OR NOT

“The bee master must be first of

all a bee lover, or he will never
succeed.” Ticknor Edwardes
 ABOUT
AB
BO
OU
UT
UTTT
T THIS
TH
H
HIS
HIIS BO
IS B
BOOK
OO
OK
K
I’ve always had a healthy sting.
curiosity of bees but I must
admit before making this I took the opportunity while
book my knowledge of them creating this book to dive
was somewhat limited. In deeper into the world of bees.
fact, I hadn’t really even This book presents a very
interacted with bees, not even broad overview of bees. It
by a sting, until last Septem- begins by defining bees and
ber when I was living at an how they function; then
ecohome in southeast explains how bees are used as
England. The family that I a resource, highlighting honey
lived with kept bees in order produced in Italy; then
to pollinate their urban garden explains the bee’s place
and, of course, to have an within food systems followed
almost endless supply of by an introduction to
honey. After that experience I beekeeping; and finally it
had a bit more of a general ends with exploring how I
understanding of bees and plan to apply this knowledge
extracting honey but even to the work I will be doing in
still I never experienced a bee Italy for the spring term.

THE HONEY BEE

Apis mellifera
H oney bees are a subset of
bees in the genus Apis which
includes seven species and 44
sub species. Honey bee traits
such as temperament, disease
resistance, and productivity
vary with species and things
such as their environment and
genetic make up can cause
variations within specific
species.
Image from photography.nationalgeographic.com
1
 ITALIAN HONEY BEE
Apis mellifera ligustica

Ithetalian honey bees are one of

most common commerical
subspecies. They are popular
worldwide because they have
extended periods of brood
rearing (they harbour more
bees for longer), are less prone
to disease, and produce
excellent honey. Italians,
however, may consume large
amounts of honey due to their
long periods of brood rearing
and they are kleptoparasites
(they burgle honey from their
weaker neighbor bees).
In general Italians have a
lighter yellow-tan color and
have three yellow segments
outlined with black. They are
smaller than other species
overall and have much shorter
overhairs. Normally they are
more docile than other honey
bees and less likely to sting.

Image from callenshoneyfarm.wordpress.com

2
 BEE HIER
H oney bees live in colonies that contain three types of bees: the
drones, the workers, and the queen. While there are on average
60,000 bees in a hive only one is the queen, a few thousand are
drones, and the rest are all workers.

The DRONE bees are all males whose sole purposes are
to mate with the queen. They do absolutely nothing else
to contribute to the hive. The drones are however
permitted to live in the hive during certain months of
the year and eat as much pollen and nectar as they
please. In the fall the workers bees generally kick the
drones out of the hive in an effort to save on supplies
through the winter.

The WORKER bees

are all non-sexually
developed females.
They are the most
common and general-
ly the only bees you
ever see. It is the
workers who build
and protect the hive,
forage for pollen and
nectar from flowers,
keep the hive clean
and tidy, and tend to
the queen. In the
summer, when work is
the hardest, the
lifespan of a worker is
four to six weeks.

3
RA
RARC
RAR
R
RARCHY
ARC
A
AR
RC
RCH
C
The QUEEN, like all other females in the hive, is the product of a
fertilized egg. She however receives a special diet during her larval
stage consisting of royal jelly and modified jelly. It takes 16 days to
produce a queen who will be the biggest of all the bees.
Generally, only one queen can rule a hive and in the case
of more than one queen the queens will either fight to the
death or swarm to create new hives. Once a sole queen has
been established she will fly out of the hive and mate
with one or more drones. The queen is now most
likely set to lay eggs for the rest of her life. A
queen will normally live for two years, laying up
to 2,000 per day.

The queen’s death can occur suddenly and

unexpectedly but sometimes it’s not
unexpected at all, sometimes she’s murdered.
For whatever reason, when the queen dies the
worker bees must prepare for a new ruler.
They do this by making queen cells which are
larger than regular brood cells and placed
vertically on a brood frame as opposed to in
line with the other cells.

The royal jelly that is fed to

the queen during her larval
stage is a viscous mixture
of B vitamins, amino acids,
sugars, and trace minerals.

4
 STINGERS
& STINGS
A lthough Italian honey bees
are very docile and less likely
to sting any bee will sting
when it feels threatened.
When a bee stings it releases
alarm pheromones that alert
other bees to attack. Bee
venom, produced in a bee’s
poison gland and transfered
to her poison sac, is what
makes the sting hurt not the
stinger itself. When a bee
stings a mammal her stinger
and poison sac get stuck and
she loses them, however,
this is not the case if she
stings another insect. If she
does sting a mammal soon
her death will follow as she
cannot live without these
parts.

WHAT Keep an eye out

TO DO IF for allergic
reactions! One
YOU GET out of every
1,000 people
STUNG... Image from webmd.boots.com
are allergic to
honey bees.

1 2 3
If you are stung Get the stinger Apply ice,
by a bee and out. Pulling the toothpaste,
there are other stinger out may onions, and/or
bees close by the force more various creams
best thing to do is venom into your such as hydrocor -
to go inside so body. Instead tisone or calamine
that the other scrape the lotion in order to
bees won’t pick stinger out at an ease pain and
up the alarm angle. reduce swelling.
pheromones.

5
 BEESWAX
BEE
BEEES
ES
SW
WA
W AX
AX&
HON
HO
HONEYCOMB
ONE
NE
N
NEY
EYC
YC
CO
OMB
MB
Ihomes
n order to make viable
bees must produce
honeycomb. Honeycomb is
created from beeswax which
is then sculped into
thousands of tiny hexagons.
It is used to store honey and
to house developing baby Image from seedmaga ine.com
bees. Beeswax is an excellent
and strong building material It takes eight pounds of nectar
for hives and can withstand to make one pound of
temperatures up to 148 beeswax. To make beeswax
degrees Fahrenheit before young worker bees group
melting. together in order to increase
the temperature around them.
Because of the warm
temperature the bees will then
secrete liquid wax along their
underbellies. As the bees
move apart, temperatures
decrease the wax begins to
harden onto their bodies. The
bees then scrape the wax off
of themselves and chew on it
Image from rgbstock.com until it is soft enough to cap
exisiting cells or create new
honeycomb.

6
 HONEY PRODUCTION
B ees need honey in order to survive through the winter. A typical
hive needs at least sixty pounds of honey stored up to make it.
During the winter the bees in a hive will group together and flex
their flight muscules in order to generate heat. For energy they will
lightly snack on the honey located in their vacinity and once all the
stores in that location are used they will altogether move to a new
well stocked area of the hive.

HOW DO BEES PRODUCE HONEY?

Collect nectar.
1 Worker bees travel to flowers
and collect nectar into their
“honey stomachs”, which is a
seperate second stomach that
workers have specifically for
this job. The honey stomach
adds enzymes into the nectar
that begin to turn it into honey.
While collecting necter bees
inadvertently collect pollen
from flowers which helps
flowers to pollinate.
Image from lavieengreen.com

Bees may have to travel up to six miles in search of flowers but in

well flowered areas they only need to go as far as a couple tenths
of a mile. On average bees will fly two to three miles from home
at a speed of fifteen miles per hour.

7
Transfer nectar. 2
Once the worker returns to the
hive she shifts her stomach
contents into her fellow
workers with empty stomachs.
At this point the nectar has a
high moister content and more
enzymes must be added to it in
order to turn it into honey. The
workers add more enzymes as
the nectar sits in their stom-
achs and slowly they bring
some up into their mouths and
chew on it.

3 Image from thehoneygatherers.com

Fill honeycomb.
Finally, the ripening honey is
transfered to a honeycomb cell
where it is then fanned with
the bees wings until it begins
to thinken. The honey stays
stored in the honeycomb until
winter.

Image from ecoportal.net

It takes about a dozen

bees to produce one
teaspoon of honey. In
order to make that
teaspoon of honey each
of those dozen bees
would have had to visit
more than 2,600
flowers.

8

H umans use bees as a
resource primarily for honey.
There are hundreds of
varieties of honey because
honey is influenced by its
botanical source, geography,
soil conditions, rainfall, and
time of harvest. Honey
extracted in the spring is
generally clearer and lighter
colored than honey from
later in the year. In order to
harness honey produced
from a specific flower or
crop beekeepers must be
intune with their bees and
aware of what is in bloom or
simply expose their bees to
one type of flowers. Lighter
colored honey tends to be
more popular among
consumers and so it is
generally set at a higher
price. In order to determine
an exact shade honey is
sampled by a digital honey
analyzer which measures the
amount of light
9
BEES AS A R
that it is able to absorb.
Honey is good for you and it
never expires. It contains
protein, antioxidants, amino
acids, vitamins, and minerals,
however, at such small
amounts that you must eat a lot
of honey to get any substantial
amount of any. Honey is a
tremendously ecofriendly
sweetener because it has a tiny
carbon footprint in comparison
to other sweeteners. This is
because, unlike sugarcane,
beets, and corn, honey does not
require irrigation, fertilizers, or
pesticides and it requires less
growing time, processing time,
transportation, and storing.
B esides honey humans also
extract beeswax and royal jelly
from honeybee hives. Beeswax
is harnessed for a number of
different reasons and is used in
a variety of products ranging
RESOURCE
Queen brood cells needed for royal jelly
Image from abouthoney2012.blogspot.com
from food and cosmetics to
candles and phamaceuticals.
Royal jelly is harnessed
primarily for homeopathic
uses however there is little
scientific information about
its actual effects. The
extraction of royal jelly is a
somewhat contoversial topic
because it stresses out and
confuses bees into making far
too many queen brood cells
than necessary. In order to
extract royal jelly queen
brood cells must be opened
and the contents inside
gingerly scooped out. It takes
a lot of queen cells in order to
accumulate worthwile
amounts of royal jelly; it
takes over 100 cells to make
only a couple of tablespoons
worth.
S ome honey producers
choose to pasteurize their
product before selling it.
Honey is pasteurized by
heating it to a high tempera-
ture and sometimes injecting it
with high pressure. Often
times it is only large company
producers who pasteurize in
order to kill any yeasts that
may have come into the
honey, in order to increase it’s
shelf life so it is less likely to
granulate and ferment, and in
order to remove any blemishes
such as bits of wax or pollen.
Non-pasteurized honey is
perfectly safe though and
pasteurizing honey is not
necessary.
HONEY REGULATIONS
A
lthough the US has
standards for honey they are
only lightly enforced and
inspections of honey do not
occur. Producers can even put
the USDA (United States
Department of Agriculture)
seal on their products although
no USDA certifications exists,
however, this is perfectly legal
because there are no laws
against making false claims in
this case.
10
 So how does a consumer
know they are getting good
honey? Good honey
standards are met by the
following criteria:
❋ it contains only honey and no
other food ingredients, colors,
flavors, or preservatives
❋ it is not fermented, heated or
processed in any way
❋ it is not produced by sugar fed
bees and sugar should not be added
into the honey
❋ it is labeled according to the
removal process that was used to
harvest it, by the type of honey it is
(e.g. honey, comb, and chunk), by its
botanical source, and labeled as raw
or organic if applicable
11
I n 2003 the European Union
(EU) banned imports of honey
from the US due to a differen-
tiation in regulatory approach-
es to product purity. This ban
did not last long because the
US decided to change their
honey quality in order to meet
EU standards. There are
however still specific require-
ments implemented in order to
make sure that honey being
shipped to the EU is up to par.
These requirements include
the following:
❋ Producer Purity Certification: a
certification that producers must
obtain every year that states that a
product is not misbranded or
adulterated within the parameters of
the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic
Act and that their methods of
production have been approved by the
US Environmental Protection
Agency. If a producer is found
violating these agreements their
shipments may be rejected.
❋ Batch Control: the separation of
EU honey and honey destined for
other locations while it moves
between ports and destinations.
Honey shipments traveling to the EU
are thoroughly tracked in order to
keep a detailed inventory.
❋ Testing and sampling. Sampling
must be done from at least one per
producer per shipment. Two
laboratories located in the EU are
used specifically for product testing.
❋ Documentation of procedures,
sanitary certificates, and origin of
honey shipments.
 ITALIAN HONEY
H oney extracted within the
EU, Italy specifically, can be
protected under the Protected
Designation of Origin (PDO).
The PDO is important
because it certifies the
geographical location of
where a product was
produced, how it was
produced, and how it was
prepared. In order to qualify
as PDO products must have
characteristics or qualities that
are exclusive to a specific
area taking into account both
natural and human factors.
What this means for honey is
that only producers within
certain areas can register their
honey as PDO, assuming they
fit the local PDO honey
criteria.
In Italy there are approxi-
mately 72,000 beekeepers,
10% of which are are profes-
sional. From them Italy
produces a large number of
monofloral, local, and
wildflower honey that are
unique to their place and
season of production. Despite
this fact Italians are not very
large consumers of honey,
only consuming .9 pounds
(400 grams) per capita per
year. This consumption is far
below the average for other
European countries and
surprising when the average
annual production of honey
in Italy is approximately
9,000 – 12,000 tons.
Le Città del Miele
The City of Honey is a group
comprised of 46 cities and
three mountain communities
in Italy that all have an
established tradition of
beekeeping and honey
production. The aim of the
group is to promote Italian
honey and they are commit-
ted to upholding the regional,
national, and international
standards of honey. The
group supports the honey
industry by promoting events
and demonstrations and every
72,000 BEEKEEPERS
10% PROFESSIONAL
.9 LBS OF
HONEY
CONSUMED
PER CAPITA
PER YEAR
12
 80% OF ALL PLANTS ARE
POLLINATED BY BEES

WHICH EQUALS 1 IN EVERY 3

BITES OF FOOD

year the cities put on events covered in pollen and

about beekeeping and honey.
They also promote knowledge
sharing among researchers,
scholars, practitioners,
producers, and consumers.
Most importantly the group is
committed to the defense and
protection of the environment
and biodiversity, as they
understand that bees have an
important yet fragile role
within both.
FARMING & PERMACULTURE
subsequenctly pollinate the
flowers they visit. Bees are
responsible for pollinating
80% of the plants on the
planet which in terms of our
food equals one in every
three bites.
It is becoming more and more
common for farmers to have
to rent beekeepers’ managed
bees in order to pollinate their
crops. However, this wasn’t
always the case. In the past
there were more wild bees

B
ees are immensely
important for our food system
and for pollination. When
collecting nectar bees get
that took care of pollination
but with the increase of
deforestation, ironically in
order to make farmland, wild
bee habitat has been reduced.

13
 “If you want to harvest honey,
don’t kick over the beehive.”
Abraham Lincoln
P ollination is a crucial
process that humans and
other organisms rely on for
their food. Because bees do
so much of the world’s
pollination they have
become an important player
in the economy and security
of food. However, bee
populations have been
declining. Bee populations
can be negatively affected
by things such as habitat
loss; pesticides; bee pests
like wax moths, vampire
mites, and tracheal mites;
stress induced by moving
colonies; and Colony
Collapse Disorder (CCD)
where bee colonies literally
disappear overnight.
In 2001 the EU and its
Member States at the United
Nations Convention on
Biological Diversity recog-
nized that biodiversity was
declining in Europe and that
habitats and natural systems
needed care and to be
restored. They also high-
lighted the importance of the
“pollination crisis” and its
links to biodiversity and
humans livelihoods. From
this concern the Conserva -
tion and Sustainable Use of
Pollinates also known as the
International Pollinator
Initiative (IPI) was estab-
lished. The IPI works on
regional initiatives,
programs, and projects that
help to promote conserva-
tion, restoration, and
sustainable use of pollinator
diversity in agriculture and
related ecosystems. In 2010
the EU Environment
Council agreed on a
long-term vision and target
for biodiversity which
focused on protecting
natural-capital in order to
restore biodiversity’s
intrinsic value of contribut -
ing to human livelihoods,
wellbeing, and economic
prosperity. This goal is to be
met by 2050 in hopes that
catastrophic changes will
not be caused by the loss of
biodiversity.
14
 BEEKE
AN OVERVIEW O

O ne of the most popular types of hives that both amature and

commerical beekeepers use is the Langstroth. It is an ideal hive
because it is composed of easily moveable internal frames that
make it convinent for both bees to make honeycomb and for
keepers to extract the honey.

It is important to note that beekeeping can be an expensive venture

due to equiment needs and that beekeeping requires time and
patience, especially during honey extraction. There are a lot of ins
and outs one needs to know in order to be a successful beekeeper.

BROOD FRAME

SUPERS
Brood frames are removable Supers or brood boxes
wooden frames where bees store brood frames
build honeycomb. vertically next to
eachother. They can
either be shallow or
UNCAPPING deep and store,
KNIFE respectively, honey or
a brood. Supers easily
stack on top of one
another and more or
less can be added or
ncapping removed to a hive
knifes are used depending on its
to remove the population size.
wax capping
from the tops
of honeycomb in order to
access the honey underneath.

15
EEPING
OF EQUIPMENT
FULL OUTFIT
SMOKER

A smoker is used when

collecting honey and
working in a hive.
Smokes does two
things: it masks the
alarm pheromones bees
set off, making them
less aware of threat; and
it encourages bees to eat
honey which weights
them down making
them less able to sting.

The traditional outfit beekeep

QUEEN EXCLUDER ers wear is a fullbody suit with
A queen excluder is a a veil and gloves. The suit
mesh grid that is big helps to prevent bee stings,
enough for worker bees which are inevitable, especial
to fit through but too ly for amature keepers. A full
small for the queen. This outfit is not necessary when
allows for the seperation beekeeping and many
of the queen from honey professional keepers opt not to
stores where she may try wear them and instead wear
to lay eggs. light colored and nylon
clothing.

16
 WHILE IN ITALY
In making this book my
understanding of bees and
their connections with
humans has increased
immensely. I hope to take my
newfound knowledge and
turn into practical experience.
In Italy I am staying with a
farmer who is starting a bee
business and I hope to work
alongside him in his every-
day life as a beekeeper from
both the business and
physical side of his venture. I
want to be able to understand
why bees are important for
him and the connections he
makes with them and
farming, the methods he uses
and why he uses them, as
Image from thebeeshouse.blogspot.com
17
well as his ideas of honey
standards and regulations.
Outside of my host family I
hope to talk to other beekeep-
ers or farmers who are
concerned about bee popula-
tions or just interested in the
connections between humans
and bees. I want to get at this
question of local food systems
and organic food in order to
understand how people from
the Veneto, even if only a
small portion of them, are
concerned and/or connected to
their food. I suppect to
encounter unforseen challang-
es and even unforseen
processes and experiences that
I didn’t know where possible

FARMING
BEES ART
without experience. However,
I am more than excited to take
my new knowledge and turn it
into experience and practice.
Furthermore, I am interested
in finding my own personal
connections between my
interests of farming/permacul-
ture, bees, and art. At the end
of my time in Italy I hope to
produce some sort of book or
journal (graphic journal) that
records not only the things
I’ve learned but also my
experiences and thoughts
about what I am doing and
what is going on around me.
Finally, I hope to be stung by
a bee for the first time
because only then will I be
able to fully understand bees.
REFERENCES
“About us.” Cittadelmiele.it. n.d. Web. 10 March
2014.
Bee covered in pollen. Photograph.
lavieengreen.com 2013. 5th March
2014.
Bees and flowers. thebeeshouse.blogspot.com. 8th
March 2014.
Bee sting. Photograph. webmd.boots.com 2014.
28th Feb. 2014.
Biesmeijer J.C., et al. “Pollution and Biodiversity.”
Europeancommission.com. 22 April
2010. Web. 10 March 2014.
Bishop, Holly. Robbing the Bees: A Biography of
Honey the Sweet Liquid Gold That
Seduced the World. New York: Free
Press, 2005.
Brackney, Susan. Plan bee: Everything You Ever
Wanted to Know About the
Hardest-Working Creatures on the
Planet. New York: Penguin Group,
2009.
Brood honeycomb. seedmagazine.com 2012. 28th
Feb. 2014.
Filling the honeycomb. Photograph. thehoneygath
erers.com. 2nd March 2014.
Food transfer. Photograph. hehoneygather
ers.com 2013. 2nd March 2014.
Honeybee on honeycomb. Photograph.
nationalgeographic.com 2013. 5th
March 2014.
Honeycomb. Photograph. rgbstock.com. 28th Feb.
2014.
Italian honey bee. Photograph. callenshoney
farm.wordpress.com 2013. 5th
March 2014.
“Italy Honey.” Honeytraveler.com. 2014. Web. 10
March 2014.
Longgood, William. The Queen Must Die And
Other Affairs of Bees and Men. New
York: WW Norton & Company,
1985.
Queen brood cells. abouthoney2012.blogspot.com
2012. 26th Feb. 2014.
18
TARA ALLEN