Archive for the ‘Beekeeping Equipment’ Category

From the perspective of spiritual ecology, some of the suspected causes merely stand in the foreground of the disappearing honeybees  -  EMF radiation; GM crops; and diseases and pests  – while artificial incursions of modern bee-keeping on overall hive ecology are recognized to prevail at the root of the issue.

Diseases and parasites, such as the invading Eurasian varroa mite, when looked at in the same light as other modern agricultural issues, actually presents itself as a red herring for anyone in pursuit of the central cause of bee decimation.

While initial losses appear to have accrued as a result of varroa, it is almost certain to be a temporary phase.  The situation is not unlike problems in other areas of modern agriculture.  Using the cattle industry as a choice example, pathogenic forces are not really threatening stocks but, rather, decades of contrivance and intercession by means of antibiotics, hormones, and other artificial “propping up” of the species that have weakened and degraded the overall constitution of the species.  (And let us call events like Mad Cow disease a symptom, not a cause, of the bottoming out of the cattle industry.)

Witness the decidedly hale condition of the bison alongside the debilitated circumstance of cattle.  In a word, predation strengthens a species, and interference with that predation leads to debilitation.  The finest shepherd ever invented, in terms of a keeper for the bison herds, was Canis lupus, the common wolf.

There are times, and this includes livestock, bees, and any other biological form, when a producer has to “take in on the chin” and let the species evolve by allowing the surviving, adaptable members of the population reproduce.  The result will be an enviable level of wholesomeness in both species and product.

This leads to the heart of the matter  -  too much interference.  For example, in a bid to avoid having to work with a species that can become what humankind deems as overly aggressive, we have been cultivating a more “docile” temperament in the bee.  Therefore, unlike its more combative relatives in other parts of the world, who are able to bite at, mutilate, and dispose of the varroa mite, our more passive breeds are not equipped to handle these intruders. 

Time will heal the varroa situation, if we let the honeybee “duke it out” in its own way, under its own terms.  As with most predation, the strongest will survive to carry forth its capable seed into future stocks.

In deference to the spiritual science of Rudolf Steiner, it needs to be said that this modern Renaissance man predicted in 1923 that if humanity continued to cultivate the honeybees by artificial means, we would, within eighty years, witness the mass disappearance of the bees.

Arguably the best-kept secret of the 20th Century, in terms of a resource for social transformation, Rudolf Steiner, in his series of lectures entitled “The Bees,” portrayed the intricate nature of the honeybee community.

In capsule, Steiner warned against both meddling with the natural process of hive society and artificial manipulation of queen bees.

The following list of aspects of human interference with the natural process of bee life, while substantial, is no doubt incomplete:

- The raising of larva in separate quarters, arbitrary feeding of royal jelly to produce queens, then shipping by post to keepers.

- Selection of bee populations for docility, de-selecting for aggression.

- In contrast to the normal 5 or 6-year life span of a queen, “re-queening” after one or two years.

- The grafting of queens -  moving larva to artificial cups, then cages for transport.

- Supplanting guard bees with protective measures by humans.

- Keeping hives hyper clean, to reduce production of “nuisance” propolis.

- Using chemical control agents for disease and pests.

- Providing ready-made combs in place of bee-constructed combs, to save work (production time) for the bees.

- In a similar vein, supplying sheets of wax, so bees don’t have to gather and secret their own wax.

- Use of ventilators so the bees don’t have to tend this.

- Use of queen excluders to prevent eggs being laid in inconvenient areas of the hive.

- Moving of hives over long distances at the will of human intention.

- Clipping of queens’ wings.

- Agricultural practices consisting of monocultures that wreak havoc on honeybee diets, and limiting options once the dominant crop is no longer flowering.

The foregoing list of strategies used to manipulate production demonstrates that mankind is capable of invention.  In fact, we are able to wax clever, even to the point of genius.  However, in this modern era (in which we find ourselves so often losing the perspective of overview, due to reductionism and specialization, among other things) it appears that when we fail to perceive the whole picture, our inventiveness falls short of the masterful way that a naturally developing hive proceeds.

Perhaps there are effective ways to work in harmony with the bees, even using a certain degree of creative intervention.  But just which particular intercessions will time prove to be both wise and productive, in terms of a win-win for both bee and human?

               Who can know, but those who gain utmost understanding of the synergy and multi-dimension of the bee kingdom?

Leo Tolstoy, after his own lengthy study of bees, had this to say: “The higher the human intellect rises in the discovery [of the bees’ aim], the more obvious it becomes that the final aim is beyond its reach.”

The most essential thing we learn from reviewing the Steiner material is that beekeepers would do well to acquire a metaphysical understanding of bees and the complex masterpiece of the hive.

Mystery lives in the hive, and within the golden elixir that is honey, mystery we have yet to, or may never, discover.

Spiritual ecology holds that the first step in addressing an issue pertaining to the realm of nature is to deepen our understanding of the overall synergy of the particular eco-community in question. 

               Meanwhile, the short answer, at least for consumers, is to buy only honey produced in an organic manner  – and by non-interference methods.  Withdraw all support from other means of production.

If you are a marketer, establish non-interference standards and label those products so consumers have a means of choosing.

               If you are a scientist, reductionism leads to reduction in the world of nature.  Take off the blinders that induce you to seek an answer in terms of a virus, pest, or pathogen, etc.

And if you are a bee-keeper, or a scientist, study Steiner.  Try to see the pathogen aspect as a symptom, not the cause, of the problem. 

               Get an overview.

To access the complete article on this issue, as presented by Earth Vision, visit the site:

EARTH VISION

http://www.evsite.net/

Josef Graf

Taking nature to a new level.

Nosema is the most widespread of the adult honey bee diseases. A single celled animal named Nosema apis, a small, unicellular parasite specific to the honeybee, causes it. Nosema cannot exist in a laboratory culture, as with most bacteria and fungi. It will only thrive and multiply in the epithelial cells of the honey bee ventriculus which causes dysentery.  Queens, drones and workers are all susceptible to Nosema. The spores of the Nosema must be ingested for the bee to be infected. The spore takes root in the midgut, where they will penetrate a midgut cell and grow by absorbing nutrients from that cell. The parasite will increase in size until it is large enough to divide in half. Each new parasite will continue to feed on the nutrients of the cell until they are depleted. In a matter of time, about 6 to 10 days, 100 new spores are formed in the infected cell. The infected cell when depleted of all the nutrients ruptures releasing all the newly formed spores into the midgut to start the process again. The damaged intestinal tissue is susceptible to secondary diseases. Dysentery is a common symptom of this disease.  You will be able to spot the dysentery on the outside of the hive by the little brown spots, but the diseased bees will also defecate inside the hive. contaminating combs with millions of infectious spores. The disease is spread to other colony members through fecal matter. Nosema having infected one bee will be spread to others in the colony. The disease lowers the life span of the bees. If you have a colony of bees infected with Nosema in late fall, come spring it is likely that most of the colony will have died off. Nosema is a difficult disease to diganose without using laboratory equipment. Decapitating a bee and pulling out the last abdominal segments usually will remove the intestinal tract while still intact. An infected midgut will become swollen, whitish and lose its visible constrictions. However, other causes of dysentery, such as ingesting honeydew, fermented syrups, etc. can result in similar intestinal changes. Treatment for Nosema is based on the most appropriate times to prevent comb contamination and to prevent the development of disease in bees that clean up fecal deposits from combs while they are still trying to expand the brood nest. A few bees are always infected, but the diseased late season bees are the only one of any concern. If they develop high levels of infection, they defecate on the combs in October, November, and December, and then they die. The use of fumagillin has been field tested by some beekeepers with acceptable results. When treating use the manufacturer’s instructions.

The best way to undertake live bee removal in a home or property infested with bee is to allow professionals to handle the job.  Humanely dealing with the problem of bee infestation in a populated area is a delicate procedure, especially if the invading species is the Africanized bee.  These bees are notorious for their propensity to attack at the slightest, or even without, provocation.  And its territorial instinct is quite extensive, reaching to as far as one mile from its hive.

Another quirk with the Africanized bee is that it closely resembles the relatively more benign European honey bee.  An ordinary lay person will have difficulty telling which is which, making bee removal complicated as there are undergoing efforts to control the spread of the Africanized bee in the American continent.

The experts’ modus operandi after capturing a colony of Africanized bee is to quarantine the hive, and isolate its queen to prevent it from mating with her drones. A queen from the European honey bee variety is introduced into the Africanized colony, and pretty soon a much gentler bee colony develops, arresting the spread of the killer bees.

Some technology is also employed in the professional way of live bee removal.  The more advanced bee control experts use miniature cameras to locate bee hives hidden in voids in home structures or buildings.  With these cameras, there is no need to bore holes in a trial and error fashion to find the invading bees.  Laser thermometers are also sometimes employed to detect the heat (95 ºF) emanating from beehives and pinpoint the location of the colony with reasonable accuracy.

Once the bee hive is located and removed, the bee experts also ensure that the infestation problem will not recur.  They do this by cleaning thoroughly with water and detergent the area formerly occupied by the bees.  This will remove the traces of the chemical pheromone from the bees.  Without proper cleaning or treatment, the pheromone could attract other bees to use the site again.

The same treatment goes for the beeswax that could be hard to remove in hive sites inside homes that are difficult to reach.  A heat gun is the usual equipment of bee control professionals in melting and removing wax in these areas.  If left untouched, the remnants of the wax comb could again attract another bee invasion.  As an added precaution, a bee repellent is applied to the area where the beeswax was attached.

Obviously, a homeowner whose property was infested with bees need to shell out some cash for professional assistance in live bee removal.  But whatever the expenditure, the amount spent should be worth it.  Live removal is a much better way of getting rid of bees in an inhabited area.  Bees have important roles to play in our ecosystem, particularly in agricultural production.   Besides, there are many bee control professionals who fully understand the value of bees and charge very affordable rates.  Additionally, many professional beekeepers are willing to undertake the bee removal for free since they can keep the captured bees in their commercial apiaries.

Remember when insulating the attic was an arduous task requiring fiberglass batts and staples?  And then your wife would say something like, “Honey, why do you spend so much time in the attic?” to which you would reply, “I paid for this damn house, you show me some respect!”  Well, that was a thing of the past now that spray foam insulation is providing a quick, airtight alternative.  Spray foam insulation- keeping families together, just as it keeps heat from escaping through the walls. What is it?Spray foam insulation is readily described as an insulating and air-sealing product used primarily on residential wall and ceiling cavities.  The foam itself is a liquid that contains a polymer and a foaming agent which causes it to expand about 100 times its initial volume once applied.  Therefore, as it expands, it essentially fills in all air gaps, eliminating cracks and spaces that standard fiberglass insulation cannot avoid. The two-component mixture is sprayed from the nozzle of a gun (easy there Dirty Harry, we’re not talking about a .44 Magnum here, but rather a specialized spray foam gun) into wall, ceiling, or floor cavities, where it expands and seals off any remaining gaps.  After it fully expands, you may have to trim or shave away any excess foam that extends past any studs, therefore making your job easier once you’re ready to drywall. There are generally two types of spray foam available: open-cell and closed cell.  If possible, you should shoot for closed-cell (polyurethane), as these types of foam have a higher R-value (construction industry term used to measure thermal resistance).  Whereas open-cell foam might allow water vapor and liquid water to penetrate the insulation, closed-cell foam is non-porous, thereby ensuring that no moisture will penetrate the insulation.  This can be important, as any excess moisture build-up could result in mold. Ideally, if insulation only needs to be administered in several small spaces or in a small part of the wall, you can save money by buying a tank of spray foam from a local contracting company.  However, if the job requires more than a few quick sprays, professional contractors are the way to go, as they should be more readily equipped to handle large-scale jobs that may require other specialized tools. Who needs it? If you’re having heating problems in your house, there’s no better way to insulate than spray foam.  Spray foam also works well in tight spaces, making it an ideal choice for insulating around outlets or on steel framing.  Also, contracting companies such as Green Advantage Insulation are catering to those environmental-friendlies out there by offering a spray foam job that requires no HCFC blowing agents, which contain ozone depletion potential.  And let’s face it, spray foam is fun, or at least a lot more fun than stapling fiberglass batts and blankets.  Put it this way, there’s no other way to explain the invention of cheese wiz, other than that it’s fun to spray.Benefits If you’re going for hermetic sealing (which, if you’re insulating, should be your top priority) than spray foam insulation is considered the best.  It can be applied between joists and rafters, which is a lot more difficult when using other methods.  In some cases, spray foam can be fireproof, most commonly in cementitious foam.  Also, spray foam greatly reduces the risk of mold, mildew, and airborne dust forming within pockets between the walls, as pockets are eliminated (which dually cuts down on trolls and pocket-dwellers alike).  And best of all, spray foam insulation could potentially increase your property value, as it increases structural stability of exterior walls and roofs. RisksWhile spray foam is considered the top method of insulation, you should be somewhat knowledgeable on the subject before you try using it yourself.  There are many different spray foam insulation products on the market, so you should be cognizant of which ones contain open-cell foam and which ones contain the more superior closed-cell foam.  Likewise, you should be conscious of the chemicals that some foams contain, as they can potentially be detrimental to the environment and in some cases, to your household. Also, it is important to remember that if you plan on insulating yourself, you take the proper precautions, such as wearing a protective mask and goggles.  That’s the least you can do, as professionals are often decked out in what look like full-on beekeeper uniforms.  They actually kind of look like Ghostbusters with their zip-up onesies and spray guns/tanks that suspiciously look like proton packs. The bottom line If you need to insulate for any reason, there’s not a better solution on the market than spray foam.  With all the different kinds available, you should be able to find one that suits your needs, whether that means that it’s cheap, it’s environmentally-sound, or fireproof.  Either way, it will seal to airtight perfection.

You will find the adult and larvae of the small hive beetle are found in active beehives and stored bee equipment where they feed on pollen and honey. The small hive beetle is native to Africa where it requires 38-81 days to develop from egg to adult. Beetle larvae on not spin webs or cocoons in the beehive but rather pupate in the ground outside the hive. This first record of this beetle in the Western Hemisphere was determined from a commercial apiary in Florida in May 1998. The small hive beetle behaved as a scavenger of weakened colonies in Africa. They were relegated to secondary pest status. Here in Florida it has not been the case. The apiaries suffered extensive damage and colony loss. Beetle larvae tunneled through combs, killing bee brood and ruining combs. Bees in Florid have abandoned combs and entire colonies once they are infested. The beetles would defecate in the honey causing it to ferment, producing a frothy mess in supers and honey houses. Honey contaminated can no longer be sold and cannot be used as bee feed.  In heavily infested apiaries in Florida, larvae could be seen crawling out of the colony entrances or across honey house floors by the thousands trying to reach soil to dig in and complete their development. It has been cause for some concern regarding the beetles behavior in Florida compared to its behavior in Africa. The following precautions are suggested to help maintain control of the beetle. Make sure the area around the honey house is clean. Extract honey from filled supers as soon as possible rather than let them stand too long. Leaving the cappings exposed for too long is another bad idea. Beetles can multiple rapidly in stored honey, because the honey is away from the protective bees. Avoid stacking infested supers in strong colonies. Notice when *supering colonies are making splits, exchanging combs or use of *Porter bee escapes can spread the beetles or provide room for beetles to become established away from the cluster of protective bees. Watch colonies for sanitary behavior, such as bees showing the ability of ridding themselves of the larvae and adult small hive beetle. Breed queen lines found to be beetle resistant. See if it is possible to trap the beetle larvae as they make the trek to reach the soil. Moving colonies might be useful in keeping a beetle population from growing. The beetle may be adverse to certain soils. In this case fire ants may be a predator for the beetle larvae as they are pupating. Bees will not normally clean-up equipment or supers full of beetle-fermented honey. Bees, however, will finish the job after the beekeeper fist washes out as much honey as possible with a high-pressure hose. By treating the soil in front of the affected hive with a soil insecticide the larvae may not reach adult stage. Treat colonies with Check Mite+ beehive pest control strip according to label instructions. supering the filling of the supers with excess honey Porter bee escape originally designed to clear bees from supers that were to be extracted.

You’ve done your beekeeping homework. You’ve chosen a site for your beehive where it won’t be knocked down in a strong wind, or be bothered by pets and humans. You’ve purchased all the right equipment and are comfortable using it. You’ve tried on all your beekeeping gear and are comfortable that it fits you properly and are confident that you are reasonably protected from bee stings. During the cold winter months you placed an order for your bees and were notified that your bees were successfully shipped. Now you have gotten the call from the post office where a frazzled postal worker has politely asked you to please come and remove your package of angry stinging insects from their work environment. You’ve picked up your bees and noted that other then a few dead ones at the bottom of the container (you should really be prepared for a few to not survive the stressful travel routine they have been asked to endure) the bees look healthy. Now all you have to do is transfer the new bees from the screen container they were shipped in to the hive you have set up for them. Have your smoker handy when you are ready to transfer your new bees from their shipping container to the hive. Also make sure you have your beehive gear on. You should notice a small container within the bee’s shipping container. This small container is where your new queen is being kept. The top of her personal shipping container is covered with a cork. Remove the cork and you will see a second cap that is made out of sugar. Hang the queen’s container in your hive. Your going to want to put it in between the two frames that are in the center of your newly constructed hive. Pierce the top of the candy top with a nail. The worker bees will have an easier time freeing the queen if there is already a small hole in the sugar barrier. When using the nail be very careful that you do not inadvertently stab the queen. You won’t be able to purchase a replacement queen after the winter months. Once the workers have chewed through the sugar barrier the queen will be able to escape into the hive. Once you have the queen in the hive use your smoker and place a puff of smoke into the shipping package. Gently shake the bee’s shipping container, gently allowing the bees to spill out of the container and into the hive. When you are no longer able to coax any bees out of the container, set the container down near the hive, any bees that are still in it will eventually find their way out of the container and into the hive. Make sure you inset a feeder filled with a simple sugar recipe into the hive. Leave your new bees alone for a week. During this week the bees will become acclimated with their new home. The queen will start laying eggs and the bees will start to make honey. Bees like to be transferred from their shipping container to the hive either early in the morning or late evening.

The Original Green Material

In this day and age when the government, industry and environmentalists are calling for “Green Products” – they seem to forget there was a time when all products were Green. That time was not that long ago. If you are 59 years old (as I am) or have access to grandparents or Great-grandparents ask them what they did to live. My father said as a boy they used horse manure, cow manure and chicken litter as fertilizer and picked the bugs off of garden plants by hand and dropped them in a coffee can of kerosene to kill them. Do the words “Organic Gardening” come to mind? The reason for this was they did not have money for commercial products that did the same job. Travel was either by horse or walking - one provided the fertilizer and the other the health benefits that saw most of my Great-grandparents live to reach over 90 years of age. Heat was from wood and it was they who cut, split, stored the wood and kept the fires burning. Meat came from farm raised animals fed by some of the same farm raised crops they ate. Soap you made from animal fat and lye from the wood ashes left over from the heating and cooking fires. Medicine for the most part came from the wild plants that grew around the home and their use was handed down by word of mouth. Sweeteners came from fruit, molasses and honey. Before electricity - Water came from a well or spring and light came from oil lamps and candles. Have you seen anything yet that would not qualify as a “Green Product”? I wish to talk about “Green Products” you can still make and use today that will have the virtues of the products of my Great-grandparents day. You will control the factory that makes the products and its quality. The factory is called a honeybee hive. In my Great-grandparents day either a bee tree was found or a swarm of honeybees was captured and put in a nail keg (called a bee gum) or a home made wooden box to be the source of the hive products. Today there are wooden hives that allow for the products to be removed without destroying the hive or the bees. The original method meant the bee tree was cut down at night (the days before smokers, bee suits and veils that cost money) or the bee box – nail keg open at night because honey bees will not fly after sunset unless it is to a light near the hive. (Usually they crawl at night in your shirt, pants etc. when you don’t pay attention) The part of the hive with the honeybee brood in it was reinstalled in a bee box – nail keg and the remaining bees and queen were eager to go into the container to save the brood. The comb with the honey was brushed free of bees and put in a big pan or pans to take back home where the process of storing the honey could be completed. You could get 20 to 100 pounds of honey depending on how long the hive was there and the physical size of the hive. (I have seen hives in the side of old houses without insulation in the walls - plenty of room for growth.) Back home the honeycomb was cut to fit (usually a gallon or half gallon wide mouth jar) and the liquid honey at the bottom of the pans poured over the cut comb and the jar closed - job finished. (After removing any unwanted items, dead bees etc.) If you wished to make candles – you would hand crush the wax comb forcing out as much of the honey as possible and this was usually put in a strainer to drain and be collected in a pan. The resulting liquid honey would have pollen, some propolis and honey from the hive. This was saved in a jar or poured over the cut comb honey. After the wax had finished draining it would then be washed in warm water to remove the remaining honey from the wax that did not drain out. This honey water could be used for baking, a sweet drink or for wine making. (In those days nothing was wasted that required work to get) The wax was put in a pot of water and heat added until the wax melted and then lightly stirred to let any trash settle out or rise to the surface where it could be removed. Let the water cool and remove the block of wax. Any dirt or trash left on the bottom of the wax can be scraped off with a knife. This process could be repeated as often as felt necessary to make a better final product. You now have the wax for your Beeswax candles. Molds and Cotton wick could be purchased for the candle making process. Or you could use a clean metal container about 10 to 12 inches tall filled with bees wax which was usually heated in a make shift double boiler to melt the wax. This is your dipping container. The wick would then be dipped in the dipping container as many times as necessary to get the desired thickness of the candle. As the wax was used up more was added until you either ran out of wax or make enough candles. If you had a mold you would center your wick in the mold and pour the melted wax into it until full. The mold with the bees wax was then allowed to cool and the wax harden. Then the candle could be pulled out of the mold. Did I forget to mention you would have to grease the inside of the mold to be able to pull the candle out? A little trial and error was always present. Honeybee Wax could be used to make salves, furniture polish, chewing gum, water-proofing paper (like wax paper) and as a lubricant for sticky drawers. The wax had soothing properties for a sore throat and would help open a stuffy nose when chewed. A salve could be made using lard and beeswax. The herb of choice would be heated in the lard and after a suitable time drained through a cloth filter to remove the solids. This lard extract would then be heated with wax added and melted until (with testing) you got the finished product to the desired hardness. This honeybee wax cost nothing but the time it took to process it into a product you had a need for and you knew what was in it.Honey was the sweetener brought to you by Mother Nature’s insect herbalist. Honey poured over fresh mint and left for 6 weeks gives you a honey flavored peppermint patty taste. Medicinal honey was made the same way with the herb of choice used instead of the mint (which is good for digestion). Just think – no doctors, no prescriptions, no drug companies and no FDA just the results you want and the cost is your time. Honey has been used as a medicine before the Romans even dreamed of creating medicine. How To Create Your Own “Green Factory”To create your own “Green Factory” you first do the research by finding a local honeybee club or Beekeeper to help you get started. Most if not all states have a State Apiarist. Find the phone number and he or she can get you in touch with a local club. Everyone there will be more than willing to help you with information. Talk to 10 different Beekeepers and you will get 10 different ways to do the same thing and most likely all 10 will be right. This is a job where what works for one may not work for another. The reasons are varied because of the location of the hives, the race of the honeybees and your thoughts on the subject. The equipment needed can be made by you, purchased from bee companies like “The Walter T. Kelly Company” and “Dadant & Sons” or a complete hive and equipment purchased from a retiring beekeeper. A good reference to have is “The Hive and The Honeybee” from Dadant & Sons. You can also go real basic and create your own Kenya hive. These are all decisions to be made by the President of your “Green Factory”.A solar wax melter is the easiest way to convert honeybee comb into solid beeswax blocks for making your candles. A Pierce Thermostat Knife is a good way to cut the cappings off of the honeycomb so you can use an extractor to spin the honey out of the comb. This way you can put the comb back into the hive, still have wax cappings for your candles and liquid honey for storage and use. Here again it is decision time for the President of your “Green Factory”. How Do You want to run your “Green Factory”? The decision is yours.About Me My Wife and I started our website at http://Jamersonscrafts.com where we sell handrolled beeswax candles and other crafts we make. I also have a blog at http://naturalbeekeeping.blogspot.com where I give a running account of how I started in natural bee keeping, the results good and bad, what I do and how I do it.

I hope I have given anyone who would like to do this a starting point. Where you take it – is your Green Decision. Best Wishes & Good Luck Paul Jamerson

The country is full of apple orchards. Apple orchards are where the apples you buy in the supermarket come from. Applesauce is made out of apples grown in orchards. People who drink apple juice and apple cider enjoy the produce provided by the hardworking orchard owners. Without apple orchards there would be no apple pies. The world would be a sadder place without apple orchards. In the springtime people drive past apple orchards and see tidy row after tidy row of apple trees, their spreading boughs fragrant with the scent of delicate apple blossoms. In the summer they can drive past the same orchard and see the same trees, leaves shining in the sunshine. In the fall those same trees are laden with apples, crunchy and full of juice. In the winter, the spreading limbs of the apple trees spread wide and are blanketed with a layer of glittering snow. When they stop to admire the artistic trees they notice that unlike other types of agriculture endeavors the only time they see anyone working amongst the trees is when the trees are heavy with fruit and the farmers are picking the apples. It doesn’t take very long for the passer bys to start thinking about how easy it would be to own an orchard. When the opportunity to purchase an apple orchard comes along, these people can hardly walk away from the opportunity. The reality is that there is a lot more to owning an apple orchard then picking apples and pulling in money. The casual passerby thinks that owning an apple orchard won’t be much work, the reality is that a great deal of backbreaking labor goes into maintaining the orchard. The trees have to be pruned. The trees have to be sprayed to protect them from being ravished by insects. In addition to caring for the trees there is a lot of general maintenance chores that have to be taken care of. There is also the task of removing the old, unproductive trees and replacing them with young trees. The next thing to consider when purchasing an apple orchard is the size of the orchard. According to the experts an apple orchard has to be at least ten acres large in order to break even. That’s just breaking even. In theory a larger orchard means a larger profit margin for the orchard owner, but a larger orchard also means that the owner will have to buy more insecticide, rotate more trees, hire more employees, and spend more money on the equipment needed to maintain the orchard and harvest the apple crop. Perhaps the biggest error newcomers to the apple orchard business make in the spring time when the apple trees are in bloom. In order for the trees to bear fruit the flowers have to be pollinated. Although the wind can help pollinate the flowers, honey bees are better. Many new orchard owners think that there are enough bees in the wild to pollinate the acres of apple trees. These owners are making an assumption that could harm their yearly yield. Experienced owners know that to ensure they get a profitable harvest they need to work with local beekeepers. They lease the hives and the honey bees from the beekeepers. The hive owners set up the hives in the orchards. The extra bees assist in the pollination.

If the world were perfect, supers would be removed and taken to the honey house, to start the processing. Here is this real world the honey can be left in the super too long. Then you have several dangers to consider. Honey remaining in the super can be subject to robbing, by insects or mice, damage by wax moth, and fermentation. Supers can be stacked in a garage, an outdoor workshop or a room indoors, provided it is clean, dry and protected from excessive heat. Stored honey can be tainted by the odors from paint, chemicals and even cooking. The stored supers with honey are still at risk of dangers from ants, earwigs, bees and wasps. Plus physical and chemical changes can take place in honey that has been in storage for a prolonged length of time. The main factor in honey is the water content. Honey with more than 21% water content with the exception of heather or clover honey is not fit for sale, except for industrial use. Honey when exposed to the air will attract moisture from the atmosphere and in very dry, warm atmosphere, the honey will lose water, and the quality will improve. Sign to watch for are watery honey running from open cells, bubbly honey, and honey weeping through cappings. One or more cells in this condition in a super will not ruin the lot.  You have not wasted your time extracting it for human consumption. However, the bees will readily take it back as a feed, with no ill effects. A honey room for the purpose of processing honey has some requirements. First thing is hygiene; Floors and surfaces need to be washable. A toilet facility needs to be available along with washing facilities. Hot and cold water may not be imperative, but are strongly recommended. When family and friends extract honey only for consumption and not sold on the market, the odd bee wing or lump of wax is not a disaster. However, when it comes to honey for sale, if unsatisfactory in any way, can bring a visit from a Trading Standards officer to scrutinize every part of the operation. If keeping bees and wasps out is a difficult task, to may be worth doing this process at night when the foragers are not flying. After working during the night, all the honey can be packed away, supers sealed and equipment washed before enough bees discover the feast. The thickness of liquid honey changes with temperature- the higher the temperature, the runnier the honey. The lower the temperature the thicker the honey making it difficult or even impossible to remove from the extractor. As a rule of thumb the temperature should range between 70?F and 95?F. The frames will empty quickly and setting or “ripening” is more, thorough. Air escapes easily with less froth, and heavier particles drop quickly. The honey room layout should be planned so that there is an easy flow from one task to the next. Lifting and moving of supers and frames should be minimized. Honey and wax will inevitable reach every corner of the room, floor, door handles, taps-anything touched by foot or hand will be sticky. Throughout the processing, keep handy one bucket of warm soapy water for washing surfaces. This will help keep the mess under control, and another container for washing hands and utensils. Wax is removable with a sharp stick when the room is cooler. As a beekeeper just starting out it can be extremely confusing with all the hives, frames and even bees, and that doesn’t even include the honey extracting equipment.  For a beekeeper with only one hive it may not cost effective to lay out the money for elaborate equipment. It is perfectly practical to enjoy the honey crop using basic kitchen tools. Before a super is put on the hive in the spring, the decision has to be made how to harvest the honey. Cut comb honey is cut out of the frame and packed in 8 oz. and 12 oz. pieces. It is eaten with the wax comb, and is one of the best ways to present honey as aromas and flavors are unimpaired by extracting and heating. Granulated honey in comb is not very attractive to most customers.  To the beginner who does not have access to an extractor, this method is attractive, because a very small amount of equipment is required.  To cut comb honey the super frames should be fitted with “thin super ” or “extra thin” foundation. A whole sheet is usually used for each frame.  A 25 to 50 mm deep full-width starter strip may be used instead. Cut comb containers commonly used can comfortably hold a comb about 40 mm thick. Examine the frame before cutting to decide which side of the comb has the better appearance. Lay the frame on a clean tray, and the whole comb cut out of the frame with a sharp knife. Only the best parts of the comb can be used. The hollow parts at the edge should not be used and uncapped cells kept to a minimum. A sharp kitchen knife, a cheese wire, or a stainless steel comb cutter can be used to cut the combs. All portions of cut comb should stand on a grid to let the honey drain from the outside cut cells.  A piece of comb honey swimming in its container in liquid honey is poor presentation. Because heather honey is a gel it can be packaged straight away. The best storage for comb honey is in a deep freeze, in special plastic boxes, where comb will keep indefinitely. Freezing packaged comb honey will also kill any wax moth eggs and larvae.  Comb honey stored in any other fashion must be examined regularly for signs of deterioration. Another development of comb honey is chunk honey. Chunk honey is a piece of cut comb is put in a jar and surrounded with a clear runny honey, producing what is am attractive presentation. Wax cappings are a valuable by product of extracting. After cappings have dripped dry, wash them in water to remove all honey. Melt the cappings, strain the wax through nylon and pour it into bread pans or a similar mold. Supply companies can render you beeswax bricks into new foundation at considerable savings. An experience bee craftsman accomplishes section honey. Section honey is the finest and traditional way of presenting honey. There are tricks and quirks to this method that demand great attention. If you are interested in learning the craftsmanship of this type of honey presentation, you will have to get specialized books or literature on the subject. It is so detailed it can not be covered and given the justice it deserves in a small publication. It is possible to extract honey without the assistance of a centrifugal extractor, by just using basic kitchen implements to cope with one or more supers. It will be time consuming, sticky and inefficient, but if it means that the beekeeper’s family can obtain some benefit from his or her obsession, it will be worth while. This method of extraction requires that the comb, cappings, cells, and honey to be scraped from the frame. A large table spoon or serving spoon handled carefully will allow the foundation to be left intact, while both sides are scraped reasonable dry. A few holes here and there will not matter to the bees who will patch it up later. The honey and wax should be mashed up in a clean basin or bucket, then tipped into a sieve or similar strainer and left to drain for at least overnight, but possible even for days. The wax left in the strainer will still contain a lot of honey, which is best fed back to the bees, by diluting with warm water, and putting the mix, wax and liquid, into any kind of feeder. The warmer the honey the easier it runs.  So prior to the extracting it is best to warm the honey. A pile of supers with a large amount of honey will not warm up enough by simply bringing them into a warm room for an hour or so. It might take as many as two days to do the job. The moisture content of the honey will be reduced during a warming process. To accomplish the warming of the honey, it is possible to pile the supers in staggered stacks with a fan heater directed towards them. There are some drawbacks to keep in mind. Heating will remove some of the compounds that give the honey its unique flavor and aroma. Prolonged heat can darken and damage the honey. There are tests to be used to distinguish overheated honey. The wax will soften making uncapping more difficult, with cell walls dragged along by the knife. This will happen at 400?C, at 450?C combs will soften and collapse, and at 630 wax will melt. Each frame is lifted from the super with one lug located on a bar over a bucket or tray or tank. The capping is then removed by using a cold knife, cappings scratcher, cranked uncapping fork, or electric knife. The amount of honey mixed with the wax cappings will vary, depending on the method used for the uncappings. The simplest way, is by uncapping into a bucket, basin or uncapping tray and then by gravity straining with a strainer or sieve. A filter bag, tailored to a 70 lb. plastic tank is typically used. The honey left in the wax cappings can be washed out and used for making mead (a honey wine) or fed back to the bees. Using a heated tray while uncapping, the wax and honey can be separated and processed at the same time will cut out a lot of the sticky work. The stainless steel tray has an electrically heated water jacket. Honey will run down the surface, while the wax is held back and gradually melts. The honey and the wax will end up in the same bucket. The wax solidifying and floating on top of the honey will separate the wax from the honey.

Starting a beekeeping business may sound exciting and fun, but in all reality it’s a lot of work and is time consuming. Most people who are in this are actually doing this as a hobby. Having a hobby and a livelihood are two entirely different areas since one is something you invest time and in some cases money and one is when you’re trying to make a living at. Beekeeping is like farming you have to stay on top of the market demands and be technologically savvy because much of the business is going to depend on how fast you can produce a single product. Yet this is where you’re going to learn that beekeeping isn’t even like that because if you expect to make a profit you would have had to have been in the business for a long time and following the trends on what the market demanded of the time. Today if you don’t even have a website consider yourself a fossil in the area of business because that’s your only link to the rest of the world by having a website or even a page. Most of the companies today are commercialized because the small businesses today are just not equipped to handle the mass production of honey and small businesses won’t make a lot giving the fact you are paid by the pound and the average amount after weighing the whole season isn’t a whole lot. Commercial beekeepers average a couple thousand pounds, but farmers have to really push production if they want to average at least $15-30 a year. This is a competitive field to be selling honey and producing beeswax products since the beekeeping industry doesn’t function as a co-op like many organic farmers do in this day and age where they work together beekeeping is sub-contract work and many of these small businesses are sub-contracted by these major corporations to produce honey under their label and their food line. Sub-contracting may sound good and all, but you are also competing for these contracts as well with other small businesses and the high risk is that you can lose your contracts if the companies who hire you aren’t happy with something for whatever reason it could be the quality of the product to anything. That’s why this is a risky business to get into because you never know what the outcome is and how the market will fair during the season since this is what a beekeeper bases their financial output by which is how much they anticipate to make on a seasonal basis. Beekeepers almost have to base their financial gain through good weather and season with the market demand, but you can’t always predict good weather, which is what many worry about. They have more to worry about than crop farmers since they can make the difference when they get rain and lower climate suitable to the food they’re growing. Beekeeping is dependent on the activity of the bees and how well they produce honey since bees produce in certain climates and temperatures. If you’re expecting to thrive in this business understand that it’s a lot of work and a lot of time invested into making this work for the long run.