Video: Killing Bees - Are Government and Industry Responsible?

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/03/29/article-1371182-055C72E3000005DC-81_468x341.jpg

Today is just a quick link to a video. This is an interesting documentary about honeybees and their decline over the last decade. There is a stong case to be made at placing the blame at the feet of government and agriculture corporations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i97o0slqv-s

From their press release:
Whether you are a beekeeper, a conservationist, an ecologist, a food-producer or a parent - please take half an hour to watch this new American video documentary about the global death of honeybees, bumblebees and other pollinators. 

This is NOT just about the death of entire bee populations around the world, it is about the potential loss of 30% of our food supply and an all-out assault on the ecosystems of the world: insects, birds, amphibians, bats, fish - everything is threatened by the global distribution of hyper-toxic, neuro-toxic pesticides being applied to over 200 million acres of corn and crops in North America alone.

The Beauty of Pollination

The following video is an amazing look at some of the most common plant pollinators (bees, hummingbirds, butterflies, flies, and bats). Stunning slow-motion videography with a peaceful soundtrack combines to make a breathtaking video. I highly recommend you take 4 minutes to watch this. About three-quarters through, there is a bat that is flying, eating, and nursing its pup... all at the same time!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQiszdkOwuU

 

Plants for Beneficial Insects

Ladybug on Tansy.

http://www.earthtimes.org/newsimage/tansy_herpes_242.jpg

There are a long list of beneficial insects that can aid our gardens and orchards. These insects reduce the number of pests by directly killing and eating the adults, larvae, and/or eggs of these pests. Beneficial insects may also use these pests as hosts for their own eggs and larvae - just picture the movie Alien, and you'll be right on track.

Cornflower (aka Bachelors button) is a stunning flower.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/39/Bachelor's_button,_Basket_flower,_Boutonniere_flower,_Cornflower_-_3.jpg/200px-Bachelor's_button,_Basket_flower,_Boutonniere_flower,_Cornflower_-_3.jpg

While there are a few of these beneficial insects that are completely predatory, the vast majority need food from other sources, namely and chiefly nectar and pollen. The smaller and more numerous the flowers that provide the nectar and pollen are, the more useful the flowers are for the beneficial insects.

Spike Speedwell comes in a variety of colors.

http://www.northcreeknurseries.com/_ccLib/image/plants/DETA-333.jpg

Following is a list of some more common plants that attract and sustain beneficial insects, but keep in mind that this list is not all inclusive. There are many other plants not listed here today. Also, remember Permaculture Principle One: Observe and Interact. Observe what is occuring in your yard and in your area. What plants are covered with Lacewings or Predatory Wasps? Consider growing more of these on your land. Also, keep in mind that many of these plants are beautiful in their own right and also useful in many other ways such as cullinary herbs, edible greens, root vegetables, medicinal plants, etc.

• Basket of Gold
• Buckwheat
• Butterfly weed
• Carpet bugleweed
• Chamomile
• Chervil
• Chives
• Clover
• Cornflower (Bachelors button)
• Cosmos
• Coreopsis
• Cinquefoil
• Coriander
• Dandelion
• Dill
• Fennel
• Four-wing saltbush
• Golden marguerite
• Marigold
• Mustard
• Parsley
• Queen anne's lace
• Scented geraniums
• Spike speedwell
• Sunflowers
• Tansy
• Vetch
• Wild carrot
• Yarrow

Basket of Gold, a perennial alyssum, is a beautiful attractor of beneficial insects.

http://0.tqn.com/d/landscaping/1/0/S/T/yellow_alyssum_large.jpg

 

 

Permaculture Projects: Structures for Overwintering Insects

I was going through some photos of a trip we took to Germany.  We brought the kids to a wildlife park.  In Germany, the wildlife parks are large, relaxing managed forests with extensive paddocks for animals.  They are a great place to leisurely enjoy nature while seeing a lot of animals.  The kids and adults love it.

One of the things we saw was this structure pictured at the top of this post.  It is a collection of insect homes.  The small burrows drilled in wood or crevices in brick, straw, pine cones, and sticks are a fantastic place for beneficial insects to overwinter.  

You can see in this close-up that some of the ends 

of the small bamboo sticks are covered with mud.

These sticks are currently inhabited!

We often keep our yards and gardens so tidy that our beneficial insects have no place to go for the winter. They end up either freezing to death or migrating out of our yard and into a place that is more suitable... never to return.  

By providing homes like these, we can increase our chances that the beneficial insects will stick around year after year.  This reduces our pest issues, and it reduces our need to import beneficial insects.

Beneficial Insects: Fly Parasites

Fly Parasite stinging a fly pupa!

http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/graphics/photos/aug02/k9933-2i.jpg

Fly Parasites
Latin Name:  Muscidifurax zaraptor, Spanglia spp. (over 340 species in the Muscidifurax genera)
The majority of the information available about the Fly Parasite is on M. zaraptor, but most commercial insectaries sell a combination of both.

An emerging adult Fly Parasite.

http://chem-gro.com/cart/images/Fly_Parasite.JPG

Why are they beneficial?
These tiny wasps kill fly pupa (pupae are like hard cocoons) of most flies including the house flies and stable flies.  The common house fly, also called a "filth fly", live on/near manure and garbage waste and have the ability to transmit diseases.  In fact, they are able to transmit over 100 pathogens to humans including typhoid, cholera, tuberculosis, and anthrax.  Keeping filth fly numbers down is part of preventive medicine!  The tiny Fly Parasite is harmless to humans and other animals.  Fly Parasites should be just one part of our fly reduction plans which should also include sanitation, proper waste disposal (likely in the form of good composting habits), and additional fly predators (like muscovy ducks).

Casings of fly pupa with holes showing where the Fly Parasite emerged.

http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z257/americanwildlife/Insect/Muscidifurax_raptor_2.jpg

What is their lifecycle?
The female Fly Parasite will sting a fly pupa and kill it.  It will then lay an egg in the pupal case.  The egg will hatch and the Fly Parasite larvae will feed on the dead fly pupa.  The adult Fly Parasite will emerge in 19-21 days, will mate, and will begin looking for new fly pupa to deposit eggs.  The adult will attack about 50 fly pupae in its life.  Some Fly Parasites can overwinter, but the number drastically falls with winter.

Adult Fly Parasites also feed on the fluids from fly pupae.  Sometimes, the adult female will sting and kill a fly pupa without laying an egg.  Fluid from the fly pupae will leak out of the stinging site, and the female will feed on it.  She will even share with nearby males.

The small but helpful Fly Parasite.

http://rossalpacaranch.com/images/male-muscidifurax-raptor.jpg

What do they look like?
They look like wasps!  They are really tiny, black wasps, about 0.04-0.08 inches (1-2 mm) long.

What do they need?
There is not a tremendous amount of information available about the Fly Parasites.  The main thing they need to survive is a population of flies as prey.  If we have flies around us, then that is likely all the Fly Parasite needs.  Fly Parasites are also very susceptible to pesticides, so here is yet another reason to avoid pesticides.

This is how Fly Parasites arrive.

http://www.marchbiological.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/flyparasites.jpg

Purchase:
It is recommended to purchase only Fly Parasites from commercial insectaries that are free from microsporidosis.  Fly Parasites are available for purchase.  They are typically shipped in a paper bag full of wood shavings.  Inside the wood shavings are a bunch of fly pupa that have host Fly Parasites maturing inside.  Try to sprinkle the Fly Parasites in areas that flies are breeding.  The new adult Fly Parasite will fly in about a 100 yard (91 meter) radius from where it emerges in search of prey.  The best results are achieved by releasing the Fly Parasites before the flies become a problem.  Small but steady releases, like  will keep the flies in check.  There is a wide range of advice on how many Fly Parasites to release on a farm, but a good rule of thumb is 500 per large animal, 250 per medium animal, 5 per small animal, and 5 per cubic foot of compost.  First release is in early spring, and repeat every 2-4 weeks in fly season.


Check out these other pages on beneficial insects in your garden!
Bees
Fly Parasites
Lacewings
Ladybugs
Praying Mantis
Trichogramma Wasps

The Xerces Society

www.xerces.org

From their website:
The Xerces Society is a nonprofit organization that protects wildlife through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitat. Established in 1971, the Society is at the forefront of invertebrate protection worldwide, harnessing the knowledge of scientists and the enthusiasm of citizens to implement conservation programs.


Butterflies, dragonflies, beetles, worms, starfish, mussels, and crabs are but a few of the millions of invertebrates at the heart of a healthy environment. Invertebrates build the stunning coral reefs of our oceans; they are essential to the reproduction of most flowering plants, including many fruits, vegetables, and nuts; and they are food for birds, fish, and other animals. Yet invertebrate populations are often imperiled by human activities and rarely accounted for in mainstream conservation.


The Society uses advocacy, education, and applied research to defend invertebrates.


Over the past three decades, we have protected endangered species and their habitats, produced ground-breaking publications on insect conservation, trained thousands of farmers and land managers to protect and manage habitat, and raised awareness about the invertebrates of forests, prairies, deserts, and oceans.

One of the programs that they offer (I am hoping to take one of these days) is their Pollinator Conservation Course.  Many of these day-long courses are offered for free or for minimal cost (around $30).  They are offered in many places around the U.S. and they were just approved through a grant by the SARE to do a tour through the southeastern United States.  Their Pollinator Conservation page is here.  Their extensive Pollination Conservation Resource Center page is here.  Their listing of upcoming Pollinator Conservation Courses is here.

Take some time to check out this website, their resources, and find out what they may be doing near you.

Beneficial Insects: Ichneumon Wasps

This Ichneumon Wasp is about to lay an egg inside this butterfly pupae.

http://rangerjames.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/pupa-attacked-by-ichneumon-fly-low-res-version.jpg?w=500&h=781

Ichneumon Wasps
Latin Name: Family Ichneumonidea (over 60,000 species worldwide and over 3,000 species in North America)

Another caterpillar about to be injected with an egg.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3227/2646328285_65d74ed403.jpg

Why are they beneficial?
Just picture the Aliens movie genre when I describe these wasps.  Ichneumon Wasps typically don't have the ability to sting in self defense.  The females of the species have long ovipositors (egg laying tubes) in place of a stinger.  Most species inject their eggs into a host's body, and some will include a bit of venom with the injection.  The egg hatches and the larva will eat the host from the inside out as it grows, typically saving the vital organs for last to keep the host alive as long as possible.  The host is usually a larva or pupa (e.g. caterpillars, grubs, beetle larvae, scale, plant bugs, leafhoppers, etc)... species which can often cause great damage in our gardens.

Ichneumon Wasp about to inject a case or bag moth caterpillar in Australia.

This caterpillar constructs a home on its back with material from its environment.  Not safe enough!

http://www.brisbaneinsects.com/brisbane_parawasps/images/IMG_0004b.jpg

What is their lifecycle?
Male Ichneumon Wasps will search for a female with which to mate.  He has no stinger.  After mating, the female will search for a place to lay her fertilized eggs.  Some will lay their eggs in the ground, but most look for a host larvae or pupa.  The female will land on the host and pierce the host with its sharp ovipositor.  At least one egg will be deposited into the host, and then the female will fly away.  It seems that most Ichneumon Wasp species target only one or a few host species.  Each one is different.  Some Ichneumon Wasps only target wood-boring larvae (of wasps or beetles).  These females actually have metal (manganese or zinc) in their ovipositor!

The egg will hatch, and the larvae will feed on the host.  The larval stage can range anywhere from ten days to a few weeks.  Most Ichneumon larvae will feed on the non-vital tissues first and then feed on the vital organs last to keep the host alive as long as possible.  Some larvae never kill the host while in the larval stage.  Eventually, the larvae will pupate either inside the host (with the host sometimes still alive) or outside the host (and they may use the host's remains as part of the cocoon).

The adult Ichneumon Wasp will emerge from the cocoon and will typically begin to look for a mate right away.  Some species have only one generation per year, while others may have two or more generations per year.

Another species of Ichneumon Wasp

http://www.organicgardeninfo.com/images/ichneumon-wasp.jpg

What do they look like?
They look like wasps!  Really, they look like skinny wasps with unusual color patterns and markings.  They are usually black or dark colored with lighter colored legs.  Size can range from an eighth of an inch (about 3 mm) to over five inches (12 cm) including the ovipositor.  Females will have long thread-like ovipositors that look like long stingers, but they don't sting - so don't be afraid.  Males lack the ovipositor.  They have unusually long antennae; some species use these antennae to tap along wood to detect hollow spots that house burrowing larvae.

So many species!

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/natureplus/servlet/JiveServlet/showImage/2-10597-14490/Insects+Ichneumon+Wasp+A+043+260509.jpg?fromGateway=true

What do they need?
Adults typically feed on nectar of flowers, shrubs, and trees.  The smaller the flower, the easier it is for these wasps to feed.  It has been said that ichneumon wasps prefer members of the carrot family.

Examples of plants that provide nectar and pollen to beneficial insects: basket of gold, buckwheat, butterfly weed,carpet bugleweed, chamomile, chervil, chives, clover, cornflower, cosmos, coreopsis, cinquefoil, coriander, dandelion, dill, fennel, four-wing saltbush, golden marguerite, marigold, mustard, parsley, queen anne's lace, scented geraniums, spike speedwell, sunflowers, tansy, vetch, wild carrot, and yarrow.

Adult Ichneumon Wasp drinking the nectar of a carrot flower.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgDJ8QYJU6U84uEj0WNbphaQ3WCucB5nwnaBj-KQTNXEEmpZUohaAKQwkKEmmIM30EhvTLlOAohA3uZ0DbBYTuJtqmGCVHcAVqAhM2nf3p0hD8AtVseQzEteIAI3bO370jzi2xeP8Xgu5W/s1600-h/DSCN6765.JPG

Purchase:
These wasps are not available to buy.  If we create a good habitat for them, they will arrive on their own.

A beautiful female ichneumon wasp, Megarhyssa marcrurus, looking for larvae of the horntail wasp - a wood burrowing larvae.

http://www.cirrusimage.com/Hymenoptera/megarhyssa_fem_008.jpg

She found her host and begins drilling with her metal-tipped ovipositor.

http://www.cirrusimage.com/Hymenoptera/Meg_ryan_01.jpg

Check out these other pages on beneficial insects in your garden!
Bees
Lacewings
Ladybugs
Praying Mantis
Trichogramma Wasps

Beneficial Insects: Trichogramma Wasps

Trichogramma Wasp about to lay its eggs in pest eggs.

http://www.pnas.org/content/105/29/F1.medium.gif

Trichogramma Wasps 
(pronounced TRICK-oh-gram-uh)
Latin Name: Genus Trichogramma (over 230 species )

A pair of wasps laying eggs

http://www.biofloris.com/blog_en/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Image-4-Parasitic-Wasp-Trichogramma-spp.jpg

Why are they beneficial?
This tiny parasitic wasp lays its eggs inside the eggs of pests (moths and butterflies).  Their prey includes eggs of the alafala caterpillar, armyworms (but not beet armyworms), bagworms, bollworms, cabbage looper, cankerworm, codling moth, corn borers, corn earworm, cutworm, fruitworms, leafworms, peach borers, squash borers, tomato hornworm, wax moth, and webworms.

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/NE/IMAGES/trichogramma_spp.jpg

What is their life cycle?
An adult female with lay eggs in up to 300 pest eggs on average during her 9-11 day adult life. Sometimes a female may lay up to 50 eggs in one pest egg.  The wasp eggs will hatch and the larvae will slowly grow, feeding on the contents (embryo and yolk) of the pest egg.  Adult wasps emerge from their hosts in 7-75 days, after pupating within the egg and then chewing a hole through the shell.  This length of time depends on the species and the climatic conditions.  Almost immediately, the Trichogramma Wasps will start looking for new pest eggs in which to deposit their own eggs.  They may or may not mate.  Most Trichogramma Wasps are female and usually don't need a male to reproduce.

These are tiny little wasps!

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZyHuuOSywVOPZXfd1ToP9wF7PYHNnp1Vb2IJnZ5lDNs2C5Xe12Cb6RtFfBtFgfCxLeVqJMRbhq7e0-M4gJ0x2UUI1Uyi9h3DuIlSeHaFKAps3IYk5Kp9SU6ZNRxsD2DRWGrGJbXHPsz3j/s400/DownloadedFile.jpeg

What do they look like?
These wasps are TINY... almost microscopic at less than 1 millimeter (less than 1/50th of an inch).  They are also called "stingless" wasps since they are in the same Order (Hymenoptera) as bees and other wasps, but they are too small to harm humans.  While they do resemble miniature yellow jackets (dark yellow or yellow and black with red eyes), most of the over 230 species are so similar that only experts can tell them apart.  Their eggs and larvae are so small that little (no pun intended) is known about them.  You can try to spot them in your garden with a magnifying glass.  The eggs of parasitized pest eggs with change color, usually becoming darker than the other eggs near it (sometimes turning metallic blue).

Another great image of the tiny Trichogramma Wasp

http://www.readysetfix.com/Wasp_1.jpg

What do they need?
They need healthy prey.  What does that mean?  Don't use pesticides.  Pesticides will kill the hosts (caterpillar and worm eggs), but will also destroy the Trichogramma Wasps - either directly or by not providing them with food.  These wasps can destroy up to 98% of the pest eggs in some areas.  If we can accept a little bit of depredation of our crops to allow food for these voracious wasps, we can almost eliminate the need for chemicals on and in our food plants.  Scientists still don't know if the Trichogramma Wasps eat anything other than pest eggs, but tiny flowers with nectar would be the likely food choice.  Since these flowers are so useful in feeding other beneficial insects, you should always have a good supply in bloom just in case.

Examples of plants that provide nectar and pollen to beneficial insects: basket of gold, buckwheat, butterfly weed,carpet bugleweed, chamomile, chervil, chives, clover, cornflower, cosmos, coreopsis, cinquefoil, coriander, dandelion, dill, fennel, four-wing saltbush, golden marguerite, marigold, mustard, parsley, queen anne's lace, scented geraniums, spike speedwell, sunflowers, tansy, vetch, wild carrot, and yarrow.

Trichogramma Wasp eggs ready for relase

http://www.dirtdoctor.com/pics/content_img.1877.img.jpg

Purchased
You can purchase Trichogramma Wasps from many online retailers.  They come on 1 inch square tabs of paper that contain 3,000-5,000 pest eggs "infected" with Trichogramma Wasp pupae.  Release rates vary depending on the source but range from 1 tab per 1,000-5,000 square feet or 5-10 tabs per acre.  It is often recommended to continue to put out tabs once every 2-6 weeks during the growing season depending on the pest load.  You can stick the tabs on a branch or other solid garden surface with a needle, paperclip, or heavy string.
Note: When purchasing, keep in mind that some species of Trichogramma Wasp only prey on certain species of pest eggs.  Review the pests in your area and let find out which wasp(s) will be best for your garden.

Check out these other pages on beneficial insects in your garden!
Bees
Lacewings
Ladybugs
Praying Mantis
Trichogramma Wasps

Beneficial Insects: Praying Mantis

Praying Mantis

Praying Mantis Eating Grasshopper

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfXhHS2XZHbt4N62X9EOewZy8rPWmDOAT5vbITpd8wvOvwwhbrdHwbmIdlAEGfvNw9dW-oPFbgvLk2zFpbvcSz2SzUt1VZeRY7cxn1tO8ry-TCi1O5NKGeGZhd4Klqs9m3I4cHuyy5Zds/s640/praying-mantis-eating-grass-hopper.jpg

Latin Name: Order Mantodea.  (15 families and over 2,200 species in the world.)

Love this image of a Praying Mantis in defense mode... can I get a hallelujah!

http://quantumbiologist.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/prayingmantis2-703775.jpeg

Why are they beneficial?
Adults and nymphs are ferocious general predators.  
They eat all insects (and sometimes small lizards, frogs, birds, snakes, fish, and rodents!).
Unfortunately, they will eat other beneficial insects, too, but their usefulness outweighs this drawback.

What is their life cycle?
The male will mate with a female in Autumn, and about 15% of the time the female will engage in "sexual cannabalism"... yeah, she will eat her mate, usually starting with the head.
The female will lay her eggs (containing from 10-400 eggs) in a frothy mass that hardens into an egg case called an ootheca.
The egg case is typically attached to a flat surface (like a wall) or around a plant stem or sometimes directly on the ground.
When temperatures begin to warm up in spring time, the egg case will hatch.
The newly hatched nymphs look almost identical to the adults, but they are smaller, cannot fly, and are sexually immature.
Within about 6 months, after several moltings, the adult mantis arrives.

What do they look like?
These guys are pretty easy to spot, but I will show you the egg case (ootheca) and the nymphs as well.

Mating pair of Praying Mantises/Mante

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkSAi03O3LUMhz0X2xi2dm1z1KktEK7a_Tk7_5ORmqoswhvpT_4xgYbzLMkJnRiAViKPYnQKdgsIM5PlMHghsspU-SVKvYU2usrPEoYWPqptr_IRTlGxYWAmNWbB0woKp8eqFev2so-ME/s400/praying+mantis+mating2.jpg

Female eating the head of her mate... I guess there are worse ways to die!

http://easegill.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/pm-5.jpg

Praying mantis laying eggs.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggwRiHd3PrsUJPPl2FNalI3lcb249K6fbjHOUQj2Jcpb_EkKf42O-0-XHCg880KODsBb3l_5Gr-Dbw6652OjGz46pu4ynWe4ZUXCLA2cgZTN9z9sIU5qJA_c_lOZrDGLnWRLNlcoa-lPA/s400/IMG_3417.jpg

There are a variety of shapes and sizes and colors for an egg case (ootheca).

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3312/3503360869_e17f29cc8d.jpg

Egg Case (ootheca) for size

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5133/5484957292_d8273a15ba.jpg

Nymphs hatching... very cool... a little creepy!

http://share.triangle.com/sites/share-uda.triangle.com/files/images/DSC02853.preview.JPG

Praying Mantis Nymph.

http://media.photobucket.com/image/recent/corsiphoto/photos-part2/38657547.jpg

Praying Mantis Adult.

http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/images14/PrayingMantisCIMG4508.JPG

Praying mantises can have a variety of sizes, colors, and shapes.

http://www.pbase.com/emily/image/23511256

What do they need?
Praying Mantises feed exclusively on insects (and occasionally other small animals as well).  Most species are ambush predators, but some will chase their prey.  Adults die at the end of the season.  Only the egg case will survive until the next spring; it is very winter hardy.  There is very little a person needs to do to attract/keep these insects around other than avoiding chemicals that will poison them directly or indirectly through their food.  You can always purchase egg cases to set out in your garden as well.



Check out these other pages on beneficial insects in your garden!
Bees
Lacewings
Ladybugs
Praying Mantis
Trichogramma Wasps

Introduction to Beekeeping

Honey Bee on Apple Blossoms

http://th07.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/i/2011/112/3/9/honey_bee_and_apple_tree_by_eresaw-d3eljpp.jpg

Benefits of Beekeeping. 
It's not all about the honey... well, okay, mostly it is.  But there are some other things that make it a great addition to your Permaculture design.

• Minimal time investment (short visits about once a week to once every three weeks during the spring and summer, much less during autumn and winter)
• Small investment of money to get started.
• Minimal maintenance required.
• Great rewards in pollination for your gardens
• About 1-2 gallons (12-24 lbs) of honey in your first year or two.
• Average is about 2-4 gallons (24-48 lbs) of honey in a summer.
• A good year can produce 4-5 gallons (48-60 lbs) or even well over 100 lbs in the right locations.

Ukranian Beekeeping History Stamps - I love this!

http://myweb.wvnet.edu/~roman/souvenir_sheets/souvenir_images/beekeeping.jpg

Brief History of Beekeeping

• Humans have been gathering honey from the wild since humans first walked the earth.  Why?  'Cause it tastes so darn good!
• Many ancient cultures raised honey bees and collected honey using hollow logs and pottery that had to be destroyed to obtain the honey.
• At least three thousand years ago, in ancient Israel, there was a thriving honey and wax industry.
• Aristotle (Greek) and Virgil (Roman) wrote wrote at length on beekeeping.
• In the 18th Century, scientists began to study the honey bee in earnest.
• One of the more amazing stories in science is that of Francois Huber who became blind before he was twenty.  With the aid of his wife and his secretary, he created a glass-walled beehive and studied the honey bee.  His research laid the scientific foundations of the life history of honey bees.  Seriously?  While he was blind?  This blows me away!
• Using Huber's research, Langstroth developed the first real moveable comb hive in 1853  His basic design is what most beekeepers still use today (with some minor modifications).

Standard 10-Frame "Langstroth" Hive

http://www.greenroadfarm.com/images/beekeeping/hive_diagram.gif

Top Bar Hive

http://mistressbeek.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/topbarhive-plans.png

Equipment for Beekeeping

• Standard 10-frame hive (with all components - see diagram above).  Here are PDF instructions for building your own Standard Langstroth Hive.
• Some people are using the Top Bar Hive (see above and link to Wikipedia article) instead of the Standard Langstroth Hive.  It is much cheaper to build, bees are easier to interact with, and it is much lighter to handle/carry.  It does not save the combs for future use.  Top Bar Hives are being used a lot in developing countries, and it is something I am going to look a lot more into for myself.  Here are instructions for building your own Top Bar Hive.
• Bee veil - so you don't get stung in the face.
• Gloves
• Bee smoker - Slowly burns fuels (hessian, burlap, pine needles, or prepared fuels) and masks the alarm pheromone in bees.  They also think the hive may be on fire, so they start eating honey in case they need to escape.  Yes, you are being mean and tricking a little insect.
• Hive Tool - used to pry the frames apart to remove and examine them
• Bee Brush - brush bees off a honey frame
• Uncapping knife - electric heated knife that makes removing the caps easier to extract the honey
• Feeder (to provide sugar syrup until the hive is established)
• Centrifugal Extractor (optional) - spins the frame around to extract the honey without damaging the combs. You can also hang the frame over a heat source (Carla Emery, author of The Encyclopedia of Country Living, suggests a wood stove) and let the honey melt away from the comb into a collecting pan.
• Beekeeping Clothing (Helmet, Coveralls, etc) - Optional.  Gives you fairly definitive protection, but many beekeepers gradually use less and less protective clothing as they feel more comfortable.
• Bees - typically people buy a 3 lb package through the mail (9,000-10,000 bees), but you can also purchase from a local beekeeper or collect a swarm (see below).

The Italian Honey Bee

They will make you an offer you can't refuse... okay, sorry.  That was lame.

http://www.delange.org/TurpentineBush/Dsc00016.jpg

Types of Honey Bees
There are about 20,000 species of bees.  There are only 7 species of honey bee.
Almost all honey bee keepers use the Western or Common Honey Bee, Apis mellifera.
There are many subspecies of Apis mellifera that have been developed over time and in different locations.  The most common is the Italian Honey Bee, Apis mellifera ligustica.  The other two most common types are the Carnolian and Caucasian.  There are many hybrids of these as well.

Illustration of Honey Bee Caste

http://www.oxfordshirebeekeepers.com/userimages/Castes.jpg

Photos of the Honey Bee Caste

Note that the Queen in purchased colonies have a small paint spot for easier identification.

http://www.westmtnapiary.com/media_images/gif/3bees.gif

Honey Bee Castes
Honey bees have a caste system.  There is one queen, 100-1,000 males/"drones" (that leave the hive to mate then die), and 10,000-50,000 female workers who do all the building, cleaning, foraging, honey making, and care for the young.  The queen is the only sexually mature female.  She lives 1-3 years.  All the workers and drones are her offspring.  Yes, you read that right... the women do all the work, and the men have sex with their mother and die.

http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/beehive.jpg

Beekeeping Basics
Start planning in the winter.

Get your supplies ready and assemble your hive.  Paint it a light color if heat is an issue.  White is traditional.

Site the hive in a location that doesn't have a lot of foot traffic in the "landing zone" at the entrance.  This will reduce stings and will make your hive more relaxed.  Avoid placing it near any electrical or vibratory source (air conditioner, lawn mower route, etc).  Place them where they will get some early morning sun.  This will encourage them to go and forage earlier and will help warm it up in the winter.  Make sure you have a source of water close to the hive.  Ideally, water should be fresh and running.  Bees will bring water back to the hive to cool it using evaporation. If you see a bunch of bees at the entrance, then it may be too hot inside.  If no creek or stream is nearby, then a faucet slowly dripping water onto a flat surface will suffice.

Bees drinking.  Try to avoid still water like this. It may spread disease.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3432/3847732764_30b38b739a.jpg

Bees need nectar to produce honey.  Honey is their main food.  They do eat some pollen, but not too much and it is mixed with honey.  How do they get nectar?  From flowers!  So have a lot of them, all over, and as many types as you can.  A wide range of plants with differing flowering times is part of good design in Permaculture.  This is very beneficial for honey bees (as well as all the other beneficial insects that survive on nectar).  Honey bees can travel for miles to find nectar.  If there is nothing local, then your bees will take long trips.  This reduces production.

If you can afford two hives, it is better - you can compare progress, health, have more honey (share with the other if it is too low), and replace a queen if needed (take a brood frame from the hive with a queen, place it in the queen-less hive, and the workers will raise a new queen).

Order your bees.  Arrange to have your bees delivered about when you have the first flush of flowering of your plants in the spring. The earlier you get your bees in the season, the more time they have to build up (increasing their numbers and laying wax combs) and producing honey (first for themselves for food in the winter, and second as surplus... for you!)

Installing bees in a Top Bar Hive

http://kitsapcuisine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110417bees.jpg

Install your bees in the early evening of a sunny day or on a rainy day.  Pre-feed the bees with sugar syrup sprinkled on their cage.  Open the hive.  Remove 5 of the brood frames.  Place the queen cage (if you ordered your bees) between the top bars of a couple of the frames.  She will be trapped by a layer of candy.  Once the workers know she is there, they will eat away the candy and free her.  After the bees in the cage have eaten all they can, dump your bees in the open area of the hive.  Slowly and carefully replace the 5 brood frames.  The bees will move with smoke if needed.  Replace the lid.  Set up the feeder.  Stuff the entrance with grass to trap the bees in their new hive.  This will keep them inside for a day so they get used to and begin establishing their new home.

Check on them no more than once a week.  Monitor for problems.  Wait for the honey!

Beehives in Winter.

http://www.carniolan.info/images_brochure/slika8.JPG

Before winter make sure there is a windbreak to prevent cold winds.  Make sure there is enough food to last them the winter (upper hive body should be full and the lower hive body should be at least half full). If there is not enough honey, provide a feeder with sugar syrup.  Remove the queen excluder (this has kept the queen from laying eggs in the supers from which you want to take honey).  Provide an upper entrance for good air circulation.  Minimize the main opening to block mice and other predators.  Once winter hits, don't bother your bees.

Bee Stings
Yes, bees do sting.  But they only do so when they feel threatened.  Move slowly and gently.  Wear light colored clothing.  Almost all bee keepers get stung on a fairly regular basis regardless of what they tell you.  Most people develop a bit of an immunity to it.  Initially it will hurt!  Over time, the bee sting will still be painful, but it won't be that bad and won't last for too long.  I would recommend talking to your doctor, telling them you are a bee keeper, and requesting an Epi-Pen.  Anybody at any time can develop an allergy to bees... even if you have been stung hundreds of times in your life.

Swarming Honey Bees

A pretty depressing sight if these were your bees... but, finders keepers!

http://www.mnbeekeepers.com/images/swarm3.jpg

Swarming
Swarming is when the queen and a lot of the workers leave the hive to look for a new home.  The hive is left with workers, eggs, and larvae (one of which will be the new queen).  This can lead to reduced honey produced for you.  The number one reason for swarming is overcrowding, but overheating and consistent hive disturbance can also cause it.  Prevent overcrowding by adding more supers (extra frame boxes above the hive).  It is a good idea to add a super when the bees are working on 8 of the 10 frames.

A Queen Cell - many say it resembles a peanut.

http://www.beemaster.com/site/honeybee/logbooks/images/imageI1C.JPG

Signs that swarming may happen: A near stopping of flights in and out of the hive.  The workers are filling their stomachs with honey in preparation of leaving.  Also, watch for queen cells (for a replacement queen).  Their presence is usually in anticipation of swarming.

Honey Extraction and Honey Types
I'll reserve that for a later post.

Check out these other pages on beneficial insects in your garden!
Bees
Lacewings
Ladybugs
Praying Mantis
Trichogramma Wasps