Why Do Beekeepers Need to Purchase Queen Bees?

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While each of the honeybees in a hive plays their own role, the queen bee is unique in that she influences the behavior and performance of an individual colony in a way that no other single bee can. She is the genetic backbone of the colony—and all the bees, as her offspring, carry her genetic signature.

As a result, beekeepers know that they can control the performance of a colony to a significant extent simply by managing the quality of the queen bee in the hive. There are two pieces to assessing a queen’s quality: the performance of her offspring, and of course, her own performance. Both are vital.*

For assessing a queen’s offspring’s performance, a beekeeper commonly considers the following:

  • Disease Resistance: Is the colony robust and able to withstand diseases such as American foulbrood?
  • Temperament: Are the bees gentle and easy to work with?
  • Honey Production: In conditions of good nectar flow, are the bees making a considerable amount of honey?
  • Honey Consumption: Does the colony save its stores or consume large amounts of honey, requiring extra supplemental feeding?
  • Population Control: Does the colony have the desired population at the right time of year?
  • Mite Resistance: Does the queen carry the VSH trait to control the spread of parasitic mites?
  • Swarming Tendency: Does the colony seem to want to swarm more than normal?
  • Overwintering Success: Does the colony appear very weak in the spring?

In assessing a queen’s own performance, the beekeeper also considers the queen herself:

  • Laying Performance: Is the queen laying enough eggs and in a tight brood pattern?
  • Quantity of Drones: Is the queen laying more drones than worker eggs?
  • Health: Is the queen injured?
  • Age: Is she young and vigorous, or aging and on the way out?
  • Presence: Is she even in the hive, or did she perish somewhere along the way?

So, why do beekeepers need to purchase queen bees? The first reason is to manage the genetics of the offspring. The second is to manage the performance of the queen herself.

The third, and perhaps most common reason for purchasing a queen bee, is to enable the beekeeper to easily divide or split an existing colony. All new colonies need queens. The easiest, most reliable, and most surefire way for a beekeeper to obtain a quality queen of known genetics is to purchase that queen from a reputable queen breeder.

*With an instrumentally inseminated breeder queen, the queen’s own performance is more important than the offspring’s because the genetics in the offspring are already largely predetermined due to the selection of the parents.

Eucalyptus Honey

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While California is well known for its picturesque palm trees, one can’t help but also notice the multitude of eucalyptus trees that seemingly sprout up everywhere. You might think that eucalyptus could even be the state tree, but there is no unseating the majestic redwoods that have deservedly earned that honor. Nevertheless, eucalyptus can be found in abundance throughout much of California, especially in the coastal and temperate areas of the state, where Wildflower Meadows is located.

Many different kinds of eucalyptus can be found around our apiaries – so many that there’s no keeping count. Some are large and sprawling; others are smaller and shapelier. Some have dark green leaves; others are light green. Eucalyptus is not technically just one tree, it’s actually a genus that includes over seven hundred species of flowering trees. Most species of eucalyptus are native to Australia, not the U.S., but they were introduced in California in the late 1700s.

From a beekeeper’s perspective, eucalyptus is gold. Nearly all the trees blossom with rich nectar-producing flowers. Plus, with all the different species, the flowering is varied and staggered over many months. Some species blossom in the summer, some in autumn, and some in the winter. It’s hard to imagine why a tree would blossom in the winter, but many beekeepers surmise that certain types of eucalyptus trees, being Australian natives, never abandoned their Australian seasonality.

Most species of eucalyptus have fluffy white, cream, yellow, pink, or red flowers. The flowers are a little unusual, however, making them easily recognizable. They get their fluffy appearance from a large display of stamens, instead of petals. Some are pretty to look at, others are not particularly attractive from a human perspective. Nevertheless, from the bees’ perspective, nearly all eucalyptus flowers are a treat! Eucalyptus blossoms are not necessarily known for being a rich pollen source for bees, but they do produce nectar – and often lots of it.

Although the leaves of eucalyptus plants are well known for their powerful essential oils – which are used for pharmaceutical purposes, disinfecting, insect repellent, flavoring, and fragrances – the nectar from the blossoms doesn’t quite deliver exactly the same flavor. The honey does, however, contain the eucalyptol compound, which gives it a somewhat medicinal, distinctive taste along with some healing properties.

Historically, eucalyptus honey has been used to treat coughs, common colds, congestion, and respiratory diseases due to its anti-inflammatory properties. Its antibacterial properties also make it helpful for treating minor cuts and burns. Eucalyptus honey promotes relaxation when consumed or when added to a running bath as well. The honey has a beautiful dark, reddish amber color and can be a great addition to food, beverages, or simply eaten from the jar.

Valentine’s Day as A Beekeeper

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Did you know that honeybees are a symbol of love and romance? That means that as a beekeeper, you’ve already got the inside track to help you celebrate the most romantic holiday of the year. So, skip the box of chocolates this Valentine’s Day and try one of these ideas for your bee-loved instead.

Nothing says Valentine’s Day like the gift of self-care. If your sweetheart is the kind of person who loves the thought of a DIY gift, try your hand at a milk and honey bath bomb.  They’ll appreciate your effort, especially when they feel how silky and soft it leaves their skin.

If you want to treat your queen bee like royalty, a beeswax candle is a perfect gift to show her what she means to you. Every woman loves the warmth and romance a candle creates in the home—the same feeling your relationship brings her. The natural beeswax candle will create an ambiance and fill her space with faint aromas of soft, musky honey.

If your partner has a sweet tooth, why not get some honey for your honey for St. Valentine’s? Honey is a delicious and versatile addition to breakfast in bed. Whether you whip up some pancakes, French toast, hot oatmeal, or fruit salad, your partner will love it topped off with a generous serving of sweet honey.

If you’re ready to get a head start on your summer romance, now is the best time to plant seeds for flowers—for your bees and your romantic partner later in the year. There’s just something special about homegrown flowers rather than buying a pre-arranged bouquet. Just place them in a vase on the table with a beeswax candlelit dinner to take your experience to the next level.

And if you’re single this Valentine’s Day, that’s okay! Just go on Bumble. You’re already a beekeeper and will fit right in! What more reason do you need to get out there and enjoy the season of love?

How Many Hives Should a Beekeeper Have?

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The right number of hives depends on your goals as a beekeeper.  If you are a beginner, you may want to start small at first, as you learn about their bees and gain skills along the way. Whereas a skilled beekeeper may want to build his or her hobby into a business that can scale over time. In the end, you as a beekeeper must decide how much time and money you wish to invest – more hives mean more equipment, maintenance, space, and of course time after all.

There are many advantages to keeping multiple hives. Most experienced beekeepers recommend that even brand-new beekeepers maintain at least two hives. Investing in two hives up front may seem like overkill, but it will almost certainly prevent potential stress down the road and likely save money in the long run.

Countless unexpected situations can arise within the first year of keeping bees; and with only one hive you have nothing to fall back on if things go bad.  This leaves you and your hive vulnerable to being completely wiped out. For a new beekeeper with only a single colony, a rough winter could mean starting over completely from scratch in the spring, which can be costly because having to buy bees can be expensive.

Having two beehives not only ensures there are extra resources on hand to share between hives – such as brood, nurse bees, worker bees, or even pollen and honey – it’s also a safeguard in the event you lose an entire colony. It is common for new beekeepers with little experience to lose all, or part of a colony within the first year, especially over the winter. Starting with multiple beehives means it’s possible to share bees among your colonies if some do inevitably die.

More experienced beekeepers may want to keep even more than two hives to increase their odds of success.  If there was an ideal number of hives for a backyard beekeeper, most beekeepers would estimate that 2-5 hives are optimal.

Of course, you will also need enough space. Each beehive takes up about 22-inches by 16-inches of space and can be placed as close as 6-inches together, but more space is always better. Plenty of space is needed surrounding your hives as well, both for maintenance and security. If beehives are kept too close together, it can sometimes cause them to “drift” into a hive that’s not their own. Over time this can affect the bees’ populations – strengthening some hives while weakening others.

Ultimately, when deciding how many hives you’d like to keep, you must consider how much space, time, and money you have available to invest. If you want to make a business out of beekeeping, you’re going to need a lot of hives, and likely more than one apiary. A smaller scale operation that runs part-time with a responsible beekeeper can manage around 100 colonies. This size business isn’t likely to earn enough income from honey, pollinating services, or selling bees to live off, but it can be a solid source of extra income.

Commercial apiaries, however, can have anywhere from 500 to 2000 beehives each. Here in California, as well as in other parts of the US, some large established commercial beekeepers have upwards of 10,000 or more colonies. California beekeepers rely heavily on almond pollination for their income, and are paid per colony, meaning more colonies equals more money – and professional beekeepers need it! Maintaining a business of this size requires a major investment in equipment, labor, storage, and logistics.

The Dance of the Honeybee

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Many beekeepers may notice their honeybees dancing, but they may not realize there’s a lot more to it than a captivating show. Dancing is the main “language” of the honeybee, allowing them to communicate important information to one another. As with many species in nature, communication is vital to existence. A honeybee colony relies on communication, teamwork, and of course, resources – such as water, food, or shelter, to survive. Afterall, without resources to sustain the colony, there’s no hope for a strong, thriving hive.

Worker bees forage for resources and return to the hive to inform others once they’ve made a discovery. To efficiently collect the new resources, honeybees must first communicate the distance and directions to the resource’s location. When the bees return to the hive, they bring samples of the nectar or pollen they’ve discovered to distribute to the colony. While the taste and scent of the sample helps bees to know what’s available out there, more specific information about the location is shared through dance.

Once the sample has stirred interest and gathered an audience, worker bees begin their dancing. Bees use different patterns within their dance performances to provide specific details about the location to fellow worker bees. They will usually perform one of a few dances: the round dance, the waggle, or a mix of the two. There are important differences between these dances, including how they look and what information they provide.

The round dance, also known as “circle dance”, has a simple pattern. Bees simply walk in a circle, turn around in the opposite direction, and walk the same circular path. They will repeat this action several times, however, the dance provides information about only one thing – the distance the resource is from the hive. The round dance is performed by honeybees when the new resource is located only a short distance from the hive, usually within approximately 50 meters. Although this dance does not give bees directions to the new resource, their keen sense of smell will pick up on the scent from the pollen or nectar sample that was shared.

Honeybee dancing begins to get a little more specific the further the new resources are from the hive. The waggle dance is performed when resources are more than 150 meters from the hive. This dance provides worker bees with plenty of information about the location, as well as directions on how to get there. When performing the waggle dance, also referred to as the “wagtail dance”, honeybees follow a figure-eight pattern with a side-to-side “waggle” motion in the middle.

It is this waggle motion that tells other bees the vital details they need to know, including which directions to take from the hive, and how far away it is. Worker bees may waggle with more enthusiasm depending on the quality of the food source, they may repeat the action more often, or they may change direction to indicate specific details about the path taken. In fact, researchers have found that the directions given by honeybees are extremely accurate!

Honeybees also use another dance that is a combination of both the round and waggle dance. The transitional dance, sometimes called the “sickle dance,” is performed when the new resource is located between 50 and 150 meters away. The sickle dance is very similar to the waggle dance, in that honeybees follow the same figure-eight pattern, however, with this dance, there is no waggle motion in between.

There is still some debate among researchers about how much honeybee communication relies on dancing, rather than their distinct sense of smell and inherently good vision. However, after several experiments, the majority of scientists have concluded that dancing is a vital part of honeybee communication. Although floral smells are important when locating nectar and pollen, the dance of the honeybee has proven to be essential to their ongoing survival.

What Color Should You Paint a Beehive?

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As a beekeeper, you’ve probably noticed that bee boxes tend to be painted in different colors.  Many beekeepers, especially commercial beekeepers, tend to paint their boxes a standard white color.  This is the most familiar look for a beehive and is perfectly acceptable.  However, some beekeepers – particularly backyard hobbyists – prefer to let their artistic side run wild! Either choice is fine; but as always in beekeeping, there are a few basic guidelines to consider.

Should you even paint your beehive? The answer is yes.  There are several reasons why bee boxes should be painted—for both, the benefit of the bee colony and for the beekeeper.

Paint helps your boxes last longer. After a season or two exposed to the elements, you can expect your bee boxes to experience some wear and tear. Environmental forces like sun, rain and temperature changes can warp, crack, rot, or otherwise deteriorate the wood. A good layer of paint will help protect the wood by minimizing damage from weather, keeping your bee boxes looking great for longer.

Painting your bee box can also help with temperature regulation. Light paints, such as white, can help reflect sunlight and keep the hive cooler in hot temperatures. Dark paints can help absorb the sun’s warmth and keep the hive warmer in the winter. Depending on the climate you live in, you may wish to choose either light or dark paint for your bee box.

Sometimes beekeepers choose to be discreet about their beekeeping endeavor – not all neighbors are a fan of bees after all.  Painting the beehive the color of the surrounding buildings or environment can help camouflage it from unwanted attention from neighbors, vandals, or other prying eyes.

There are a lot of options for painting a beehive when it comes to color. You may wish to stick with plain white, or you may prefer to get artistic and paint fun designs on your bee box — anything goes! If you prefer the beauty of the natural wood grain, you can also use a clear coat to protect your bee box without changing its color.

While the choice of color is solely up to each beekeeper, we do have a couple important recommendations. For instance, sticking to light pastel colors or white will help keep your hive cool during warmer months.

Also, painting different colors may be helpful if you are raising your own queens, and are painting two-way or four-way queen rearing boxes for queen mating. Using different colors, one for each side of the box will assist with the mating process.

Whichever color you choose for your bee box, make sure the paint you choose is safe for the health of your bees. It’s best to use a non-toxic, water-based paint that is low in volatile organic compounds (VOCs ) – which are toxic chemicals that can release as the paint dries. Since the box will be outdoors, be sure to choose an exterior-grade paint that is meant for outdoor use. Always allow enough time for the paint to fully cure before introducing any bee colonies to the box. This will prevent your colony from encountering any VOCs or sticky wet paint. Finally, and importantly, only paint the exterior of your bee box. Never paint areas where the bees will walk or live, which includes the inside and entryways to the box.

Is it Better to Keep Bees at Home or in an Outside Apiary?

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As an aspiring beekeeper, you can choose to keep your honeybees at your home, on your property in places such as your backyard or rooftop (depending on your local laws). You can also choose to keep your bees on a hosts’ property at an outside apiary.

Which is right for you? Home apiaries are not only very convenient, but the proximity allows you to closely monitor the bees and protect them against pests such as ants. It also allows you to regularly enjoy the bees and work with them on your own schedule — whenever you’re free or whenever the feeling strikes.

While it can be great to have the bees on your property, some aspects of at-home apiaries are less enjoyable. There may be issues with local zoning laws that prevent you from beekeeping how you’d like, depending on your location. Neighbors and house guests may worry about having the bees around, and you’ll need to be vigilant if any children or pets visit your home so that no one gets stung.

Outside apiaries are an alternative to at-home beekeeping. Setting up your apiary in the countryside can provide you with a beautiful destination, along with a built-in an excuse to get out of the house and enjoy nature.  Outside apiaries can be located away from people, so there is less reason to worry about upsetting neighbors or anyone being stung by the bees.

Since you must travel to an outside apiary, however, you must plan more and have an organized way of transporting your supplies. An offsite location may require you to have a truck, especially for loading supers of honey. Moving honey from an outside apiary can often be a heavy, messy task that requires more work and investment than when you are at home. Outside apiaries can also require tenants to provide an appropriate amount of honey to the owners about once per year, in exchange for use of their land.

If you are considering keeping your bees at an outside apiary, here are some questions you should consider to help you decide:

  • Is the apiary accessible by car?
  • How long is the drive to and from the apiary?
  • Do you have the time to make the drive regularly?
  • What are the wind and weather conditions at the apiary location?
  • Will bees be safe from predators or possible vandals at the apiary?
  • Is the apiary located in an area with sufficient flowering plants?

What Happens When a Honeybee Stings?

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One of the anxieties for almost all new beekeepers is being stung, and while it’s a valid concern, it’s one that experienced beekeepers hardly think about. When it comes down to it, getting stung is inevitable. If you participate in beekeeping, you will eventually experience a bee sting – probably more than once. The sooner that you embrace and accept this inevitability, the more comfortable you will become.

So what exactly happens when a honeybee stings?

A honeybee stinger is hollow and barbed in shape, meaning once the stinger goes in, it doesn’t come out – it’s stuck and embedded into the skin. The real damage happens when the honeybee attempts to remove its stinger. When the bee pulls away, it leaves its stinger behind, along with its venom sack, and other internal structures – ripping them violently from the bee’s body and ultimately killing the honeybee.

There’s a method to this madness believe it or not – and it’s not so great for the person, or animal, on the receiving end. The muscles attached to the bees’ venom-filled sac continue to work the stinger in deeper, increasing the amount of venom being released with each passing minute. If you’ve been stung, you’ll want to remove the stinger as quickly as possible, but be sure to scrape the stinger away – don’t pull it out.  Pulling the stinger out requires you to squeeze the venom-filled sac, which ends up pumping even more venom into your body.

A sting will cause immediate pain at the site that will last for several minutes while becoming red and flush. The site may begin to swell, however, the rate and severity of swelling will vary case by case. Luckily, there are many ways to help minimize the effects of a sting. To help reduce pain and itching, apply ice to the area. You can also take an antihistamine like Benadryl to help with itching and suppress the overall reaction.

Each person reacts differently to being stung, and while most people have little to no reaction at all, occasionally the effects can be serious.  There are two kinds of reactions to bee stings – normal and anaphylactic.  Normal reactions, while often painful and uncomfortable, are of far less concern than the other type of reaction – anaphylactic. The majority of people, fortunately, experience normal reactions to bee stings.

Unfortunately, a small group of individuals may experience anaphylactic reactions to bee stings.  Anaphylactic reactions are systemic reactions, meaning that areas of the body far removed from the actual sting respond adversely.  For example, a person experiencing an anaphylactic response to a sting will sometimes experience difficulty breathing and speaking due to swelling of the tongue or throat, itchy, red hives, dizziness, nausea, and vomiting, or even loss of consciousness. An anaphylactic reaction is an extremely dangerous situation that can potentially lead to death.  People experiencing an anaphylactic reaction need to seek immediate medical attention.

Pesticides In Beeswax

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Here at Wildflower Meadows, we have occasionally had some of the beeswax in our colonies tested for pesticide residues.  Most of the time, our results come back relatively clean.  This is not surprising, since many of our apiaries are located in organic avocado groves.  Plus, we ourselves stay clear of chemical miticides, such as amitraz and fluvalinate.

That said, it is surprising how often traces of pesticides – and even miticides – do show up in our wax samples.  We’ve seen trace counts of fungicides and exotic pesticides that we have never even heard of and had to look up online to learn out what they were!  Where in the world did these come from and how did they get into our hives?

The problem with bees is that they travel everywhere and pick up everything that is attractive to them.  The pesticides, of course, come from wherever our bees go, and these toxins enter into the hive with the bees.  Our bees, while technically under the control of Wildflower Meadows, are actually very independent-minded workers; they go wherever and do whatever they want during the day.

What’s worse, is that honeybees are tiny little Mother Nature machines for concentrating their food.  Their honey is concentrated nectar, their bee bread is concentrated pollen, and their royal jelly is concentrated bee bread.  Their metabolism concentrates nearly everything.  As a result, the pesticides get concentrated too.  So even if honeybees pick up only trace amounts of pesticides when foraging, the effects become concentrated over time as they synthesize their food.  This food, of course, gets stored inside of the beeswax combs.

And, unfortunately, the problem with beeswax is that it too tends to concentrate its contents, and itself acts like a filter for impurities.  Therefore, it is far too easy for contaminates to enter the beeswax, but very difficult for these same contaminates to escape.  Over time, these impurities naturally build up and concentrate in the wax.  Another issue with beeswax is that the bees are constantly moving it around and recycling it inside the hive.  Being the busy bees that they are, honeybees are constantly repairing old honeycomb and building new comb.  Thus, the honeycomb and any of the toxic residues within it are easily spread once inside the hive.

When beekeepers use miticides, the residues of these miticides, along with their carrier chemicals, tend to get trapped in the wax.  These residues build up over time and can often lead to problems in queen viability, drone health, and worker longevity.  Even though we ourselves, here at Wildflower Meadows (and you, the reader), may not use amitraz and fluvalinate, which are the most common varroa miticides, you may be surprised to find that your beeswax will sometimes show traces of these miticides (or in the case of amitraz, it’s metabolites).  This is because these chemical residues are hardly ever cleaned out of beeswax.  If you purchase hives from other beekeepers, the wax almost certainly will carry these residues.  Even if you purchase brand new plastic foundation, the foundation is usually coated with beeswax.  This beeswax itself is typically recycled and reprocessed wax from other beekeeping outfits.  Unfortunately, these chemicals never seem to go away.

There’s really no escaping it.  The best that we as beekeepers can do is to be conscientious in our own endeavors, to occasionally replace our old honeycomb frames, and to get the word out about how dangerous pesticides can be to our bees and their wellbeing.

Why Does Honey Crystalize?

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As both beekeepers and honey lovers, we’ve all run into jars of honey that have turned from liquid gold into a solid or semi-solid chunk of crystal.  Whether this happens in a person’s pantry or on a store’s shelf, honey consumers sometimes believe that something must have gone wrong with the honey to turn it into this strange state.

Actually, the tendency for honey to crystalize is a perfectly normal feature of high-quality honey.  In fact, if honey does not crystalize, it can often be seen as a red flag that perhaps the honey has been cut with corn syrup, or that the honey has been overheated to excessive temperatures, or in some other way mistreated in its processing.

Honey primarily consists of two types of sugar – fructose and glucose – and water.  The two sugars comprise about 70% of the honey, and the water slightly less than 20%, with the remaining 10% consisting of various other kinds of sugars, minerals and enzymes.  We like to think of honey as a bee product, but it is actually more of a plant product, as the plant is largely responsible for the chemical composition of the honey.

The issue with honey crystallization lies with the ratio of fructose to glucose within the various plant nectars.  If the nectar contains a higher ratio of fructose to glucose, then the honey is less likely to crystalize.  On the other hand, if the nectar contains a higher ratio of glucose, it is more likely to crystalize rapidly.

It is the glucose that is unstable when dissolved in water.  Glucose is just not that soluble in water, and therefore needs more water to stay dissolved and liquid than the little amount of water that honey contains.

Some of the more common types of honey that contain high glucose levels, and therefore crystalize more rapidly are:

  • Alfalfa
  • Clover
  • Mesquite
  • Star Thistle
  • Sunflower

On the other hand, some types of honey that contain low glucose levels, and crystalize more slowly, are:

There are other factors too that cause honey to crystalize.  Higher temperatures tend to keep the sugars dissolved (just like higher temperatures on a stove top more easily dissolve sugar and water mixtures).  Cooler temperatures accelerate crystallization; however very cold temperatures (at least below 50°F) will slow crystallization due to thickening the honey and making it more viscous.

Also, the less filtered the honey is, the more likely it is to crystalize.  This is because the impurities in the honey, such as pollen and tiny pieces of wax give the crystals a foothold to grab on to.

Once the crystallization gets started, it’s like a runaway train.  It keeps going with each crystal giving another a foothold to attach to.  The whole process can be reversed, however, simply by reheating the honey.  Once the temperature of the honey become hot enough (usually 105°F is enough) the sugars dissolve again and the honey reverts back to its original liquid state.