Category Archives: beekeeping

January 8, 2011 · 10:18 AM

Bee-Z Smoker

I’ll readily admit that it took me awhile before I got the hang of lighting a smoker, but I never found it so difficult that I needed a special gadget to get it going. Maybe this product is great for commercial beekeepers who have hundreds of hives to check, but I really can’t see the justification for the urban beekeeper with just a few hives to inspect.

I guess it would be nice to just push a button and have smoke come out, but I enjoy the process of lighting the smoker. To me, the few minutes of setting up the smoker allows me to get into the inspection mindset and think through all the tasks I want to accomplish.

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January 7, 2011 · 5:59 PM

2011 North American Beekeeping Conference and Tradeshow

I just found out that the 2011 North American Beekeeping Conference and Tradeshow is going on right now in Galveston and ends tomorrow January 8th. According to the website, it was in Orlando last year so I’m assuming it alternates cities. Maybe I’ll get lucky and they will pick Austin next year.

It is a joint effort of the American Beekeeping Federation, the American Honey Producers Association and the Canadian Honey Council. I am not familar with any of these organizations so I will have to take some time to check them out and see what they are all about.

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December 24, 2010 · 5:18 PM

Holiday Fun or I really need to get Photoshop

Did Jurassic Park Teach us Nothing?

The BBC is reporting that scientists have developed a technique to “switch off” genes in the Varroa mite which is a major pest of honeybees. They hope this technique will eventually be used to force the mites to “self-destruct”.

I’ve sung Bee Weaver’s praises before, but they stopped treating for Varroa mites over 15 years ago. They lost a lot of their hives initially, but over time, natural selection created the right combination of behaviors to cope with this pest. To me, this is a better method (along with good Integrated Pest Managment (IPM) techniques) for coping with Varroa mites then trying to genetically engineer your way to a solution.

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December 16, 2010 · 4:21 PM

Human Pollination

There has been a lot of discussion on what would happen to our food supply if the pollinator population (both native bees and imported honey bees) were to decline dramatically or disappear altogether. The overall consensus is that it is not a good outcome for us humans.

What I didn’t realize is that some areas of the world are already dealing with a lack of adequate pollinators for their crops. In the Maoxian county of Sichuan, China, workers now have to pollinate pear and apple trees by hand because the pollinator population has, for all intents and purposes, been destroyed.

You can read the entire Guardian article here, but is a sobering look of what could happen if fundamental changes to America’s and the world’s agricultural practices are not made in the near future.

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December 11, 2010 · 10:28 AM

Beekeeping Articles

I often find or I’m sent articles about beekeeping so I thought it would be a good idea to start posting them on my blog so I can find them again.

The Beekeeper Next Door
Beekeepers Ask EPA to Remove Pesticide Linked to Colony Collapse Disorder, Citing Leaked Agency Memo

The surprises of organic gardening

We’ve had to be careful when tending our roses these days. Since we don’t use chemicals, our pest removal consists of hand picking (and squishing) the normal rose varmints. The bees are really getting deep into the roses which causes some surprises when pruning or removing pesky cucumber beetles.

Sunny and 75 in December

The average high in December is usually right around 60, but it was almost hot this past Saturday in Austin as the temps hit just over 75 with not a cloud in the sky. I decided to take advantage of the warm weather to do one last deep inspection before the colder weather comes back.

My goals were to remove the feeder, check the number of honey frames, and to verify Large Marge was still laying well. The top two supers were all honey which is exactly what I wanted to see. In the South where our winters are not as long and cold, you should have at least 40 pounds of honey in the hive.

I also decided to take off the mouse guard at least for a few more weeks. It looks like Austin will be having a warmer winter than usual with the 10 day forecast being sunny and in the mid-60’s. There were still plenty of frames full of capped brood, and I was a little worried the girls would have trouble clearing the hive of dead bees with the mouse guard still on.

At this point, I think the hive has plenty of honey for the winter, and I don’t think I need to continue to feed them anymore. I’ll just need to add the mouse guard again later in the month when it truly gets colder and then settle in for the winter and wait for spring.

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December 4, 2010 · 4:27 PM

Bee City Short Film

This is a really nice video about New York City beekeepers that I found courtesy of Bee Brooklyn.

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November 30, 2010 · 12:21 PM

Red Honey in Brooklyn

Once I got my pollen analysis from my first honey harvest, I was a bit disappointed that it was almost all from crepe myrtles instead of a wide spectrum of native Austin plants. However, after reading this article in the New York Times, it could have been a lot worse. Turns out urban beekeepers in Brooklyn were finding red “honey” in their hives, and it was eventually discovered the bees were raiding a local factory that makes maraschino cherries.

I think this is a good lesson on hive placement because bees are going to take the least path of resistance when gathering nectar. If they find an abundant food source close to the hive, they will take advantage of it. Unfortunately for these beekeepers, this food source was chock full of Red Dye No. 40. Obviously, a beekeeper can’t take into account everything within 3-5 miles of their hive, but knowing the area well will help you figure out these odd occurrences.

Here in Austin, we had a similar event except this time it was green honey instead of red. Our guesses were either cotton candy or snow cones/popsicles, but we never found out anything definitive.

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