Bees Bees Bees

Bee Obsessed!
I love bugs. I did a course in Entomology for my zoology degree and I loved it. What I found the most fun in the course was the bug display we made. The assignment was to travel around the Island (I was living in Jamaica at the time) and collect various insects. We were to identify them by General name and scientific name, state the location they were caught and state a few interesting facts. Oh I had so much fun seeing what our friends caught and trading our bug collection. I think the most fun was traveling around the island with my dad collecting all those bugs. We both had a great time and it is one of my fondest memories. That and my other assignment for my Business Environment course where we went to visit the Shrimp Farm. Me and my dad had some great times. You will see him around here on my vblog where he helped me build my shed.

I look back on those days quite happy as I go on my journey.

Random Bee Picture: The Eastern Carpenter Bee

Well unto my bee obsession. As you can already tell I get obsessed frequently :)
Watch this video :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxQvqOcZt94&t=251s I took it on my property to watch the bees there. I also wanted to track the bees to their nest like i saw a scientist do in his  video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAt0pkag9YY&t=338s but the bees did not take the bait... they just went along foraging the flowers and totally ignoring my tastey sugar water....as If to say you want me to eat what!...absurd!

I have a lot of bumble bee on my property this year. I love those big fuzzy bees ...they go perfectly with the yolybear image ....lol

But I also have a wide variety of bug life.... some more annoying than others for example I am not crazy about the horse flies but I am super excited about the Dragon flies. I will try and solve the horsefly issue later. they bite .... ouch

Algonquin Dragonfly guide

High Park Native Bee Club

I joined the native bee club at High Park in Toronto. We spend our Saturday mornings learning about and observing the native bees.

Come join us its free here is the link: High Park Nature Centre : Native Bee Monitoring Club

The club leader is Susan Frye and right now in 2017 she is a PhD candidate from the University of Toronto with a passion for our native bees. She carries the below book The Bees in Your Back Yard that she will pull out form time to time to tell us about a particular bee or to show us an up close amazing picture.

Bumble bees , digger wasps, Andrea Integra miner bees

Here is a video of what I found interesting at bee club this year 2017.

Associations: 

Toronto:I have also found the Urban Toronto Beekeepers. In 2017 , They have meetings held on the first Tuesday of every month at the Faculty of Anthropology at the University of Toronto.

Anthropology Building, 19 Russell Street, Toronto, ON M5S 2S2. Check the website just to be sure. I put this here so I can remind myself too ...LOL  I will be attending the next meeting.


Near Perth: Limestone Beekeepers Guild: Active on facebook. so I will check them out there until I get a chance to join them in person some day.

The Dream

I would love to have a honey bee hive but i need to do some work first getting their food source ready. So first thing next year i will be getting the flower garden started. For now i will have fun planning the flower garden and learning about. I hope to find a Class this spring and figure out what this master beekeeping exams is. http://www.easternapiculture.org/

I have also been listening to some beekeeping pod casts on Sticher Radio

The Beekeeper's Corner Beekeeping Podcast - currently binge listening

The Barefoot Beekeeper - currently binge listening

Organically Managed Beekeeping Podcast - will begin to binge listening soon

kiwimana Buzz Beekeeping Show - A Beekeeping Podcast/Show - will begin to binge listening soon

Links I hope to have as I expand my knowledge on bees.

Link to flower garden planning:

Bee food

Building the hive

Bee by products

Bee diseases , pests and pesticides

Record keeping

Winter hive maintenance

Exploring Different Beekeeping Methodologies

Random Honey Bee spotting : What flower is this

Food :

Native bees like the bumblebee and the honey bee compete for the same food source and so you need to plant enough flowers so all can thrive.

Look up hive feeders

Honey bee food: sugar mix = 1:1 sugar water

Wetland flowers: jewel weed

Hives:

To encourage native bees you can build solitary bee hotels: watch out for woodpeckers and airways you may just be feeding them.

Mount them to a fence as this is not natural to the predators.

Make sure your hives are level or the bees will build unevenly and this will be bad for inspections and keeping an orderly hive. 

Bee diseases , pests and pesticides:

Be careful of the pesticides and fertilisers you use on your crops as they will spread to your flower gardens and affect your bees.

Record keeping:

To keep track of what is going on in your hives.

Box name, occupants name, track the deminor of your hive usually based on the queen, 

Winter hive maintenance:

Check hive numbers of bees

Check for the mites and their numbers

Build new frames and boxes

Check their food stores

Two for one Sundays :) Both The Honey Bee and Monarch

Exploring Different Beekeeping Methodologies and Theories

Slow beekeeping methodology 

Slow Food International and the British Beekeepers Assoc. (BBKA).

Using the detailed scientific study of bees to care for bees. Balance between what the bees need and the needs of the beekeeper.

Temparate bee Ecotypes in temperate bees explores the relationship between bees and flowering plants. Bees are distinguished by nest architecture, brood pattern and swarming patterns. Flowers adapted with displays for their reproduction at it is important for the reproduction of bees as well. 

Internal and external stimuli that make bees swarm such as food resources in a particular area.

Tracheal mites and veroa mites cause wide spread loss of bees and genetic diversity and increased medication of bees which makes then increasingly less effective at pollination.

Sustainable approach practices

Bee health and adequate nutrition. Need a range of flower pollen. Different plants will pass on variety of nutrients.

Bee foraging and assess the forage in the local area. Planting up for the bees to bridge the gap of the seasons. 

Feeding the bees their own sealed honey.

And so when does the beekeeper harvest. Harvest the following spring. One bar of honey for every 2 frames of brood. Stores should be close by so they don't need to go far during the winter and adjust the size of the hive to as small as possible.

Hive density and distance to keep colonies further apart is better for the bees.

Swarming allows the bees to propagate.

Hive requirements of the bees is dry cubic capacity preference is a top bar hive for natural practice of less imports and natural comb Building promotes diversity in comb that may help pest decrease. And allow a few seasons for the bees to build. May Avoid chemical complications of industrial chemicals in the wax or plastics as the bees spend a lot of time in the development stage.

Queen selection no importation of none local bees. Unless it is your intention to import genes and characteristics but be careful of importing bad characteristics and diseases and suseptabilities. 

Inspection frequency and methods such as smoking and alternatives such as water spraying and damp cloth covering.

Its october: --I will work on getting these thoughts together ...notes from the association meeting lots of information to chew on

Just gonna Write some notes here: Lots of considerations from pod casts and meetings:here goes

OMAFRA - bee registration - december - article on winter management

Intergrative pest management

B-L discussion board

Canadian Honey council

University of montana online course

OBA - new Apiology 101 - online introductory course

Winterizing:

Bees can survive -30 degrees 

Winter bees (lifespan 150 days) are significantly different from summer bees (lifespan 30 days), dont feed winter bees pollen they may start producing more summer bees and cause bee die off. feed sugar water. bee feeding options build a box to put the sugar water on the hive cover the sugar water (4 gallons per collony) with straw. bucket with sugar water away from the hive top with grass. cute: if you feed bees grape soda you get purple honey

need: high quality queen adequate honey and pollen stores, and brood

recommended 7 frames of bees

wrap hives in hive wrap: availiable at wellington beekeeping association: correogated black plastic shaped like a box to cover the bee box. remeber they need ventilation holes bottom entrance reducer and drill a intrance hole near the top of the hive and protect that too helps with ventilation: cover those well so snow doesnt block them

 the bear fence came up again

Honey labels: gourmet honey: plant their gourmet flower diet.- apple orchard blossom honey , lavendar field, hemp/marijuana field happy honey....they going to test the honey for the benifits. havest often will encourage the bees to forage. store in freezer and give them back if they dont have enough stores for winter level it out away from the hive they will bring it in

how was your year section:

Treat for mites very well or your hive numbers will magically disappear. the member seem to use alot of chemical treatments and sometimes it kills the bees :(

raining alot is bad for bee forage

wax moths are a pain - what eats wax moths

discussed catching swarms and preventing swarming and checking your newly aquired swarm for mites

discussed queen loss is a mystery problem

wasps will kill bees- and there are alot of wasps this season, wasp traps? do they also catch bees?

what is a good brood pattern

Is there control over honey prices by OBA? what about other bee products, honey as a medication for infections and bites

easier ways to harvest honey

Aveloa - bees as a mothers day present?

Worksops in the spring get ready: honey tasing workshop january $300 (yikes)

most people inspect bees every 2 weeks

bees will move the honey down into the broad box...maybe give them space to do that?

spoke about drying rooms to get moisture out of uncaped honey

illegic reactions to stings:epipens benigril,zentac natural plantain lee valley has a battery operated thing for the swelling 

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