Beekeeping

This past weekend, I attended a workshop on beekeeping. Now, I don't have a yard, nor do I plan to put a beehive in my apartment. I'm sure the bees would be very disappointed that they couldn't find any flowers on my 2 bamboo plants, and I'd be bummed when I got no honey. But I did learn an awful lot. In fact, the workshop opened my eyes that beekeeping is a normal, useful, and even FUN activity.

The first thing the instructor asked was how many of us kept bees. Not too many. OK, how many of us have been stung by bees? Almost all of the class raised their hands, including me. And no, being stung is not fun. While beekeepers use smoke to chill the bees out, accidents happen. The instructor told us about a time he was carrying a beehive to move it from one location to another and he tripped and dropped it. That was NOT fun. He had to put it back together and pick it up and keep walking, even as the bees were stinging him. And you know... that didn't make me want to take up beekeeping.

But the class as a whole made me VERY interested in beekeeping. Bees don't just give you honey, you also get bees' wax, royal jelly, propolis, and (most importantly) pollination. And even bee venom can be good - apparently its a good medication for arthritis. Also, about those beestings, apparently the best thing to do when you get stung is to IMMEDIATELY rub the bee and stinger off you. The bee stinger pumps venom for about 4 seconds after you are stung. If you can get to it quicker than that, then you'll have less venom in you. Also: don't worry about squeezing the stinger and squeezing more venom in you because apparently thats a myth. One experienced beekeeper in the class said that ever since he took the advice to rub the stinger off, now he barely feels any pain.

Another beekeepng note: if a bee gets in your face, its telling you to go away. Don't swat at it, unless you like getting stung. Just turn around, walk four steps back, and you're OK.

The most interesting part of the class was about bee behavior and social structure. It is just mindblowing that such tiny little insects can be so freaking complex! They communicate based on scent and pheromones. One instructor said that they can smell human fear, so if you are scared, the bees are more likely to sting. The smell of fear tells them something must be wrong and that's what gets them going. When you put some smoke into the hive, the queen figures there must be a fire and that all the bees will have to fly away and find a new home. Better eat all the honey first, so you've got a full tummy while you are flying away from the fire! So the bees all gorge themselves on honey and then they are just too out of it to really bother you when you open the hive.

Last, the instructor, who came from Kenya, told us that he dealt with aggressive, "Africanized" bees (in Africa) by opening the hives every single day. When you open the hive daily, the bees learn after a while that you aren't a threat. But here in the U.S. it seems that the "Africanized" aggressive traits don't appear to be that dominant. They said if you get a very aggressive hive, don't worry. Worker bees live about 6 weeks. Replace the queen with a more docile queen bee, and pretty soon she'll start producing docile bees. Within 6 weeks, your problem is gone.

If beekeeping appeals to you, the first two things you should do are 1. Find out if it's legal where you live and 2. Look for a beekeeping club in your area that can help you get started. If I had a yard, I would totally go get me some bees!

(Photo credit: wolfpix on Flickr)