As she comes in, the pollen is stripped from her buckets and stored to be made into bee bread for the larva. After this, she begins to dance; it’s not jazz or hip- hop or even square dancing. No, it’s unique. It’s that special bee dance where the worker bee positions her body in relation to the sun to show the other bees the way to fly. She begins in a straight line, wiggling
her body back and forth (the waggle dance). She then turns a half-moon back to the end, only to do the same thing all over again. The distance to the flow- ers depends on the amount of times she does the waggle part of her dance, giving the rest of the bees an idea as to how far this nectar is. She also gives out free samples and the
rest gather around like children around an ice cream truck, their wings making a sound that sends the same message as the one to the kids. You have all heard it, except instead of calling out, “Ice cream! Ice cream!” she’s calling out, “Sweet nectar! It’s so delightful, come and try it, it’ll feed us for a winter!” And as if it’s the hottest news off the
press, the other bees flock around. Oh, what fun we beekeepers have, for we can actually see this in action. Within five minutes of that bee landing on the hive and giving out samples, there will be several little troopers released. Out they go to get this sweet nectar and bring it back home! And so this behaviour carries on.
Perhaps you’ve seen it early spring when your apple trees are in blossom and the one insect that visits it is a honey bee. Stop and take a look next time, you can hear them. “Bzzzzzzz, bzzzzz, bzzzzz,” as they pollinates your apple tree, buzz- ing and happily humming while they work to give you a delicious fruit. Wow, how we benefit from these insects. More amazing bee stuff
The bee is truly an amazing insect!
After they bring back the nectar, the bees turn it into honey. And the house bees will actually control the moisture in the nectar, by fanning it with their wings. After the honey is stored by the bees, we beekeepers come and remove the supers (the box that hold the honey combs) that have the honey. We then take it to the bee house, where we remove the frames. Then it goes into an extractor where the honey is extracted from the frame. It flows like a river and is sweet and sticky. From the extractor it goes into a tank that holds the honey. We then let it sit for 24 hours, thus separating most of the wax from the honey. Then we bottle the honey and sell it to you.
www.localgardener.net
Bee facts • The queen can be recognized
by her size: She 18 to 22 mm long. Workers are 12 to 15 mm long and the lowly drone is only 15 to 17 mm long.
• The Queen is the only bee with
ovaries. • The Queen can live three to five
years. • She will mate only once, but
with several drones, and her eggs will remain fertile for her lifetime
The wax is made into all sorts of good
things like wax candles, lip balm, soaps and even creams. Natural products are so good. That’s one of the other nice things
about bees: the benefits of pure beeswax candles. In the winter months the light from the sun is limited, and our homes are often colder than normal, thus grow- ing mildews or just building bacteria in the air. A pure beeswax candle, when lit, will both purify the air and warm the house! So there’s more benefit from bees than we know here
at John’s Bizzy
Bee Delights. We make pure beeswax candles, lip balms (I think my favorite lip balm is strawberry), hand creams, and soap, my favorite being the avocado. Using the avocado makes my skin so soft. After working in the greenhouse and in
• 300 to 3,000 drones are standing
by to complete the mating process with a virgin Queen, but she only mates with 12 to 15 of them
• The Queen lays up to 2,000 eggs
per day fertilized by the six million sperm from her stored from her mating frenzy
• Drones die after mating • Worker bees die after stinging • Queens can sting time after time.
the hard soil it’s a nice treat to have soft clean skin. On those cold winter days of -50°C, with hard wind blowing, your lips often get chapped but the all-natural lip balm lasts
from the elements. Products
from bees
forever, protecting you can be
found
everywhere, not just in the products I make. But if you go to the local store and read the labels you’ll find beeswax in more than you think. Well, I hope you’ve learned some-
thing; it’s been fun sharing with you. I’m Shea Doherty, and I’m a proud beekeeper working for John’s Bizzy Bee Delights. Like Us on Facebook: John’s Bizzy Bee Delights. Or check out our website:
www.jbbd.ca Of course, there’s a lot more to
beekeeping than this, but these are some of the highlights. q
Early Spring 2014 • 11
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