Keeping Bees in Utah

Over the weekend, Utah Beekeepers Association had their annual meeting.  I was not able to attend, but I am hearing rumblings that many of the large commercial beekeepers and the state want to make it more difficult to keep bees in Utah.  This is a travesty.  We need more beekeepers not less. We do need people who are interested in learning and improving beekeeping methods though.

Here is my take:

First I am not very politically active.  I should be, but it hasn't made my priority list yet.  I don't like government managing everything. This includes managing beekeeping.  I do recommend everyone abide by the current regulations.  Each person in Utah that keeps bees needs to have a license.  Currently they are pretty cheap.  For a hobbyist with less than 20 hives it is $10/year.  This is mainly to register your hives. Here is a link to the Utah Beekeeping License Application. The next thing I recommend is that beekeepers try to educate themselves as much as possible.  As a hobbyist we are able to do more for our bees naturally to help them over come some of the current issues than large commercial beekeepers.  Both types of beekeepers are crucial to making sure we have healthy honey bees.

Commercial beekeepers are in a tough spot.  Their lively hood depends on their bees.  They typically transport their bees from state to state for pollination.  This brings back to Utah all kinds of things.  One example is we currently don't have too many problems with the hive beetle, but it wont be long.  These Commercial beekeepers typically don't have time to try natural methods, so they treat their hives both for problems and as a precaution.  In my opinion this isn't the best thing for bees, but I understand why they do it.  With out this type of beekeeper, the hobbyist would have a difficult time having access to bees and supplies.

Hobbyist beekeepers are generally able to try different techniques to help the bees without over medicating them.  Many proven methods are out there.  They take more time and probably are not economical for commercial beekeepers. As hobbyist though I feel we do need to take responsibility to learn the different deceases and pest that affect our bees.  This is obviously something you have to progress at, but I do think we need to be proactive with it.

I really hope the landscape of beekeeping in Utah doesn't change for the worse.  I realize I need to do a better job of getting involved with the different beekeeping associations and supporting them as well as educating myself.  It does take time and is hard to justify sometimes, but I need to try harder to get involved. I love beekeeping.  It helps my gardens, it gives me fresh pure honey, and the bees are fascinating.  I also enjoy helping others get started.  Its important to me to do my part to help keep the barriers to entry low for beekeepers.

Here are a couple of links to the local and state beekeeping associations.  Check them out, some have some really good information:

Utah County Beekeepers Association
Wasatch Beekeepers Association
Utah Beekeepers Association

Happy Beekeeping!

Yesterday's Success

I went over and helped my neighbor check his hives.  He bought two hives from me last year and is still learning the ropes.  He had one hive that struggle getting going and I think the original queen wasn't mated very well.  We found two queens in the hive and I think the hive created a new queen because they weren't happy with the original queen.  We split the hive up and watched to see which queen was the most prodcutive.  We found out which one it was and combined the hive back together again. It was interesting because the original queen didn't really lay eggs once we split the queens up.  She started well, but then I think she just stopped.  My theory is she wasn't mated well and decided to stop laying.    Once we combined the hives, it was still pretty far behind and really didn't get a chance to build up much before winter.  I didn't have much hope for this hive.  His other hive has been strong from day one.  He called me and said I think both hives made it through the winter, can you come and see what you think.  I went over and sure enough both hives were flying and active as could be.  They loved the sunny day yesterday.  We opened up the week hive and it had a few frames with bees.  The hive was pretty light so we put a pollen patty on it and he was going to start feeding it.  The strong hive is very strong.  The whole top box had bees and it was very active. The hive is very heavy with honey and so we put pollen patties on it and closed it up.  It was so good to see a little success.

These two hives were on the South side of his house and received the reflection of the sun off the siding.  I think it helped keep it warmer.  These hives also had really good ventilation.  I am convinced that one of the main problems with my hives this year was a lack of ventilation and a lack of sun exposure.  I wish I would have taken pictures.  It was so nice to see active hives again.

Happy Beekeeping 

Mentoring

I had a good experience yesterday.  I went and visited a beekeeper that supplies me with all of my packages that I include with my hives that I sell.  I had to pay him for the 65 packages that I ordered (wow! what a check).  I have worked with this guy for a couple of years and he is one of the nicest beekeepers I have met.  He has been keeping bees for over 40 years and currently runs about 700 hives.  He has so much knowledge and is so good about letting me ask questions.  One day I would really like to shadow him for a day and absorb everything I could.  We talked for about an hour about everything from what type of foundation he likes to use to how to get a strong spring build up.  He gave me some encouraging words to build up my confidence after such a horrific winter and sent me on my way excited and motivated to be a beekeeper.

I think I have mentioned on this blog before, that my experience is, a lot of beekeepers are very territorial and protective of their knowledge.  It was so refreshing to find someone that was willing to take the time to make you want to be involved in beekeeping.  Rex has always been good to help me and yesterday was no different.

We need more beekeepers.  It is good for the individual, community, and the progression of beekeeping and honey bees themselves.  My goal as a beekeepers is to get others excited about keeping bees.  I didn't get into bees to make money (thank goodness since I may never make any He He), but I did get into it because I love honey and I love my garden and bees help me with both.  The more I learn the more I understand just how important bees are to each of us. I have learned so much in my four years of beekeeping.  I cannot wait to share it and start another season her soon.

This weekend should be warming up a little for us on the Wasatch Front.  Take a few minutes and make sure you check on your hives.  If they are alive, make sure they have food and are in good shape to make it until there is natural pollen and nectar.  You may consider putting on a pollen patty to help them start rearing brood.  If you do, you have to put it almost right on the cluster.  I typically cover half the cluster with it and leave the other half so they can move around.  If they don't have honey, I would feed them sugar water if you do it by weight you will want to go 2 parts water 1 part sugar.  If you start to feed either syrup or pollen, you will need to continue until there is a natural supply available.  It is worth it to feed them to make sure they make it through (trust me).  FYI, it might give you a little something I like to call Bee Fever.  Once you get it, spring can't come fast enough.

Happy Beekeeping.