Urban Beekeeping For Youths

H oneybees are a highly fascinating, remarkably organized society. A bee colony is known as a super-organism as no single bee can survive on its own. There is division of labor and every bee must carry out their own duties and co-operate with one another for survival. Find out the roles and responsibilities of bees in a hive ! Queen Bee The queen is the only fertile female in the colony. It is the only member that is able to lay fertilized eggs. The queen bee continually emits pheromones (a bee perfume) that only the bees in the hive can smell. These pheromones keep the female workers sterile and also act as a signal to assure all the bees in the colony that the queen is alive and all is well in the hive. The queen mates early in life, stores up millions of sperm within her body, and fertilizes her eggs as and when needed. She is capable of producing up to 2,000 eggs within a single day. To produce drones, she lays unfertilized eggs. A queen bee lives for 3- 5 years. How...

Life Cycle Stages Honey bees undergo complete metamorphosis, which involves four developmental stages: Egg Larva Pupa Adult Reproduction Virgin queens fly to a location where she may encounter hundreds of male honey beeswaiting for her to arrive so they can inseminate her. Each female will likely mate with several males and each male is able to mate from 7 to 10 times. After mating, the males die. The mated queen lives on and uses the male sperm to fertilize the eggs she produces, a process that continues to occur throughout her life. When she dies or discontinues to produce eggs, a new generation of queens will mate and produce their own colonies. Each colony will only have one fertile queen. Eggs Honey bee queens control the sex of their offspring. As eggs pass through the queen’s ovary into the oviduct, she can determine whether a particular egg is fertilized or not. The development of each member of a colony diffe...

Beehives require management and good stewardship, which take both time and knowledge. General maintenance requires periodic inspections during the warm months to make sure your queen is laying eggs, your workers are building up honey stores, and your colony has enough space to expand. In the cold months, the colony clusters and eats through their honey stores, only emerging when the temperature is above freezing to eliminate waste. Inspections are discouraged during this time to keep from releasing precious heat from the hive. Management time and style will depend on your climate, your hive style, and your particular bees. All colonies are unique, and each beekeeper will have a different experience. All beekeepers get stung at some point. For example, a bee might end up in the fold of your clothing, go unnoticed, and be unable to get out. Honeybees are mostly very docile, and stinging is a last resort, since once they sting, they die. Bee Keeping is Local Bees are dir...

There are many benefits associated with becoming part of the Bee City Canada community A Bee City is part of a North American movement to support pollinator protection. Bee City communities support collaboration and establish and maintain healthy pollinator habitat within the municipality or First Nation’s boundaries. A Bee City begins conversations about how to grow local healthy food and the importance of biodiversity. A Bee city begins conversations about how to reduce and eliminate chemicals that are harmful to pollinators, our food system and the planet. A Bee City raises awareness of pollinator diversity and the benefits of using native plants in habitat restoration. Cost benefits abound in using native plants. For example, water usage is reduced and there is a plant cost advantage using perennials over annuals. Lawns cost the most to maintain. It just makes good sense to plant a pollinator garden! A Bee City sets an example and inspi...

Wildlife-loving gardeners across the world enthuse about  planting butterfly gardens , but relatively few think to design and plant a bee garden. Designing and planting a bee garden will bolster the health of your garden and help conserve one of earth’s treasures. Why Design and Plant a Bee Garden There are over 3,500 species of bees native to the United States. Unfortunately, due to land development and the extensive use of pesticides, their numbers are declining. In fact, the entire world is experiencing a shortage of bees. Why is this a problem? Bees provide the much-needed service of pollinating plants. Approximately  80 percent of the flowering plants  on earth require the help of pollinators, such as bees, for survival. That includes the plants which serve as food for humans. It is estimated  one out of every three bites of food  we take is made possible by bees and other pollinating wildlife. Planting a well-designed bee garden provides food...

Bee Products include More than just Honey! How many can you think of? When people think about “what do bees make” most would say honey, but it doesn’t stop there. In fact, bees produce and collect many different elements that are the fruits of their labour. The 2 most common honey bees, Apis Mellifera & Apis Cerana respectively known as the European & Asian honey bee. We take a look at the many bee products and bi-products made from these bees. Click the bee product name below to see more information. Honey Honey is the complex substance made when the nectar and sweet deposits from plants and trees are gathered, modified and stored in the honeycomb by honey bees as a food source for the colony. All living species of bees have had their honey gathered by indigenous peoples for consumption. For commercial purposes, only the European honey bee & the Asian honey bee have been harvested substantially. Honey is sometimes also gathered by ...