The Bee Doctor

When transporting potentially sick bees, its best to keep them in a ziplock baggie in case they puke. You don't want bee puke (which is actually honey) all over your dash would you? That stuff never comes out.

I've been observing the bee's on a regular basis now that they weather is warm, and they are getting busy.  Its nice to see any new pollen colors they are bringing in loaded to their bee knee's (true story, and true thing) and try to find out which kind of tree it has come from.  There is some sort of excitement that comes along with finding out another type of tree is now in bloom- and so early in the season too.

So upon observation yesterday (ooh that sounded smart) I noticed that the bee's have been coming in with red dots on their foreheads.  The more I watched the more I saw coming in with this war paint like dress.

My gut reaction said its "probably," pollen and not to worry- this IS the first spring I have seen bee's become active and awaken from winter slumber (gosh another smart sounding line). But my other gut (yes sometimes I have two) said "it could be mites."

Bee mites?

Yup.

They get them too- 

Its kinda like bed bugs and lice combined forces.  The varrao mite in particular will lay eggs in the broods comb (typically drones) and when the bee hatched from its comb you will see these little red dots on the bee's furry back.  The mites seem pretty harmless, but what they do is suck the hemolymph out of the poor little bee. The bee's born with the mites nesting on their bodies will emerge from their comb with what looks like shriveled wings. Most of these bee's will be unable to fly, making them utterly useless to the rest of the hive, and only consuming food stores. Eventually this mite could devastate the colony in 12 weeks time. And you as a bee keeper will be shit out of luck.

Ok- so I thought, "instead of panicking and looking up on the Internet about mites ( which will only lead to doom and gloom, and weirdo beekeepers opinions) why don't I take a couple bee's to the vet.

Alright so there is no such thing as a vet for bee's or a bee doctor, but it got you to look this far at the blog post didn't it?

Keep reading please.

I took a couple of the gals that didn't quite make it into the hive last night, and froze up on the ground.  I grabbed the ones with the most red dots on their foreheads and put them in a baggie to drive down the street to the local beekeeper and supplier.

When I walked in I was immediately dropped into a conversation about how terrible the mites were over this past winter and how colonies in the area were being tormented by these red terrors.

I swallowed hard. Here I was walking into a bee shop with a baggie full of what could be the enemy of the conversation.....just a young (maturity wise) dumb (brain wise) bee charmer, with a baggie full of bee questions.

It was my turn next to ask the owner of the shop my question. I mustered up what courage I had and swallowed any pride (for the moment) and ask my question. "Pollen, or mites?"

The answer was what I wanted to hear. It was pollen. Seems to be these gals were working so hard that when they came back to the hive to drop off their pollen store, they would cram their little heads so far into the comb that they would get this nice orange/red pollen stuck to their heads. Thus- decorating them.  

I sighed relief. 

But as the bee keepers looked at my baggie full of bees, we all seemed to realize at once that the gals had warmed back up- and were buzzing about the bag. Some were even eating the pollen off of one another, all seemingly checking on each other to make sure everyone was "ok."

I looked at the beekeepers around me and I told them that I must leave to get these gals back to work. Some chuckled while other looked at me as if a slave driver and muttered their opinions.  This, I was prepared for because bee keepers are really weird, unusual people. (but thats a story for another day) 

SO I got home and let the girls go back to work. 

Happy as can beee.

Onion head Man

Yes Onion Head Man.

I figured that would get your attention better than "How Beekeeping works on an Island off the Coast of Honduras.


Am I right?


Well there is another reason why I titled it that- but I'll get to it in a minute.

When we were in Roatan, we went in search of (well the rest of the non pregnant group did) a drink called Giafitti(sp) (pronounced Giff-fah-tee)  Its an island sort of moonshine like drink. Basically rum with about twenty different kind of roots soaked into it. Roots like almond, ect, ect-

Anyways we found a bar. As the group order shots of the island hooch I sat and talked a bit to the bartender. Somehow the conversation of beekeeping came up.  

I was trying to get an answer out of him whether or not there was Africanized honeybees on Roatan. Not sure if the bartender knew what I meant he kept saying they were "Crossbreed."  I saw a bunch of honeybee's on the island myself and I must say that when they are a singular bee on a flower, they were sweet and gentle and unaware of my face inches from their golden body collecting hibiscus pollen.  If these were Africanized bee's they were very polite and quite striking.

Anyways, the bartender went into a story about how he collects honey.  All excited I asked if he had hives-
"Yes!" he said "I have one in a tree!"

"ohhh." was my reply..

He went on to tell me that when the time was right to collect the honey he lit a fire under the tree. When The smoke rose up the bee's got agitated, and left. It took awhile, but once they finally did he climb up a ladder to their hive, wearing nothing but a baseball cap and grabbed the honeycomb as quickly as possible.  He laughed as he told the story about how he did this- while dodging lingering bees.


Well he got the honey.

His immediate story after collecting his memory, was how he used the honey for a bad cold he had.

He felt better within days.....


So anytime I look at the coming year in beekeeping with difficulty- I must remember this story.

Our baby is due the end of May- high season for the possibilty of swarming. Time to install hives. Major daily check, and management. Can I do this 9 months pregnant, and then later with a sweet baby on my hip?

I'd like to think yes.

What gives me courage to do so?

Not having to light a tree on fire, climb up it, and fight off Africanized crossbreeds for a bit o honey.








So back to "Onion Head Man."

When researching the innerwebs on what type of honeybee's the Bay Island do have I came across a story of a man who lives on Roatan, and reports on daily "going-ons," of the island.  The particular story was about a swarm that was caught outside a public building by a man who wore no protection other than an onion bag on his head.

This folks- is true beekeeping.

Another lesson from the bees.

"When its a nice day out, get off your ass and do something."

Sincerely,
The Bees.

The Old and the Stubborn.

Upon taking a look-see in the beehives yesterday I was surprised to see bee's still in BOTH hives....

What?!


Half expecting to see the hives abscond and wax moths renting the place out........ I'm a pretty impressed the bee golden gals were still there!