Honey-BeeLog

Beekeeping 101

2006-05-12T11:00:00.000+01:00

Sorry its been a while, but as mentioned in last post, I wanted to keep it bee-free until I started the course.

Last thursday evening, I went my the first session at the local college. It was good. I learnt a lot of stuff and even managed to don a veil and check out the hives. I was pretty scared 'cos I was wearing shorts, but I didn't get stung once!

So, here is what I'm learning:

The basics:
Bees are social insects that make honey. There are lots of breeds of bees, but we use honey-bees as they overproduce honey, so we, as beekeepers, can take the excess.

There are 3 types of bee in a single hive.
Queen
Drones
Workers

Here are some pictures of each type: Queen, Drone, Worker (top to bottom)

The workers are what you will see lots and lots and lots of. They make the honey and essentially do all the work (as the name suggests). They are all female, but can't lay eggs.

The drones are the males of the hive. Other than mating with Queens from other hives (no inbreeding here, thanks!), I'm not sure what these chaps do.

The Queen is the really special one. She is bigger than the workers and lays all the eggs. She lays eggs in wax cells (the honeycomb holes you can see in the picture of bees on this blog) which the workers have previously built. Once she has laid an egg in a cell, the workers tend to it, making sure it hatches, feed the hatched grub (looks like a fat maggot), then seal the cell in which the maggot lives when it is ready to turn into an adult bee.

The bees live off the honey they produce from the nectar and pollen they collect. The honey is also used to feed the grubs before they grow into adult bees.

Lack of Posts

2006-04-24T09:33:00.000+01:00

Since finding out about the course, I haven't really posted anthing. I'm going to wait until that starts before I try to find anything else out. I think it may confuse me if I learn too much about bees, then have to re-learn stuff at college.

My girlfiend is still concerned about my bee-keeping obsession. I keep on trying to bring her round to the idea, but now she's even saying she doesn't like honey that much. It seems she'll try anything to avoid insect infestations.

EXCITING NEWS: Rich (person I work with whose father keeps bees), has told me that his Dad has got a spare beekeeping suit, and would be happy for me to visit and check out his bees. So, sometime in the summer I'm going to go and have a bee-session with a Dad. How exciting?!!

There were some honey-bees hovering round my house this weekend. I think they can sense it may be a haven for friendly bees. Do bees have public areas?

Fear not, when the bee-course starts, I'll keep you well informed. I'm hoping its going to be a source of fantastic bee-realated information.

Bumble Bees

2006-04-10T16:26:00.000+01:00

There was a very big bumble bee in the astroshack library today. I was in there reading, when I heard something that sounded like a power drill. It was bloody huge.

Bumble bees are NOT solitary bees, they do form small nests.

Bumble bees are very frugal with their honey- only producing enough for themselves. Like the scots of the bee world.

Bumble bees biggest enemy is a man armed with an insect spray (apparently). So, when armageddon comes, and the four horsemen ride, along with the armies of dead and living we'll have man with insect sprays and bumble bees.

And...My old favourite: Bumble bees, like mammals and birds, are warm blooded. "But they're insects", I hear you cry! Well, yes, they don't have a liver to regulate their blood temperature like we do, but they can dislocate their wing muscles from their wings and rapidly pump them to generate heat, thus creating a form of temperature self-regulation.

Arduous Training

2006-04-10T09:16:00.000+01:00

Well, thanks to the encouragement I received from my friends having read this blog, I picked up the courage to phone the 'Bee Man', as he has come to be known. I told him I got his number from the BBKA website, and he seemed to groan a bit- at this stage I thought it was going to go hideously wrong- I had no other contacts other than this guy, I'd be back to square one if this didn't work out.

After I told him that I was interested in keeping bees, he perked up a bit. (Perhaps he's expecting some bad news from someone he expects to get his number from the BBKA website, maybe he's been mistreating bees or something, and thats why he didn't sound too happy at first). He told me about a "Beekeeping Training Course" that he and a fellow Bee Man (we'll call him Bee Man 2), are starting up on the evening of May 4th at the local college, which is just down the road from where I work. So that's handy. Best bit is: its totally free. However, people told me there's no such thing as a free lunch- so perhaps there's a honey-tax or something that they'll charge, once you've started producing. But I don't mind that too much. I've got to phone him later on in the month to let him know that I'm coming. For all you who can't attend a 'Beekeeping Course', I'll post everything I learn about beekeeping on this blog, so don't worry, I'm going to keep you all fully informed for when you decide you want bees.

The other thing is: I told my girlfriend about my bee passions. She didn't seem too impressed, I think she thinks its going to be a 'flash in the pan' interest. But, once I've got the bees, I'll have to be committed to them. I won't leave them to starve. Anyway, she didn't seem too bothered, she just rolled her eyes in that way dissaproving girlfriends do, like she's thinking, 'You're 25 for heaven's sake, can't you just socialise with people instead of bees?'. But hey, what the heck.

Oh, I also learnt of a novel called 'The private life of Bees'. Its an old classic non-texbook on beekeeping. I'm going to try to find a copy and read it.

Here are pictures of some honey and some bees (left to right).

The Rival

2006-04-06T09:56:00.000+01:00

I've found another blog recording the story of how a guy in the U.S. started his own beehive. Have a look at it: http://www.hive-mind.com/bee/blog. Despite it being a rival blog, I do like it very much. He's very enthusiastic about his bees, which I can only respect. However, I don't see him as encroaching too much on my territory, he started with some experience (he did some beekeeping when he was younger), whereas all I know is that bees make honey and they sting you when angry. Because of this, I think this blog will be more accessible to the lay-person.

I'm currently trying to pluck up enough courage to call this local beekeeper up. Oh, and to persuade my girlfiend (who I live with and is scared of bees) that this is a good idea.

The People you meet

2006-04-05T15:42:00.000+01:00

Well, I'll be...

A friend of mine who works in the same department as I has just seen my honey-beelog blog, and has just told me that his dad keeps bees in North Yorkshire.

I know where I'll be going on the first honey-beelog excursion now.

Its amazing the things normal people's dads do.

If your dad, or other member of your family, or yourself keeps bees. Get in touch!!

The Interweb- Bee Amazed

2006-04-05T15:12:00.000+01:00

As ever, the interweb has provided some solutions to my problems. A friend of mine discovered the website: www.beeginners.info (can you see what they did there?!), that seems to provide a great deal of information for the would-bee beekeeper.

It tells you how to get started, how much it could cost, what equipment you'll need, how to get your hands on some bees (make sure you specify that you want well behaved bees!) and lots, lots more.

It is very cool.

The Idea

2006-04-05T11:43:00.000+01:00

How easy is it to start your own bee-hive? Can anyone do it? How much will it cost? What are the benefits and downsides?

I currently know nothing about bees and how to keep them. All I have is a number of a guy who I found on the BBKA (British Bee-Keeping Association) website. He's pretty local.

I'll keep you posted on all the benefits and pitfalls of beekeeping. If you ask nicely, you may even get some honey!!