How to install a nuc. Esp. in our cold Northwest climate.
Great Blog Subscriptions
Brennah’s Backyard / A refreshing and wonderful blog on bees by
a photographer and astute observer of nature.
https://sassafrasbeefarm.wordpress.com
Emily Scott (UK)
https://adventuresinbeeland.com
Kathy Keatley Garvey (US)
http://ucanr.edu/blogs/bugsquad/
Ron Miksha (Canada)
https://badbeekeepingblog.com
37 Types of Bees with Identifications
FORAGE for Honey Bees in Western WA.
USA main page for honey bee forage plants.
Lovely Australian link for beekeepers.
Winter management of beehives.
Hornet News – things to frighten you
The JAPANESE BLACK HORNET National Geographic Special
The Bee Informed Partnership: dedicated to working with beekeepers to improve colony health and increase colony survivor-ship.
BIOLOGICAL and behavioral LINKS:
“Help us stay connected” Please watch the two following videos. Sadly, unless you are Vimeo membered you cannot comment. 🙁
“There are colonies in downtown Vancouver, BC that are part of a program called Hives for Humanity. The colonies are basically all operated by homeless people, folks in recovery, and street people with mental challenges who need a reason to live. It is an utterly amazing program.
Sarah and her mother are both master beekeepers who simply had an idea (Sarah’s idea) of putting ONE hive in a downtown community garden back in 2012.”
She went to work getting the idea “approved” by the city and it has brilliantly blossomed into a huge non-profit organization today that helps support folks who need help. The City government loves it and supports them now. The program now has over 200 colonies, they teach beekeeping, advocate for pollinators, sell hive products, neighborhood honey tastings, give workshops and so much more.
“Many of these homeless people say the bees have given them a reason to live. The bees are very magical creatures. There is nothing that brings people together like bees. Ask anyone in downtown Vancouver if there have ever been any problems with the bees and the response is absolutely not.
I asked Sarah one time, what do you do if someone gets stung who is anaphylactic ? She looked at me and very matter of factly said, “oh… we have a epi-pen at each apiary … but they’ve never been used.” Over 200 beehives in a downtown urban setting, along sidewalks and storefronts, right out in the open … and, in almost 10 years, the epi-pens “have never been used”.
“I just love this program and have dreamed of trying such a thing myself, but we have too many lawyers with heads up their asses to make it happen in the U.S” (contributed by a friend)
I have long been plotting out such a program, but am uncertain if this community or even the bee club would support it. Vendors of hardware, NUK suppliers and even some local stores of banks might assist such a startup. Finding low income families and or Vets with PTSD would be simple, and we would all benefit.
Yes, this is a program we could use here locally. Sadly, my last effort in beginning a “New Leaf” Nursery in Port Angeles in the 80s was met with such resentment and hate that I could not sell our product to any local nursery save two. Sunny farms was one of them. That rejection meant travelling to Bainbridge Island and Seattle where our plants (guaranteed sales) were welcomed. The parent non-profit agency Diversified Industries canned it after just three years. Not enough PROFIT, and sold off their half of the inventory at 20 cents on the dollar . The 13 employees found their way back to janitorial work, out of sight, out of mind. I remain furious about this to this day. I also sold the major of Boston on the same idea – sadly other things happened. 😥
Canada remains a much different story when it comes to social programs than America.
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I made the following suggestion to a friend about that stimulus check!!!!
You should buy a Hive and nuc, with that money you are getting!!!
Locally a single beehive can produce some 90 pounds of honey. So what does that do for me?
64 calories in a tablespoon of honey. So a pound of honey (22 Tb) is 1400 calories. X 90 lbs per hive. You have a reservoir of 127,000 calories ready to ingest.
We can survive on much less than on 2000 calories a day. so one bee hive can keep you alive for near 3 months.
1500 calories = about 86 days.
Victory gardens are hopefully going to make a comeback, even if it is in community gardens!!! Society will be changed for sure by this.
Mind you this may not be a good time to join a bee club to learn about the trade but you still can read, buy books and get to know some beekeepers. This will end, and sooner or later the planet will welcome a change in our habits.
I just finished adding a couple of comments to DON the FAT BEE MAN in the u tube mess of misinformation.
It was about queen excluders and attributed one nasty after another without any sort of fact.
added my own comment:
I cannot believe the many questionable and undocumented stats I see here. Wings wear out, life shortened by 50%. Who is taking census on these bees. Reducing honey flows, not IMO. I have had record honey production vs. other bee keepers both in CA and in WA.
Do you really want brood up in honey supers. I sure do not. Do you consider having a hole in an upper supper, or using a Ventilated Inner Cover that includes a small upper entrance? Try it. Remove them before Winter and after extraction. For sure. Put them on, right side up. Sure. use queen excluders with a wooden frame to give more clearance. Yes. Rounded metal, vs. Plastic, YES.
Finally, the only negative I might see might be with Carpathians which might gum up the excluder. Most other bees work fine with them.
Does it increase swarming? not that I know. As for the size of a honey crop being reduced, that has so many variables to consider that isolating it to queen excluders is silly.
I would also add that if you attribute wing deformations or shredded wings, you might also consider DWV, and viruses. Most bees will be infected with DWV at some point in their lives. Attributing that to queen excluders is nuts.
how redirected crops, fruit, woods, wine etc. get past customs and tariffs. honey certainly is part of this.
https://graphics.reuters.com/CHILE-CRIME/RASPBERRIES/jbyvrmdkope/index.html?utm_source=digg
Why putting a new nuc in an 8 frame box may be preferable to a 10 frame esp. in cool weather. And WHEN to add a second box. Your expectations!!! Often foiled by weather and the unexpected. https://beekeeperfacts.com/how-long-does-it-take-bees-to-fill-a-brood-box/
One of the best blogs on beekeeping. Wonderful photographs.
https://brennahcavanaugh.com/category/pollinators-and-flowers/honey-bees-and-beekeeping/
FASCINATING lecture of the philology of bees and evolution. Goes into working the Apiary do develop ‘Genetic Variance in the Colony as a Management Tool for Honey Bee. Healthy Drones Health’. Also a great page with illustrations of bee biology.