I missed March update, but April is already outstanding!

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A friend in my area recently got herself some bees to befriend! She opted to buy some packaged bees instead of waiting for a feral hive…just in case no feral hive arrived for her this year. This has the advantage of instant gratification and bang!, but it does draw attention to some issues in commercial bee keeping about the strength and viability of bee stock and the treatment of queens. Then again, there is the issue of nuc (nucleus hive) and packaged bees – and if you don’t know what the difference is, here is a short explainer:

packaged bees come, well, in a package and are starting the hive off from scratch!

  • Fewer bees to start working with, therefore less intimidating
  • Must be certified as apparently healthy before sale in the US
  • History is known
  • may have to pay more attention to viability of queen

nuc bees come with some established comb:

  • Contains bees of all ages, brood and eggs
  • Quicker to establish
  • No queen release required

In all cases, you must always pay attention to the health of the bees. They may not start out having issues, but can develop them quickly. It is still my best advice to not chemically dose your bees – it does not help them, it is a chemical treadmill with horrible repercussions for a lot of living creatures (including ourselves), and it is a uni-directional path for keeping a hive (once you start…you cannot stop!)

any local bee keepers out there want to let us know your pro and cons for nuc vs. package vs. feral?

And speaking of feral, I just went to another lovely talk by Jacqueline Freeman from Friendly Haven in preparation for my first year attempting to capture a swarm!! I am so excited…I will tell you more about my swarm kit development and adventures as they happen. Bee happy!

Science Direct, science indirect, and a little honey

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I am a librarian, and I wish constantly to have access to the databases and publishers that I know and love so that I can keep up on bee research. But that takes a lot of money! Which is also something that directly relates to bees and not just bee research.

In the context of bees, we see that people are shoving off sugar substitutes and non-food substances as honey…and making a profit. We also see that the stress imposed on bees as they are carted around is an enormous factor in overall colony health and ability to resist disease. And this is for profit, nonetheless need for pollinators. Commercialization of any species in our modern age really does tend create an environment where people make ruinous decisions for profit. It may not be their intention, but the whole notion that we can isolate and commoditize everything seems to have some basic problems.

Science costs money, reporting costs money, access costs money, and everyone is trying to make money. And to top it all off, the research funding in some cases is dubious, or research being done is not being involved in policy decisions, and policy decisions are being driven by money or delayed by bigger money instead of the science we do have. But this is all big scale stuff and not the day to day. The day to day is where we can make an impact, and it is where we are not isolated or compartmentalized.

What we buy for our households and our dinner table,who we buy from, what we use in our gardens and our farms, what we know from observing life in the small scale interactions of ourselves in our world.  This is a consciousness that directly thwarts the ills that commercialization of species fosters because it fundamentally recognizes that we are interdependent. So while there are large, isolating factors involved in markets, and governments, and research for profit, remember that none of that large scale maelstrom would have such a strong place if we kept our eyes on overall community well-being instead of solely on profit. Just as we should keep in mind the wellbeing of the hives and not just the honey output. And this is borne out by research:

Proximity to a forest leads to higher honey yield: Another reason to conserve

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320709002778

 

Getting ready for Bee Friendly Zones!

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Part of the mission of this group is to bring awareness and information into our community about pollinators, poisons, and interconnectedness. Hopefully we all remember that pollinators are why we have such the vast array of scrumptious and lovely foods to eat that we do! It is estimated that every third bite of food we eat is brought to us by means of the pollinators. Now, bees – all 16 000 types – are some of our most amazing pollinators, but there are others like flies and birds.

Pollinators offer us a special opportunity to monitor the overall well being of our communities because they are incredibly sensitive to chemical inputs. Meaning: they are easily poisoned. And, if they are suffering ill effects of toxics we can be assured that us larger mammals are too! This is the first goal of the Bee Friendly Zone project: talk with one another about what we use in our landscapes and lawns and agree NOT to be using toxic pesticides. If you agree to do this, you can proudly post a BEE FRIENDLY ZONE sign and get more conversations with your neighbors going. Remember also that your actions and thoughtfulness NOT to use these products also helps fish because those toxic nasties and their by-products don’t go into the rivers and streams and harm the also very sensitive aquatic life!

Back to the bees and about those signs! I am encouraging any and all to submit a bit of bee art to create 3 different BFZ signs! They can be any type of art you want…and then we can scan, take a picture, etc. to get them digitized and signs made up for our involved community. I figure we can hold an art “competition” and let everyone vote on the three we like best and go from there!

Deadline on this art project: March 31st, 2012. Send info requests or submissions to: hlehman@beestewards.org

2nd Annual Food & Film Festival

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Check out the great bee-vent from WatershedsAlliance !!

Jacqueline Freeman from Friendly Haven and others will be on the talking panel after the film. January 24, 2012 from 6 – 9pm with free pizza! The film will probably run from about 6:15 to around 7:45, with the discussion to follow until 9pm.

For my part, I am hoping the discussion will lead to more people wanting to create bee havens across the county. And not just because they want some honey, but because bee health and healthy bee ecosystems are healthier for all of us! Awareness of pesticides, petroleum, agro-chemicals and fertilizers, agricultural practices, and land stewardship all come when bees make it into our worldview!

I hope everyone is enjoying this bit of winter, warm as it is. And the site is now migrated and running nicely! If there other beelovers across Vancouver that are not in westvan, please let me know about your interest in starting a neighborhood hive with your micro-community! I am more than willing to host your chapter as a subdomain to beestewards.org and help get you set up and talking about bees and lives in your neighborhood! contact me at hlehman@beestewards.org