Ariela and I went to go check on our bees today (I didn’t write a post about them? OK I will soon!), and it looks like they’re doing fine, considering. A feral colony that has lived for years in the wall of a barn, had a rocky late-season start (hived in late July), I was getting worried. But all is fine - and now I’ve got some news about my bees!
As you well know, I’ve been getting going on my beekeeping in the last couple of years. I’ve had enough honey to give out 3/4-pound jars to guests on my show, 2 1/2 pound quart jars to friends and family, and plenty left over to spread on cornbread muffins and turn into BBQ sauce. But at six jars of Davis honey (and 3 jars of slightly-caramelized BBQ-sauce honey) left, I felt I couldn’t wait to get bees again here in Madison. I put up ads on Craigslist that I was looking to buy someone’s colonies, and it was answered by a guy just outside of town by the name of Gary. He had bees in his barn, and I was free to take them.
I’ve got plenty of pictures to show, and I’ll put them up later when I have more time, and can explain what was going on and give a few tips. Suffice to say, the transfer from a barn wall was a success. The colony established itself in August, as I looked for somewhere to keep the bees in town. The community gardens, I thought, would be perfect.
No dice. Neither the Eagle Heights Community Gardens next to where I live, nor the many community gardens in town, would have them. Too many sting-able people and kids, they said. (I later learned that there’s a Madison ordinance banning bees in town. Great - way to help out beekeepers. Hope you like eating honey, and food!) It’s not Davis - I miss the freedom of the EC Gardens and the shady home I had for my three colonies of yesteryear. They’re one of the rotating images you see on the left of the blog.
One of the folks at the Sheboygan community garden near here happened to know my adviser, and said they’d lean on Shawn to have me keep the bees at his place. But, it turns out, his wife Heidi, also known as the head of the PBPG program I’m in, is really allergic. I think if I can do one thing while I’m going to school here, it will be avoiding killing the head of my program and spouse of my adviser with bee venom. I’ve already sent my bees to sting someone in Davis (oh do I have a story to tell), so I must set limits to my wielding of apiarimancy.
So no home for my our bees, not yet at least until we started talking to beekeepers selling at the Farmer’s Market. One keeper, known locally as “The Bee Charmer” didn’t have time at the Farmer’s Market to chat, so I thought I would call her up later. But another keeper selling at one of the other markets in town, happened to know that one of the farmers really wanted pollination services, so he walked us over and introduced us.
A couple weeks later, our bees have a new home - at the Primrose Community Farm. I don’t have any good pictures yet - probably won’t until the coming spring. Except for a good picture of farmer Mike who gave us a spot to keep our bees on the East side of his greenhouse:
Next year, we plan to expand to half a dozen hives to start with, and start cranking out the honey. The bees will earn their rent on the land with pollination, and their home renovations and health care with liquid gold! To be sure that our current hive makes it through the Wisconsin winter, we stopped by the hive today to check for a healthy queen and give them some old honey to keep them warm - in more ways than one.
We couldn’t find the queen in the dark and the cold, but the signs were all there - plenty of brood of multiple ages tucked away in just three frames, and a neat little cluster of bees around them, guarding them from the cold. Now I know its not a good idea to chill the brood by exposing them to cold air - but I think they’ll be sleeping extra warm tonight.
A relic of the honey I harvested from my late grandfather’s hives the year that he died, the old one-gallon jar was fully crystallized. It had to be heated for an hour on the stove before we could bring it out there and pour it into the frame feeder. A side benefit of the whole operation was that the bees were treated to a very warm and runny mass of honey to compensate for the cold air I let in. A drizzle of the stuff was devoured by the cold bees, and before we closed the box they were already diving down the tubes of the feeder to get at the old caramelized stuff. One dove a little too eagerly. They’ll fish her out.
Right now, they’re having a warm night in the hive. I don’t feel bad about giving them honey that I wouldn’t want to eat myself, because one of the great ironies of the honeybee is that they make and store some of the sweetest stuff in the world, but they have little sense of taste. When the honeybee genome was sequenced last year, there was a distinct lack of taste receptor genes. Sure, they can smell really well, but you can pretty much count on the fact that all they care about is the sugar content of the stuff. Give them Log Cabin syrup and they’ll even store it in their combs!
Primrose Community Farm also has a CSA - which we’ll be signing up for after thanksgiving. How’s that - eating the produce that my our bees are pollinating! To top it off, Mike suggested that we could sell our surplus honey to his CSA customers. Instant market.
Sweet.
P.S. Why do I keep crossing out “my” and replacing it with “our?” Ariela’s got a bee suit and is diving in. The story behind that would require me uploading my last Davis show. Stay tuned…
True dat. I don’t know if this is a beekeeper’s version of an urban legend or not, but I’ve heard of beekeepers who lived near dairy farms having problems with their bees bringing back molasses from the cattle feed.
I don’t keep bees myself, but my dad does; I’ve worn the veil more than a few times.
(And thanks for the hoax-busting link on The Mystery of the Haunted Vampire…)
Bees will even collect honeydew from the rear-ends of aphids if they lack a flower source. If desperate, they’ll go for whatever sugar is available. My bees won’t have to do that at least till winter’s over.
No prob - Technorati makes it relatively easy to find everyone who’s commented on a story pretty quickly and spread the word.
Better inoculate your mind with some more info on beekeeping. Old, caramelized, over-heated honey is not good winter food for bees.
How so? By the way, it’s not grossly carmelized - it’s just got an off-flavor. And yes, Honey does work as overwintering food. I was reading The Hive and the Honeybee last night where it talked about fall and spring feeding. The advantage of the honey over sugar syrups is that it is not going to ferment, and it has minerals and protein. And the age is about 4 years - considering that honey can last hundreds to thousands, I don’t know what you’re getting at.