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Beekeeping for Beginners - Guide to Beekeeping Lessons. 10 Amazzzzing Bee Facts. Keep Bees, Naturally! If you’d like to benefit your garden and community and offer a treat to your taste buds, consider trying your hand at natural beekeeping in your own backyard. As honeybees gather pollen and nectar to make 50 pounds or more of pure, wild honey per hive, they pollinate crops nearby — and up to four miles away. This pollination is essential for good yields for some flowering crops. Best of all, honeybees require only simple management once the hives are up and running. Kim Flottum, editor of Bee Culture Magazine, says that keeping bees takes “more effort than for your cat, but less than your dog.” But can you achieve natural beekeeping? To save their bees from these and other pests, many beekeepers turned to chemical controls, which worked for a while.

In addition, products that utilize the mite-minimizing properties of essential oils (such as thymol-based Api-Life VAR and spearmint and lemongrass Honey-B-Healthy) can effectively suppress mites in small apiaries. Getting Started Gearing Up. Bees: pictures, information, classification and more. Bee Photo by:Dorling Kindersley Bee, common name for a winged, flower-feeding insect with branched body hairs. CharacteristicsBees are dependent on pollen as a protein source and on flower nectar or oils as an energy source. Adult females collect pollen primarily to feed their larvae. The pollen they inevitably lose in going from flower to flower is important to plants because some pollen lands on the pistils (reproductive structures) of other flowers of the same species, resulting in cross-pollination.

Most bees have specialized branched or feathery body hairs that help in the collection of pollen. There are about 20,000 species of bees worldwide. Social Structure and Nesting HabitsBees have diverse nesting and social habits. Solitary BeesThe primitive bees, like their relatives the wasps, are solitary. More about Bees... How to Plant a Honey Bee Friendly Garden | The Adventures of Thrive Farm. In the winter of 2006 the honey bee population began to die out. Since then, as much as 70% of some bee populations have died as a result of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). Seventy farm grown crops, about one-third of our natural food supply, rely on honey bees for pollination. Imagine peanut better without jelly. If the honey bees disappear, so will the grapes and the strawberries, along with many of the other foods that have become not only favorites, but staples of the modern diet.

You can help restore the honey bee population with a bee friendly garden. Instruction Honey Bee Friendly Plants Attract and nourish honey bees with nectar producing plants. Long Blooming Flowers Plant long blooming plants, or a variety of plants that will bloom at different times throughout the spring and fall. Honey Bees Need Water Provide a pond, a fountain, or some other fresh water source. Native bees will make their homes in sand Provide a space in your garden for native bees to make their home. Like this: Honeybee. The importance of honeybees. Just how important are honeybees to the human diet? Typically, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, these under-appreciated workers pollinate 80 percent of our flowering crops which constitute 1/3 of everything we eat. Losing them could affect not only dietary staples such as apples, broccoli, strawberries, nuts, asparagus, blueberries and cucumbers, but may threaten our beef and dairy industries if alfalfa is not available for feed.

One Cornell University study estimated that honeybees annually pollinate $14 billion worth of seeds and crops in the U.S. Essentially, if honeybees disappear, they could take most of our insect pollinated plants with them, potentially reducing mankind to little more than a water diet. Bees are of inestimable value as agents of cross-pollination, and many plants are entirely dependent on particular kinds of bees for their reproduction (such as red clover, which is pollinated by the bumblebee, and many orchids). Photos: Rundstedt B. Wild bees enhance honey bees' pollination of hybrid sunflower. How to Extract Delicious Fresh Honey from Bee Hive Honey Frames. Having bees has obvious rewards and some not so obvious. A clear golden jar of honey just waiting to be spread on some warm homemade bread is an obvious reward for sure. This is the main reason most people get started beekeeping, and makes it all worthwhile.

But caring for a miraculously organized group of insects and taking pride in their work is unexpectedly moving. When I spy one of my bees sipping a drink from the beads of water on a growing curly kale, or hear the industrious hum around my tomato plants, I feel the same warm feeling that I do when watching my chickens dust-bathing, and scratching for bugs. Our tomato crops have never been heavier. The raspberry canes loaded with juicy berries. I will show you how easy the honey extraction is.

As someone who loves to harvest and collect and create things from the farm, the honey extraction is an extremely rewarding thing. Beekeeping in cities. It's about keeping bees in an urban setting. This may mean a small garden, roof terrace, or an allotment. Beekeeping doesn't need to be the reserve of the country folk and you don't need a huge amount of space to keep them. It is possible to have bees in the city and you know what... the honey is gorgeous because our urban honeybees have such a variety of plants and flowers to choose from.

Each of the city gardens are as unique as their owners and the bees just love the variety. Skip to top Honeybees have been having a hard time. Bees seem to do well in an urban environment where there is a rich diversity of plants, flowers and trees in our gardens, railway sidings, roads and disused pieces of land. They are also a great way to reconnect urban dwellers with nature. We need more green spaces in our cities and becoming a beekeeper is part of a growing movement to green our cities. Although not scientifically proven, local honey is also said to cure hay fever. Bees are not like a dog. Bee Species Outnumber Mammals And Birds Combined. Scientists have discovered that there are more bee species than previously thought. In the first global accounting of bee species in over a hundred years, John S. Ascher, a research scientist in the Division of Invertebrate Zoology at the American Museum of Natural History, compiled online species pages and distribution maps for more than 19,200 described bee species, showcasing the diversity of these essential pollinators.

This new species inventory documents 2,000 more described, valid species than estimated by Charles Michener in the first edition of his definitive The Bees of the World published eight years ago. "The bee taxonomic community came together and completed the first global checklist of bee names since 1896," says Ascher. "Most people know of honey bees and a few bumble bees, but we have documented that there are actually more species of bees than of birds and mammals put together. " 7 Tips for a Bee-Friendly Habitat. Planting a bee garden is becoming increasingly important as across our planet, bees are thought to be suffering increased stress as a result of global warming, and the effect that this has on flowering times and nectar availability. It will take many generations of bees to evolve into stronger colonies able to deal with the change in climate. We depend on the work of bees and other insects more than most of us realise; almost 70% of the food we consume relies on pollination from insects, and bees are a critical part of this army of fertilizers.

Meanwhile there is plenty we can do to help. Knowing which plants bees prefer, and at what time of the year they need access to them, can make a fundamental difference to the success of local bee colonies. Whether we live in an urban area or deep in the countryside, we can actively encourage bees to thrive in the vicinity of our homes by creating a bee garden, however small that might be! What plants do you plan to include in your bee garden? Honey bee - Apis mellifera. Top 30 Flowers For Bees. Grow a Medicinal Herb Garden; Help bees. By Steven FosterThe Herb Companion Save time and money by stocking your backyard or windowsill gardens with five basic medicinal herbs. These superstars will treat common ailments such as colds and flu, inflammation, minor cuts, infections, pain, muscle spasms, anxiety, poor digestion and insomnia. Every medicinal herb garden should include chamomile, yarrow, lemon balm, Echinacea and peppermint.

These five basics are safe and effective for the vast majority of people when used as simple teas, poultices or salves. Echinacea: Super Immune-Booster Echinacea products are among the top-selling herbs in health-food stores. The seeds of E. purpurea germinate readily, or plants can be easily propagated by dividing the roots. While most references suggest using Echinacea root for medicinal use, I make a tea of the fresh or dried flowers of E. purpurea: the chemical constituents of the flowers are similar to those of the root. Chamomile: Gentle Yet Powerful Yarrow: First Aid in the Garden.

Guide To Bee-Friendly Gardens. The Early History of Beekeeping. History of Wild Bees and Beekeeping The beekeeper is the keeper of bee collection of honey and the other products that bees product in the hive like beeswax, pollen, and royal jelly. Another product of bees is for resale to other beekeeper. The location of where bees are housed is called an apiary or beeyard. The collecting honey dates back 15,000 years ago, Egyptian art shows beekeeping around 4,500 years ago. The early 18th century European understands of bee colonies and the biology of bees the construction of the moveable comb hives so honey can be harvested and not destroy the entire colony.

Wild bees became domesticated in artificial hive like logs, wooden boxes, pottery, and woven baskets. On Egypt’s walls of the sun temple from the Fifth Dynasty worker are depicted blowing smoke in the bee hives and removing the honeycombs. The Greece apiculture found smoking pots, honey extractors in Knossos; Beekeeping was a highly valued industry. Visit. Without honeybees, we may cease to be. If you like almonds, then 2013 brought some bad news. Each year, honeybees from across the country make the trek to California, which grows 80 percent of the world’s almonds, to pollinate the almond crop.

But bees have been dying in unusually large numbers for several years now, and this year appears worse than most. The problems we face if we don’t have healthy populations of pollinators, particularly honeybees, extend beyond almonds. Three fourths of the top crops grown in the world require animals – mostly insects – for pollination. Odds are that most of your favorite fruits, nuts and melons are pollinated by honeybees. Across the pond, the European Union has made major strides in shedding light on the role of certain pesticides in honeybee deaths.

The pesticides in question are called neonicotinoids. New York beekeeper Jim Doan ended last year with about 700 hives. From mid-June onward, Doan watched his bees die. Doan, for his part, is certain he knows what killed his bees. Yup. Recommended Books For A New Beekeeper. There is an old saying: if you ask five beekeepers what they think about something, you'll get six answers!

Beekeeping is an art and a science, and there are countless ways to approach it. There seem to be equally many books on the subject. So where's a novice to start? When I first became interested in bees, I took a small group class. No book can give you the feeling that you get when you get your hands in a hive for the first time.

But its hard to know what you’re getting into after just one trip to the apiary, so reading is a great way to round out your knowledge. When choosing a beekeeping book, it’s helpful to consider what you hope to achieve with your bees. With those thoughts buzzing in your brain, take a look at our top five book recommendations for novice beekeepers! Beekeeping for Dummies by Howland Blackiston is a great no-nonsense primer and a handy reference for any backyard beekeeper. Natural Beekeeping: Organic Approaches to Modern Apiculture, 2nd Edition by Ross Conrad. Queen Of The Sun: A Must-See Bee Documentary - Honeybees & Beekeeping.

A new documentary about disappearing bees, Queen of the Sun: What Are the Bees Telling Us? , examines the global bee crisis through the eyes of beekeepers, scientists, farmers and philosophers. According to its website, the film unveils 10,000 years of beekeeping and highlights the impact of industrial agriculture on the relationship between humans and bees. From the makers of The Real Dirt on Farmer John, the film features Michael Pollan, Vandana Shiva, and Gunther Hauk as well as beekeepers from around the world who keep bees in natural and holistic ways. Instead of focusing on commercial beekeepers, the filmmakers say the documentary emphasizes the biodynamic and organic communities who have differing opinions from many commercial beekeepers about the causes and solutions of colony collapse disorder, the global phenomenon where honeybee colonies vanish from their hives. Wild and managed honeybee populations have been in decline for the last 30 years, according to the USDA.

Bee Genes May Drive Them To Adventure. That honeybee lazily probing a flower may actually be a stealth explorer, genetically destined to seek adventure from birth. ADVENTUROUS BEES Honeybees that scout out new food sources (such as this tagged bee above) have biochemical signatures in their brains that suggest scouts are more adventurous than hive mates who aren’t scouts. Courtesy of Zachary Huang Bees who consistently explore new environments for food have different genetic activity in their brains than their less-adventurous hive mates, scientists report in the March 9 Science. This genetic activity relates to making particular chemical signals, some of which are linked to behaviors such as thrill-seeking in people. “This is an exciting paper that raises a lot of interesting questions,” says neurobiologist Alison Mercer of the University of Otago in New Zealand. Beekeeping Worldwide. Bee. Bees are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants, and are known for their role in pollination and for producing honey and beeswax.

Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea, presently classified by the unranked taxon name Anthophila. There are nearly 20,000 known species of bees in seven to nine recognized families,[1] though many are undescribed and the actual number is probably higher. They are found on every continent except Antarctica, in every habitat on the planet that contains insect-pollinated flowering plants. The smallest bee is Trigona minima, a stingless bee whose workers are about 2.1 mm (5/64") long. The best-known bee species is the European honey bee, which, as its name suggests, produces honey, as do a few other types of bee.

Bees are the favorite meal of Merops apiaster, the bee-eater bird. Evolution Bees, like ants, are a specialized form of wasp. Eusocial and semisocial bees Honey bees defend against wasp attacks Bumblebees Stingless bees. Grow Your Own Bee Garden: 7 Tips for a Bee-Friendly Habitat.