Bees

From Antivist

Revision as of 17:24, 17 August 2007

Bees are kept in boxes stacked in piles 25 boxes should be sufficient Inside the boxes are frames on which the bees make their honey. Frames are made with a foundation of wax impressed on both sides with a pattern of honeybee cells. Bees use this pattern to build their cells. The hives are protected with heavy plastic during the winter. Beeing season begins when the trees and flowers start to bloom in spring. The colony of bees, can be up to 60,000 bees, but there is only one queen bed. To take care of the bees, a bee suit is required, a coverall which fastens at the wrists and ankles tightly. A hat is worn over the head with a heavy veil. A zipper on the bottom of the veil connects to a zipper at the top of the coverall suit. Leather gloves are also worn. A bee sting kit should be handy in case of allergy to bee venom. When the hive is opened, it is heavily smoked with burning twine which makes a heavy but cool smoke. This makes the bees load up on honey which makes it harder for them to sting. A hive tool is used to loosen the seal the bees made between the frames and the box. A healthy hive needs to be fed with syrup dripped down into the hive through small holes. If the frames are empty, a new queen is needed immediately or there will be no honey during the summer. Queen bees can be ordered from a supplier of bee equipment. A record must be kept of each box, detailing what is being done and what is needed. New queen bees arrive in a small cage with worker bees. The queen cage is sealed with a piece of candy. It takes about 3 days for the bees to eat the candy and release the new queen. The bees will be used to her by then and take care of her. When hives are being combined, a sheet of newspaper is put between the cages. They will eat through the newspaper and by that time, they will know each other well enough not to kill each other. Bees work only inside the hive during the first 20 days of their life. Then they begin to forage. They produce only 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey during the 6 weeks they live. Many new bees must be produced during this time to take over his place. A bees makes about 10 round trips from the hive in one day. Bees travel no more than about 1/2 mile from the hive. Dandelions are usually the first flower visited by bees in the spring. Sweet white clover and alfalfa make excellent honey. Clover honey and orange blossom honey is light in color and mild flavored. Honey from things such as buckwheat would be dark and strong tasting. When a colony swarms, about half of the hive leaves, taking the old queen with them. The hive will swarm if it is too crowded - in one season with good care - 9 hives can turn into 56 hives. Queen cells will be made at the bottom of the frames. A new hive or swarm needs a new queen bee. Royal jelly produced by the bees are fed to the queen cells which turn a regular bee into a queen. To prevent swarming, remove the cells with the new queen bees developing, or add an empty hive body with a sheet of newspaper between, or divide the hive into two hives. This is not foolproof but worth trying. A swarmed hive makes no money that year. The bees need a place to store their honey, so you put the 'Supers' (Boxes) on top of the original, and keep stacking the Supers on top as long as the bees keep making the honey. A stack may have as many as 5 Supers on top, but nine Supers is not unusual. To prevent the queen from entering the Supers, a queen excluder which is a piece of plastic with small holes that only the worker bees fit through. This is placed on top of the hive separating the queen from the Supers with small holes that she won't fit through.

A BEE FRAME: is removed to begin honey processing when the Super is 3/4 full of capped honey cells. When you remove the frames from a hive, you also remove the bees clinging to them. To remove a whole Super, you must use bee repellent. A bad smelling chemical which repels bees - called 'Bee go'. You place the chemical face down on a fume board over the Super which drives the bees down into the next Super down into the hive. The the Super can be removed, just by brushing away the last few remaining bees. You must cover up the honey filled Supers to keep bees from other hives from coming over and stealing the honey. They are attracted by the sweet smell. Once bees become robbers, they will invade other bee hives to take the honey.

THE HONEY HOUSE: The honey house has large glass windows and a concrete floor. Along the walls the Supers are stacked. In the honey house, honey is taken from the frames and put into glass jars.

EXTRACTING: First the caps must be cut off the cells using an electrically charged knife. The frame is propped over a decapping tank. (If there is no electricity, you will have to improvise with a regular knife by hand) The wax caps fall down into the tank along with the honey. Not all of the honey falls out however, which must be put into a machine called a honey extractor. The barrel shaped machine has a rack that holds 12 frames. The machine spins like a washing machine tub. The rapid spinning pulls the honey from the cells and throws it against the walls of the extractor. The honey runs down and collects at the bottom where it is withdrawn out through a spigot into buckets. Filters over the buckets catch bits of wax which is not wanted in the honey jars.

NOTE: The scraping from the edges of the honey frame are used medicinally to prevent colds, flu, etc. It is dark and strong flavored, and can be used in tea and is as good or better than penicillin.

AUTUMN CHORES: Check the coverings on the hives to make sure they are secure. Make new frames for the hives for spring use

   Congratulations, Nellie, you are about to join a rapidly growing group. In

fact the bee supply places are having a hard time keeping up with the demand, as gardeners recognize poor pollination and take steps to remedy it.

  In buying old equipment, you don't need to worry about mites. The mites must

have live hosts and when the bees die, they do too.

  Now you will have mites in your beekeeping, if not at first, then soon,

because the infection is everywhere, and drifting drones, which go from hive to hive, will spread them around. So you must count on treating for varroa mites, just as you have to treat your dog for heartworm, fleas and worms.

   Some treat for tracheal mites as well, but I think it is a waste; you just

need to get good stock from a good bee breeder. Then they will be resistant to tracheal mites.

  The concern with old equipment is a disease called American Foulbrood. It is

a bacterial disease that forms spores which can last for decades. If the comb is intact, you can look for scale to identify previous infection. I have pictures on the Pollination Home Page showing scale in old comb, but I just checked and the link is not working. I'll try to get that fixed; it's the one about buying bees, and you can check back in a couple days.

  If there is no comb left, it's pretty hard to tell whether the equipment is

contaminated. If the previous beekeeper was competent, he (or she) shouldn't have had disease, and if he did get a case, he would have burned the equipment.

  If he was just "messing with bees," then he may not have known why the bees

died. You'll have to ask some questions and try to evaluate the risk.

  If you think the guy (or gal) may have had disease, at least burn the frames

and start with fresh ones. The work to cleanse these is just not worth it. Then char the inside of the boxes, covers and bottom boards to kill any spores. You can use a propane torch, well away from any buildings, and keep a hose or a couple buckets of water to keep from overdoing the charring and winding up with just ashes.

  Another note. Sometimes you will find old homemade equipment. See if it

matches up with regular standard equipment. Offsized home-made stuff will make a lot of normal bee management impossible and you will regret the day you started with it.

  The best bet, for beginner beekeepers is to get a competent mentor. These

are best found through local beekeeping associations. You may also have beekeeping classes in the area; check with your county extension agent.

   A good reference for beginner beekeepers can be found online in Dr. Keith

Delaplane's beekeeping course, at: http://www.ces.uga.edu/pubcd/b1045-w.html

  Another reference on garden pollination:

http://www.pollinator.com/garden/gardpol.htm

 You can check at www.airoot.com for "Who's Who in Apiculture" for state bee

inspection officials (usually very helpful), regional beekeeping associations, and bee extension personnel.

  Good luck in your venture, Nellie. Let me know how you do.  You are welcome

to pass along these suggestions to your list.

  And y'all come by the pollination page.