Importance of Bee Conservancy

These tiny pollinators are responsible for facilitating the growth of crops that eventually end up in your cart in the grocery store. Well, before that could happen, a honeybee floated from one plant to another while gathering pollen for honey, and the result is that some of the pollen it was carrying was moved from one plant to another. This process, called pollination, is how plants produce fertilized seeds that grow into the food we eat. 

Without the natural pollination process that bees provide, that cycle is disrupted, and along with it, our ability to secure food supplies. 

Threats to Bees

Many ecologically imperative species are being negatively impacted by habitat destruction today, and bees are no exception. One of the biggest known causes of the decline in the honeybee population over recent decades is the human expansion and the resulting destruction of natural habitats. Creatures like bees have evolved to create hives in natural spaces where they are removed from threats and can exist healthily. Reducing that space diminishes the population due to a lack of suitable locations for hives and results in the death of bees from stress related to disruption of their natural habitats. 

Aside from reducing physical space for their hives, honeybees are also facing several other external threats that are causing Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). CCD results from an aberration in the expected behavior of bees that causes the worker bees to abandon a hive, leaving behind only the queen and a small number of nurse bees and all of their food. To give you an idea of how severe CCD is, it has resulted in a loss of 50-90% of bee colonies across the United States. The cause of CCD is not known, but there are several competing theories about the dominant contributing factor. 

Pesticide poisoning in bees can cause immediate death or result in sickness and weakness in future generations that ultimately lead to a colony’s death. Commercial and industrial pesticides are both at fault here.

Varroa mites are tiny external parasites that live on honeybees and their larvae. A low-level infestation of varroa mites does not typically cause undue damage to a colony, but over 3-4 years, an infestation can increase to the level that it becomes detrimental.

The Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus is another potential contributor to the staggering decline in the number of honeybees worldwide. This virus is carried and transmitted by the varroa mite and causes paralysis and death of honeybees.

Nosema is another type of parasite that may be responsible for CCD. Nosemosis in honeybees leads to a lack of reproductive ability and reduced lifespan, which can lead to the collapse of entire colonies if the parasitic infestation becomes too widespread.  

Consequences of Bees’ Extinction

Now that we know why bees are so important and their main threats, let’s talk about what would happen if all the bees died. 

Pollination can happen in many ways. Wind and transference by other animals and insects are standard methods for pollination. Still, some plants like the bee orchid are exclusively pollinated by bees and would go extinct in their absence without human intervention. 

Additionally, bees are part of a complex food web. Their extinction would impact many species, including exclusively bee-eater birds that would likely die off without their primary food source. 

The impact on the human food supply would certainly be dramatic. Although it wouldn’t cause a famine-level reduction in crops, we would notice the lack of specific items. Crops grown for mass-produced food are largely still grain crops, mainly wind-pollinated. This means that our ability to grow crops like wheat, barley, rye, sorghum, and oats would be less impacted by bees’ absence. However, many fruits and veggies rely on pollination from bees to varying levels. Fruits like blueberries and cherries, for example, rely on honeybees for up to 90% of their pollination. The option for human intervention exists, but pollinating by hand is incredibly time-consuming and labor-intensive, making it an impractical long-term option.

The bottom line is that the absence of honeybees has far-reaching implications that will affect many species drastically, including humans.

Give Bees A Boost

Please don’t lose hope for the bees though, this tiny critter is doing its best to thrive and will find new ways to flourish with a bit of help from you. Here are a few simple things that you can do to help your friendly neighborhood honeybee get a leg up.

Plant a Bee Garden

What could be more adorable than a bee garden? These fuzzy insects are friendly and non-confrontational (don’t get them confused with their look-a-like, the wasp!). They’ll bop along in your garden, pollinating and dancing from plant to plant. Not interested in a flower or veggie garden? Not to worry, bees love a variety of plants, from trees, shrubs, and grasses to fruits and vegetables. 

Landscaping plants. If you’re planting new trees in your yard or planning landscaping from scratch, here are some bee-friendly options:

• Birch trees
• Cherry trees
• Alder trees
• Maple trees
• Sumac
• Ninebark
• Elderberry
• Cotoneaster
• Lilac

Flowers. We all know bees love flowers, but some varieties are incredibly enticing to these hard-working pollinators. Check your local growing zone for what flowers will grow best in your area before planting.

• Bee balm
• Lilies
• Daffodils
• Purple coneflower
• Sunflowers
• Brown-Eyed Susans
• Larkspur
• Columbine

Fruits and Veggies. Almost anything that honeybees can pollinate flowers, here are some options that are particular favorites of many bees:

• Plum trees
• Apple trees
• Crabapple trees
• Peach trees
• Pear trees
• Blackberries
• Raspberries
• Blueberries

Go Chemical-Free

One of the other significant things you can do to help bees make their comeback is eliminating chemical pesticides. This isn’t to say that you can’t use pesticides altogether; many natural options will protect your plants without compromising your resident honeybees.

Become a Beekeeper

If you’re sold on how vital honeybees are and want to make even more of an impact than planting a bee-friendly garden, you can become a beekeeper! This is a hobby beloved by many people worldwide and might be easier to get into than you think. 

First, most local colleges have a beekeeping course that you can take for a few days. This is an excellent resource for information and connecting you to local businesses and resources to help you along the way.

Regarding resources, check and see if you have a local beekeepers association. Joining a group like this will open up many avenues for you to start your journey to a happy and thriving bee colony.

Choosing Your Bees

Once you find out what bees thrive locally to you, your best bet is to order your first bees online. This is what most beginning beekeepers will do. Alternatively, if you know of a hive that’s close by to you and already have or are willing to get the necessary equipment right off the bat, you can collect your bees. This is not generally recommended for beginners, but having some experience around bees could be an option to get your colony started.

Beehives and Equipment

Your startup equipment isn’t overly expensive individually, but the costs add up. Ordering a beehive online is around $150, and the equipment you’ll need after that to care for and handle your bees could range from $250-$650.

Here’s a list of what you’ll need to get your colony buzzing:

• Beekeepers suit
• Gloves
• Smoker
• Mini-crowbar
• Bee brush
• Storage bins for honey

Honey Harvesting and Honey Benefits

Once you’ve gotten your hive and nurtured it to the point that you have honey ready and waiting, it’s time! Harvesting honey isn’t complicated, but you should have some knowledge and education under your belt before attempting it on your own. There are lots of online resources out there to help you at this stage if you decide against taking a class locally. Shore up your honey harvesting knowledge, suit up, and get in there!

Once you have your first batch of honey, you get the fantastic experience of filtering and jarring your very own honey. Raw honey has many benefits, including being immunity-boosting, good for your gut health, antimicrobial and anti fungal, full of antioxidants, and helpful for soothing sore throats. So, tip your hat to your colony!

Other Ways You Can Help

If you’re looking for even more ways to help the honeybee population recover, think about hosting a fundraiser for bees. It’s a great way to raise money for local and global organizations to help them carry out critical work. (And, if you’re an entertainer at heart, we don’t need to tell you how many great bee-themed party ideas are just waiting for you) If you’re interested in partying to save the honeybees, there are resources available.

A quick Google search will lead you to your local beekeeper’s organization, and a donation goes a long way to helping these groups continue to facilitate colony health and growth in your area. Consider a charitable donation (you’ll feel good, and it’s a tax break, so win-win). 

Honeybees are pretty low-key heroes. Hopefully, you’ve learned why they’re so important and are ready and raring to fight the good fight to keep these buzzing beauties healthy and thrive. And for that, you’re the bee’s knees. 

Wildlife plays a vital role in securing a healthy environment, whether it’s insects, birds, or mammals. With more humans encroaching on the planet than ever before, it’s so important now to make sure that each one of us does our part to preserve the wildlife in our environment and our communities. A healthy wildlife population ensures healthier plants, cleaner air, and a better balance in nature overall. If you appreciate nature and want to encourage more wildlife activity in your own backyard, there are several things you can do to attract animals and insects alike. Read on for some helpful tips you can use to preserve and promote healthy wildlife right where you live.

The Benefits of Creating Your Own Wildlife Sanctuary

Spending time outdoors can make you feel at ease, reduce stress, and give you time to clear your mind. When you create your own wildlife sanctuary, you’ll also get to enjoy the sights and sounds of mother nature in your own backyard. From singing birds to buzzing bees and scampering squirrels, wildlife is fun to watch and also brings about feelings of harmony and calm. By making a few changes to your backyard, you can become a part of the nature that surrounds you. You’ll also feel good knowing that you’re contributing to a healthy environment while encouraging pollinators, birds, and other creatures to thrive.

Creating a DIY wildlife sanctuary in your backyard is also a wonderful way to educate your children. This hands-on learning experience will spark the imagination and encourage your kids to want to learn more about science, animals, and the environment as a whole. As you bring in more plants and flowers, you’re also contributing to cleaner air and a better world. 

DIY Wildlife Sanctuary: How to Attract Wildlife

No matter where you live or the size of your backyard, it’s easy to attract specific species to your sanctuary. Remember to be patient when attempting to introduce new insects and animals to your backyard. It takes a little bit of patience and ingenuity, but eventually, your backyard will start to buzz with the activity of new creatures making it their home.

Bees

Bees are some of the world’s most important pollinators, so it’s always good to encourage them to thrive. Plant a few native wildflowers and other attractants that will lure bees to your garden or landscape. Look for flowers that will thrive in your specific region and plant them in the backyard to attract bees and promote healthy pollination.

• Bee Fountain: A bee fountain (or bee bath) is a wonderful way to encourage bees to thrive in your yard. This small fountain provides water to bees to keep them cool, feed their babies, dilute honey, and aid with healthy digestion. Take a shallow dish and place it on top of an inverted pot. Place river rocks at the bottom so the bees won’t drown, then fill it with fresh water somewhere in your garden.
• Bee Hotel: This “insect hotel” is designed to attract solitary bees so they have a place to lay their eggs. Bee hotels include several cavities or holes all placed inside a single structure. You can make a bee hotel yourself using a wooden frame with hollow stems or empty bamboo canes placed inside These bee hotels are also available at many garden stores.

Squirrels

With their fluffy tails and charming mannerisms, squirrels are a fun addition to any backyard wildlife sanctuary. These little animals are easy to entice, and they’ll provide you with tons of entertainment and an enjoyable environment.

• Nut Bowl: Squirrels love nuts, so fill up a tray with a selection of sunflower seeds, unroasted peanuts, and corn kernels. Keep your squirrel nut bowl away from bird feeders so that the squirrels will enjoy their meal without disturbing your feathered friends.
• Squirrel Baffle: If you really want to enjoy your backyard wildlife sanctuary, add a squirrel baffle to the mix. These hanging contraptions give the squirrels a place to exercise, jump, and play. Squirrel baffles can feature a cone shape that wraps around your bird feeder pole, or they can be a cylinder that you attach to the pole to keep the squirrels away. Hanging baffles with a dome shape is the best option to enjoy the squirrel’s shenanigans.

Birds

The type of birds you attract to your backyard will depend on your region and climate. However, most birds respond favorably to anywhere they can enjoy a bath, a safe place to nest, and some food.

• Birdhouses and/or Nesting Boxes: A birdhouse or nesting box provides native birds with a safe place to rest, lay eggs, and raise their young. Most birds prefer their nests to be in a hidden area, so place your birdhouse on a tree among lots of branches. Extra foliage will give the birds the privacy they need and keep them safe from predators.
• Birdbath: It’s easy to attract birds by adding a simple birdbath to your backyard. This addition is especially helpful to birds during the hotter months of spring and summer. Make sure your birdbath is constantly full of clean water and change it often. Put gravel in the bottom of the birdbath so they can maintain their footing and place it near a shady area so the water doesn’t get too hot.

Hummingbirds

These tiny birds are one of nature’s most fascinating creatures. You can lure hummingbirds to your backyard by providing them with an extra boost of energy in the form of delicious nectar. Hummingbirds migrate, but they stop in specific areas for a set period of time to feed before moving onto their destination.

• Nectar (Hummingbird feeders): Your hummingbird feeder should be presented in bright colors that resemble a flower, such as yellow, red, purple, or pink. To feed your hummingbirds, fill the reservoir with homemade nectar and avoid store-bought nectars, particularly the red-colored type since it’s actually dangerous to hummingbirds. Mix one cup of white granulated sugar with four cups of water and stir it thoroughly till fully dissolved. Hang your feeder from a tree branch or on your back porch and enjoy watching these tiny birds hover, squeak, and feed.

Butterflies

Butterflies are some of nature’s most beautiful insects. Their colorful wings add beauty to your backyard, and they also serve an important purpose as pollinators for plants and flowers.

• Butterfly Garden: The best way to attract butterflies is to plant a variety of flowers they enjoy. Make sure you plant a diverse mixture of flowers to encourage several different types of butterflies to visit. Plant flowers in a myriad of colors, shapes, and sizes and rotate your flowers to grow throughout all four seasons. Use shrubs or trees to protect butterflies from the wind so they can pollinate your garden in peace.
• Caterpillars: You can also welcome caterpillars to your backyard, which are basically baby butterflies. These little crawling insects need a host plant where the larvae can feed. Research which caterpillar host plants will thrive in your area and include them in your butterfly garden so you can watch the metamorphosis take place.

Other Wildlife

Besides honeybees, butterflies, birds, and squirrels, you can do some things to attract other wildlife species, too. First, mimic or recreate the natural environment that animals are used to by minimizing excess clutter in your yard. Look for native plants and only use them in your garden or backyard. Wildlife knows which plants, trees, and flowers belong where they live and which ones do not. If you provide a source of water and food, it’s almost a guarantee that wildlife will come. Just make sure that you’re not encouraging animals to visit if you live in an area with a lot of traffic or where wildlife might not be welcomed by your neighbors. The key is to promote a healthy habitat by encouraging animals, birds, and insects to live here safely.

Do’s and Don’ts

As you plan your backyard wildlife sanctuary, there are a few important do’s and don’ts to keep in mind:

• DO: Try to keep species separated to promote harmony and prevent overcrowding or fighting.
• DO: Keep birdbaths, feeders, and other items clean and sanitary as much as possible.
• DO: Provide natural sources of shelter for wildlife by planting shrubs and evergreen trees.
• DON’T: Allow your backyard to become cluttered. Remove old furniture and toys to open up the backyard so animals will want to stay.
• DON’T: Use dangerous pesticides and other chemicals to keep weeds under control. Always choose organic plant food and pesticides so that your wildlife and the environment stays safe.
• DON’T: Feed your wildlife table scraps, processed food, or any other form of “human food” as this can be detrimental to the wildlife population.

With a bit of patience and some creativity, you can start your very own private wildlife sanctuary at home. Remember to use native plants and flowers to entice pollinators like bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. Clean feeders and baths regularly and watch your wildlife flourish as you contribute to a healthy population of these important insects, animals, and birds.

A landscape of volcanic craters, old suburbs, frost free micro climates and the people do keep city beekeeping interesting. Endless tree and flower species thrive here with useful new weeds arriving periodically including tall mangroves, inhabiting our many tidal inlets and moth plant.

For the short term at least the absence of sick bee hives in the community is a blessing. Largely due to the effects of varroa mites and wax moth, the surviving breed of hobbyists seem like good keen beekeepers, manly female.

We provide full year “serviced rental hives” with home honey to sweeten the deal. We do teach as we service hives and green thumb people motivated to beekeeping by the need for bees rather than love of bees, remain customers and let us do our thing. We monitor beginner beekeepers for one further year, by phone, after helping them get started.

Espresso coffee breaks between individual hive sites adds to costs somewhat, though we manage.

It is Varroa that is the monster here, thriving in our humid subtropical climate.

Brood and bee activity is non stop, Karaka poisoning a major while having Auckland’s International Airport close by plus thousands of incoming shipping containers it follows that hives professionally operated are safest.

Commercial bees help Auckland’s fruit and flora a lot. According to Einstein 4 years without bees and our ecology would collapse.” No bees in my trees”, statements come to us regularly at promotions or shows.

Auckland’s surrounding country regions are diverse in climate and character. Being caught in traffic happens here so sticking to your side of town keeps things simple.

Bringing hives up to speed for early plum pollination and splitting is on the work list this month. We have made it through till now without having to feed but when we start swarm controlbeing high priority for Carnica blood lines to limit varroa’s ability to buildup in feral colonies.

Kerry F McCurdy – Form The New Zealand BeeKeeper

Drone brood cells are larger than worker cells and are domed.

Cell size helps determine whether the queen will lay a fertilised egg (producing a worker) or an unfertilised egg (producing a drone).

One of Nature’s riddles: each drone has a grandfather but no father, grandsons but no sons!

From “The Amazing Bee”‘ written by Raewyn MacKenzie for the New Zealand Geographic, June 1989. Courtesy of Ivan Pederson.

Bee Navigation

Each honeybee hive produces about 29 kg of honey per year. To help them make this honey, the bees talk to each other – and just recently, some scientists have learnt to speak this language! The story begins back in 1923, when Karl von Frisch from the University of Munich in Germany, published his first paper on the language of the honeybees. He reckoned that they ”spoke” with each other by dancing the dance!

Suppose a honeybee has found a flower bed rich in nectar and pollen. She flies back, into the hive, and tells her fellow workers about the flowers – by dancing.

If the flowers are within 100 metres of the hive, she flies in circles. Soon, her fellow workers leave the hive, and fly in ever-enlarging circles until they find the flowers

But if the flowers are further away (up to 3 kilometres away), she dances a different dance inside the nest. She flies in a straight line, while waggling her rear end, and then flies a curved line to the beginning of the straight line, and does it all again. If her straight line points vertically up, then the other bees leave the nest, and fly in the direction of the Sun. And if the straight line points 60o to the right of vertical, the other bees fly in a direction 60o to the right of the Sun. And the speed of her waggling bottom tells the other bees the distance to the flowers – the faster the waggle, the closer the food!

Karl von Frisch received a Nobel Prize for this theory in 1973. But his theory didn’t go far enough. Most beehives are pretty dark inside, and like us, honeybees can’t see very well in the dark. So how can they see each other do the dance?

In the 60s, other scientists discovered that dancing honeybees emitted a sound from their wings, vibrating at 220 beats per second. They were singing a song with their wings. And honeybees do have a sort-of-ear on the second joint of their antennae. It seemed reasonable that bees could hear this song, but how do you prove it?

In the late 80s, Wolfgang H. Kirchner and William F. Towne proved it with a robot honeybee. It had razor blades for wings, and tiny computer-controlled motors to make it dance. It could sing the song with its razor blade wings, and dance the dance via its electric motors.

A real honeybees would ignore their robot razor blade honeybee, if it just danced the dance, or just sang the song. But when it did both the song and the dance, the real honeybee would obey it. The scientists could actually talk to the animals! They could get their robot honeybee to send the real honeybees out of the nest in any direction they wanted!

So by using a song-and-dance routine, the bees can tell each other the best place to eat out.

But once they’ve picked up their nectar and pollen, how do they find their way back to the hive? Honeybees have another trick – tiny compasses, in their tummies, that sense the Earth’s magnetic field.

Now under the right conditions, magnetic fields can effect humans. Susan Blackmore wrote about her experiences in the New Scientist, after a neuroscientist had blasted her brain with intense magnetic fields in his laboratory.

She felt nothing for the first ten minutes. Then, even though she knew that she was reclining perfectly still in a chair, she felt as though she was swaying on a hammock. Almost immediately afterwards, even though she knew that there was nobody near her, she could feel “two hands grabbing her shoulders and pulling her upwards.” As the magnetic fields continued to act on her brain, she could ”feel” something grab one of her legs and try to pull it up the wall – although her eyes told her nothing was happening!

And then the magnetic fields began to act on her emotions. She suddenly felt very angry – but she didn’t know what she was angry about, nor at whom she was angry. This anger lasted only 10 seconds, but as it faded, she was suddenly beset with a very intense attack of fear. Again, she was not scared of anyone or anything, but she was very afraid.

Now the human brain is very complicated, and we don’t know why intense magnetic fields can cause such dramatic changes. But we do have a better idea of what’s going on in honeybees.

There are a few different types of magnetic materials. One is a type of iron oxide called magnetite, which is naturally magnetic, and we know that lots of creatures have tiny magnets of magnetite in their bodies.

But there’s another type of iron oxide which is paramagnetic. Paramagnetic materials are themselves not magnetic, but, they are pulled by magnetic fields. So a non-magnetic paper clip made of soft iron is actually paramagnetic, because it can be pulled by a magnet.

According to doctors Hsu and Li of the National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan, honeybees have tiny paramagnetic particles in their bodies. These paramagnetic particles are inside cells inside the bees’ tummy. Depending on whether they are lined up side-by-side, or end-to-end, these paramagnetic particles can, as the external magnetic field changes, swell or shrink. But, these paramagnetic particles are attached to the ”walls” of the cells that they are in, so as the paramagnetic particles change shape, so do the cell walls. And nerves, attached to the outside of these cells, carry signals up to the honeybee’s brain.

So the magnetic cells in the bees tummy are like tiny onboard compasses. This is the first time scientists have actually followed the ”line of information” in a living animal, from the magnets to its brain.

Now honeybees are told how to leave the nest and where to go by the buzzing wings and waggling dance of another honeybee. And, by using the paramagnetic particles of iron oxide, these honey bees can avoid getting lost on the way home, and iron out their problems with a little magnetic navigation.

Copyright © Karl S. Kruszelnicki

Pollination

Agriculture depends greatly on the honey bee for pollination. Honey bees account for 80% of all insect pollination. Without such pollination, we would see a significant decrease in the yield of fruits and vegetables.

Honey

Honey is used by the bees for food all year round. There are many types, of colors and flavors of honey, depending upon its nectar source. The bees make honey from the nectar they collect from flowering trees and plants. Honey is an easily digestible, pure food. Honey is hydroscopic and has antibacterial qualities. Eating local honey can fend off allergies.

Beeswax

Secreted from the glands, beeswax is used by the honeybee to build honey comb. It is used by humans in drugs, cosmetics, artists’ materials, furniture polish and candles.

Propolis

Collected by honeybees from trees, the sticky resin is mixed with wax to make a sticky glue. The bees use this to seal cracks and repair their hive. It is used by humans as a health aid, and as the basis for fine wood varnishes.

Royal Jelly

The powerful, milky substance that turns an ordinary bee into a Queen Bee. It is made of digested pollen and honey or nectar mixed with a chemical secreted from a gland in a nursing bee’s head. It commands premium prices rivaling imported caviar, and is used by some as a dietary supplement and fertility stimulant. It is loaded with all of the B vitamins.

Bee Venom

The “ouch” part of the honeybee. Although sharp pain and some swelling and itching are natural reactions to a honeybee sting, a small percentage of individuals are highly allergic to bee venom. “Bee venom therapy” is widely practiced overseas and by some in the USA to address health problems such as arthritis, neuralgia, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and even MS.

Queen Bee

There is only one queen per hive. The queen is the only bee with fully developed ovaries. A queen bee can live for 3-5 years. The queen mates only once with several male (drone) bees, and will remain fertile for life. She lays up to 2000 eggs per day. Fertilized eggs become female (worker bees) and unfertilized eggs become male (drone bees). When she dies or becomes unproductive, the other bees will “make” a new queen by selecting a young larva and feeding it a diet of “royal jelly”. For queen bees, it takes 16 days from egg to emergence.

Worker Bee

All worker bees are female, but they are not able to reproduce. Worker bees live for 4-9 months during the winter season, but only 6 weeks during the busy summer months (they literally work themselves to death). Nearly all of the bees in a hive are worker bees. A hive consists of 20,000 – 30,000 bees in the winter, and over 60,000 – 80,000 bees in the summer. The worker bees sequentially take on a series of specific chores during their lifetime: housekeeper; nursemaid; construction worker; grocer; undertaker; guard; and finally, after 21 days they become a forager collecting pollen and nectar. For worker bees, it takes 21 days from egg to emergence. The worker bee has a barbed stinger that results in her death following stinging, therefore, she can only sting once.

Queen Bee

These male bees are kept on a standby during the summer for mating with a virgin queen. Because the drone has a barbed sex organ, mating is followed by death of the drone. There are only 300 – 3000 drones in a hive. The drone does not have a stinger. Because they are of no use in the winter, drones are expelled from the hive in the autumn.

From the Back Yard Beekeepers Association

More Info

https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/118057937/aucklands-titirangi-chickens-where-are-they-now

Why do we need these protocols?

Beekeeping is considered an essential service in the COVID-19 environment however we must reiterate this does not mean you can operate in a state of business as usual.

MPI has stated that all essential services must change the way that they operate to minimise the risk of spreading the virus.

There must be nowhere in your supply chain that will facilitate the spread of the virus.

This means that in order to continue operating, all beekeeping businesses, no matter what size, will have to develop protocols to ensure the virus cannot be spread in your working environment, but also that your staff are observing all safety guidelines when they are not at work.

First and foremost, this means observe the two-metre rule.
Ensure workers are observing social distancing at home, on the way to and from work, and while on breaks.
Ensure staff observe the lockdown rules that apply to everyone, once they have finished work.
Establish processes for staff to report illnesses or potential exposure on a daily basis.
Establish steps you will take in the event of a staff member having either confirmed infection, or had contact with someone who has been infected.
If you have members of staff that are not essential to your business continuing to operate, they should stay at home in lockdown.
Ensure all staff who are most at risk (those over 70, and those with pre-existing medical conditions) are already isolating themselves.
If there is any aspect of your operation that is not essential, then you should not be undertaking it.
If you are unable to meet any of these requirements you should not be operating.

Protocols for beekeeping operations
Physical distancing includes prohibition of handshakes or close physical contact.
All people working together should regularly wash and sanitize hands.
Physical distancing should be practiced at all times when working with beehives (keep a pallet space between each other).
Make sure you remain distant during breaks, eating lunch etc. Consider staggering meal breaks and ensure common surfaces are sanitised prior to meals.
Communication with landowners should be by phone. Ensure they are aware that beekeeping is an essential service, and your access is legitimate. Restrict ‘on farm’ interactions with landowners to a ‘wave’. Make clear the hygiene protocols you will undertake when accessing farms. This should include, for instance, sanitising hands before opening and closing gates.
Vehicle steering wheels and door handles should be sanitised daily, or as drivers change.
Each vehicle should be equipped with a wash bucket, suitable disinfectant/sanitiser, soap, paper towels and a rubbish bag for disposals.
Use of personalised beekeeping gloves is encouraged.
When travelling, only one staff member should be in a vehicle at a time. Where there is no way to avoid this, we recommend establishing a travelling ‘work bubble’ as you would a ‘family bubble’. These work bubbles should not physically interact with anyone else at work. But even within these bubbles, please respect the two-metre rule. Records should be kept of who travelled together in any vehicle for determining any possible future isolation. Where possible, dedicate a particular vehicle to the same individuals.
If you are working inside a building, consider creating ‘grids’ of two metre distances, with tape on the floor. Maintain good ventilation and manage tasks so that no physical contact or crossover is necessary.
A number of beekeepers have asked if they need to provide documentation if stopped by police/military/civil defence, to show they are working as part of an essential business. This is not necessary however be prepared to explain your work situation. You can say you are working under the Primary Industries Essential Business Sector, offer a description of your business (packaging, production, processing etc), and type of business (beekeeping – honey production for the purposes of domestic supply or for export). MPI has said some companies are providing a confirmation letter for essential staff operating under level 4 alert system. They are also working on other options for all beekeepers. We will update when this becomes available.

It can bee done!

BeezThings has been asked to place honey-bee colonies inside the worlds biggest glasshouse for Blueberries. 6 colonies arepollinating40,000Blueberry plants.When we entered the glasshouse we could not see to the farend of the glasshouse -2.6ha -it is ginormous!

Usually growers pollinate inside glasshouses with Bumblebees but Blueberries need 10 to 15 visits for the pollination to be successful. BeezThingz has been asked to the rescue.On Monday 24/07/2017 we turned up with 6 strong colonies to help with the pollination.

We turned up with 6 strong colonies to help with the pollination.

We placed 3 platforms with 2 hives each.

Size Matters!

We have chosen colonies from our small cell breeding program. Specifically because the flowers of Blueberries are very small and Bumblebees tend to rip the flower in order to get to the nectar which is at the bottom of the flower.We were surprised when we unloaded the hives how many bees had escaped through the brand new Hive Doctor floors. All three gates of the floors were shut and still hundreds of bees got out.

Our small bees are just the right size to get into these small flowers

A Healthy Diet!

In order for Beez to thrive in an environment like this, we have to supplement their diet. On Monday each hive has been given a frame feeder filled with syrup and essential oils. Later this week we will add pollen patties and fill up the frame feeders with fresh syrup mixed with Kōbee Bee Nutrition. It has all the Amino Acids and Trace elements bees require.

Pollination Services

If you would like to know more about our pollination services,

give us a call on 09-622-3055or visit our website https://beezthingz.co.nz/pollination/

Tune in for regular updates on the Beez in the Glasshouse!