By Charlie Vanden Heuvel How much of our world do we miss? The butterflies, spiders, hummingbirds, and yes even the honey bee. Six legs, four wings and a never-ending drive season after season. As the Queen returns to egg laying in mid-January, the rest of the colony must also engage in their duties in support […]
Fascination of Nature
By Charlie Vanden Heuvel Hopefully you have spent some time outdoors admiring the wonders of nature. Being a Honey Bee enthusiast, the sighting of the Apis Mellifera, Honey Bee, often becomes mesmerizing. Yet, of late the number of Native Bees flirting about flowers has increased the excitement and enjoyment of some of nature’s wonders. Bumble […]
Honey Bee Foraging
By Charlie Vanden Heuvel The life of the Worker Honey Bee is rather short in relation to other insects. The Honey Bee Worker emerges from the brood cell to immediately begin her chores in the hive. The first chore is cleaning brood cells of the cocoon and other debris. The first three weeks of life […]
Number One Challenge to the Honey Bee
By Charlie Vanden Heuvel The Honey Bee has been around for over one hundred million years. During this time, like all insects, pests and humans differing bacteria, fungus’s, viruses and other onslaughts have transpired. Some have been obliterated or moved on. USDA Ban On Importation of Honey Bees The Secretary of Agriculture, in 1922 instituted […]
Wintering Productive Hives
Langstroth wrote: “If the colonies are strong in numbers and stores, have upward ventilation, easy communication from comb to comb, water when needed, and all the hive entrances are sheltered from piercing winds, they have all the conditions essential to wintering successfully in the open air” (Langstroth, 1859). Honey Bee Hive Optimal Winter Conditions Winter […]
Swarms
Honey bee hives swarm to duplicate their hive. A means of survival. One would think the Queen’s egg laying was the colonies means of replication, but it only builds and maintains colony strength for the nectar flow season. To ensure the survivability of the bee race it must create a swarm for duplicity. Many in […]
Honey Bee Foraging
By Charlie Vanden Heuvel The life of the Worker Honey Bee is rather short in relation to other insects. The Honey Bee Worker emerges from the brood cell to immediately begin her chores in the hive. The first chore is cleaning brood cells of the cocoon and other debris. The first three weeks of life […]
February in the PNW Colony
by Dewey M. Caron In his Valentine’s Day Message, Charlie Vanden Heuvel indicated “There may be emergencies demanding entrance, but they are rare! Be Patient!!! He suggested unless temperatures are above 60° for 3 days we might do more harm than good opening colonies. So what “should be going on inside our colonies right now? […]
Honey Bee Colony Stressors
Beekeepers around the world have become frustrated with honey bee losses. Not only does it affect the pocket book but personal love for these insects. Bee Informed Partnership, among other things, performs annual loss reports. The past nine years (2008-2017) reports of 40.4% by Backyard and 28.1% loss by Commercial operations have proved challenging. […]
Yellow Jacket Wasp
HONEY BEE or YELLOWJACKET WASP? Wasps, an insect, are protein eaters typically of other insects like soft bodies caterpillars and spiders. They are beneficial predators as they clean our environment of dead bodies. The appear as skinny and shiny with no noticeable hairs on their bodies. They are carnivores, which we normally witness as […]