Big E Promo Video...

Another great video from club member Leo Scarnici!  Leo partnered with club vice president and Big E fair chair, Tom Flebotte to create a promo video to spread awareness about our beekeeping school, and our presence at The Big E! 

Member Spotlight... Leo Scarnici

I'd like to introduce a new club member who is doing great work trying to save bees.  Leo Scarnici officially joined the HCBA just last month at our July BeeBQ.  Leo shoots breathtaking photos and videos of bees and uses his work to correct the public's perception of them.

Check out this recent video...

About Bees: Flight Modes from isavebees on Vimeo.

You can learn more about Leo and his mission on his website I SAVE BEES

Welcome, Leo!  We're so glad to have you as part of the club and we look forward to seeing more great projects from you.

Waggle Dance...

Honeybee waggle dance tells researchers about the health of the ecosystem...

Do you remember wishing you could speak to animals when you were a kid? It appears that dream can come true, as researchers at the LASI Bee Research & Outreach center have proven that learning the language of the honeybee's waggle dance can serve as a useful research tool.

Bees communicate in which direction they have found rich sources of pollen to their comrades in the angles of the waggle dance. The duration of the dance indicates the distance to the treasure. Scientists can actually measure these parameters and create a set of data points that coalesce into clouds of higher density in the areas where the bees have enjoyed the best flowers.

LASI Bee Research & Outreach/Screen capture

The bees surveyed over 94 square kilometers (36 square miles) of land during their communal foraging. Margaret Couvillon of the Laboratory of Apiculture and Social Insects at the University of Sussex puts that in perspective:

Imagine the time, manpower, and cost to survey such an area on foot -- to monitor nectar sources for quality and quantity of production, to count the number of other flower-visiting insects to account for competition, and then to do this over and over for two foraging years. Instead, we have let the honeybees do the hard work of surveying the landscape and integrating all relevant costs and then providing, through their dance communication, this biologically relevant information about landscape quality.

It turns out that bees really do prefer nature preserves, a finding which can help justify the economic expenditure of maintaining some land free from agricultural use. In an interesting twist, bees found little to love in rural tracts being converted to organic farming techniques. The team hypothesizes that the intensive mowing required to control unwanted plants during the conversion period reduces the pollen producing plant density as well.

This breakthrough expands the utility of bees in environmental research. For example, scientists have monitored chemicals in bees' honey as an indicator of air pollution andbees' venom in detectors for airport security.

If there was any doubt about the importance of bees for their pollination services alone, these many amazing feats should leave no one in doubt that we must do everything in our power to improve bee habitat, reduce pesticide poisonings, and stop the colony collapse disorder to save these useful insects.

Maybe now the bees can help save themselves -- if only enough people can listen in as they waggle dance!

The paper is published this month in Current Biology.

ORIGINAL SOURCE:  TREE HUGGER

Honey Bees... LIVE!!

Take an intimate look a life of a beehive. This infrared view of the inside of the hive shows the complex inner workings of the colony as they build combs, produce honey, protect the queen, and raise a new generation of workers and drones. Building their communal home inside a large hollow log, the colony is located in the town of Waal in Bavaria, Germany.

Watch them HERE

Wintering a Beehive in New England with the Gleasons...

Thanks to club members Dan and Joseph Gleason for sharing their new over-wintering experience!

Experimental Natural Beekeeping...

The Sun Hive: experimental Natural Beekeeping

Sun Hives are a hive design coming out of Germany and now gathering interest in Britain. They’re part of the world-wide movement towards ‘apicentric’ beekeeping – beekeeping that prioritizes honeybees firstly as pollinators, with honey production being a secondary goal.

The Sun Hive is modeled in part on the traditional European skep hive, and is aimed at creating a hive that maximises colony health. The main thing I love about this hive and the enthusiasm surrounding it is not the hive itself, but the philosophy behind it, that of apicentric beekeeping.

In brief, the Sun Hive has an upside down skep hive at its base with curving frames in the top section and no frames in the bottom section. The hive is placed well above ground level (optimal for bees – they never choose to create a hive on the ground).

Like a Warré hive, the Sun Hive allows the queen bee to roam freely through the entire hive and lay eggs where she wishes to, which in turn allows the colony to manage the location and progression of their brood nest, which is great for colony health.

The top curved frames of the Sun Hive provide the ability to (in theory) remove each frame, with the free-form comb beneath coming out as well as it is (again, in theory) attached to the frame directly above.

The Sun Hive can also have a super attached to it on a honeyflow (not sure about that, as I assume that means a queen excluder would be used to prevent brood comb being created in said super, which goes against the idea of allowing the queen to roam the hive, but anyway).

As I said, it’s not the design of this hive that particularly gets me going (though it is very beautiful), but the philosophy behind it… putting bees first before honey yields.

Also, this sort of experimenting is important. We cannot keep relying on the industrial style of beekeeping that is currently the norm. Well managed Warré Beehives are one branch of natural beekeeping, and this hive is another.

What we need, right now, is lots of apicentric beekeepers refining, experimenting and progressing resilient beekeeping techniques. Backed up by good information on bee behavior, not just whacky ideas.

Would this hive style work in Australia? I am not sure, but I suspect it might not be ideal for most parts of Australia. And that is ok. Each continent has vastly different conditions – nectarys, climate and other variations that necessitate adaptation for hive design for effective natural beekeeping.

A hive design developed on the other side of the world, no matter how groovy, is not necessarily going to result in a happy and healthy honeybee colony over this side of the world. There’s seasonal differences, the way honeyflows work is different, humidity, etc.

But Natural Beekeeping, in all its global variations, is at the heart of future honeybee health. The Sun Hive is definitely part of that matrix and is causing many in Europe to rethink hive design to ensure colony resilience.

ORIGINAL SOURCE: MILKWOOD

Ted Talks- "Why Bees Are Disappearing"

Speakers: Marla Spivak: Bees Scholar

Marla Spivak researches bees’ behavior and biology in an effort to preserve this threatened, but ecologically essential, insect.insect.

Whh

Why you should listen to her:

Bees pollinate a third of our food supply -- they don’t just make honey! -- but colonies have been disappearing at alarming rates in many parts of the world due to the accumulated effects of parasitic mites, viral and bacterial diseases, and exposure to pesticides and herbicides. Marla Spivak, University of Minnesota professor of entomology and 2010 MacArthur Fellow, tries as much as possible to think like bees in her work to protect them. They’re “highly social and complex” creatures, she says, which fuels her interest and her research.

Spivak has developed a strain of bees, the Minnesota Hygienic line, that can detect when pupae are infected and kick them out of the nest, saving the rest of the hive. Now, Spivak is studying how bees collect propolis, or tree resins, in their hives to keep out dirt and microbes. She is also analyzing how flowers’ decline due to herbicides, pesticides and crop monoculture affect bees’ numbers and diversity. Spivak has been stung by thousands of bees in the course of her work.

"Bees have a champion in Marla Spivak."

The Promised Land

ORIGINAL SOURCE:  TED Ideas Worth Spreading

Bees with Backpacks...

Scientists Strap Tiny 'Backpacks' To 5,000 Bees To Learn More About Colony Collapse Disorder

From Mother Nature Network's Laura Moss:

There's been a lot of buzz about colony collapse disorder, a phenomenon causing bees to die off around the world, and Australian scientists are trying a new approach to studying the phenomenon: They're attaching tiny sensors to bees.

More than 5,000 honeybees are being equipped with 2.5mm x 2.5mm sensors that relay data to recorders placed around hives and known food sources.

"Bees are social insects that return to the same point and operate on a very predictable schedule," project leader Dr. Paulo de Souza, a scientist at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, said in a statement.

"Any change in their behavior indicates a change in their environment. If we can model their movements, we'll be able to recognize very quickly when their activity shows variation and identify the cause. This will help us understand how to maximize their productivity as well as monitor for any biosecurity risks."

But how do you attach a sensor to a tiny honeybee?
Good question. It turns out that it's not that complicated.

1. Refrigerate the bee.
"We take the bee into a cold place, usually to a fridge about 5 degrees Celsius (41 degrees F), for five minutes and that is enough to have the bees sleeping," de Souza told the Australian Broadcasting Company.

2. Shave the bee. (Yes, really.)
"Very young bees, they're very hairy. At times we need to do something to help us," he said.

3. Use tweezers to glue the sensor to the bee's back.
"It doesn't disturb the way the bee will see or the way the bee will fly, they just work normally," he said.

"Each sensor weight is about 5 milligrams. This is about 20 percent of what the bee can carry. So the bee can carry a lot of weight in pollen, in nectar, so this is like someone carrying a small backpack."

Buzz off
Once their sensors are in place, the honeybees are released in Tasmania, an island state located off Australia's coast.

The radio frequency identification sensors will allow scientists to build a 3-D image of the bees' movements and provide them with information on how pesticides contribute to colony collapse disorder.

But tagging the bees is only the first stage of the project.

De Souza said researchers are working to make the sensors even smaller so they can be attached to insects like mosquitoes and fruit flies.

"We want these smaller tags to be able to sense environmental conditions such as temperature and presence of atmospheric gases; not just track their location. Further to this, the sensors will be able to generate energy from the beating wings of the insects, which will give the sensors enough power to transmit information instead of just storing it until they reach a data logger," he said.

*ORIGINAL SOURCE:  HUFFINGTON POST

Yellow Jackets...

A lot of times when you tell people that you are a beekeeper, or when you are working at the Big E with the observation hives, you'll hear this response "I hate bees!"  I often reply, "You probably hate wasps.", and then try to explain the difference between the yellow jacket wasp and the honey bee.  Most people easily confuse the two.

Club prez, Jeff Rys, just sent me an email link to the video below (Thanks, Prez!) and I think you'll agree with me when I say, "Thank goodness we don't keep yellow jackets!"

Angry Yellow Jacket Nest - V E R Y Angry 

A 2 minute, 9 second video filmed "thousands" of yellow jackets attacking a camera.
Nest measured at 3 feet tall x 2 feet wide (which are the approx dimensions of an American made, electric dishwasher).
Popping sounds are the insects striking the camera.
Bzzzzzzzzzzzzz.............

ORIGINAL SOURCE: LIVE LEAK

The Beauty of Pollination...

If you haven't already seen this video it's a MUST watch.

Extracting with the Gleasons...

Club member Dan Gleason was nice enough to share this video of his family's recent honey extraction.  They got 40lbs this year!  Nice work Gleasons!

A First Timer's Install...

New HCBA Member, Vanessa Mathieu shared this video of her first install earlier this year.  Vanessa started two hives this year, one standard Langstroth hive and one top bar hive.  Thanks for sharing Vanessa!  

Recovering Your Own Swarm...

Dan & Joseph Gleason are not going to let their bees get away!  Check out this great video Joseph shot of Dan recovering a swarm that landed in their apple tree.

Keep an eye out, everyone!  Swarms seem to be aplenty. 

Made by Hand No. 3...

Made by Hand / No 3 The Beekeeper from Made by Hand on Vimeo.

A project from bureauofcommongoods.com, Made by Hand is a new short film series celebrating the people who make things by hand—sustainably, locally, and with a love for their craft.

Local farmer Megan Paska has witnessed beekeeping as it morphed from an illegal (and possibly crazy) habit to a sustainable, community-supported skill. Mirroring beekeeping’s own ascendance, she found more than just a living: “This is the first time in my life when I’ve just felt absolutely on the right path.”

A non-beekeeping friend of mine stumbled upon this video on a journey through the world wide web. He forwarded it to me, and though I thought it was a little long and maybe a little boring, I've decided to share it with you all here. It was my first time seeing anyone use a top bar hive on video, and I was shocked to see her just cut away half of a comb and jar it up.

Any top bar hive users in the club? Any stories or experiences to share? Please comment on this post, or send them to me via email.

Installation and Feeding Videos for our Newbees...

Thanks to new member Laura Martin for sending links to these videos to share with our new bee school class. A lot of you have your first bees arriving Saturday, so the information in these videos should be a helpful reminder of all the things you'll have to do!

I hope everyone in the HCBA that will be installing new bees this weekend has a great experience doing it. Congratulations to our newest members who will be doing this for the first time. Remember, you're not officially a beekeeper until you've had your first sting! I'm kidding of course, but there is something about that first sting that sort of seals the deal.

Enjoy!

White House Honey...

Apparently, they do have a bee hive at the White House! I thought Ken Warchol was kidding when taking his mid-lecture phone calls from Michelle Obama! Well, I mean I KNOW he's kidding with the phone calls, but I was surprised to hear they actually do keep bees at the White House.