You know I couldn't resist that pun.
Cindy went to a class on bees last week. Since she can't have chickens, she's thinking she might like to have an apiary and keep honey bees. I told her that, after the Monarch caterpillar fiasco, we'd better make sure first that Scrub Jays don't eat them. We're still whacking our foreheads and saying "Duh" over that one.
One question that always worried Cindy was whether, by removing the honey from the hive, beekeepers were depriving the bees of food they would need for their own survival. However, the presenter said that the lowest tray of a hive is where the queen and the baby bees are, the second level is the food for the hive, and if you add additional trays, the bees will continue to make excess honey and fill up the honeycombs. So that part sounds good.
Another concern we've had is the possibility that Africanized bees could take over the hive. Africanized bees can take over a hive when the queen become weakened or dies. They tend to be highly defensive and more easily agitated than regular honey bees, according to the San Diego Natural History Museum. I'm not sure that's something I want in my backyard.
I think we have more research to do.
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