So I initially thought that this year was a banner year for bees. We have been selling more beehives, frames and supplies than any other year in the past ten years, but upon further conversations with our customers, I found that those sales were due to another problem, bears. Last fall many beekeepers lost hives due to bear attacks. Now we are all familiar with Winnie the Pooh, who would go to great lengths to get his hands or paws into the honey pot. But when that honey pot had no more honey he went looking for the beehive in the tree. Well our bears were looking for their own honey pots last fall and found them in a number of peoples backyards. I had three hives active at the store last year and all three were destroyed by a bear and from what I have been finding out, that is what happened to so many more people last year.

Bears love honey and will stop at nothing to get some. The hives that we had at the store were surrounded by a six foot high chain link fence mostly to keep customers away from the bees, but also because we did have bear issues before. Well the bear climbed that fence like an American Ninja Warrior and destroyed all three hives in one night. He or she came back a few more times looking for more honey in the ruins but none was to be found. A good way to prevent bears from getting your hives is an electric fence. Once used to keep in horses, cows and sheep, now electric fences are being used to keep out bears and deer. Not that deer are going to bother your beehive but they are a nuisance in the garden. The problem with bears and electric fences is that you have to zap them in the right spot to get the desired result. 

A bear’s fur is so thick that a zap on the body or leg will only feel like a tickle to a bear, so you have to get them on the nose. From what I have heard from experienced beekeepers is that you wrap your electric fence with some lightly cooked bacon or put some peanut butter on the line. When the bear comes up to sniff what type of goodies he may be able to get, ZAP, right in the kisser and that is the only sensitive spot they have. This will usually have to happen more than once, but then the bear gets the idea that this is not the spot for an enjoyable dinner. Bears have been becoming more of a problem over the past two decades mainly because of the lack of hunters. Say what you will about hunting, but it is a necessary part of the ecosystem. For hundreds of years deer and bears where hunted in the fall for food to sustain families through the winter. Over time, hunting became more about sport than supplying food and these days hunting is frowned upon by many in society. As a result, like the rising deer population that I have talked about a lot, the bear population in the area is rising as well. We are their only predator and if we don’t have hunters, there is nothing to control their population. Recently the goose roundup on White Lake has created quite a stir, but that is exactly what needs to happen when populations get out of hand. 

Eventually that is what will need to happen to deer and bear populations in the area due to the decline of hunting over the past two decades and the years to come. I love my new house in Eldred, it’s quiet, nestled in the woods, with loads of wildlife around. Since moving there, I’ve seen bald eagles, deer, bears, fox, coyote, flying squirrels, porcupines and an eastern box turtle. When my kids were young, I would take them to a zoo to see these animals behind fenced in enclosures. Now I see these same creatures running around my yard and I have to fence in my flowerbeds and garden to keep them from being eaten. And if I am lucky enough to catch a bee swarm this year, I’ll have to put an electric fence around them to protect the hive. So I guess we are now the ones living behind the fences and the zoo is looking in on us.

The “No Mow May” campaign was a success. I have collected a new hive of bees this past weekend at the store, which is one hundred percent more bees than I collected all of last year. Right now they are still living in the swarm trap that I put up and some night this week I will have to transport them to my house where their permanent hive is located. Transporting bees can be a little tricky, no pun intended. The bees must be moved at night, so that almost all of the colony will be back in the hive and so that the next morning their internal GPS will reset to their current location. 

To move the bees, I will plug up the entrance hole to the bee trap so that none of them will escape and cause trouble in my car during the move. Once I get them home, I will set the swarm trap next to their new full beehive and remove the plug on the swarm trap. Since it is still the middle of the night, a few bees may come out to see what is going on, but most will stay inside to make sure the queen is safe and secure. In the morning when the bees start coming out to forage for the day, their GPS will be set to their current location, just like the locator on your cell phone. When the bees leave the hive in the morning they will instinctively be able to find their way back to exactly where their hive is. This is how bees can be moved from orchard to orchard or crop to crop by tractor trailer to improve pollination in commercial crops. 

When the bees are released from their hives in an orchard they can find their way right back to their hive even when there are a hundred or so hives all in a row. It really is quite remarkable. Now that there are plenty of flowers blooming for the summer, the bees will have an ample bounty of pollen and nectar to collect for their hive. Once my hive starts thriving this summer, I will keep an eye out to see if they are producing another queen cell. Normally if they produce a queen cell, it means that the colony is growing fast enough to split the hive. This is how I was able to collect a swarm so early this year. With the added wildflowers aloud to grow in the lawns in May, bee colonies could get a jump on the season and start thriving earlier with the plentiful amount of flowers. Also there are plenty of videos on youtube that can show you how to produce your own queen cells to increase your chances of splitting your one colony into two. Just remember, colonies need to be sizable enough to survive the winters around here, so don’t divide your hives too late in the season or you might run the risk of both your hives failing over the winter. 

I’m hoping to catch another swarm or two so that I can get at least three good hives going before the winter. The months of June, July and August are the most common months for attracting swarms but I have caught a swarm as late as mid-September a number of years ago. Unfortunately, because that swarm got such a late start, they were not a large enough colony to survive the winter even with supplemental feeding. If you have had any success catching a bee swarm this spring, let me know or if you want some more information on how to catch a bee swarm, stop by and see me at the store.