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Tag Archives | beehive

Bee Informed Partnership Hive Scale Project

Susan BIP Scale
via HoneyLover Susan RudnickiHave you ever wondered how our local, LA Urban beekeeping differ from other areas of the country? I just read the other day that beekeepers in Wales expect about 25 pounds of honey per year on their hives—33 pounds is a bumper crop!   This does not seem like much. Our bees are active year ’round, making brood, honey and drones. This growth is very different from temperate climate bees and, as well, we are using Africanized hybrid ferals—a relatively rare population to survey. We now have a opportunity to participate in amassing data on our specific niche by the generosity of HoneyLove who purchased the SolutionBee Hive scale for me to monitor a hive in my backyard garden.

The project is managed by BIP (the Bee Informed Partnership)  and the hive data is automatically sent to their website as well as the SolutionBee team, the manufacturers of the hive scale (purchased from Brushy Mountain). The colony I selected came from a large swarm hived on April 27, 2014 which has proven to be super productive and nicely behaved. They now occupy 3 deep boxes and 2 mediums after seven months and have produced 60 pounds of honey.  I have also raided their brood nest for frames of brood for weak nuc hives. They are VERY strong bees and a pleasure to work.

The goal of the project is summarized below, as taken from the initial offering to participate sent out by BIP. I am having great fun with this, watching my bee’s growth graph going ever upward in weight gain. For the first time I am also having to learn how to use a cell phone—my son’s iphone—as the data recording and uploading device. Arghh!  —this is not my strong suit.

The Bee Informed Partnership is dedicated to helping beekeepers make informed data-based management decisions. Monitoring weight changes in colonies has huge potential to help us understand disease and parasite population growth, as well as the timing of management practices. We are seeking some innovative beekeepers who are willing to help us develop and beta test the hive scale tools’ ability to develop a system that will provide the best regionally specific management practices based on real time data. We are collaborating with NASA’s Honeybee Net, under the direction of Wayne Esaias, to test this exciting effort.

Why hive scales?

Hive scales weigh individual colonies at regular intervals, keeping track of strong nectar flows, swarming, and other conditions that affect management decisions.  Beekeepers may respond to rises in weight by putting supers on, inspecting colonies for swarm cells, and extracting full honey supers. Conversely, weight loss may indicate a need to feed colonies, robbing or indicate the colony has swarmed and is at increased risk of becoming queenless.

With new digital hive scales, beekeepers can track the weight of colonies without having to do a hive inspection. The scale we are using for our beta testing will utilizing Bluetooth with an Android device (e.g., Android phone or tablet), and a visit to the apiary is required to read the data. The data can be viewed on the device or be uploaded via cellular or WIFI communication. However, in the future these same scales when used with a data collector will allow for data to be automatically uploaded via cell phones or cell phone service data plans that allow for remote monitoring.

Armed with data from hive scales and other disease monitoring efforts, the Bee Informed Partnership hopes to make predictive models of honey flows and disease population growth. These models will help us develop an “alert system” that will make management recommendations based on real-time and regionally specific data.

As to my particular case,  I don’t expect the disease/pest monitoring aspect will be so relevant to my bee population. The varroa mite has not been a great destroyer of my bees in the past and they seem to manage the pest well on their own. When Spring comes, it will be interesting to observe the growth of the brood nest and respond with management techniques to overcome swarming tendencies.   One thing is sure—that time will be sooner than any other part of the country.

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SIGN THE PETITION!

CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO SIGN OUR PETITION!
http://www.change.org/petitions/legalize-urban-beekeeping-in-los-angeles-2

Legalize Urban Beekeeping

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PHOTOS: HoneyLove Bee Rescue

At yesterday’s Bee Rescue we had some awesome helpers:
Maggie & Colin Walsh and their son Iggie!

beerescue_032413

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HoneyLove featured on Valley View News

Valley View News
*HoneyLove story begins @ 25:58

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HoneyLove School Outreach at Valmonte Elementary

Valmonte Elementary Valmonte Elementary

Valmonte Elementary

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HoneyLove featured in “Gardening for Geeks” book!

Learn more here: http://gardenerd.com/gardening-for-geeks/index.html

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Legalize Urban Beekeeping in Los Angeles!!

Legalize Urban Beekeeping

The time has come for everyone to rally – LETS DO THIS!!

STEP 1: Click here to SIGN THE PETITION!!

STEP 2: EMAIL a letter of support to LA City Council!! 
(Click above to view a sample email)

Lorax

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HoneyLover of the Month: DENNIS

HLOTM_dennis

Dennis Broderick only has one hive, but don’t let that fool you. He knows his way around bees pretty well.

It all started in 2009 when Dennis was growing an heirloom garden and then, as these things do, it all snowballed. He got a worm farm. And a composter. And when he looked around he decided he needed more pollinators. One day later he heard about the Backwards Beekeepers on KPCC and within a week Dennis had been to a meeting and was making arrangements with HoneyLove mentor Kirk Anderson to bring a swarm.

Dennis HoneyLover

A few weeks later Dennis was doing his own feral colony rescues all over Los Angeles. (His ringtone cries “Help!” when a rescue call comes in.)

Dennis still has just one hive. “I had two but one of them was mean so I sent them off to a beekeeper in the high desert,” Dennis explained. “One hive is plenty. And if they abscond, I just get more.”

His hive is five boxes high and Dennis only goes in for a few frames of honey every now and then. “I want them to be bees and pollinate. That’s it.” When asked if his colony has a name he laughed. “They’re bugs! I don’t name bugs.”

Honey from the Dale

Dennis also owns and shows Grand Champion Cairn Terriers. Better yet, he has his dogs Betty and Deuce in Earth Dog and Lure Coursing competitions because he believes that dogs not only need a job but that they should get dirty and have fun.

After a stint in the military, Dennis worked for ABC TV for 25 years in Network Operations, retiring as Department Head.  “It got fun when things went wrong and you had to fly by the seat of your pants.”

Sounds a lot like bee rescue, doesn’t it?

Follow Dennis and his bee adventures here:
http://buzzinthedale.blogspot.com/

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The Harmony of Bees

Harmony Of Bees
Thanks to Donna Strong for donating a copy of her “Harmony of Bees” CD to our HoneyLove Lending Library!

Description:

Bees bring the sweetness of the flowers to us, making the world more fertile and abundant. This bee recording gives us access to sounds of nature that few people will ever hear–the high hum of bees busily pollinating a field full of flowering lavender. It is magical.

This recording has been named The Harmony of Bees; Healing Notes of Nature based on the comments of an Ecuadorian shaman who sleeps atop a hive because he finds the bee sounds so healing. The sound of the bees in a summer field of lavender is a unique experience of hearing a peak moment of pollination in action.

We humans have a new art form to cultivate–appreciating the beauty of the bees as they so productively apply themselves to the work of pollinating. Just as the plants transform sunlight, water and earthly elements into green life and pollen grains of reproductive abundance; the bees continue this caravan of nature’s alchemy through their vital work of pollination.

Bees are threatened by habitat changes, pesticide usage, and stressful commercial practices of trucking them over long distances and feeding them junk food such as sugar water, while expecting them to pollinate and produce honey without the food that nature has intended for millennia–their own honey and pollen.

This recording has been made to increase awareness of these endangered pollinators while helping us regenerate ourselves with this unique healing sound of nature. As you listen to this recording, I invite you to begin a new way to listen and heighten your perception of the bees in a kind of ‘moving meditation’ as it were, of being fully present in the moment as they move in and out of the lavender flowers in the field.

For more information:
www.facebook.com/harmony.bees
info@harmonyofbees.com
Donna Strong @714.235.7346
Available through CD Baby: http://cdbaby.com/cd/donnastrong

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HoneyLovin today @MuirRanch w/ @Cocoxochitl

Mark your calendar folks because today was a big day…
Say hello to HoneyLove’s 1st School Garden with Bees!! Yay Muir Ranch!!

HoneyLove at Muir Ranch  HoneyLove at Muir Ranch

HoneyLove at Muir Ranch

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