Bees

It’s the time of the year for students to graduate from one stage of their education to the next. We don’t have students of our own at home, unless you count the cats, but we graduated some 10,000 or so bees! Let me explain. Since the car accident and head injury in 2016, my activities…

This afternoon we got a call about some bees that were swarming in a residential neighborhood near us. We had caught a swarm the other day and that was a very good thing, as both of the colonies in our Apiary #1 had died out in the last few weeks. The first swarm went into…

As with many things in life, catching a swarm of honey bees is all about opportunity and availability. In other words, luck. Bees swarm in the spring, as the nectar flow and lengthening days result in near-exponential population growth within a colony, and the bees run out of space in their hive. Capturing and rehiving a…

I sort of assume that people appreciate the importance of honey bees. And then, every so often I am forcibly reminded that, even in the fairly ecologically savvy city where I live, there are those who would rather destroy honey bees than live with them. Fortunately, sometimes I am also reminded of the resilience of honey bees and…

Today’s online version of the San Francisco Chronicle published another follow-up article about last week’s rampage of bees in Concord, CA. The gist is that seven bees sent to the state Department of Food and Agriculture for testing, and the results showed that they did not possess Africanized alleles. This finding has led some to…

Five days ago the residents of a suburban neighborhood in Concord, CA, got to experience first-hand what happens when a colony of Africanized honey bees takes over a hive of European bees. According to the most recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle, the original colony had been managed by a beekeeper for 15 years without any…

I suspect that, for most people, opening the pantry and hearing the buzz of bees would be an alarming thing. For us, though, it’s just a reminder to see if the queen wants any food. Why, you may well ask, do we have bees in the pantry? Because this year we have a few hives…

On a dreary day in mid-winter I stopped by the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, which is operated by my alma mater, UC Davis. I first visited the garden shortly after it opened to the public in 2009, when all the plants were babies. Even then it supported an astonishing array of honey bees and native…

Much ado is being made of the fact that Africanized honey bees have recently been found in the San Francisco Bay Area. Most of the articles I’ve read on the subject have disseminated information that is good, but can be confusing to the average person who isn’t a beekeeper. Most people who don’t understand bees…

In the spring and early summer, beekeeping is really easy. The nectar is flowing and the bees are busy and happy because there’s plenty of food for everybody. The colonies build up quickly and, if a beekeeper isn’t diligent, throw swarms when the bees feel they are too crowded. There’s a certain amount of good-natured…