Backyard Beekeeping - How to Turn Your Yard Into a Honey Bee Sanctuary

The U.S. honey bee population has dramatically decreased over the last two decades. The demise of these incredibly beneficial insects has received a lot of press in the last several years, and rightly so. One third of our nations food supply is at stake if the honey bees do not make it.



Fortunately, there is a lot that individuals can do to turn the tide. Turning your yard into a honey bee sanctuary is one of the best things you can do to help on a local, small-scale basis. There are two ways I recommend doing this:





Consider establishing one or two hives in your backyard. This can have a profound impact on your vegetable gardens and flowers. Many gardeners do not realize how, over the years, the proliferation of their vegetables has diminished because of the decrease in the honey bee population. This is partly why my husband and I began our incredible journey into beekeeping. For years, we struggled to get our orchard to bear any fruit. After reading articles on the importance of these little pollinators, we purchased our first two hives and have not regretted it.

Make your yard bee friendly: Avoid pesticides, if at all possible. If you must use them, try to spray late in the evenings after the bees have returned to their hives. Learn what flowers bees like and plant plenty of them in your flower beds. If you have pasture or open fields, consider planting plots of clover or alfalfa and letting the plants flower and seed. In our area, clover honey is in high demand because of its sweet, mild flavor.



If you decide to establish some hives, be aware that there is a vast amount of information online about beekeeping. New beekeepers can quickly become overwhelmed. Much of what is written online is not geared specifically towards backyard beekeeping and some of the information is contradictory and confusing.



After starting our beekeeping hobby, my husband and I quickly realized that, in our part of the country, finding a reliable source of beekeeping equipment meant driving hours, or paying high freight costs to get the equipment shipped in. Because of this challenge, my husband started building beekeeping equipment for local beekeepers. But as a result, we found ourselves bombarded with numerous questions from new beekeepers. We realized that there was a lot of beginner beekeepers who wanted simple guidelines to help them get started. Because of this, we developed some recommendations in order to take the confusion out of beekeeping and give newbies a successful start. Here are some of those suggestions:





Before you buy your first hive, read up on all the information you can. There are some excellent forums online, such as http://www.beesource.com. The winter is an excellent time of year to learn about beekeeping and it is a good idea to have a basic knowledge of what is involved before committing your time and money.

Read all you can, but be prepared to sift through the information. There are numerous methods to beekeeping. To make matters worse, beekeepers will many times contradict each other! But keep in mind that just because one beekeeper's method works well in one part of the country, does not mean it will work well where you live. In the same way, using two different types of hives can result in two completely different outcomes. For example, some beekeepers recommend using screened bottom boards on their hives because this helps with hygiene and air circulation. But if you live in an extremely cold climate, other beekeepers may recommend a solid bottom board in order to keep the hive warmer.

Be willing to take a leap of faith. So you read up on all the beekeeping information you can. Maybe you joined a local beekeeping association or tagged along with another beekeeper while he worked on his hives. Regardless of how much you now know, you will still have to make scary leaps of faith based on what you believe may be the best for your own situation. The only way to learn in beekeeping is to select a method of beekeeping that sounds right for you and go for it. Just be prepared to stumble along the way and change courses, if needed.

Join a local beekeeping association. You will meet other more experienced beekeepers who can offer you advice and recommendations based on your specific area.

Join up with another local beekeeper. Most beekeepers are more than willing to help other newcomers get started. Many have been beekeeping for years and will welcome a strong set of arms to lift honey supers and bee hives. Be prepared to work hard as you glean information and ask questions.

Do not be surprised by setbacks. We had bees mysteriously die out, queens disappear, and swarms fly away. But we also had numerous successes, as well. Beekeeping is as volatile as the wind and if you expect perfect hives, brimming full of honey every year, you will quickly get discouraged.



Small scale beekeepers are absolutely critical to the well-being of the honey bee population, so go for it!



Eileen Ranck lives in Meherrin, Virginia with her husband and three children. They own Ranck's Quality Fencing L.L.C., a premier fence contracting business that installs fences throughout Virginia and North Carolina. On the weekends, however, they can be found on their farm. They enjoy building beekeeping equipment, raising bee queens and nucs, and selling their own delicious, local Virginia honey. They are passionate about beekeeping and helping others get started in this fascinating hobby. Please visit their websites for more information.



http://www.honeyrustler.com

http://www.qualityhorsefence.com



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How Do Bees Communicate With Each Other?

Unlike human beings, bees cannot exchange by talking to each other or writing down some words. Even they do not use antenna. They are even deaf and cannot hear any voices. You may feel puzzled that they cannot communicate with each other but they always find the best flowers and work well in groups. Many scientists have done a lot of researches on the actions of bees and they were surprised to find that bees are really very clever. Read on, you will find how the bees communicate and exchange information with each other.



The bees have a special kind of language, they communicate by dancing. There are many kinds of bees in the world, but the most beneficial should be honeybees or hive bees. They usually live in hives. Each of the hives will have a queen who is responsible for creating more babies. And there are some drones and the majority of the bees are worker bees. Most of the communication happens among the worker bees. Every day, some worker bees will fly out to find the food source, when they find, they will fly back to tell others with the using of different types of dancing.



If the worker bees find a food source that is near the hive, they will fly back to the hive and perform a round dance. If they find the source that is far, they will make a waggle dance. The direction of the dance will be the direction of the source. For example, they may dance from right to left or left to right which shows the generally direction of the food source. And the total times of the dance will show the distance. The more times they dance, the further the source is. Sometimes, they will find a very good food source that is very rich; they will make the dance in higher speed. Otherwise, they will dance at lower speed.



Although the bees cannot make sounds or write, they create a special way of communicating with each other. Different bees may have different types of dances, and they establish a kind of specialty for their own species. You can also do some researches by yourself and you may find it quite interesting to observe their actions.



By Estelle J. Davis.

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honey bee swarming to multiply your hives

Swarming


The springtime is the time when honeybees reproduce. The natural means of reproduction for honey bees is called swarming. The springtime swarming period typically last about three weeks. Normally a single swarm of honey bees divide and becomes two during the swarming period.

Because swarming typically means a loss of production so beekeepers try to discourage the behavior. One way that beekeepers eliminate swarming in their hives is by purchasing new bees each spring to replace their previous bees that they turned out of the hives the previous fall. Another method commonly used by beekeepers to discourage swarming is the creation of a starter colony.

Creating a starter hive and then splitting it encourages bees to stay in their hives. Some beekeepers believe that bees only swarm when they have an abundance of food in the hive. Beekeepers who subscribe to this theory use a method called checker boarding to discourage their bees from swarming. When a beekeeper checkerboards their hives they remove some of the full frames of honey, giving the bees the illusion that they don't have any honey in reserve, and therefore discouraging the bees from swarming.

It is unusual for a bees to swarm when there is a new queen in the bee hive. As time passes and the Queen ages is when the hive typically prepares to swarm, generally the elderly queen leaves with the primary swarm, leaving a virgin queen in her place. When the elderly queen is getting ready to swarm with the primary swarm she stops laying eggs. She concentrates on getting fit enough to fly when she leaves the hive (the only other time the queen has flown is when she went out on her nuptial flight). When smaller swarms leave the hive they are commonly accompanied by the virgin queen.

When they first leave the hive in a swarm, bees don't typically go far from the hive they have always known. After fleeing the nest the bees settle on a nearby tree branch or under an eave. The worker bees cluster around the queen, protecting her. Once they have the queen protected, some bees, scouts, look around until they find a suitable hive to turn into their new home.

Some beekeepers see swarming as a way to restock their hives. An experienced bee keeper has no problem capturing a group of swarming bees. Beekeepers use a device to called a Nasrove Pheromone to lure swarming honey bees.

When they swarm, honey bees carry no additional food with them. The only honey they are allowed to take from the parent hive is the honey they consumed.

Although honey bees normally swarm only during the spring the same is not true of Africanized Bees, also called Killer Bees. The Africanized Bees swarm whenever they have a difficult time finding food.

Although they typically don't go after people when they are swarming, their is something about the site of a swarm of bees that scares people. It is not unusual for a beekeeper to be called out to capture a colony of swarming bees.

My grandfather and great grand father would go out in the spring and capture swarms and settle them in their hives to add to their bee numbers and I still think that capturing wild swarms here in Michigan is a great way to increase your bee hive numbers