#003 - It's All About the Bees, Honey

 “What a kid I got, I told him about the birds and the bees and he told me about the butcher and my wife.”

Rodney Dangerfield

Well, before I pick up my bees to install them in my new hive - 3 or four more days - I thought I give all the newbies a lesson on bees. The blind leading the blind! You won't have to know much when you start and you will learn much as you go. One of the main issues you will have is spotting your queen in the hive. It will be important to hone this skill. You will eventually build an eye for it. If you want to train to spot a nerd in a crowd follow this link to 'Where's Waldo'. After practicing there for eight hours a day you find that it doesn't help AT ALL! You will want to punch my face but a valuable lesson will have been learned. The lesson being, there are no shortcuts in beekeeping. 

Besides I won't let you punch my face. I will see you coming and do a judo flip move and laugh at you and then run away before you can get up. So don't even try it!
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Bee Castes :

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I found this really nice chart above from 'Bee Spotter'. If you want to read more about bees - ummm... nerd .......... then, click the image or follow this link to the website :

BEE SPOTTER blog.

When it comes to honey bees there are basically three types. They are called 'Bee Castes' or whatever. 

1. The Queen : She is brought up eating only royal jelly. Which gives her that royal & slender shape. Unfortunately this won't translate to humans. You can feed your kid a load of royal jelly but she won't 'bee' inheriting the throne of Queen Elizabeth any time soon. Although the Queen is pampered and gets to mate with Drones she is no slack! She can lay upwards of 3000 eggs in one day! Yep, nuff said.

2. The Worker : She starts off the same larva as a Queen but is fed bee bread and honey. These ladies do it all. They build the hive, they forage for food, they protect the hive as guards ... etc. These girls are every the emblem of girl power in nature. They have a 5 to7 week life cycle.

3. The Drone (Or 'Male' on the chart) is big and fat dude. His is the only male caste in the hive and eats allot and doesn't work - well, let me correct myself. He does work but the work he does is mating with a queen. WHOOAAA! Before you think this is all fun and games. Slow your roll. After the he mates with the queen he dies. So no bragging to the fellahs after the deed has been done. If he doesn't mate with a queen he is unceremoniously put to death before the winter ... yes because he eats too much honey!

Bee Caste Life Cycles :

The great diagram above shows the life cycle of a 'Worker'. Once again this image is from :

'BEE SPOTTER'

 Queens can live two years but it is rare for that to happen. It is advisable to replace the queen every year or so for the benefit of the hive colony. Just like the workers the queen can get worn out and start to shirk her duties a bit. If you are hard-core you will let your queen die of natural causes - but you might put your hive in jeopardy because of it. You are a beekeeper and you have to look out for the health and safety of the hive. You may never have to make this decision because the bees will usually make the decision before you do.

Drones will only live through one hive season. They are always killed off during the last nectar harvest before the winter. They eat too much and winters are too long. The colony will not put itself in jeopardy by having these big jamokes eat them out of honey and hive half way through winter. Nature is cruel but knows what it is doing.

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So there you have it. You now know about the three castes of bees, but if you think for a second I'm going to give you the latin terms for the different types of bees and their attributes you better think again! I'm no geek and I refuse to tell you about :

Apis Mellifera Mellifera : known as the German Black Bee. This bee is rarely see these days because it had a propensity to sting peeps and was prone to disease like American Foulbrood. That said you will find a little AMM in many mutt American bees.

That's right Ronald! I made you work the AMM hive and you gots stung every time! While I worked the AML hive and never got stung once! That's right Ronald you had no idea! But you would have know if you just read a sentence or two about bees and looked at the color of the bees in my hive vs. the bees in your hive. Your bees were dark and mine were golden. I'm going to do the same thing this year Ronald! That's right Ronny, because I know you won't read this!!! HAAAA!!!!!!

here's a photo of Ronald : he's gonna get stung somthin fierce again this year.

Apis Mellifera Ligustica : also known as the Italian Bee. It makes lots of honey and is one of the gentlest of the honey bees. This makes it one of the most popular types of bee in the US. You might have to help this bee make it through the winter as well as protect them against parasites.

Apis Mellifera Caucasica : These  guys were imported from the Caucusas which is where they got their name. They don't produce as much honey as the Italian bee and they produce lots of propolis. Propolis is stikey stuff the bees use to coat the hive walls. Look it up! I ain't your researcher!

Apis Mellifera Carnica : also know as the Carniolan bee. The Carniolans come from Eastern Europe and are more resistant to disease and parasites. They are more frugal when it comes to their consumption of honey too, which means a better chance of surviving the winter that first year.

That's it I can't do this anymore today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO  BOOOOORRRRRRINNNNNNNNNNG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'll be back to update the installation of my bees!!!!!!!!!!

Until then try to Bee-have!!!