Bees (for Ken)

[Woolly Bugger]

It has been about a decade since Troy Olson started Heaven Scent Honey.

The company uses bees to pollinate and produce honey throughout the area.


However, in a matter of a month Olson said a bear attacked 38 beehives along with the frames inside them, destroying the honey and the bees.

"The bear got all the beehives. Once all the frames got wet, it just molds them," Olson said as he picked up one of his hives."

https://myfox8.com/news/north-carolina/north-carolina-honey-business-facing-loss-of-about-10k-after-bear-damages-beehives

[streamereater_101691]

Ken, I met some guys on a local trip who are full time keepers with 40 years experience each, both 65 year old brothers. They tend over 4000 hives in Colorado. No typo.

[Onslow]

A 4k hive operation would take some serious business management expertise simply to manage, but to turn a profit would take some wits.

Not sure what part of Colorado these men are operating, but if they are in the eastern half of the state, it would be safe to guess they are heavy in honey production.  The honey production from alfalfa in Colorado is epic.

I'm not in it for the money, but my family does consume 150 pounds of honey a year. I'm not into sugar being the production has a huge carbon footprint.

[Woolly Bugger]

A biotech firm says the U.S. has approved its vaccine for honeybees


The federal government has granted a conditional license for a honeybee vaccine, the developer of the drug announced Wednesday.

The vaccine will be used to help fight American Foulbrood disease in the insects and was approved by the Department of Agriculture, Dalan Animal Health, the biotech company behind the vaccine, said

https://www.npr.org/2023/01/06/1147342961/honeybee-population-vaccine

[Onslow]

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Rough day in the beeyard,lol.

[Woolly Bugger]

  damn Ken, you need to talk nicely to those bees

[streamereater_101691]

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Rough day in the beeyard,lol.

Damn kenneth, I had a rough one with a brush fire today but not like yours

[Woolly Bugger]

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[Onslow]

Peak honey flow, and the weather will blow for 3 days.  Damn, it ain't March!.

Poor bees are trying to fly.....

[Woolly Bugger]

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[trout-r-us]

"Honey bees are not in peril. These bees are.
Want to save the bees? First, throw out most of what you know about them."

"But all of that attention on honey bees has, some ecologists argue, overshadowed their native counterparts: the wild bees. They're an incredible bunch, found in all sorts of colors and sizes, and they're important pollinators, too — better, by some measures, than honey bees. On the whole, native bees are also at a much greater risk of extinction, in part, because of the proliferation of European honey bees."


"There are likely more honey bees on the planet now than there ever have been in history," said Scott Black, executive director of the Xerces Society, a nonprofit that advocates for pollinator conservation. "There's not a conservation concern."

https://www.vox.com/down-to-earth/2023/1/19/23552518/honey-bees-native-bees-decline

[Onslow]

Good article.  I wish more time was spent discussing more subtle threats to all living things, and that is land management.  Manicured fescue yards and farms that void of sumac, milkweed, and other vital flora are very problematic.

I challenge anyone to find a honeybee pollinating a strawberry or a cherry blossom.....

[Woolly Bugger]

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[Onslow]

Yep, feral bees live in hollow trees, and contrary to the prevailing narrative 20 years ago, they are not going extinct. 

July and August are the worst months for messing with bees.  They are not rearing brood, hive population is high, and foraging is winding down to near zero by the end of July.  Bored bees are protecting their hard earned stash, and they are all home and pissy. Not fun.

[Woolly Bugger]