Page 10 - Discover Summer 2022
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MisBeeHiving CONTINUED
he advises. “You could spend hundreds of putting them into a container of some sort.
dollars, and wind up with nothing to show They would then release a single bee, which
for it”. Even for the hobbyist, success can would immediately begin flying in elliptical
be elusive. Jim has a hive that has produced patterns until it got its bearings, and then
no surplus honey, and now appears to be in fly off in one direction. Following the bee
crisis. would bring them closer to the hive, until
eventually they would lose sight of it. At that
To make matters worse, Bill explains that
point, another bee would be released, and the
there is an epidemic across the U.S., called
procedure would be repeated until the hive
“Hive Collapse Syndrome”. It seems to be
was finally located. Fire
affecting some 30
and other methods would
percent of all hives
then be used to extract the
in Virginia, and the
honey, destroying the hive
root cause is not
in the process.
yet clear. There is a
strong suspicion that Eventually, people
a combination of learned that once a hive
diseases, parasites, and reaches a certain size, the
pesticides is to blame. bees will split the colony,
One theory suggests creating a new queen, and
that an insecticide may sending the old queen out
be causing the bees to establish a new hive,
to lose their ability to taking about half of the
navigate back to the colony along with her.
hive, and thus they They learned to spot these
never return home. large swarms of bees in
search of a new home, and
Bees navigate using
capture them. They would
infrared rays from the sun. Their innate
construct wooden hives, and introduce the
sense of position is extremely accurate, to
bees into them. Nowadays, supply companies
the point where if the hive were to be moved
sell bees, including new queens, along with
more than just a few feet all at once, the bees
everything else that is needed to start and
would not be able to find their way home.
maintain your hive.
Move the hive a distance of more than
about 5 miles overnight, and in the morning, Typically, one would order 3 pounds of
they will instinctively know that there has bees (don’t ask), and a queen. She will be a
been a change in position, and they will new queen, and therefore unfamiliar to the
automatically adjust. other bees. A new queen hatches, and takes
a few “mating flights”, during which she may
This knowledge was used by native
mate with as many as 10 to 15 male drones.
Americans, who would go into a large field of
This enables her to store the necessary DNA
flowers and catch as many bees as they could,
8 Discover Smith Mountain Lake SUMMER 2022
