Geek Heaven
Oct. 4th, 2006 12:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
liralenBeekeeping is certainly for geeks. There is a ton of detail and local minutia and specifics that really do affect the outcome.
The class is nine weeks of absolute detail on honey bees. It covers anatomy, psychology, predators, preferred habitat, foodstuffs, and winter care. It's got one class just on equipment. And the initial two speakers last night were obviously completely in-love with the critters, and one warned folks that for some it wouldn't catch, but for others it was going to be more like a disease. *grin*
The class was a mixed lot. About a quarter were farmers who noticed that their beekeepers were leaving or gone. One guy had about 100 hives left on his land by a keeper that just left and had left all the bees as well, half of them had already died, so he wanted to try and save the rest. Some were folks living in the foothills who had "inherited" a swarm and wanted to do what they could to help the feral colony. One lady drove from NEBRASKA as this was the closest beekeeping class she could find. Several were from Greeley, nearly an hour away, and they were just farm folk who remembered a grandfather who kept bees so easily back in the day. Some were just housewives, fascinated by the idea and wanting a night away from the kids. I didn't say I was a computer professional, about to retire, and able to get fascinated in these things soon, now. I just said that I'd found out my neighbor had a hive and my garden had produced more than I'd ever seen it do before, which is also true.
I had no idea, until I wandered about the Net a few months back, about the bee "crisis". Mites came sometime in the mid-90's and have been decimating populations of honey bees in conjunction with some pesticides that came into widespread use. So folks here are now seeing 20-30% die-off of colonys when, before the 90's there were only 2-5% attrition rates. Commercial keepers, with those kinds of loses, have been quitting in droves, to the point where there are now no longer enough honey bees to pollinate all the crops in the US the way they could be pollinated, and production of things like almonds is getting hit really hard by it. Yes, this is part of why almonds cost more now than they have in a while, though there's other strange complications of that tale.
So, I'll admit, part of it is seeing a looming problem and peering at it. Tom Theobold was one of the teachers, and his opinion is that the only way it's going to be offset in Colorado is by encouraging the hobbiest keepers. So I might get my hive and putter about it with it and feel happy about doing something to pollinate the local areas. :-)
The class is nine weeks of absolute detail on honey bees. It covers anatomy, psychology, predators, preferred habitat, foodstuffs, and winter care. It's got one class just on equipment. And the initial two speakers last night were obviously completely in-love with the critters, and one warned folks that for some it wouldn't catch, but for others it was going to be more like a disease. *grin*
The class was a mixed lot. About a quarter were farmers who noticed that their beekeepers were leaving or gone. One guy had about 100 hives left on his land by a keeper that just left and had left all the bees as well, half of them had already died, so he wanted to try and save the rest. Some were folks living in the foothills who had "inherited" a swarm and wanted to do what they could to help the feral colony. One lady drove from NEBRASKA as this was the closest beekeeping class she could find. Several were from Greeley, nearly an hour away, and they were just farm folk who remembered a grandfather who kept bees so easily back in the day. Some were just housewives, fascinated by the idea and wanting a night away from the kids. I didn't say I was a computer professional, about to retire, and able to get fascinated in these things soon, now. I just said that I'd found out my neighbor had a hive and my garden had produced more than I'd ever seen it do before, which is also true.
I had no idea, until I wandered about the Net a few months back, about the bee "crisis". Mites came sometime in the mid-90's and have been decimating populations of honey bees in conjunction with some pesticides that came into widespread use. So folks here are now seeing 20-30% die-off of colonys when, before the 90's there were only 2-5% attrition rates. Commercial keepers, with those kinds of loses, have been quitting in droves, to the point where there are now no longer enough honey bees to pollinate all the crops in the US the way they could be pollinated, and production of things like almonds is getting hit really hard by it. Yes, this is part of why almonds cost more now than they have in a while, though there's other strange complications of that tale.
So, I'll admit, part of it is seeing a looming problem and peering at it. Tom Theobold was one of the teachers, and his opinion is that the only way it's going to be offset in Colorado is by encouraging the hobbiest keepers. So I might get my hive and putter about it with it and feel happy about doing something to pollinate the local areas. :-)
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no subject
Date: 2006-10-04 08:16 pm (UTC)Unfortunately, I think it got filed in the mental folder labeled "Reasons that we're all doomed," and then got lost among everything else in that same file :(
I have a tree in my front yard -- I don't know what kind, but it has loads of tiny purple blossoms -- whatever it is, bees love it. For about a month every summer, that tree is crawling with bees from sunrise to sunset. Mostly honeybees, but a scattering of bumblebees and others.
I've also got an ongoing situation with what appears to be a whopper of a yellowjacket nest in the wall of my house. I'm willing to feel warm and fuzzy about honeybees; but yellowjackets somehow fail to inspire the same level of love-all-of-Creation feelings.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-04 10:56 pm (UTC)Yay! Happy bees in a tree.
Yeah... hornets and yellowjackets seem more dangerous than useful to me, too. *grin*
no subject
Date: 2006-10-05 02:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-05 05:15 pm (UTC)The yellow jackets around here certianly take bites out of any meat they find. So that makes a lot of sense.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-05 01:02 am (UTC)At the latest bee guild meeting, we found out that while mites are a serious problem, the actual mechanism may be that they introduce a host of viral diseases (18 identified so far). Sigh, I remember when it was mostly foulbrood. When bees are in trouble, American agriculture gets into trouble. Most stone fruits rely on bees for pollination.
Welcome into the fold, BTW. We're an interesting lot of people, overall.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-05 04:33 pm (UTC)And, yeah, the guys here were starting to talk about the various diseases that the mites are spreading as well, and how *they* weaken a hive.
But, yeah, that trouble is what a lot of the local folks see coming on hard.
Thanks for the welcome! I haven't actually kept any, yet, :-) but I'll get there, I'm sure. It's the obsessive in me, I think. *grin*
Defintely interesting people and not the usual kind of people I interact with a lot, which has been very cool in and of itself.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-05 05:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-05 04:35 pm (UTC)Yeah, we're presently in a development with a lot of the lots in the 1/5th of an acre range, but one of my neighbors has a hive! I was surprised by that, but the bees aren't a problem, and have really, really helped my vegetable garden out. I'm half inclined to asking her if she needs any help with her hive, to offer beesitting services as repayment for the two tons of tomatoes I got this year. *grin*
There's a Boulder beekeeping company that keeps their hives on the roofs of condos and appartments! And they seem to be doing quite well, and sell their honey varieties as "Rooftop" and "Backyard". It's amazing where hives can thrive.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-05 03:12 pm (UTC)I've wanted to have a bee hive ever since reading The Dancing Bees many, many years ago. At any given point in time it's always been too expensive to take the class and buy the equipment and bees.
Instead we've encouraged mason (orchard) bees. Like honey bees they are wonderful pollinators. All you need to do for them is drill a block of wood full of holes (of the correct diameter) and hang it in a tree. They lay their eggs in the holes.
No honey, though, and they aren't cute as honey bees.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-05 04:39 pm (UTC)I love mason bees! Jet's grandfather has a mason bee house, too, and while they don't make honey, the fact that they're so busy with the pollen and each has it's own brood is pretty cool, too. He changes the paper tubes at the right time each year, so the bee 'house' is clean and ready to go for another year. I don't know if I'd think a honey bee is actually "cute" or cuter than a mason bee. *grin* but I'm that way. Useful is very keen in and of itself.
And *FAR* less expensive way to get started, too. It's cool.
I'm not at all sure what I'd DO with pounds and pounds of honey. *grin*
no subject
Date: 2006-10-05 07:47 pm (UTC)Plus, some of the local farmers are actually asking for people to come and take care of bees for them. They supply the supplies, you *just* do the work. *grin* So that's been mildly intriguing as well.