Show Page 9 Student Life Monday May 17 1976 Beekeeping a stinging class since 947 - by Valerie Sagers Beekeeping is one of the sweet- er classes being taught at USU once students get used to the stimulating aspects of the course The class Entomology 191 has been taught by William Nye of the USDA Agricultural Research service since 1947 Sixteen students are enrolled in the daytime class and nine are in the night class “When you are going to keep bees you should expect that you are going to get stung sometime” said Nye “You should get stung enough times to become immune to the stings so they have no effect other than a little hurt and swelling” First 50 Worst Nye said the first 50 stings are the worst then after that beekeepers no longer have adverse effects At last week’s night session Nye showed the class how to rotate colonies The bee colonies are located in a yard behind the Ag Science building and look like stacks of white crates The crates are called supers and the honeybees live inside of them Before Nye began the demonstration he set out veils and gloves for the more timid students of the class “I like to go into the colonies without gloves or veil to show students bees can be kept under control” Nye said “But the veil does keep the bees out of your hair and away from the face Right in back of the ear is the most tender place to be stung” ASUSU 1 Nye said the hive tool and smoker are the most valuable tools for the beekeeper The smoker is a can with fire in the smoke disarms the hive entrance because bees will move away from the smoke The hive tool is used somewhat like a big pair of tweezers itid or 5 Keepers Nye said the cost of keeping two colonies is between $200 and “In Cache Valley there are perhaps four of five keepers who make a living from the keeping of bees” he said “There are probably several hundred residents who have one or more colonies $300 including equipment After a colony has been established it can return 50 or more pounds of honey a year plus one or two pounds of wax He said the price of extracted honey is $50 a 4 pound and wax is $1 a pound “The university gets anywhere from 60 to hundred pounds of honey per colony” he said The honey is sold through the entomology club which gets 10 percent of the returns The rest of the funds goes to the maintenance of the bees themselves Slow Movements “Always work with slow deliberate movements” said Nye while one of the keepers-to-b- e fished out a bee from his chest a scraped a stinger off his shirt “If you get stung use your fingenail or hive tool the stinger” Nye said “If you pull it out you’ll inject the poison into your body” He said that honeybee colonies should be rotated once every two weeks to give the bees room to lay eggs store nectar and pollen and prevent swarming Swarming is when the old queen bee had half of the others set up a new hive somewhere else This is the natural reproductive method for the insects Nye said out that there are over 5000 different species of bees in the US and 500 different kinds are found on alfalfa fields as pollinators of alfalfa to From Nye worked principally with honeybee behavior and pollination research Since 1972 he' does wild bee research will pollination of agricultural crops He has helped in the authorship of 74 publications on the subject 1947 — ASUSU — - — iss ' Mm iSa mw SSli mm Jmi h' fit I 7 SI ails V 1972 ASUSU v ' 'sat Photo by McCune Castleton Beekeeping Entomology 191 taught by William Nye of the USDA Agricultural Research vice has 25 students enrolled -"- STAB ASUSU — ASUSU — Ser- ASUSU P 0) cto c pw c(A c p (A cto G P (0 cm c c(A c I ASUSU — ASUSU -- ASUSU — ASUSU — ASUSU — ASUSU — ASUSU |