Robbie and I will be keeping honey bees for the first time this year. I went to Bee School with the Mecklenburg County Beekeepers Association back in 2006 but by then I was expecting with Ricky so I didn't pursue beekeeping that year - or the next, since an infant is the best excuse for not doing something! Finally I was so sick of hearing myself say that I was going to do it that I did another round of Bee School this year and ordered my equipment from Brushy Mountain before I could chicken out. Here's Robbie doing a little construction on the bodies.
Besides the equipment, I also ordered a package of Italian bees since that's the most common type that most people suggest you start with. Then I went to class and heard about the Russians.
The first lesson I've learned is that once you decide what course you will take with your bees, you then learn about another different-better-stranger-more difficult way to do it.
There are a few principles that I will stick with during my beekeeping tenure. One is that I will not use chemicals, fungicides, pesticides, fumigations, or anything else yucky that I wouldn't want in my house if I were a person or a bee. That's non-negotiable. The second principle that sounds good to me now is that I won't requeen. (You are generally advised to kill your hive's queen every couple of years and replace her with a young, fresh, already-mated one.) Problem is I'm no bug killer. At best, I'll get Alex to kill the occasional nasty roach, millipede, or other revolting creature. Otherwise, spiders, snakes, bees of any kind - let's summarize - anything (but a roach) with eight legs or fewer - are off-limits for killing. I actually didn't know these ideals would be found in favor but I met the former president of another association and she said she practiced those same beliefs herself! No chemicals, no killing. Permission!
Anyway, one of the benefits of keeping Russians over Italians is that they are more mite resistant and many beeks (that's the short version of beekeeper which has way too many eeeee's) are able to keep Russians without employing chemicals and the rest. Matching with my first principle, I swapped the Italian order in and hunted down a Russian dealer. I'll be getting our girls from Porter Farm Bees in Easley, SC.
So the next thing is that our hive and spare parts are all built, painted, level, ready to go. The foundation is installed... and then I hit upon true organic beekeeping online. There is a whole set of practitioners who do not treat disease and instead stimulate their bees to fend for themselves. That means that they lose weak hives but they support bees the way nature intended - not as a souped up agricultural product but as an independent part of the ecosystem. I really like the sound of that.
A major topic I've come across is large cell versus small cell honey bees. Sure, they told us in school about how different cell sizes are used to grow either a worker (regular size cell), drone (bit bigger), or queen (really big). What they didn't mention is that the cell size predetermined in the standard foundation is larger than what honey bees would naturally make for themselves. The slightly larger cells create slightly larger workers. The idea is that the larger workers will produce more honey but apparently that's not the case. So the naturalists put the bees through a process called regression in which the generations of bees are born smaller until they are the size to build their own comb with the smaller cell size that they would prefer had they been feral. Some people think that the larger workers are more prone to varroa and tracheal mites because of their bigger bodies and their slightly longer life cycle in the larval and pupa stages. Again, sounds reasonable to me. Why would you try to manage the nature of a creature that has managed itself for 150 million years?
So I have all of this wired wax foundation in place and I think now that we want a fully drawn, food grade polypropolene HSC (honey super cell) foundation with a cell size that helps them transition. Once the girls are back down to normal size, they will build their own comb with no foundation provided by me. Didn't know the factory-produced foundation has all kinds of chemicals in it anyway.
My bees are due in mid-May although the supplier said he was running a bit late. That's OK as it might give me more time to figure out my approach to foundation and probably lots of other things that I don't know about yet.
Here's Ricky having a snack next to the hive with no bees yet.
Besides the equipment, I also ordered a package of Italian bees since that's the most common type that most people suggest you start with. Then I went to class and heard about the Russians.
The first lesson I've learned is that once you decide what course you will take with your bees, you then learn about another different-better-stranger-more difficult way to do it.
There are a few principles that I will stick with during my beekeeping tenure. One is that I will not use chemicals, fungicides, pesticides, fumigations, or anything else yucky that I wouldn't want in my house if I were a person or a bee. That's non-negotiable. The second principle that sounds good to me now is that I won't requeen. (You are generally advised to kill your hive's queen every couple of years and replace her with a young, fresh, already-mated one.) Problem is I'm no bug killer. At best, I'll get Alex to kill the occasional nasty roach, millipede, or other revolting creature. Otherwise, spiders, snakes, bees of any kind - let's summarize - anything (but a roach) with eight legs or fewer - are off-limits for killing. I actually didn't know these ideals would be found in favor but I met the former president of another association and she said she practiced those same beliefs herself! No chemicals, no killing. Permission!
Anyway, one of the benefits of keeping Russians over Italians is that they are more mite resistant and many beeks (that's the short version of beekeeper which has way too many eeeee's) are able to keep Russians without employing chemicals and the rest. Matching with my first principle, I swapped the Italian order in and hunted down a Russian dealer. I'll be getting our girls from Porter Farm Bees in Easley, SC.
So the next thing is that our hive and spare parts are all built, painted, level, ready to go. The foundation is installed... and then I hit upon true organic beekeeping online. There is a whole set of practitioners who do not treat disease and instead stimulate their bees to fend for themselves. That means that they lose weak hives but they support bees the way nature intended - not as a souped up agricultural product but as an independent part of the ecosystem. I really like the sound of that.
A major topic I've come across is large cell versus small cell honey bees. Sure, they told us in school about how different cell sizes are used to grow either a worker (regular size cell), drone (bit bigger), or queen (really big). What they didn't mention is that the cell size predetermined in the standard foundation is larger than what honey bees would naturally make for themselves. The slightly larger cells create slightly larger workers. The idea is that the larger workers will produce more honey but apparently that's not the case. So the naturalists put the bees through a process called regression in which the generations of bees are born smaller until they are the size to build their own comb with the smaller cell size that they would prefer had they been feral. Some people think that the larger workers are more prone to varroa and tracheal mites because of their bigger bodies and their slightly longer life cycle in the larval and pupa stages. Again, sounds reasonable to me. Why would you try to manage the nature of a creature that has managed itself for 150 million years?
So I have all of this wired wax foundation in place and I think now that we want a fully drawn, food grade polypropolene HSC (honey super cell) foundation with a cell size that helps them transition. Once the girls are back down to normal size, they will build their own comb with no foundation provided by me. Didn't know the factory-produced foundation has all kinds of chemicals in it anyway.
My bees are due in mid-May although the supplier said he was running a bit late. That's OK as it might give me more time to figure out my approach to foundation and probably lots of other things that I don't know about yet.
Here's Ricky having a snack next to the hive with no bees yet.
1 comment:
oooooh, forget chickens, I want bees. Your setup is beautiful. Can't wait to see it in person!
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