Weekly 101 Update (2/14/11)

It's GROUP ORDER TIME! SORRY FOR THE LATE NOTICE, BUT ORDERS ARE DUE TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 15th! THAT'S TOMORROW!

If any of y'all were planning on ordering bees or equipment for the coming Spring, now would be an excellent time to do it. The NYC Beekeeping Group is putting together their yearly group order and the more people who participate, the cheaper it'll be for everyone! Socialism! Hoo-ray!

Packages of bees will be trucked up overnight from GA and delivered directly into the city, and will cost ~$80/package. I'm ordering my own new bees with this order, so you should as well.

If you need to order and aren't already on their mailing list, email Liane at nycbeekeeping@gmail.com.

Greetings all NYC Beekeeping Bee Lovers, Beekeepers & Beginners:

We welcome you to participate in our Spring Co-op Order this year -- We are stronger together!

If you are currently registered or bought with us last year, you should already have received the link.

If you have not yet received a link to the [order] form and want to participate, please reply to this email and we'll get you on the right lists.

Thanks for your interest, and please forgive us if you are receiving this in duplicate.

Kind regards,

The Spring Order Team

There is NO NYC Beekeeping Group class this week. Instead, they are hosting a super-exciting talk by a serious expert on bee society this Saturday!

Dr. Tom Seeley - "Honeybee Democracy: How Bees Choose a Home"

Honey bees make decisions collectively—and democratically. Every year, faced with the life-or-death problem of choosing and traveling to a new home, honey bees stake everything on a process that includes collective fact-finding, vigorous debate, and consensus building. In fact, these incredible insects have much to teach us when it comes to collective wisdom and effective group decision making. Dr. Thomas D. Seeley, a professor of animal behavior at Cornell University and a passionate beekeeper, will tell the amazing story that he and others have unravelled of house hunting and democratic debate among the honeybees.

He will describe how these bees evaluate potential nest sites, advertise their discoveries to one another, engage in open deliberation, choose a final site, and navigate together—as a swirling cloud of bees—to their new home. He will also suggest that what works well for bees can also work well for people: any decision-making group should consist of individuals with shared interests and mutual respect, a leader's influence should be minimized, debate should be relied upon, diverse solutions should be sought, and the majority will should be counted on for a dependable resolution.

We must charge a modest admission fee to defray the costs of this event. The talk is open to the public, but you can pay here online via Amazon to reserve, as seating is limited. We will also have copies of Tom Seeley's books available for purchase at the event.

The cost will be $9 and seating will be limited, so RSVP on their site here: LINKY

The talk is being held on Saturday, Feb 19th from 2pm to 4pm, at The Arsenal in Central Park.

The Story of Bees, Part Two

Part One . . .

It's a charming little book. Obviously outdated, but I thought that it was worth sharing. We've learned a lot about bees, beekeeping, and the science it's based on since 1940, but there is still so much more to explore.

You can download the book in its entirety, as a PDF, here.

The Story of Bees

A children's bee book, written, illustrated, and published by the Work Projects Administration, in 1940, and purchased for 10 cents from my hometown library book sale.

Part Two. . .

NYC Beekeeping Meetup Group Class tonight!

Just a quick reminder that the next installment of the NYCBMG Free Winter Course is tonight.

If you're interested in learning how to keep bees, or already know how to and would just like to brush up, the NYCBMG classes are a fantastic resource are totally worth the two hours out of your busy schedule. Plus, the price is right!

Tonights lecture topic:

"OK, I've got 70,000 stinging insects in a box - now what do I do?"

So far, we've covered the life of a typical worker bee, we've looked at bee anatomy and physiology, so the Jan 4th class will address the burning question on everyone's mind - management. We will break down the goals of the prudent beekeeper into seasonal chunks, and summarize the choices and options open to the dogma-free beekeeping practice.

Much will be made of the massive difference between managing a hive in its first year (a "package" or "nuc") versus a hive that overwintered at least one season.

RSVP's are MANDATORY, so if you're interested in attending, join up at www.nycbeekeeping.com and e-mail Liane at nycbeekeeping@gmail.com.

The Mystery of the Red Honey, Part 3

So into the mail the samples went, off to a state food lab by way of Paul Cappy, the state apiculturalist. Paul has been extremely helpful in figuring out our problems and always managed to find the silver lining. The first time I mentioned the possibility that the source of the contamination was the maraschino cherry factory, he immediately suggested that we mix the stuff into our Manhattans. He may have overestimated how many Manhattans I can consume safely, but at a time when everyone involved was tired and worried about the health of our bees, his unwavering view of the upside cheered us up. He also shared many stories about other beekeepers who had experienced similar problems—I had heard some of them before, but had always taken them to be the stuff of legends.

I guess I know better now.

In order of distance from the factory.  Samples taken from hives closest to the factory on the left.
Image Copyright BoroughBees.com, 2010

Eventually, the results came back. Positive for red #40, the food-safe dye (FD&C Red 40) used to colour cherries at the factory. The proverbial last nail in the coffin, but as I've mentioned, we were already pretty positive that the factory was the source. With that last scrap of evidence in hand, we drafted a letter and made moves to contact Mr. Mondella, the owner of the factory. Things got complicated before we could deliver it.

Queen of the Sun

Queen of The Sun Teaser Clip from Taggart Siegel on Vimeo.

Yvon Achard, Bee Historian, show us the age-old relationship between man and bees.

I want to be this man.

Mainly I want to be able to grow a mustache, but I also covet the kind of close relationship and quiet interaction he has with his bees.

This documentary looks amazing. If any of you have access to a copy of the full version, I would LOVE to see it.

The Mystery of the Red Honey, Part Two

So . . .

Ethylene glycol. Nasty stuff. The kind of stuff you don't want in your honey, let alone your hives. Obviously, this suggestion caused a bit of consternation and I quickly got in touch with Cerise Mayo and Gita N., both of whom maintain hives at the Added Value Red Hook farm, as well as Ian Marvy, the director of Added Value. We started a huge e-mail chain of ideas, theories and suggestions, but eventually decided that the best and only course of action was to meet in person to take a look at the affected hives and take samples to send to the state food lab. We met on Labor Day.

I arrived at the farm prepared for the worst. I had already seen the pictures of the red "honey" on Facebook, but they didn't do it justice. Bright red, practically fluorescent bees flying into the hive, completely unaware of the alarm they were inciting just doing their thing. I should probably clarify that the bees themselves weren't (and still aren't) red. The dye is no more incorporated into their bodies than the red food dye we eat in so many foods is integrated into ours. It's just along for the ride. When a bee finds a source of food, it will fill itself to bursting. Its crop, or honey stomach, distends drastically until it takes up almost half of its abdomen, and since its exoskeleton is partially translucent, you can see whatever it’s carrying. In this case, the bees had found something bright red, and there was a lot of it. Hundreds, thousands of bees were coming in heavy, packed tight with neon goop. Like David mentioned in the New York Times article, it was pretty beautiful.

After we made our introductions and got over watching the bees, we set to work. Once the smoker was lit, we surrounded the strongest hive and cracked it open. We could immediately see that something was not quite right.

Take a closer look.
Image Copyright BoroughBees.com, 2010

The Mystery of the Red Honey

Bloody Bees....
Image Copyright 2010, BoroughBees.com

I've gotten a few e-mails from friends and readers forwarding the recent article in the New York Times covering the outbreak of red “honey” in Red Hook, so firstly, THANK YOU to everyone who sent it to me. It's a very well-written article and it delves into the pressing issues of gentrification and the social friction it creates.

Cerise Mayo expected better of her bees. She had raised them right, given them all the best opportunities—acres of urban farmland strewn with fruits and vegetables, a bounty of natural nectar and pollen . . .

And then this. Her bees, the ones she had been raising in Red Hook, Brooklyn, and on Governors Island since May, started coming home to their hives looking suspicious. . . . Where there should have been a touch of gentle amber showing through the membrane of their honey stomachs was instead a garish bright red. The honeycombs, too, were an alarming shade of Robitussin.

Follow the link to the full NYT Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/30/nyregion/30bigcity.htm

While gentrification and the clashes between local businesses, old residents, and newcomers to neighborhoods are fascinating, as a beekeeper, I've been much more curious about the beekeeping aspects of this story since it first came to my attention several months ago.

A lot of people have a very pastoral view of bees: flying from flower to flower slowly, sedately, looking for food, dancing their way toward a hive full of honey happily donated to our kitchens and tables. The reality is frantic, a constant struggle for survival against a legion of enemies. Honeybees are desperately productive, and the old saying “busy as a bee” takes on new meaning when you consider that most bees die in the field, full of food and nectar, expending the last of their energy on One. Last. Load.

I like my women like I like my coffee...

...Covered in bees.

Got any plans for Saturday?

If not, there is a whole bunch of cool beekeeping and urban ag stuff going on!

First, the 5th annual Red Hook Farm Harvest Festival is this Saturday from 10AM to 5PM. Featuring such activities as pumpkin carving and stuffing your face with food from The Good Fork, iCi, Rice, Kevin's and the Lobster Pound, there will also be live music performed by Bomba Yo!, Professor Louis, The Broken Arrowz, Rebel Diaz and more. On top of that, add a bunch of kid friendly activities (not the kid at heart kind), a locally sourced farmers market and seasonal food cooking demonstrations, and you've got a full (and fun) day.

Plus, you know, I'll be there. With bees. *toot, toot*

Genius Beekeepers and Weekend Recap

First and foremost, I'd like to thank everyone who came out to the New New York Green Street Festival and stopped by my table, especially those people from my Beekeeping 101 class! A few of you actually had time to stay and help field questions for a while; I was both impressed with (and proud of) how many questions you were able to answer (and so well!) after a single class. Hopefully that means I'm doing something right!

It was a busy day and the traffic was constant (as were the questions), so if I missed yours, email me! I'll try to get back to you as soon as possible (and maybe share the answer with everyone else.) In fact, I was so busy answering bee questions that I didn't get a single picture of the observation hive or my table! If you took any, would you please share them with me? I'd love to put them up here on my blog for everyone to see!

On another note, it is a widely accepted fact that beekeepers are above average in both intelligence and looks. The MacArthur Foundation recently confirmed at least the former by awarding Marla Spivak a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, commonly known as the 'genius' grant for her work developing the 'Minnesota Hygienic' Italian Hybrid bee.

Read more about it here and be sure to watch the video: Marla Spivak @ The MacArthur Foundation

This Weekend: Exciting Things

It was a long weekend, but I got a LOT done, all of which I'll be talking about here over the next couple of days (promise.) Last week, I gave you a picture preview of at least one of the things accomplished this weekend- all of the honey in those supers has been extracted, bottled, and stored (and eaten).

Today, however, I am preparing for the NEW New York, a DIY-themed green block party that is being held on Saturday October 2nd at 3rd street between Hoyt and Bond in Gowanus. I was kindly asked to host a beekeeping table, so I will be there armed with beekeeping equipment, flyers, and yes... BEES!

LIVE BEES!

Here's the official blurb:

Say Hello to My Little Friends

It is a little known fact that Tony Montana was an avid beekeeper.
Scarface and Tony Montana (c) Universal Pictures.

Obviously, I like bees. I don’t know if you’ve figured that out yet, but it’s true. I like the bees themselves, the honey they produce, the comb they build, the amazing and complex society they maintain- every aspect of this hobby is satisfying in its own unique way.

I anthropomorphize bees fairly often. Bees to a beekeeper are like pets; what cats and dogs are to most people. Talking about them, I might mention that they were in a mood (good or bad), or that they just wanted to be left alone for a while. There’s a good reason for this. Every hive I've worked with has had a different personality. An individual bee is just a bee, but a hive has a unique personality or character that is the product of a huge number of variables. Genetics, weather, food supply, and more all play a part in determining a hives personality. We’ll talk about all of those things later.

For now, I want to introduce you to some of my little friends.

First Bees

Bees can be shipped to you in the mail, which is both clever (or at least thought to be a decade ago) and a little bit scary for everyone involved. At a commercial queen raising company in Georgia or one of the other southern states, a newly mated queen is put into a wooden-framed, mesh-sided box with a feeding can and 3 pounds of her nearest and dearest. All in all, it amounts to 10,000 possibly cranky bees in a flimsy looking, open air crate, appearing ready to burst out in an angry swarm at the slightest provocation (or so it may seem to the average postal worker.) Unless you have a local beekeeper willing to sell you a 'nuc' (a 5 frame starter hive) or a local bee supplier who stocks package bees and isn't too terribly far away, ordering bees through the mail is a good (and sometimes lone) option. It's fast, easy, and barring any disasters, convenient, although it is now generally considered to be stressful for the bees.

Bees came into my life via a 4 A.M. call from the local post office on a school night.

"Mr. ONeal?"
"Huh?"

BoroughBees

Bees?  In my neighborhood?


It's more likely than you think.


In this modern age of globalization and raspberries in January (I love raspberries in January), there is a growing trend towards locally grown and sourced foods.  CSA's, community gardens, and backyard farms are booming, and they all rely on the pollinating talents of the honey bee (Apis mellifera, for the technical.)

Smoking, legally.

More and more urban dwellers are exploring beekeeping as a satisfying, safe, and altruistic hobby and it's a trend that I hope continues unabated.


In many communities, beekeepers face an uphill battle.  People tend to fear bees (partially encouraged by sensationalist media reports of Africanized Honey Bees) and the first question they often ask is, "Isn't it DANGEROUS?"  Many of their concerns are unfounded, but there are years of prejudice and an instinctual fear of anything that stings to overcome.  Many beekeepers, urban ones in particular, keep their hives hidden for fear of being labeled a neighborhood nuisance, or worse, a menace.


I hope to use this blog to dispel some of those fears and teach people a bit about the science and art of beekeeping.  With a little bit of luck and help from my readers, beekeeper and non-beekeeper alike, I want to do my part to dispel the myths surrounding honeybees, educate, and maybe even inspire some to pick up a smoker.