My new hobby.

My wife Justine and I retired at the end of last year and for around two years prior, have been planning to take up a new hobby to-gether................. bee keeping.

For the last ten weeks we have been attending a once a week bee keeping course, which ended last Tuesday, and last night at 10pm, I went to pick up our first hive of bees. We hope to get a second colony in a couple of days or so.

Bees around the world are under a huge threat from the over use of pesticides, particularly neonicotinoids and that has a massive knock on effect on the pollination of plants and food crops.

Taken from Wiki.

Links to decline in bee population [edit]
Main article: Imidacloprid effects on bees
Initially neonicotinoids were considered to have low-toxicity to many beneficial insects, including bees; however recently this claim has come into question. More recent research suggests a potential toxicity to bees and other beneficial insects through low level contamination of nectar and pollen with neonicotinoid insecticides used in agriculture. Although these low level exposures do not normally kill bees directly, they may impact some bees’ ability to forage for nectar, learn and remember where flowers are located, and possibly impair their ability to find their way home to the nest or hive.[30] Several recent studies suggest a relationship to what has become generally known as colony collapse disorder (CCD) which has devastated honey bee populations world-wide since about 2006.[31][32] A 2012 study suggested that neonicotinoids may be responsible for detrimental effects of pesticides on the bumble bee colony growth and queen production which may be related to a world-wide reduction in the number of wild bees.[33]
In 2012, several peer reviewed independent studies were published showing that neonicotinoids had previously undetected routes of exposure affecting bees including through dust, pollen, and nectar[34] and that sub-nanogram toxicity resulted in failure to return to the hive without immediate lethality,[35] the primary symptom of CCD.[36] Research also showed environmental persistence in agricultural irrigation channels and soil.[37] These reports prompted a formal peer review by the European Food Safety Authority which stated in January 2013 that neonicotinoids pose an unacceptably high risk to bees, and that the industry-sponsored science upon which regulatory agencies' claims of safety have relied may be flawed and contain several data gaps not previously considered. Their review concluded, "A high acute risk to honey bees was identified from exposure via dust drift for the seed treatment uses in maize, oilseed rape and cereals. A high acute risk was also identified from exposure via residues in nectar and/or pollen."[13][38] David Goulson, an author of one of the Science studies which prompted the EESA peer review, has suggested that industry science pertaining to neonicotinoids may have been deliberately deceptive, and the UK Parliament has asked manufacturer Bayer Cropscience to explain discrepancies in evidence they have submitted to an investigation.[39]
A two-year peer reviewed study published in 2012 showed the presence of two neonicotinoid insecticides, clothianidin and thiamethoxam, in bees found dead in and around hives situated near agricultural fields. Other bees at the hives exhibited tremors, uncoordinated movement and convulsions, all signs of insecticide poisoning. The insecticides were also consistently found at low levels in soil — up to two years after treated seed was planted — on nearby dandelion flowers and in corn pollen gathered by the bees. Insecticide-treated seeds are covered with a sticky substance to control its release into the environment, however they are then coated with talc to facilitate machine planting. This talc is released into the environment in large amounts. The study found that the exhausted talc showed extremely high levels of the insecticides — up to about 700,000 times the lethal contact dose for a bee. According to the research,
"Whatever was on the seed was being exhausted into the environment. This material is so concentrated that even small amounts landing on flowering plants around a field can kill foragers or be transported to the hive in contaminated pollen. This might be why we found these insecticides in pollen that the bees had collected and brought back to their hives."
Tests also showed that the corn pollen that bees were bringing back to hives tested positive for neonicotinoids at levels roughly below 100 parts per billion, an amount not acutely toxic, but enough to kill bees if sufficient amounts are consumed.[40]
In July 2010, a Dutch toxicologist examined the toxicity of neonicotinoid pesticides in relation to exposure time.[41] He then authored and published a book in regards to his research called "A Disaster in the Making". The book explores the impact of neonicotinoids on the immune system of bees. The 2009 documentary Vanishing of the Bees suggests that a link between neonicotinoid pesticides and Colony Collapse Disorder exists.[42] However, other pesticides may also harm bees.[43]



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They aren't out foraging to-day but the hive guards are on duty.

That is way cool, Al. Very interesting also

Coincidence central, I finished helping a beekeeper last year. It was just a hobby of sorts, but by the time it ended I too was working gloveless, but I kept the veil hat on. Made me look a bit like Mrs. Pancho Villa. Good luck with bees. Bee health is a huge issue and stories bear out the crisis in pollination.

Looks good Al! Now keep them bees happy! LoL

Mice one Al,I like bees as a general punter and there was a bush at work - dont know what sort...and in march it was crawling with them.
Used to do the 'funky chicken' when wasps were around till I read about pheremones and tried being calm and still,low and behold it works. 

You say there are about 50,000 in the hive unless I misread you,how much honey will they produce?

I saw a very interesting programme about hornets once,big nasty critters.But if a hornet scout invaded the hive they surounded it and built up enough heat to kill the hornet off therefore preventing an attack on the hive.001 

So I presume you will be using beeswax to finish off your cars from now on,and setting up your own air con with all those beating wings?  

Thanks guys.

It's going to be fun but kind os scary too. We now have 50,000 lives in our hands!!   

Mice one Al,I like bees as a general punter and there was a bush at work - dont know what sort...and in march it was crawling with them.

That would be a swarm Nige. Bees swarm when there get to be too many in a hive. Then, the queen and about 30% of them, leave the hive. Settle on some nearby bush/tree and then fly off to start a fresh colony. The remaining bees in the hive are now 'queenless' and 'make' anything up to twenty new queens from existing larvae in specially created queen cells. When the first of them hatches out, she will visit each of the other queen cells and kill them off with her sting. If there are any other hatched queens they will battle until only one remains.

Let me guess, was it around about 1pm to 3pm when you saw them?

Used to do the 'funky chicken' when wasps were around till I read about pheremones and tried being calm and still,low and behold it works.

Yup! Most people panic when a bee or wasp comes near and start flaying their arms about. WRONG. Calm slow movements are best. Even let the bee or wasp settle on you if need be. A bee won't sting you unless you make it aggressive. After all, it will die once it stings. On the course, they were at great pains to point out that when tending the hive, movements should always be calm and slow.

I saw a very interesting programme about hornets once,big nasty critters.But if a hornet scout invaded the hive they surounded it and built up enough heat to kill the hornet off therefore preventing an attack on the hive

That's exactly what they do Nige. When I mentioned above that the 'guards' were on duty, that is exactly what they are. Their job is to lookout for intruders and alert the bees inside to come out and 'take care' of them.

So I presume you will be using beeswax to finish off your cars from now on,and setting up your own air con with all those beating wings?

Good point. BTW, did you know that beeswax is actually bee sweat? No kidding either.

You say there are about 50,000 in the hive unless I misread you,how much honey will they produce?

Yes, around 50,000 bees. One queen, about 2000 drones (Males) and about 48,000 workers. (Females).

As to honey, it depends on the weather to a large extent but in good conditions, a decent hive will produce 30-35lbs of honey a year. Harvested in August. On a related note, the honey is made from nectar but before it can be stored, the bees have to ingest it into their stomach's then regurgitate it into the comb. Just think about that next time you eat some.  

,and setting up your own air con with all those beating wings?  

You are not so wide of the mark Nige. That's how the bees stop the hive from over heating.

A few other facts for those who are interested:

Honey bees will fly up to SEVEN miles for nectar from Heather.

Occasionally the queen will leave the hive to take a 'comfort break' and wander off instead of returning to the hive. The bees can smell her from FIFTEEN miles away and call her back by emitting pheromones.

The average life of a queen is three years. During the spring and summer, she will lay about 2000 eggs per day.

The average life of drones and workers during the summer is just six weeks. When winter approaches the queen stops laying and the bee numbers decrease considerably. Those left around the end of October, live through until the following spring.

As winter approaches ALL of the drones are ejected from the hive or killed off and ejected.

In some places, bees are now being trained to sniff out drugs. (These are solitary bees, not honey bees). When new drugs need to be detected, it takes six weeks to train a dog to recognize them. It takes just two HOURS to train a bee.

I feel like I just experienced an episode of the Animal Planet.....LOL

That sounds like a cool new hobby for you and Mrs. Skid  

Thanks for the article on the honey bee, a lot of things I didn't know about them.

Sniffer bee's   that would be interesting to see work.

Ya still going to build ??
Now with your honey do list and your honey bee do list I would say you going to be busy as a bee

 

Animal Planet, Ha! As I wrote, I helped a beekeeper for a few years and it's interesting. My surprises were...bees aren't terribly clean and the wax, propolis, gets built up all over the inside and makes getting out the racks of honey difficult. Also, different breeds of bees produce different amounts of honey. More aggressive types seem to make more money, er honey. Last, we had the hives stacked to about 6 feet in height. I asked him once if they ever blew over and he said the weight of the hives and the low location by trees made it safe. A couple months later after a storm he went to check on them and they had blown over, making for very upset angry bees. After that we used tie down straps anchored to metal screwed into the ground (for staking large dog leashes).
Good luck with the sometimes challenging work. Last, the veroa mites (one of the diseases that plague bees)was unseen in Australia until a year or two ago. It's feared that they've gone beyond the port city where they entered.

Funnily enough it was between 1-3 when I saw them swarming Al....

Thought so Nige. That's the time of day when they swarm.

Veroa mites are just about pandemic now harron but are very controllable now. The biggest fear now is American Foul Brood and European Foul Brood.

So far in the UK we don't have the deadly American Foul Brood but there have been couple of islolated cases of European Foul Brood way down on the south coast. Long may that remain the case.

Great hobby, and the photos of your backyard are stunning.

So what are you going to do with all this honey and bees wax?

I always thought it took some pretty "special" people to do this Al and I think you fit the bill. lol I know in our province the bees are having a tough go it this year so you're doing a good thing. Will this new hobby influence this one and you'll start building Camaros and Super Bees?

Skid wrote:Thought so Nige. That's the time of day when they swarm.

Veroa mites are just about pandemic now harron but are very controllable now. The biggest fear now is American Foul Brood and European Foul Brood.

So far in the UK we don't have the deadly American Foul Brood but there have been couple of islolated cases of European Foul Brood way down on the south coast. Long may that remain the case.

I wondered on that Al,thought there might be a beer related funny there! 

With luck all the new people taking it up,it might help in the collapse syndrome over the years..

Thanks denis.

I certainly hope so Nige, worldwide, they need all the help they can get.


Well to-day was  the day to 'go solo' so to speak and begin to put the knowledge gained on the bee keeping course into practice.

Our second batch of bees arrived on Wednseday night (that's the white poly box in the photos)  but the weather was iffy yesterday so we delayed transfer to the Beehaus until to-day.

Well, talk about in at the deepend.!!!!

As the Beehaus uses deep frames as apposed  to the more common shallow frames, we needed to add a frame extention to the bottoms. To do this you partly lift out the frame, then you (in theory) do a hard 'shake' downwards to shake all the bees back into the box. This ensures that none of the baby (non-flying) bees are lost. Then you nail the extentions on and place in the Beehaus. When all the frames have been done, you then tip all the bees in the 'traveling box' into the Beehaus and close up.

Well, having seen it done, I can say now, it's a bloody sight harder than it looks. Bees everywhere, Thousands of them (literally) It's an amazing experience to be so closely surrounded by so many bees.

I had planned to take photos of the process but that went by the board as soon as I shook the first frame.

Everything has now settled down again and I can only hope that we still have the queen and that she's not flown away.





This photo was taken about three hours after the transfer. As you can see, there are stiil 2/300 bees buzzing around trying to find the new entrance,

Ha ha ha ha ha, shades of our experience with bees. Here in the U.S. to get the bees off the frames a sharp "rap" on the ground at the hive's base and a bit of brushing with a soft bristle bee brush (looks like the old brushes used for car snow removal) does the trick. Yes, the bees do get disturbed and many take to the air. Very cute stuff. Next time I'll relate the story my beekeeper friend told me of his getting his bees home from the post office.

Alan
I heard a tail that if you killed a wasp queen that one of the other females would take over the colony. Don,t know if it is true or not.
But would the same thing happen if it were bees?.
Was the course held at Bewick Honey Farm by any chance up near the Chain Bridge as I,ve done a show up there in the past about 2 year ago.
Tony.

Hi Tony....

The course was in my local market town of Hexham, Northumberland but coincidently, Justine and I visited Chain Bridge less than two weeks ago.

If a queen dies or is killed by the bees for not laying well, the bees 'make' a new queen.

They make up to 20 queens. All eggs when laid are destined to be workers (female) or drones (male) and when they hatch into larvae, they are fed entirely by the non-flying baby bees. (newly hatched).

When the queen dies or is killed, the baby bees will seek out up to 20 larvae of three days old or less. They then feed them a special food called 'Royal Jelly' for three days then they cap the cell for the larvae to develop into bees. The Royal Jelly, turns the larvae into queens.

When the first queen hatches, she will seek out the other queen cells and kill them off with her sting before they hatch. If two or more hatch at the same time, they battle to the death.

Once the new queen has established her seniority, she goes on a mating flight with a bunch of drones (males) and 'does the biz' with up to twenty of them. This ensures the gene pool. She then re-enters the hive and apart from the odd 'poo' trip out, spends the rest of her three year life in the hive laying around 2000 eggs per day during peak periods. She never mates again.

The queen bee and all those drones......sounds like one big swinging party at Al's farm.

When the first queen hatches, she will seek out the other queen cells and kill them off with her sting before they hatch. wrote:

So she is the exception to the rule then?

Interesting read Al. Me and bees don't get on too well as I'm allergic to them. Unfortunately I only get stung when I'm on the bike, then it's time for the drugs and a wee bit of a lie down while they do their thing. Makes for some entertainment when on a group ride.

What rule is that Nige?

That must be nasty for you Steve!! I once got a wasp in my mouth. It didn't live long to tell the tale.

Swinging party maybe for the queen, the drones die after mating. Good luck with them all, and remember that there are many bees, wasps, etc that live fine in the wild. Glad to hear veroa mites are better controlled now. Thanx!

That the queen can sting and yet not die Al.