Bee class at CTC Cape Girardeau Career and Technology Center, Grant Gillard, Jackson, Missouri beekeeper

1. Back Yard Beekeeping – Where are we going?
Cape Girardeau Career and Tech Ctr August 17th, 2015
Grant Gillard gillard5@charter.net www.grantgillard.weebly.com

8. “Teaching” Beekeeping
• At best….
– Introduce
– Acquaint
– Familiarize
– Present
– Shed light
• Like “teaching” how to play the piano

12. ☻

13. ☻
‫ס‬‫ס‬

15. Our Purpose for this class
• To provide a brief overview of honeybees, and
• To introduce the hobby of beekeeping
• Such that a class participant may have enough
information to make a decision to start
keeping bees on a “back yard” scale
• **to assist anyone, if you want, after the class
to acquire equipment and bees, and get set up

16. Game Plan
• August 17th
– Introduction and Bee Biology
• August 24th
– Equipment Beekeepers Use
• August 31st
– Integrating Bees into a Season of Beekeeping
– How to set up, acquiring equipment and bees
• Next Step (no obligation)
– If you need help to get going

17. Who’s here today? Show of hands…
• Don’t have bees, never had them, thinking
about it. Maybe next year? Maybe not.
• Going to get bees next year, definitely
• Got bees last year, or so, have 1 to 2 years
experience?
• Have bees, had bees, more than 2 years
experience?
• Don’t like showing their hands!

18. Why is this important?
Why am I here?
1. “The bees are dying” – 30% average loss
(They’ve been dying for 150 years)
Every year brings a new threat
2. Beekeepers are dying, retiring
We need more younger beekeepers
3. It just gets tougher and harder to keep
honey bees, and keep them alive
(real threat is to our pollination)
4. We need the honey bee, 1 of 3 bites

20. Considerations…..
80% of all beginners will have quit
within two years
To start each hive: ~$400 +
$250 for boxes, tops/bottoms
$125-175 for bees
(Recommend starting with two hives)
$200 for personal protection, veil, gloves
$500 for processing (second year)

21. A Caveat
• There are a thousand ways to keep honey
bees (most of them work).
• Every experienced beekeeper has an opinion
(not all of them correct)
• Start with the conventional basics
• Explore and experiment (natural, treatment-free)
• See what works for you, in your area
• Find a mentor / join a bee club*
– *4th Tuesday, First Presbyterian Church, Jackson
• Then choose your own path.

22. Reality
All beekeepers, new and old,
rookie beginners and seasoned veterans,
are experiencing dying hives,
for various and unexplained reasons.
“If you are in the
business of livestock,
you have to get used to the
idea of dead stock.”

23. Beekeeper Reasons Why Bees Die
1. Poor queens, poorly mated queens
2. Poor nutrition, protein synthesis
3. Varroa mites, pathogens
4. Pesticides (inside and outside hive)
5. Weather, drought
Overwintering Deaths:
Any combination of all of the above
“Never before have the challenges of keeping
bees been greater than right now.”

24. Factors for Beekeepers to Consider
1. Purpose in keeping bees
2. Place to keep them (children and neighbors)
3. Do I have the time? Timing?
4. Sting tolerance
5. Physical lifting
6. Necessity for absolutism, acceptance of
variables
7. Level of commitment, investment
8. Desire to learn, relearn, keep learning

25. Reasons Beekeepers Quit
1. Bees died, don’t have money to buy more
bees to refill hives, waiting for “someday”
2. Spouse/partner always knew this hobby was
a bad idea
3. Tired of getting stung, stings hurt a whole
lot more than first imagined, kids got stung
4. It’s hot work, heavy work, and tedious
5. Frustration, lost interest, bees swarmed and
didn’t harvest any honey, no time to mess
with them, allergic reactions, etc.

26. Cecil B. DeMille to Charlton Heston
“Stay in the race. I’ll see that you win”

27. Where we’re going in this class
#1 Understand honey bee biology and the
seasonality of the colony
#2 Understand how beekeeping equipment
works, picking up the jargon, the
language of beekeepers
#3 Understand how #1 and #2 work together in
this hobby of beekeeping (management)
#4 Understand how beekeepers work with the
bees and how we become sustainable
(personal goals, i.e., “natural” beekeeping)

28. Resources - Magazines
American Bee Journal (more technical)
www.americanbeejournal.com
Bee Culture (more basic)
www.beeculture.com
Advertisers and classified ads

29. Resources - Books
(Mark Twain) “The beekeeper who can read and
does not, is no better than the illiterate
beekeepers who can’t read.”
• “Beekeeping for Dummies” by Howard
Blackiston
• “Better Bee Keeping” by Kim Flottum
• “The Beekeeper’s Handbook” by Diana
Sammataro (4th edition)
• “Natural Beekeeping” by Ross Conrad
(2nd edition)

30. Resources – Supplier Catalogs
• Brushy Mountain Bee Farm
www.brushymountainbeefarm.com 800-233-7929
• Blue Sky Bee Supply www.blueskybeesupply.com
877-529-9233
• Dadant www.dadant.com 888-922-1293
• Kelley Beekeeping www.kelleybees.com
800-233-2899
• Betterbee www.betterbee.com 800-632-3379
• Mann Lake www.mannlakeltd.com 800-880-7694

31. Resources on the web
• www.youtube.com – videos
• www.beesource.com a forum to “lurk”
• www.facebook.com lots of opinions and
ignorance
Beekeeping “Rule of 4/5”:
“Ask any four beekeepers a question and you’ll get
five different answers because one of them won’t
be able to make up his mind.”

32. Lots of free advice on the web
• Google: “beekeeping basics maarec & penn state”
• Free PDF download
• http://pubs.cas.psu.edu/FreePubs/pdfs/agrs93.pdf
• http://www.thebeeyard.org/wp-
content/uploads/2014/02/Beekeeping.Basics.pdf

33. Local Suppliers
• Buchheits – sells “Little Giant” kits, pre-
assembled (convenient, but you pay for
convenience). A little more expensive.
• Jackson Coop – was going to carry same
• The Bee Barn, Paducah,
www.beebarnshop.com
• Isabees – St. Louis www.isabees.com
Run by Jane Sueme and Scott Klein, carry the
Kelley line of equipment. Offer incredible
advice. Drive up and save on shipping.

34. Personal Resources
• Join your state organization or association
• www.mostatebeekeepers.org
• Find a local association or bee club
– 4th Tuesday, 7:00 pm, First Presbyterian Church
• If no local exists, start one, find a partner
• Find a mentor, one who will help you bridge the
gap between knowledge and application
• If no mentor exists, visit a beekeeper. Trick them
with, “Can you come over and show me what I’m
supposed to look for?”

35. Any questions?

36. Understanding Bee Biology
• Bees are bugs, we use various “chemicals” to
kill or deter other, unwanted bugs in the hive.
What’s the effect on the bees?
• Bees are social insects, not Lone Rangers, we
need to view the colony as a whole unit, a
single organism, not a “bunch of bees”
• Bees behave and respond to seasonal cues,
specifically nectar and pollen, and
pheromones, i.e., presence of the queen
• Bees do not need a beekeeper to
micromanage or train them how to do things

38. Seasonal Rhythms
• Bees overwinter in a cluster, eat honey
• Early winter, queen starts to lay a few eggs
• Late winter, more eggs laid as days lengthen
• Pollen and nectar start in mid-March,
momentum builds, population grows
• Early May – colony reproduces itself by
“swarming,” divides and sends out bees
• Summer, nectar gathering for coming winter
• Late summer, early fall, queen slows down egg
laying, drones are kicked out, consolidation.

41. Seasonality
• Overwinter in a cluster – “wiggle” and “giggle”
• Bees heat the cluster, not the whole hive
• Need feed (honey) (sugar syrup)
• Need “bee bodies” to stay warm

43. Bees have attitudes
You have neighbors

48. Castes – Division of Labor
• Three kinds of bees in a hive
– Queen (sexually mature worker)(more than one?)
– Workers (immature queen)
– Drones (parasites in a matriarchal society)
• (Who rules the colony, makes decisions?)
• Age-appropriate responsibilities: physiology
– First three weeks: nurse bee, house bee
– Last three weeks: forager, field bee
– Summer bees die at six weeks of age, working
themselves to death

49. Queen Dynamics
• Starts out as a worker egg
• Egg takes 3-1/2 days to hatch into a larvae
• Larvae (open brood) for 6-1/2 days
• Pupae capped on the 10th day
• All new larvae fed royal jelly for two days
• Queens fed a constant diet of royal jelly for six days
• Queens hatch on the 16th day
• Virgins emerge, fight, kill off other unhatched queens
• Then fly out to mate with 18 – 24 drones
• Come back and lay eggs for three years
• As her pheromones dissipate with age, superseded

51. Races/Breeds of Bees
• German “Black” Bee
• Italian “Yellow” Bee
• Carniolan
• Russian
• Buckfast
• VSH, SMR, “Hygienic” hybrids
• “treatment-free” bees, supposed resistance
• “wild” bees, feral bees, swarms

52. What kind of bee to get?
• Start with Italians, maybe Carniolans
• NOT Russians (personal opinion)
• Queens are open-mated, diverse drones
• Disposition is different between races of bees,
and determined by the genetics of the drones
• No perfect bee, no pure breed
• Find a locally-adapted bee
– Works well in your area, survives
– Responds well to your management
– Raise new queens from this stock

53. Diseases and Parasites
• Brood diseases
– Situational to damp, wet, cold weather
• Nosema, Dysentery – dietary problems
• Remedies
– Maintain strong colonies with young queens
– Wait it out for better weather
– Feed artificial pollen, protein sources
– Insure diversity of floral sources
– Requeen with better genetics
– Antibiotics?

54. Parasites and Viruses
• Varroa mite is prime suspect

57. Management Options - varroa
• Do nothing, Treatment-Free, live and let die
• Acquire resistant, genetic stock, survivor, hygienic
• Chemicals, synthetic miticides, residues and
resistance issues, timing, side effects (epigenetics)
• Organic options, formic acid and thymol
• Natural treatments, powdered sugar, essential oils
• Equipment options, screen bottom boards
• Manipulate the colony
– Frames with drone-sized cells, freeze
– Remove queen, create a broodless gap, in which the
new queen grows, mates, …or let them swarm.

58. Other Pests - Opportunisitic
• Small Hive Beetle

59. Small Hive Beetle Larvae

60. Small Hive Beetle
• Best defense is a good offense
• Keep hives queen-right, unstressed
• Keep hives strong with robust populations
• Don’t allow unguarded comb, consolidate
• Various oil-based traps in catalogs

61. Wax Moths

62. Wax Moths

63. Wax Moths
• Best defense is a good offense
• Keep hives queen-right, unstressed
• Keep hives strong with robust populations
• Don’t allow unguarded comb, consolidate
• Protect comb in storage with PDB or freezer

64. Mice
• More of a fall/winter problem
• Mice chew through comb, make a smelly nest
• Install mouse guards, ½” wire mesh or
entrance reducers

67. Summary: Bee Biology
• Recognize seasonality
• Understand your purpose for keeping bees
• Work with the colony, timing of management
• Keep parasite populations at manageable
levels, use multiple approaches
• The bees have and agenda; you have an agenda
• Prioritize the bees agenda, then harmonize
your agenda with the seasonality