Vanishing Bees

The bees had disappeared in a week

Back on May 2, 2010, I participated in bee swarm capture for the first time. The bee colony we captured had lived on Merritt College campus for just under 2 years. Last month we opened the bee box and the entire colony had disappeared. Master Ken told us that the bees were still in the box a week ago when he checked on it. He said there could be many reasons why the bees decided to abandon their hive. There was still a lot of honey left in the hive, which we would harvest as a class and share among us. In addition to honey, we would also harvest the wax, which was regarded even more valuable than honey in the past.

The disappearance of the bees troubles me greatly. I have been reading about collapse colony disorder (CCD) since it was first discovered in 2006. I have read that it mostly affects commercial beehives and not beehives that people keep in their backyards. I hope that is still the case. In order to better educate myself in honeybees, I checked out a few books from San Francisco Public Library when I happened to be in neighborhood. One of the book is called A short History of the Honey Bee, which I think is an excellent book for someone who enjoys leisure reading. The author, "E. Readicker-Henderson is a beekeeper turned regular writer and contributor to National Geographic Traveler, Sierra, and others,..." He describes the taste of raw local honey beautifully, which brings tears to my eyes.

I also looked for documentaries on honeybee and found full episode of Silence of the Bees on PBS.org. From the documentary, I learned that in Maoxian county of Sichuan, China, people have to pollinate their fruit trees because they have lost their bees due to heavy use of pesticide. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine that you can't have an apple unless you pollinate apple blossoms one by one? That is frightening to imagine.

I now have a new goal for 2012.

Watch Silence of the Bees on PBS. See more from Nature.

Beekind

On my way to the Fermentation Festival last month, I stopped by Beekind, a store in Sebastopol that sells local and varietal honeys, bee related products, and beekeeping supplies. I have heard of this place for quite a while. What makes it stands out is that they have their own bee farm, and you can taste over 50 different honey. By the way, if you don't have car or don't want to drive all the way out to Sebastopol, they have a small kiosk inside of the Ferry Building in San Francisco that sells honey and bee wax candles.

Sebastopol is a beautiful little town. It's amazing how rapidly the scenery changes from the short drive between San Francisco to Sebastopol. The beautiful bee mural is hard to miss as you drive down Gravenstein Highway. I was very excited to be there. I entered the beekeeping supply shop briefly then quickly went to the honey shop next door. I wanted to try every kind of honey at the tasting bar. It was hard to decide what to get.

I loved California orange blossom honey cream, so I got a couple of the small jars. Since I am a big lavender fan, and there are at least 6 varieties of lavender on Sand Village Farm, I always have to try anything that's lavender flavored. Some lavender flavored edibles taste too artificial and some taste like bath products! Their Sonoma lavender honey tasted wonderful. I also got some Oregon blackberry and a bigger jar of Northwest raspberry. 

After I carried all my little glass jars of honey to the car, my friend pointed out that there were beehives in the garden behind the parking lot. We went back there to visit the bees. Since there were stacks and stacks of hives all concentrated in a small area, the bees could be intimidating to some people. A couple years ago I would not be able to approach a colony this size at ease. In July, 2010, 3 beehives in San Francisco Hayes Valley Farm were attacked by pesticide, killing up to 200,000 honeybees. I can't begin to fathom what was going through that person's mind. I don't think any healthy minded people can. As Master Ken puts it, some people are irrationally fearful of bees. When people hear me talking about bees and capturing bee swarms without protective gear, they can't imagine that I was extremely fearful of them over a year ago, but the bees have shown me that they never mean any harm to anybody as long as you don't provoke them. So, be kind to honey bees, and they will be kind to you in return.

Capturing A Bee Swarm

This past Sunday's class was quite exciting. First, we had a swarm of bees to capture then we got to try Miracle Berry and MBerry tablets. I will have to write about the experience with Miracle Berry in a separate blog entry.

When I got to the class on Sunday, it was windy and overcast. When I left the box of oatmeal cranberry white chocolate chip cookies on the potluck table, there was no other food item there. I wondered if we were going to have anything to eat. A few people were scattering around the hill. I heard them talking about a bee swarm. A bee swarm! Awesome! I made a connection with bees last May when I first witnessed the capturing of a bee swarm.

I immediately ran over to my car to get my camera. I had to get it on video this time.

Master Ken, David, and John showed us a prototype top bar beehive that Nobuto made with a half wine barrel. Nobuto was in one of the classes last year. He has carpentry experience and the work he did with each top bar shows. They all fit perfectly on the top of the wine barrel. I remember how much difficulty I had trying to make a top cover for the fish tank that I donated to the class for snail ranching.

They set up the wine barrel beehive for the new swarm we were going to capture.

By now I am pretty calm with the bees buzzing near me. I also have a lot of trust in John, Master Ken, and David as I have seen them handling bees over several semesters. John keeps bees on his own homestead farm, so he has his own first hand experience with bees.

Unless you were as fortunate as I to personally witness bee swarm capturing with this group of people, it is hard to convince you how peaceful it felt. Of course you have to remain calm. Master Ken also mentioned that bees do not like the smell of banana, so don't eat banana before getting close to the bees. The video is about 7 minutes long, but the actual process was more like 1 hour. It was done very slowly and carefully. They are not commercial beekeepers and tried not to hurt any bee in the process.

Pruning the branches to get ready for capturing the swarm.

After David brushed all the bees into the beehive, they put the top on the wine barrel to let the bees settle in. We filled the buckets which the legs of the beehive bench sit in with more water. The water prevents the ants from crawling up the bench to get into the hives. The weeds and tree branches around the beehives were also removed to prevent them from touching the beehives and became bridges for ants. If ants got into the hives, the bees would abandon the hives.

A Glimpse Into An Urban Bee Colony

While slaving in the cubicle world, my friend Rosa popped in and told me to take a break and walk around the neighborhood. I jumped up and ran out of the door with her. Seeing the sky is a treat when you work in the cubicle world. We walked across the street and passed by one of our favorite houses in the area. Its front yard has an assortment of interesting drought tolerant plants of various sizes. They are all strategically placed and visually stimulating. There is a sign between the plants with contact information of Vee Horticulture.

One of the agave plants is about to flower. It's not common to see an agave in someone's front yard with a stem in the middle that's taller than the house. According to Wikipedia, agave only flowers once. After it's flowered and developed of fruit, the original plant dies. I will go back to the garden to see the flowers and fruit of the agave.

Next to the agave house there is a wooden fence. Rosa eagerly told me to look into the holes on the fence. Bee boxes!!!! I could see the bees busy coming in and out through the openings of the boxes.

As a breeze blew my direction, I could smell the sweet scent of pure raw honey. Wow, that is a honey heaven behind this fence. I took several deep breaths to inhale that sweet smell of pure honey. We stood there peeking into the fence with envy. Rosa started telling me that she learned about beekeeping in school when she lived in Mexico. I have learned some basics from Master Ken's Beneficial Beasts in the Garden course, but I have yet handled bees. I am excited to know that there are more and more urban beekeepers in the area. There is also a beekeepers association in San Francisco that I would like to become involved to learn more about beekeeping.