So, good news/bad news. Bad news: the queen in my hive at Arlington Farms ceases to be. How do I know? I found some gnarly-looking queen cells while inspecting the hive a few days ago.

Man, was I bummed. 

But glad to see the bees have already been hard at work to raise a new queen. Which leads me to my good news. See that weirdo bee on the left? She’s a virgin queen. I say “a” and not “the” because there can be several at once. 

When a young virgin queen emerges from a queen cell, she will generally seek out virgin queen rivals and attempt to kill them. 

The surviving virgin queen will fly out on a sunny, warm day (probably today) and mate with 12-15 drones. She’ll store up to 6 million sperm so she can continue to lay eggs for the rest of her life— about 2,000 eggs /more than her own bodyweight in eggs every day.

If all goes well, we should see some eggs and baby bees in 4-6 weeks. Long live the queen. 

Giving my hive the juicy deets. Bees are notorious gossipmongers.

modfarm:

Beekeepers are battling the EPA over pesticides they say are killing their hives— and they’re taking the fight to the courts. Can a lawsuit save America’s bees? 

When I first entered the world of beekeeping, boy was I confused. And I’m not just talking about that time I got stuck in my bee suit.

Few industries use so many interchangeable terms to describe their equipment and methodology as beekeeping. For example — the individual boxes that make up a Langstroth hive stack may be referred to simply as supers, or they may be called deeps, mediums or shallows, an indication of their size.

The beeswax comb that the bees build inside their nest might be called wax, or foundation, or comb, or brood comb, or honeycomb — similar terms and yet they mean different things. And how does one sort out the nuances of colony versus hive? Or frame versus top bar?

Read more: http://bit.ly/11VEj4V

at Crystal Waters Farm

The bees arrive in a week. I will pick them up from Wildflower Ridge Honey Farm in a small box called a nucleus or “nuc.” 

Compared to established hives, a nuc usually consists of just five frames of brood (baby bees), bees, and a queen. A mini-hive. 

Where will the hives go? Since Bee Public’s mission is to bring bees into cities, originally I wanted to put my hives in the most urban places I could think of. Rooftops, fire escapes. But luck, circumstance, and an amazingly supportive network of friends led me to these two locations for my first two hives. 

Hive location #1: Leah and Tito’s backyard in Fletcher Place

Internet, meet Tito. Tito, The Internet. L + T are among my closest friends and they live just a few minutes from Fountain Square in the Fletcher Place neighborhood. Leah and I played roller derby together, so we have a very special bond. She and Tito have put a lot of hard work into their home and backyard so I’m so excited to bring a hive into such a gorgeous and well-nourished space. 

Hive Location #2: Arlington Farms, Indianapolis

Christina Hatton of Arlington Farms is a busy bee. She and her husband teamed up with another family to start a brand new, 3-acre organic urban farm + CSA just south of Irvington. The bees from my hive will help pollinate the local produce growing there and I hope to learn a thing or two about what it takes to run an urban farm in the process. What a great partnership!

My next lesson will include figuring out the best spot on each property to place the hives. Sounds like future blog post fodder to me.

I met Stevie at Bee School. He’s Amish, has braces, and looks to be just shy of his 17th birthday. I’m not sure that last part is true, but I really like Stevie and I like that I can drive up to his bee supply store on his farm in Greencastle, Indiana (took me about an hour to get there from Fountain Square) to buy hives + other bee supplies.

I could just order online, but instead I wanted to 1. Buy local 2. Get my questions answered face to face 3. Have a cool experience. And I’ll take any excuse for a rural road trip + farm visit. 

Here’s where I bought my hives: 

Other places you could buy your hives + beekeeping supplies: 

• Apple Blossom Honey Farm and Pollination Service (Star City, IN)
• Brushy Mountain Bee Farm
• Dadant 
• Graham’s Bee Works Inc. (Morgantown, IN)
• Long Lane Honey Bee Farms BeeKeeping Supplies
• Pigeon Mountain Trading
• RJ Honey, LLC (Lebanon, IN)
• Walter T. Kelly Co. 

I realized I forgot to pick up a few things at Crystal Waters, so I may drive to RJ Honey just to have a different, local experience. 

Tonight I learned a little something about butterflies. (at Nature Conservancy)

terraformoi:

Pick your pure honey

How to keep bees in four easy steps.

Lunch.

The cool thing about beekeeping? (I mean, besides everything)? There’s a ton of info out there: websites, blogs, books, youtube videos, other beekeepers. 

Today there was a guy talking urban beekeeping at the Flower and Patio Show (above). Beekeeping is everywhere, you guys. 

All that info can be overwhelming for a a wannabe beekeeper. In Indiana we have TWO beekeeping associations to choose from. Why are there two, and which one do I join!? (I’ll answer that later)

At this point, a month before I “adopt” my bees, I have three questions weighing on my mind, which I’ll explore over three separate posts: 

1. How should I get my bees? (I already know the answer to this one! YAY!)

2. Who should I buy my hives from? (I don’t know!)

3. Where should my bees live? (I’m still not really sure, but I think I know!)

Stay tuned. 

modfarm:

Food Safety News, which broke the story in 2011 that nearly three-fourths of the honey sold in the US may be improperly labeled, reports that charges have been filed and major fines levied against U.S. honey importers for smuggling in Chinese honey. Helena Bottemiller reports that honey…

plotting. @leah_downer

my new pets. #wormfarm (at the conservatory)

This is on Netflix. Worth watching to see a crazy old french guy use his mustache as a bee brush.

back to school (at Indiana Bee School)

rogerdoiron:

Insects habitat via mixgreen

Holy crap. Smallbox Web Design liked my idea for Bee Public so much, they gave me a $1000 Nice Grant to get it up and running. THANK YOU. 

How far will that get me? Pretty far. Here’s a list of what I’m going to need to get started: 

• Hive setup (one hive includes: bottom board, 2 deep supers, 20 deep frames, 2 honey supers, 20 honey frames, queen excluder, inner cover, outer cover, entrance reducer + feeder): $200 each
• Package of bees: $75 each
• Clothing + tools (veil, gloves, smoker, hive tools, bee brush):$125
• Medications and feed: $35
• Bee school: ranges from $30-$150
• Bee books: $30
• Honey extraction: $15 

Total first year with two hives: around $900

Not to mention, I’m going to connect with as many beekeepers, advocates, and enthusiasts around the state as I can. I’ve got lessons to learn, stories to hear, and more nice people to meet.