What's the Buzz?

     During our travels of the northern shore in New Brunswick, we went to learn more about bees and beekeeping at the Charlo Honeyhouse. The most common bee product is honey but bees also produce: wax, pollen, propolis and royal jelly. We all know that the worker bees pollinate flowering plants with high efficiency which is very important to crops such as fruit trees.
   
     In order for a hive to thrive there must be the correct number of the different types of bees living and working in it. Drones primarily exist for reproduction and there may be 500 per hive. Worker bees have a variety of responsibilities such as feed the brood, receiving nectar, cleaning the hive, guard duty, and foraging. Each hive has one Queen bee. Her main purpose is laying eggs and once mated, she can lay up to 2,000 eggs per day. Busy! Busy! That is probably where the saying, "Busy as a bee" came from.
 
     Our visit to the apiary was fascinating. We were shown a presentation on the types of bees and their hives then we donned beekeepers' coveralls and head gear. With our tour guide, we walked to the back fields and opened up a hive to look at the various stages of life in it.

A wooden bee on a door in the main building

Al looking through a magnifying glass to find the Queen bee in
one of the indoor vertical hives they had in the building. The
hives had tubes going out through the ceiling so that the bees
could enter and exit their hive.

Here our guide is lighting her "bee smoker". The smoke from the
 bee smoker affects the ability of the bees to communicate. Honeybees
rely heavily on pheromones to communicate throughout the hive. When
bees think their hive is under attack, they release an alarm pheromone
to alert other bees which agitates the entire hive. So the smoke masks
these pheromones and confuses the bees which make them seem docile.

Al in his protective gear

Notice the long gloves in Bev's protective gear.

Entrance to the hive.

The top of the hive comes off.

Bees are everywhere!

We are looking for the Queen bee but as we go through the hive, we see
various stages of reproduction, wax production, and honey production.

Still looking

Still looking...

Finally we found the queen bee (centre of photo)

On the way back we saw a wasp nest up in the corner of the
building near the entrance. Click here to learn more about the
differences between bees and wasps.

A & P get into the act trying to find the Queen bee in this vertical hive

A & P sitting with Bee mascot

     Neither one of us are afraid of bees so we had a marvellously educational time at the apiary. It was a very hot day so the only discomfort was a the heat that builds up inside the coveralls. We tried out some of the honey products and purchased a few items.

      Places like the Charlo Honey House are very interesting and keeps educating the public on the importance of bees. Do you have a apiary near you that you can visit?