Rotary Recap 11.5.2014

 
Did you know that honey is the purest food in the world? Did you know that if there were no bees, humans wouldn't live more than 5 years? Now you do. Rotarian Jessica Putnam brought Beekeeper Terri Weis to inform us about bees, honey and the need to protect both!
 
  • Bees have been around for 17K years
  • Once they sting, they die
  • Bees communicate with each other
  • They are primarily responsible for pollination - 80% of insect pollination
  • There would be less vegetables and fruits without them, as 1/3 of their vitamins and nutrients come from bees
  • Without bees there would be no trees
  • Terri uses sugar water to divert their attention (to avoid getting stung) instead of smoke
  • She was once stung 16 times when they penetrated her garb
  • She uses only pure cane sugar and water to feed her bees - 1lb:1lb
  • ​Her bees will eat 20lbs of sugar H2O a month
  • She harvests honey in September
  • Last year she harvested 9 gallons of honey
  • Bees use the propolis wax from trees as protection to seal their hives
  • Bees do not like the cold - if it is less than 50 degrees, they will not go outside
  • DO NOT HEAT HONEY - above 150 degree temperatures destroy the good enzymes
  • Honey is an excellent treatment for: diarrhea and constipation (really?! BOTH of them?!)
  • It is also excellent when used as an antibiotic
  • Different hives have different personalities
  • Thousands of hives are disappearing in the US due to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD)
    • ​​some causes of CCD include malnutrition, climate, genetic modification in crops, parasites, toxins and pesticides
There are 3 types of bees: Queens, Drones, Workers. 
  • There are only 3 Queens in a hive
    • ​they are twice the size of Drones and Workers
    • they lay up to 2K eggs per day
    • they live up to 5 years
    • they are active in the dark
    • their jobs are to swarm and mate
    • they make with up to 15 Drones 
       
  • There are up to 500 Drones in a hive
    • ​they are males
    • they have no job
    • the Queens strip them of their reproductive organs and they die
    • there was a brutal list of the other traits, and I couldn't keep up

       
  • There are between 3K and 60K Workers in a hive
    • ​​They are all females
    • in their lifetime, they make only 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey​​
    • they live 6 weeks: 3 in the hive, 3 days out of the hive, guarding, and the rest of the time foraging 
    • workers born in the late summer can live through the winter (4 months)