(Natrona County, Wyo.) – Thursday afternoon we took a trip out of city limits to get an inside look at some buzzing honey bees at the ‘Belden Colony’.
We met with thirty year beekeeper, Tate Belden who showed off his hobby bee hives and schooled us up on the art of bee keeping.
Beekeeper Belden currently has four hives at his residence in Paradise Valley, where he and his wife work with the bees about once a week.
“The traditional way to do it, bee keeping, is to have one Queen per hive, but the hives as a whole create a colony of bees,” said Belden.
Upon first arrival we ventured out to his backyard where the bees buzzed and congregated towards Belden, not sure if this was because they knew their owner was home, or if it was his long black beard and black shirt.
Belden advised us not to stand in front of the hives, blocking the entrance because this would stir up the little guard bees and sent them into attack mood.
We then went back inside for another dose of bee info.:
- Keep calm and bee on.
- The different types of honey bees: guard bees, drones, workers and queens.
- Burr Combs vs Honey Combs- Burr combs are the baby bees and honey combs are where the honey and food are stored.
- Bee keepers always want more Burr combs to produce more honey.
He then discussed the inspection procedure that he was doing today, which he does about once a week.
“Today we are going to be inspecting the hives. Looking at the health of the bees and the health of the colonies. I look for sick bees and work to rid the hive of invasive predators like yellow jackets. Today I also want to look at one of the hives and see if they have produced a new queen, and I am hopeful for some new burrs.”
We then dawned our white bee suits and bee veils and Belden stoked up his smoker.
We first used the smoker to calm the bees, and then he took the lid of the first hive to reveal the ten waxy combs, covered in bees.
Belden reported that each hive has around 3-4,000 bees give or take, and his first hive had two boxes of ten frames so twenty combs in the first hive.
Once revealed, Belden showed us the difference between the honey combs, full of honey, and the burr combs, full of new life.
“It’s okay ladies, no need to get worked up,” Belden soother the worker bees who began to get frantic.
After inspecting the hive he closed it up and moved on to the next hive, which was three boxes high with thirty frames. This hive showed more burr than honey combs and this excited Belden.
“This is great too see, this is what we are looking for the new burrs.”
He then noticed that the bees had begun to build combs along the outside of the frame, this really excited Belden as he scraped away the juicy honey and called it, “the beekeepers secret or snack”.
“This is the best honey they make. Straight from the comb. It is a bee keeper’s secret.”
(We tasted the honey, it was Amazing!)
One of his hives remained Queen less, and this led to more Drone (males bees) being produced, which is a negative in the bee keeping world. Belden showed us a ‘pocket’ where it appeared a Queen was being produced and he was hopeful that the hive would produce a ruling Queen soon.
At this point, Belden considered and discussed merging two of his hives together. Bringing the Queen less hive into a hive with a thriving Queen, but he elected that as a next week project.
Belden also pointed out an old worker bee, (out of all the bees flying around he picked out the old lady).
“See this one, all of the fuzz on its back has worn off and it is moving much slower than the rest. This is an old lady who has been in the hive for a long time.”
He also pointed out the pollen on the legs of the worker bees, bright yellow dots hanging on to their haunches.
Belden also attacked a troublesome yellow jacket in the hive with his hive tool and the worker bees took care of the rest.
“Once I injure the yellow jacket, it releases a pheromone that signals danger to the honey bees, and the workers will take it out.”
(It was awesome to see the honey bees buzz in and drag the yellow jacket down into the ‘dungeon’ of the hive.)
Belden then inspected his tallest hive, five boxes high, and told us that the largest hive he has witnessed is eight high.
He checked the hive and reported that everything was looking good and he closed up shop. All is an afternoons work.
Belden also showed us his yellow jacket trap, which was very interesting.
“The trap captures the yellow jackets and they die inside. It is the smell of death that brings the other jackets into the trap. Kind of cynical if you think about it.”
Beekeeper Belden invites the community, home schoolers, or first time bee keepers to come out for a day of education.
To learn more about Tate Belden and bee keeping visit the Natrona County Beekeepers Association website.
See photos and video below, more at Oil City Instagram.