In China

While this is not exactly about beekeeping I thought you all might be interested. I'm in China on a business trip and here are my impressions after the first day.

Rob Skiff
July 7, 2006
Somewhere over the North Pole


It takes quite a while to fly to China. Right now I’m 30,000 ft over the Greenland cursing Continental Airlines’ movie selection. However, I’m also thinking about the possibilities that this trip has for the school. I’ve got a good feeling that if we can come to some type of understanding between Nanjing AV and Vermont Commons that this marks a start of a wonderful relationship.

At the airport I met a Chinese who worked at the National Bank of Canada. I presented my card and got into a polite and interesting conversation about econometrics. Piper entered the conversation and switched to Chinese and charmed the hell out of him. It was a brilliant example of how important it is to have a smart intelligent and dynamic Chinese language speaker on your team. One of the reasons that America is falling behind is our lack of second language skills. The opportunities in this world belong to those that are intelligent, creative, skillful and have the ability to speak in another foreign language like Spanish or Chinese. If your also able to synthesize and see connections then you have a chance at influence. Don’t forget your mastery of math and science. Without that nothing else is possible.

The trip from the airport to the hotel is the first impression that an area gives to a guest. The Bejing Airport is modern and has the anywhere world atmosphere of all places directly connected to the world. Piper as usual guided Pete and I through the process of finding a cab and getting us to the hotel. Our cabby was 35 years old and has a son who is ten. We asked him about Tienamen and he told us that everyone remembers and that the democracy movement is just bubbling under the surface, but the government keeps a lid on it. People so not have access to the quality that they need. He also thinks that the education here in China is not good and that learning English is essential. The road from the airport was lined with trees, everywhere there are advertisements for renewable energy and green building. Pete told me that the leaves show clear indication that they are not getting enough light because of the smog, and we are encased in a think has where even the location of the sun is not visible.

After checking into the hotel, we took a walk to the Forbidden City and Tienamen. This area is huge and the people were well dressed with some funky clothing. The younger the kid the more they resembled their contemporaries in Ecuador, Vermont and the rest of the world. For them globalization is already here and the world has already knit itself into a global culture. To get to Tienamen we walked though Bejing’s version of Church Street with thousands of people walking around. I did not get one stare of look, it was as if I was just a normal piece of the environment. Piper could not believe the changes that had taken place. She remarked that the people were much more sophisticated and that the city was clearly using the Olympics as a motivator to do a massive program of urban renewal.

Walking into Tienamen was amazing. The buildings are massive and Mao’s tomb opposite the Forbidden City created quite the impression. The Forbidden City was the home of the emperors for a very long stretch of Chinese history. It was forbidden for any ordinary citizen to enter the Emperor’s presence unless they were a member of the civil service. The closer you got to the center of the city and the presence of the emperor the greater the power and honor. Watching thousands of people walk in and out of the city made me realize the power of communism and how much a symbol of reform opening up the city must have been. Now the people were the center. However, old cultural forms don’t die they just become integrated into the new cosmology. Mao’s tomb outside the gates, with his portrait on the its mail wall has clear significance. It is now the square that is the symbolic center of the Chinese world. That is why the democracy movement gathered here to build the statue of liberty, and that is way the party cleared it with tanks and a lot of blood.

After hanging around, we walked into some back allies and saw some beautiful courtyard homes of the party members. Their wealth is shielded from prying eyes, by an architecture that replicates the philosophy of the forbidden city in miniature. They are beautiful buildings. The art galleries, restaurants and smells all seemed more familiar to me as what I remember from Thailand and Indonesia. We got into another cab and talked to the driver. This guy was not as open. He asked it we were Americans and we said yes. He said he liked the American people but did not like our government. Piper answered “We don’t really like our government either. That means were just like you.” He laughed and then quickly changed the subject.

The noodle shop where we ate dinner was great. A tour group from the south of China came in and ate. The waitress, who was from Bejing was clearly horrified by their manners. They were country people, just like me. I liked them from the beginning. They are another part of China that I know very little about.

China is so massive and diverse that it cannot be described with any easy analogies. It is not the red horde, but a massive cultural identity struggling to make sense of the world within some very clear ecological and economic constraints. There is a lot of optimism on the streets of Bejing, like some great positive change is about to happen. Wireless is everywhere, the cell phones are out and people are walking around. China has 1.3 billion people. I suspect that they will have 300 million people that we would describe as middle class quite soon. 1 million ultra rich and 1 billion lower class rural and urban workers. This part of China is the one that party is concerned with and the whole world needs to pay attention to. How they react to globalization will determine the success and survival of not only China, but the rest of the world. Imagine feeding 1.3 billion people a day, taking care what comes in and what goes out just boggles my mind. Ecological restoration needs to start and end in China and India.

Time to go back to watching the world cup and surfing the web for ecological groups to connect with.

A Short Report

Here is a short report on all the hives. The weather is excellent here in Vermont and the afternoons have been sunny and warm. The apple blossoms are gone, but they have been replaced with lots of other flowers.

Mom’s Hive: Carniolan. They have built out eight frames so I put another deep on the top and removed the sugar water. The hive was very healthy and the bees had an excellent temperament. While I could not locate the queen, the brood pattern and pollen harvest were excellent. While working with my nephew, I got stung for the first time. I’m pretty pleased that I did not have a reaction. Everything is in place for a great season.

Carniolans (possibly Cordovan?): This hive has built out almost seven frames. They are also quite productive with lots of brood and honey capped. I was unable to locate the queen, but everything looked really good. Michael recommended that we not put on another deep. He’s the expert, so I will defer to his judgment.

The Horde (Russian): There is really no other word that can describe this hive. They are huge. After placing another deep on top of the brood chamber these beasties have built out 4.5 frames. While they have not filled them with nectar, pollen and brood they are just waiting for supplies. In one week, that amount of work they have accomplished in amazing. The buildup of population is happening very quickly. It almost makes me think that we will be able to put honey supers on by the middle of June. During my session with the Horde I decided to take off my gloves for part of the work. Working without gloves is much better, but you must keep your wits about you.

May was a great month as it ends I look forward to the promise of June.

A Beautiful Day

Today was the first sunny day in a long time. The temperature was in the low sixties and the sky was blue. In front of my house is a crabapple tree in bloom. When I walked outside in the morning the tree was full of the Russians and the hybrids. It was a nice sight to see after so many days of train. Later on I walked into the back and saw the hives with about a hundred bees forming a cloud above the apiary. They were traveling in and out loaded down with pollen. When the bees left the hives they headed straight to the apple orchard nearby or the crabapple in the front yard. Michael removed the entrance reducer from the Russian. However, we are still going to keep one on the hybrid hive. The Russians are clearly the stronger of the two and so the weaker hive must be protected.

There is something wonderful about the fact that these creatures are sampling from the environment around them, coming up with a unique flavor of the landscape around my home. Honey is truly the most local and honest of all flavors. I’m really looking forward for what the rest of the summer has in store.

The Russian Queen lives

It has been raining here for the past two weeks. The National Weather Service has announced that this is the wettest month on record. Even still, Michael could not resist opening up the Russians to check for the Queen. While I would have waited he made the correct choice. After searching through about six frames, Michael spotted her. We were both a little nervous that she might have been crushed with the nuc was dropped. I took several pictures of the hive through the glass window our undisclosed location. The Russian Queen is almost double the size of the Carnolian/mixed hybrid subaltern. Beemaster Webster certainly produced a healthy nuc with a bunch of bees and a great laying pattern. Although it set us back $150 so far I think it was worth it. We are guaranteed healthy bees and they only need to expand into another deep and then we can start talking about the honey harvest. Tomorrow is the first day of good weather and the temperature is going to be in the mid 60's with sun. It is the perfect opportunity for the bees to harvest pollen and nectar from the apple orchard near by. I'm excited to wake up and check to see if they are out working.

It time to leave them alone for a while and let them settle in. This weekend some relatives are coming for a visit. I'm excited to take my nephew out to inspect my parents hive. Hopefully, I can get him hooked and he can start his own down in New Jersey. It would be the perfect project for a very smart and precocious young mind.

Shoka and the Bees

As Michael wrote yesterday, it was an interesting installation on Saturday. I decided to let Leah and our son Austin to work with the bees. Austin has been asking to get into his bee suit for a while and Saturday seemed the perfect opportunity. Frankly, I was unsure if the weather was going to cooperate. It has been raining here for the past eight days. Everything is wet including the hives. The ground is completely saturated, so at any break in the rain, you need to go out and do work. I was planting in the back yard, Leah and Austin were all suited up and Michael dropped the hive. It was not his fault. I was about twenty yards from the accident and ran to the door. Leah and Austin kept their cool. Michael ran inside and then the everything went to hell.

Shoka is a mixed breed Shepard/Beagle. When the nuc box fell, Shoka decided to investigate and was reward with a cloud of bees running after him. I tried to brush them off, but it was to late. He had been hit by at least ten bees. I rushed Shoka to the vet. Luckily there was no reaction, the vet told me that dogs do not go into anaphylactic shock. Rather they just swell up in the areas that they are stung. So give them a benadryl to control the itching. It was a real relief to get Shoka back home and find out that Leah, Austin and Michael had everything well in hand. The Russians were safely in the hive and rain started again.

The Home Hive

On Thursday, Michael and I opened up the hive on my parents' property. The bees were incredibly docile and productive. It was amazing that the hive has built out almost two frames and the queen has laid lots of eggs on one of them. In addition, the other five frames were full of honey, pollen and brood. So far the queen has performed very well and the hive is well on its way to an incredible first season. The apple blossoms and dandelions are in bloom and the crabapple is just about ready to flower. The nectar flow is very heavy and the bees have lots of resources to use in the creation of wax and honey. The pollen is also quite high and as I watch the foragers return with pollen baskets full of yellow and orange I know this harvest will become bees in a few short weeks. I’m really looking forward to the rest of the spring and summer.

One Small Step

Friday afternoon Michael, his mom and myself loaded up the truck and headed down to Orwell, Vermont to pick up two nucs from Singing Cedar Apiaries. The afternoon was beautiful and the drive down Rt. 22 was picturesque. The fields were turned over, and the dandelion bloom had begun. Riding over the hills of Vermont you could feel spring and the potential of the land to feed the Champlain Valley and much of the rest of the state. I got lost only once and had to ask directions in a diner outside of Addison. I only wish I could had stayed for a good New England boiled dinner. Like all real Vermont towns, one of the old timers knew exactly where Singing Cedars was.

Singing Cedar Apiaries is located at the end of a dirt road in Orwell. The apiary is located near the house and Roland Smith came out to greet us when we arrived. He was already installing some nucs for another couple of beekeepers. I wrote a check out to Mrs. Smith, took the receipt out to her husband and we loaded up our nucs. There is no doubt that Rev. Smith is a good and righteous man, but while we ordered Carnolians we did not get them. Instead, we got something quite different, a hybrid queen. Frankly, I don’t really care about genealogy of the queen so long as the breeder knows what the genetic makeup of his queens. Genetics and artificial selection are important tool for creating mite and disease resistant, but it is important to know what traits and genomes your working with and keep good records so that you can keep track of the strains that work and those that do not.

After loading the nucs on the truck. We drove home and placed one of the hives behind the cabin in the back yard. Then we placed the feeder on top and circled it with cinnamon to prevent ants from raiding the sugar. We followed the same process in a field near my parent’s house. In both places I marked the level of the sugar water so that we could keep track of their feeding. It was a beautiful day and quite exciting to think that after all the months and planning I had become a beekeeper.

On Sunday afternoon, Michael and I opened up the entrances and checked the feeders. Both hives had taken about two cups of one to one sugar water in the past 36 hours. We started off working on the cabin hive. Looking in the bottom, we noticed a lot of dead bees. I examined them for Varroa none were to be seen. Our guess is that the 25 or 30 individuals were killed in transit or were just old and about to die anyway. One interesting thing about this hive was the presence of some large back bees mixed in with the others. They were not drones. We left the entrance wide open with the idea that bees would clean out the hive.

After a quick drive to other hive, Michael thought it would be a good idea to open up the hive and check for the queen. When we picked up this nuc we did not see her. The inspection told us that the hive was really strong and the after a little searching located the queen. She was a huge gold beast. Then we opened the entrance about two inches and left. There are lots of fields surrounding this location. The flowers are already in bloom so I think that we will have no problems so long as this hive remains disease free.

When we got back to the other hive, hundreds of bees were performing orientation flights and some were even returning with pollen clearly visible on their legs. It was a bit disconcerting especially to my wife. While we have fenced off the apiary to keep our kids and dogs from stumbling into it. The distance from the fence to the hive is about 20 ft. The bees leave the hive and travel upward about ten feet and then zoom off in the direction of their food. I don’t anticipate any problems, but I will keep a close eye on the flyways.

Since Leah and not gotten a chance to work with the bees, I gave her my suit and she and Michael opened up the hive. This hive is also incredibly strong. When they checked on the frames, the bees had even started building foundation on the other frames. I suspect that it will be just a couple of weeks before we need to add another deep. When they looked at the frames they quickly identified another strong queen with good laying pattern and plenty of pollen and caped honey. We were even able to sample just a teaspoon on the liquid gold. Most importantly, Leah loved it. Now my idea of keeping bees in the backyard does not seem so crazy.

We have separated ourselves from the land and the labor necessary to produce food. The only crop that most of us raise today is the grass in our yard. I have taken just a very small step in producing food for my family. Lets hope that this small step leads to others.