Honey bees

Any body notice a lack of honey bees this year? I'm in north central il and have yet to see a honey bee this year . My fruit trees blossomed, saw bumble bees, but no honey bees. Nothing in the wifes flowers either. Even the dandelions . None. Looking at putting a hive in along my timber. Can get one all set up for about 500 dollars.

I have not seen any, East central Iowa

I would say you should be able to set one up for that we had a swarm of honey bee's come and nest in the front wall of a building they've been doing this here for 20+ years. The guy I work has 4 hive not sure how much they cost but a queen is 25 dollars

(reply to post at 18:05:39 06/01/15)

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I've seen a couple today. One of my neighbor's has 3 hives, all made it thru the winter. Best results I've heard of in years.

It was one of my goals this year to get into bee keeping but I got too busy with work here in southern Illinois. I will make time to attend classes and get expert help next year!!! Ryan

My daughter just got some and set up some hives. All's well so far.

Last year my dad took a colony of bees out of my house before it was resided. They made it through the winter. I just helped him about 10 days ago do a 3 way split of the hive. When my fruit trees were in bloom I had hundreds of honey bees working them hard. My dad is 2 miles down the road. Hoping to split the hives again next year , providing they survive, and move a couple down here to my house.

A person has three hives on some property I own. The hives haven't looked this good in years. Lots of bees and lots of activity.

coolest pet i ever raised...they want nothin,they do it all for you....dewy

I had a bee tree in front lawn by the road for the last 3 years. Haven't even seen a honey bee this year - and really very few carpenter bees but not complaining there.

We see a lot, but they are probably all ours. 1/3 didn't make it through the winter, that's beginning to be normal. They made a ton of honey recently.

About a month ago when the dandelions were in full bloom, I saw many honey bees. I guess I haven't looked for any after that.

I had a guy stop by last Fall and asked to bring some in on my place. We figured it wouldn't hurt as we have some fruit trees and 4 acres of pumpkins they could help pollinate. He put them off not too far from my barn back by the steer lot. They don't seem to bother anyone. I just planted pumpkins and went within ten feet of the hive walking and with the tractors. I could see them all around the hive but they didn't seemed bothered by my presents. He says they are doing fine.

nothing in mid Tenn. Front yard of white clover like a white carpet; not one single Honey Bee. Have seen only one bumblebee. Nothing on the trees, shrubs or wildflowers.

I have been reading about how there is a shortage/population issue with bees this winter/spring. I know one local fellow at the lumber yard is starting to keep bees. None of his 6-8 hives survived over the winter. I know they have had a mite issue for some years and now there seems to be something else effecting the bees. I think it is called Colony Collapse Disorder or CCD. They do not know what is causing it so far. Many are blaming pesticides but there are fewer being used than in years past so that really does not make sense.

Here in North-East Iowa they say that the extremely cold February really took its toll on the hives. I have read that the loss is in the 40-60% range.

If you google you will read articles from the last few years talking about bee population issues.

Glenster,I've been keeping honey bees for more than 40 years,I learned Bee Keeping from an old gentleman in Illinois and also took care of all his bees in his later years with much enjoyment from the bees,many many tranquil,educating, relaxing hours spent with them.One of God's most amazing little creatures!Not to mention reaping all the profit from Honey sales and gifting to family and friends.But bee keeping is nothing like it was years ago with all of the Contagious Diseases, Parasites, and Pests.American foulbrood, European foulbrood, tracheal mites, Varroa mite, Chalkbrood, small hive beetles,Africanized honeybees.Then there is Chemicals May Be Killing the Honeybees,many believe that our increasing use of chemical pesticides and herbicides, which honeybees ingest during their daily pollination rounds.Also there is the (genetically modified crops), which may generate pollen with compromised nutritional value.It may be that the build-up of both synthetic chemicals and genetically modified crop pollen has reached a “tipping point,” stressing bee populations to the point of collapse.CCD (colony collapse disorder)Scientists are still searching for cause of Honeybee Colony Collapse Disorder!
I raise my own Bees and Queens from my own gentle high honey producing stock.In the spring,early summer I generally raise several Queens and new colonies every year.
Anyway I'm all for anyone who wants to start keeping honey bees,as we need all the honey bees we can get around the country to get them built back up to what they were years ago.And no better way than new individual's starting to keep bees and new colonies.

If you check around you can most likely find a bee keeper that would be happy to set up a hive or 2 on your place. Takes a whole lot more then just that $500 to set one up you then need to know how to tend it and handle the bees etc etc etc. I know because I have had bees in the past and still have a lot of new old stock on hand

I heard that roughly half the bee colonies didn't make it through last winter. And that's after many years of similar losses.

We have 4 hives. We had a miserable, long and cold winter. We lost one queen and that hive is about done. We just got into this last year and it's really a fascinating thing to learn.

The alarmists will tell you that without honeybees the end of the world will come and that the current problems mean man kind will pretty much starve. Consider that honeybees are not native to North (or South IIRC) America. The Bumblebees, butterflies and a whole mess of other creepy crawlies took care of it just fine before the European Honeybee got here. Not that I want bees to die off, but there's a lot of disinformation out there about bees.

We started into bees last year, have one hive, somehow we were lucky enough for them to survive, they are doing well so far. Have heard from many others who had multiple hives and most lost at least half of their hives. Not sure how theirs are setup, mine is in the middle of 50 or so acres of organic hay fields, but bees travel up to somewhere between 6 and 12 miles, so obviously can not gurantee what or where they are harvesting from. They are fun to have, right up until they sting you on the tip of the nose.... don't ask how I know about that... LOL.

glenster We have bees-- we are finding the biggest problem today is the poison pollen from the gmo corn. The mites we can deal with, the neighbor planting the corn we cannot--yet. Our bees were looking good the end of
feb and by the end of march they are dead. That is the time the new bees start hatching and they start using the pollen they have stored from last fall. Iowa State University has hired people to look into the problem of the bees dieing. The results will be out in a few years

There are so many theories....

Used to be a bee keeper had a dozen or so hives on my sisters property. I farmed 5 acres around the woods and his hives. We get the soybean aphids bad here, about every other year. Was chatting with him eone day, and said well I won't bother spraying these beans, not a big a rage and could be hard on your bees.

He said oh that doesn't bother, no problem.

I was a little surprised.

Around here until 2000 or so, very little insecticide was used on growing crops beyond the sweet corn and peas. But since then, alfalfa and soybeans get so very many bugs, the sprayers are running all late summer killing insects. That's a major change for around here.

Paul