honeybees – Page 5 – Joshua Roots

I was an excited mess the two weeks before my bees were ready for pick-up. Having purchased a nucleus colony (aka nuc) from one of the BANV members, I was fairly certain they would be well maintained and cared for until handed over to me. Until that time, the GF and I busied ourselves with getting everything ready for their arrival. We built/painted the hive and assembling the frames (by the way, I recommend using a frame jig and nail gun. It speeds up construction). Then I cleared a space in the drain field at the family homestead, set the hive out, and planted several bee-friendly plants. After that, it was a long waiting period with a lot of reading and pacing.

About two weeks before they were ready to come home, the reality of what I’d done suddenly set in. No longer was my dabbling in beekeeping an interesting icebreaker at parties, but a no-kidding, actual event. There was more than one night where I stared at the ceiling wondering what in the world I’d gotten myself in to.

The call that the bees were ready for pick-up came on a warm Friday in mid-May. I was at work when our Education Guru phoned me, so I jumped in the truck and zipped out to her house. It was quite the eye-opener to arrive at her home and see several cardboard boxed sitting in her carport, all zooming with honeybees. Since I’d just come from the office, I was still in my business suit and realized that I had been so excited, I’d completely forgotten the keeper outfit at the house. The EG smiled as I stood frozen in her driveway and said not to worry; the bees were extremely gentle. Her words fell on deaf ears because it suddenly dawned on me that there was no going back. These bees were going home with me with or without a keeper suit.

The EG sealed the girls up and then handed over the cardboard box. It was about four times the size of a shoebox and you could hear all 15,000 some-odd girls buzzing inside. There was a ventilation screen on both ends and it was fascinating to watch their proboscis (tongues) sticking out, feeling around for food and water. We loaded them into the back of the truck and then Pat told me to drive straight home and put them in a cool place. It was warm outside and with the box sealed, there was the threat of them overheating. The best thing to do, she said, was to put them in a cool, dry place as soon as possible.

The drive home was slow for fear of disturbing the girls, but eventually all 15,001 of us made it without incident. I left them in the truck bed, but kept the truck in the garage (which was easily 15 degrees cooler than outside), and went in to change. P and the GF arrived shortly behind us and we collected all our gear/tools while the girls cooled down. P sprayed some water on the vents and then we loaded the ladies into the wheelbarrow suited up. Once set, we all headed to the apiary.

Funny anecdote: the tape on the bottom of the nuc came loose so when we started moving the wheelbarrow, the box got bent just enough to allow a couple bees to escape. We closed/taped the hole immediately, but had a few followers the whole way. What’s interesting is that after a few laps of the three keepers, all of them landed on the nuc and held on for dear life. Must have been the queen pheromone. Or the raw terror of realizing who their new keeper was.

The Actual Installation was. . . . .

. . . . pretty easy. Having helped P install packaged bees, the nuc truly was a walk in the park. Once we got to the hive, we popped the top off and removed all the frames out of the bottom super. Then we removed the top of the nuc and slowly extracted each of the five frames, installing them one at a time in the empty super. I’ll admit to being tentative and slow, more out of fear than anything, but between the three of us, we got all frames into the hive quickly. Then we added three more frames (8-frame gear) and buttoned everything up. Start to finish, it took us maybe 30 minutes which included some whimpering on my part.

Soon after the installation, the air in front of the hive was swarming with bees. P claims this was due to orientation flights and it was an impressive sight to see. By evening things had settled down, but for a while there, things were pretty active.

A good lesson learned from this experience is that for a new beekeeper, nucs are a very good way to go. Packages are fun to install and usually a little cheaper, but for the money I think a nuc is easier to install and a lot safer for someone ignorant of the sport. Packages can run the risk of not accepting a queen and there are debates about the speed it takes for them to build up foundation and populations, so starting off it can be a lot for a newbie. That’s not to say it isn’t worth it and those that choose packages can certainly be successful, but nucs are basically ready to go. That being said, below is a bulleted pro/con for each and you can decide which you prefer.

Summary: Packages vs Nucs for a new beekeeper

Packages Pros:
– Usually less expensive.
– Very fun to install. You get to spray and shake bees as well as see up close what the queen looks like (markings and all).
– Can be mailed through the postal office. I’m not sure how the workers feel about a shoebox full of buzzing bees sitting in their offices, but some companies will mail them.
– Very educational. Proof positive how gentle “installed” bees can be.
– Considered by some to be a “rights of passages” for a new beekeeper.
– Normally inspected for health. A reputable dealer will do this, but just make sure to ask.

Packages Cons:
– Bees sometimes do not accept the queen. This is often because the queen and bees are from different hives, so it takes a while for them to accept her as “mom”.
– Can take a while for the bees to adjust to the new home. This includes drawing foundation and building brood which can slow production down initially. Queen is not laying yet.
– Packages tend to come from southern states because they get a jump on warm weather. This can be an issue for cold weather states since they are not adapted to the temperatures. Some experts encourage buying local bees and there are companies/individuals all over the place, but as mentioned above, make sure they are inspected by the state for health. (Disclaimer: warm-state bees can be just as successful as local ones. I only mention this as a con since there are debates about cold vs warm weather and honeybee adaptability).

Nuc Pros:
– Bees are ready to go. You usually get 5 frames of them with a laying queen they have accepted. It’s basically a mini hive with drawn comb and bees ready to forage.
– Extremely easy to install.
– Inspected for health. The box should have a sticker from the state.
– Great for a new beekeeper (my opinion).

Nuc Cons:
– Usually have to buy and pick up locally. Beekeepers are all over the place, but finding one that sells nucs made be difficult depending on where you are.
– Run the risk of killing the queen if you’re sloppy (i.e. slamming a frame, etc). This can happen with packages, but I note it since it is a con.
– Risk of unhealthy/infected bees. Again, ensure your wrangler is inspected by the state.
– Tend to be more expensive.
– Tend to be in high demand and limited supply. If you want to go this route, let your seller know early.

In the end, the choice is personal and both can be very effective/successful. The best thing you can do is educate yourself and decide which fits you best. But no matter what, either one is very enjoyable.

It’s hard to describe the level of nerves and excitement that you feel waiting to pick up your first box of honeybees. On the one hand, it’s an event that you think about from the moment you decide to “do it” to the day they arrive, but on the other hand, every day that passes is one closer to actually placing them into the hive you’ve built. During that period, you face numerous questions: Is the hive built well enough? Is the placement okay? Do I have all the right gear? What the heck was I thinking?

Basically normal stuff.

In my case, I had signed up for the nucleus colony from our educational guru at BANV. Originally my thought was to go with the two packages of bees we’d be allowed to buy from the money we’d paid for the class, but during a conversation before class one night, I changed my mind. Part of that was because I was intimidated to install a new package and the other part was because the breed was one more suited to me: New World Carniolans.

We could write several posts on the various types of bees, but suffice to say, there are many and each has it’s pros and cons. So far, my only exposure has been to Italians and Carniolans and each keeper tends to pick their first bee for a certain quality. I can’t say which is better or worse, per se, because the individual keeper has to choose the right bee for both their goals (i.e. honey production, education, hobby, etc) as well as their personality. You’d be surprised how much your personality will affect your choice in bee.

So which one is right for me, you ask?

I have no idea, but I can give you some basics on the more common/popular breeds to help narrow the process down.

1) Italians (Apis mellifera lingustica):

No writing about beekeing is complete without a tip of the hat to Italians. Italians have long been considered the most common among “hobby” beekeepers because of their gentle nature and subdued swarming tendancy. A lot of keepers I know, P included, have kept Italians and have been pleased as punch with them. Pros include decent honey production, very gentle when being worked by the keeper. They also tend to use less propolis than other varieties.

But the Bees From the Boot also have their downside, mostly, their large population over winter. This can be a bad thing for keepers in cooler climates since more bees means either a larger store of honey (i.e. less for you to extract for eating, selling, covering yourself in, etc) or the need to feed them more often in winter. But they are hard workers and are pretty dependable, so new keepers cannot go wrong if they purchase these little ladies.

Visuals:

Typically Yellow with black or dark-brown stripes.

Pros:

Gentle-ish (no bee is fully gentle, but these are less defensive).

Good honey production.

Kind of mite resistant

Minimal use of propolis

Can hook you up with a gondola ride through their cousin back in Venice.

Cons:

Large winter colony. This means more honey needed during the cold months and, possibly, less for you.

Tendancy to choose their wine over decent stuff from California.

2) Carniolans (Apis mellifera carnica):

Okay, I am biased in this category since my grils are Carnies, but I’ll do my best to be objective. Carnies originally came from the Carniolan Alps in Europe. Since the nectar flow is shorter in that zone (approx. 6 weeks), this breed learned to have a population explosion at the onset of Spring, forage ealier in the morning and later into the evening, and gather as much as possible during the “short” window that they could. And, becuase of all this, they learned how to survive with a smaller winter population. All this is good news for newer hobbyists since that means you feed less and they need fewer pounds of honey to survive. As an added bonus, they use a very small amount of propolis which makes everyone (bees and keepers) happy in the end.

Some more pros are that they are also excruciatingly gentle (I can attest to this personally), are fairly quiet on the comb, and seem to be more concerned about their honey gathering than whether a novice beekeeper is working the hive or not. Because of all this, the popularity of Carnies has increased over the years and many new keepers are drifting away from Italians in favor of these bees.

On a final pro-note, Carniolans tend to be very hygenic when it comes to mites, diseases, and general hive cleanliness. Essentially, they’re more inclined to clean out a cell infected with a pest (varroa mites, chaulkbood, etc) than “standard” bees. That’s not to say others won’t do they same, but some breeds are more aggressive about self-maintaining than others.

But the Carnies are not without faults. The primary one in their case is the tendancy to swarm. If you’re not careful, their population explosion in the Spring may mean they run out of space sonner than you think and to them, it means it’s time to swarm. Before you know it, the Carnies may hatch a new queen and then half your hive takes off to find space for their own. If honey production is your goal, or if you’re someone that procrastinates a whole lot, these may not be the bees for you.

Visual:

Typically Gray-ish with black or dark-brown stripes.

Pros:

Very, very gentle.

Hard workers (the entrance will look like the skies over JFK).

Minimal use of propolis.

Very self-hygenic/mite tolerant.

Smaller winter population (i.e. more honey for you!).

Cons:

Rapid population grown means greater chance to swarm.

Have to repeatedly tell people that you “keep Carnies” at your place. Because of that, some people may look at you funny.

Variant (s):

New World Carniolans – Credited to Susan Cobey, a geneticists out of the University of California who bred the line, these are rapidly becoming the “variant” of choice for Carnies. They combine a lot of the positives of the breed. My girls are a mixed breed of these and Minnesota Hygenic.

3) Russians

Da, Commrades, the Ruskies have made their way to the shores of the US and many beekeepers are seeing red. Who says we won the Cold War?!

Seriously. the Russians are a breed that, like the Carnies, have become increasingly popular with keepers (backyard and commercial).

Visual:

Pros:

Cons:

Significant amount of consonats.

Tendancy to name every queen “Natasha.”

4) Buckfast

5) German

Actung baby! Germans (aka the Black Bee) were the very first bees brought over to the New World for beekeeping and they are historically some of the worst. Ill-tempered and nasty, German bees are nearly defunct as an Americain bee for either the hobbyist or commercial keeper and you’d be hard-pressed to find a lot dedicated to them. Even Webster’s Dictionary only has a single sentence written about them and that does little to make a person actually want to keep Germans. Still, they are worth nothing since they started the whole fad years ago.

Visual:

Typically black.

Pros:

Great engineering of their cars.

Cons:

World domination.

5) Africainized

The Africainized Honey Bee (AHB) was actually an accident that has turned out to be a North Americain pandemic and that, more than anything, has been the cause for concern among beekeepers. Created during some breeding experiements in South America during the XXX, scientists were seeking to create a productive bee that was tolerant and domiant while also being agressive against mites and disease. The result was the current AHB strain and unfortunately, several AHB queens escaped into the wild. Several years later, swarms of wild AHB were found all over the southern continent and in the years since, have moved as far north as Georgia and as far West as California. There have been cases of AHB reported as far north as Maine, however to date those have been wild, migrant swarms that have not been able to survive the harsh winters. The latest information seems to list that so far they have not been able to survive any farther north that the Carolinas, but given their frighteningly quick ability to adapt, who knows what may happen down the road.

What makes AHB so unattractive for most hobbyists is that they have dominate genes. That means if a smooth-talking AHB Drone (male) hooks up with a sweet, passive-natured European queen, all of the eggs she lays will take on the AHB gene of being uber-defensive. Given no time at all, the hobbyist beekeeper can suddenly find him or herself with a hive of AHB and dealing with some exciting personalities.

The AHB is also known as the Killer Bee, however it should be noted that this title is a complete misnomer. I’ll say it again, the Africainized Honey Bee is NOT a killer bee! Despite what you may read, hear, or watch in terrible B-movies, the AHB is not aggressive and will not kill a person out of spite. What they are is extremely defensive which means they will sting you if riled and will chase you farther than their European counterpart (evey bee listed above). And while thier tendancy is to be painfully defensive, AHB are also one of the top honey producers in the world and many third-world countries use them as a source of income. But AHB can be hard to work and are nowhere near as tolerant as Europeans, the combination of which have tagged them for early termination in the US. In fact, many states have a law that any swarm caught in wild must be destroyed on the off chance it could be AHB.

Visual:

XXXX. Plus they have this swagger because their genes are so dominant.

Pros:

Massive honey production. Many third world nations use them for a huge source of income.

They can be managed and kept. It takes a little skill, but the end result can be some amazing hard workers.

Cons:

Negative publicity thanks to movies, stereotypes, etc.

Tend to defend in greater numbers and for farther if “angered”.

Tend to go after dark objectes (i.e. a beekeeper’s veil).

Dominant genes. One male AHB drone knocking up your European queen can ruin your hive of Italians, Carnies, etc cause they take over.

Overall cocky attitude because of their dominant gene.

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