Testing Oxalic Acid Application

Setting up to test an oxalic acid treatment to an empty bee hive on a sunny winter day.

Testing Oxalic Acid Application

Besides comparison shopping, my bee buddy David is a meticulous tester and sampler. So last year when at a beekeeping conference he gave me a determined look and said he was going to treat his bee colonies with oxalic acid, I knew we were going to have long conversations about this new adventure.

Oxalic acid is one of the latest tools in the beekeeper's arsenal to fight varroa destructor, a tiny red mite partially responsible for the record decline in the honeybee population. Combined with the loss of habitat, which speaks to the quality of bee food, and overuse of pesticides, these three major factors are now considered main contributors to the continued honeybee population decline. Among other contributions, bees pollinate one out of every three bites of food we eat.

Whether to treat, or not treat colonies with oxalic acid continues to be a major debate among beekeepers. Statistics show if bees are not treated, a majority of colonies will be weakened by their 3rd year and will die, not necessarily from the mite but from viruses carried by the mite.

On a warm sunny winter day, David invited me to his apiary to test his oxalic acid applicator and related equipment. I didn't need to bring anything, he assured me, he had everything set up.

The testing of the oxalic acid application included the testing of an old car battery.

When I arrived, bees were out enjoying the sunny, warm winter day. I meandered from hive to hive, checking how the girls were doing and asking David if he could see how the colony was flying.

David stands away from his hives, not because he doesn't want to be closer but because he has the worst luck when he does. Whereas I can sneak by without a mishap, as soon as David tries to look around a hive, a guard bee will land a sting, or two, on him. 

After David made sure everything was set up correctly, I took a few photos and started to share our grand experiment with a couple other beekeepers.

The response was quick and unexpected. What are you doing? What do you mean you are testing a new applicator? 

I smiled. I told David I thought we had their undivided attention now and texted a few more photos. Then I added:

We are two retirees on a sunny winter day with a new piece of beekeeping equipment and an EMPTY hive. What's not to love?

Test results? Oxalic acid vapors covered the left-over spider webs inside the old bee hive.

And the verdict?

The oxalic acid should be applied early spring and late fall but on this winter day, it was more of an excuse to be outside in the sun, enjoying the day. We figured regardless of the time of year, the verdict is - the car battery would work just fine.

Charlotte

California-Bound Honeybees

My first two bee colonies arriving at my Missouri apiary.

California-Bound Honeybees

The first winter after I started keeping bees, I received a call from someone who asked if I wanted to move my bees to California to pollinate almond fields.

I was new to keeping bees but the offer was intriguing. It had never occurred to me how almonds got pollinated, let alone that bees, some years as many as 3/4ths of all bee colonies from around the country, moved to California for a few short weeks to pollinate the thousands of almond trees. 

One of the articles I read said last year, there would have been a shortage of bees to pollinate the almonds had it not been for the California drought. 

How much would they pay me per hive, I had asked the caller. It was an impressive amount, although at the time I was not comfortable even with the thought of letting Gertrude and Mildred, my hives named after my Mom and Grandmother, even out of my sight.

This was 2011, several years before small hive beetles were found in hives in the Missouri county where we live. Wax worms and the related pests and viruses associated with varroa were the main threats, although I had not yet met the little red vampire-like mites.

The caller asked if my hives had been moved to other fields. Many beekeepers, he said, moved their hives to provide pollination services. I assured him my girls had only been pollinating my garden and had been under my watchful eye the whole time they had been with me.

When he asked how many hives I had, I confessed, only two. But if they were going out west, I said, I was going with them. First class.

He laughed. He had found me through my blog about beekeeping and was trying to find beekeepers to get more bees out west.

I said I appreciated the offer but I wasn't particularly fond of almonds. I thought it was best that we should stay in the midwest for now. 

Since then, there have been online discussions about the impact of moving bees around the country half a year. After pollinating almonds, bees move to Texas to pollinate apples and peaches, then out east to pollinate blueberries and cranberries.

Exposure to new diseases, changing weather conditions and increased stress on the colonies have been among the factors cited for cutting down, if not stopping, the practice of moving bees long distance for pollination. Not to mention what less pollination would do to the lucrative commercial almond market.

Maybe it's time to mediate our almond consumption and appreciate the local nuts we can grow. After all, bees can pollinate those, not have to travel as far and it minimizes their exposure to stress and diseases. 

Charlotte

Love in the Garden

One of my honeybees in spring moves pollen among the flowers in my compact pear tree.

Love in the Garden

Bees really should replace Valentine’s Day cherubs. Bees are among a number of pollinators that provide nature’s match-making services, and they are much less obtrusive than those little round, pink, vintage Valentine's Day mascots.

Without bees to spread pollen, many plants, including food crops, would die off. One out of every three bites of food we eat are pollinated by bees.

Although they perform their match-making differently, both honeybees and native bees significantly contribute to keeping many plant species alive. If you have good habitat, which means a variety of flowers succeeding each other with blooms, you will also have a good place for both native and honeybees to live.

When a bee visits a flower, it is focused on gathering nectar and pollen to feed the colony back in the hive.

Bumble Bee Buzz Pollination

Bumblebees, also significant crop pollinators, have a specific name for their matchmaking. It’s called “buzz pollination,” or sonication. As they hold on to a flower, bumblebees rapidly vibrate flight muscles without moving their wings.  This vibration shakes electrostatically charged pollen out of the flower anthers and the pollen is attracted to the bumblebee’s oppositely charged body hairs. For bumblebees, electricity really is “in the air.”

The bumblebee later grooms the pollen from her body into bags on its legs and takes it back to the nest in the ground.

Bumblebees pollinate tomatoes, green peppers and a variety of other specialty crops. Some commercial producers have either bumblebee hives in their greenhouses or leave a 1-inch opening at the bottom of their covered growing areas so bumblebees can more easily access plants.

Bumblebee hives are available for purchase but the colony lives only one year. At the end of the season, only the queen bee survives in the ground to start a new colony the following year.

During winter, I give honeybees pollen substitute so they have protein when nothing is in bloom.

How Honeybees Pollinate

Honeybees pollinate by concentrating on one plant species at a time. Honeybees have compound eyes so they see the world as a series of small windows, which would make the world even more complex than it already is to me. For a honeybee to more easily see a flower, it is best to plant flowers in large groups or swaths so a bee can better first spot them.

I also spray sugar water syrup on plants when I want to attract the attention of a bee. Honeybees navigate more by scent so the sugar is a good calling card.

As honeybees move from one flower to the next, pollen falls out of their body hairs and gets moved among flowers.

Honeybees also have pouches on the side of their legs. Once the leg pollen bags are full, honeybees return to the hive, sometimes so heavily laden they literally crash land at the hive entrance.

It’s interesting to watch them coming home at the end of the day. I try to guess what flowers they were visiting based on the color of the flower pollen they are carrying.

During warm days in the middle of winter, bees look for a protein source. They raid bird feeders for cracked corn dust. Until oak flowers and dandelions start blooming, I may either make or provide a pollen substitute so they have a nutritious protein source.

This time of year, nothing is blooming except for spring dreams.

Charlotte

Bees in Cracked Corn

For a short time in winter, my honeybees raid my bird feeders for cracked corn dust.

Bees in Bird Feeder Cracked Corn

Every winter for a short period of time during warm days, my honeybees get into trouble. Well, actually, it's more like they get into my bird feeders looking for dust from the cracked corn I add to sunflower seeds.

It's usually after December 21, when winter officially begins. Daylight starts to get longer and the queen bee starts her countdown to spring. The longer daylight triggers the queen to start to lay eggs to increase the colony's population, which means worker bees need to find protein to feed the new babies.

My bird feeders are safe until sunny winter days start to pop up over 45F. I know my girls are working on the nursery when I start to see, a few bees at first, around the edges of the hanging feeders, where the leftover cracked corn is left. They are easy to spot, they look like flying globs of caramel in the sunshine.

Honeybees start to work the leftover cracked corn at the bird feeder's edge for the corn dust.

If you look closely, you can see the bees diving into the seeds, sometimes only their back sides sticking up in the air in the middle of the sunflower seeds and corn.

I wasn't sure at first what they were after until I started to see their leg pollen sacks packed as they rummaged through the seeds.

This honeybee has a pollen sack on her leg packed with goodies from the bird feeder.

One morning, I also found a good dozen bees moving inside the bird feeder. I couldn't see how they could get out so I carefully dumped the seeds into a plastic lid so they could get out and rummage to their pollen sacks' content.

Having the seeds and corn on a straight surface also meant they could more easily pack away the corn dust they wanted to take back to the hive as a protein food source for the nursery.

Sunflower seeds and cracked corn from the bird feeder temporarily on a plastic lid on the ground.

These are some of the bees that were stuck inside the bird feeder covered in corn dust without any way to get out.

Can you see the bees all covered in cracked corn dust? They were inside the bird feeders.

After I gently dumped them out, at first they seemed dazed and were moving very slowly. After a few minutes out of the confined area, they started walking around until enough cracked corn dust fell off of them so they could fly. And guess what they were carrying.

This honeybee was inside a bird feeder and had enough room to pack her pollen bags.

This bee walked into my hand with her leg pollen sacks full of the corn dust she had picked up inside the bird feeder. I waited for her to get cleaned off enough so she could fly off with her stash, then put the bird seed and bird feeder away.

It was the right time. The next day, although temperatures were warm and sunny, not a bee was at the bird feeder. 

The rush to the cracked corn dust was over. The bees were starting to find real pollen somewhere else in my garden.

Charlotte

Warm Winter Beekeeping Days

Watching one of my honeybee colonies during a warm Missouri winter day.

Warm Winter Beekeeping Days

Well first, this is a bit of an oxymoron. It's the middle of a Missouri winter; we shouldn't be having warm days to be beekeeping. Nevertheless, this has been a warmer than usual winter. One of our local weather forecasters said on the average, our temperatures this winter have been 10 degrees warmer than average, a fact that gives me pause as I think about all of my little fruit trees trying to set buds on the warm days that pop up in between the more cold, wintery ones.

On this particular day, I chose to set all of those worries aside and putter around my bees. Maybe puttering is not the best word to use, it was more like sitting back and relaxing while I watched them putter.

On warm winter days, bees house clean. Between dragging out dead bee bodies and taking cleansing flights, they also forage for food. Without any blooming flowers, I sprinkle a little pollen substitute on their hive entrances to give them something to pack back inside.

My honeybees were packing the pollen substitute I left at the entrance to their hive.

If you are new to beekeeping, this is why I suggest you carefully consider where you are placing your hives. Although it is tempting to place them as far away as possible, I prefer to have mine close so I have easy access to them and can see them from my house. I can't imagine not visiting my colonies every day, even in cold weather.

What is there to see? I check hive entrance reducers to make sure they are secure, and that the black wind break wrapping is still on tightly. I know, poor excuses, but I once had a telescoping top fly off. I still find solace in looking out of a window on a cold morning and seeing everything is safely covered up.

When I have the chance to be outside on a warm, sunny winter day, no need for an excuse. There is something quite special to be able to watch them at a time when both of us should be holed up inside our respective homes.

My favorite moment, when bees land on my foot so I can see them up close!

As I enjoyed the time in the sun, so did my bees. One stopped by to check out my old gardening shoes. Just as I was wondering what bees do when they don't expect to be out, I am sure she was wondering what I was doing wearing gardening shoes when I was not out gardening and planting more pollen sources for her.

Wonder what kind of waggle dance bees do to express an oxymoron. Maybe a backwards dance??

Charlotte

Candy Cane Bee Food

These peppermint candy canes were marked down after Christmas and priced at .54 cents a box.

Candy Cane Bee Food

"I read this somewhere" - a popular way some beekeepers start their latest tip or experiment. For me, it was something I read over the holidays from other beekeepers talking about how they help their bees through winter.

It's been a very odd winter in Missouri. Weather conditions have varied a lot, swinging some weeks from record high temperatures for the season to more typically cold, winter conditions. Over the weekend, a weather forecaster said our Missouri winter temperatures this year, on the average, has been 10 degrees higher. That explains why my bees, and some of my trees and shrubs, have been showing signs of new growth earlier than usual.

Most bee colonies don't die from cold, they die from humidity, pest and diseases, and starvation. Having lost a colony several winters ago to starvation, I decided that was not going to happen if there was something I could do about it.

This year, with a record warm winter,  my bee colonies have been out flying, using up their winter honey stores at a much faster rate than they have in the past. I have been giving them sugar patties I make to supplement food supplies, I started at Christmas, almost 2 months earlier than I usually feed them the extra food. I also read that peppermint candy canes make for good emergency food and picked up a box on sale.

It does make sense. Candy boards, another way to make winter bee food, are homemade candy, like candy canes. The peppermint is an essential oil from herbs, which bees love in their natural form. Some people also have told me peppermint oil is also a hive pest deterrent.

Okay, so I spoil my pets. And yes, that includes my honeybees.

Charlotte

Bring It, Winter!

Bring It, Winter!

I may be one of the few people you know who wants it to be cold again. It’s not for me, it’s for my honeybees.

Bees don’t hibernate. They cluster in a ball inside the hive, shivering to keep warm. That’s why they store honey, to give them carbohydrates over winter to generate heat. If they don’t have baby bees to keep warm, they keep the inside of the hive at around 70F. If they have the nursery going, they raise the temperature to 90F.

When outside temperatures go above 40F, bees leave the hive to relieve themselves.  With temperatures in the 60s, bees think it’s early spring and look for pollen to take back to the hive for food. The flying around and lack of nectar and pollen means they also consume more of their stored honey, 

Based on past winters, beekeepers make sure their hives have enough honey to get them through at least February. This will be a year when a lot of us will be way off estimating how much honey our bees needed.

On Christmas 2016, when the temperatures were in the 60s, my bees had already moved into the second story of their hive, a good month earlier than usual. They also had most of their honey consumed, so I gave them sugar cakes I make as supplemental food. I usually give them the sugar cakes early February but I didn’t want to risk them dying of starvation if cold weather ever returned and I couldn’t get into the hives to feed them.

The warmer temperatures have also meant my bees have been out foraging, looking for pollen. Their favorite spot has been my birdfeeders, where I have sunflower seeds, cracked corn and a dash of sand mixed together. It’s been fun watching and photographing bees burying themselves in the bird seed trying to find the cracked corn dust. My birds haven’t been too amused.

I have also been feeding my bees pollen substitute in small buckets on the ground under the bird feeders. The buckets have sticks inside so the bees can safely land, load up on pollen in their back leg pouches and carry it back to the hive.

The pollen substitute is a mixture of soybean flour, brewers yeast, milk powder, vitamin C and brewers yeast.

Just to make sure everyone was getting a supply, I also dabbed pollen substitute on the front of the hives, next to their little front doors.  When I first checked back a couple of hours later, it was all gone, carefully packed and carried into the hive so I just kept adding more.

If temperatures ever go below 40F, the bees will huddle again inside the hive and not eat as much honey.

On the other hand, having bees out and about hasn’t been so bad. I love having them around and they do a pretty good job of scaring squirrels out of my bird feeders.

Charlotte

What Is Beekeeping?

Saying on the side of a leading beekeeping supplier.

What is Beekeeping?

Beekeepers like to make the distinction between "bee have-rs" and "bee keep-rs." Some people who have bees don't do much with them and usually loose them within the first year. Those are considered people who "have" bees.

Beekeepers have more of a direct relationship with bees. Depending on why one keeps them, bees can contribute to a garden's pollination; provide honey, and supplement income with the sale of bees. Those three purposes require different approaches to the bees, which in part explains why when someone asks two beekeepers one question they may get 5 different answers.

To me, beekeeping is just that, inviting bees into my garden and having them as part of my happy garden ecosystem. I have honeybees and native bees, both sharing my hillside garden and adding to the diversity I encourage along with butterflies, beneficial insects, birds and other wildlife.

And I agree with the saying on the grey bag, it can become a lifestyle with delicious sweet rewards.

Charlotte

Bees On Sugar Too Early

Bees On Sugar Way Too Early

Don't get me wrong, there was a time in my life when a warm day in late December would have been a gift. Temperatures in the 60s, however, are not typical of late Missouri December weather, although temperatures above average seem the norm as we end 2016.

Those warmer temperatures are not good news for my compact fruit trees, which are showing buds already, nor are they good news for my honeybees. 

All of my bee colonies were tucked into their hives in October ready for winter with a supply of sugar cakes in their top feeding shims, extra food in addition to their 60-70 lbs of stored honey to get them through winter.

In the past, they would eat through their honey before reaching the extra sugar stores on top, usually sometime mid-February. I added the sugar cakes on top in case weather was too bad to get to them between now and February, when they might need the added supplies.

Imagine my surprise when I peeked under the hive lids on Christmas Day to find the colonies already at the top of the hives, not only starting to eat the extra sugar stores but obviously having been into the sugar cakes for some time by the pattern they had left on the sugar.

Bees have apparently been eating the sugar cakes for some time now.

The warmer fall temperatures have contributed to bees consuming their honey stores almost two months faster than normal. Bees usually cluster inside the hive, consuming the stored honey while they cluster and shiver to stay warm.

When temperatures outside are above 40F, bees consume more honey to fly around outside, depleting their winter honey stores. With temperatures closer to 60F, bees fly farther and consumer even more honey as they search for pollen and other food sources, further depleting available honey.

Looks like I will need to be making more sugar patties if these girls are going to make it through spring.

Come on, winter!

Charlotte

Winter Bee Sugar Cakes

I fill my bread pans up half full, then place them in cold oven to dry out until hard.

Winter Bee Sugar Cakes

It's December 2016 and temperatures continue setting record highs. It means I have had more time to work in the garden but so have my bees. As long as temperatures invite my honeybees out of their hives, at a time of year when there is not much in nature to eat, they are consuming the honey they originally stored to eat through cold weather.

I peeked under two hive lids a couple of days ago and two colony clusters had moved into the second box from the bottom. That's not good news, it means the bees have been eating the honey in the second box already and may not have enough to get through winter.

Several years ago I lost a colony to winter starvation and I vowed then I would not let that happen again.

I was thinking about making sugar candy boards this year, heated sugar that fills the top of the hive once made.. I even bought a candy thermometer, thinking I would try something new but no time for that, winter is moving in and I don't want to risk not having something to feed my bees before weather turns cold.

No problem, making my winter bee sugar cakes is easy. Here is my basic recipe:

Winter Bee Sugar Cakes

11 1/4 cups of sugar

7.5 ounces of water

1 tsp vinegar

Add vinegar to water, then pour water into sugar and mix until all sugar is moist.

Add vinegar to water, then add water to sugar. Mix. I used an old garden bucket and the largest wooden spoon I could find. The mixture should be moist but not wet.

Dry sugar cakes made in bread pans easily span the length of one of my bee hives.

I like to use bread pans because two sugar cakes span the length of my hives. Pre-used suet containers also work because they are square and make it easy to join them in the feeding shims I already have installed on top of my hives.

You can also use cake pans, pie tins, even the bottom of plastic storage containers. Once dry, they should pop out by turning them over.

I considered making sugar cakes in the feeding shims but bees don't go to the sides, they work their way up the center of the hive. Sugar cakes do help with hive moisture so it's helpful to have sugar boards and sugar cakes in a hive, if for no other reason.

For me, the smaller sugar cakes are easier because I can place the sugar cakes immediately over the cluster. The cluster is easy to find by placing one's hand over the feeding shim and feeling the heat the cluster generates.

With smaller sugar cakes, I can also more easily store any extras I have for later use.

If the mixture doesn't dry, remix adding a very little sugar at a time. Before you decide it's not working, wait, these can take 2-4 days to dry to a hard consistency depending on the humidity in your house.

Once dry, remove from container, turn the sugar cakes over and let the bottom side dry out. I leave them top side down for at least a couple of days.

Save any sugar chunks that fall off. You can re-use the sugar in spring sugar water. The lighter spring sugar syrup is a favorite of other pollinators including butterflies. 

Store in an airtight container and replace as needed.

Charlotte

A Gift of Honey

A gift of raw, strained honey from my bee buddy David. Thanks, David!

A Gift of Honey

One of the best gifts you can give a beekeeper is a bottle of honey, preferably from your own hives but a bottle of real honey nevertheless.

No two bottles of honey are the same, nor will they taste the same so giving honey is similar to gifting a bottle of wine. The soil terroir, what plants are available, weather conditions - all contribute to the unique taste of honey. It can also vary by time of year harvested and even by honey color.

As beekeeping friends, it's always a treat to have a honey jar gifted. My bee buddy David gave me a little honey bear of his 2016 honey harvest, raw strained honey with no other modifications. It's just like the bees made it.

The back of David's honey bear so that I will know where the honey came from - his apiary.

In 2015, I was part of a Missouri State Beekeepers Association team working successfully with Missouri's Legislature to update the state's honey bottling law. Previously, honey was lumped in with jams and jellies, requiring beekeepers to invest in $30,000 commercial kitchens to be able to bottle honey for sale.

With the changes in Missouri's honey bottling laws, beekeepers can now bottle the honey in their kitchens and add labels with the honey source prior to sales. No need to build, or use, commercial kitchens. As beekeepers, we are not making the honey, as one does with jams and jellies. All beekeepers are doing is bottling what bees have made.

Sorry, this bottle of honey is not for sale. It was a gift and I fully intend to enjoy it over cold winter days.

Thank you, David, and please thank your bees. This honey looks more like Grade A+!

Charlotte

Portable Observation Hive

One of Rolla Bee Club's students checks out a visiting observation hive full of bees.

Portable Observation Hive

There are a number of portable observation hives on the market. Most of the ones I have seen add one frame of bees to the visible area, leaving the rest of the colony behind. The challenge with that design is that the bees are separated from the queen and, within a short period of time, become agitated when they can't smell her pheromone. That means whatever is being observed is not regular behavior but stressed behavior.

Two of my beekeeping friends came up with this improved model. The observation hive is basically a nuc full of bees, or five frames of bees in a box that fits the frames. Four the frames are in the bottom box and the fifth frame is in the observation area.

The colony is intact and the bees are going about their business in a much more normal way.

One of the favorite beekeeping past times, trying to locate the queen.

When not in use as an observation hive, these bees can be left outside just as they are.

The handles on the sides make moving the observation hive box easier.

These observation hives are fun to watch.

We often have an observation hive at our spring and summer club meetings so anyone thinking about beekeeping can watch the bees up close.

Heck, even experienced beekeepers enjoy settling down in front of the observation hive and watching the bees!

Charlotte

I See Bees Everywhere....

This gift of Nestle hot cocoa includes a little bee as the source, how cute!

I See Bees Everywhere....

Ever since I started beekeeping in 2010, I see bees all around me. I don't mean my bees are always with me, although some tend to be, especially when I'm working in my garden. It's a new awareness I have to bee-related references, and items.

A friend recently gave me a gift of hot cocoa in a cute coffee-like mug. She picked the mug, she said, because she knew I was a gardener and loved flowers.

What a charming surprise to find the hot cocoa that accompanied the gift mug had a bee on it. When I mentioned the bee, she was also surprised, she said she had not even seen the bee when she selected the cocoa.

That's okay, I told her, the bee just makes it that much more special, don't you think?

Charlotte

Getting Bees Ready for Winter

Getting Bees Ready for Winter

It's been a record warm Missouri November 2016. Usually by now I have all of my hives tucked in for winter, all of my plants in my garden and my hot cocoa stash refreshed. I am behind on getting all three done.

When I heard the weather forecaster call for below freezing temperatures by the weekend, I decided I had to make getting my bees ready for winter a priority. I can't do a last inspection, my bees have their wood hives nicely sealed with propolis and I don't want to break those seals.

Instead, I removed the frames on the edges to peek down inside and make sure there was nothing obviously amiss. I also refreshed my small hive beetle traps so on those days when temperatures warm up again, hopefully I can catch some of these sub-Sahara Africa pests that earlier this year caused havoc with some of my colonies.

To get ready for winter, I also made sure all of their hive entrances were reduced. I will reduce the entrances even more in the next couple of days to one bee-width holes but right now, several bees can easily get in and out of the hives.

The feeding shim on top gives bees another entrance in case the bottom gets snow-covered and makes it easier for me to feed them mid-winter.

I also added my feeding shims to the top of the hives so that I can easily feed them if need be mid-winter.

The shims are about 2 inches wide with two little holes that give the hive an alternate entrance in case the bottom door is blocked with snow. I like to add the shims now so that when I need to feed them, I can do it quickly later.

I have one more step I will finish once the temperatures drop, I will wrap my hives in a black insulated material to help keep the wind from chilling the colony.

Hard to think about not seeing my bees now that cold weather is here. They are very much a part of my garden and the joy I feel when I am in it.

Charlotte

Honeybee Latte

Honeybee Latte

In case no one has said anything, keeping bees definitely changes one's perspective on life. In addition to the big picture shifts - realizing the role pollinators play on our planet - there are the little perspectives, too.

One of the more controversial is the actual word, "honeybee." As a beekeeper, I tend to focus on whenever I see the word, in this case on a menu of a local deli. But I also recall a very heated debate between two experienced beekeepers about whether the word is one word, as in honeybee, or two words - honey bees.

Since honeybees are the only bee in the world that produces enough honey to share, it makes sense that they would be called "honey bees." However, joining both words into one also makes sense.

The Oxford Dictionary, thankfully, says both spellings are acceptable.

Drink up!

Charlotte

Busy Bee Restaurant

Busy Bee Restaurant in Buffalo, New York courtesy of a friend on a road trip.

Busy Bee Restaurant

Once a beekeeper, one starts seeing bees everywhere. Or maybe it's more that now one is a beekeeper, one is more attuned to bees and beekeeping.

My friend Mark doesn't have that excuse but he does keep an eye out for bee-related items. This one is his largest one yet, a restaurant in Buffalo, New York with a charming bee theme, he came across during a recent road trip.

Inside the Busy Bee Restaurant in Buffalo, New York courtesy of my friend Mark, on a road trip.

Mark heads a local historical society so I suspect the older-looking building was part of the initial draw. The outside sign is also very enticing, a happy bee offering three meals breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Inside the restaurant, the theme continues with a variety of bee-related memorabilia. I like the bee in front of a skep over the lunch sign. Even though skeps aren't used any more in beekeeping, it is a popular symbol for beekeeping.

Looks like black and white articles about the restaurant, and possibly local beekeepers, are framed on the wall.

Now I will have to add this to my list of places to visit!

Have you been to the Busy Bee Restaurant in Buffalo, New York?

Charlotte

Butterflies Enjoy Bee Sugar Syrup, Too

Black swallowtail butterfly visits one of my bird baths hosting bees.

Butterflies Enjoy Bee Sugar Syrup, Too

When I have extra sugar water I feed hummingbirds, or even extra sugar syrup from feeding beginning bee colonies, I like to pour it into a bird bath so I can watch my bees.

Bees don't only carry nectar back to their hives, they will also collect sugar water. Although not as good as flower-produced nectar, sugar syrup gives bees the energy they need to keep going.

This sugar water is two parts water to one part sugar, the sugar syrup designed to encourage bees to store it for winter.

Although bees do enjoy sugar syrup in the summer, the goal of nectar and sugar syrup is to store it for winter consumption.

Black swallowtail butterflies also enjoy sugar water that attracts bees.

Butterflies don't store sugar syrup, they just enjoy what they find. I have both yellow and black swallowtail butterflies in my garden although I only see the black ones visiting the bee bar.

Honeybees share their bee bar of sugar water with black swallowtail butterflies in my garden.

This bee bar is a bird bath with rocks and sticks as safe landing spots for all visitors.

Do you see butterflies in your garden?

Charlotte

The Honey Makers Book by Gail Gibbons

This charming children's book easily explains the role of bees in our ecosystems.

The Honey Makers Book by Gail Gibbons

If you are looking for a bee book for a child, the Honey Makers by Gail Gibbons is an excellent choice.

The colorful paperback book has charming illustrations of bees and beekeeping. The explanations are simply clear, and the concepts cover the basics from the role of bees in pollination to the various places they live.

One of the pages in Gail Gibbons "The Honey Makers" showing the various bee homes.

Even if the gift recipient is young and can't read, the illustrations convey the relationship bees have to flowers.

When my brothers were growing up, they loved well-illustrated books and would make their own stories based on the drawings and pictures.

Our grandmother, who worked at a used book store in California, would send us wonderful books for Christmas gifts. After the furor of unwrapping presents, we would all settle down to leaf through books together, each one an invitation to a new place or adventure.

A forager bee visits a flower in Gail Gibbon's "The Honey Maker" color illustrations.

To further personalize, add a little jar of your honey and a gift card inviting the child to an apiary visit next spring. Children are the future of beekeeping. The earlier we can get them engaged, the better we will all "bee"!

Do you have a favorite children's beekeeping book?

Charlotte

Donated Beekeeping Books

Rolla Public Library Director Diana Watkins takes a peek at beekeeping books donated by Rolla Bee Club, and my bee buddy, David Draker.

Donated Beekeeping Books

One of the most frequently-asked questions I get, both locally and through Missouri State Beekeepers Association, where I serve as the answer lady, is how to get started in beekeeping.

The answer is, start attending local beekeeping club meetings and reading. Like any specialty, beekeeping has a language all of its own and to understand what experienced beekeepers are saying, it is helpful to know what the different parts of a hive, and bee, are called.

When I started beekeeping, I read everything I could get my hands on. I still read, and I have a pile of books ready for winter reading. The days of raising bees in a skep - a romantic idea that was deadly for bees - or placing a hive on the back forty and not worrying about it are gone, today bees have a lot of challenges. To be a good beekeeper, one must become an amateur biologist and stay on top of current research.

To that end, my bee buddy David Draker and I did an inventory of what beekeeping books were available at our local library. We then compared notes on what books we had each read, and liked, and sampled books recommended to us. 

After getting the suggestion that people wanted to have access to borrow beekeeping books, we worked with our local public library to donate a selection of our favorite beekeeping books, from a book for children about bees and how to build your own beekeeping equipment to our very own "go-to" book, the Beekeeper's Handbook:

The selection of beekeeping books that will soon be available on loan from Rolla Public Library.

The idea is for beekeepers to be able to sample a variety of beekeeping books and then decide which ones they need for their home library. If someone is keeping bees for honey, for example, they are going to have a different focus than someone keeping bees for pollination.

Having a variety of beekeeping books also introduces potential beekeepers to a range of advice and information, something they will find very prevalent when talking to beekeepers. The joke is ask three beekeepers a question and you will get five different answers. There's a good reason for that, it depends on why one is keeping bees but it can be confusing to beginning beekeepers.

Proceeds from our local club's book sales, and donations, paid for the books. The library will be adding a book plate on the front of each book marking our donation.

We hope these books will help beekeepers on their fascinating, and challenging, journey of keeping bees.

Do you have a favorite beekeeping book?

Charlotte

Burned Out Smoker

Burned Out Smoker

Even experienced beekeepers will tell you one of the hardest skills to develop as a beekeeper is keeping one's smoker going.

A smoker is a soup-can like shape with a lid and bellows attached to keep the small fire inside going as beekeepers inspect their hives. One theory is the smoke keeps bees busy gorging on honey to escape the hive. Another theory is that the smoke calms the bees. Regardless of theories, smoke does move bees out of an area.

I inherited a very old smoker when I started keeping bees in 2010. The smoker was part of several pieces of used equipment I purchased from a local commercial beekeeper. No skep, as I had initially thought I would get, but he did "throw in" the used smoker. Although the smoker had seen better days, I didn't have the heart to give it up. It was my first smoker, who doesn't think of their first one as being special!

Keeping the fire going inside the soup can is an art form. After trying a number of items, from pinecones and dry mulch to newspapers and twine, I found it worked best as long as I could use pine needles and had the patience to get it properly started.

Once a fire is taking off, it helps to tilt the smoker to one side and gently puff oxygen through it. Not too much, just enough to keep the fire going so smoke getd produced and some embers get formed at the bottom.

Recently I was cleaning out the old smoker and noticed that the little metal table at the bottom, which allows oxygen to circulate, has a hole burned through it. When it cooled off enough for me to remove it, the little circle also appeared to be loosing a couple of legs so soon the grate surface won't give the bottom of the smoker enough clearance for oxygen.

Guess it may be time to put a smoker on my Christmas list.

What do you use to keep your smoker going?

Charlotte