The Buzz Blog » Raw Honey http://www.volcanoislandhoney.com/blog Thu, 03 Nov 2011 10:47:06 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 It’s Got to Bee in the Genes http://www.volcanoislandhoney.com/blog/2011/08/got-to-bee-gene/ http://www.volcanoislandhoney.com/blog/2011/08/got-to-bee-gene/#comments Thu, 25 Aug 2011 07:00:31 +0000 admin http://www.volcanoislandhoney.com/blog/?p=627 On April 30, 1898, my grandfather, Ben Byer wrote in his diary, “got 1 swarm bees.” He was 15 and living near Glendale, Arizona. His future father in-law also had bees, and his grandpa helped some. His journal entries sound similar to all beekeepers with entries about getting swarms, and making hives. “I have 23 stands, made over some bee racks, and worked at honey house. Shot 6 bee birds.” “Papa went to Glendale, bought paint and I painted some hives, made racks and put on 4 supers.” “Extracted some” “I nailed together some bee hives.” “extracted and caned some honey.” “I extracted some honey and fixed my wax for sale.” By the time he was 20, there is an entry which says, “My crop is about 1,300lbs and increase from 23 to 38 colonies.”


Langstroth discovered bee space in 1851. Mehring invented a machine that made embossed wax foundation in 1857. The centrifugal extractor came along in 1865, and the bellows smoker in 1873. My grandfather was a “modern” bee keeper and the bee business was booming. In 1872 Gen. Allen brought bees from San Diego, California to Tucson, Arizona, and 30 years later The Arizona Daily Star reported that the bees were still doing well, even as swarms in the mountains. Perhaps these were the swarms my grandfather caught.


It’s amazing to me that 160 years later beekeepers are using the same equipment, although now you can buy plastic foundation. It was only colony collapse disorder, mites, hive beetles, pesticides, and neonicotinoids which made us question what are we doing to the bees. As the bees started to disappear, we started asking questions, experimenting with Top Bar Hives, and natural and organic ways of keeping bees.


As the classes come to an end, we have the information we need to be bee keepers, thanks to Jenny Bach and Richard Spiegel. We have the resources in Danielle, Lauren, Ethel, Scott, and the Big Island Bee Keepers Assoc. We have a way to keep in touch and support each other, thanks to Callie. It is time to get our hives, and find our bees. They will teach us the rest. As for me, I’m thinking it’s got to be in my genes.


Posted by Mary Ann Smiles


wsare_logo_lowThis project was funded by a grant from the Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program.

]]> http://www.volcanoislandhoney.com/blog/2011/08/got-to-bee-gene/feed/ 2 Bees and Bacchanalian Feasts http://www.volcanoislandhoney.com/blog/2011/08/bees-and-bacchanalian-feasts/ http://www.volcanoislandhoney.com/blog/2011/08/bees-and-bacchanalian-feasts/#comments Thu, 25 Aug 2011 06:38:02 +0000 admin http://www.volcanoislandhoney.com/blog/?p=625 Our last class took place at Jenny Bach and Jio Rosenberg’s beautiful homestead in Lapahoehoe, Bee Love Hawaii. After three weeks of hearing about beekeeping from those with great experience, we were all eager to get started. Where should we acquire a hive? How is a swarm caught? Once in our swarm trap, how is the ball of bees transferred to the hive? Well, we could build our own hives, have them shipped from the mainland, or coax an established beekeeper on-island into passing on his used hives. As for catching a swarm, we were given a swarm trap resembling a large brown paper-mache flowerpot with a lid. A potent pheromone placed inside attracts bees looking for a new home. With one swift and vigorous shake, the swarm is transferred into the open hive or onto the ground directly in front of the hive entrance.

Later that morning, Jio and Jenny lovingly opened a top bar hive. The process seemed minimally invasive, as most of the top bars were allowed to remain in place and only the first five were removed and examined. With no pre-existing rectangular frame upon which to build, the bees created comb with graceful and delicate rounded edges. We all had the chance to hold a bar, and it was interesting to note everyone’s increased confidence and comfort level since first opening a hive only two weeks before!

The day came to a close with a mead-tasting. Also called honey wine, it is made by fermenting a solution of water and honey. Having read Arthurian Legends and Viking sagas as a child, and remembering bacchanalian feasts fueled by over-flowing goblets of golden mead, I was eager to sample this most ancient of drinks!

Some meads were clear, others a little cloudy, perhaps from the addition of lilikoi juice or other fruity additions. Some were sweet and reminiscent of white wine, while others tasted more yeasty and beer-like, with a champagne-like effervescence.

Enthused, I did a little research. It turns out the earliest archaeological evidence for the production of mead dates back to around 7000 BC. Historically, meads were fermented by wild yeasts and bacteria from the skins of the fruit used or from the honey itself. Human preoccupation with making and consuming alcoholic drinks led to endless experimentation, as evidenced by the hundreds of different meads to be found today, flavored with everything from blackcurrants to chili peppers – and in our class, passion fruit and cacao!

A big thank you to Richard Spiegel and Jenny Bach, and to the many experts and teachers who came together to share their time and expertise with us. We leave inspired and ready to start on our own beekeeping adventures!

Posted by Monika Hennig


wsare_logo_lowThis project was funded by a grant from the Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program.

]]> http://www.volcanoislandhoney.com/blog/2011/08/bees-and-bacchanalian-feasts/feed/ 1 Learning by Doing http://www.volcanoislandhoney.com/blog/2011/08/learning-by-doing/ http://www.volcanoislandhoney.com/blog/2011/08/learning-by-doing/#comments Thu, 25 Aug 2011 06:24:00 +0000 admin http://www.volcanoislandhoney.com/blog/?p=619 What an amazing experience this has been. Jenny and Richard have done a great job of consolidating their many years of experience into a four day class. I feel I have the knowledge and confidence to start my own bee colony and begin the “learning by doing” phase of beekeeping.


It is great to be part of this new group and have such great resources. I am also encouraged to see the gentleness and caring everyone has for the honey bees. Jenny and Richard’s affection for them is plain to see but I was happy to see the class have such a deep commitment to the bees.


Top Bar Hive at Jenny’s farm. A hive with a view--looking out to the ocean!




Looking in the window to see the bees.




Jenny explains what to look for in the hive.




Part 1: Jio and Jenny gently open up the hive.




Part 2: Jenny and Jio show us the honeycomb attached to the Top Bar.




The stars of the show!




Bees- our reasons for bee-ing!





Posted by Christine Young



wsare_logo_lowThis project was funded by a grant from the Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program.

]]> http://www.volcanoislandhoney.com/blog/2011/08/learning-by-doing/feed/ 0 To Inseminate or Not to Inseminate? http://www.volcanoislandhoney.com/blog/2011/08/to-inseminate-or-not-to-inseminate/ http://www.volcanoislandhoney.com/blog/2011/08/to-inseminate-or-not-to-inseminate/#comments Tue, 02 Aug 2011 05:53:25 +0000 admin http://www.volcanoislandhoney.com/blog/?p=606 Today I stood beside a row of Christmasberry trees in North Kohala, listening to the buzzing of bees around newly opened blossoms. Some were gathering pollen, others, nectar. I leaned in close to inspect their bodies for that dreaded and all too prevalent parasite, the varroa mite. I was pleased to find not a one among the hundred or so bees I examined!

Last week in class, Ethel Villalobos from the UH Manoa Honeybee Project spoke about the research being conducted on diseases spread by varroa, various methods of controlling the mite, and ongoing outreach and education efforts. It seems the battle against the eight-legged pest is never-ending and laborious. Synthetic chemicals find their way into honey, so the use of more earth friendly organic chemicals like thyme oil and formic acid is preferable. Biomechanical methods of mite control include removing drone (male) brood as they are developing. As the drone larvae are larger than worker (female) larvae, mites find them more attractive and feed upon them in greater numbers. Thus, by removing developing drones, the mite population can also be greatly reduced. Ethel warned that without proper management and intervention, infected colonies can die within a year.

Tom Glenn, a bee breeder from Southern California, has yet another approach to varroa control. He selects for a remarkable trait–bees carrying the Varroa Sensitive Hygiene (VSH) gene that can sense if a capped cell holds mite-infested larvae. Workers will chew through the beeswax caps and eat or discard these larvae, reducing the number of mites in the colony. Since introducing VSH queens into his hives, Tom has not had to treat his bees for mites in ten years.

Accelerating the process of natural selection for desirable traits through artificial insemination of queen bees seemed advantageous to many in class. Others found the idea distasteful, suggesting that instead of tinkering with Mother Nature, we should allow bees and mites to achieve a balance where the two could live together without the bees being decimated. It was argued that the use of toxic chemicals and selective breeding might cause the mites to adapt, becoming even stronger, more formidable foes!

Later that afternoon I watched as Tom anesthetized a queen with carbon dioxide, delicately pulled open her “bottom end” and injected 8 micro liters of semen (collected from 100 drones) into her. An identifying number was then super-glued to her thorax, and one wing-tip clipped to prevent her from flying and mating again. I felt an anthropomorphic pang of sadness. She would never zoom 600 feet up into the sky on a glorious and dizzying flight – never merge in ecstatic union with drones on the wing.

My wild swing from VSH enthusiasm to a sense of having betrayed the queen was purely in the realm of emotion, and I hadn’t even begun to understand the scientific consequences and ethical concerns of artificially inseminating queen bees! But, despite my inner qualms, I must admit that if I acquired a hive tomorrow, I would introduce a VSH queen. I don’t want to watch a colony struggle with varroa and I’d hope that greater diversity in the Hawaiian bee gene pool would outweigh any possible negatives of selective breeding.

Posted by Monika Hennig

wsare_logo_lowThis project was funded by a grant from the Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program.

]]> http://www.volcanoislandhoney.com/blog/2011/08/to-inseminate-or-not-to-inseminate/feed/ 0 The Moment I Have Been Waiting For… http://www.volcanoislandhoney.com/blog/2011/08/the-moment-i-have-been-waiting-for%e2%80%a6/ http://www.volcanoislandhoney.com/blog/2011/08/the-moment-i-have-been-waiting-for%e2%80%a6/#comments Tue, 02 Aug 2011 05:50:21 +0000 admin http://www.volcanoislandhoney.com/blog/?p=603 For several years I have known that I want to be a beekeeper. I became infatuated with bees and honey after reading a chapter in the book “Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers” that claimed that people who eat a primarily honey diet have been known to live to well over 100 years old. I was sold! Since then, my love relationship with bees and honey has mostly existed in books, movies, and online articles.

However, how could I be sure I was ready to be a bee guardian without ever having any hands on experience with bees? What if I freaked out at the moment that mattered most? What if I had gotten a hive, only to realize that I would be paralyzed with fear?

The true test finally came for me last Saturday during our second Beginning Beekeeping Class with Richard Spiegel and Jenny Bach at Volcano Island Honey Company. We suited up and practiced the proper way to open up the hive, inspect a frame, and light our smokers. Then it was out to the field we went, three people per hive to practice with the real stars of the show—the bees!

A classmate, Larry, was the first in my group to open up the hive. Wow! All of the bees were pouring up to the top. We puffed a little smoke their way, and they immediately began retreating to engorge themselves on honey. The bees were so quiet and peaceful with us, despite our alien space suits and invasion of their home.

Now, the moment I had been waiting for… I used my hive tool to pry a frame out of the hive. I held in my hands, an entirely different universe of awe and wonder. Hundreds of bees were crawling all over beautifully capped honey cells. I could see eggs and larva indicating that the Queen was alive and well. Bees were eating honey and talking to each other. There were a few drones that I spotted, and lots of female workers.

I could have stared at the frame in my hands for hours. I was amazed with how calm I was–not an ounce of anxiety, only pure fascination! After a while though, the bees let us know they had enough of our unexpected visit. Their buzzing became louder, and the whole hive seemed to be in a bit of a frenzy. It was obvious that it was time for us to let them bee.

Even though I plan on doing this a million more times, I will never forget this first experience for the rest of my life! Thank you Richard and Jenny!! You have made my dreams come true!

Posted by Callie McNew


wsare_logo_lowThis project was funded by a grant from the Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program.

]]> http://www.volcanoislandhoney.com/blog/2011/08/the-moment-i-have-been-waiting-for%e2%80%a6/feed/ 0 What is Natural? http://www.volcanoislandhoney.com/blog/2011/08/what-is-natural/ http://www.volcanoislandhoney.com/blog/2011/08/what-is-natural/#comments Tue, 02 Aug 2011 05:47:47 +0000 admin http://www.volcanoislandhoney.com/blog/?p=598 Larry, Noel and I talked excitedly about bees all the way to class. Larry has already built several top bar hives, and is building one for me this week.

We’re ready!

However, the class this week was a difficult one both visually and emotionally. Seeing pictures of a slime out caused by small hive beetle was just plain yucky. We saw, up close and personal, what today’s beekeepers face with the arrival of new pests to the Big Island—the varroa mite and small hive beetle. We were extremely lucky to have Danielle Downey, a State of Hawaii Apiary Specialist, and Ethel Villalobos, from The UH Honeybee Project presenting the most scientific up to date information, and offering their help and expertise.

But perhaps the most controversial guests were Tom and Yuki Glenn from Glenn Apiaries in California. Tom had come with semen from drones from VSH Queens and we watched him artificially inseminate some of Richard’s queens. VSH is for Varroa-sensitive hygienic behavior. How does this work? Bees with this trait will detect mite infested brood, open the cell, and eat the mite offspring and bee larva. Even though the mother mite survives, her reproduction is interrupted, which eventually reduces the mite population in the hive. VSH queens will retain a level of mite resistance even after free mating with unselected drones, so genetic diversity can be maintained. These bees are also resistant to tracheal mites, (which are not in Hawaii), American Foulbrood and Chalkbrood. The website claims this is “the natural way to control mites and brood diseases.” It certainly seems better than chemiclals–check mite, pyrethins or antibiotics.

Artificial insemination and VSH Queens seemed like the perfect natural solution, until Jenny Bach presented a counter argument by asking the question, “What is natural?” Her reasoning was as follows: We have interfered with bee genetics for a while now, producing calmer bees which produce more honey and less propolis. We’ve put them in boxes that make honey production easier for us. We’ve transported them across a whole continent to pollinate mono crops such as the almonds in California, where they inter-mingled and spread diseases. We’ve flown bee packages all over the world, spreading mites and Africanized bees. So should we let natural selection take place so that the bees can recover on their own, or should we help them by speeding up the process with VSH queens?

I came away from the class discouraged. Can I really do this? Am I starting at the right time?

When I got home I emailed my friend Christy in Berkeley, California to ask about her bees. She had just gotten her bees in March at which time she proudly showed me her new hive. This week she told me that her bees are doing great and she’s almost ready to harvest 2 supers of honey. She sent me the picture of her backyard hive (at right.) Her next step is renting an extractor from the same place she got her hive and supers, and took her classes. Her package of bees came in the mail, she bought her hive and supers locally and can even rent an extractor!

OK, Big Island, this seems like a business waiting to happen! In the meantime, I’m once again encouraged. It can be done. Now I’m just waiting for my bees to find me.

Posted by Mary Ann Smiles


wsare_logo_lowThis project was funded by a grant from the Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program.

]]> http://www.volcanoislandhoney.com/blog/2011/08/what-is-natural/feed/ 0 The Big Picture http://www.volcanoislandhoney.com/blog/2011/08/the-big-picture/ http://www.volcanoislandhoney.com/blog/2011/08/the-big-picture/#comments Tue, 02 Aug 2011 05:02:49 +0000 admin http://www.volcanoislandhoney.com/blog/?p=591 Last week I wrote about my distress at finding Hive #3 without a queen. This week, I was glad to find out that Hive #3 has a queen and is doing fine! She was newly introduced last week and we just missed her in our examination of the hive. It sounds like things are going to be looking up for the bees in that colony.

One of my favorite things about the learning process is when new information fits like a puzzle piece into the “Big Picture”. The bees are an indicator species of what is going on in our mutual environment. Over the past two years I have been studying natural farming methods, beneficial insects and invasive species (both plant and insect). The introduction of invasive species has reduced the honeybee’s numbers by half. What can we learn from that catastrophe?

I agree with my fellow students that importing 90% of our food into Hawaii is a bad idea. The bees, for example, gather everything they need within 2-3 miles radius of their hive. What would it look like if we too a hint from the bees? Buying and/or growing local food, reducing our dependence on imports and fossil fuels?

This class on honeybees is turning out to be a teaching on emotional life lessons. I am inspired by Jenny and Richard’s commitment to live and work in the “right” way. It is such a pleasure to be learning from them, my fellow students, and most of all the honeybees. I can’t wait for next week!

Posted by Christine Young


wsare_logo_lowThis project was funded by a grant from the Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program.

]]> http://www.volcanoislandhoney.com/blog/2011/08/the-big-picture/feed/ 0 Dancing with the Bees http://www.volcanoislandhoney.com/blog/2011/07/dancing-with-the-bees/ http://www.volcanoislandhoney.com/blog/2011/07/dancing-with-the-bees/#comments Fri, 22 Jul 2011 08:07:40 +0000 admin http://www.volcanoislandhoney.com/blog/?p=586 It is a romantic image… bees hovering over delicate blooms, gathering nectar and pollen ripened by sunlight. Then, in the darkness of the hive, wax is produced and shaped into comb the color of cream. It is as if sunlight had found its way into the very center of the hive! We take the gifts the comb offers, golden-hued honey, and in the darkness of night or the depths of winter, we light candles crafted of beeswax. As they glow with brightness and warmth, we are again reminded of the sun’s light, now before us in miniature.

Learning to use a smoker for the first time.

In our second beekeeping class, we had the opportunity to open a Langstroth hive, remove frames, and examine bees. Equipped with hat, veil, thick gloves, smoker and hooked hive tool, we gingerly lifted the hive lid. Clumsy under my gear and weakly grasping my hive tool, I seemed to move in slow motion. Hawaii’s bee expert, Danielle Downey, took my tool and deftly pushed the first frame to free it from the others. Encouraged by her vigor, I lifted the frame out, and the humming and buzzing of the bees quickly brought clarity and purpose to my movements. The gloves seemed more of a hindrance than a help, so off they came, and the bees crawling over my fingertips felt surprisingly more comforting than panic-inducing! My classmates took turns removing frames and examining brood and honey cells. I lifted out yet another frame when someone excitedly chirped, “There’s the queen, on the back of your frame!” She was instantly recognizable, her amber abdomen long and tapering, her thorax dark and mostly hairless.

Closer inspection of the colony revealed some bees with shiny small rust-colored ovals clinging to their bodies. This was our first encounter with the varroa mite, a blood-sucking parasite that spreads disease, weakens colonies, and is responsible, in part, for the massive bee die-offs in Hawaii over the last few years. Beekeepers have long been dealing with this pest on the mainland, but its fairly recent introduction to the islands has kept Hawaiian beekeepers scrambling to learn techniques for keeping the parasite populations in check.


After replacing the frames and lid, I walked away from the hive with mixed feelings: a “zingy” excitement at having held bees just inches from my face, but also concern over the mite that was weakening bees and causing some to emerge from their cells with deformed wings. For me, beekeeping will be a dance between the awe I experience when I am around bees, and the care I must provide to maintain healthy colonies.

Posted by Monika Hennig


wsare_logo_lowThis project was funded by a grant from the Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program.

]]> http://www.volcanoislandhoney.com/blog/2011/07/dancing-with-the-bees/feed/ 1 Bees Make Their Own Homes http://www.volcanoislandhoney.com/blog/2011/07/bees-make-their-own-homes/ http://www.volcanoislandhoney.com/blog/2011/07/bees-make-their-own-homes/#comments Fri, 22 Jul 2011 07:56:43 +0000 admin http://www.volcanoislandhoney.com/blog/?p=578 With the sun over our shoulders, we took turns holding up the frames of our beehive to look at the bees. At first we saw a blanket of bees, but by blowing gently, the bees moved and we saw the six sided cells capped with honey, then some eggs, and larva. We saw bees drinking honey, with only their bottoms sticking out of the caps. We saw bees exchanging nectar. It was mesmerizing. We were surprised at how heavy the frames were. I certainly felt awkward at dislodging the propolis, moving the frames, prying them up with my new hive tool and trying to grab them with gloved hands. We were so afraid of crushing a bee!


How amazing it is that bees make their homes with their own bodies! Except for the wooden part of the frame, the bees had made everything we were looking at. The beginning of their home is the comb, which is the womb of the hive. They make the comb by eating honey, then turning it into wax through glands situated on the last four segments of their abdomen. They sort of “sweat” the honey out through these smooth areas of the bodies called wax mirrors. These glands reach their peak in worker bees between the 12th and 18th day of their lives. The bees must eat about 8 lbs of honey to produce 1 lb of wax. They can make up to eight plates of wax a day, which harden into paper thin scales. They then maneuver the scales into their mouths, mix it with secretions, and knead it into workable wax. The most amazing part is they make perfect hexagons with the wax, which fit together without any spaces. They can even form chains of bees and use gravity to get the shape of comb they want. A healthy, fertilized queen lays eggs to fill these cells nonstop for years, creating the eggs and larva we were observing.


Suddenly, the sound changed from a pleasant hum to a higher pitched louder noise. The bees started darting around my veil. They were coming out of the hive, and seemed agitated. Maybe we had smoked them too much, or maybe we had introduced too much cool wind to the brood, or maybe they were just done letting us view the inner workings of their self made home. Whatever changed their mood, we decided it was time to close up the hive. We quickly put two frames back in, trying to coax the bees out of the way, then the queen excluder, the super, and the top. They bees were in the dark again. The pleasant hum returned, as our second class was over all too fast.


Posted by Mary Ann Smiles


wsare_logo_lowThis project was funded by a grant from the Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program.

]]> http://www.volcanoislandhoney.com/blog/2011/07/bees-make-their-own-homes/feed/ 0 Reflection on First Opening of a Hive http://www.volcanoislandhoney.com/blog/2011/07/reflection-on-first-opening-of-a-hive/ http://www.volcanoislandhoney.com/blog/2011/07/reflection-on-first-opening-of-a-hive/#comments Fri, 22 Jul 2011 07:29:47 +0000 admin http://www.volcanoislandhoney.com/blog/?p=571 This project was [...]]]> The intoxicating aroma of beekeepers’ smoke
The fond smells of summer campfires does invoke
For a while we were able to share
For a while we were able to watch and stare
Amazing this hive, this amazing place
Thank you, bee friends, for sharing your space

Posted by Maria da Silva


a href=”http://www.westernsare.org/”>wsare_logo_lowThis project was funded by a grant from the Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program.

]]> http://www.volcanoislandhoney.com/blog/2011/07/reflection-on-first-opening-of-a-hive/feed/ 0