How Does Your Garden Grow: From Blossom to Bottle

You You Hello everybody, I have a particularly interesting story for you about bees I was talking to a friend of mine the other day Walter Straub And I knew he had a few bees, but I didn't realize he was one of the largest honey producers in the country So I asked him if he'd set up an observation beehive for us here in the old tool shed And you can see the bees get in and out here But let's just take a close look and see what's going on in the hive When you first look at the hive the bees seem to be just running around all over the place But a closer look reveals a well organized community Let's start at the beginning and watch this young worker bee emerging It has to chew away the cap in order to get out of it six -sided wax cell Where it has developed from an egg to a larva then a pupa and finally an adult worker bee in a total of 21 days The worker bees are all females this young bee is being given its first taste of honey by a nurse bee The male bees called drones are a little larger than the worker bees and their cells have sort of a dome that gives them the additional needed space As soon as the worker bees emerge their first job is to help in cleaning the hive these are meticulous housekeepers The young worker bees also feed the rapidly growing larvae and for this reason the brood cells are not kept over Until the larvae is ready to go through the pupa stage As the worker bees get stronger they also take over the job of fanning here They just hang on and fan with their wings for all their worth in fact at the rate of 12 ,000 times a minute This evaporates the moisture from the nectar brought in by the field bees and also helps cool the hive You can see how the flame of this candle is drawn in but the bees don't seem to like it too much watch this one Put it out Fanning is hard work, but the bees keep right at it this one doesn't even stop for lunch in this way The bees keep their hive from overheating if the temperature outdoors gets too high the bees bring in moisture Which they evaporate with their fanning and actually cool the hive by air conditioning When it gets real cold outside the bees huddle together around the queen and create heat by consuming more honey These have been known to maintain a temperature in their cluster as much as 140 degrees above the outside air After working in the hive for about three weeks the worker bees are ready to venture out into the fields in search of pollen and nectar And in so doing perform a very important work of carrying pollen from one flower to another Bee sometimes takes on a load of nectar equal to half its own weight and after flying all over from flower to flower It makes a bee line straight back to the hive The bees that find a good supply of clover or other flowers Return to the hive and do a dance to indicate where the flowers are When the bees dance around and around it indicates these flowers are nearby When the flowers are farther away the bee runs in a straight line wagging its rear end The odor of the nectar also helps the bees locate the same flowers in the field Here comes another bee with a load of pollen which it carries in its pollen baskets These are specialized structures found only on the hind legs of the worker bees On a vertical comb the angle of the dance from the perpendicular Indicates the direction of the flowers from the hive in relation to the position of the Sun the number of wags indicate the distance Oddly enough the bee does the most wagging when the flowers are nearby Apparently attracting more attention to the closest supply of nectar After several dances the bee then gives the nectar to one of the young hive bees to store away and goes out immediately For another load if it is carrying pollen it kicks the pellets off and a young bee packs them away in the cells This pollen is known as bee break as the field bees keep bringing in nectar and pollen the engineer bees have to Provide additional storage space Notice the white wax scales on the underside of the abdomen of the bee walking up the glass These scales are produced by wax glands and the bees scrape this off with their hind legs chew it up and mold it into shape Only worker bees can produce wax Probably the most fascinating aspect of the bee colony is the queen and here she is Surrounded by her attendants who are constantly feeding and caring for her A few people realize the effort put forth in raising queen bees So let's go down and visit one of Lakeshore's queen bee farms near Fort Pierce, Florida Here is mr.

Walter D.

LeBourette starting his daily activities He is opening an ordinary beehive using a smoke pot as is customary to calm the bees He removes the cover and then the upper compartment or super He then takes off the Excluder that has holes in it just large enough to permit the worker bees to pass through But as the queen is a little larger She is restricted to the lower portion of the hive where she's kept busy laying eggs in the brood cells Mr.

LeBourette is setting up a queen bee starter box First he locates the queen in this regular hive Here she is and as she will not leave the comb she's on He sets it back in the hive and takes another comb and shakes the regular worker bees off into the queen bee starter box You notice he has left room for another frame Which you'll make up specially and place in this box in a matter of another two or three hours That is after the worker bees in there have had time to discover that they have no queen with them He then puts the cover on and gives them some sugar syrup The next step to encourage these queenless bees to start producing queens Is to take another cost piece of a regular honeycomb frame and make some special little wax cell cups Here you can see how a small cell stick made of wood is first dipped into the cold water Then into a can of hot beeswax and allowed to harden on the cell bar Next he opens up a partially developed a queen bee cell Discards the larva and removes the royal jelly All young larvae are fed royal jelly for about two days At the end of which time the larvae selected by the bees to become workers are switched to a diet of bee bread But those larvae selected to become queens remain on the royal jelly diet Royal jelly is produced by glands in the heads of the worker bees and is high in protein It is used for certain medicinal purposes and sells on the market for about $100 an ounce So Mr.

LeBret dilutes the pure royal jelly with water, stirs it up well and then places one drop in each of the little wax cell cups Now Mr.

LeBret takes a broodcomb from the hive with larva just one day old He carefully uses this long instrument to remove the larva and places one in each of the queen cell cups When he has several of these queen cell bars all made up with the wax cell cups, royal jelly and one day old larva He places them upside down in a regular cell rack and then puts them in the starter box in the space left for this purpose By now the worker bees in the starter box know that they are queenless and start immediately producing more royal jelly in each of the cells And also begin building the cells larger with more of their own beeswax The queen bees are then placed in the starter box and are then placed in the queen cell box Now Mr.

LeBret puts the starter box in his shed out of the sun for 24 hours and brings out a different one He sets it down in front of the hive from which the worker bees were originally taken He opens the box, shakes the comb in front of the hive and puts the starter box in the hive He brushes all the bees off so they'll go back where they came from He then checks to see if the bees have taken over the queen cells that he originally started Mr.

LeBret is used to being stung and doesn't seem to mind it, for actually the bee gets the worst of it The stinger of all worker bees has a barb so that it cannot be pulled out again Instead it is torn away and the bee flies off and dies Here you can see the venom sac still throbbing and if it is flicked away without being squeezed the sting will be less severe Being stung many times is just all in a day's work with Mr.

LeBret Here you can see how the bees have started building up the cells so everything seems to be going along fine Now that the bees have accepted these larvae in the starting box, have fed them more royal jelly and have started building up their cells larger They are ready to be placed in what is called the finishing colony Here one of the queen cell bars is placed in the bottom position and about every third day will be moved one step higher By the end of the day the queen cell bars will be placed in the bottom position and will be moved one step higher By the end of ten days the larvae are fully fed and the cells are sealed over This requires very careful timing as if any queens hatch in these finishing colonies before their cells are removed They will immediately run around and tear open and kill all the other queens as it is the custom amongst bees that there is only one queen to a hive And here you can see that a queen has hatched in this colony and torn apart all the other cells to Mr.

LeBret's loss and sorrow If two queens hatch at the same time and meet, they will fight to the death and the survivor will rule the colony The stingers of queen bees have no barbs so they can sting many times The worker bees never interfere unless it appears that the fight might be a draw Music You can see why Mr.

LeBret watches these queen cells so carefully and removes the top cell bar in time before any queens hatch Just see how busy these bees are and they pay no attention to them as they move the bars up one position and adds another at the bottom Music A day or so before the queens are due to hatch from the cells of the top cell bar, they are removed, cut away and collected in a bucket before being placed in the final hatching and mating boxes Music Here is one of the individual cells and right down at the end is the cap that the queen eats away in order to get out Music Over here on the fence wires are some of the mating boxes Mr.

LeBret takes one queen bee cell and just sticks it right on the honeycomb in the box These mating boxes are strung along the wire to keep the coons and other small animals from stealing the honey Music Next he takes a package of regular worker bees and ducks them in the creek just long enough to get their wings wet so they can't fly They're all pretty mad but there's not much they can do about it under the circumstances Music Here they're dumped out into a bucket Music And one cup of wet bees put in each of these mating boxes However they soon dry out and forget their ducking and go about their business of taking over their duties of caring for this miniature hive and making all their preparations in anticipation of the hatching of their new queen Music There is great excitement as the moment arrives and the new queen emerges from her cell Some of the bees immediately begin attending her The virgin queen makes her nuptial flight a few days later when she soars high into the air followed by a number of drones usually from another hive The strongest drone that can fly as high as the queen meets with her and then dies Music After this one mating the queen returns to the hive to start laying fertilized eggs for the rest of her life at the rate of one or two thousand a day All will develop into female worker bees except those that are fed sufficient royal jelly to develop into future queens In the spring she will also lay some unfertilized eggs to produce drones or male bees As the drones do no work in the hive and have no stingers to defend themselves they are driven from the hive at the end of each season so they cannot use up valuable food during the cold winter months The young queen is now ready for shipment and is placed in this small queen cage with ten or fifteen nurse bees to take care of her and feed her during shipment The cage is supplied with enough food for thirty days and is now ready for shipment usually by air to all parts of the world During the spring months Lakeshore Honey Company ships three to four hundred queen bees a day Music Mr.

LeBret takes these cages and fastens them together Music Puts on the necessary labels Music And in this case as you can see these queens are headed for Cairo, Egypt The breeding of queen bees is carried on similar to that of breeding new more desirable strains of flowers or cattle In a certain number are constantly shipped to various Lakeshore apiaries to be tested under different climatic conditions Here at Rosso, Minnesota near the Canadian border is a typical apiary where honey is produced as well as new strains of bees tested for honey producing qualities gentleness and other desirable characteristics of the worker bees in addition to the egg laying capacity of the queens Here's the setting up of a typical hive Ordinarily bees are bought by the pound and it takes about two pounds or ten thousand bees to start a hive Each spring the Lakeshore people ship about fifteen thousand packages like this or almost twenty tons of live bees Each package contains a supply of sugar syrup and a can Music Here's this small cage containing the queen which is set aside while the bees are dumped into the hive Music The combs are then replaced Music And the paper capping cut away from the entrance to the new queens separate shipping cage Music There still remains a little sugar substance blocking the entrance which the bees can eat away in a matter of a few hours in order to release their new queen During this time they become accustomed to each other's characteristic odors as bees identify members of their own colony in that way And will fight off bees from other hives who try to steal their honey Additional supers are placed on top as the colonies grow larger for bees will swarm and the hive becomes overcrowded This hive is being started with just two supers The cover of shiny metal sheds the rain and reflects the heat of the hot summer sun Music The bees are the ones who decide when it's time to raise new queens They protect the new queen cells from the old queen but permit the new queens to fight amongst themselves The old queen usually leaves the hive for she knows she'll be attacked and probably killed by the new queen She alights on a branch of some nearby tree and as a rule about half of the worker bees will follow and cluster around her forming a swarm Some of the bees act as scouts and look for a suitable location for a new hive This may be in a hollow tree and then these bees are lost to the beekeeper Or if he notices the swarm in time he can take it intact and give it a quick shake in front of a new hive Whereupon the bees usually take immediately to the new home and go about their business of producing more honey The combs of honey are collected and brought into the plant for processing They first go through a machine with a steam heated knife that cuts off the wax caps from both sides of the combs The combs are then placed in these racks momentarily until put into the centrifuge A large cylindrical container that will whirl them about rapidly until the last drop of honey is gone The honey is collected in these large five gallon tins It is then shipped to the bottling plant which in this case is at Lima, Ohio Here the attractive bottles that look like glass honey combs are first labeled Then filled with one pound of clarified and pasteurized honey which represents over 50 ,000 miles of flight by many worker bees Here the no -drip caps are put on each bottle Fastened securely by machine And then moved along to the end of the line where they're packed in cartons ready for shipment to your table and mine Well I guess that's about all we have time for today.

Hope you enjoyed it and be sure to stop around again Thank you for watching!