The Hive Has Arrived!

Finally, my Langstroth inspired honey bee hive has arrived!  I want to give a huge shout out to a local, small business in Saint Louis, Isabee's Beekpeeing. Without Isabee's I wouldn't have a hive!  Below are some horribly shot photos of the almost-finished product.  Of course, it still needs paint!  However, I'm extremely excited because Abby has offered to throw some awesome design work onto the hive as well.  I will post final pictures, don't you worry.  This hive will surely stand out!

Hive components: 1x telescoping outer cover, 1x inner cover, 2x medium honey supers (complete with 20 medium frames with traditional beeswax foundation), 1x queen excluder, 2x deep supers (complete with 20 deep frames with traditional beeswax foundation), 1x screened-bottom board (IPM, Integrated Pest Management system), and 1x entrance reducer. All woodenware is manufactured at Walter T. Kelley Beekeeping Suppliers from grade A Eastern White Pine. For more information regarding my hive equipment visit Walter T. Kelley's website.

I also bought a pale-bucket feeder, a bee brush, a J hook hive tool, a traditional hive tool, Honey B Healthy, a metal frame holder, a pull-over hoodie bee jacket with veil attached, and a steel smoker.

More updates to come!  Thanks again to Isabee's and Jane Sueme for everything!

Frontal/side view

(Four total supers)

Side view

(One telescoping outer cover, one inner cover, two medium supers, one queen excluder, two deep supers, one screened bottom board, and one entrance reducer) 

Close up on deep supers, side view

~Nick

'More Than Honey'

Abby and I had the pleasure of viewing the Swiss documentary film, 'More Than Honey' at one of our beekeeper meetings last year in December.  The film was written and directed by Markus Imhoof, and released earlier last year in September in the United States. The film takes an in-depth look at honeybee colonies in California, China, Switzerland, and Australia, while focusing primarily on Colony Collapse Disorder and other factors that have been killing many species of bees worldwide.   For those of you that aren't quite familiar with Colony Collapse Disorder or CCD, I have pulled a section from 'The Beekeeper's Bible' which gives a little bit more information:

"In November 2006, beekeeper Dave Hackenberg discovered that a large number of his hives in Florida were virtually empty of bees. The queen might be there with a small group of young workers but the majority of bees had simply disappeared. More beekeepers began to report the same phenomenon. When a colony dwindles, other bees usually rob the honey, and wax moths will often taken up residence. However, this did not seem to be happening in the affected hives. By June 2007, Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) had been identified in 35 states and Puerto Rico. A working party of bee scientists throughout the country was established and work began on trying to identify the cause of CCD. In July, the Department of Agriculture confirmed that one-third of US honeybee colonies had been lost to CCD, and this increased to 36 precent in a survey conducted by the Apiary Inspectors of America in April 2008. Many possible causes have been proposed, with a number of them, including cell phone towers and genetically modified crops. Other diseases such as Nosema ceranae (a disease that interferes with the honeybees' digestive system, which shortens the bees' life) have also been thought to cause CCD. While more research is focusing on systemic pesticides, particularly neonicotinoids. The situation is ongoing.  No cause, and therefore no cure, has been found as this book goes to press.  The only thing that is certain is that CCD does not have a single cause and that if an answer is not found quickly honeybee colonies will continue to die in large numbers."

This is a terrible phenomenon that will eventually lead to food shortages and poor plant pollination if the cause is not soon identified.  Until then, beekeepers around the world are continuing to raise and keep bees in an effort to off set the dramatic loss of honeybee populations.  I am proud to be apart of this effort.  Without bees, there would be no man.

Finally, I highly recommend watching, 'More Than Honey' to get a better understanding on honeybees, the commitment and dedication given by beekeepers, and the ongoing struggles honeybees and keepers face year to year.  I posted a link below which directs you to iTunes, where you're able to either buy the movie or simply rent it for a 24 hour period.  For more information regarding the film, please visit their website, which I also provided below.  For additional information on CCD and other honeybee colony disorders, please visit 'My Resources' tab near the top of this screen for a list of informative websites.

'More Than Honey' Website

'More Than Honey' iTunes page

~Nick

Beekeeper Club & Honeybee Purchase

Beekeeper Club

My friend Abby has decided to join me along my beekeeping journey.  In fact, she termed and named this blog, 'Sky Hive', so we give many, many thanks to her.  Anyway, Abby and I have joined a local Beekeeper's group in our area, named 'Three Rivers Beekeepers' (TRB Website).

A little about Three Rivers Beekeepers, directly from their website:

"We are a fast-growing beekeeping club located in St. Peters, Missouri, with over 400 individual beekeepers and honey bee enthusiasts having attended our meetings with an average meeting attendance of seventy-five, and growing. Three Rivers Beekeepers serves beekeepers from the eastern Missouri counties of St. Charles, St. Louis, Jefferson, Lincoln, Franklin, Warren, Montgomery and Pike along with many western Illinois counties bordering Missouri, in and around the St. Louis region.

We pride ourselves in providing beekeeping presentations covering the entire spectrum of beekeeping subjects, from beginning to advanced, simple to complex and conventional to alternative.

Three Rivers Beekeepers remains committed to providing fresh, creative and inspiring educational programs with a refreshing atmosphere of friendship and camaraderie. We make it our goal to keep our local communities informed of honey bee and beekeeping-related issues while providing a source of information about our industry and hobby.

In early April of 2009, sensing a lack of beekeeping support for St. Charles and the surrounding counties of Missouri and Illinois, there began a discussion for the need of a beekeeping club in that area.  On April 15th, 2009, five local beekeepers, including Ted Jansen, Marlene Jansen, Esther Jansen, Jane Timmons and John Timmons, gathered in the Timmons’ living room and made the decision to start Three Rivers Beekeepers.  The very next day, the club name was registered with the State of Missouri, the domain name “threeriversbeekeepers.com” was purchased and a simple web page created.

Slowly, with a couple phone calls and word-of-mouth, the word went out that there was a new beekeeping club forming in St. Charles County.

Our first meeting was held Monday, May 18th, 2009. Not expecting more than ten or fifteen people to show up for this first meeting, we were stunned to welcome sixty-five!  From the very first meeting of Three Rivers Beekeepers, we were the second largest beekeeping club in Missouri!"

We have gone to a couple of meetings now and learned quite a lot more about the life cycle of the honeybee, their habitat, and the year round upkeep. Other members are extremely polite, very approachable, helpful, and very knowledgeable. We got pretty lucky with this group, they didn't charge us a membership fee to join.  However, I've heard that many groups do charge an annual fee to be a member.  Nothing is free these days, I suppose.  But, like I said, we got lucky!  Most textbooks and website that I've read from suggest new beekeepers join a local beekeeping club.  Many clubs will nominate mentors, who help the novice beekeepers, assisting them through their new hobby.  I highly recommend joining a club.  If you need help locating a club near you, visit this website,operated and maintained by 'Bee Culture Magazine, The Magazine of American Beekeeping': http://www.beeculture.com/content/whoswho/.

Honeybee Purchase

Back in December of last year (2013), I reserved a three pound package of honeybees from Honey Hive Farms, they are a local beekeeping supplier near me. They are due for pickup in April, depending on the weather here in Missouri.  There are several ways in which one can obtain honeybees for their hive.  One way, is purchasing a package of honeybees, like I did.  Many textbooks and websites suggest obtaining your first year of honeybees using this method.  You can order honeybees by the pound from a reputable supplier.  Most suppliers will ship just about anywhere in the United States.  A package of honeybees and a single queen are shipped in a small wooden box with two screened sides, see picture below.

Photo credit: Honey Hive Farms

A package of honeybees is about the size of a large shoebox and includes a small screened cage for the queen (about the size of a matchbook) and a tin can of sugar syrup that serves to feed the honeybees during their journey. Typically, a three pound package of honeybees contains about 11,000 honeybees, the ideal size for the novice beekeeper.  I found this method of obtaining honeybees the easiest, especially with this being my first time ever keeping honeybees. 

There are several other methods to obtaining honeybees.  Such as buying a nucleus ("nuc") colony, purchasing an established colony, or by capturing a wild swarm of honeybees.

Several other factors come into play when you're purchasing your honeybees.  Suppliers typically sell several different races/kinds of honeybees.  Races include: Dwarf honeybee, Giant honeybee, Oriental honeybee, Western honeybee, Carniolan honeybee, Italian honeybee, Russian honeybee, German honeybee, and so on.  Each race obviously has it's pros and cons.  Many textbooks break down the many advantages and disadvantages for each of the popular races.

I chose the Cordovan Italian honeybee.  Cordovan is a subset of the Italian race. In theory, you could have a Cordovan in any race, since it's technically just a color.  However, most Cordovan traits are seen in the Italian honeybee in North America.  My honeybees will look very similar to the picture below.

Photo credit: Honey Hive Farms

Photo credit: Google Image Search

Real pictures of my honeybees will come in the beginning of April. For now, I am having to resort to internet images, I apologize.  

HTTP://COUNTINGDOWNTO.COM

Introduction

Honestly, beekeeping is just one of those things that most people know nothing about.  Until about six months ago, I was one of those people.  Honeybees, bumblebees, sweat bees, wasps, they're all the same thing, right?  And Bee hives, are grey, funnel-conned shaped structures, like in Winnie the Pooh, right?  Well absolutely not; they couldn't make it that easy for us.  I'll get into the fine details later.  

Anyway, my beekeeping journey first started while talking to a friend and fellow coworker.  She, had not so long ago started her first beehive.  She constantly posted pictures, brought in honey, and occasionally came into work with swollen fingers. Any normal person would be slightly curious.  So me, always being nosy, I asked her, "Friend, why the swollen fingers?"  Her answer, "My bees did this to me."  And from that answer, my brain exploded.  I instantly had so many questions.  Before this point, I had never even imagined the idea that someone I knew kept bees.  I mean seriously, I thought beekeeping was one of those scientific jobs, that only happened in places like Monsanto or in documented movies.  I was clearly wrong.  So question after question led to quite the lengthy conversation; I almost forgot we were working.  Nonetheless, I became quite interested and extremely intrigued.  

Several months had passed since my first conversation about bees.  Time brings us to November, Thanksgiving to be exact.  My family usually gathers at one or many houses around the holidays and eats in excessive amounts, like most American families.  Most family gatherings, bring relatives from out of town, specifically, my Aunt and Uncle who live in Jacksonville, Florida.  Both have served their time in the U.S. Navy, and both are now retired officers, which happens to give them plenty of time to pick up new hobbies.  I bet you can see where this story is going....  So sure enough, my Aunt also keeps honeybees!  As you can imagine, I was ecstatic! I talked with her and questioned her for hours.  From that point forward, I knew I wanted to know more.  I knew I wanted to take this information into my own hands and dig deeper.  

Typically, when I find something of extreme interest to me, I tend to jump in head first without thinking.  Sometimes this leads me into trouble.  Trouble which snowballs into many mistakes.  This time however, I didn't meet much trouble.  I do regret, jumping in head first without discussing matters with my partner.  So a word of advice to potential novice beekeepers: Tell your friends, families, and significant others about your new, weird hobby!!  Trust me, you'll get some funny looks and probably a few laughs, I did.  It's not a normal everyday hobby, like coin collecting, hiking, or photography. 

However, I am extremely excited to take you on this journey with me.  With most journeys, I promise success stories, mishaps, struggles, times of complete happiness, and times of complete sadness.  I always like to remember, that life is about living through experiences, having struggles along the way, learning from your mistakes, and picking yourself back up.  One step at a time.  Or should I say, one sting at a time.