had come out, I counted 150 returning bees! Now that is more like it!
The top box removal went well. They had about three frames with significant comb and honey. Two of which were able to be added back into the hive. The other frames were left in their box next to the hive to be robbed out by the bees. Hopefully this will allow the bees to top off the frames to the outside that the bees often leave empty if they have other options. Getting a colony through winter is more than just having enough honey in the hive, the bees also have to be able to access it when its very cold and they can't travel more than a few inches from the cluster.
The bees had completely removed the newspaper that had been used to buffer the two joined hives while they got to know each other. Only a fringe pinched between the wood was left. The queen excluder was removed.
The drone frame was fully drawn out. However, instead of drone larvae, it was filled with honey. Apparently the hive has decided that no more worthless loafers are needed this year. That would agree with our observations of the outside where there were a good number of drones hanging out outside the hive... perhaps they had been given the boot?
The bees were starting to get agitated so we did not poke around int he bottom box. We did a quick sugar dust to the top of the hive before closing up.
This inspection was the first use of coffee been bag strips to fuel the smoker. Once lit it worked like a charm, producing a steady smoke for a very long time. We also did not have to do the frantic puffing to keep it going like we had to do with straw... so less smoke induced headaches!
Soon winterizing will begin in earnest with a hole being cut in the back of the inner lid to improve ventilation (as recommended by Bill Mares in the bee workshop), trying to confirm that they have enough honey, inserting a front entrance barrier (to keep out the varmints), and to then wrap the hive. Also, I am still dithering about medications.
My mother will be feeding them 2:1 sugar water again as we work to try to get them as much food as possible.
.JPG)
When I visited my hives with my sister this last Sunday (9/19) we were planning on removing the top box from the combined stack, removing some undrawn frames from the hive and replacing them with whatever frames in the removed box looked good, remove the drone frame, and perhaps do a sugar dusting.
Initial forager counting indicated only 78 bees returning per minute. Lower than I was expecting. However, later in the afternoon after the following inspection and when the sun had come out, I counted 150 returning bees! Now that is more like it!
The top box removal went well. They had about three frames with significant comb and honey. Two of which were able to be added back into the hive. The other frames were left in their box next to the hive to be robbed out by the bees. Hopefully this will allow the bees to top off the frames to the outside that the bees often leave empty if they have other options. Getting a colony through winter is more than just having enough honey in the hive, the bees also have to be able to access it when its very cold and they can't travel more than a few inches from the cluster.
The bees had completely removed the newspaper that had been used to buffer the two joined hives while they got to know each other. Only a fringe pinched between the wood was left. The queen excluder was removed.
The drone frame was fully drawn out. However, instead of drone larvae, it was filled with honey. Apparently the hive has decided that no more worthless loafers are needed this year. That would agree with our observations of the outside where there were a good number of drones hanging out outside the hive... perhaps they had been given the boot?
The bees were starting to get agitated so we did not poke around int he bottom box. We did a quick sugar dust to the top of the hive before closing up.
This inspection was the first use of coffee been bag strips to fuel the smoker. Once lit it worked like a charm, producing a steady smoke for a very long time. We also did not have to do the frantic puffing to keep it going like we had to do with straw... so less smoke induced headaches!
Soon winterizing will begin in earnest with a hole being cut in the back of the inner lid to improve ventilation (as recommended by Bill Mares in the bee workshop), trying to confirm that they have enough honey, inserting a front entrance barrier (to keep out the varmints), and to then wrap the hive. Also, I am still dithering about medications.
My mother will be feeding them 2:1 sugar water again as we work to try to get them as much food as possible.
.JPG)
Friday, September 10, 2010
All the President's Bees
While in DC last week, my wife and I were walking on the Mall. At one point I stopped to look at one flowering tree that had many insect pollinators on it. I wondered if the very large bumble bees were either drones or queens which should be out and about by this time. Also, I noticed many honey bees and it occurred to me to wonder if they were feral or if somebody nearby had a hive in the middle of DC. After a while we walked onto the next museum and I more or less forgot about the bees.
Today I was listening to a bee related podcast (the Barefoot Beekeeper in case you are curious). The host was interviewing a guest who told a story of how she had a meeting with the White House beekeeper.
Soooo..... perhaps if I had collected some of those bees and done bee lining to follow them home, they would have led me to a certain residence! Makes me ponder on a variant of '6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon' involving bees instead.
Today I was listening to a bee related podcast (the Barefoot Beekeeper in case you are curious). The host was interviewing a guest who told a story of how she had a meeting with the White House beekeeper.
Soooo..... perhaps if I had collected some of those bees and done bee lining to follow them home, they would have led me to a certain residence! Makes me ponder on a variant of '6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon' involving bees instead.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Action Taken
Saturday, September 4th, I went to my parents to check on the bees. The big question on my mind was if Juno would show signs of having a queen. The answer was a resounding no. No larvae, no eggs, and certainly no queen was visible. Also, during the inspection I twice noticed what appeared to be one bee attacking another and flying off with it. I suspect that might be a response to being frequently robbed by Artemis and/or a symptom of being queenless.
I tried to consolidate down to just one box, but there seemed to be just a few too many frames that had honey on them. Also, I was getting low on smoke. So, I put the frames back in and looked in on Artemis. She was doing fine with many more bees than Juno. I tried to take out the drone frame, but I should have taken out one of the outer frames first to provide more room. If I had, I would not have made a mess out of pulling the brood frame out since it had some bracing comb on it. That made the bees irate, and me with no smoke at that point. So I quickly put down the queen excluder on top of Artemis's top box, then placed two pieces of newspaper in which I had cut slits. Then I moved Juno onto of Artemis, making a bee high rise. The idea is that Juno is doomed since no queen and no eggs/larvae to make a new queen = extinction. So rather than loose those bees to a gradual death, they would be better off combined with Artemis where they could provide more bee-power for the goldenrod flow. But if I added them in directly there would be the risk of fighting between the hives. So, the newspaper will separate them for the time it takes for the workers to eat away at the paper. During that time the hive scents should mix... and the former Juno's will latch onto the scent of a queen and become honorary Artemis's.
A few hours later I saw what appeared to be foragers returning to both the bottom and the top (which I had left open mostly because there were a lot of bees hanging onto the inside of the top outer cover that had come off a frame I had propped on top of it). It occurred to me then that Juno's foragers returning from the fields would be likely to recognize 'their' hive, even with the increase in altitude, and would be able to enter through the top entrance without having to go through the Artemis entrance.
I touched base with my mentor via the phone today. He agreed that that sounded like the right thing to do. He also suggested that I order my wintering supplies in advance of the the workshop I will be attending Sept 11. I will hopefully have a chance to help him out with extracting. It would be good experience for me and its the least I could do for his help.
I tried to consolidate down to just one box, but there seemed to be just a few too many frames that had honey on them. Also, I was getting low on smoke. So, I put the frames back in and looked in on Artemis. She was doing fine with many more bees than Juno. I tried to take out the drone frame, but I should have taken out one of the outer frames first to provide more room. If I had, I would not have made a mess out of pulling the brood frame out since it had some bracing comb on it. That made the bees irate, and me with no smoke at that point. So I quickly put down the queen excluder on top of Artemis's top box, then placed two pieces of newspaper in which I had cut slits. Then I moved Juno onto of Artemis, making a bee high rise. The idea is that Juno is doomed since no queen and no eggs/larvae to make a new queen = extinction. So rather than loose those bees to a gradual death, they would be better off combined with Artemis where they could provide more bee-power for the goldenrod flow. But if I added them in directly there would be the risk of fighting between the hives. So, the newspaper will separate them for the time it takes for the workers to eat away at the paper. During that time the hive scents should mix... and the former Juno's will latch onto the scent of a queen and become honorary Artemis's.
A few hours later I saw what appeared to be foragers returning to both the bottom and the top (which I had left open mostly because there were a lot of bees hanging onto the inside of the top outer cover that had come off a frame I had propped on top of it). It occurred to me then that Juno's foragers returning from the fields would be likely to recognize 'their' hive, even with the increase in altitude, and would be able to enter through the top entrance without having to go through the Artemis entrance.
I touched base with my mentor via the phone today. He agreed that that sounded like the right thing to do. He also suggested that I order my wintering supplies in advance of the the workshop I will be attending Sept 11. I will hopefully have a chance to help him out with extracting. It would be good experience for me and its the least I could do for his help.
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