I received a call from a very nice lady who wanted to have the bees removed live if possible (that’s the whole mission for us at BBE-Tech).

I arrive about 45 minutes later with my Bee Buddy Gary K in tow (he loves to come along on swarm calls).

These girls hadn’t been noticed until yesterday but I am guessing from their behavior this might have been at least a second day swarm starting to get a little hungry and just a little cranky.

We shook them into a wooden nuc box, trying to find the queen on the branch several times after the shake only to determine the queen had already landed squarely in the nuc box already.

I wasn’t 100% sold at first that the queen had left the tree until I gave it a particularly vigorous shake that I could tell no bees were left on the branch.  They re-formed a small cluster after that shake, but then we noticed greatly increased fanning activity and traffic at the nuc box entrance.  This was when we realized she had gotten into the nuc box while we were looking at the tree still.  To give Gary credit, he was the one to first suspect she had gotten by us into the box.

We had an audience of several kids and several mom’s who had gathered to see the “bee man” come to take the bees.  They took pictures and Gary K showed them a drone while  I was monitoring the cluster remaining on the branch.  Actually, there were at least 10 to 20 drones in the swarm that I saw firsthand.

Gary took about 3 stings to the hand during the capture and I took one at the time.  I got one more sting when I went back close to nightfall to collect the box to take it to the conservation bee yard.

This colony went to the bee yard straight-away last night and after they have had time to re-establish the colony and the queen is laying in good pattern, they will go to a local beekeeper.

The source colony was very full with lots of drones, lots of capped worker cells.  Signs of swarming were obvious.  At least 6 queen cells were found throughout the bustling colony.  There were very few signs of eggs or very young larvae, indicating that the hive is ready to swarm at any time as the queen seems not to be laying anytime recently to slim down for her flight.

Regardless of whether the queen swarms or not, this hive has not had a close eye kept on it for a bit and really needs to be downsized to allow for more space and to clean up quite a bit of cross and curve comb.

We took bars containing about 3 of the 6 queen cells and at least 2 were very full of capped workers.  At least 1 was honey and pollen.  The remaining 2  were mixed brood  and plenty of nurse bees.  This gave us a total of  5 bars for the split, yet still leaving 3 or 4 queen cells for the source colony (just in case) and at least 7 or 8 top bars with capped brood and workers.

After the split was closed up, we took the time to add some empty top bars to the outside end of the source hive to give them room to build out again.  Then we closed up the source hive to do what they will and let them settle down.

I moved the split to it’s new home and helped the new owner install them into the new Horizontal Top Bar Hive she had prepared for them.  Moving quickly but with lot’s of fluid motion, we got them tucked in quite nicely and even managed to rescue quite a few bees who had gotten stuck in a sugar syrup overflow in the split box (I didn’t realize that someone else who meant well had put a small chicken feeder filled with syrup into the bottom of the travel box).

So the split seems to have a good start for both colonies.  I discussed with both beekeepers how important it is to check top bar hives a bit more frequently than other hives because the bees get themselves into tight spots sooner than in conventional hives.  Issues like cross-comb and curve-comb happen more rapidly in a TBH and so one needs to stay on them more frequently to fix/prevent that.

One thing about swarming in urban areas.  While it’s awesome to behold an emerging swarm and it’s very nice to think that allowing a colony to swarm out into the “wild” is doing mother earth a good deed, please reconsider allowing un-managed swarming in an urban area.

In a city, far too often, the bees you allow to “free swarm” will end up in someone’s house, building, old tree, etc.   When this happens, the owner usually (hopefully) calls me to come get the bees out (hopefully alive) or they call another pest management company who sadly, may just kill them.  Suddenly, that “good deed” ended up in dead bees.  Not so good after all.

In an urban setting, it is far more responsible to manage swarming by doing splits or using certain methods and techniques to control or prevent swarming into “the wild”.

If you’re in a rural/agricultural setting, you can let the girls go with the wind without as much concern for being a “bad neighbor”.

Enjoy your bees.

One of the colonies over-wintered in a single 8 frame medium box with a solid bottom and a simple migratory lid.  They were hived in August I think and were a big worry for me as since being hived never once grew the colony beyond that single medium box.  Yet here they are just bursting at the seams this Sping.

The other colony over wintered in one of my modified Warre/5 frame hives.  They were in two deep 5 frame nuc boxes with a customized quilt box filled with cedar chips in it.

Lessons learned:

• Never underestimate the determination of a small colony.
• Cheap cedar chips are not the best material in a quilt box.
• Forgetting to remove an empty hive body from below a filled hive box before winter is a bad idea.

We’re excited to see these two survivor colonies expand and make splits of each very soon, hopefully bring us back up to 4 hives from our 2.

As a self described bee conservationist, science is very important to me.  The scientific process itself is perhaps more important than any single practitioner of it and results therefrom.

At the same time, There is no doubt in my mind that there are things out there that defy scientific explanation.  More often than we realize, these affect our lives just as much and just as deeply as those which fall easily into “science”.

I will begin posting some of the “notable” quotes that have an impact on me as a bee conservationist and as a person.  Keep in mind my perspective as an American and as a Topixqui.

To kick things off,  I want to put here a quote about science and the scientific process in general.  This goes a long way in demonstrating my own approach to science.

strictly speaking, no hypothesis or theory can ever be proven.  It can only be disproven.  When we say we believe a theory, what we really mean is that we are unable to show that the theory is wrong–not that we are able to show, beyond doubt, that the theory is right.

A scientific theory may stand for years, even centuries, and it may accumulate hundreds of bits of corroborating evidence to support it.  Yet a theory is always vulnerable, and a single conflicting finding is all that is required to throw the hypothesis into disarray, and call for a new theory.  One can never know when such conflicting evidence will arise.  Perhaps it will happen tomorrow, perhaps never.  But the history of science is strewn with the ruins of mighty edifices toppled by an accident, or a triviality.

Gerhard Robbins ~ Physicist

There’s no simple way I can think of to boil it down to one simple point.  It’s kind of like Integrated Pest Management in that it encompasses many different things.

I work according to a notion I refer to as when “the last beekeeper falls”.  The idea is that when the last human who is managing bees in hives is no longer around and all honey bees are essentially feral bees after that, the bees who have adapted and developed adequate survivor skills will be the ones left.  The bees that have been “carried” by having things done for them, thus not necessitating genetic adaptation will soon succumb to the pressures they have been insulated against.

I intend to have honey bees in my beeyard who can survive after “the last beekeeper falls”.

1) I guess to start with, bee conservation starts with keeping alive bees that are alive.  Instead of seeing bees killed or “exterminated” as a pest, I, in my role as a pest management professional, get a call from someone who wants a colony of bees removed from the wall of a house or a tree or a swarm has landed in their yard.  Some service providers first resort is to exterminate the bees.  Some home owners or residents first reaction is to spray the bees.

I don’t do that.   I perform a live removal or capture then relocate the colony to a special beeyard I maintain in a nearby conservation forest.  everyone wins, the resident, the bees and the forest.  Often I will sell the bees after they have had a chance to stabilize and establish themselves in a nuc to a local beekeeper for a very low price.

2) Another important factor of bee conservation is genetic adaptation.  It is my primary rule to allow natural selection to determine which bees survive or do not survive.  I have gone to the extent of taking bees from a potentially life threatening situation to a far more sustentative one.  In the new location they have access to over 1500 acres of natural/organic grown trees and “wildflower prairies” that are not treated with toxic pesticides.  Forage is plentiful and there are fewer threats, at least in terms of human threat. This is a location that they, if they have the necessary survival traits, should thrive on their own.

We allow weak colonies to die, un-treated to eliminate those weak genetic traits from being spread to other colonies through the DCA’s. (Drone Congregation Areas).  Strong colonies will dominate the Drone populations and spread those survivor traits to all the colonies, managed and feral, in the area.

3) That isn’t to say we ignore the hives.  No, actually, we inspect them regularly, looking for evidence that they are not becoming overwhelmed by the four P’s.  Parasites, Pathogens, Predators and Poison.  We use what we consider “least intrusive” methods to help colonies if we think they are good survivor candidates, but environmental and/or outside pressures grow beyond the bees ability to accommodate for them.

We use hives we believe support the nest heat and scent retention needs.  We provide forage (sugar syrup, water, pollen, etc…) when the weather creates a need for what we call the “good neighbor” policy.  (if it’s too hot for flowers to produce nectar, water sources dry up, etc…).

We will use methods like removing drone comb and use screen bottom boards if things are really getting out of hand.  We perform Spring splits to prevent swarming to neighbors properties.

4) I believe we work on a different time frame than conventional beekeepers do.  Where conventional beekeeping focuses on the immediate 12 months for most, we start at 12 months and look ahead up to 4 years from now with each colony.  Honey production, pollen collection, even “fun” or relaxation are secondary to our goals.  We are looking ahead to each colony that is retained in our conservation bee yard to see what they and their “daughter” colonies” accomplish.

5) We work with other bee conservationists who follow the same practices to increase genetic diversity among colonies by allowing the strong, survivor colonies to produce queens then occasionally swap queens with each other to keep “new blood” in our own areas.

Because of these things, many conventional beekeepers will consider me as odd or any number of fun things they can think of.  That’s ok.  I will die happy thinking of all the bees I helped to survive after the last beekeeper falls.

However, while many of these urban centers are approving beekeeping within city limits, there is often something missing that I think could cause more problems than solutions in the long run.

What I am referring to is environmental considerations.  In many states, especially where it relates agriculturally, there are programs to increase communication between pesticide applicators and beekeepers.  There are closer examinations of which chemicals are approved for use where pollinating bees are nearby.

However, in urban lawmaking, there is almost nothing at all mentioned or even considered where the use of pesticides will be observed or regulated to accommodate the new legal presence of our important pollinating honey bees is concerned.

There are chemicals used in urban locations by lawn treatment companies that have been out-moded in agricultural use for years because of their toxicity.  The lawn companies pour the chemicals into local businesses and residential lawns and gardens like it was ordinary water, and it is a FAAAR cry from that.

I believe that when counties and cities take up new ordinances related to allowing beekeeping, there should be at least a mandatory study to see if the presence of known high toxicity pesticides are present and in use commercially in the area.   If they are, what can be done to alleviate at least the worst of the problem.

Think about it, Many cases for allowing urban beekeeping are won with the argument of how having bees kept in city limits will improve the urban landscape.  How residential yards, gardens, city parks, etc.. will benefit from the increased honey bee pollination.

So here we are, the city with a new ordinance to allow our residents to keep bees and make our city look pretty, etc.. and then, by virtue of not monitoring what pesticides and combinations of pesticides our pesticide applicators are using out in the open areas of our fair town, we kill all of our beekeepers bees.

Well, that just sucks.  Too bad beekeepers.  Is that what the response will be?

Urban beekeeping is NOT the same as rural beekeeping.  Both environments have their unique attributes.  Pesticides are used in both environments, but in wholly different methods of application, different amounts and yes, different types.  Sadly, one might argue that rural/agricultural beekeeping is a step ahead in the pesticide relationship game.

In many rural/agricultural locations, the worst of the worst toxic pesticides have been “put to pasture” for the most part, in favor of the latest, greatest batch of chemicals that is purportedly safer for people (and bees so they advertise) and the environment.

Are the new pesticides really that much safer?  I guess we’ll find out in a few years after long term research is conducted to tell us what we should have known before the EPA rushed them through to satisfy corporate profit needs.

What I do know is that the current slew of urban beekeeping laws and the monitoring of toxic pesticides within urban areas is not sufficient,  if they exist at all.

For those who use it , they tend to infer that they are using only things that are naturally produced such as essential oils.  They do not want to use synthetically created chemicals and products like plastic foundation and putting pesticides into the hive.

Others might counter that it is more than just products that affect being “natural”.  They will tell you that it is not “natural” for bees to live in a man made bee hive or to have any manipulation or treatment of any kind into the hive.

Personally, I tend to use the word “naturalistic” because  I do believe it is perfectly natural for a swarm to take up residence in a hive box of their own volition, just as they move into the wall of a house or into a tree, etc as the swarm chooses to do.

I also think that while hive manipulations and treatments are not “natural”, we can be “naturalistic” in our choices of the chemicals and products we use to put into the hive.  Instead of using synthetic products, we can use those things made in nature.  Instead of using manipulations that force changes that are counter to bees natural/biological behaviors, we can use methods that work with those natural/biological behaviors.  That’s what I mean by “naturalistic” they are “like” or as close to “natural” occurrences and ingredients as possible.

The argument has existed for a long time regarding whether doing things “for” the bees such as inoculating the hive against diseases and killing off parasites with toxic synthetic chemicals is helping or hurting bee adaptation in the long or short run.

There are those who believe by using those synthetics helps keep the bees alive in the short run, thus allowing for there to be a long run.  Many of those would say that by not using those synthetics and manipulations that one is passively killing or allowing bees to die as though they don’t care about the bees to do whatever it takes.

From those “excited” discussions, the “Natural” beekeeping movement has sprung.  To find a way to care for those bees but by using products and methods that are “natural” or as close to natural as possible.  To use manipulations that blend into the natural biological behaviors of bees rather than imposing hive arrangements and conditions that would not be seen inside a “natural” hive.

Terminology often becomes a part of arguments like these because too often, the terms themselves are not agreed upon.  “Natural” being taken to mean one thing by one group and being taken to mean something else by another.

The word “chemical” has the same effect.  Chemicals exist everywhere in “natural” life.  There are naturally occurring and produced chemicals and there are synthetically produced chemicals.  Also, not all chemicals are toxins.  Far too often again, the word “chemical” on it’s own and left un-clarified, is bandied about and becomes part of the overall argument.

For example, a “hive” is the housing in which a bee’s nest is made.  It is not the nest itself.  A “nest” is the total of the wax comb that the bees draw and all that is within it such as the brood, wax, pollen, nectar, honey, etc..

Theoretically, a wall that a nest is in could be called a “hive”, but when most people think of the word “hive”  they instantly get a mental visual of a historical skep or traditional Langstroth hive.  It’s mental conditioning.

Some will go the extra step in defining a “hive” as a housing for the nest that is accessible by a beekeeper.  An easily opened component system that allows for dis-assembly of the whole.

As beekeepers of any type, it would behoove us to find agreement in the terminology we use to talk about bees and beekeeping..  It will help us understand each other better and have a more successful discussion in getting things done.

The experiment I am running will deal not with using cedar as a building material, but using cedar products like cedar oil and cedar chips in and around the hive.

The two primary applications will be using cedar oil on the plastic sheet in the bottom of an IPM screen bottom for one hive and cedar chips on the bottom of another.

Another side experiment will be to treat the ground directly beneath elevated hives with cedar oil in an effort to control small hive beetle and other soil borne pests.  How effective will it be on SHB population?  Will it be harmful to bees as well?

Mite counts will be done on each test hive at every inspection.  Fresh application of product will occur whenever bottom board plastic sheet is cleaned and replaced.

Questions I have:

Will presence of cedar products cause bees to become ill?

Will presence of cedar products cause bees to abscond?

Will cedar products actually have an effect on pest populations of mites, small hive beetle and others?  What effect will that be?

At the end of the season, these will be the summary questons we answer as well as presenting other information obtained during the experiment.

However, the media, as usual, gets to sensationalizing things when they want to scare people in order to sell copy.  When the topic comes to bees and pollination, they seldom get it right.

Honey bees are not the “best” or most effective pollinators, per se.  We depend on them for over 100 different crops because they are more efficient.  The tendency they have in working only one flower type at a time means that their efforts at pollination are not wasted and the right pollen is carried to the right flower more often.

Having said that, other bees, even other insects, can be much more effective pollinators than honey bees.  They roll their whole little bodies in pollen and shake it all over the next flowers.  As long as those flowers are the same flowers as the pollen they carry, they have done a much better job at pollinating that flower than a honey bee would.

Most other bees and insects aren’t as selective as honey bees though, so the odds are, unless by design, the flowers are often too random and the insects too flighty.

Other creatures are great pollinators as well.  Birds and bats are well known pollinators of the flowers where they find their food, be that food nectar or pollen or the insects collecting nectar or pollen.

Honey bees pollinate at least 100 different crops out in the field.  Bumble bees are used to great extent in greenhouses for tomatoes and other such flowers.

Mason bees are used in ever greater numbers for those Spring fruit trees.

No my friends, if honey bees meet their demise, while we will face serious changes in how we achieve pollination and the volume of pollinated crops will decrease by a substantial amount, it is because of our own learned dependence on honey bees that our problems will arise.

There are many other insects and animals that pollinate as part of their natural behaviors.  However, when we allow ourselves to poison one of those pollinators, somewhere down the line, we will poison them all and that’s where our trouble really sits.

Upon arrival, it was easy to see that this hive is not only active, it is booming with activity.  The very nice lady, Sharon, who is acting as caretaker of the hive has been carefully watching and keeping sugar syrup out for them on every day that they have been able to fly.

We put a candyboard on top for them as they are getting near the top of the hive.  They should do well for the remainder of this winter providing no extraordinary situations arise.