Bees

[opsec]

It looks like they are applying the thyme oil topically instead of taking it internally.

[Beeherder]

in the case of MSRA suppression, that is probably correct.

In the case of the bees, beekeepers place pads soaked in the aromatic oil inside the beehive. I do not understand the science of why it works in either case but i accept that herbs have healing power. And in the case of bees they love those late blooming flower stalks on the Big Blue Savory and every native pollinator in the area comes to visit these plants every year. I have identified three different feral bee species and one hovering flies that all come to this plant. The bugs seem to know its a good thing and who am i to argue with a bug? 

[Beeherder]

Opsec requested:

If you can make us a fast tutorial, like a "beekeeping for dummies" article, I'll pin it to the top of the forums. I think it would be helpful to know how to go from zero to having at least one functioning colony. A rough price estimate for materials would be helpful.

This BH is way to busy to give your request the kind of thorough response it deserves but I found a place that has done an excellent job of documenting Top Bar style beekeeping:

http://topbarbees.wordpress.com/2007/04/28/the-bees-are-in/

lots of pictures but there really is no such thing as beekeeping for dummies. You either learn the required biology and other knowledge, skills, and abilities or you will fail. Sorry mother nature does not accept apologies, you either get it right (or like me you are lucky until you have time to learn from minor mistakes) or they die. Just like any other form of animal husbandry, no short cuts if you want a harvest.

Prices - ??? of what? the new 16x16 electrified bear exclusion fence (almost done here boss) cost over $1000 just for the components and I'm extending the fence charger to the new fence as well as the old one. Hired labor to do the heavy lifting (literally) $300. Unless you live in bear country you won't need one of these. The new Warre' hives were about $250 each plus time to paint with whatever leftover exterior paint there was out there in the garage. Similar sized Langstroth configurations are priced according to the volume enclosed (materials used) but not much higher than the Warre' equipment, maybee 33% more. The 3 lb package of bees were $67 each but you have to be a member of the NCBA ($13/yr) books each year at least $50, new gadgets and tools every year $50 (or as much as you've got). There are at least as many styles of beekeeping as there are beekeepers. Heck i'm using two. Flowers, lots of flowers, new seeds, new plants. New safety equipment this year for visiting newbees or wannabees $150. New safety equipment for me to replace the wearing 5 year old stuff $100.

A way of living based on supporting life all around me - priceless

[opsec]

You really have to jump in with both feet and pony up a significant amount of cash and time to learn it. You don't just go get a hive setup at Bees R' Us and have a hobby.

[Dame]

Bees also make wonderful substitutes for long term psychological counseling, religious retreats etc.  If one becomes irritable, rushed, indifferent to their well-being they give instantaneous, honest feedback which is difficult to ignore.  If you persist ignoring fair exchange, kindness and consideration of others (the bees), you will either be forced to leave or they will leave or die.

Bees are reliable, consistent, hardworking and direct. 

[Beeherder]

 

As the heading of this forum says they are livestock. When i first thought about becoming a beekeeper it was easy to subscribe to Bee Culture Magazine ($12/yr) and just read about bees and beekeeping for a year. I am told that the quarterly publication American Bee Journal is also a good place to start but as of now i have not yet read any of that one. Just like any other livestock one might consider raising, the first thing eye did was learn about the academic side by reading then i joined a local club where i met someone willing to show me their setup. If i had lived in a more populated area it would have been easy to get adopted by a mentor. Since starting beekeeping at least two other beekeepers have also started because of my enthusiastic show and tell sessions. Its fun, and they are actually cute once you get used to them. And this time of year they don't have much to defend so are not as defensive. The story is a little different in August.

This year i get my first significant challenge with a weak hive. Always something to learn in this avocation/vocation.

If you were interested in horses it would bee difficult to keep one in your suburban backyard but bees work almost anywhere there are humans. Lots of towns allow or are changing laws to allow backyard beekeeping. The product is "the food of the gods" called honey. Honey has the perfect balance of glucose and sucrose to support human health and nutrition. One of the reasons the Warre' system interests me is its claim to be suitable for backyards everywhere as "The Peoples Hive". Since i will have both Langstroth and Warre' now it will be possible to evaluate that claim here.

There is a field of medicine that uses bee stings to treat certain types of arthritis. Bee venom deserves some serious research efforts, imo.

[opsec]

Is there any benefit in allowing yourself to be stung purposely? I thought that unlike many kinds of toxins where the body builds up resistance over time, bee stings have the opposite effect and you wind up becoming more sensitive to bee stings the more times you get stung.

[Beeherder]

anecdotal second hand report:

some doctors use bee stings on injured joints or joints with inflamation due to certain types of arthritis. Never done it on purpose but have observed some possible mitigation of wrist swelling due to repetitive motion injury. I am not recommending only offering that some people do get stung on purpose. My mentor said he got calls regularly from a couple of different doctors, so he would use a mason jar to catch 10 -20 bees and take them to the doctor.

eye am curious about the real neurology of bee venom, just not aware of the state of the science 

[wander]

It's called bee venom therapy. I've heard it called apitherapy also. Used specifically to relieve MS and arthritis. My mother in law has both and gets the treatment done. Her neighbor helps her catch the bees.

[Beeherder]

Hi Wander,

Please tell me more about how it is used to treat MS. Just met a neighbor who has MS and gave him the last jar of 2009 harvest with the suggestion that he eat one or two teaspoons of honey just before bedtime. He said he slept through 13 hours that first night and has not had that much deep sleep in years. Also said it did not have the same effect on night number 2, 3, ... but he is still eating it just before bed.

I picked up this recommendation in the Fessenden book mentioned earlier in this thread. Dr. Fessenden does an excellent job of presenting the recent research results about honey and human physiology. I have also been reading the much older work by Dr. Jarvis, Folk Medicine, published in 1957 at the end of his over 30 years of practicing medicine in Vermont. This guy was providing health care before antibiotics and his advice never includes pharmaceuticals but usually includes two teaspoons of honey, dissolved in 8 oz water then two teaspoons of Cider Vinegar, drink it down three times a day between meals, drink it with meals. Today there is only one brand of organic unfiltered cider vinegar available in my area but i bet there were several brands when this book was written.

please tell us more about what and how bees help MS treatment.
  

[Beeherder]

Backyard beekeeping should be something that almost anyone can do and enjoy and its probably not necessary to spend the kind of money outlined above. If you have some wood working skill and can make a pine box with finger jointed 90 degree corners you can make a bee hive yourself.

If you were in a rural area with no means of acquiring lumber you could use a hollowed out log or any clean unpainted interior wooden container.

And if you had a bee box it could be used to hunt and capture a wild hive. Watch this to learn how:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uASGkB65GzY

Here is another beekeeping web site that is intended to inform, hope you find it useful:

http://bushfarms.com/bees.htm

[Beeherder]

In my new avatar picture you see the new 16'x16' electrified fence area with posts every 8 feet, in the foreground. Just beyond that is the older 8'x8' electrified fence with the 3 Langstroth hives. The same fence charger is used to drive current to the elevated grid of both apiaries. After attending a presentation by the Colorado Worm Man

http://cowormman.webhost4life.com/

where he described the wonders of old carpet and what can be done with it. Well, ... how do you like my carpeted apiary? This spring was really very wet here and getting close to the Langstroth hives in mud was becoming both difficult and dangerous so i just tossed some 3' wide carpet strips on top of the snow/mud and there you have it carpeted isles in the apiary, no more weed wackers that get the bees all defensive and excited (you do NOT want that).


Beekeeping is easy and fun, read up and give it a try.

[Beeherder]

Colony Collapse Disease

Most Current research:

http://guest.cvent.com/EVENTS/Info/Summary.aspx?e=6139b68a-3574-4699-b441-385ada31dac5

 

Survey results spring 2010

PRELIMINARY RESULTS: HONEY BEE COLONIES LOSSES IN THE U.S.,
WINTER 2009-2010

 
Dennis vanEngelsdorp1, Jerry Hayes2, Dewey Caron3, and Jeff Pettis4

 
Note: This is a preliminary analysis, and a more detailed final report is being prepared for publication at a later date.
The Apiary Inspectors of America (AIA) and USDA-ARS Beltsville Honey Bee Lab conducted a survey to estimate winter colony loses for 2009/2010. Over 22.4% of the country’s estimated 2.46 million colonies were surveyed. A total loss of 33.8% of managed honey bee colonies was recorded.  This compares to total losses of 29%, 35.8% and 31.8% recorded, respectively, in the winters of 2008/2009, 2007/2008 and 2006/2007. 

In all 4,207 beekeepers responded to the on-line survey and an additional 24 were contacted by phone. This response rate is orders of magnitude greater than previous years efforts which relied on phone or email responses only (2008/2009 n=778, 2007/2008 n=331, 2006/2007 n=384).

On average responding beekeepers lost 42.2% of their operation, this is an 8 point or 23% increase in the average operational loss experienced by beekeepers in the winter of 2008/2009.
 
Average losses were nearly 3 times greater than the losses beekeepers reported that they considered acceptable (14.4%). Sixty-one percent of beekeepers reported losses in excess of what they would consider acceptable.

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) is characterized, in part, by the complete absence of bees in dead colonies and apiaries.  This survey was not designed to differentiate between definitive cases of CCD and colonies lost as the result of other causes that share the “absence of dead bees” symptom. Only 28% of operations reported that at least some of their dead colonies were found dead without dead bees.  However, this group lost a total of 44% of their colonies, as compared to the total loss of 25% experienced by beekeepers who did not report losses indicative of CCD. Responding beekeepers attributed their losses to starvation (32%), weather (29%), weak colonies in the fall (14%), Mites (12%), and poor queens (10%).  Only 5% of beekeepers attributed CCD as the major cause for their losses.
 
It is also important to note that this survey only reports on winter losses, and does not capture the colony losses that occurs throughout the summer as queens or entire colonies fail and need to be replaced.  Preliminary data from other survey efforts suggest that these “summer” losses can also be significant. All told the rate of loss experienced by the industry is unsustainable.  

1. Dennis vanEngelsdorp, The Pennsylvania State University/Apiary Inspectors of America (AIA), Past-President dennis.vanengelsdorp@gmail.com 717-884-2147
2. Jerry Hayes, Florida Department of Agriculture, AIA Past President, hayesg@doacs.state.fl.us  352 372-3505
3. Dewey Caron, Oregon State Univ., carond@hort.oregonstate.edu  302 353-9914
4. Jeff Pettis USDA-ARS Bee Research Laboratory, Beltsville, MD,  jeff.pettis@ars.usda.gov, 301 504-8205

[opsec]

So then, colony collapse disorder is accelerating then. Am I reading this right?

Your colonies seem pretty isolated from other bee hives. Does that bode well for you and yours?

[Beeherder]

Yes, my apiary is somewhat isolated from other apiaries and most of all my bees do not get on a semi-trailer truck or even a pickup truck and go someplace else to provide pollination services or as an attempt to produce honey at remote apiaries.

My impression is that the large commercial migratory beekeeping operations are suffering unsustainable losses. Gee what a surprise, the little bugs don't like the industrial style agriculture currently being practiced in most of north america. None of the small (less than 10 hives) beekeepers i know suffer significant winter losses. I read that the migratory operations have as much as 90% death rate. Ross Conrad, author of Natural Beekeeping claims that organic methods are the only viable long term solution. Does that sound like the rest of the agriculture industry too?