Beekeeper

Can the Average Homeowner Become a Beekeeper? The honeybee is the epitome of hard-working, efficient, and self-sacrifice. Americans have a long love affair with the honeybee. The Virginia Company of London sent beehives to the Governor of Jamestown a year after the Mayflower arrived in America (History.org), furthermore; Americans consumed 410 million pounds of honey in 2010 (Honey.com). Honeybees are responsible for one out of every three bites of food we put into our mouths (Vanishing, @…

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 Socio-economic characteristics of beekeepers The mean ages of the beekeepers were 38.11 years and the majority of them are between 23 and 70 years old. This survey result showed that people in the most productive age are actively engaged in beekeeping activities with an average experience of 12.31years. The mean land holding of per beekeeper household was estimated to be 1.95 ha. Generally, the average land holding in the district showed insignificant difference but…

bees are in a more grave danger of surviving. As of 2016, beekeepers and environmental and consumer groups sued the EPA or Environmental Protection Agency for not doing enough to protect bees from pesticide onslaught. Over the last several years, scientists have fretted over the future for the bees and are giving research to try to shed light on the current crisis. This crisis arose during the fall of 2006 as incredible amounts of beekeepers suffered loses. More than one third of hives lost and…

Backyard Beekeeping Many beekeepers prefer having their hives in their backyard and some bees are being kept on roof-tops on the city. There is no need to put your hive next to flowering plants since bees can travel some miles to gather pollen and nectar. If you are a city beekeeper it is of importance for you to take special care for your bees and ensure your neighbours are comfortable and safe with your beekeeping practice. Below are some of the tips that can help you while practising backyard…

Bees are insects that are needed in today's society more than humans can imagine. Bees live in colonies that are often maintained by beekeepers. Centuries of selective breeding by humans have created honey bees that produce far more honey than the colony needs. Beekeepers harvest the honey. They provide a place for the colony to live and to store honey in. The modern beehive is made up of a series of square or rectangular boxes without tops or bottoms placed one on top of another. Inside the…

in bee populations. Beekeepers are used to a certain amount of bees and hives dying off but the winter and spring of 2006-2007 brought about the most precipitous decline in decades. The historical rate for overwintering losses is 10-15% but from 2007-2011 this rate has been 28-33% (The Situation, n.d.). This event from 2007 has been coined as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and affecting as many as 35 states and causing colony losses as high as 80-100% for some beekeepers the disorder is both…

species. They are by far the most well-known pollinators, and if they ever were to go extinct, we would say good-bye to crops such as almonds, apples, avocados, and oranges (Good). Beekeepers in North America have noticed a rapid decline in their honey bee populations since 2006 (Hagopian). I spoke with two beekeepers, Tommy McCaffrey and Roy Clingon in Purvis, Mississippi, who gave me their insight on why the honey bee population has been declining in recent years. For my field research, I went…

What’s the Buzz? Across the country scientists are noticing the death of bees and are puzzled as to why. This honey bee crisis has been a problem for over thirty years, but only brought to large attention in 2006. In the winter of 2005-2006, beekeepers across…

are very challenging because there are not many corpses left behind to be assessed by researchers. A labor pool composed mainly of adolescent bees, who cannot productively manage the remains of the hive, is a hint that CCD may already be lurking. Beekeepers have been reporting declines in adults, mainly foragers, who were deserting the hive. (Berenbaum) Also, discovering the queen outside of the hive is another indicator that the hive may be plagued.…

Honey bees produce honey that is favored and enjoyed by many, and they pollinate a large portion of the world’s crops. While their efforts are largely appreciated, their recent troubles have not been given very much attention. Before assessing and understanding their afflictions, one must first have some basic knowledge about the structure/organization of a typical honey bee colony. They are social insects, with each individual bee living to benefit the hive. The survival of the hive depends…