Beekeeping

Give Bees a Chance

There is a reason we say “busy as a bee''. Bees are constant workers. Besides producing delicious local honey, honey bees pollinate garden flowers and plants. Honey starts as flower nectar collected by bees as they pollinate and its color and flavor varies based on the nectar (from the variety of flowers) collected by the bees.

A colony of healthy well-managed bees will produce honey and wax that you can use or sell. Thinking of raising honey bees in your backyard? I spoke with Geoff MacLean, local beekeeper, boating captain and real estate brokerage educator, to gain a little insight into the basics of beekeeping. He had a wealth of knowledge and I was very appreciative of the time he spent chatting with me. Anyone can master the skills necessary to be a good beekeeper, but should learn all that you can about bee hive management before you begin.

Geoff began his beekeeping career by happenstance. His wife, also an agent, had clients that needed a place to relocate their bee colonies after the sale of their home so he took them on. That was in 2007. And now those first few colonies have expanded to 20 colonies dotting the landscape at Geoff’s Scarborough home along Red Brook.

Vast numbers of bees are needed to keep a colony surviving. In your average colony, 1500 bees die every day, and 1500 bees are born every day. There can be 50,000 or more bees in a colony during the warmer months and an average of 30,000 in the winter. During warmer months, ⅓ of bees will be foraging, ⅓ will be doing hive maintenance, and ⅓ are being born. On average, expect to spend an hour per week during the warm season, mid-April-October, on colony management. When temperatures drop, bees need help to properly overwinter so Geoff will wrap his hives to protect the colonies from the cold and strong winds.

The colony normally has only one queen whose sole function is egg production. The queen is supported by worker bees (sexually immature females) and drones (sexually developed males). The bees cluster loosely over several wax combs inside the hives, the cells of which are used to store honey (carbohydrate food) and pollen (protein food), and to rear young bees to replace old adults.

Fall in Maine means faded flowers and reduced amounts of nectar and pollen being gathered. Basically, this loss of food results in a diminishing bee population, especially of the drone bees. The main function of a drone is to be ready to mate with a receptive queen in flight and as such they are not needed during the winter months when bees remain in hives. We didn’t specifically discuss that the arrival of cooler months also brings about worker bees dragging the drones out of the hives. This was a tidbit I later learned. Sounds harsh; however, eliminating the drones reduces their consumption of precious winter honey stores.

Honey bees will make more honey than the colony needs, so it is necessary for beekeepers like Geoff to harvest the excess. He typically will remove honey twice during the season, first around the Fourth of July and then again around Labor Day. However, there have been times when Geoff has not taken honey in the fall because stores were lower than anticipated, thereby saving it for the worker bees as a winter food source.

A hive will generally produce about 65 pounds of surplus honey each year. Beekeepers harvest it by collecting the honeycomb frames from the hive boxes and scraping off the wax cap that bees make to seal honey into each individual honeycomb cell. Once the caps are removed, the frames are placed in an extractor. An extractor is equipment that spins the frames like a centrifuge, forcing honey out of the comb. Geoff shared photos of his extractor and explained how it worked noting its efficient speed.

After the honey is extracted, it is strained to remove any remaining wax and other particles. It is then time to bottle, label, and get it to the consumer. You can find Geoff MacLean’s Red Brook Honey for sale on Gorham Road in Scarborough.

Are you thinking about starting your own colony? The initial cost of beekeeping can be intimidating to new beekeepers. You will need to invest in supplies like hives, proper protective clothing, a smoker, and hive tools, not to mention the packages of new bees. Each of these things priced individually can be expensive. Though often you can find starter kits with bees, boxes, and gear for a more economical price. Geoff recommended a visit to The Honey Exchange in Portland for classes and demonstrations and for all your hobbyist beekeeping supplies.

A big part of our conversation centered on bee diseases. Bee populations have been in decline for several years due to diseases, pesticides, and parasites to name just a few. There are times, in spite of all the care and diligence of the beekeeper, you have an unhealthy hive. Take the time to learn how to keep your bees healthy, talk with other beekeepers, and utilize other knowledgeable sources like your local cooperative extension or beekeeping association. Join a beekeeping community. Be educated about your bees, a point that Geoff highly stresses.

As we stood by one of Geoff’s bee hives, the bees were buzzing around us... uncomfortably close by. Geoff assured me that since we did not pose a threat to the bees, they would leave us alone, which they did. One of the worker bees actually landed on his hand as if to say hello and to thank Geoff for his protection of the colony.

Fun fact: Bees can see color, which is one of the reasons you will see brightly hued hives. It has been a custom of painting the fronts of hives in a variety of fun colors. Geoff points out that paint should be kept to lighter colors since dark color paint can overheat the hives in hot summer months. Foraging a 2-3 mile radius around the hive, the bees can also geo track the exact location of their hive, regardless of its color.

There are many kinds of bees that pollinate 80% of cultivated crops. However, there are fewer honey bees due to not only the pesticides and diseases I’ve already mentioned, but also because of habitat destruction. You can help protect them by gardening organically (pesticide free), planting a variety of flowers, buying a jar of local honey, and perhaps establishing your own bee colonies. Are you ready to give beekeeping a try? Or learn about other ways that you can help bees out? Check out the list of resources below the photos. Give bees a chance.