Beginning the Beekeeping Journey

Beekeeping is something that has been tickling my mind for awhile... just like keeping chickens. Perhaps it's been the joy of keeping chickens; perhaps it's the problems we've had (personally and in our area in general) with pollination; or perhaps it's the fact that bees are in so much danger.

Beekeeping- just seems like the right thing to do.

A disclaimer: Since I am a beginner, I may use the wrong terms at times in this and future posts. This is my attempt share my experience from the beginning on my journey of learning. I am by no means an expert, but I will attempt to share all the tidbits of information I collect along the way.

This winter I decided that I would dedicate 2017 to learning about beekeeping. Chickens were easy. It was an easy thing to pick up and learn along the way (still learning, actually). Bees... well, let's just say that chickens aren't an endangered species, I want to know what the heck I'm doing before making the complete dive into the hive. I want to do right by them.

Somewhere I read that the learning curve for beekeeping was much greater than it is for chickens. I've read about bees in articles here and there over the years. I pick up a little bit of information about bees here in there, but otherwise I have known next to nothing about these extraordinary creatures.

In my area there is a Science Center, I haven't been there in a long long time, but years ago I visited it when my boyfriends little sister was still little. They had a functioning hive on display there, it's a little hard to explain how it was set up, but it was connected to the outside world via some plastic tubes and visitors were viewing the hive through a Plexiglas display that encased the whole thing. It was just so fascinating! I had never seen anything like it. Seeing pictures of something in a book or documentary is one thing, but seeing it in person was amazing. I sat in awe on a bench for a long time staring at the inner workings of that hive.

The club hives.

It came to my attention that there was a beekeepers club in my area- The Finger Lakes Bee Keepers Club. So I joined up. IT. IS. AMAZING. Anyone can join the club for a $10 membership fee and they meet once a month. Beginning in spring they meet at the club hives nearby the Cayuga Nature Center. This means that not only do experienced beekeepers get to connect with other beekeepers, but beginners... affectionately called newbees (a play on the term 'noob' or 'newbie', for those new at something) can learn hands on skills working with the club hives, as well as get hooked up with mentors in their area. It's really so great. 

There have only been two meetings at the club hives so far this year and I've been to both. Each time i go, i feel like I learn soooo much. I can't even. The first meeting was literally the first time I had seen a REAL hive in person. My first impressions as a newbee: it was sort of strange at first... seeing all these people crowded around and all in these white suits, like visitors from another planet. Bees were flying all over! I didn't feel scared, but I didn't have one of these strange space suits on to protect me, so it was a little intimidating. One of the first things I learned was not to stand in front of the entrance to the hive. It's not necessarily that they will sting you, it's just that they are very busy little girls and you are in their way... they will bump into you constantly and they might get a little agitated. Magically, a bee landed on my shoulder... then on my arm... no harm, they were just resting. I had never touched or been touched by a bee before!

Then there is this crazy thing... the more you learn about bees- the more you learn there is to learn. The more you learn, in other words, the more you want to learn. Bees are so fascinating that you want to know more and more! At the farmers market in March I spoke to Duane Waid of Waid's Honey (I had read he was a member of the FLBC and asked when the club normally met etc.) and he said that he's been at it for over 40 years and there are still things to learn.

Queen is in the house!

All the pictures in this post were taken at my second meeting. In the image above, I'd like to point out that the bee with a yellow dot- is a queen! While the club hives had been doing well last year, there was a lot of death by autumn. They were told it was mites (even though they had treated for mites). 

Mites are the bane of bees. Mites carry all sorts of diseases that effect bees.

I can't remember how many hives died, but they were down to only two. Therefore they ordered and installed three new colonies and the queen above is part of one of the new ones. Queens will get marked so that the beekeeper can spot her more quickly. 

At our club meetings the hives will be opened and inspected... basically to see how things are going. I still don't know enough, but I'm slowly getting a basic idea of it all. I thought it was interesting that they would always take these trays or frames out (there are a certain number of frames) and look at them so closely. But this is part of beekeeping- doing this helps you keep track of how the colony is doing. Are they thriving? Are they struggling? Always being on the lookout for the queen. Until you locate the queen, you must act like every frame has the queen on it. I learned that when you lift the frames out, that you should lift it straight up and out... not at any sort of angle, since this could accidentally crush some of the bees... or the queen (this would be very bad). I have learned that the bees make a kind of cement, a resin, that they use as a caulking for all the cracks and crevices in the hive. This is why beekeepers use a special tool to pry the frames loose before moving them around- otherwise the frames are cemented in place.

a queen cell

I saw, for the first time, a queen cell. This is special cell where a queen will be raised. The way a colony makes is queen is by feeding a larvae 'royal jelly', but I wonder how they know! How does a colony know that it's time to make a new queen? Anyway, this was so interesting. In the picture above, is a queen cell full of royal jelly (it looks like a cup full of white material on the upper edge of the frame).

Did you know that a queen can sting? That her stinger is not like other bee stingers? Her stinger is smoother and not barbed. From what I understand, the whole reason bees die when they sting you is because their barbed stinger gets stuck pretty bad in our skin... when they try to work themselves free- the stinger breaks off- along with some of their internal organs. Damn. I learned that when a colony decides to raise a new queen, they will raise SEVERAL queens simultaneously. Huh? Why? I guess this is where the queens special stinger comes into play. When the new queens start being born, they literally have a battle royale; fighting each other until only one queen is left standing. Wow, I know! The last queen standing, to have gotten this far, was probably the healthiest queen anyways- so she deserves to be queen.

Compare the next two photos. They show two types of cells. The first has worker bee cells, which are flat and appear 'tile-like'. The second is cells where drones are being raised. The drone cells are raised up and bumpy looking- like cobble stone. Drones are physically larger, which is part of the reason why their cells bulge out like this.

worker bee cells

drone cells

Have I mentioned that I witnessed a bee being born? Because I witnessed a bee being born. It was magical. Several of us (others have probably seen it happen a hundred times) were captivated as a little hole began to open up in the cap to one of the cells... and within moments the hole expanded, until a bee emerged! It was fully formed, and had a slightly scrunched up look- like a newborn calf. I bet within a short while it would loosen itself up, stretch its wings and get to work.

Queens take about 16 days to emerge from their cells. Worker bees take about 21 days and drones take about 24-28 days (?). I thought 16 days seemed like a long time for an insect to be born. I reflected on how fast house flies go through their life cycle... something like 8 hours from egg to maggot. The more I think I know, the more I find that I know nothing. Queens have a significantly shorter time span... it's as though queens are the emergency button the colony pushes when the need arrives for a queen. It makes sense.

Above is a series of three shots showing our president demonstrating how to check for mites by opening up and inspecting unborn drones. Some people got a little squeamish about this part, but it was for the good of the colony. Mites like hanging around in with the drones, since they take the longest to develop. There is some way of calculating the number of mites found on the number of drones removed. Fortunately, and a little surprising I guess, there were no sign of mites using this method. So far this particular hive was doing pretty well. This does not necessarily last. From what it sounded like, when a hive is thriving, the bees sometimes start stealing from nearby hives that might be weaker... the weaker hives are the ones that will probably pass on mites to the bees from the healthier hives. And so it goes.

I don't remember all the specifics, but they demonstrated another method of checking for mites that involved rubbing alcohol (?) and dumping a sampling of bees in a jar... then shaking it all about to mix them in the solution. This also kills the bees, but it gets the mites off and allows another way to count how many mites there are and then calculate how bad the mite situation is. It was explained to me that another method existed where a powder of some sort was used instead, the bees lived in this case. As the bees cleaned themselves of this substance, they would knock off mites in the process. I got the feeling that even though this allowed the bees to live, it was not as accurate at measuring mite levels.

Oh and I got stung. Stung behind the ear. Like i mentioned earlier, I was so dedicated to taking as many great pictures of the whole thing, that in order to use my camera i opted for dexterity. The sting was a complete accident, I'm sure. I think the bee got caught behind my ear and probably in some of the tangle of my hair. I was told that when a bee thinks something weird is going on, like being trapped by something, it's instinct is to sting. I have never been stung by a bee. I was actually very apprehensive of what my reaction to a bee sting would be (I have a brother who is epipen allergic to stings). It was not a big deal. It was so not a big deal. I barely even realized it had happened. I wasn't even sure if i was stung until i felt around behind my ear and the stinger brushed off onto my finger. I had minimal swelling. It did not hurt- at all. It was a little scary when a second bee landed on my face and crawled between my eyeglasses and my eye- the president was like, "Get that out of there NOW!", which i was able to. He got up and stood in front of me, staring at me and asking if i had gotten stung. I said that i didn't think i had. He was acting as part human shield he said to protect me. He then asked me, "Do you know what happens when you get stung in the eye?". I imaged something horrific. He continued, "Your eye swells shut.". Ha ha. The site of the sting remained slightly swollen for several days... less than a week, I would say. It itched a little, but otherwise- soooo not a big deal.

One last thing, and probably the best for last scenario. I swear our club president is like the Gandalf of bee keeping. After telling us how drones do not have stingers at all, he picked one up and put it in his mouth. People gasped. Is he eating a live bee? Then is a wizardly fashion, he opened his mouth and the bee flew out unharmed. What is this witchcraft!? Ha ha. It was so great.

It's so exciting to learn all these things about bees. I'm very glad that I decided to give myself a whole year to do my homework before starting my own apiary. Joining a bee keepers club as such a great idea and has been so enjoyable. I feel like I'm concretely learning so much this way. I do have a book on beekeeping that I have yet to really page through. I will say I am now the owner of my own personal space suit... i mean bee suit. Maybe next time I will feel confident to do some of the hands on things.