BBE-Tech: Honey Bee Conservation

The situation of the honey bees is no secret.  Google “beekeeping” or “honey bee” and you will get thousands , tens of thousands, of returns.

There are reports of CCD and bee population declines in television news, newspapers, scientific journals, online magazines and more.

Companies like Haagen Daz, are openly educating and providing support to beekeepers and bee research, with more getting involved all the time.

With the ‘instant on’ of the internet, there are countless web sites, blogs and social media pages for everyday beekeepers and people who support honey bees to voice their experiences and ideas for the whole world to see  (this website included).

With all the awareness, education and informing going on, where is the general public stand on their position toward honey bees?

There are many tree trimming and arboreal businesses that will kill honey bee colonies immediately when found in trees they are to cut down or work on, instead of calling a beekeeper or bee conservationist to remove them live.

There are people who have phobias who will kill bees because of fear rather than allowing logic and educated thinking persuade them to have bees removed live.

There are people who simply don’t care, as is shown by the number of YouTube videos of morons setting grills with gasoline fires under bee swarms and other demented acts for some kind of twisted ‘fun’.

However, it used to be, even a year ago, that people would try to kill bees in a wall or other location by spraying the bees with poison or gasoline first, then when that proved not to work immediately, they would then call a beekeeper to come get the bees, after the worst things had already been done.

Today though, there are a few, yes, only a few, but enough to notice, more people who are calling before they use that can of Raid or something else.  There are a few more cases of people calling to capture the swarm and relocate it rather than having an exterminator or goofball with a lighter try their hand at it first.

Is it ideal? No, but it is a step in the right direction and it shows that little bit by little bit. Headway is able to be made.

Projects like our own BBE-Tech: Honey Bee Conservation are working with businesses and city officials around us to create new opportunities to provide opportunities for new beekeepers and spaces for people to keep bees.  to ‘rescue’ honey bees instead of being killed.

We are partnering with other conservation groups like Fontenelle Forest to give relocated honey bee colonies a safe place, free of pesticides and fearful people, so that the bees can rebuild healthy colonies and provide their unique pollination service to the area around them.

The awareness is building, slowly, but it’s there and we cannot give up now.  We must be persistent and patient.  We must let our passion for bees and every good thing bees contribute to the world  be visible to everyone around us.

Fontenelle Forest has a new exhibit opening up this weekend called “Big Bugs” where giant statues of various insects can be found alongside the boardwalk trails of the nature center.

To celebrate the opening of this buggy show, Fontenelle Forest has asked us at BBE-Tech: Honey Bee Conservation to be a part of the fun.

We presented on Thursday June 24th for the patrons evening and took with us the observation hive so that everyone could see our fascinating flyers, the honey bees, up close and personal.

We are also presenting today, Saturday, June 26th, again bringing the observation hive to give people an up close, but safe, introduction to our little friends.

If you are a member of Fontenelle Forest, come on up and see our table.  If you’re not a member yet, this is a great opportunity to see the great work and beautiful world Fontenelle Forest has to offer.

There are a lot of beekeepers who “cut out” bees from hives built in residential and other buildings.  They charge for the service  in most cases, ranging from free to $400.00 and even more.  For most, their goal is to obtain bees for their own bee yards and/or making money (while still getting bees).  So far, so good.

I am going to describe the process and thinking for one of our conservationist “bee technicians”.  Yes, we also will charge for the work we do in removing honey bees from buildings and property, but we feel that the steps we take and the work we do is a valuable service not only to the resident, but the bees.

What makes ‘conservation’ cut outs different then?  Approach mostly.  When doing a bee removal or “cut out” for the purpose of conservation, the objective for our bee technicians is the bees health, first and foremost.

Upon beginning a cut out, the existing hive is examined for diseases and problems like pests.  This gives the conservationist bee technician an idea of what, if anything, can be done to keep a given colony being removed alive and healthy after the removal.   Not only do I not want to take diseased or infested comb with the bees to continue or worsen their condition, I don’t want to expose the rest of the hives in the bee yard to any more problems either.

I never take ‘problem comb’ away with the bees.  It is always best to inspect the comb being removed before and during the cut out, as able.  I always have a separate container for ‘bad comb’ that will be destroyed as soon as possible and will never go near the bee yard.

We take the utmost care in working with the bees as we remove them.  The more we are able to avoid stirring up their defensive behaviors, the smoother and less problematic the removal will be.  The cautious bee technician wants to avoid anyone being unnecessarily stung or bees being unnecessarily killed in the process.  That is counter productive to our goal.

As a bee technician removes and inspects the comb, we are trying desperately not to kill the queen so her presence in our capture hive will draw the bees to her and away from the cut out.  finding and not hurting her can be difficult and time consuming, but very important.

After all the comb is cut out, inspected and placed in the appropriate location (good comb is cut to fit into frames and bad comb is placed in the disposal box), our bee technician makes sure to clean the cut out thoroughly in an effort to remove s much of the nest scent from the area as possible. This will help to prevent bees from ‘sniffing out’ that location for future use again.

After the cut out and the clean out, the wall or area can be closed up again and sealed appropriately making sure there is no way for bees to get into that space again.  This can be done by a bee technician who is hanlding the entire process or by a handyman who is doing that part while the bee technician only handles the bees.

AS most cut outs are done during the day when many of the forager bees are out and the recently transferred bees will need awhile to settle down in the new hive, The bee technician has time to clean up the area, put things away and observe behavior, making sure the queen stays in the hive box and the bees do not try to abscond right away.

Very often, the removal hive box will not be removed from the area until after dusk when all the foragers have found their way ‘home’ and all the bees are ‘settled in’ for the night.  This helps to make sure bees will not be coming back agitated for days after the removal and that there are as many foragers for the hive to survive the relocation to the bee yard.

One of the biggest objectives of a conservationist bee technician is the survival and the health of the honey bee.  Far too often, honey bees are poisoned and killed outright by people who simply do not want the bees living in their yard or around their kids, etc…

We want to provide an opportunity for the bees to stay alive and help their healthy reproduction so that honey bees are around in our area for a long time to come.  There are places we are creating for the sole purpose of having somewhere the honey bees can live and prosper without being killed out of fear and ignorance.

How the bee technician conducts a bee removal goes a very long way in showing people that bees are not fearsome and can be worked with.

To us, Conservation Beekeeping is working to replenish and restore a healthy, strong feral honey bee population.   It has been reported by observers of feral honey bee populations that since 2005 when Colony Collapse Disorder was being first reported, that feral colonies have taken the hardest hits of around 75 to 90 percent losses.  That’s a lot fewer honey bees in the world.

We respond to residents who call in to local authorities and groups, such as the local County Extension office or a state beekeeping association, to have swarms removed or to have colonies removed from the walls, floor, ceilings, etc of their houses, garages, sheds, etc…

Those ‘rescued’ honey bees are then placed into a beeyard we set up specifically in a nature center conservation forest.  This is a place with a rich surrounding of foragable plants and protected from intrusion.

While we take care to manage the new hived colonies to build strong, healthy disease resistant genetics, we anticipate they will eventually swarm.  Some, likely most, will be kept in managed hives while others are anticipated to move into the feral environment and contribute to re-building the healthy feral population of the forest.

Honey bees are very important to our agriculture, health industry and  consumer products as well.  They are the preferred pollinator insect over others because of their unique natural methodology in selecting which plants to obtain nectar and pollen from, making them the most sought out pollinating insect in the world.  No fewer than 17 states have listed Apis Mellifera  (the ‘Western’ or ‘European’ Honey Bee) as their state insect.

Due to the decline in feral populations of honey bees, managed honey bees are in short supply and high demand from many growers that have come to depend on honey bees as their primary pollinator to ensure prosperous and healthy crops.

If nothing else, please don’t kill honey bees when you see them swarm  on your property or if they decide to move in un-asked to a building.  Please call a beekeeper who can safely and efficiently remove them to a more agreeable location instead.

It’s been exciting and intriguing to hear that the number of people taking introductory beekeeping classes is up all across the country. In some places as high as 41 percent increase.  That’s great.

Sadly, the prediction for many newcomers to quit in or after their first year is high.  When you look into beekeeping community forums and read over the discussions by beekeepers, the reason many of these people quit is often attributable to loss of purpose.

Often, their purpose for starting is overcome by fear or lack of really having any purpose at all other than a general interest in bees.  As they go along, they realize they are bored or overwhelmed.

Having a concrete purpose in mind going in can help overcome doubts and fears though.  For many, their purpose is producing honey.  For others it’s making a living.  For still others, it might be conservation.  To have a purpose can help you weather the boring times, the doubtful times and the fearful times.   It gives you refreshed inspiration to recall your intentions and ideals as a honey producer or migratory beekeeper or a conservation amateur scientist.

Having a certain purpose can help keep you focused and on track with your original goals.  It can motivate you to dig into related areas to learn about to support that purpose.

There are some differences in how honey bee hives are managed depending on the beekeeper’s intent and purpose.  You may want to spend a little time with some beekeepers from a local association seeing how the different beekeepers do things and the purposes they have for beekeeping.

Investigating beekeeping in this manner can also save you a lot of money and time if you decide after spending some time being around bees and learning something about the different purposes and methods, to not get your own bees after all.

As we wind up for the Spring, we are identifying ways we can contribute to the overall study and observation of honey bees.

A website called MyBeeHives.com created and operated by Glenn Engel is allowing beekeepers to track their bee hive inspections online and also contribute to a larger collection of information around the country.

Because BBE-Tech Apiary is very interested in supporting study and documentation of honey bees, we will contribute the results of our inspections and observations to MyBeeHive.com in addition to our normal data collecting methods.

If it can help others make better studies of honey bees, we are glad to participate.

UPDATE:  Apparently, MyBeeHives.com is no longer operational.

After registering over three days ago and emailing the site owner,  I have received no response at all.  That’s too bad because from all the information, it should have tremendous potential.

Which gives us further incentive to make the Honey Bee Science Network a reality.

Big Bear

Thanks to the very generous support and interest of Fontenelle Forest nature Center, We will be able to establish our new main breeding and conservation yard on the premises of Fontenelle Forest.

This offers us a terrific opportunity to observe and study the effects of ‘facilitated natural’ methods and conduct and participate in observational studies of effects and impact on honey bees in top bar hives as well as other interests.

All of this hopefully leads  us to the conservation and build up of healthy, honey bee colonies in the area that have been able to build up natural immunities and genetic behaviors to allow them to survive with increasing success rates.

We cannot fully express our gratitude and thanks for this opportunity to Fontenelle Forest.

Visit our brand new user community forum allowing discussion and interaction among our community bee handlers, bee keepers in the world at large and people interested in bees and bee conservation.

Feel free to register and email bigbear@bbe-tech.com to have your account activated so you can help us build this new community.

I have gotten a few calls from people wanting to have a swarm removed. Some people stay calm and just want them gone.  Other folks, well, they get a bit wound up.

When honey bees swarm, especially in the spring, but it could happen any other time  of the year depending on a given colony’s situation, half the colony is effectively moving out.  They have come to the conclusion most times, that there are too many bees in the old hive and it’s time to find a new home.

When this happens, The bees that are leaving will gorge themselves, meaning eat honey till they just can’t eat any more, and as a group, take off for new beginnings.

When honey-full bees are this full of honey, they don’t get too far.  They look for a nice place to ‘hang out’ while scout bees go looking for a new permanent residence.  For the most part, swarming bees are just too fat and happy to bother anyone, let alone trying to stretch out their little fat bodies and sting anyone.

A honey bee handler can come right up to the new colony and pretty much shake them or brush them into a fresh hive, made just for them and take them somewhere they can be happy and out of the way of people whose home or property they temporarily ‘borrowed’ while home hunting.

The most important thing when you see a big mound of honeybees hanging from somewhere, don’t panic. They won’t come after you like the old B grade horror movies would have you think.  They’re just ‘hanging out’.