When Charlie first decided to try his hand at beekeeping, it was because he read an article about there not being enough Beekeepers out there. Without Beekeepers there would not be honeybees. Without honeybees, there would be no food. This concerned him enough to give it a try.
The roll of a beekeeper is a very important one. The beekeepers job is essentially to keep his or her honeybees healthy so they can do their job!
The Honeybees job is an important one. They gather large amounts of nectar and pollen from flowers, a process called pollination, (which is transferring pollen from the male part of a plant to the female part of the plant). When they return to the hive they fan their wings to evaporate the water from the nectar turning it into honey. Honey is done when bees add an enzyme from their glands and seal it with the comb.
Honeybees visit 50 to 1,000 flowers in one trip. A trip can be from 30 minutes to 4 hours long. Without pollen the young bees cannot produce royal jelly to feed the Queen. If there is no pollen she will stop laying eggs.
While out and about these little creatures pollinate 80% of our flowering crops, which constitute 1/3 of everything we eat. Many plants are dependent on particular kinds of bees for their reproduction. Honeybees cross-pollinate flowers which produce fruit and seeds for growing crops.
One Cornell University Study estimated honeybees annually pollinate $14 Billion worth of seeds and crops in the United States alone.
If we did not have honeybees it could affect apples, broccoli, strawberries, nuts, asparagus, blueberries, cucumbers etc.. No honeybees would even affect beef and dairy because of no alfalfa for feed.
In recent years there has been much talk about colony collapse and what causes it. Well no one knows for sure. Charlie believes one cause is pesticides.
Sheeshaw Honey does not use any pesticides in our hives or on our property. Charlie has gone to great lengths to learn as much as he can about treating mites for bees and other problems a more natural way.
There are ways that even the non-beekeeper can help save the bees!
Just to name a few:
Create a backyard garden to attract the bees. Make sure this garden is free of any pesticides.
Don't use chemicals when gardening, use compost instead of fertilizer.
Use mulch instead of herbicides for weeds. Using weed killer on that dandelion poisons the pollen and nectar bees bring back to the hive. Not only will it affect the honey, it may kill a whole hive.
You can also write to your local Representatives and encourage them to push for funding for honeybee research. The more we know, the more we can do to save the Honeybee!
The roll of a beekeeper is a very important one. The beekeepers job is essentially to keep his or her honeybees healthy so they can do their job!
The Honeybees job is an important one. They gather large amounts of nectar and pollen from flowers, a process called pollination, (which is transferring pollen from the male part of a plant to the female part of the plant). When they return to the hive they fan their wings to evaporate the water from the nectar turning it into honey. Honey is done when bees add an enzyme from their glands and seal it with the comb.
Honeybees visit 50 to 1,000 flowers in one trip. A trip can be from 30 minutes to 4 hours long. Without pollen the young bees cannot produce royal jelly to feed the Queen. If there is no pollen she will stop laying eggs.
While out and about these little creatures pollinate 80% of our flowering crops, which constitute 1/3 of everything we eat. Many plants are dependent on particular kinds of bees for their reproduction. Honeybees cross-pollinate flowers which produce fruit and seeds for growing crops.
One Cornell University Study estimated honeybees annually pollinate $14 Billion worth of seeds and crops in the United States alone.
If we did not have honeybees it could affect apples, broccoli, strawberries, nuts, asparagus, blueberries, cucumbers etc.. No honeybees would even affect beef and dairy because of no alfalfa for feed.
In recent years there has been much talk about colony collapse and what causes it. Well no one knows for sure. Charlie believes one cause is pesticides.
Sheeshaw Honey does not use any pesticides in our hives or on our property. Charlie has gone to great lengths to learn as much as he can about treating mites for bees and other problems a more natural way.
There are ways that even the non-beekeeper can help save the bees!
Just to name a few:
Create a backyard garden to attract the bees. Make sure this garden is free of any pesticides.
Don't use chemicals when gardening, use compost instead of fertilizer.
Use mulch instead of herbicides for weeds. Using weed killer on that dandelion poisons the pollen and nectar bees bring back to the hive. Not only will it affect the honey, it may kill a whole hive.
You can also write to your local Representatives and encourage them to push for funding for honeybee research. The more we know, the more we can do to save the Honeybee!
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