Backyard Beekeeping: Bee Class

9 May 2023

I just completed my community college beginning beekeeping class - 3 hours of classroom instruction and 1 1/2 hours of bee hive maintenance demonstration at a suburban backyard apiary. I discussed this class in an earlier post: Backyard Beekeeping: Back to School. The field trip to the apiary was this past weekend. The apiary supports the instructor's business, Bridgetown Bees, which sells bee hive NUCs (small self-contained bee hive starters (nucleus) with fully populated frames), bee packages (bees without the frames - queen, workers, and drones), and bee products (honey, wax candles).

At one point he had 80 populated hives and there were dozens active in his backyard. He said it takes about an acre of forage to support one hive and that bees tend to stay within a 2 miles radius of their hive - so, he must be servicing all of his neighbors . The average hive honey production in the Portland metro area is about 40-45 lbs per year, but he said that one year he had a hive that produced 360 lbs!

Workers returning to the hive with pollen.

Extracting a Langstroth frame from a box that he uses to raise bees for NUCs. A Langstroth frame is a full 4 sided frame, usually with a backing sheet that bees use to build the comb. On the bench is a hybrid frame that he uses to create NUCs with Warre frames which only have a top bar. Bees create a free hanging comb on the Warre frame, as they would in nature. The hybrid frame allows him to use the same box for both types of frames.

A couple of short videos:

Workers with pollen

Bee taking a breather on white Clematis flower

The "Save the Bees Challenge" was a great learning opportunity for me. I wish that I had been able to take this class before the challenge as I now have a lot more insight into how a honeybee hive operates and how a local beekeeper deals with pests. And only one person was stung... (not me).

I'm still debating whether or not to have a hive of my own. My wife also has to agree...

But, I did buy honey (2.2 lbs) for Mother's Day .

Parents

beacon_dave over 2 years ago

Spotted a couple of bumbles this afternoon entering an air brick on the side of the house.

Not sure if they are planning on using the airbrick as a bee hotel or if their plans extend further on into the basement.

Must be a higher class of bee, as in previous years, bees have made do with the compost bins.
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beacon_dave over 2 years ago

Spotted a couple of bumbles this afternoon entering an air brick on the side of the house.

Not sure if they are planning on using the airbrick as a bee hotel or if their plans extend further on into the basement.

Must be a higher class of bee, as in previous years, bees have made do with the compost bins.
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beacon_dave over 2 years ago in reply to beacon_dave
ok, it's at least five and I suspect they are using the basement as they are entering via different holes in the air brick but exiting via the same hole head first. None of this poke your bum out first, turnaround and reverse back in type nonsense here...
- plant more bee friendly flowers
- provide more bee friendly nesting sites
- avoid getting stung and dying from anaphylaxis in the process
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ralphjy over 2 years ago in reply to beacon_dave

The worst sting I’ve experienced was from a bumblebee. Unbeknownst to me they had built a nest in a 1” square wooden post that was supporting one of our trees. While pruning the tree I had put my bare hand over the entrance to their nest and received a nasty sting to my palm.

Good luck with your bumblebees…
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beacon_dave over 2 years ago in reply to ralphjy

That sounds like it could have been a female carpenter bee rather than a bumble bee ?

The carpenters tend to burrow into wooden structures and it looks like the females will sting to defend the nest.

I've encountered the male sentries here but have never seen a nest entrance nearby (unless they were partly responsible for the conversion my previous wooden shed into a lean-to).
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ralphjy over 2 years ago in reply to beacon_dave

Yes, you’re correct. I had to go look up a picture of a carpenter bee. I remember that it was large and had a yellow back. It was about 50 years ago…. The hole in the post was identical to the picture that I found.
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beacon_dave over 2 years ago in reply to beacon_dave

The new lodgers...

ginger-brown thorax

black abdomen

white tail

Tree Bumblebee I think

https://www.bumblebeeconservation.org/white-tailed-bumblebees/tree-bumblebee/
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