Let's Learn About Our Friendly Honey Bees
Honeybees are essential pollinators for vegetables, flowers, and fruits. When they pollinate, they help many plants grow big and strong. In addition, they transfer pollen between the male and female parts, which lets the plants grow seeds and fruit.
Bees are abundant here in Las Vegas, helping to pollinate and maintain our city's beauty. In addition, many of our residents enjoy growing fruits and veggies in their gardens and planting flowers.
If you ever go to a Star Nursery out here, they are always busy with people selecting everything under the sun to grow in their yards.
When people choose plants that provide pollen and nectar, they help out more than they usually know. So we love you all for your wise plant selections.
We grow tomatoes and peppers in our backyard. This year they are producing like crazy because of the number of bees attracted to our watering stations.
If your garden isn't growing lots of veggies, add a shallow watering area close to your garden. They will find it, and in return, they will pollinate your garden for you.
We're all doing our part to protect bees and their vital work pollinating our world's food supply, cities, towns, backyards, and all points in between. We appreciate how everyone works together to save these helpful little wonders.
First, however, we need to protect them from climate change, and Vegas Bees' no-kill beehive removal and rescue services will keep their populations alive and thriving.
Bees Love Dancin' & Wagglin'
Honeybees are some of the best dancers in the insect world.
They share information and locations of plentiful food and water sources by doing their "waggle dance."
When workers return to the hive, they waggle their bodies and make a figure-8 pattern to communicate the direction and distance of the food or water source to the rest of the colony.
We see the "tremble dance" when we put out plates of trimmed honey and combs from bee removal jobs.
Foragers will be full of nectar and start making vibrating movements to tell receivers to get more help to collect the incoming nectar and to slow the rate of collecting nectar from an abundant source.
These honeybee colonies can be tiny or very large, depending on where they build their nests and the laying power of the queen bee. As a result, three types of bees perform all the jobs and responsibilities, and there is plenty of work.
I mean like building the Egyptian pyramids amount of work!
The most common types of bees and wasps here in Las Vegas are honeybees and yellow jackets. However, yellow jackets are terrible dancers.
If you want a great book about honeybees and their lives, we highly recommend "Honeybee Democracy." Written by Thomas Seeley. Many thought-provoking stories contain helpful information, whether you are a beekeeper or just interested in bees.
Busy Bees Working for a Living
As an amateur beekeeper, I'm fascinated by the incredible sophistication and organization within a beehive. This complex insect society operates with astounding efficiency, providing valuable insights for how we humans can optimize our communities.
When I open up one of my hives, I'm entering an industrious miniature city - let's call it Bee City!
The parallels between Bee City and a human metropolis are striking. Within their populous hive, honeybees have clearly defined roles that benefit the colony as a whole.
Like our cities, a successful beehive relies on central organization and specialized jobs for each citizen.
The queen bee is the heart of Bee City, her iconic figure inspiring awe amongst the residents. Bearing the weight of leadership upon her thorax, the queen lays up to 2,000 eggs per day, single-handedly populating the bustling hive. Her royal presence regulates the colony, commanding obedience through matriarchal grace.
The queen's pheromones are the lifeblood of Bee City, radiating through the hive to influence each bee. As she moves about the honeycomb, she leaves in her wake a pheromone trail that provides vital information to her workers.
Truly, the queen is a monarch, ruling with quiet strength and purpose.
The worker bees are the unsung heroes of Bee City, their industrious buzzing fueling productivity. Building honeycomb infrastructure, foraging for pollen provisions, and rearing brood into adulthood - such is the busy life of a worker bee!
Their days are filled with focused activity, motivated by the singular ambition of supporting the colony.
I'm awed by how worker bees communicate via symbolic waggle dances to indicate the location of food and water sources. Their choreographed movements demonstrate sophisticated language abilities not found amongst other invertebrates. Truly, these workers possess profound communal intelligence.
While worker bees epitomize selfless labor, the male drones of Bee City live for a singular purpose - reproduction. As summer fades to fall, virile drones compete for one chance to mate with the queen before expulsion from the hive. While seemingly lazy compared to their prolific sisters, the drones' biological role is essential for breeding future generations.
Once winter nears, drones are forcibly evicted from the hive's warmth, their brief lives sacrificed for the good of the colony. Though their fate appears cruel, this purge conserves precious resources to sustain the reproductive population.
My beekeeping adventures reveal profound truths by peering within the microcosm of a beehive. Each small insect understands its role in serving the greater organism of the colony. Like an intricate clock, Bee City operates through the seamless coordination of specialized roles in pursuit of collective success.
By emulating the harmonious unity of a beehive, perhaps our human societies could become greater than the sum of our parts. When we empower individuals to contribute their unique gifts for the benefit of all, our communities can thrive in symbiotic organization.
Our Favorite YouTube Bee Channels
The best bee YouTube channels. These beekeepers are amazing.
We watch many different beekeepers on YouTube, and these are just a few that we enjoy the most. Some do bee removals, while others educate us on bees and beekeeping.
Many other channels are well done. You can look around to find what interests you. We have learned so much from these amazing people and their informative videos.
Mr. Ed, Charlie, and Ralph
Mr. Ed / Jeff Horchoff Bees: Mr. Ed with the dream team of Good Time Charlie and Wreck-It Ralph. Mr. Ed and his team are pros and have much fun working with each other. Thank you, Jesus, for this excellent beekeeping channel.
628 DirtRooster
628 Dirt Rooster: What can we say about the Dirt Rooster? We love his beekeeping and bee removal videos. They are always funny, entertaining, raw, and informational.
The Dirt Rooster is bold, usually not using any protective equipment around the bees. He gets his share of stings, but nowhere near as bad as you would think. We highly recommend you check out his videos.
We get very excited when we get notified that he put up a new video. And, of course, the Dirt Rooster saves the bees!
Hey DirtRooster, lay of all that junky fast food or you won't be able to reach the bees soon! 😂
Texas Beeworks
Texas Beeworks: Today was a great day of saving the bees says it all. She loves to scoop the bees in her hands, which is her trademark move.
Joshua Tree Preserve
Joshua Tree Preserve: Our Vegas Bees channel with fun stuff. We include both good and bad videos—lots of bee stuff.
Bee Hive Removals and Rescues
Location of the Hive
When we go to a bee removal job, we first find the location of the bees and their hive. It sounds obvious, and it is.
When you see the bees and where they are entering and exiting, you already know what is ahead with the removal and rescue. Now the planning and equipment hauling begins. We at Vegas Bees leave nothing to chance and always come to the party prepared!
Accessibility to the Hive
This one can be tricky as there may and will be many issues we must deal with at a bee removal. We have learned to expect the unexpected.
You have to develop creative, on-the-spot solutions for many bee removals.
- Are there plants, shrubs, or trees in the way of the hive?
- Is there a shed full of equipment that we need to move?
- Does a wall need to be cut out to access the bees?
- Is the hive only accessible by a ladder or scaffolding?
- Will the homeowner allow cutting walls or structures to get to the beehive?
We should list many more concerns, but these are the most common. This outline gives you some insight into what bee removal can entail.
The Size of the Colony to be Removed
The colony size always makes a difference when removing honey bees. Will you be working with a giant nest or a small one? Since they are both handled differently, your game plan needs to be flexible and change as it needs to, which leads up to our final issue.
Bee Hive Box Selection
Most beekeepers use two sizes of boxes for bee removals.
They are a five-frame "nuc" box or a ten-frame deep box. The colony size and the number of combs will tell us which to use.
Since you never want to use a small box with a giant hive, the same holds for using a large box with a small beehive.
When arriving at a bee removal, you must have both on hand, as you can't know the size without seeing it yourself.
You will also need some frames with foundation and many without foundation. We use foundation-less frame structures the most, as they are what the combs will go into and be attached to with rubber bands.
However, it would help if you had many on hand to avoid destroying any combs. Again, it is always best to be prepared to rescue everything.
Once the bees are all in the box, you will have to leave it there for a day or two. This time frame helps ensure all the bees find their way back to their new home, and the colony will be reunited. That's the Vegas Bees' way.
Learn about our wonderful busy bees.
Honeybees in the Winter
Preparing our bees for the winter
They need to stay warm and safe.
October until late March is the time here in Las Vegas and Henderson, Nevada, to get your bees ready for their long winter nap.
If they need more resources, you will have to feed them so they don't starve during this time of need.
We have feeders and sugar water ready for them. This year we may even make fondant for the bees.
We have never tried this type of feeding, but many beekeepers are big fans of it.
Las Vegas winters are generally mild, and we don't want any bee popsicles this winter!