Week Word- TRANSITION

Week Word- TRANSITION

I miss the bees. I often walk to the bee yard to put my ear to the hives to hear them buzzing. Two nights ago I dreamt about them. They are never far from my thoughts. I know that may sound strange to some folks but I have no excuses for being unabashedly smitten with them.

As far as TRANSITIONS go, the bees go through many. Seasonal transitions, hive responsibility transitions, etc. BUT, I have been thinking a lot about a different type of transition that the bees have had no control over.   Even if you are not a bee fan, you may be interested to know some of this because it affects us all.  We all eat food :) and statistically, the bees bring us every third bite of food on our plates with their pollinating efforts.  Yay bees!

First let me preface by saying that this is only my first year keeping bees and although I have learned a little bit about the different ways in which they are kept, there is so much I don't know.  But I have learned from a few seasoned beekeepers on what NOT to do. When I first bit the bullet and realized I was going to follow through with my yearning to keep bees I was saddened to learn that virtually all commercial beekeepers use pesticides amongst other chemicals and antibiotic treatments on their hives to fight off mites and disease. Some of which include Organophosphates (which are basically the nerve agent type... care for some nerve agents with your honey?), Constant treatments, pesticide exposure and other factors have contributed to the stress of our world's honeybees. "Colony Collapse Disorder" has been in the news a lot over the past few years as I am sure you have all heard. It is considered a crisis of sorts having detrimental effects on the bees and our agriculture... 

In light of all the bad news, there is HOPE. If the bees are " 'treated' nice "(-Sam Comfort of Anarchy Apiaries' play on words) instead of treated with pesticides, chemicals and antibiotics, and the ways in which we keep them are more bee friendly, we start to see an improvement in their mortality rate not to mention feel better about consuming and using untainted honey and bee products in and on our bodies. 

- some history...

Most beehives you see are the vertical, white hives that were originally designed by a man named Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth His hive was designed to have the movable frames of comb we see in the hands of beekeepers in so many pictures. Before this design, the straw skep hives, the typical symbol we usually see for beehives, was used. There were also gums, which were essentially hollowed out logs. These hive designs not were able to be inspected like the hives today as the combs were fixed in place. In fact, they were banned in 1922 for this very reason. State inspectors need to be able to inspect each frame for signs of disease or infestation of parasites. Interestingly, with moveable frames came more disease. For the last 100 years or so, these frames have had foundation inserts imprinted with the hexagonal cells of a predetermined size (that size determined by humans that have the mindset that bigger is better-  bigger cell size=bigger bees/more honey) Another problem with this is that drone (male) bees need a different (larger) cell size than the worker (female) bees.  These foundations don't allow for drones to hatch out.  Hives with fewer drones= more stress on the colony :(  but because they are considered a drawback to the beekeeper (they eat honey and do no foraging), they have been sort of labeled the freeloaders.  

However there have been a handful of commercial beekeepers who have let their bees determine their own cell size with foundation-less  frames.  They swear by this more natural method and  they producing more hygienic and healthier bees.

These beekeepers promote sustainable beekeeping with no treatments of any kind, getting off artificial feeds (like corn syrup), and limiting artificial inbreeding of bees.

Dee Lusby a 'small cell' beekeeper in AZ found that it takes 7-8 generations of bees to TRANSITION back to their natural cell size.  She did this by shaking bees (that had been building on imprinted foundation) into top bar hives.  Frameless hives that allow the bees to draw their own natural comb.  These hives are legal and can be inspected.  She did this through each generation of bees to allow them to build their own comb the way and size THEY decide to. The bees know BEST.  There are many advantages to the bees and beekeeper with this method.  Although the bees make less honey because the wax is harvested along with the honey, they are better for it.  The bees need to rebuild the wax each time which means less energy for honey but this method is better for rearing healthier bees because the wax is clean as opposed to frames that are reused by beekeepers each season.  Wax is lipophilic, which means it can and will absorb toxins and spores.  The spores from American Foul Brood ( a horrible bee disease which wipes out colonies that came about with commercial beekeeping) can stay dormant in wax for up to 70 or so odd years!  And the toxins from any pesticide or treatment on the hive. 

DO YOU LOVE HONEY IN YOUR TEA OR ON YOUR TOAST?

 That beeswax lip balm you love? hmm, is it from a non-treated hive?  Just sayin'.  ;) 

 Support your local beekeepers, ask them questions.... they all have stories.  Thanks for stopping by.

BEE sure to head over to John's blog to see more week word interpretations!

BEE WELL