I’m no scientist (ha) but here’s some unscientific tangible proof that if there are “no bees, there’s no food”  It is estimated that the work of bees provides $16 billion dollars of value annually in the U.S. alone. Pretty scary fact don’t you think that these little guys play such a big role in our food chain.

Exhibit ONE

Last year’s (2010) loquat harvest WITH bees

Exhibit TWO

This years (2011) a miserly ONE HALF basket WITHOUT bees

Good news is that the bees are back on the urban homestead, but they just missed the loquat blooms by a few months.

Bees are back!

Just goes to show you how important bees are for the pollination of crops in urban environments.

Have you noticed an increase in your harvest when you started keeping bees?

:: Resources ::

Loquat Fruit Facts

A World Without Bees

Vanishing Bees

Working the hives

New queen

My sisters and I have been watching a BBC TV series called Lark Rise to Candleford.  One of the characters is “Queenie” the village beekeeper and honey mead maker.   I find skeps a rather fascinating part of beekeeping history. Bees and beekeeping have certainly  changed over the years.

In the apiary, queens rule.   The queen bee determines the whole chemistry, demeanor and health of the hive.   Re-queening is necessary for those city beekeepers who capture feral swarms.  Putting in a friendly, docile queen ensures the “quieter” temperament of the colony which means they easier to work with and manage in an urban environment.   I have found that many feral bees,  after a  few seasons,  tend to get more aggressive. More often than not, they will breed mean queens. They usually make ‘hot’ bees that boil over when anyone opens up the hive and these hives tend to swarm more often.   So, I opt to purchase  a naturally mated queens from reliable sources.  In a few weeks, the beehives are calmer, easier to manage, swarm less, and friendlier.  This means I can work the hives in shorts, sandals and gloveless without being stung.

I’m trying a few new different things this year (obviously, last year didn’t work out - though I suspect no fault of ours), and we’ll see how it goes.  It helps tremendously that I’ve grown up around bees my whole life and to me, beekeeping is one of the most rewarding and enjoyable things I can do.  It’s addicting  and the end results are, well, SWEET!

:: Resources ::

How to Re-Queen a Hive

Re-Queening

Yep! The bait hive is full of bees

Tied up the burlap bag for transporting the bees

Looks like it was home to a four legged critter or two

Keeping the bees warm on the walk home

Upon  her return from a goat walk this weekend, my sister informed me that one of my bait hives was FULL of bees.  Sweet!

Before the big "winter" storm that's about to blow in Tuesday, I wanted to get the bait hive home and relocate my other traps to catch any more of the wild bees that are living in Arroyo Seco.

It's best to move bees in the evening.  Just as soon as the sun went down, I was off to bring the bees home.   I was happy to find that the hive was a very decent size so it seems they've been there for awhile.   As soon as I got the bait hive home, I dumped them into a larger hive - not an easy task in the dark.    Any light and the bees start flying!   So did my best under the cover of moonlight.   I sustained a few stings but that's all in the job.

Now, I'm off to batten down the hatches for a big, cold storm that's brewing.

Applying the liquid beeswax

In they go into the box

Bigger is not always better, even when it comes to beekeeping.   Natural (smaller) cells are better, especially for those of us who are choosing chemical and antibiotic free hives.    Modern thinking is that bigger bees would give more honey; but the downside is that bigger bees are susceptible to a pesky mite called varroa.

This year, we are experimenting with downsizing giving them a smaller pattern cell from which to draw comb.   Most commercially available combs measure around 5.5mm; however, bees left to their own devices, tend to make smaller cells averaging 4.9mm in diameter.

By using smaller comb,  we are hoping that smaller cells and bees will help lower the varroa mites levels.

Small cells alone will not save bees from varroa mites, but we sure can help give the bees a fighting chance!

:: Resources ::

Bee Natural: Small Cell

Small Cell Foundation and Varroa Mites

The Way Back to Biological Beekeeping

A swarm takes interests in the bait hive

Score! They are filling up the box fast!

No gloves, veil needed - bees are less interested in me and more interested in moving into their new digs

Giving Bees a Chance.

On Friday sis ran in, waving for me to come outside and see!

"Can’t you see I’m busy here?" I yelled back.  What crazy thing did she spot this time, I wondered?   She was rather insistent. Why can’t girls just blurt out what they want instead of being so darn mysterious? That is one of the great unanswered questions of all time.

Well, this time around, it wasn’t some crazy thing – it was bees!  A swarm of bees was going into one of my “bait hives.”  Nice!

Wonder if the bees knew my birthday was coming up?  Can't beat that for a present now can ya!   Well, except for my sis's amazing chocolate cake!

Now, I am nurturing three feral hive and three mail order hives and, hopefully, will relocate a few to a lot nearby.

Already in the early evenings, when the sun hits the hives, you can get a faint whiff of honey. How sweet it is!

“No bees, no honey; no work, no money” - A "Proverbs" quote

Two hives getting ready for the new home "away from home"

Busy bee week for me!  Three small hives are now happily housed here on the urban homestead. Additionally, I was lucky (and fortunate) to find a nearby homeowner that will let me keep a few at her home.

I scouted out her property the other day and was happy with what I saw.  It’s huge in size with a hilly terrain.  Her property, situated next to a park, has a tennis court and pool. So, the bees will be in a quiet and secluded place.    I plan on starting out with two hives there and see how things go from there.

Another friend and fellow city beekeeper is housing his hives nearby.  So, apparently a good spot – nearby and easy to keep on eye on.

Better yet, it's so close I can even bike!

Mail order bees

Been getting a few email requests about selling bees to start newbies (or "newbees," in this case).  I’m thinking about it, but first will concentrate on the health and welfare of the hives here.  If, God willing, all goes well, I MAY have  a few to sell in the future.

Besides being busy with bees and spring plantings, tax time has arrived.  Well, farming and taxes don’t mix.  In an agricultural society, the powers that be would know better than to require tax filings during spring plantings. However,   I’m chief financial officer here, so like I always do, I filed for an extension.  I have WORK to do!

TAXES: Of life's two certainties, the only one for which you can get an automatic extension.  ~Author Unknown

This recent article stresses the importance of how we all should start taking gardening seriously.    Growing your own food in the city: it’s a challenge but a good one - an a very important on too!

Garden As If Your Life Depended On It, Because It Will - Alternet

There are at least five reasons why more of us should take up spade, rake and hoe, make compost and raise good soil and garden beds with a vengeance, starting this spring and with an eye toward forever.

READ MORE

It's officially Spring and what a rocky start  weather wise.   We spiked into the 90’s for a few days and then dipped back under 60 with gray skies  and drizzle.  Crazy!

Busy, busy, busy - bees, biodiesel, soil blocks, picking, packing, watering, planting, building, etc. Where does the time go?  Not complaining; it’s good to have longer days to work on the farm here in the city.

Sis handed me a “to plant list” of things she needs for her home canning operation.    She makes a mean jalapeno jelly and wanted to make sure that I didn’t forget to plant them!

Squash, tomatoes, peppers and beans are all up and ready to transplant into the garden.   The new strawberry starts are filling in nicely. We are expecting to harvest berries in early June and the potatoes are just about ready to be dug up.  I know I’ve been looking forward to homegrown potatoes – they are way better tasting than the store.

The small invasion of aphids is now under control, sweet!  We spotted a couple ladybugs and have already noticed a huge difference on the chard and kales.    Thanks to the exceptionally warm weather last week, the greens seem to have grown a few feet (ok, inches) overnight.  We are now offering a slew of assorted greens at the front porch farm stand.  Sis is manager and CEO ("chief" for short) of the front porch farm stand and she’ll be posting more of what the stand has to offer.   It’s a wonderful feeling to feed the family and be able to offer the surplus produce to folks who are wanting to eat closer to home.

The hennery is cranking out eggs – yeah!

Last week, I helped a friend who manages a few urban bees divide a few hives for spring expansion.  Of course, we had to suit up on the HOTTEST day of the year (so far).   It was sweltering!  Hive work waits for no man, so we both suited up.  Long pants (I HATE long pants), long sleeve shirts and were sweating buckets just after a few minutes work.   I got some delicious honey comb in trade for a couple of hours work. What a treat and worth the (sweaty) effort!

The rescued hive is still here, bees going to and fro. It’s a wonderful site to see bees working the citrus.

March Harvest Tally

252 lbs Produce

Eggs      Chicken 91   Duck 160

2011 Tally to Date

663 lbs Produce

Eggs      Chicken 117   Duck 345

Did you know? Forager bees will fly about 500 miles before their wings wear out and they die. PBS Nature

For those of you who’ve been following our urban bee saga (Checking Bee Traps), late last night a friend of ours dropped off a feral colony he had caught. (Thanks, Janice, for the tip and, David, for picking them up.)

Every weekend the girls check the bee traps that we scattered throughout the lower Arroyo Seco.   So far, no luck. Even the massive wild colony in the old sycamore is no more.   With the onset of this serious “winter kill,” we were happy, indeed, to get a hold of this wild colony.

We’ve been hearing that it was a bad winter for local urban bees.  Hives are dying or disappearing.      There has been lots of speculation as to what’s causing the bees to  disappear. (Silent Spring)  Of course, after 30 years of keeping bees (10 of which have been in an urban environment), our hives disappearance has left us scratching our heads.

It’s good to see bees back on the 'stead!   Hope they are here to stay!

The mysterious vanishing act has decimated approx. 40% of North America's bee population. - Why Are Bees Dying?

What Causes Winter Kill
Overwintering Honey Bees

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If anyone is offended by these common trademarks, please contact the respective trademark owners!

Our fruit trees are already blooming, but there is something missing!

Eight species from a North American bumble bee genus (Bombus) were studied. Four out of the eight showed serious declines in both number and size of habitat since the late 1800's. The abundance of some bees had declined by 96 percent, while the ranges of some bees shrank by 23 to 87 percent - The Case of the Disappearing Bees

We’ve been keeping bees in the city on and off over the last 18 years (Farmer D started keeping bees back in 1972 on the first homestead in New Zealand.)   For me, the honeybee has always been part of my childhood.  Growing up, helped harvest honey and remember folks coming from all over to buy the gooey raw nectar.

This spring there’s an eerie silence here on the urban homestead.  The feral bee colony is no more.   Of course, we are puzzled at this hive’s recent and unexplained vanishing act.   Could it be CCD ? We are suspecting  that this die off isn’t a “natural cycle” and probably more to do with human activity.   The neighboring school’s recent installation of WI-FI, perhaps?

Does that mean the end of keeping these beneficial insects here on the urban homestead, we wonder and are very, very worried indeed.  We are worried too about the recent urban bee trend that has cultivated bee "havers" instead of true "keepers."  "Havers"  will wreck havoc for us "keepers" here in the city who are diligent in the maintenance of their hives.  These folks will do more harm than good in their attempt to "save the bees."

Instead of being joyous at the sight of fruit trees bursting into bloom, feeling the emptiness of our pollinator friends.   It would always make me happy to see bees happily going about their buzziness but the lack of is absolutely heartbreaking.

Still checking our bee traps in the lower Arroyo Seco and still nothing. *sigh*

We all should be worried about the unexplained mystery.  If this post hasn't scared you, here's a chart that will.

This is the fourth year in a row, that more than a 1/3 of the Western honeybees have failed to survive the winter. Bees contribute to global food security (contributing to about 1/3 of our diet) and their extinction would represent a terrible biological disaster.

Bees are the on the front lines when it comes to predicting the future and are the latest causality in our fiddling with the nature of things.