After perusing the city ordinances of the City of Gretna, NE, I searched the document for any form of bee, beekeeping, beekeeper and no mention was found in any way to prevent, prohibit or otherwise manage beekeeping in Gretna, Ne. The document is linked here, so you may study the Ordinances if you like.
Archive for December, 2009
Gretna, NE. No Ordinance found preventing beekeeping
Thursday, December 24th, 2009Bellevue Ordinance is in effect for beekeepers
Thursday, December 24th, 2009From the Bellevue Ordinance web page, under misc….
MISCELLANEOUS:
1. Any pawnbroker in the city must be licensed. Fee is $50 a year. (Section 22-17, Bellevue City Code)
2. Any trash hauler in the city must be licensed. Fee is $25 a year. (Section 13-64, Bellevue City Code)
3. Any ice cream vendor from a motor vehicle must be licensed. Fee is $50 a year, and he may not make any noise to attract customers such as ringing a bell, music, etc. (Section 23-27, Bellevue City Code)
4. All beekeepers must get a permit from the City Clerk upon payment of a $20 fee. Permit is good until the applicant discontinues or alters the beekeeping activity. (Section 6-116, Bellevue City Code)
Here is a link to a PDF of the full ordinance from the Planning and Permits Dept
If anyone might like assistance with the process of registering your bees in Bellevue, I have successfully registered hives in Bellevue and will be glad to help you through the process.
What is “Conservation Beekeeping”?
Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009To 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.
Beekeeping with Purpose.
Tuesday, December 15th, 2009It’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.
The backlash against “natural beekeeping”
Tuesday, December 15th, 2009Most beekeepers you talk to will say how concerned they are for honey bee’s survival. Most of them will say they will do anything to help them stay alive longer. These are generally good things to hear.
In the mainstream of the beekeeping world, beekeepers are responding to the threats facing honey bees in a variety of ways. They use chemicals and medicines religiously. They do what the traditional books say to do and make every effort to stifle swarming and feed syrup, medicated, supplemented and otherwise, every chance they get. These beekeepers beleive they are being good, responsible beekeepers.
I won’t argue with that.
There has always been a ‘fringe’ group of people who like to work with alternatives though. In the past few years, more and more people are giving experimental and alternative methods and practices a try. They are using different types of hives, such as horizontal top bar hives and vertical top bar hives as well.
They are trying to use natural chemicals and treatments instead of synthetic chemicals. In other cases, they are following a “natural” practice of beekeeping which allows for no medicine of any kind to enter the hive and using small or natural cell sizes to help curb parasites and encourage hygienic behaviors. These beekeepers beleive they are being good, responsible beekeepers.
I won’t argue with that.
The problem comes in when people begin to try to inform newcomers to beekeeping. Too often, there are derogatory comments and direct accusations by those who practice beekeeping “by the book”.
There are some overly ambitious ‘alternative’ beekeepers who are just as vocal and cynical to traditional beekeepers as well.
However, blanket generalizations and gross mis-characterizations don’t help the beekeeping community in general. Using comments and words that express personal opinion is much more preferable to evangelizing. No one wants to start their way into beekeeping being told that if they don’t follow “the book” that they might somehow be ostracized and cast out as heathens. That is one sure way to kill someone’s curiosity and good buzz about exploring beekeeping.
The ‘by the book’ beekeepers are welcome and encouraged to keep working with honey bees as they will. I know that I won’t harass them for it, even if I don’t do things the same way. All I ask is for the, “by the book” beekeepers to extend us the same courtesy. If you have a belief, express that belief as your own and not a universally accepted, written in stone, truth.
The bees know better than all of us and none of us are perfect. One saying I saw recently I think expresses it almost perfectly and I will end this with that thought.
“Bees make better beekeepers than beekeepers make bees.”
Amen
Another meeting in the books
Saturday, December 12th, 2009I just got back from my second Nebraska Beekeepers Association meeting. This one was at the Gretna Public Library again.
The topic here was on the volunteer ‘pesticide sensitive crops’ registration program operated by the State of Nebraska Dept of Agriculture and University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
A representative from the Dept. of Agriculture gave a presentation on how the registry works and how it might be able to be of use to Nebraska beekeepers.
On the website for the Dept of Ag, there is a link to register and show where your pesticide sensitive crops are. This would allow people who are applying pesticides to look at the information to see if there are any pesticide sensitive crops nearby they should pay special attention to inform or stay away from.
It is a ‘good neighbor’ setup right now, meaning that it’s entirely voluntary on both parts of the crop holders and the pesticide applicators.
One very valid concern brought up in regard to beekeepers identifying their bee hives on the site is the threat of theft of hives. It was argued that with the state of migratory beekeeping today and the high dollar payouts of high need growers such as almonds in California, this could essentially be advertising to thieves where to steal hives from.
For the second time in a row, I walked out of a Nebraska Beekeepers Association meeting knowing more than when I went in and that’s one of the reasons I joined, the opportunity to learn.
I would like to thanks those beekeepers who were in attendance for their hospitality. Just a great bunch of people.
Preparing to contribute even more at MyBeeHives.com
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009As 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
Progress so far…
Sunday, December 6th, 2009Well, I now have two KTBH’s done and ready for use in the new main beeyard. About to get started on the Warre. After that, plans are to build a Langstroth. or two.
Do you realize how hard it is to find a metric tape measure at a local hardware/home improvement store around here? Next to impossible. Because I want to build the Warre exactly according to original specs, I guess I will search online for a metric tape measure.
So far, I have one tentative farmers market gardener who is showing signs of interest of having a couple hives placed and cared for on their property in the spring. I am hoping they decide it is what they want to do. I beleive they will see noticeable increases in produce size and numbers.
Till next time…
BBE-Tech Apiary has a new home
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009Thanks 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.
