The Boojum Bee Yard with a nice view of Santa Rosa Mountain. The mountain is part of the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Bee Knowledgeable Questions: Bee Brood
1) In one of the pictures posted below, can you find eggs, larva and capped over brood?
2) Can you spot the queen bee?
3) What do honeybees feed to the young larva?
2) Can you spot the queen bee?
3) What do honeybees feed to the young larva?
Have you heard the Buzz?
The Boojum Institute’s Honeybee and World Health traveling experiential education program recently visited the Santa Rosa Academy in Murietta, CA. Read a story, see the pictures and view a short video published recently in the Press Enterprise.
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_sbees16.3ebb489.html
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_sbees16.3ebb489.html
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
The Queens Have Arrived
Four beautiful Italian queen bees arrived in the mail today. They each came in a cage with several young nurse bees that take care of the queens in transit. I gave each cage a drop of water and put them in a cool dry place for the night.
The queens were piping in their cages when they arrived. This is one of the most special sounds to hear in the world - it is a very high pitch sound that almost sounds like a whimper. They make these sounds by vibrating their wings. Researchers think that it is a warning sign to other queens as they ready to do a battle to the death. I have often heard this sound when many queens are together in shipping cages but have never heard it in a hive.
To hear queens piping, click on the player:
The queens are marked with a green mark of paint on their Thorax. There is an international color code system whereby queens are marked according to the year they are born. All 2009 queens are marked green.
Tomorrow, we will install the queens into the queen less colonies.
The queens were piping in their cages when they arrived. This is one of the most special sounds to hear in the world - it is a very high pitch sound that almost sounds like a whimper. They make these sounds by vibrating their wings. Researchers think that it is a warning sign to other queens as they ready to do a battle to the death. I have often heard this sound when many queens are together in shipping cages but have never heard it in a hive.
To hear queens piping, click on the player:
The queens are marked with a green mark of paint on their Thorax. There is an international color code system whereby queens are marked according to the year they are born. All 2009 queens are marked green.
Tomorrow, we will install the queens into the queen less colonies.
A little background information.
The Boojum Bees are a swarm that arrived on our property last May. They took residence in some beekeeping equipment that we had on property. They were not wild bees meaning that they came from another beekeeper's hives nearby. How do we know? The queen was marked on her thorax with a small dab of colored paint. We were able to harvest about 90 pounds of honey from the colony last fall leaving plenty for them to survive over the mild winter months.
Making Splits:
Beekeepers often make new colonies by dividing-up colonies and introducing new queens to them. We made an observation hive with three frames that included bees, brood (unhatched bees) and some honey and pollen. This hive also had the old queen.
We then took the remaining colonies and made them into four colonies. Since we live in an area of the country that has Aficanized Honey Bees, we do not raise our own queens and allow them to open mate. If they were allowed to open mate, the colonies could become "africanized" or aggressive. We ordered four queens from a breeder in Northern California to ensure that we know the pedigree of the queens.
The Boojum Bees are a swarm that arrived on our property last May. They took residence in some beekeeping equipment that we had on property. They were not wild bees meaning that they came from another beekeeper's hives nearby. How do we know? The queen was marked on her thorax with a small dab of colored paint. We were able to harvest about 90 pounds of honey from the colony last fall leaving plenty for them to survive over the mild winter months.
Making Splits:
Beekeepers often make new colonies by dividing-up colonies and introducing new queens to them. We made an observation hive with three frames that included bees, brood (unhatched bees) and some honey and pollen. This hive also had the old queen.
We then took the remaining colonies and made them into four colonies. Since we live in an area of the country that has Aficanized Honey Bees, we do not raise our own queens and allow them to open mate. If they were allowed to open mate, the colonies could become "africanized" or aggressive. We ordered four queens from a breeder in Northern California to ensure that we know the pedigree of the queens.
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