LESSON 108: HOW TO KEEP HONEY BEES IN THE CITY(217) 427-2678 www.honeybeesonline.com

Hello I’m Sheri from Long Lane Honey Bee Farms in Central Illinois! Our little three year old is pretending to take a ride with daddy. He’ll have to wait a few years yet. Welcome to Long Lane Honey Bee Farms, home of the Basic Beekeeping Lessons found on the Internet and home to the Illinois Pioneer Queen, a line of queens that we sell from our survival hives, and home to EAS certified master beekeeper, David Burns who is always hard at work experimenting with woodenware and bees.

David flew out to Rhode Island with our son-in-law Dustin Copass (who also started his queen business a few miles from us this year) to attend the Eastern Apicultural Society’s conference. David and Dustin loved being there for the entire week doing nothing but talking bees. David interviewed Michael Palmer, Dr. Buddy Marterre and Randy Oliver for some upcoming Studio Bee Live Podcasts (Click here to hear our new podcast on honey bees)

David did another great job on his two day queen rearing course that he offered. We had students from Texas, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and maybe a few more I’ve forgotten.

Hi, this is David and we have had a fun, but busy summer. As soon as we got home, we had to tend to all those unique Illinois Pioneer Queens that we raise from our survival hives. We sell our queens from May through October and we are working hard now to build up our queen numbers so we can have them ready weekly, but also all the way through October.

More and more I’m turning over the grafting to Karee. She’s an excellent grafter.

Karee has a special touch of pulling and dropping the larva that is the proper age and placing it perfectly in the cell cups.

Karee takes her work very seriously and even inspects her grafts occasionally under the microscope to ensure that she is doing a great job. Here’s one of her grafts of our Illinois Pioneer Queens. Just think, in a few weeks, this larva will be a queen ready to head up an entire colony of 80,000 bees. We strive for a large pool of royal jelly and only a slight curve so that we can get the best possible queen. Good job Karee!

REMEMBER, we are selling our well known ILLINOIS PIONEER QUEEN, bred not for race, but for strong characteristics from untreated hives that survived the winter. Order your queens online at: www.honeybeesonline.com/queens.html

Here’s a photo I took of one of our queens grafted from one of our hives that survived an Illinois winter without any treatment. We’d love to have you purchase one of our Illinois Pioneer Queens!

SUSTAINABLE, NATURAL AND ORGANIC BEEKEEPING COURSE
Saturday October 15, 2011
LOCATION: Vermilion County Agricultural Center
Danville, IL

Feel Confident In Long Lane Honey Bee Farms’ Bee Classes Because all Classes Are Taught by an EAS certified Master Beekeeper

This is a special class for several reasons. First, you can take Part One in the morning by itself, or take Part Two in the afternoon by itself, or take both!

This class will be held in Danville, Illinois at the Vermilion County Agricultural Center, Saturday October 15th, 2011. Part one will be held from 9am – Noon and Part two will be held from 1pm – 4pm. There are several places to eat lunch near by. Part 1 will deal primarily with how to keep bees naturally.

Part 2 will deal primarily with explaining how natural beekeeping can be accomplished in traditional Langstroth hives as well as Top Bar Hives and Warre Hives. We will have a TBH (Top Bar Hive) full of bees at the location for demonstration on how to manage a TBH. We will also have a Warre hive on display (without bees) for demonstration.

This is also a special class because it is very difficult to find natural, sustainable and organic beekeeping courses. Most beekeeping classes duplicate the same known beginner info over and over. Haven’t our bees had enough chemicals? Isn’t it time to think outside the box? Shouldn’t we become better stewards of the bees? Tell your friends!

Here’s how to register now:

TAKE BOTH THE MORNING AND AFTERNOON CLASS AND SAVE $10. To take both Part 1 and 2, click here or go to:
http://www.honeybeesonline.com/servlet/Detail?no=138

If you only want to take Part 1 where we will give an overview of natural, sustainable and organic beekeeping just in the morning from 9am-noon, click here or go to:
http://www.honeybeesonline.com/servlet/Detail?no=136

If you only want to take Part 2 in the afternoon where we will give demonstrations of a real Top Bar Hive with bees and a Warre hive without bees and various management techniques, click here or go to: http://www.honeybeesonline.com/servlet/Detail?no=137

NEW ITEM:
“WINTER—BEE—KIND”
WINTER HIVE TOP SYSTEM

Finally, before we get into today’s lesson, let me tell you about a new product that we are offering. We’ve listened to our customers and we have done our own homework about overwintering hives.

We are known for our winter candy boards. We sell hundreds of candy boards to help colonies overwinter. We also sell a winter wrap and vent piece as well. Well now, we’ve created the perfect piece to put on top of your hive for winter. It insulates the top, provides upper ventilation and comes with 5 lbs. of candy to feed the bees should they need it during the winter. It insulates, ventilates and feeds your bees as a single one piece item.

Just install it above your bees and put on the top cover and you’re set! We’ve named it “WINTER-BEE-KIND.” The candy portion faces down toward the cluster and the insulation faces up. We also add 1 full size pollen patty and cover it with the candy. This provides winter protein in addition to the carbohydrates the bees need.

We use a special piece of insulation that is backed with a thin piece of metal to help reduce condensation in the hive. It almost looks like a mirror. And it has two notches, one in the front and back to provide an upper entrance as well as a place to help excess condensation to escape. Do not delay. This should be placed on your hives as soon as the first frost. The WINTER-BEE-KIND also comes with our recipe on how we make our candy so that you can refill your candy section when needed, usually about once a month, depending on how much honey is in the hive. Order NOW, by clicking here.

LESSON 108: HOW TO KEEP HONEY BEES IN THE CITY

Here in my home state of Illinois we used to have more beekeepers south of I-80 (Chicago area) because it is rural Illinois. But that has changed. Now, there are more beekeepers north of I-80 because more and more people are keeping bees in urban areas. Can this really be done? What are the rules and regulations? What are the liabilities? What will my neighbors think?

So many people want to keep bees, but they live in the city and think it is impossible unless they live on 5 acres in the country. However, urban beekeeping is very common and is becoming increasingly popular. Some people are worried that keeping bees in populated areas will result in bad experiences. It doesn’t have to be that way.

As beekeepers we are the only ambassadors honey bees have. We must represent beekeeping in a positive way, especially the dire need to have them pollinate our fruits and vegetables. Even cities that have had long standing ordinances prohibiting beekeeping are now changing their laws and making way for beekeeping within city limits. After all, consider this: Aren’t there already honey bees in trees and abandon buildings in town? Most colonies kept in the country easily fly 3 miles into the nearest town to pollinate flowers and gardens anyway. I grew up in the 1960s in Memphis, Tennessee and the clover in our backyard was always full of honey bees.

As beekeepers we must speak kindly and politely to those who can change city ordinances so that more and more cities will allow beekeeping. Most do already. With the decline in honey bee populations, it only stands to reason that urban beekeeping must be not only allowed but invited.

Let me share with you some very important tips on keeping bees in urban areas that you MUST follow so that your neighbors will love your bees as much as you do.

First, we must be careful that we don’t overexpose our bees. Place your hives in such a way that their flight path does not soil clothes lines, cars, or the pretty white siding of your neighbor’s garage. Facing their entrance toward a tree or fence will cause the bees to become air borne higher and faster, thus staying away from those walking around in their yards.

Secondly, always keep water in your yard so that your bees can easily drink from your bird bath (or another water source) rather than your neighbor’s dog bowl or swimming pool.

Thirdly, never work your bees when your neighbors are using their yard for a reunion, cookout or any other kind of gathering. Be kind and wait and work your bees when you know your neighbors are at work or are not using their yard. For example, do not work your bees if your neighbor is mowing their yard. Use good judgment.

Fourthly, manage your hive by ensuring they are not defensive bees. Requeen your colony the minute they show overly defensive behavior. If you walk outside and your bees pop you, requeen.

Fifth, use good management practices to prevent swarming. As beekeepers we know that swarms are not generally defensive. However, to the general public that knows little about swarms, they are overwhelmed by a cyclone of bees ravishing through town.

Finally, a jar of the finished product can sweeten up your neighbor’s view of your bees. So save a few jars of honey to give out to neighbors.

Thanks so much for joining us for another beekeeping lesson. We hope you’ll consider making a purchase from Long Lane Honey Bee Farms and if not consider making a donation so that we might continue our work and research on the honey bee. These lessons are free and will provide you with as much if not more information than you would find in a $30 book. So if you are so inclined to make a $30 donation so that we might continue these lessons, CLICK HERE Thank you in advance.