We're gettin' bees

We've wanted to add bees to to farm since we moved in. After attending the Mother Earth News Fair last Oct. in Lawrence and getting a little bit more in depth about the whole process, I came home and set to work finding out more about food sources in our area and care and housing, etc. Jeremiah asked of one of the building construction instructors at school about building hives and they were on board!

I contated a few local people about obtaining some "nuc" (nucleus) colonies. Bee colonies are split in the spring. The hives should be ready to go just before we're ready to pick up the bees which will be just before the black locust trees bloom and that should give them a perfect start to the year. After October's seminars I wondered if would have a good enough food source for them. Country settings aren't always ideal as much of what grows are grasses and grasses don't flower. However, I remembered that a good majority of the trees around here are black locust and those DO bloom, a lot. Just once a year (when late ice storms don't zap them) and there are good years and better years for pollen production but that should be a good source. I found out a bee's radius for foraging is about 1.5 miles. I plan to take a drive as best we can on mostly perfectly grid-squared roads as the crow flies and see what's in that radius. I know there are alfalfa fields and we have some clover, fruit trees, etc. What we grow wouldn't be enough to sustain a colony I wouldn't think but the thought of feeding bees opens up a new world as far as what could be beneficial to plant in addition to what's regularly in the garden.

We'll have the school build the langstroth hives (traditional white box hives that are stacked) and Jeremiah and I will tackle some "top bar hives". Top bar hives are  like wooden v-shaped troughs. I'd like a few of each to see which we'll like working with the best. I also hope some friends who live in town wouldn't mind us placing some baited bee hives to catch a swarm or two. Cities are actually supposed to be great places to bait in swarms. Bees swarm usually when the colony gets to be too big, they choose a second queen and the (soon to be queen) takes off with her new entourage. I imagine most people who keep bees (apiaries) aren't too happy when their swarms take off and they do things to ensure they don't but anyway, it's not uncommon to catch bee swarms and that's why swarm removers exist, often times the swarm removers are bee keepers themselves.

Anyhow, I'll post more on that as time progresses and we've made progress there. It was important to find someone to sell us nuc colonies as nuc colonies aren't normally shipped. Packaged bees can be shipped. Rachel asked what a package of bees was. I told her it was like taking a lot of different people from a lot of different families (and in a package of bees they throw in a newly mated queen that was not chosen by the hive members), throwing them together and telling them to figure it out. Eventually they usually do but die affects numbers before the newly mated queen is ready lay eggs and then there' time for the eggs to hatch and yadda yadda yadda. It takes a lot longer for a hive to learn to work together, expand, etc. A nuc colony is a colony that has lived together, worked together, chosen their own queen and there is little stress in shipment because the bees aren't going far, etc. And because bees are such a wanted/needed commodity, getting on a waiting list for a spring colony is vital to whether or not one will have bees for that year. I contacted a lot of people that said the waiting list for last year spilt over to this year so I would be on a waiting list for the waiting list.


It's all very exciting and the whole bee life has really been very interesting to read up on. Busy week ahead. Have a great Tuesday.