“Stung” by the Pollinator bug

Posted on the USDA Blog by USDA Blogger

Alison Fritz is all smiles in her hobby as a beekeeper, among the youngest in the DC area."

Written By Jessica L. Morrison; USDA Forest Service Conservation Education Intern

As a volunteer intern for the Conservation Education department of the Forest Service, I was not expecting much more than to be cooped up in a cubical somewhere; making copies and filing things away into nonexistence. But almost as soon as I arrived at the agency’s big red building, my supervisor made that wouldn’t happen. Besides getting to weed the USDA’s roof gardens and learning how to pet bumblebees, I was given the opportunity to tag along as the film crew of PollinatorLIVE interviewed the youngest beekeeper in the D.C. area...

Read the whole blog post at USDA Blog: http://blogs.usda.gov/2010/08/06/%E2%80%9Cstung%E2%80%9D-by-the-pollinator-bug/

Pollinator Live

PollinatorLIVE: Native Bees, Honey Bees, Gardening, and More was webcast on September 29, 2010 at the Washington Youth Garden at the U.S. National Arboretum in Washington, D.C.

View the video and read the full article at: http://pollinatorlive.pwnet.org/webcasts/bees.php

"Stung" by the Pollinator Bug

by Jessica Morrison

Alison Fritz does not flinch as hundreds of bees furiously swarm around her in the sweltering heat. Safely clad in garments akin to something out of a science fiction novel, she comfortably slides open the lid of one of the three hives in her backyard. Fritz has been beekeeping for three years, and she is only 16 years old.

Having always been fascinated by insects, her unusual hobby was first sparked during a class about pollinators in the eighth grade.
“I’ve always liked insects. My dad taught me to pet bumblebees,” Fritz said. “When I began hearing about problems with the bee populations, I wanted to help.”...

View the video and read the article at: http://pollinatorlive.pwnet.org/webcasts/bees.php

BTW, you can see Alison at 18:43 into the video.

China

On August 25, I arrived in Beijing to spend my junior year doing a study abroad program in Beijing called SYA. I am hoping to learn more about the many environmental problems facing China—especially the disappearance of pollinators. Bees have disappeared altogether in some agricultural regions of China, necessitating hand pollination.

Already I have experienced first hand the pollution problem facing China with the unbelievable smog. I have also seen solutions being tested in the rural areas around Beijing. There are minimum impact areas where the streetlights are even solar powered. This Sunday I am participating in an event for 10-10-10 where we will be racing to collect as much trash as possible in parks around the city. Greening the Beige and 360, two active environmental networks in Beijing, are sponsoring this project. (http://www.greeningthebeige.org; http://www.350.org)

I’ve also seen beehives! When hiking a remote area of the great wall, we came across 3 beehives in the village. I was able to speak to one of the beekeepers, which was very interesting. Apparently beehives in China have a lower per-hive output of honey, and the flavor isn’t as good. But the system seemed similar from what I understood, and I was so happy to see honeybees buzzing in the sunshine.

On another note, the probable source of colony collapse has been discovered. A team of scientist has pinpointed a combination of a fungus and a virus that is present in every colony with CCD. However, the reason for the foothold this combination has been able to gain in emptying hives is still the many stresses bees face from pesticides, nutritional deficits in feeding, introduced maladies/pests, etc. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/07/science/07bees.html?_r=2

Swarms and Nucs

We didn't exactly follow standard beekeeping procedure on this, but my colonies recently swarmed (without our knowledge) and left us in a confusing situation. A swarm is a natural occurrence for a hive as their population grows so large that they no longer have strong pheromones from the queen, or they do not have enough space, resulting in the creation of new queen cells while a large portion of the colony flies off with the old queen to a destination that scout bees have located. We hope that ours went to a nearby park. I missed the queen cells that were the warning signs of a swarm (although my mom captured a picture on the bottom left that may have been their departure gathering), and when I next went in the colony, there were 7 queen cells. 3 of them were in a deep that I had borrowed from my mentor Toni Burham. So, because the boxes are on loan until she can find a better home for them, we decided to start a nuc, which is a colony usually contained in one deep that can be sold as a starter for a new colony- basically a bee colony on a small scale. We took off the box and sat it a few yards away from the colonies, using more borrowed material (including a screened inner cover giving them better ventilation). The nuc has become my sister's "training project," preparing her to become my dad's cobeekeeper when I am away in China for the year. She hopes to grow another colony. Starting nucs from local bees (my hives came from nucs from a local beekeeper, and the fathers for this new nuc will be local as well) is important for supporting the local bee community as well as creating a strain of bees better adapted to our area rather than importing them. While bringing in new genetic material can often be helpful for many issues such as hygenic behavior, local bees are ready for the issues such as tempertature that face them here.

A Sound of Spring

Buzzing is really a sound of spring. The season has begun in earnest with some warmer weather and interesting finds. The two pictures on the top show the (multicolored!) hives of a master beekeeper we visited on the Eastern Shore. What looks like a solar panel on each of the hives is a solar panel to power a ventilator that is completely self sufficient. This beekeeper was doing experiments in many of his 30-odd hives both with ventilation such as empty chambers on top with holes cut in the sides and a fan to circulate the air, and used a solar ventilator in each hive for a system he found worked very well to avoid stagnant air but not waste the bees energy on fanning in the hot months of the approaching summer. He was utilizing two-queen colonies (Top Right) which leads to a much more productive colony with twice the number of bees because both queens are actively laying. There are two deeps side by side to serve as brood chambers with queen excluders over the shared honey supers and boards half the size of an inner cover to close up the tops of the brood chambers.
On another note, the two pictures on the bottom show how my hives are collecting nectar-fast! I can hardly lift off the top box.

The White House Bees

On April 22, take your child to work day, my sister Audrey and I were given a extraordinary opportunity to go to the White House. We visited with the White House bees as well as teaching the hundred or so children who came about bees with Charlie Brandts, the White House beekeeper who we loved meeting, and my mentor Toni Burnham. This was an extremely exciting experience and we got to see first hand the enjoyment the children took at trying the honey and the interest many showed to pursue this knowledge further. We also got an added bonus-- Charlie was kind enough to give us a fantastic tour of the White House.

Environmental Urban Living Classes

This is a wonderful opportunity DC is putting forward to learn about beekeeping, or start your own hives. We'll have a number of area speakers, and Toni is a fantastic teacher!

URBAN BEEKEEPING
February 22nd, March 1st , 8th and 15th 6:30pm-9:00pm
Sherwood Recreation Center 640 10th St. NE

Toni Burnham, DC’s own beekeeper extraordinaire will be teaching the basics of urban beekeeping in this
four session series. Upon completion of the class students are encouraged to volunteer at one of DPR’s bee
hives. (Pre– registration required at Kelly.melsted@dc.gov)

A Few Days of Spring!

The warm weather last week was an exciting time for the bees to get out of the home they
hadn't left since early December. I took the opportunity to feed the bees fondant- which uses the
same recipe as the special icing for cakes- so that they could replenish their stores. There is still at
least another month until nectar flow, and the girls are going through their winter food fast. I also
took some pictures of them enjoying their freedom! The upper two pictures are the bees feeding on
fresh fondant. As you can see, they were overjoyed!!