Natural Beekeeping

CO N t e N t S

Foreword to the First Edition Preface Preface to the First Edition Acknowledgments CHAPTER 1:

Why Organic Beekeeping?

ix xi xi xv 1

CHAPTER 7:

Four-Legged and Feathered Pests 170 Skunks and Raccoons and Bears, Oh My! • Mice • The Birds and the Bees CHAPTER 8:

Environmental and Human Threats 182

The Hive as Teacher • Toxic Chemicals Infiltrate the Classroom • The Meaning of Organic • Some Social Implications

Mold and Mildew • Poison Plants • Chemical Pollution • Biological Pollution • Theft and Vandalism • Globalism • Beekeeper Error

CHAPTER 2:

CHAPTER 9:

Working with the Hive

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Some Basics of Bee Biology and Anatomy • Suggestions for Beginners • Options for Obtaining Bees • Dealing with the Business End of the Worker Bee CHAPTER 3:

Hive Management

36

Apiary Location • Equipment • Top Bar Hives • Feeding • Reversing • Wrapping Up the Season • Unpacking the Hive in Spring • Identifying and Working with Queen Issues • Urban Beekeeping CHAPTER 4:

Genetics and Breeding

90

A Case for Locally Raised Queens • Creating the Split or Nucleus Colony CHAPTER 5:

Parasitic Mites

111

Varroa destructor • Treating for Varroa Mites • Organic Varroa Control Measures and Methods • Tracheal Mites CHAPTER 6:

Insect Pests

157

Wax Moths • Small Hive Beetles • Spiders and Other Insects

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Hive Diseases

192

American Foulbrood • Chalkbrood • Nosema • Viruses • Colony Collapse Disorder CHAPTER 10:

The Honey Harvest

218

Honey Processing • Honey Inventories CHAPTER 11:

Marketing Products from the Hive

232

The Retail Market • The Wholesale Market • Retail Chain Stores • The Commodity Market • An Alternative Business Model • Some Final Thoughts on Marketing CHAPTER 12:

Organics and the Evolution of Beekeeping

243

Transitioning to Organic Apiculture • The State of Organics • The Future of Organic Beekeeping • Cultivating a Greater Awareness, Spiritual and Personal Relationship with the Bees

Notes Glossary Resources Index

257 265 272 275

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Natural BeekeepiNg

riDDle:

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What has four wings, five eyes, and six legs? riddle answer: A honey bee.

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hive’s occupants because she is the only bee whose abdomen usually extends significantly past the end of her wings (it does so when she has recently been laying eggs and her abdomen is filled with them). Also, her back (the top of her thorax) is bald and dark compared to the backs of the workers and

drones, which tend to be lighter in color due to the large number of tiny hairs that grow there.

The queen is the reproductive organ of the hive: an egg-laying machine capable of producing around 1,500 to 2,000 eggs per day during the peak of summer. Although laying eggs is her primary activity, the queen also produces pheromones that communicate information throughout the hive about the health of the queen, among other things. The worker bees assist the queen by taking care of all other duties, such as making sure she is well groomed and fed. There is typically only one queen in a hive at a time, although in very rare instances, more than one queen has been found in a healthy hive.

Figure 2-1. Unlike other honey bees, the queen lacks hair on her thorax (back). Also, when she has recently been laying eggs, the tip of her swollen, egg-filled abdomen extends well past the ends of her wings.

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Working with the Hive

The worker bee is the most populous member of a honey bee colony. Worker bees comprise about 97 to over 99 percent of the hive’s population, depending on the state of the hive and the time of year. As its name implies, the worker bee takes care of all the work that needs to be done in the hive. The work that a bee will do is influenced by conditions both inside and outside the hive and by the age of the bee. The first jobs a worker bee carries out in its youth are house bee duties, after which the worker will “graduate” to more demanding and dangerous jobs, many of which will take place outside the hive. While individual worker bees don’t take a turn at every job required by a hive, in a typical colony the sequence of

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job requirements as a worker develops would be something like this: • a housekeeper bee cleaning cells • a nurse bee rearing brood (eggs, larvae, and pupae) or tending to the queen • a house bee receiving nectar and pollen and storing it in cells • a comb-building bee • a heater bee incubating the brood nest • a bee supplying heater bees with honey for energy • an undertaker bee removing dead bees, larvae, and pupae from the hive • a ventilation bee

Figure 2-2. Larger than his sisters, the male honey bee (drone) makes up only a small percentage of a healthy hive’s population. The drone is easy to identify because its eyes, which are larger than those of the queen or worker, meet at the top of its head. The tip of the drone’s abdomen, rather than coming to a point like the worker and queen, is blunt and covered with fuzzy hair.

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