Another Hive Check!

So Wednesday, June 17th, after the final, I got to go out with the last group of students to check the bee hives.

There was two kinds of bees we looked at, the Caucasian and the Orange Italian bees. The Caucasian bees are the ones my small group looked at, and they are supposed to be less aggressive. Oh, those angry Italians. Although they weren't as aggressive, there was definitely still lots of movement as we observed them.

It was mentioned that earlier in the year, it had seemed like the bees were not building too well and they were a little worried about them. When we went to go check this time around, there was much more built in the hives. There were plenty of combs to make the slates heavy. On some, you could even see they little homes where the bees were making baby bees. They get like their own baby bee suites. On one slate, we could see one being born. Unfortunately, there were too many bees around it, so it would've been too hard to get a picture. We also did not get to find the queen with our bees, but we saw one later when they found the Orange Italian queen. Man, she had a big butt.

Overall, I would definitely do this experience. The bees don't really scare you once you get used to them being around and it was so cool to get up close with them to see how they work. I learned a lot about bees getting to do this. As a scientist, this was probably one of the cooler experiences I have. If possible, I would definitely recommend.

Bee Check 6/15 - Gerar Suaverdez

Today I went to check out the bees here in Edmonds (as most of you probably already have). I would assume that people have already discussed the main points about the bees and how these bees operate. Instead of repeating the details, I will just share my pictures and my experience.
I found this field trip entertaining because it was something I've never experienced before. I've been stung by a bee before and it hurt a lot, thus making me not like bees or anything that looks like a bee. Of course we learned in class what we should and shouldn't be afraid of. These bees were pretty gentle, probably due to the smoke. I learned that you don't need to be afraid of bees as long as you don't make them angry. They won't sting you unless they feel threatened since it's their last line of defense.

Tyler Klaudt's Bee Hive Check

Tyler Klaudt's Bee Hive Check
We first checked the top section to see how the honey was doing. It was cool to feel the difference between a non filled with honey and honey filled section because it was like three times the weight. My particular group of four people did the hive that was on the left that had the Caucasian honeybees. These bees aren't as aggressive as the other Italian orange honey bees.

These are the two bee hives. The one on closest to us is the Italian orange honey bee's and the far one is the Caucasian Honey bee's.

In the second section we looked at how the bees were doing and wanted to see the building process of the wax. It was crazy to see the skills the bees have to make something that looks like you have to buy. In this section we are bale to see the drone bees that are bigger and have different wings then the rest and the queen bee. The worker bees are in the top section and the drones are just lazy and protect the hive.

This is the Queen Bee found in the middle section.

Over all this was a fun experience and the best part was getting to dress up in the costumes and how I got to smoke the bees to make them go away. Because they don't like the smoke they move away and it makes it easier for us to put the section in and out.

This is Ivanna surrounded by hundreds of flying bees.

This is a selfie of me being a thug cause if you don't take a selfie did it even really happen?

And that was my hive check experience. I didn't get stung and I'm less scared of bees now then I was so it was a double win.

Thanks for reading!
 Tyler Klaudt

EDCC Hive Check - Inside the Bee Hive

Hey everyone,

It's time for my penultimate vlog of the season, covering our visit to the EDCC on campus beehives. I'm interested in keeping bees myself once I have the resources available so it was a really cool experience to see the set-up we have on campus and check out how the bees were doing. Mary and Anthony were really great at pointing out what to look for and we got a lot of good information about the bees.
The two hives we have on campus have Orange Italian and Caucasian Honey Bees. Take a look at the video to check them out in action! (It's a fair bit longer of a video than I usually uploaded, so I may make a more abridged version in the future)

Make sure to like the EDCC beekeeping facebook page!

Hive Check 06.01.16

Hey it's Lana from the Fun-Gis, and I'm here to talk about the EDCC hives. Mary suited us up all professional-like and took us to observe two hives, one of Orange Italian Honeybees and one of Caucasian honeybees.

Here, they are in the process of taking apart the Caucasian hive in order to check on the bees. As you can see, the smoker used to calm down bees is malfunctioning. The top division seen in the picture is where honey is produced, and the thin strip beneath is a queen guard that keeps Queen B where she belongs: the lower two divisions where brood is produced.

Either these bees are lazy, or it's early in the season, but we couldn't find any honey until we reached the Orange Italian Hive. What we did get to see were tiny eggs and larvae, as well as numerous capped larvae. Below, we see an old pollen patty that had been provided by Mary. Apparently, the bees were not collecting very much pollen on their own, so this patty serves as food.

Although it is hard to see, the bees have built a small wall to the left of the entrance. Mary mentioned that it is made of propolis, which is like "bee glue". It is typically used to seal cracks. Clearly, the bees didn't like their large entrance so much, since it's harder to ward off predators. 

All in all, getting to the hives up close and personal was a great experience (especially as a bee lover).   Honeybees are rad, and they're dying at high rates because of us humans!!! We need to protect these fuzzy arthropod friends that pollinate a huge percentage of our major crops. 

EdCC Hive Check [June 1st, 2016]

Hey everyone!
I had the opportunity to do a hive check on campus with Mary Whitfield. It was very interesting to learn about bee hive upkeep and how honey bees work. We have two different types of honey bees on campus, the Caucasian Honey Bee and the Orange Italian Honey Bee. Below is generally what a hive looks like, our bee hives have one addition brood box.

General build of a bee hive.

During the hive check, we checked the progress of brood and honey production, looked at the floor of the hive to see if there are any mites present, as well as see if the bees are bringing in pollen. We also fed the bees with pollen patties since an earlier check on the Caucasian Honey Bees indicated that they may not be bringing in as much pollen as they should. In addition to the hive check, we also looked at plants in the community garden to see if the honey bees were going to them but we only found bumblebees.

General Bee Information
There are three different castes of bees. Caste is a physically distinct individual with a particular function in the colony.

The Queen Bee

• The queen bee is large with a long, slender, and tapered abdomen. Normally marked by beekeepers for easy identification. 
• The heart of the colony, she is the reason for what the rest of the colony does and without her, the colony would collapse.
• Only one queen bee lives in a given colony
• The only bee with fully developed ovaries
• She can lay many eggs! During peak times, she can lay up to 2,000 eggs in a day (laying during the day and night). 

Drone Bees

• Larger than a worker bee, has more of a barrel shape with very large eyes
• Does not have a stinger to defend the colony and does not have the anatomy to collect pollen
• The only male bee of the colony, makes up a very small percentage of a given hive
• A drone's only function is to mate with the queen bee
• Drones develop from unfertilized eggs therefore solely receiving characteristics from their mother. Technically, they have a grandfather but not a father!

Worker Bees

• The smallest bee of the colony, worker bees have short abdomens and have pollen baskets on their hind legs.

• Non-reproducing females
• The backbone of the hive, they literally do all the work and tend to the queen's needs
• Their work can depend on their age however may do any required work after they are ten days old. Their jobs include maid, nanny, royal attendant, heating and cooling specialist, guard, and undertaker. 

Orange Italian Honey Bee

Caucasian Honey Bee

Originally Italy Have become the most popular bee in the United States as they are considered the best all-purpose bee Yellow coloring with bands on abdomen Worker bees are light in color and queen bee is darker in color markings therefore making the queen easy to locate Relatively gentle and non-aggressive Moderate tendency to swarm Colonies are usually large Great foragers Winter well Keeps a clean hive & readily builds comb Have a strong tendency to rob

Originated from the high valleys of the Central Caucasus Silver gray to dark brown in color Have a longer tongue than most races and can thereby take advantage of more nectar sources than most Relatively gentle and non-aggressive Moderate tendency to swarm Large and strong population Forages earlier and on cooler days Winter well by stopping brood production in the fall Slow spring startup Are not prone to rob

Definitions
BROOD: bee larvae
ROB: Stealing honey from another hive
SWARM: A process by which a new bee colony is formed when the queen bee leaves the colony with a group of worker bees


Sources
Bee Hive Build - http://www.coxshoney.com/honey-articles/beehives-makeup-bees-home
Bee Identification - http://pcbeekeepers.org/classes/beginning-beekeeping-class-monthly-lessons
Bee Caste Information - http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-identify-the-three-castes-of-bees.html & http://westmtnapiary.com/bee_castes.html
Pollen Basket Photo - http://www.michiganbees.org/2012/march-2012-beedoku/
Italian Honey Bee and Caucasian Honey Bee Information - https://www.mannlakeltd.com/newsletter/races-honeybees.pdf
Caucasian Honey Bee - https://wadesbees.wordpress.com/2010/10/19/races-of-bees-caucasians/
Italian Honey Bee -

http://www.davisenterprise.com/local-news/bees-bees-and-more-bees-featured-at-ucd-open-houses-saturday/