Having just come back from my wife’s family for Thanksgiving I had some time to ponder the bees during the ride home.  Specifically, what the crap am I going to do this year?  I have decided to be a little less ambitious with the number of hives I would start with. Instead of three I would bring the number down to a respectable two.  Beekeeping is much more of a financial investment than it used to be when I bought my first hives 9 years ago.  Slow and steady is the phrase of the day.  If things go well next year I can go crazy and buy three or four more. Plus the money tree is not yielding like it used to thanks to those scoundrels Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs.

With the overall number arrived upon I then began to set my sights on what bees to purchase.  I have decided I will probably order my packages from BeeWeaver apiaries and purchase the Buckfast variety but then replace the queens with a VSH/Russian hybrid from another breeder.  I have been reading more and more about the VSH variety and think this is probably that last great hope for our honeybees if they are ever going to survive the mites without the aid of chemicals requiring their own MSDS sheet.

BTW. A great resource for queens and queen breeding can be found here. Glenn Apiaries It really has some  good information and also a section  that lists queen sources for VSH queens. Found here. Sources

Or I may go the route of buying a nucs and replacing the queens.  So far I am inclined to go with Bjorn Apiaries. They are relatively close by, so I could easily drive to their apiaries to pick them up.  Starting with nucs is a good idea especially if your bees are starting out from scratch.  Most nucs come with 4-5 frames of already pulled comb and a cluster of eggs already laid.  This gives your hive the advantage of not having to start from nothing and an emerging population of worker bees to help with the establishment of the hive.  If you are lucky you may even get a surplus that year but don’t count on it.

Equipment will be purchased in January and construction will last the whole month.  I have to say I am getting pretty excited.  I look foward to posting real time events instead of anecdotes from my past.

Product Description
Whether you’re a beginning beekeeper or one with a season or two of experience, Richard Bonney tells you how to keep bees, not just have them. This new book by the acclaimed author of Hive Management offers vital, up-to-date information about how to: — Acquire bees — Install a colony — Manage a hive — Take a crop of honey — Prevent and treat Varroa and tracheal mites — Learn about Africanized bees… More >>

Beekeeping: A Practical Guide

Some of you may have noticed over the last few days, Amazon.Com feeds for books related to beekeeping.  I have decided I will pull them from the posts because it really offers you no new information unless you consider book ads information.  Unless of course I actually have the book on my shelf and can fairly review it.

This book is one of the first books, if not the first book I purchased about beekeeping over 10 years ago.  It is followed by another book by the author involving the Seasonal Management of the bees. What I liked about this book is that it clearly, clearly, clearly, explains how to start right with beekeeping.  It explains everything easily in layman’s terms and has enough pictures and diagrams to convey what is being done.   I read this book twice in a row and it got me hooked on beekeeping.  Before I wrote this I went to pull it off my shelf and realized I had loaned it to a friend who was thinking about beekeeping but wanted more information.  I guess I will have to buy another copy.

The only down side is that it is dated in relation to the new pests and events effecting beekeeping today. Mites, Hive Beetle, CCD, etc.

Overall I give it 4 our  5  jars of honey.

It is that time of year. The temperatures outside are starting to significantly drop, the smell of burning leaves is in the air, and the Christmas decorations have been up already for 1 month, at least here in Charlottesville. Soon the tidal crush of consumerism will be upon us with all of its trimmings. But let us pause and give thanks before we rush out with the stampede and crush the nearest Wal-mart security guard to death so our children will Rock Band2 on the Wii.

The best way to give thanks is to get on our knees and…. thank Farmer’s Market Foods for coming out with an canned/organic Pumpkin Pie mix. I am sure if canned pumpkin pie mix had been at Plymouth during 1620, the Native Americans would be around today in far larger numbers. Pumpkin pie can sweeten even the most dour Puritanical demeanor and with a little whip cream, well, Life is Good even if your religious cult thinks chastity belts and burning witches are all the rage.

My wife makes a great pumpkin pie but I found this recipe the other day and think its the Bee’s Knees. You can view it at this link (recipe) or follow the recipe below.

Recipe for Honey Pumpkin Pie

3 eggs
1 pastry for single 9-inch pie crust
3/4 cup honey
1 can (15 oz.) canned pumpkin
1 cup evaporated milk
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions
Preheat oven to 425°F

In a medium bowl, beat eggs. Brush one teaspoon beaten egg on inside of pie crust. Place crust on a cookie sheet and bake for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, add the rest of the ingredients to remaining beaten eggs and whisk to combine. Remove pie crust from oven and carefully pour honey pumpkin mixture into hot crust; bake 5 minutes more at 425°F. Reduce heat to 350°F, and bake 30 to 40 minutes more, until filling is set. Cool completely and serve with Honey Whipped Cream (recipe follows).

Recipe For Honey Whipped Cream

1 cup whipping cream
3 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

Beat whipping cream until mixture thickens; gradually add honey and beat until soft peaks form. Fold in vanilla. Makes 2 cups. Delicious!

If you make it this year let me know what you think.

Have a peaceful Thanksgiving.

Probably one of the worst movies I have ever seen about bees.  Was that Reese Witherspoon’s first role?

Probably one of the best movies I have seen about bees.

Honeybees and cinema can be a deadly combination, but if done just right it can make for a great movie.

I believe there is a certain ratio of bees to movie time that is the determinant factor for the success or failure of the movie.  If the movie is 90% bees and 10% everything else the movie is sure to fall like a rock in a vacuum.  But if the movie is primarily about the people and the bees are tangential to the story than the likelihood of success multiplies.

To prove my point just look at some of the movies listed below.

1. Ulee’s Gold.  Good movie and a good story.  Honeybees are not the primary focus of the movie.

2. The Secret Life of Bees.  Again the bees are only an aspect of the story.

3. The Bee Movie.  This movie is technically about honeybees but they are so anthropomorphized that it is really a human story with honeybees as fill ins for actors. Think about that movie if it portrayed honeybees for how they really act.  Can you imagine the critical acclaim it would have received if all of the drones were thrown out of the hive at the end of the year to starve to death.  Granted, seeing the Seinfeld character bemoan his situation as he froze to death in the snow might be a laugh for us but children would probably not understand.

4. The Great Santini: Another great movie where the bees play a small but vital role.

And then we get movies like the one seen at the top. The bees are portrayed more ridiculously than the human characters.  This is usually what comes from made for TV movies.  Crap plot, B-grade special effects, and community theater actors getting their first big break.

If you know of any other Bee-Movies please list them here. Good or bad.

Sometimes the beekeeping gods deal you a 7-2 off.  Your neighbor is just a plain jerk. Your house sits across from a DOW chemical plant. Or, rednecks like to shoot double ought buck shot into your hives during the opening day of hunting season. Whatever the case may be, the ancient call still permeates within  you to keep bees no matter what the consequences.

Sometimes this requires you to open up the Beekeeper’s Guerrilla Guide to Keeping Bees. When the deck is stacked against you, you either have to bend like the reed and work with the problem or begin RC modeling in place of apiculture.

Chapter 1 of the GGtKB states that when operating in the “bush”, evasion is your first line of defense.  This is because you can never always be with your hives.  At some point you will have to go home to your family for dinner and a bath and your hives will have to fend for themselves.  How they fare depends on how much preparation you have put into your evasion methodology.  This can be broken down into several aspects.

1. Where are your hives situated? Hives sitting right out in the open no more than 30 feet off the road is liking taping a “KICK ME” sign on the front of it. As the saying goes, “out of sight, out of mind.”  If you can see it from your driveway, so can Bubba with his lifted pickup truck with 50 inch mudders.  Move your hives  behind an object that removes it from the view-shed of the road.  Behind your house is a good place to start if you have a large enough property to work with.
2. If not than you will need to improvise.  Go to your local gardening store and buy some shrubbery and create a hedge line separating the hives from the view of the road.  Remember to get plants that are tall enough and will grow thick enough to block the view.  This also has the added benefit of creating a wind break to shield your hives from the cold winds of winter.
3. Paint your hives something other than a bright white.  Try to use light or pastel colored greens. Don’t use dark paints especially if  your hives encounter a lot of direct sun for they will be more likely to overheat.  The lighter pastel tones will still be noticeable but not as much as white.  Plus in combination with with shrubbery, the effect will be improved.
4. If you are a carpenter, build your own hive boxes that don’t look live beehives.  Be sure to build your hive box using dimensions in accordance  to the principals of Bee Space.  This website actually sells bee hives that don’t look exactly like beehives. Hide Hives
5. When you are working out in the field maybe wear something other than a pure white jump suit.  This guy here might have the right idea.
6. Back in the 80’s there were plenty of army/navy surplus stores.  If you are lucky enough you may still  find  camouflage netting.  Used traditionally to drape over tanks or half-tracks to hide them from the enemy, these can be used to cover the public facing side of your apiary provided they are all clustered together.
7. Build a trellis wall around your hives and plant nice plants with it.  To anyone driving by they will initially think what a beautiful bit of landscaping they are seeing rather than destroying your hives.
8. Lastly, Punji traps.  Stagger the holes surrounding your apiary in a carefully laid out random pattern.  Inside place sharpened bamboo spears for your trespassers to impale themselves on. If you have access to poison frogs, carefully wipe the spear tips along the frogs skin a few times.  Be sure to map out your locations so your friends and family don’t fall in. JUST KIDDING.

These are just a few things you can do to improve the surviability of your bee hives.  We will have to leave bears to another article.

Guerrilla beekeeping involves knowing your enemy and how they think. It is sad that there are people out there who have nothing better to do than tipping over beehives but it is a fact we have to deal with.