Beekeeping Field Trip

On my bus rides to the Fragrant Hill for hiking, I saw bee hives stacked up along the bus route outside of Fourth Ring road in Beijing. I was quite curious about this outdoor setup. I had honey, walnut, milk, and oatmeal for breakfast routinely for years. I bought a copy of "Beekeeping for Dummies" to read in August 2008. It was fascinating to read.   Bees are one of the oldest domesticated animals.  Honey bees are quite docile, while wasps are not.
Anyway, on August 14, 2010, I paid my first visit to a bee supply outfit, Carrier's Bees in San Jose, which was very close to my Campbell home. I found it in an Internet search. It was good to see and touch the basic components of a modern movable Langstroth comb hive with explanations and tips from the friendly shop owner.
I got a Livingsocial Roundrock Honey voucher as my birthday gift the summer of last year. Finally I managed to redeem it for a 3-hour class and demo in a place near Hunters Point, San Francisco before it expired.
The class took about an hour. It covered the basic honey bee society, the whole life cycle of a hive, the gears for beekeeping, the seasons, the flowers, and the climates.  The honey bee society is a very centralized one.  The one and only queen in the hundreds of thousands (at the peak of the season) bees in colony lives for 2 or more years.  She is well fed, well attended, and her only job is to lay eggs around the clock.  The picture on the left shows what queen's cell is like. The worker bees (sterile females) have a life cycle of 35 days or so.  The drones (male bees) are only good for mating.

This was the first class in this season.  They could not do demos during cold and rainy winter days.  The bees would be resting in the hive. We were lucky to have a nice sunny Saturday.  The hives and boxes were very minimal, as the colonies kept only the minimum to get through the (short) winter in California.  As the bees work and make honey to fill up the existing boxes and frames, new boxes will be added on top to allow for population growth and honey build-up.  On the left, you see a box with all the frames inside.

After our teacher cleaned up the propolis and beeswax a bit, frames were removed for show and tell and also for further cleaning.  The cleaning job was relative simple and straightforward, because the season is just started.





Starting up, the bees use the frames for both nursery and food store.  The queen drops an egg in the cell. After three days, the nurse bees feed the larvae, first with royal jelly, and then soon wean them to regular food, that is, honey and pollen.  Worker bees drop pollen and nectar into cells. Nectar ripens to honey after adding an enzyme and after some serious fanning by the bees to remove water content.  Pollen is packed. Both honey and pollen are food for the colony.

Now, I got hold of a frame that the combs are almost full, because bees are doing their final puking and touching on the cells.  This is a busy society, and everyone knows what she and he is supposed to do.




Many people react so stereotypically when they heard the bee word :-)  I was happy to have Henry with me on this trip. By the end of class, there are enough people convinced that these bees are really docile. We took our hats and veils off for the picture. Unless we confront the bees directly and threaten them, we do not have anything to fear.  Being on the cautious side is always a good idea though.


The last stop was the tasting of local pollens and honey.  There were eucalyptus, lavender, wild flowers and other varieties.  The honey was more expensive than what you can get in Costco. But, the taste was very distinct and unique.  The mass-produced honey is more uniform and less exciting. Locally produced honey is good for people suffering from hay fever and pollen allergy. I suppose that is a vaccine-like effect, with people taking small doses of the same local pollen in their food.

There are only a few classes in summer for the harvesting of honey. Each class would be 4 to 5 hours. It might be fun to attend one of those as well...