Bees get busy in anticipation of a long winter. Despite misconceptions, bees do not hibernate. Rather, they have a winterlong dance party, so to speak, clustering around the queen to keep her – and each other – warm. Backyard beekeeping has taken off in the Four Corners, with two groups available to offer advice, mentoring, starter bees and education to fledgling beekeepers./Photo by Paula Nelson

Mind your own beeswax

Groups offer budding beekeepers chance to earn their wings

by Missy Votel

The groundhog may have seen his shadow, signaling six more weeks of winter. But for at least one group of local residents, beekeepers, early February is not the time to burrow back into their holes until the snow melts. Rather, you could say these folks are fairly buzzing with anticipation that not only will the snow melt (it will), but spring – in all its sunny and floral splendor – will be here before you know it (promise.)

But don’t just take their word, ask the bees. Although hives in Colorado are dormant this time of year (despite misconceptions, bees do not hibernate) with the workers clustered around the queen, dancing to keep her and each other warm, once the mercury heads north of 50, they will emerge ready to get to work. Because, after all, that’s what bees do.

But for those looking to break into beekeeping, or maybe expand their hives, now is the time to get busy. “This is a big time of year in beekeeping because you have to order your bees now,” Tina Sebestyen, founder and president of 4 Corners Beekeepers Association, said on Monday. “It’s the time of year to be planning.”

Sebestyen, who kicked off her annual beginning beekeeper series last Friday at the fairgrounds, takes orders this time of year for bees she picks up in early April from a breeder in Utah. Likewise for Paula Nelson, who recently launched the Southern Colorado Beekeepers group and is taking orders for bees from Wyoming.

Typically, the $120 orders include a 3-pound box of bees and a queen. Unfortunately, they don’t come with instructions, which is where Sebestyen and Nelson come in.

“What we want to do is help beginners get started with classes and mentoring programs,” said Sebestyen, who launched 4 Corners Beekeepers “six or seven” years ago. “It helps us all.”

Sebestyen, who has 150 people on her mailing list and whose class filled to capacity this year, said much like the rise in popularity of gardens and backyard chickens, beekeeping has enjoyed a surge in interest. “The interest has increased dramatically,” she said.

There are numerous reasons for all the buzz. For starters, bees make honey, which tastes delicious drizzled on everything from toast to your morning coffee. But it also has a host of health benefits. “Honey overall is an incredible immune booster,” said Sebestyen. “It also helps regulate blood sugar and has a perfect balance of fructose and glucose.”

In addition, local honey is implicated in helping to relieve allergies and its antibacterial properties are being studied in the war against MRSA. But that’s only the tip of the honeycomb, so to speak. Bee byproducts, such as propolis, have been shown to be antifungal, antiviral, antibacterial and even anticancer. In addition, bee venom has been used to treat arthritis, and beeswax is used in a host of beauty products.

What’s not to love? 

Well, maybe a few things, like the aforementioned venom, which typically comes at the hands, or rather hind end, of an irritated worker bee.

“I don’t think you can keep bees and not get stung,” said Nelson, adding that the first sting of the season is like a rite of spring. Nevertheless, it’s a small price to pay for Nelson, who has 20 hives on her Forest Lakes property. She was bitten, or smitten, by the bee bug after taking a beginning class a few years ago. “I took the class and just said, ‘Oh my gosh,’” she recalled. “The bees found me in a way.”

Sebestyen reports a similar epiphany. For her, beekeeping was in her blood, her great grandfather and great uncle kept bees. She decided to get a hive for her father, but he could never get over his fear of getting stung. That’s when Sebestyen got him a mentor and found herself stung, so to speak. “From the first time, I knew I loved them,” said Sebestyen, who has kept hives for 11 years on her land east of Bayfield. “When you’re working with them, it’s a really peaceful feeling. I think most people overcome the fear.”

But another fear that is not so easily overcome is that of Colony Collapse Disorder, of CCD. The phenomenon, whereby colonies are spontaneously abandoned, has made headlines over the last decade.  It is particularly prevalent in North America, which has seen a drastic rise in CCD among the Western honeybee population. It is estimated that between 2006-13, CCD wiped out some 10 million wild and domesticated colonies worldwide. This raised alarm bells for the dozens of crops, from apples to avocadoes to almonds, that rely on pollination from honeybees. Of the 100 crops responsible for producing 90 percent of the world’s food, 71 are dependent on bee pollination, according to UN estimates. It’s hard to place a price tag on the destruction, but the UN estimates pollination is a $37 -$91 billion annual industry.

Perhaps even more unsettling, though, is that there seems to be no single cause.

Keeping the hive alive

Rather, the finger is being pointed at a host of culprits, such as the decline in natural forage, a rise in the use of pesticides known as neonicotinoids and pests, such as the varroa mite, whose larvae feed on bee broods.

Sebestyen, who oversees nine colonies as well as an observation hive at the Powerhouse Science Center and the apiary at Twin Buttes, lost one hive to CCD last year. “It’s like fighting an invisible giant or a thief in the middle of the night,” she said.

As for Nelson, she has not lost any bees to CCD in the four years she’s been keeping them. However, she did have a group die after bringing them to forage in an alfalfa field that, unbeknownst to her, had been treated with pesticides.

The obvious solution to the pesticide problem is easy: don’t spray or treat your lawn, garden or crops. Even that innocuous looking “weed and feed” can be deadly to bees, Sebestyen said. However, she noted local residents are lucky in that they are a long ways from Big Ag or heavy pesticide use. “We are so blessed to have low pesticide use here,” she said.

Nevertheless, 11 percent of pesticides in the United States are used on lawns, a number that could be reduced. “Grass is nothing for bees,” Sebestyen said. “Why not leave a few dandelions for them to feed off?”

Solving the second part of the CCD conundrum – the varroa mite – is a little more complicated. Basically, there are two schools of thought. The first, known as “integrated pest management,” is to treat the bees, either with chemicals or organic methods, to ward off the mites. The second, which could be called “the birds and the bees” approach, is to let nature take its course in hopes the bees will build up their own resistance.

Sebestyen said she understands the desire of backyard beekeepers – herself included – to keep their hives as chemically free as possible. However, sometimes intervention is necessary. “Managed honey bee colonies live only about two years without this help, and have to be constantly replaced,” she said. “But there is a difference between chemical free, and treatment free. This is one of the biggest things we are striving to educate beekeepers about, not treatment, per se, but integrated pest management strategies to help the bees overcome the mites, with any kind of treatment as only a last resort.”

Nelson, however, said her group leans more toward a natural approach, while trying to honor individuals’ styles.

“We feel that if we raise healthy bees, they can learn to adapt naturally,” she said. “Personally, I don’t encourage any intervention. Bees are already doing it, if we’ll only let them.” She points to the development of a “varroa hygenic” bee that is bred to kill mite larvae.

Other ways the local groups are giving bees a leg up is to add genetic diversity by bringing in bees from different breeders and ones that are better suited to the Colorado climate. In addition, Sebestyen’s members are planning to offer “nucs” – bee-speak for nucleus, or the beginning of a hive – to new members this year. “These are the local survivor bees that have adapted to the region and have been resistant to disease,” she said.

But perhaps the best way to succeed is with the help of groups such as Sebestyen’s and Nelson’s. With the increase in interest in backyard beekeeping, Sebestyen said, there has also come in increase in local bee survival rates – something she credits to education. “We better understand what bees need and what they don’t need,” she said.

And who knows? In the process, maybe these original players in creation will even teach us a few things about, well, life. “The tendency is to want to plow through life,” said Nelson. “But sometimes, it’s better to sit back and watch things progress.”

Tina Sebestyen said with enough interest, she would offer a second beginning beekeeping class this winter. She is also available for residential swarm removal. To reach her or for more on her group, go to www.4cornersbeekeepers.com. Paula Nelson will be taking bee orders through Feb. 24. To order or for more on her group, go to www.southerncoloradobeekeepers.org.