Pesticides, herbicides and fun honeybee facts

While at our beekeepers meeting last week, the lady in charge of our group told us that when she recently went to inspect her hives she found several hives full of dead bees.  Inside the hives were full of dead bees and there was a pile of them dead on the ground under each hive.  Quite distressing for a beekeeper.  Another hive was trying to swarm and get away but they too were dying.

Why did this happen?  It's unknown at this time so she froze many many of the dead bees to give to a state inspector to help determine the cause.  Not sure it will ever be known but the probable cause is pesticides.  The actual pesticide may be hard to determine but another possible culprit may be the chemical used to kill lawns / crops named roundup.  Some are even saying it may be the cause of colony collapse syndrome.  Roundup is a cancer causing chemical that is sprayed on most of the corn people eat.   Here's an article on the subject if you're interested http://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/roundup-bees-zm0z10zarc.aspx?PageId=7

So to counteract the downer of reading about dead bees here's a couple "Fun Facts" that was on a beekeeping brochure from St. Pete College in addition to a few other online sources:

Honeybees are the only insects that produce food for humans.  Honey is the oldest food in existence and it never spoils;  it contains all the substances necessary to sustain life including enzymes, vitamins, minerals, and water; and it's the only food that contains "pinocembrin", an antioxidant associated with improved brain functioning.

Honeybees will usually travel approximately 5 miles from their hive for pollen and nectar.

A single honeybee will produce approximately 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime

It would take about 1 ounce of honey to fuel a honeybee's flight around the world.

A honeybee has to travel over 55,000 miles and visits approximately 2 million flowers to make 1 pound of honey.


88% of pollination of fruit, vegetables and seed crops in the U.S. is accomplished by honeybees.

Honey bees have 170 odorant receptors, compared with only 62 in fruit flies and 79 in mosquitoes. Their exceptional olfactory abilities include kin recognition signals, social communication within the hive, and odor recognition for finding food. Their sense of smell is so precise that it could differentiate hundreds of different floral varieties and tell whether a flower carried pollen or nectar from metres away.

A colony of bees consists of 20,000-60,000 honeybees and one queen. Worker honey bees are female, live for about 6 weeks and do all the work.

 Larger than the worker bees, the male honey bees (also called drones), have no stinger and do no work at all. All they do is mating. In fact, before winter or when food becomes scarce, female honeybees usually force surviving males out of the nest.

Each honey bee colony has a unique odour for members' identification.

Honey bees make about 200 beats per second with their wings, creating their infamous buzzing sound. A worker bee in the summer lasts six to eight weeks. Wearing their wings out is the most common cause of their death.

More Swarm Traps

The original swarm traps I tried to make from experimental hive boxes were not usable.  The frames wouldn't go in straight and just wasn't correct as far as allowing enough bee space for the bees to move around.  So they were both cut up and reused as 5 frame swarm traps kind of like a nuc.   The construction was a little ugly but the boxes were solid (heavy) and should work perfect as swarm traps.  After painting the exterior and then washing the boxes I loaded them up with queen pheromone and lemongrass essential oil scent.

That brings our trap count to 6 if you count the 2 nucs deployed a few weeks ago.  The one in front of our house always seems to have one or two bees going in and out of it checking it out.  It seems quite likely it will attract a swarm.

I wiped the outside of the boxes with beeswax.  Never heard of that before but it's to counteract the new paint smell and will even repel water somewhat.  Worth a try.

I dropped off 3 of the swarm traps today in various places around the city and it feels like fishing where you're holding the pole patiently waiting. 

Volunteering Florida State Beekeepers association booth during the State Fair

Monday Yvonne and I volunteered to help the Florida State Beekeepers association in manning their booth at the State Fair.  Even though we're pretty new at this, it was a good opportunity to meet some experienced beekeepers and some nice people.  We met several beekeepers who at one time had over 1000 hives.  They all said it's not what it used to be with all the beatles, mites, foul brood disease and the disappearing bees (colony collapse disorder)

In addition to giving out samples of honey and selling honey, there were plenty of people to talk with throughout the day.  Especially since it turned into one of those days where it rained all day which made the exhibits in the buildings even more enticing to fair goers.

Our booth had a display of live bees in a glass case.  But what was real funny was the lone bee on the outside who wanted to get in with all the other bees.  This bee must have flown into the building and found the hive because she stayed under the hive in a little space most of the day.  A couple times she came out and scared some people tasting honey and I'll admit it was amusing to see people jump when a real bee came out from under the hive.

We worked for 7 hours and then planned on walking the fair and seeing other exhibits.  It was a good thing we had our umbrellas because it was really coming down.  Not many people walking in the rain and a lot of unhappy vendors outside trying to sell their crazy food which seems to dominate the State Fair.  More junk food than anything else.  But that must be why everyone goes to the fair.  For some of that delicious pig butt on a stick.  Make mine the soy version thank you.