Free Farm Friday-Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Bee Keeping But Were Afraid To Ask with “The Bee Lady” Neena Gaynor

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Free Farm Friday-Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Bee Keeping But Were Afraid To Ask with “The Bee Lady” Neena Gaynor

 SPECIAL GUEST – NEENA GAYNOR

Follow Neena on Twitter – @NeenaGaynor

• A swarm is a natural thing for honey bees.
• If you can catch one, you can save yourself about $200.
• There are several NUKE of bees – a mini hive w/ 5 frames. (this is an excellent way to begin)
• There is also BRUDE – where you can just buy the bees alone.
• The anatomy of a bee – how many eyes does a honey bee have? 5
• They have 2 stomachs – one is storage bag for carrying honey back and forth.
• To think God put that much detail into a small little honey bee it is quite humbling. 
• Who is in a hive? We are coming up on peak hive season – the Queen is producing up to 1,000 eggs a day. The young males are mating w/ the Queen and then the female worker bees end up tossing them out after that. So we are talking about 60,000 bees during this peak time.
• The Queen – only 1 per hive, she lays all eggs that the hive needs to survive. She lays a drone egg or a worker egg as SHE knows what the hive needs.
• Worker – sterile female worker bees, their first job is clean up crew, they clean their own cell then work their way toward the nursery bees. They feed the little larva as they are forming.
• Bee Education presentation teaches children about – 
• The anatomy of a bee
• Who’s in a hive
• The many jobs of bees
• Bees and pollination
• How everyone can help the bees
• and a Q&A session for the children 
• Monoculture – you won’t attract a variety of insects. 
• Upper and lower boxes – the honey comb
• We use a rolling brush that pops the capping on all combs.
• Then we put it in like a centrifuge that flings the honey out.
• Keep the honey warm, keep it on the counter and that should keep the crystals from forming.
• Honey NEVER EVER goes bad.
• If you have to spray, spray when there is no bloom on the plant or at night when 
• Bees cannot see the RED color so they won’t be attracted to any red flower.
• They REALLY love the color purple. 
• Bee keeping appeals to someone that is very observant to the seasons.
• If you can plant something first thing in the spring this will attract them right off the bat and early.
• Zinnas, Irisetc planting so they don’t all bloom at the same time so there is a constant supply of nectar and pollen for them.

HEADLINE: Louisiana Iris Information – How To Grow A Louisiana Iris Plant

JOIN A BEE ASSOCIATION – you don’t know what’s normal until you are looking at normal things. You need to know the normal to be able to identify if something is abnormal. 

• Bees become active when it is over 55 degrees!
• Italian bees are great for my area they are very timid.
• African bees are a little more aggressive but produce more honey.
• I’m a honey hoarder right now, no selling honey until we harvest.
• The candles are done mostly during the cold months when harvesting honey isn’t done.