I found this amazing video showing bees working in a top bar hive. It starts with the colonisation of the empty beehive, then shows 3 months (condensed into 2 minutes!) of activity. You’ll notice the number of bees suddenly drops – this is because they swarmed.

Fascinating!

So, in the interest of nature, should you not let the bees swarm? Well, no – for several reasons.

Firstly, mainly because of varroa mites, honey bees will not survive for long in the wild. Without treatment, varroa will eventually kill of the new colony – and this is obviously not in the best interests of bees as a species.

Also, if you are an urban beekeeper, it is obviously doubly important that you prevent swarms – a swarm of bees is not very welcome in a populated area, and if they set up home in the roofspace of someone’s house, they can cause real damage.

And of course, if your bees swarm it will seriously affect honey production – you lose about half of the bees, and the rest of the season is generally spent building up the numbers again, so you will be unlikely to get any surplus honey.

If your bees do swarm, they need to be collected (by you or by someone else) and put into a beehive of their own. Normally they will gather on a branch or gate post close to the hive, while scout bees go looking for a suitable new home. They will stay here for between 12 and 48 hours – this is your window of opportunity to collect them and put them into a new hive.

This is of course the positive side to swarming – that is provided you don’t lose them – you now have 2 colonies instead of one. Or if you are just starting beekeeping, getting someone elses swarm is a great way to get your first bees. And provided it is still early in the season, the new colony should be productive.

Remember the proverb – A swarm in May is worth a load of hay; a swarm in June is worth a silver spoon; but a swarm in July is not worth a fly!

Swarm Image courtesy bushfarms.com

1. Honey bees are the only insect that produce food eaten by man.

2. The average worker bee produces about 1/12th teaspoon of honey in her lifetime.

3. A hive of bees will have to fly a total of 55,000 miles to get enough nectar to make 1 pound of honey – equivalent to flying twice around the planet earth.

4. Bees will fly up to 6 miles from their hive to collect pollen and nectar.

5. Bees have 2 pairs of wings, which move incredibly fast – about 200 beats per second. This is what makes honey bees buzz!

6. At its peak in the summertime, there will be about 60,000 worker bees in a colony, 2,000 drones and just one queen. The worker bees are all female, and do all the work.

7. Drones are the male honey bees. They are noticeably larger than worker bees, have no stinger and do no work at all. Their only job is to mate with a queen bee. Only one drawback – after they mate, they die.

8. The queen bee only leaves the hive once to mate, with up to 20 drones. When she returns to the hive, her only job is to lay eggs – up to 2,500 eggs per day when the colony is at its busiest in the summer months.

9. The queen controls the colony by releasing pheromones which get passed from one bee to another through contact. If these pheromones become too weak, it is taken as a signal that the queen needs to be replaced (or ‘superceded’).

10. The new queen comes from exactly the same eggs as worker bees – but because she is fed a different diet (of ‘royal jelly’) she develops into a queen rather than a worker. Definitely a case of “you are what you eat!”

Why not experience these fascinating creatures for yourself, and start beekeeping today?

Untreated colonies will eventually die out, so once you have varroa, you must take action. Although you can never totally eliminate the varroa mites from your colony, with good beekeeping practice you can keep them at manageable levels.

 What exactly is varroa?

Varroa mite

The varroa mite, or Varroa destructor to give it its proper name, is an external parasite of honey bees. They are very small, measuring between 1.1 and 1.7 mm (about 4/100 to 7/100 of an inch), and were originally found on Asian honey bees. Because of the shorter life cycle of this species of bee, the varroa were never able to get above a certain level of infestation, so the mite did not cause serious damage to these bees.

However, when the inevitable happened and the varroa migrated to the Western honey bee, it was not able to cope with the infestation. The Western honey bee does not have the same natural defences as the Asian bee, so once mites get established in a colony, they soon get to levels which can do real damage.

What harm do varroa do?

At low infestation levels, the mites do not really do any harm and the bees can function as normal. But as varroa numbers rise, the colony can be severely damaged and will eventually die out.

Honey bees with deformed wings caused by varroa

Varroa feed on the blood of both developing bees (brood) and adult bees. This weakens the bees, and can lead to deformities in growing brood. The mites also spread harmful pathogens and viruses as they transfer from one bee to another.

What methods are available to treat for varroa?

There are 2 main methods of control – chemical controls, and management methods. Chemical control is basically the use of varroacides, various chemical sprays or treatments designed to kill the mites.

Many beekeepers (particularly hobby beekeepers) are uneasy about using chemicals in their hives. In any case, largely because the chemical methods were overused, varroa are now becoming resistant to the main ingredient (pyrethroids), particularly in the United States, so management methods are really the only option left.

Various management techniques exist to help keep the number of mites to an acceptable level, without the use of chemicals. Natural varroa management methods are more labour intensive, but when used properly can give good results.

One method is the use of open mesh floors, so as the mites fall out of the hive they are unable to return. As they can only survive for a few days without feeding of a bee, the ones that fall out will die.

Another natural mite control method is to dust the bees with icing sugar. This encourages the bees to clean each other, and this extra cleaning will remove a lot of the mites. Combined with the open mesh floors, many beekeepers have had good results with this technique.

For more experienced beekeepers, there are other methods involving the removal of drone brood (which is infested with varroa), or creating an artificial swarm and so leaving the varroa infested brood behind.

Varroa mites are a problem, but do not let this put you off! With good management this parasite can be kept under control, and your bees will thrive.

[All images courtesy www.cornwallhoney.com]

Watch it and see what you think – and don’t forget to leave a comment below!

 If you are thinking of starting beekeeping in spring or summer 2010, then the time to do something about it is now – by May or June it will really be too late for this year. Although you’ll probably not get your bees until then, you do need to put in a bit of groundwork now.

Bees can be difficult to source. This is partly because of the decline in bee numbers (mainly caused by colony collapse disorder), and partly because beekeeping is becoming more popular. Supply is down, demand is up, so you have to get in quick. If you are buying packaged bees, they will most likely be delivered in April or May. To be sure to get them before they are sold out, you need to get your order in now.

Nucleus hives will usually be available a bit later (May or June) but will also be scarce, so again if you want a nuc get your order in now. If you are hoping to get a swarm from your local beekeeping association, it will be first come first served – get your name onto the list right away.

While you are waiting for your bees, use the time to get ready for their arrival. Choose a spot for your beehive. You do not need a lot of space, but you do want somewhere that is reasonably dry, sheltered, and undisturbed. Once bees get accustomed to their new home, they will follow the same flight path as they travel to and from the hive. Position your hive so that their path does not interfere with people (especially your neighbors).

Do lots of reading about beekeeping – Beekeeping Made Easy is a good starter guide, and there are many other beekeeping books  to choose from. Decide which type of beehive you want to use. If you are going to build you own hive  (which is less expensive and great way to learn about the different parts of the hive), get the plans and materials and assemble it in good time.  Learn about the equipment you will need, and buy the essentials.

If there is one, join the local beekeeping association or group, and take a beginner beekeeping class. Beekeepers are generally very generous with their time and will happily share their knowledge with others interested in beekeeping – you will really benefit from their experience.

During the first few weeks after your bees arrive, the support of more experienced beekeepers will be especially welcome. Bees, like all living creatures, can behave in unexpected ways and you will undoubtedly encounter some problems.

But ask any beekeeper, the rewards of beekeeping outweigh these hundredfold.

So, what are the symptoms and causes of colony collapse disorder? The main symptom of CCD is simply no or a low number of adult honey bees present but with a live queen and no dead honey bees in the hive. Often there is still honey in the hive, and immature bees (brood) are present.

Symptoms of Colony Collapse Disorder

1. An almost overnight disappearance of virtually all the worker bees – within a few days, previously thriving well established colonies lose almost all of its adult bees. Unlike other diseases or infestations, there are no dead bees to be found. They simply leave the hive and never come back.
2. The queen and a small number of very young bees, just hatched, remain and these tend the queen. You know they are young as they are light colored and still fuzzy.
3. Lots of honey and pollen still in the hive, and also a lot of brood left behind.

Normally when a colony dies or is abandoned, scavengers (like ants, small hive beetles, and wax moths) very quickly come in and steal the honey, dead bees, or pollen that has been left behind. But with CCD, the anecdotal evidence is that this does not seem to happen. Other creatures stay away from the hive. No-one knows why, but it does suggest that they somehow instinctively sense that it is contaminated and so stay clear.

Causes of Colony Collapse Disorder

Causes are largely still unknown, but there are several main suspects. There is one theory that cell phone masts may be scrambling bees’ navigational systems. While this has not been completely ruled out, recent research has failed to find any evidence of a link. Most experts believe the cause of colony collapse disorder is more likely to be related to parasites (particularly Varroa and Tracheal mites), disease (especially Nosema) or pesticides.

Each individual beekeeping parasite and disease, while often damaging, is not thought to be sufficient to cause colony collapse disorder. In colonies affected by CCD, scientists found some evidence of infestation or infection, but no more so than in colonies without CCD.

More attention is now turning to chemicals. An analysis by Penn State researchers of beehive wax has shown very high levels of pesticides used by beekeepers in the hives to combat Varroa mites – particularly fluvalinate and coumapho.

The researchers also found lower levels of 70 other pesticides, not used by beekeepers but by farmers on agricultural crops. These were also present in pollen and in the bees themselves.

And particularly worrying is the interaction between these different chemicals. For example, initial research has found that some combinations of fungicides and insecticides can be a 100 times more toxic than any of the chemicals individually.

Whether these pesticides are a contributory factor to CCD is still unclear, but they are definitely stressors. One theory is that the combination of pesticides with the other existing stressors (parasites and disease) together cause the perfect storm, and hence colony collapse disorder.

Whatever the cause, CCD is a serious threat both to bees and to our food supply. The one positive is the increased public awareness of the crucial role that bees play. Hobby beekeeping has never been so popular, which can only be good – the more people who start beekeeping, the better the chance of survival for the honey bee.

So, yet another good reason to get out there, and start beekeeping.

Bees are fascinating creatures, and here we’ll look at all things beekeeping – why keep bees, what you need to start beekeeping, diseases and other issues to watch for, honey and other bee products and their uses …. the list is almost endless!

Beekeeping has never been more popular, but paradoxically bees have never been more at risk

Bees are under serious threat from pests like the Varroa mite, diseases like American Foulbrood or European Foulbrood, and more recently from Colony Collapse Disorder (or CCD).

Of course the revived interest in beekeeping is partly because of the increased media interest caused by these threats. People are more aware of how important bees and beekeeping are for our food supply (one third of everything we eat depends on pollination, and 80% of all pollination is done by honey bees).

But I believe beekeeping is also rising in popularity because more and more people are beginning to realize that just maybe there is more to life than work, money, material possessions… and then some more work.

Bees and beekeeping have a unique power to allow you to switch off from the pressures of everyday life, to de-stress and unwind.

From the outside, it looks like mayhem. 60,000 bees buzzing about their hive in a seemingly bewildered and incoherent way. But each one has a specific job to do, and together they accomplish more every day than you could possibly believe.

Fascinating is a word that is probably overused when it comes to describing bees, but they really are fascinating .

You are reading this, so you are obviously interested in bees and beekeeping. So stay tuned, we’ll be posting to the blog very often. If you have any questions or suggestions we’d love to hear them, so please leave a comment below, or email us.