The Apiary: Bees & Beekeeping

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To bee or not to bee... that is the question.

An "apiary" is a place where bees and hives are kept, especially when it is for the production of honey.

I don't keep bees presently, but it is an ambition of mine.  I'd like to make sure that how I keep bees is healthy for the bees as well as the humans and animals who live around them. I started this lens so I would have a place to put all the info I'm learning about bees and beekeeping.  You are very welcome to read it over and learn along with me!

All About Bees

These sites talk about various species of bees and their differences

I've tried to make this module list sites that really discuss bees from a more insectoid and scientific angle. One of the things many people don't realize is that there are various species of bees in the world and some are more suitable for honey cultivation or keeping for crop pollenation than others.
Honeybees
At Honeybee.tamu.edu we hope to provide general information about bees, answer frequently asked questions and solve common problems associated with honey bees, and serve beekeepers with regulatory resources, specific disease and parasite information, and current topics.
Carpenter Bees
In the late-spring and early summer, homeowners often notice large, black bees hovering around the outside of their homes. These are probably carpenter bees searching for mates and favorable sites to construct their nests.
Insecta Inspecta World - Killer Bees
Africanized, Sometimes Called "Killer Bees"
Gordon's Social Bees Page
An Introduction to the biology, classification and ecology of the Social Bees (Honey Bees, Bumble Bees, Stingless Bees etc.)
NOVA Online | Tales from the Hive
Welcome to the companion Web site to the NOVA program "Tales from the Hive,"
Bee - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bees (a lineage within the superfamily Apoidea) are flying insects, closely related to wasps and ants. There are approximately 20,000 species of bees, and they may be found on every continent except Antarctica. Bees are adapted for feeding on nectar and pollen, the former primarily as an energy source, and the latter primarily for protein and other nutrients. Most pollen is used for food for the brood.
Welcome to Anne Gracie's Website - Bees
Quite a lot of people have asked me why on earth I keep bees. They also ask me how
often I get stung. Actually, bee keeping is not all that scarey or dangerous - unless you're allergic to bee stings, and I'm not.

Guides and Books on Beekeeping

There's a rather thorough amount of books on bees and beekeeping. I'm going to have to research my area (the Pacific Northwest) and find out what sorts of specifics there would be for keeping bees here.
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Beekeeping and Honey

This is the module that delves into beekeeping, hive management and honey production.
Bees
The insects most beneficial to humans are found in the large insect order Hymenoptera. Not only are the bees and many of their relatives pollinators of flowering plants, including fruits and vegetables, but thousands of species of small wasps are parasites of other arthropods.
Bees and Honey
All about honey, honey bees and more
Honey.com - The Honey Expert
Honey.com is your source for honey information and recipes. Honey.com -- the honey expert
Bees and Pollination
An AgNIC website providing links to web-based information about honeybees, beekeeping and pollination
Solitary Bees: An Addition to Honey Bees
Pollen bees! What are these? Who ever heard of them? If you have not heard of pollen bees, that's not surprising, because this inclusive term was coined only in 1992, to describe all the bees other than honey bees that help to pollinate our crops and wild flowers. They have also been called "native bees," "wild bees," and "non-Apis bees."
Organic Honey - The O'Mama Report
The O'Mama Report is a resource featuring organic and organic agriculture. It contains articles about organic standards, organic gardening, preparing organic baby nurseries, cooking with organic foods, and how to incorporate organic into everyday life.
Apiservices - The Beekeeping portal - Le Portail Apiculture - Apicultura - Imkerei
Apiservices - All information about beekeeping, bees and honey - Toutes informations pour l'apiculture, les abeilles et le miel
BeeSource.com
Your Online Sourcebook for Beekeeping
Guide To Bee-Friendly Gardens - Home
What types of bees do you see in your garden? At first glance you may observe some honeybees ducking in and out of flowers, perhaps a bumblebee or two. Did you know that there are actually 81 known species of bees in urban Berkeley alone? Take a better look; you may see bright green bees, small black bees, striped and fuzzy bees. These busy little creatures are responsible for pollinating a large variety of fruits, flowers, and vegetables. They are an important and vital part of our ecosystem.
MAKE: Blog: Backyard beekeeping - splitting a hive
This is my second year as an amateur beekeeper, and this last weekend we split our first hive, creating a second colony which will be relocated to a new home in the suburbs.
How Hilary Berseth Makes His Beeswax Sculptures -- New York Magazine
How Hilary Berseth makes his buzzworthy sculptures.

The Bee's Knees

A photo gallery of bees

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Colony Collapse Disorder

a catastrophic development in beekeeping

This is a new term being applied to s syndrome that is just being noticed by beekeepers and agriculture specialists. The ramifications of this, in a worst case scenario, could be the loss of millions of food and plant crops worldwide. Albert Einstein has been quoted as saying that if all the bees on the planet were gone, humans would only be able to survive for about four years.
Are mobile phones wiping out our bees? - Independent Online Edition > Wildlife
Scientists claim radiation from handsets are to blame for mysterious 'colony collapse' of bees
Mystery Ailment Strikes Honeybees - washingtonpost.com
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- A mysterious illness is killing tens of thousands of honeybee colonies across the country, threatening honey production, the livelihood of beekeepers and possibly crops that need bees for pollination.
MAAREC - A listing of on-line information.
To better understand the cause(s) of this disease and with the hope of eventually identifying strategies to prevent further losses, a group of researchers, extension agents, and regulatory officials was formed. This group represents a diverse number of institutions including Bee Alert Technology, Inc. (a bee technology transfer company affiliated with the University of Montana), The Pennsylvania State University, the USDA/ARS, the Florida Department of Agriculture, and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.
Colony Collapse Disorder | Podcasts at Penn State
In our first episode, hear from Senior Extension Agent and Honey Bee Specialist, Maryann Frazier, about honey bees and why they are such important pollinators in Pennsylvania and the United States. Find out why this die off is getting the attention of experts, and learn about the characteristics and extent of the collapse. Finally, get a preview of who the key players are and what is being done to investigate Colony Collapse Disorder.
Latest Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences News
An alarming die-off of honey bees has beekeepers fighting for commercial survival and crop growers wondering whether bees will be available to pollinate their crops this spring and summer.
Colony Collapse Disorder - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Colony Collapse Disorder (or CCD) is a honey bee disease, disorder or syndrome that describes the massive die-off affecting an entire colony. It is apparently limited to colonies of the Western honey bee in North America.[1] The cause of the syndrome is not yet well understood and even the existence of this disorder remains disputed. CCD may be environmental, or may be caused by unknown pathogens or by mites or associated diseases. CCD is possibly linked to pesticide use though several studies have found no common environmental factors between unrelated outbreaks studied.
Pesticides may be hurting honeybees: researcher
Toxins in the environment could be causing honeybee populations to dwindle in New Brunswick, Ontario and the northeastern states, a U.S. researcher says.
Straight Dope Staff Report: Why are the bees disappearing?
First and most important: There are some 20,000 species of bees in the world, and many thousands more types of pollinating insects. What you're hearing about, "colony collapse disorder," affects one species of bee ? the European honey bee. That species happens to be the one global agriculture relies upon for about 30% of its pollination requirements. So while we're not talking about losing all the world's pollinators, we are talking about losing a significant fraction of them. That's the worst-case scenario, with the species wiped out completely.
New film seeks answer to mystery of vanishing bees - Yahoo! News
A new documentary seeks to unravel the mystery of why billions of honey bees have been disappearing from hives across the United States, and concludes that the chief suspect is pesticides.

Bee Quotations

To bee or not too bee.... buzz is the question

  • Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.
    -- Muhammad Ali
  • The pedigree of honey does not concern the bee, a clover, anytime, to him, is aristocracy.
    -- Emily Dickinson
  • It takes a bee to get the honey out.
    -- Arthur Guiterman
  • When the bee comes to your house, let her have beer; you may want to visit the bee's house some day.
    -- Congo Proverb
  • The honey-bee's great ambition is to be rich, to lay up great stores, to possess the sweet of every flower that blooms. She is more than provident. Enough will not satisfy her, she must have all she can get by hook or crook.
    -- John Burroughs

Bomb-sniffing Bees?

Yep, it's true. The Los Alamos National Laboratory has trained some bees to sniff out bombs. When the bees smell certain chemicals, they have been trained to stick out their tongues.

Don't believe me? This PDF from their site details the experiments.
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About Honey

How sweet it is...

Here is informationn on honey, and what makes the different types distinct from each other.
Why is honey kosher ?
A Rabbinical dicussion of why honey can be kosher.
BeeSource.com | POV | USDA | A Survey of American Honeys
Characterization of Individual Floral Types of Honey
Honey - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Honey is a sweet and viscous fluid produced by honeybees and other insects from the nectar of flowers. "The definition of honey stipulates a pure product that does not allow for the addition of any other substance.
All About Honey
Learn the differences between comb honey, liquid honey, granulated and chunk honey.
Monofloral Honey Definitions
World Wide the International Standards for Honey are laid out in the Codex Alimentarius (administered by the "Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme").
Got Mead?: Honey Types
Honey Varieties and the different qualities they bring to making mead.

Bee Videos

From the natural backyard activity of bees, to hornets attacking and even John Belushi as the King Bee, here are some bee videos that you might enjoy.
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What's The Buzz?

  • GreenfireWiseWoman Aug 7, 2011 @ 10:16 am | delete
    Great info. This is something I want to learn to do.
  • Seattletaxaccountant Oct 26, 2008 @ 12:14 am | delete
    Very cool.
  • Squidaddle Oct 10, 2008 @ 10:25 am | delete
    I've been beekeeping for three years and this page is a great resource! Thanks.

    Advice for newbies: find your local beekeeping club and someone will be happy to show you the ropes. Or just give you a tour of a hive, so you can see if it really is for you.

    Personally, I find it a really absorbing pastime.
  • relache Mar 18, 2008 @ 11:30 pm | delete
    UMT, just so you know, an aViary expert is someone who deals with birds, not bees...
  • UMT Mar 18, 2008 @ 2:42 pm | delete
    I wonder what is like being an aviary expert, the thought of bee sting makes me cringe sometimes, not my fault. Great lens.
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relache

Rae's had four lenses earn LOTD, two lenses made it to #1 and four have purple stars. She's a Giant Squid (Sept. '07 100 class) and Squid Angel Emerita. more »

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