This episode of ”Nature Calls: Conversations from the Hudson Valley” is a retrospective from one of the early radio interviews from our precursor show, “Digging in With Master Gardeners” which aired on WGXC, 90.7 FM. Teresa and Jean interviewed Master Beekeeper and Emeritus Master Gardener Volunteer Linda Aydlett. The original was aired as episode 14, and can be found on the Digging in with the Master Gardener page. Linda Aydlett has been a beekeeper for over a decade, tending from two to thirty hives in various years. She got started at a workshop by the Catskill Mountain Beekeeping Club, studied via books, internet and youtube videos, then became a Master Beekeeper through Cornell University.Our conversation continues with further descriptions of the castes of bees in the hive. Drones, the only males, are a small portion of the population, with a few hundred or up to a maximum of a thousand per hive. They are larger, and have huge eyes, so are easy to identify. They have no nest chores, and rely on the worker bees for everything.They are evicted from the hive in the Fall.

Moving on to disease risks, Linda itemizes the symptoms as well as disasters that can happen in a hive. CCD, or colony collapse disease, was a big issue for a while, whereby all the workers disappeared without a trace, leaving the queen, drones and larva unattended. They were helpless and would not survive on their own. Never diagnosed fully, it seems to have abated for now. Other threats include Varroa mites, which act in a similar way to ticks, being disease vectors. However, they are gigantic parasites compared to the size of their host bees, and can be debilitating.They tend to attack when the colony is at its weakest, usually the winter solstice. There are methods of dealing with these mites, but the beekeeper must always remain vigilant.

In light of all these risks to the bees and the need for honey bees as pollinators, is the whole food production system at risk? Linda says there are several documentaries about the commercial migratory route followed by beekeepers who truck hives around the country following the bloom time of various crops. These include the Hudson Valley, where there is a thriving fruit growing industry. The results would be disastrous if anything wiped out the honey bees. Besides commercial transport, there are threats to local bees in a “normal” year. Every summer is the “dearth”, when nectar can become scarce between flowering seasons, and the beekeeper must supplement food, so the bees don't use up the store that they will need for the winter. The average person can help by allowing stands of Asters and Goldenrod to grow. Both provide the needed nectar when other flowers are no longer in bloom. On a small scale, the gardener can increase the yield of their vegetable crops in the home garden by planting flowers nearby to attract honey bees.They have favorites just like we do. First annuals and perennials, then herbs and mints. In early spring, bees exist on dandelions, and then clover.

To become a beekeeper is not easy. The beginner must consider many things:

legal status to even have hives at your home. Check you municipal code to make sure they are not prohibited;
there must be proper space to coexist with and tend the hive;
thoroughly understand basic care;
be sure your research is with reliable sources like universities and beekeeping clubs;
don't squish them... apparently this happens to experts sometimes, too.
make the time commitment because there are no vacations when the hives need attention.

Once committed to the effort, how do you start? Woodware (the actual physical hive structure), equipment and bees must be acquired. Linda lists sources in the area and online for all three. Bees are shipped either as a “package”, the equivalent of a little bee apartment, or nukes, a much larger number of bees , almost a small hive. Once established, there is one other enemy to be faced, if you live in bear territory. In that case, the best, and probably only, way to go is with an electric fence, and it must be put up before the bear discovers the hive. Once he knows it's there, he'll persist regardless of the electrical charge. Solar power for the fence is also best, because few hives are placed near outlets.

The last big threat to bees is the universal one: climate change. The alliance of plants and insects that co-evolved over millennia is changing. It may no longer reliably signal to the bees when to start egg laying, or when specific plants are producing pollen. The beekeeper just goes on, monitoring the hives and adapting wherever she can.

Hosts: Teresa Golden and Jean Thomas
Guest: Linda Aydlett
Photo by: Annie Scibienski
Production Support: Linda Aydlett, Deven Connelly, Teresa Golden, Tim Kennelty, Amy Meadow, Xandra Powers, Annie Scibienski, Jean Thomas

Resources

Episode 192: Beekeeping Retrospective (Part 2)