Bee Blog

Keeping The Bees Alive: How To Help

10/16/2017

A special thanks to our guest blog author Christy Erickson from the non-profit Saving Our Bees!

Photo via Pixabay by Ulleo

Bees are some of the most important, interesting creatures on the planet, yet they are pretty misunderstood in many areas of the country. Many people are scared of them and view them as pests, when actually they’re extremely helpful to the environment and to our food production system.

Though they do sting when threatened, these little gals keep mostly to themselves and are more interested in the flowers and plants in your yard than they are in you. Unfortunately, they are dying off at a rapid rate due to pesticide use, loss of habitat, and disease, and unless we do something to help, our crops may suffer.

The good news is that there are several easy ways you can help the bees . From starting a bee garden to give them plenty of food to supporting local beekeepers, you can ensure that the bees in your community are well taken care of.

Read on for the best ways to get started.

Plant the Flowers Bees Love

Do some research on flowers and plants to find out what will work best in the climate where you live. Bees love variety and are attracted to many different types of flower, although they especially love having a cluster of the same type of plant for ease of feeding. If you’re interested in planting fruits and veggies, keep in mind that bees love these, as well, and you can mix some types in with the shrubs and flowers in your front yard if you don’t have room for a full garden.

Think about Their Year-Round Needs

Bees stick around for much of the year, so it’s important to remember that they’ll need to find food and water even when the weather turns cooler. Look for plants that will bloom well into fall and consider placing some evergreens--shrubs or trees that stay green year-round, such as fir and pine--along the borders of your property. Bees love to build nests here.

You can also set out a small bowl of water filled with rocks so that the bees can stop and get a drink without fear of drowning. The rocks give them a safe place to land and keep their balance. Don’t forget to change the water each day.

Spread the Word

Many people are unaware of the plight that bees face, so consider holding a fundraiser to benefit local farmers or a nature conservancy and spread the word about how to help. You can get local businesses involved and make it a community effort, or simply talk to friends and family about the best ways to keep the bees safe and happy.

Support Local Beekeepers

Head to your local farmer’s market and check out what they have to offer; there, you’ll find a huge selection of locally-grown produce and honey. Buying from the people who tend to the bees in your community will support them and help these creatures thrive year-round. You can also ask if they have a sponsorship program, which allows you to donate a certain amount in exchange for honey and other goodies from the farm.

Remember that the bees aren’t out to get you; leave them alone and they’ll do the same for you. Teach your children what to do if they come into contact with a bee or its hive, and share the information with friends and family to keep these creatures safe in your neighborhood.

Author: Christy Erickson (SavingOurBees.org)

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Diary of a Newbee: Fall Checks

10/22/2016

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Introduction
Ah, the autumn. Cooling temperatures, changing leaves, and thousands of honey bees desperately searching for every last bit of food. Honey bees, like their mammal counterparts, spend spring, summer and fall gathering and storing incredible amounts of food to get through the winter. Until the temperature drops around 60 degrees Farenheit, and as long as food is available, the bees are feasting and stashing. As winter approaches, the needs of the honey bee changes. Our beekeeping responsibilities change along with them. Fall checks, then, are particularly critical to a hive’s viability, and helps the Beekeeper stay in touch with its health and needs.

Focus on Food
It is a surreal experience, at least the first time you do it, to purposefully move through a cloud of bees. While there is some manual cleaning involved in beekeeping, a great deal is done by the bees themselves. These magnificently resourceful creatures have no problem finding every last speck of honey, propolis to bring back home. And so, when carrying a box with their dearest treasures from the bee yard to a spot more than 100 feet away, you will inevitably surround yourself in a swarming cloud of bees within minutes. Here, it is important to move slowly and deliberately, and to be calm, remembering that their sole concern at this point is to find resources.

Because resources are so scarce, if you are going into several hives at once, it is vitally important to lay temporary lids over each box you have opened. Your bees will be out searching for any scrap of available food. If a hive is wide open, these desperate bees will absolutely go into neighboring hives, and rob them. Robbers are scouts who have found a vulnerable hive, so these initial robbers will actually go back home and tell their friends to come follow. So now what you have is potentially thousands of bees invading and fighting to the death to get precious resources to survive the winter. Have you ever seen a bee fight? It is no-holds-barred. They spin in circles, biting one another’s wings and drag each other around. This is not the environment you want to create for your bees. Or for yourself. But again, this is fairly easy to prevent by working quickly to cover each box with temporary roofing as you work your way through.

When you are engulfed in bees

Entrance Consideration
When we’re not tampering with their roofing and just leave them alone, bees are pretty good at protecting their resources. Like in a medieval castle (or airport transit security) bees have appointed guards at their single entrance. These guards stand by the entrance at attention, on their back four legs. Using their front two legs, guard bees thoroughly search each and every creature that attempts to enter their hive. If they don’t fit the entrance requirements (you really just have to be a honeybee that has that particular hive-queen’s pheromone), guard bees muscle up and bounce the door.

A good rule of thumb (for any time of year) is that entrances should fit the size of your colony and in the fall and winter no more than two bees at one time. This way, the hives only have to dedicate maybe two or three guard bees at once. Having fewer personnel on guard duty means more workers are free to nurse brood, attend to the queen, build comb, forage and then process nectar and pollen.

Pest Control
   Unfortunately, guard bees can’t prevent all pests. Two huge problem areas are small hive beetles and varroa mites. Honey bees, when they see a hive beetle, will actually attempt to chase them off (which is surprisingly cute) but due to their flying saucer shape they often times cannot get a firm hold and they slip away. Queen City Bee Co. utilizes beetle blasters, containing a mixture of oil and water, in all of our hives. Beetles see the traps as a hiding place when running from the bees and meet their demise. Or else we crush them on sight. Both are effective strategies!

   Taking only one to two weeks to mature, these little pests can infest colonies to the point that they drive the bees to abscond (to fly away and find a new home). Hive beetle larvae emerge from an egg, eating through comb, pollen and honey collected and processed by the bees. Eventually crawling out the hive entrance, the grubs burrow into the ground where they metamorphosize into a small beetle. If they successfully re-enter the hive, each female beetles can lay up to 1000 eggs in a 50-60 day life span. This last point is extra gross because their grubs can slime comb and ferment honey. I would abscond at that point, too.

   Varroa mites are kind of horrific. I’ll keep it brief: the tiny varroa mite with lays its eggs in with the bee’s brood (eggs and larvae). The mite’s 10 day lifecycle inclines it to lay their eggs in with drone brood. Male bee’s long 24 day metamorphosis means that mites can lay an extra generations in each drone brood cell. As the bee larvae develop, the varroa mite feast on their hemolymph. From there, they keep up their same dracula-ness, coming out of brood cells as the bees cut themselves out of the wax, and live off of the bee’s hemolymph. Katie Valentine, Deputy Climate Editor at ThinkProgress and freelancer for the Audubon Society, said that at a human scale, it would be like “mites the size of grapefruits attaching themselves people and sucking their blood.”

Queen City Bee Co. combats these tiny parasites using Apivar strips. According to their website, when the varroa mite comes into contact with Apivar’s active ingredient, “it leads to constant excitation and paralysis, followed by mite drop from the bee's back.” (Sounds like a fun Saturday night!) Though the bees can sometimes throw the mites out themselves. Each bite leaves a wound. We humans have the ability to disinfect and cover scratches and accidental openings of our skin, but bees are more vulnerable, leaving their wounds are open to disease and infection.

Small hive beetle

Brood Pattern
One possible explanation as to why the varroa mite evolved to lay their eggs in with the queen’s brood comes down to the first rule of real estate: location, location, location. Bees brilliantly save the very middle of their hive for their queen and her babies. Protected from predators and the elements, insulated by pollen and honey, each new generation is laid with care by the queen. Beekeepers luckily have the ability to pull out comb frame by frame in order to inspect. Here’s what we’re looking for, in the words of Dr. Dewey M. Caron, author of Honey Bee Biology and Beekeeping:

Skillful beekeepers look to see a ratio of 1:2:4 in the brood chamber (for every egg, 2 larvae can be seen and 4 times the number of capped cells will be present) and a covering mantle of adult bees. (LINK)

There are several possible explanations for poor laying patterns. Maybe there’s not enough population to feed the brood and keep them warm, or maybe there’s not enough nectar nearby. It could also just be the time of year; with its shortening days and cooler temperatures, there will simply be less brood in the fall. If a queen’s brood pattern is spotty, there are there are a couple of things you can do. If you are lucky enough to have a neighboring hive that is producing more brood than necessary, you can pull a frame or two of brood, and introduce them into the hive that is struggling. I was skeptical of this at first, but it turns out brood from a separate hive integrates immediately and seamlessly with their new family. This could also be a great time to introduce a new queen.

Frame, Frame, Frames

While you are examining the brood frames, taking out honey, and generally being way too involved for bees to feel particularly friendly, go ahead and see how old your frames are. Sometimes the bees build out a bit far on the comb, making the frame slightly less manageable. Or maybe you are experimenting with new techniques. For instance, Queen City Bee Co., when they first started, used fishing line to support the various foundations. Bees ate right through the fishing line, and seemed to prefer wax over plastic foundation. Learn and get involved with the bees, the frames can also go through a bit of wear and tear. Changing out frames means that we can harvest old wax, implement new methods, and make sure our equipment (and their home, remember, they are living creatures) are up to snuff. The Queen City Bee Co. dates each frame with the year it went into use, and as a general rule, switches them out every three years.

Get in the frame game!

Feeding
One lovely (and pretty obvious) thing about being alive is eating. When the autumn begins to dawn here in Ohio, there is less nectar for the bees to collect, blow bubbles into, and set aside to evaporate into honey. So we feed them.
Alongside their number one, honey, bee’s second favorite snack is also available in coffeeshops alongside various creams and sweeteners: Simple syrup! In the fall and winter, we simply mix two parts cane sugar to one part water, and then heat until the sugar is completely dissolved. If you’re trying this at home, you can even mix in some chamomile, lemon balm, lemongrass, and spearmint. Or you can just drink that yourself because it is delicious, and bask in the knowledge that you and bees have the same excellent taste.

Conclusion
We have to go through fall checks to match the number of frames to each population and update our pest management. As we do so, it is vitally important to cover open boxes and reduce entrance sizes. These practices leave bees less prone to robbers, and less susceptible to pests. The world of the honey bee is filled with the drama of survivalism throughout the seasons. But if we can give peace a chance in a time of scarcity, then I say let’s go for it.

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Diary of a New-Bee

10/10/2016

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An Unlikely Start
I never imagined myself as a Beekeeping Apprentice. What if I get stung? Having grown up in the city and spending my youth studying literature and the emotional impact of a well-placed semicolon, Beekeeping never even crossed my mind. I didn’t know anything about insects or particularly want to be close to anything that can be described as buzzing, swarming, or that lives in a larval state.

Until, of course, I did. After college, I worked for an environmental communications nonprofit as an intermediary between scientists and the public. And the more I read about the way that humans do and can interact with the rest of our living world, the more I realized the vitality of work aimed at making a positive impact. Urban Beekeeping seemed like an incredibly straightforward way to support the pollination of my local ecosystem, which has always supported me. Plus I figure, better keep bees now than manually pollinate flowers later!

Honey bee rockin' in the free world!

The End, or is it?
   The standard wisdom is that late-summer is the end of beekeeping season, but Queen City Bee Co. Beemaster Carlier Smyth made the point that it may be more helpful to view this as the beginning. Bees need a clean, dry environment, always above the freezing point. Preparing for winter means ensuring that your bees are ready to make it through to the springtime. While many apiaries simply squeeze as much as they can out of their bees, Queen City Bee Co. never takes honey in a hive’s first fall. Instead, Queen City Bee Co. invests in the hive’s growth and strength, and they are rewarded handsomely.

   So, open and ready for a new challenge, I joined Beemaster Carlier with Queen City Bee Co. for my first day. After some very strong coffee, we donned our costumes (his word, but apt) and went out to meet the bees. And there were a ton of them! Each hive can have up to 60,000 bees, all of whom together can make a huge mess. Queen City Bee Co. cleans their boxes twice a year, which is what we did my first day. We started by scraping the excess wax, propolis, and excrement, then scrubbing with an apple cider vinegar solution, followed by a hydrogen peroxide scrub. After the final rinse with water, we let the boxes dry in the sun.

Cleaning the boxes was also a great opportunity to condense the hive down for winter. Now, I am told that not everyone does this - but I think Queen City Bee Co.’s hugely successful survival rate through the winter (90-100% for the last several years, as opposed to the 40-50% national average) speaks for itself. But if it doesn’t, here is some logic: Taking out extra comb, or reorganizing it so that old comb can be recycled by the hive, ensures that the bees’ winter Huddle takes less energy. I mean, if I had less house to heat over the winter, it would cost me less money.

Coffee: Because You Are About to be Covered in Bees

The Queen is dead! Long live the Queen!
Rooting through their homes, we found one hive that had a pretty low population, no eggs, and no visible queen. If you are interested in keeping bees, then you know that this meant a rare and exciting late-summer queen introduction! We tucked a mated queen (with attendants) in a queen cage gently between frames. The workers were immediately all over her cage. They lifted their wings and their little rears, fanning her pheromones for their world (see: the hive) to take in. Her scent will tip the rest of the workers off to the fact that she is in the house (see: the hive), and that danger is over. If they went too long without a queen, the rest of the workers could begin to laying unfertilized eggs, leading to an drone-only population and eventual death of the colony. (Drones only exist to eat and mate with available queens. And without any queens to mate with, or any workers to keep the place up, drones would quite literally eat the rest of the hive out of house and home.)

Just to make sure their population really was strong, we added some brood (generally, a queen’s eggs and larvae) from an auxiliary hive. I was a little skeptical. Wouldn’t they know that they were from a slightly different line? Wouldn’t they revolt or get kicked out? Beemaster Carlier assured me that as soon as we were done rooting through their belongings and everyone was settled, the new brood and queen would get along just fine, and they would all take care of one another.

Moving day!

Bee Psychology
In order to clean their boxes, we had to take their homes apart. It was a great opportunity to see their general preferences and some opportunities Queen City Bee Co. already learned from. For example, bees definitely and absolutely prefer wax foundation to plastic, and wire support to fishing line.
The bees don’t love the roof being taken off of their house (I don’t think I would like it either.) So as long as their boxes were open and we went through sorting screens and checking population and looking for the queens, we crowned their boxes with temporary tops. Bee psychology is an inexact science, but an important one. Keeping them comfortable and happy ensures that they are easy to work with, and keeps them from attacking. Which, I did get stung, by the way. Three times. Is that good luck?

Portrait of the Beekeeper as a Young Apprentice

Next time
Check back for more, as I learn it. Let me know in the comments below your thoughts on overwintering, any resources you’d like to share, topics you’d like to see, or any remedies for bee stings.

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Eating Bee Pollen: A Primer

5/26/2016

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Red, orange, yellow, white, green, just an example of the many different colors of bee pollen you can find.

This question comes up a lot when we’re at an event selling bee pollen: How do I eat it? It’s something everyone has thought when they first learn about bee pollen. We know we sure did. But what we asked ourselves and what people ask us isn’t how they should literally eat bee pollen, we all know how to chew. Wrapped up in that one question are actually a few questions:

How much do you eat?
What does it taste like? Does it taste good enough to eat alone or is it going to make other food taste weird? Which leads to…
What are good foods to combine it with?

So, we decided to address bee pollen in this post and give ideas on ways to eat bee pollen with, what it tastes like, and the benefits of eating bee pollen.

What is bee pollen?

Bee pollen is simply the pollen collected from flowers that honey bees visit on their pollinating trips. Bees collect the pollen on their furry little bodies and store the pollen in two pollen sacs or baskets (technically called corbicula) on either side of their two rear legs that are meant specifically to carry pollen. Bees bring the pollen back to the hive and store it in the cells of the beeswax to use as a food source.

What we eat is the fresh pollen straight off the flowers, but the bees do a little bit more to the pollen to make it ready for them to eat. When the bees get back into the hive with the pollen they deposit the pollen into cells of the honeycomb and mix in nectar and digestive fluids.

Note: Since bee pollen is food for honey bees, it is important that beekeepers act responsibly and ONLY collect bee pollen from the honey bees when the bees have plenty pollen stored in the hive for food resources.

What does bee pollen taste like?

Texture
Bee pollen has a very soft, powdery texture that easily breaks up on the tongue and breaks down and blends well when mixed into foods.

Flavor
Bee pollen has a somewhat sweet flavor, although it is not very similar to the sweetness level of honey.

What’re the benefits of eating bee pollen?

Fights allergies
People swear by bee pollen to help fight seasonal allergies and we are some of those people. The idea goes that eating bee pollen helps to build up your immunity to local allergens by giving yourself a small dose of the thing that you’re allergic to, similar to vaccines.

Super nutritious
Bee pollen is considered a “superfood” due to its high content of concentrated of protein, vitamins, minerals, and amino acids. Bee pollen varies depending on the range of flowers available in a hives’ pollinating area, but according to a number of sources, bee pollen can contain the following:

Protein (~20% of its make up)
Vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B12, C, D, E, K
Minerals and trace minerals: potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, iron, manganese, nickel, silicon, titanium, zinc, and selenium
All essential amino acids (20) plus 2 non-essential amino acids
More than 100 enzymes
~8 flavonoids

(Sources: the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations http://www.fao.org/docrep/w0076e/w0076e10.htm and Savannah Bee Company http://savannahbee.com/blog/what-is-bee-pollen/)

What should I eat bee pollen with?

Bee pollen can be sprinkled on and/or stirred into a lot of different types of foods. Here are a few idea:

Oatmeal or cereal
Smoothies
Yogurt or ice cream (natural sprinkles!)
Salads
On toast or apple/ banana slices with peanut butter
Fruit salad
Soup
...Or just by the spoonful (if this is too powdery for you, drizzle on some melted coconut oil or the like for a smoother trip down)

How much should I use bee pollen?

If taking bee pollen for seasonal allergies, start with a small amount of bee pollen granules and work your way up to about a couple teaspoons or half a tablespoon a day. If you just want to get the nutritional benefit of bee pollen, add as much or as little as you’d like.

Now, go enjoy some bee pollen!

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Paulette's Honey Balsamic Vinaigrette

4/20/2016

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Queen City Bee Co.'s gracious, honey bee-loving neighbor Paulette introduced us to this delicious salad dressing two years ago and it has been one of our favorites ever since! It's so quick and easy to make and it makes the perfect spring salad dressing. Paulette loves pairing this dressing with a kale salad, so we've added in directions for how to turn this amazing dressing into a wonderful salad dish.

Honey Balsamic Vinaigrette

1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons of local Cincinnati honey
1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
1/8 teaspoon of cinnamon
Big pinch of salt
Pinch of pepper

Salad Ingredients

2 bunches of kale, destemmed and torn or cut into bite-size pieces
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup walnut pieces
1/2 cup diced onion
Crumbly cheese of choice (we used blue cheese, but goat, feta, pecorino, or similar cheeses work great, too)

Directions

1. Set the kale aside in a large salad bowl

2. Combine all of the vinaigrette ingredients together in a small bowl and whisk together until well mixed.

3. Drizzle the vinaigrette over the kale and using your hands, massage the vinagirette into the leaves for a few minutes, until the kale is well coated and turning dark green.*

4. Toss in the remaining salad ingredients and refrigerate the salad for at least one hour before serving, this will allow the flavors to marinate and really set in. Serve, eat, and enjoy!

Note: The salad is just as good the next day! It allows the flavors to marinate and intensify even more and the kale lettuce should hold up well without wilting.

* Massaging the kale helps to break down the rough, leafy lettuce, making for a lighter salad.

Thanks Paulette!

Honey, Recipe, Honey Recipe, Salad, Cincinnati Bee Company

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Farm YOUR Yard: Bringing Sustainable Gardening to Everyone

4/14/2016

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We were excited to be able to sit down with our partner and friend Linda Kreidler to have her share her exciting work in the field of sustainable, organic gardening for homeowners. If you've ever wanted to turn your yard into a garden or learn about organic, sustainable home gardening practices then keep reading!

In 2010, Linda started Farm YOUR Yard, a service that helps homeowners grow their own food in their own yard using organic and sustainable gardening techniques. Not only is Linda an entrepreneur, she's also a nature lover, and friend of honey bees. Read on to hear Linda talk about Farm YOUR Yard and why gardening and bees go together like peanut butter and jelly.

Linda, tell us about your business Farm Your Yard and how you came up with this great idea for a business?

Feeling unfulfilled working in the advertising/design business for 18 years, I decided to return to something I loved as a child…gardening. The two-dimensional graphic design projects for Kreidler Design’s clients were a natural progression into the three-dimensional world of garden design. This extended the opportunity for me to work as an artist in Horticulture. Providing an unlimited pallet of texture, scale and color, plus the added dimension of space and sound. While working in partnership with “Mother Nature” I found a humbling and valuable experience. In 2010, I added “Farm YOUR Yard” to the menu of services offered by Kreidler Design. I had already been combining food plants in flower garden designs but after reading a book called The Practical Garden of Eden by Fred Hagy, I was inspired to help people grow their own food in their own yards.

What would you tell people who always wanted to grow their own vegetable garden but were overwhelmed by the idea of planning and caring for a garden?

Do not waste time being overwhelmed. If that is holding you back hire a garden designer to start your project off in the right direction. They can (at least I do for my clients) organize, in steps, what it will take to begin your garden. They will analyze your site, your needs and your dreams so you or a landscaping company can install a garden which will “work for you.” If you are delayed by fear you are only missing out on that year’s crops.

These photos from Linda illustrate how a gardener can make anything work using items on hand that may otherwise go into a landfill. For example, an existing metal fence or sign post can be used as trellising for tomatoes or beans and an old cement set tub can be used for a container garden.

Through your parent company, Kreidler Design, you also design really beautiful landscapes for yards, we've seen some pictures of the work you've done and they're gorgeous! How do you combine yard aesthetics with functionality when helping people plan their own edible gardens?

I do an initial consultation, which lasts approximately 2 to 3 hours at the client’s home. At that time we discuss what they want from the garden after it is complete, it may be providing a flower garden, a recreation area for the family and pets, a source of food, a private meditation space or a design for other uses. At that time, I also see what there is on site to work in our favor or may have to be changed to accommodate the needs of the design. Above all, the customer and Kreidler Design, work as a team to consider the functionality and sustainability of the garden. It is very important to consider the garden’s needs and educate the owner as to how they will be involved in the future of their garden.

Why is it so important for people to use sustainable practices when they're planning and taking care of their own gardens?

Sustainable techniques should be considered at the beginning of a project. A garden is organic, ever changing, and growing constantly. Therefore, taking in consideration functionality (water source, light requirements, physical accessibility, etc.) early in the design process, will help to ensure the garden’s productivity for years to come and also save the caregiver’s back.

What got you interested in partnering with an apiary?

The Bees work for the Garden’s sake and the Garden is there to feed the Bees. A perfectly beautiful, symbiotic relationship in nature. Linda Kreidler is just a middle-man. One of Mother Nature’s handmaidens.

What are some of the biggest threats to honey bees that you see in people's gardens?

Commercial lawn care companies and Monsanto! Need I say more?

Nope, you said it! What are some strategies that you can think of that people do to make their gardens safer for honey bees?

Never use chemicals and plant flowers for all stages of the gardening season, from very early spring flowering plants through fall plants that withstand the chill of oncoming winter.

And finally, what're your favorite pollinator plants?

Lavenders, Verbena, Clover, Dandelion, Sweet Alyssum, Locust. Everything and anything with a flower is usually wonderful. All these can be planted in or near a vegetable garden. The list is unlimited and if used in the right combinations will not only help pollinate a food garden but make it a beautiful one as well.

"The Bees work for the Garden’s sake and the Garden is there to feed the Bees."

Thank you so much for talking with us, Linda. We're so excited to partner with you and looking forward to our future collaborations in all things garden and honey bees!

Farm YOUR Yard, Kreidler Design, Linda Kreidler, Queen City Bee Co., Cincinnati bee company, Cincinnati apiary, Cincinnati honey bees, Cincinnati bees, Cincinnati bee removal, Cincinnati save the bees, Cincinnati hive removal, Cincinnati Own-A-Hive, Cincinnati Rent-A-Hive, Cincinnati Sponsor-A-Hive

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Honey Bee Spring Break 2016: Updates from the Hive

3/30/2016

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Beekeeper Carlier Smyth inspecting honeycomb from a hive found in the wall of a home

It's spring! Arguably, no creature is more excited about this new season than the honey bee. This is the time of year when the girls get to finally shake off the winter chill and get to doing what they do best: pollinating. The sun is shining, temperatures are finally getting warmer, and the honey is flowing.

Winter Warriors
We're psyched to report that all of our hives made it through the winter! The girls are going strong and ready to bask in the warm glow of the spring sun. Bring on the pollination.

New Girls (and Boys) in Town
A new hive joined the Queen City Bee Co. apiary yard- a rescued hive that we recently extracted from the walls of a home. The homeowner estimated that the hive had been living in his walls for almost four or five years! This is a great hive for a business to support through our Sponsor-A-Hive program! Sponsoring helps keep our removal costs affordable and supports giving bees that would have been exterminated a second chance.

Bee-ing Famous
The girls of the Queen City Bee Co. apiary have finally made their media debut! Last Thursday and Friday, Queen City Bee Co. beekeeper and firefighter Carlier Smyth sat down with Andy Brownfield from the Cincinnati Business Courier to talk about how Queen City Bee Co. is working with local businesses through our Own-A-Hive program to produce their own honey. The following Monday, Angela Ingram from Local News 12 stopped by the apiary to talk about Queen City Bee Co.’s local business partnerships through our Own-A-Hive and Foster-A-Hive programs as well as our education outreach with youth. Everybody wants a piece of these hardworking honey bees!

Pooping on Cars
In case you never thought about it, bees poop. And it's golden yellow. And if your car is in their flight path (the path the bees take to fly to and from the hive to the honey/pollen sources), your car will get pooped on by bees. It's pretty cute.

Bee poop on a car sunroof

Gettin’ Wild on Nectar
Spring means flowers are finally blooming! Flowers blooming means nectar and nectar means honey! We're looking forward to late spring when the acacia (AKA black locust) trees bloom and we get some of Queen City Bee Co.'s tastiest and most popular honey!

Work Hard, Play Hard
The girls may be basking in the glory of their recent media attention and celebrating with lots of nectar, but that won't slow them down. They've been busy busy busy collecting honey and pollen to build up their food source stores that they used up over winter. If you're already feeling the burn of spring allergies, we will have some bee pollen and honey to help you with that soon!

Cincinnati bee removal, Cincinnati honey, Cincinnati beekeepers, Beekeeper Cincinnati Ohio, Honey, Bee pollen, Backyard Beekeepers, Bee Pollen Cincinnati, Cincinnati Apiary

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Feeding Bees in The Winter

2/14/2016

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Beekeeping in the Midwest allows for very few mistakes by a beekeeper. Preparing for and getting through winter takes ingenuity, know-how, and a little bit of luck. Sugar candies are one way to boost your colonies’ honey reserves late in the winter when they may be running low on the reserves you ensured they had prior to buttoning them up for the winter.

Advantages of sugar candies:

Provides food source for colony.
Candies won’t freeze or leak all over frames and bees during winter months.
Bees can access candy when warm enough to travel within the hive.

When to feed:

When the temperature is above 55 degrees F.
Sun is out and bees are conducting cleansing flights.

How to feed:

Open inner cover and place sugar candies on top of frames.
Minimize time hive is opened. This will minimize heat loss.
Do not pull frames to inspect. Again, this will minimize heat loss.
Take care not to smash bees with candy or inner cover.

How it works:

Honey bees use their glossa (tongue) to lick the hardened syrup and ready to eat honey that make up the sugar candy.
If a strong colony exists sugar candies will be devoured in a matter of days, as long as temperatures allow movement within the hive. If only a momentary flash of warm weather occurs, then the hard candy can sit atop the frames (safe from pests) until the next warm front moves in. At that point, bees will have a ready-made feast waiting for them.

Honey warming bath on the left and sugar water mixture boiling on the right.

Ingredients:
You will need a scale to measure out ingredients.

4lbs. Sugar (1.81 KG)
320g Water
360g Honey

Recipe:

Mix the water and sugar then bring to a boil and boil for 8-10 minutes.
While boiling sugar and water warm honey in separate water bath.
Poor warmed honey from the bath into the sugar water mixture.
Stir and continue to boil for 3 more minutes.
Not required, but check temperature to ensure that it is 117 deg. C. This will help to ensure that the mixture gets hot enough to harden.
Turn off heat and let cool for 15-25 minutes while stirring in one direction or until thickened uniformly.
Poor into flat pans lined with parchment paper.
Desired thickness is less then half inch. This allows telescoping inner cover to close completely during installation.

Finished product

This feeding practice along with aggressive wintering preparations allows QCBC to be well below the state average of honey bee die offs every year. This technique can also work for the bees under your care, whether it be in your apiary or your backyard.

Yum

Cincinnati bee removal, Cincinnati honey, Cincinnati beekeepers, Beekeeper Cincinnati Ohio, Honey, Bee pollen, Backyard Beekeepers, Bee Pollen Cincinnati, Cincinnati Apiary

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Understanding Swarms Part: 2

5/18/2015

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Once a swarm has lifted off from the hive location, the real house hunting begins. The bees in this group, along with the queen, usually have adequate food reserves to survive for 3-4 days while they house hunt for a new home. While collected in a swarm cluster around the queen on a branch or some other stationary object off the ground, the oldest, most experienced bees are tasked with going out in search of the best possible nesting site. These bees are the foragers of the hive tasked with collecting pollen, nectar, and water from the 6 square mile area around the hive.

Once in the swarm cluster, these foragers now become scouts and are in search of a relatively large (between 20-60 liters of volume.), relatively enclosed cavity space with a single entrance around 2 square inches. These scouts seem to award bonus points to nest locations that already have drawn honeycomb or leftover queen pheromones from previous colonies. The scouts measure the volume of these nesting sites, usually a hollowed out tree or perhaps a hole in a concrete wall, by walking and flying the length, height, and width of the surfaces. The scouts will not discount a site do to small holes or even debris within a cavity that can be removed. Once satisfied with the measurements and quality of the site, the scout returns to the swarm cluster, still sitting in a ball on the branch of a tree or bush.

Back with the cluster, the scout will begin a waggle dance on the backs of her fellow bees indicating the distance and direction of this new nest site. The number of times that this scout dances indicates to the other scouts the quality of the site. The longer she dances, the higher the quality of the site. For every second a scout waggles indicates how many 1000 meters from the swarm cluster the prospective nesting site is. The direction is expressed by the direction in relation to straight up (straight up being the direction towards the sky) the waggle dance is oriented. For example, 20 degrees to the right of straight up indicates that the other scouts must fly 20 degrees to the right of the sun in its current position in the sky. Other scouts take note of this waggle dance performance and use the directions expressed by the scout to go and check out the prospective nest sight. These dancing scouts are quite literally voting for a particular nesting site. Once enough scouts agree on the best possible location, the dance is continued to inform the rest of the colony the direction and location of the new nesting site.

At this point the swarm will take off, usually travelling at a minimum 250 yards from their old nesting site. While in flight, these same scouts that have made multiple foraging and scouting trips throughout their lifetime will steer the swarm to the new site. Oftentimes the swarm will have to break briefly for a tired, overweight queen who is not accustomed to flying long distances.

Once at the new nesting site the bees will begin rapidly building comb in order to facilitate the rapid growth necessary for survival. Only one in four of these new colonies will survive the first year.

Cincinnati bee removal, Cincinnati honey, Cincinnati beekeepers, Beekeeper Cincinnati Ohio, Honey, Bee pollen, Backyard Beekeepers, Bee Pollen Cincinnati, Cincinnati Apiary

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Homemade Honey Simple Syrup

5/9/2015

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We came up with this one on the fly for a Fourth of July party in Northside when mojitos were in order, sugar was out, and time was short. Honey simple syrup is just like regular simple syrup, only you substitute the sugar for honey. Its super simple to make and very versatile. You can use the honey simple syrup as a substitute for regular, sugar-based simple syrup in cocktails, to sweeten iced and hot tea (tip: when using it to sweeten iced tea, mix in the honey simple syrup while the tea is still hot, it’ll mix in much easier than when the tea is cold), to sprinkle over fruit, or whatever else you can think up. Honey adds a more complex flavor than sugar that can really highlight a drink or dish.

Homemade Honey Simple Syrup:

1 cup water
1 cup honey
Empty wine bottle with pour spout, glass jar, or some other container to serve and/or store the mixture in

Heat the water in a pot on medium on the stove. You don’t need it boiling lava hot, just hot enough where the honey will melt. Once the water is hot, start to stir in the honey to the point of dissolving. Allow the mixture to cool and you’re ready to pour it into your container and serve.

Keep the honey simple syrup refrigerated because it WILL mold if left out. Believe us…..we learned the hard way.

Cincinnati bee removal, Cincinnati honey, Cincinnati beekeepers, Beekeeper Cincinnati Ohio, Honey, Bee pollen, Backyard Beekeepers, Bee Pollen Cincinnati, Cincinnati Apiary

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