“A swarm at night is a swarm catchers fright”

Swarming season is sure bursting with bees! In the last week there have been over 20 or so swarm calls from all over the Boulder/ Denver area. The highlight of my swarming adventures so far was a nighttime swarm call I got last night at about 8:30 pm  from a family of closet bee guardians who have watched over the honeybees in their Silver Maple tree for over 4 years. Night was just settling in as I got the call. Here are some notes I wrote shortly after I got home at 10:30 pm:

A swarm of honeybees

Just the other day I was out catching swarms and for the first time I saw the full on swarming activity. It was simply awe-some in every sense of the word! I got a call on the swarm hotline number, goggled the location and within an hour or two I met up with a fellow beeguardian/beekeeper who saw a swarm of bees swarm into a tree way up within a few blocks of his house. We walked over to the swarm tree together and he pointed the swarm out to me. It was a massive swarm… probably basketball sized all clumped up in a ball about 40′ up out on a limb of a very tall pine tree.

Save the Dandelions in the City of Boulder!

I just got home from an event at the Boulder courthouse on pearl street where about 100 people gathered to protest the spraying of dandelions on city and park property. It was a great event with many kids going up to speak about the importance of dandelions and chemical free lawns. My first thought upon hearing about the city killing the dandelions was: “what about the bees? My hives are right near open space and city property?! They need those flowers!!” I wrote a letter about what I would say on the importance of dandelions for the honeybees so that if I did pluck up my courage and become so inclined to speak at this event, I’d be all set. Sure enough, I decided to read my letter to the crowd with much praise and excitement afterword for bringing up the impact pesticides have on the local bees.

Installing a Swarm Fetcher

The Swarm Fetchers are in!!

These newly designed swarm fetchers have three uses:

1) They are designed to be placed in trees to attract a swarm of bees into them by the queen pheromone placed in the middle. After placing them in a tree, you will know when a swarm has found it when you see activity out near the entrance. Plus, with the 5 golden mean top bars that lay across the top of the box, you don’t have to check on them so often because the bees will start building comb on the bars and as the bars are normal golden mean top bars, you can easily exchange the top bars with the empty ones in your hive for easy installation without the usual furry of bee activity and confusion as they adjust to a new place.

Journey Back to Boulder

During the last couple days of their trip, Karen and Corwin visited the tulip fields and flower festival in Holland. From what they said, It sounds like that while it was incredibly awe-inspiring and beautiful to see the fields and fields of colorful flowers, it also seemed rather put-on and artificial… miles and miles of human made monoculture that requires so much attention, fiddling not to mention all of the chemicals used just to keep these flowers looking good for the eyes of tourist to enjoy. It sounds to me like a balancing act on a rickety slope.

Ari Seppala the Bee Advisor to Finland

Next installment of the Finland trip:

The following day we drove 4 hours northeast to Ari’s house. Ari  and his wife are  large-scale “hobby” beekeepers. They manage over 400 hives. Hummm what a hobby! The night we got to Ari’s house we stayed up late listening to stories from Ari about past 25 years of his career as a “friend to the bees”. Not only does Ari manage 400 plus hives he also is the Bee Advisor in Finland. He is the guy to all if you have a bee question about your Finnish bees.

Quest for the Black bees

This is something Karen wrote about Corwin and her adventures with the black bees of Finland:

The Quest for the Black Bees

(Written By Karen Sendenwater)

Cody Oreck from the US Embassy in Finland set us up with the Bee Adviser to Finland, Ari Seppala. While telling us about beekeepers in the arctic circle,  Ari also mentioned that Finland had black bees. BLack bees, we had heard so little about black bees. Why were the so important in Finland? Finland beekeepers use black bees because of their ability to survive the very cold and long winters there. Black bee colonies brood up slower and more cautiously then other colonies and they are able to keep a small brood nest going into winter helping the colony survive.

Meeting the Urban Permaculture group

The next morning after the presentation, Corwin and Karen visited  the guerilla gardeners and permaculture group in Helsinki who have raised bed gardens near the railroad tracks in the center of Helsinki. Karen and Corwin talked to them about working with bees and figuring out a good location to put their top bar hives for pollination in this very urban setting. It sounds like this group of young people is super enthusiastic and excited to start a few hives this year!! With the average age of beekeepers in Finland being 60, this new generation of bee guardians is really inspiring and energizing the local community of gardeners, farmers and beekeepers alike.

Finland Urban Bee Guardianship Presentation

Later that afternoon, Corwin and Karen were chaperoned in black embassy suburban to the University of Helsinki where Corwin gave a 2 hour presentation about beekeeping in urban areas.

First Impressions of Finland

After the 16 hour ferry ride, Corwin and Karen arrived in Finland at 9 am and were escorted to the embassy  to get settled in after their long travels. Shortly after settling in, they were picked up by Heikki M. T. Hokkanen (PhD and Professor of Agricultural zoology) to meet for lunch at the university of Helsinki.