Here’s something light for a weekend…

Urban Honey is a 4-minute documentary video by student filmmaker Matt Fisher, about an unconventional San Francisco man who keeps bees in his urban backyard.

Jon Rolston originally wanted to raise chickens, but thought they might attract rats and rile up the neighbours… so he settled for a hive of bees. Rolston’s approach to apiculture, not to mention some of his beekeeping methods, may raise a few eyebrows among more experienced beekeepers, but the video itself is nicely crafted with some beautiful close-up shots of the backyard hive.

Enjoy!

Thanks to Michael Martine for spotting this video and sending in the link.

As if American beekeepers didn’t have enough to deal with in Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD — the mysterious syndrome blamed for devastating losses of honeybees in the United States last year), now there’s a new threat to their hives: crooked humans. A nationwide bee shortage resulting from CCD means demand far outweighs supply for this pollination season, pushing the cost of hive rental as high as $200 in some locations, according to a Business Week report — the kind of money that means crime does pay.

“If you can get 50 strong healthy hives on a medium sized truck and get them to a grower who is desperate for bees in his orchard,” says Kim Flottum, “you can make yourself some good money. At $150/colony, that truckload of bees amounts to $7,500 for a couple hours work. Not a bad night’s haul.”

Beekeepers know that it’s a challenge enough to do the rounds of distant bee yards for the normal purposes of hive maintenance and inspection — imagine trying to arrange round-the-clock protection for those hives sent out to pollination, isolated in the middle of enormous orchards where they may rest unattended for days at a time.

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We know that beekeeping has been changing rapidly in recent years, but how much do we know about the care and management of honey bees as it was practised a century ago?

One hundred years of beekeeping in Nova Scotia, Canada. A brief history as presented at the Nova Scotia Beekeepers’ Association annual meeting, March 2000. Includes an interview with the late G.G. Smeltzer (in Part 2). This video is dedicated to his memory.

Thanks to Dick Rogers of Wildwood Labs for making available this 3-part presentation, Beekeeping in Transition, via Google Video. To view the videos, make sure your computer’s speakers are turned on, then click the small arrow at the bottom left of each video-player below:

Beekeeping History Video 1

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American bee researchers are looking closely at better nutrition as a possible defence against Colony Collapse Disorder, and have developed a new “science-based” bee food to that purpose. MegaBee was developed by Gloria DeGrandi-Hoffman and her colleagues at the ARS Carl Hayden Bee Research Center, Agricultural Research Service, USDA, and went on the market in 2007 through Dadant.

Honey bees devour a new, nutrient-rich food. This artificial diet resulted from 5 months of research. Photo by Stephen Ausmus (ARS USDA)

Bee researcher Gloria DeGrandi-Hoffman and her ARS colleagues tested nearly 1,000 different combinations of amino acids — the building blocks of proteins — in their search for the most effective bee diet supplement.

MegaBee bee diet was tested on California bees preparing to go to almond pollination in spring 2007, and again in winter 2007 with the same bees. Results of field testing showed that bees ate MegaBee at about the same rate as natural pollen, but the MegaBee-fed colonies produced more brood.

Artificial feeding can be the key to survival of struggling colonies in early spring, before forage plants are in bloom or when cold wet weather prevents the bees from flying. The developers of MegaBee also suggest that the product “might be especially useful as a late-fall and early-winter nutrition boost for bees, a time when colonies typically enter a low ebb.”

Northern beekeepers may be a bit concerned about stimulating brood production too late in the season, if the usual corresponding increase in Varroa mites are also to be expected — right before bee yards get snowed in for the winter, and colder temperatures prevent any mite-control treatments.

Future plans call for further tests to see if bees outside of California will also thrive on this new diet, and to provide more information about honey bees’ year-round nutrition needs.

The Maine State Beekeepers Association will hold their Annual Meeting on Saturday, 12 April 2008 at the Calumet Club, I-95 Exit 113, Augusta Maine. The Tri-County Beekeepers Association will present this year’s meeting. The program fee is $30 and includes a buffet luncheon and morning refreshments.

Dr Thomas Seeley, Professor of Biology and Chairman, Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University will give two presentations:

• “House Hunting by Honey Bees, A Study of Effective Group Decision Making” and
• “Forest Bees and Varroa Mites”.

David VanderDussen, CEO of NOD Apiary Products in Ontario, Canada, will also give two presentations:

• “IPM Mite Control with Mite-AwayII”
• “Trends in Beekeeping”

For more information and a registration form contact: Carol Cottrill (207) 364-0917, email: WMBAmail@msn.com or Jon Cullen, President, Tri-county Beekeepers Association (207) 567-3537, email: jonanadkaren@pivot.net.