10 ms·

Bees really are "magic" as per the article. I've been beekeeping for 3 years now and I love it. Working with such programmable insects is almost like watching a

by Qworg 13y ago

Bees really are "magic" as per the article. I've been beekeeping for 3 years now and I love it. Working with such programmable insects is almost like watching automata at work. Via simple inputs, complex behavior. I recommend any one, but programmers especially, try keeping bees.

makmanalp 13y ago
This sounds very interesting and fun. Are there any resources you could recommend on the inputs / behavior?
- Qworg 13y ago
  Resources? That's hard to say - I'm not sure others address keeping bees like I do. I can offer a few examples. Varrora Destructor is a mite that afflicts colonies - it is voracious and a pain to get rid of. One of the best non-chemical ways to treat a colony is to dust it with powdered sugar or lay petroleum jelly in dishes out. The bees, once dusted, trigger their cleaning behaviour - they begin grooming themselves to get rid of the sugar. This also dislodges the mites. The jelly works the same trigger, except requires the bees normally clean themselves, spreading the jelly all over themselves, which makes the mites unable to stick. Both of these behaviours can be enhanced by breeding "hygienic bees" - bees that groom themselves more often and quickly rid the hive of dead/dying bees and larvae. Bees, when hungry, will eat sugar syrup to survive. You can feed your bees to get them through the winter or other dearths in nectar supply. However, bees will automatically stop taking syrup when the nectar returns - you can always tell when things are blooming enough because they'll ignore your offered syrup. You can also add essential oils to your syrup to increase uptake - lemongrass and peppermint. People think the queen controls the hive - in truth, nobody is in control. If the workers think the queen is failing, they'll start raising a new queen, then kill the old queen (or let the new queen do it). Bees that are placed in a hive that is not their own will "switch sides" to the new hive within a few hours to days after being placed nearby - the pheromones the queen gives off links them together.
- Qworg 13y ago
  Another that I forgot about. Scientists are making progress on hacking bees' pheromones directly: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22606797 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22606797 An 84.3% increase in honey production. That said, I don't think there's any research on long term impacts.
winter_blue 13y ago
Well, can you make $50-$100/hour by keeping bees? :P
- tedivm 13y ago
  I have a ton of hobbies that don't involve me making money- it's this new thing I've heard about called "work life balance". I highly recommend it.
  - mikevm 13y ago
    What is this "life" you speak of?
  - vena903 13y ago
    Hobbies are only useful if you actually have time to enjoy them.
- durkie 13y ago
  It'd be worth a calculation. Every single beekeeping book has a chapter on selling honey, because all beekeepers are flush with it. When you consider that most of the "hours" spent making honey are spent by the bees, I could see making $50-$100/hr (but not necessarily translating that to $100-$200k/year)
  - Qworg 13y ago
    This is very true. You'll never make that much as a hobby beekeeper. The real money is in pollination. That said, the hours worked calculation for me last year was $650 / 10-15 hours or so.
  - winter_blue 13y ago
    > most of the "hours" spent making honey are spent by the bees I take this as a confession of guilt in the enslavement of poor unwitting bees. Nobody told 'em a bunch of humans were gonna steal their booty. And to top it off, they don't get pissed and stop making -- we steal, and they just still keep making more for us to steal... ;)
npinguy 13y ago
What are your thoughts on the whole [Colony Collapse Disorder](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_collapse_disorder http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_collapse_disorder)? Have you noticed an impact to your work? As a side question, do you think bees are treated ethically by the industrial farming complex? Does that question even apply to bees? Not coming in with preconceived judgements, I'm genuinely curious
- moens 13y ago
  As a beekeeper and an interested party: CCD: I believe that CCD is primarily caused by increased pesticide usage, glyphosate being the most common. Are bees treated ethically by big farms: I believe the better question is, "Is our philosophy of farming unethical for any participant?" If the answer is yes (for even one identifiable participant), then I find that it will be unethical for every participant. Answer: optimize for sustainability, not for production alone. Does the ethical treatment q relate to bees? Absolutely. See these movies... they are pretty one sided, but should be of interest: Queen of the Sun & More Than Honey
  - jacquesm 13y ago
    Not sure why you were downvoted.
  - specialist 13y ago
    ...then I find that it will be unethical for every participant. Well said. I like the cliche: If any of us are oppressed, then none of us are free.
  - robbiep 13y ago
    Glyphosphate isn't a pesticide, it's a herbicide
    - kvb 13y ago
      I believe "pesticide" traditionally encompasses both herbicides and insecticides.
vanderZwan 13y ago
> programmable insects Sounds like a fun topic for a blog of the "updates once or twice a year with results from the latest experiments"-kind. Can you share some examples of programming that you did that the average beekeeper wouldn't think of?
sbirchall 13y ago
Odd question, but have you ever tried training your bees? I've read articles on the prospect of using bees to scan for chemical compounds in such a way so as to detect drugs/explosives/illness and I would really like to hear first hand from someone who has some experience in this field. Also... quantum bees[1]!? [1: http://discovermagazine.com/1997/nov/quantumhoneybees1263 http://discovermagazine.com/1997/nov/quantumhoneybees1263]
- Qworg 13y ago
  I have not. Frankly, I feel like I've just scratched the surface. There's a HUGE body of knowledge in beekeeping and very little of it is passed via what you'd consider a standard method - instead, you get a mix of anecdotes, best practices and "common sense". Now there ARE beekeeping papers, but many of them are studies of colonies in the field, not prescriptive.
johnvschmitt 13y ago
And, they are so cute, busily working to help us. (Maxwell's demons were likely inspired by bees). Anyway, I have a big organic wildish garden, & I notice a big variety of pollinators (as large as my thumb almost, in orange or black, to as small as grain-of-rice size, banded & hovering). Yes, commercially, we rely too much on one species, but at least in Silicon Valley, I do notice we have a diversity of pollinators healthy & thriving, just as we have a diversity of smart people from around the world doing the same. If only those engineers could make honey. (Actually, never mind about that. I do NOT want your honey, only the bees please)
- Qworg 13y ago
  Other bee types are great. The easiest way to "keep bees" is to drill some holes in a board for mason bees to live in. They prefer being kept near muddy/mucky ground. http://www.parentmap.com/article/keeping-mason-bees-10-expert-tips-for-families http://www.parentmap.com/article/keeping-mason-bees-10-exper...
bitwize 13y ago
I'm reminded of Feynman playing with ants...
SeanDav 13y ago
I have always been fairly fascinated by bees and kept 3 hives for a while. I got stung twice and each time had more swelling and pain than before, so I decided that risking life and limb to keep bees was probably not worth the risk and donated my hives to the local bee-keepers club. I did do a bit of research but it seems unclear if getting stung more times would eventually give me near immunity, or flare into anaphylaxis. Anyone with experience on this is welcome to chime in.
- Qworg 13y ago
  As far as I understand, it can go either way. But that's almost purely anecdotal (like much in the bee world).

by Qworg 13y ago

makmanalp 13y ago

This sounds very interesting and fun. Are there any resources you could recommend on the inputs / behavior?

Qworg 13y ago
Resources? That's hard to say - I'm not sure others address keeping bees like I do. I can offer a few examples. Varrora Destructor is a mite that afflicts colonies - it is voracious and a pain to get rid of. One of the best non-chemical ways to treat a colony is to dust it with powdered sugar or lay petroleum jelly in dishes out. The bees, once dusted, trigger their cleaning behaviour - they begin grooming themselves to get rid of the sugar. This also dislodges the mites. The jelly works the same trigger, except requires the bees normally clean themselves, spreading the jelly all over themselves, which makes the mites unable to stick. Both of these behaviours can be enhanced by breeding "hygienic bees" - bees that groom themselves more often and quickly rid the hive of dead/dying bees and larvae. Bees, when hungry, will eat sugar syrup to survive. You can feed your bees to get them through the winter or other dearths in nectar supply. However, bees will automatically stop taking syrup when the nectar returns - you can always tell when things are blooming enough because they'll ignore your offered syrup. You can also add essential oils to your syrup to increase uptake - lemongrass and peppermint. People think the queen controls the hive - in truth, nobody is in control. If the workers think the queen is failing, they'll start raising a new queen, then kill the old queen (or let the new queen do it). Bees that are placed in a hive that is not their own will "switch sides" to the new hive within a few hours to days after being placed nearby - the pheromones the queen gives off links them together.
Qworg 13y ago
Another that I forgot about. Scientists are making progress on hacking bees' pheromones directly: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22606797 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22606797 An 84.3% increase in honey production. That said, I don't think there's any research on long term impacts.

winter_blue 13y ago

Well, can you make $50-$100/hour by keeping bees? :P

tedivm 13y ago
I have a ton of hobbies that don't involve me making money- it's this new thing I've heard about called "work life balance". I highly recommend it.
- mikevm 13y ago
  What is this "life" you speak of?
- vena903 13y ago
  Hobbies are only useful if you actually have time to enjoy them.
durkie 13y ago
It'd be worth a calculation. Every single beekeeping book has a chapter on selling honey, because all beekeepers are flush with it. When you consider that most of the "hours" spent making honey are spent by the bees, I could see making $50-$100/hr (but not necessarily translating that to $100-$200k/year)
- Qworg 13y ago
  This is very true. You'll never make that much as a hobby beekeeper. The real money is in pollination. That said, the hours worked calculation for me last year was $650 / 10-15 hours or so.
- winter_blue 13y ago
  > most of the "hours" spent making honey are spent by the bees I take this as a confession of guilt in the enslavement of poor unwitting bees. Nobody told 'em a bunch of humans were gonna steal their booty. And to top it off, they don't get pissed and stop making -- we steal, and they just still keep making more for us to steal... ;)

npinguy 13y ago

What are your thoughts on the whole [Colony Collapse Disorder](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_collapse_disorder http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_collapse_disorder)? Have you noticed an impact to your work? As a side question, do you think bees are treated ethically by the industrial farming complex? Does that question even apply to bees? Not coming in with preconceived judgements, I'm genuinely curious

moens 13y ago
As a beekeeper and an interested party: CCD: I believe that CCD is primarily caused by increased pesticide usage, glyphosate being the most common. Are bees treated ethically by big farms: I believe the better question is, "Is our philosophy of farming unethical for any participant?" If the answer is yes (for even one identifiable participant), then I find that it will be unethical for every participant. Answer: optimize for sustainability, not for production alone. Does the ethical treatment q relate to bees? Absolutely. See these movies... they are pretty one sided, but should be of interest: Queen of the Sun & More Than Honey
- jacquesm 13y ago
  Not sure why you were downvoted.
- specialist 13y ago
  ...then I find that it will be unethical for every participant. Well said. I like the cliche: If any of us are oppressed, then none of us are free.
- robbiep 13y ago
  Glyphosphate isn't a pesticide, it's a herbicide
  - kvb 13y ago
    I believe "pesticide" traditionally encompasses both herbicides and insecticides.

vanderZwan 13y ago

> programmable insects Sounds like a fun topic for a blog of the "updates once or twice a year with results from the latest experiments"-kind. Can you share some examples of programming that you did that the average beekeeper wouldn't think of?

sbirchall 13y ago

Odd question, but have you ever tried training your bees? I've read articles on the prospect of using bees to scan for chemical compounds in such a way so as to detect drugs/explosives/illness and I would really like to hear first hand from someone who has some experience in this field. Also... quantum bees[1]!? [1: http://discovermagazine.com/1997/nov/quantumhoneybees1263 http://discovermagazine.com/1997/nov/quantumhoneybees1263]

Qworg 13y ago
I have not. Frankly, I feel like I've just scratched the surface. There's a HUGE body of knowledge in beekeeping and very little of it is passed via what you'd consider a standard method - instead, you get a mix of anecdotes, best practices and "common sense". Now there ARE beekeeping papers, but many of them are studies of colonies in the field, not prescriptive.

johnvschmitt 13y ago

And, they are so cute, busily working to help us. (Maxwell's demons were likely inspired by bees). Anyway, I have a big organic wildish garden, & I notice a big variety of pollinators (as large as my thumb almost, in orange or black, to as small as grain-of-rice size, banded & hovering). Yes, commercially, we rely too much on one species, but at least in Silicon Valley, I do notice we have a diversity of pollinators healthy & thriving, just as we have a diversity of smart people from around the world doing the same. If only those engineers could make honey. (Actually, never mind about that. I do NOT want your honey, only the bees please)

Qworg 13y ago
Other bee types are great. The easiest way to "keep bees" is to drill some holes in a board for mason bees to live in. They prefer being kept near muddy/mucky ground. http://www.parentmap.com/article/keeping-mason-bees-10-expert-tips-for-families http://www.parentmap.com/article/keeping-mason-bees-10-exper...

bitwize 13y ago

I'm reminded of Feynman playing with ants...

SeanDav 13y ago

I have always been fairly fascinated by bees and kept 3 hives for a while. I got stung twice and each time had more swelling and pain than before, so I decided that risking life and limb to keep bees was probably not worth the risk and donated my hives to the local bee-keepers club. I did do a bit of research but it seems unclear if getting stung more times would eventually give me near immunity, or flare into anaphylaxis. Anyone with experience on this is welcome to chime in.

Qworg 13y ago
As far as I understand, it can go either way. But that's almost purely anecdotal (like much in the bee world).