Posts Tagged ‘bees’

If you are considering bees as a hobby or as a sideline business, there are things you will want to keep in mind before making that decision. Since there are many factors involved with making money with the honeybees produce, you might want to start doing it as a hobby. There is a significant amount of money in the start-up of beekeeping. Before investing any amount of money in your beekeeping project, you might want contact beekeepers in your area. As a rule, they will more than happy to share their experience with you. Most beekeepers love keeping bees and to them it is just a “hobby”, but they can give you some insight into beekeeping. Take plenty of notes. More likely than not you will need them. In making the decision of becoming a beekeeper, you will want to consider the safety of family, friends, and neighbors. You wouldn’t want someone to get stung that is allergic to bee stings. The best course of action on that account is to ask your neighbors and friends, if any of them are allergic to bees. You will also be able to find out if there might be someone who would not like beehives so close to their proximity. You will also want to check with the county you live in. You will want to know about any ordinances or laws prohibiting beekeeping. You will also want to consider whether or not you have a location that would be conducive to maintaining bees. You will also want to consider where the bees will have to fly to retrieve nectar and pollen. Keeping plants they like close by is not a bad idea either. Since bees need water every day, you might want to have water for them close at hand. You don’t want them visiting the neighbor’s swimming pool. Here is a list of spots unacceptable to the health of the bees. How many months of the year will pollen and nectar will be readily available to the bees? Will you have to feed them in order for them to survive and how much of the year? Is there a water supply available year round for the bees? They need water every day. You will need to consider what will be underneath the bees as they fly to get the nectar and pollen they require. The bees will defecate as they are flying and their feces will leave spots on everything below them. The feces can even ruin the surface of a vehicle. There are methods to use to force the bees to fly at a higher altitude, such as a tall fence or thick tall plants near the hive. You want the hives accessible year round. You will want to avoid low spots for your hives because they hold the cold, damp air too long. You will also want to avoid high spots for your hives because that would be too windy. These are just some of the things you will want to consider before taking on this hobby. During a nectar flow, many of the older workers will be in the field hunting for food. This is the best time to examine the colony.  During the summer more bees will be in the hive and the situation can change, especially between the nectar flows. There can be some robbing going on at this time, which will make the bees even more defensive at any intrusion to their hive. Leaving the colony open for more than a few minutes can accelerate a robbing as can leaving cappings or honey exposed. It will become a necessity to reduce the entrance of a weak colony to prevent stronger hives attempt to rob from it. A honey flow will reduce the likelihood of robbing. The mood of the bees can have a lot to do with the weather or the time of day. On the days of rainy weather, cool temperatures, early in the morning or late in the afternoon will be more likely to make them angry and they will attack.  Always inspect them on warm, sunny days in the middle of the day when most of the bees are foraging. Keep a constant warm water supply for the bees to cool the hive and dilute honey to feed t heir young. They will collect water from the closest water source. If you do not have a constant supply of shallow water for the bees, they will look for it somewhere else, like the neighbor’s pool, birdbath or wading ponds. The bees are more likely to drown in those sources. If you have a water supply for them when they first fly out in spring, they will not go anywhere else for water. Once they find a water source, it is hard to keep them from going back to it. A beekeeper must keep the bees in control every time the hive is open. A typical hive can house thousands of workers all capable of stinging. There are measures a beekeeper can take in the open that he can not take in the city because of the closeness of other people. Smoke is the most important tool for the beekeeper opening a hive. Smoke should be used in moderation, but the smoker should be capable of producing large volumes of smoke on short notice. The beekeeper must smoke the entrance of the hive, under the cover, and periodically smoke the frames while the hive is open. Try not to jar the hive or the frames as that may anger the bees, which will make it hard for a beekeeper to do his work. The beekeeper must work quickly and carefully. By going through the frames several times a year, the beekeeper keeps the frames movable. Remove any excess combs. Using gloves when working with bees make the beekeeper clumsier and he may lose control of the hive. The stings that the gloves are protecting you from are easily removed and the pain quickly passes.

Modern science has allowed us to cultivate a food product that works much better than sugar and is readily available, but the issue is that the production element is seasonal unfortunately. That’s because bees are less active during the cold months and that can slow production down until around late March early April when the flowers officially bloom which makes pollen the plentiful for bees to feed on. Science is a mystery for bees because in some ways they resemble humans by how they sense changes in weather, environment and the organization of how they live resembles a lot like humans. If bees were able to live like humans we would be compatible yet the only thing that separates humans from bees is that the females are not permanently grounded and pregnant where humans only have a gestational period of 9 months and have a choice of how many children they have where bees are constantly reproducing with no break in between since the Queen will mate with 2-3 drones by the temperature of the weather and then she’s inseminated for a good 2 or 3 years and she’ll keep making babies until the sperm runs out or stops producing eggs. The average queen once she’s mated can turn out 2000 eggs a day during the spring run and essentially live for another two years and then a new Queen is reared to take over the colony. Basically Queen bees have the monumental task of keeping the population fresh and all colonies are not the same since different species of bees will live identical to each other, but they may have a different mating pattern and schedule. Humans are about right there, but we have a different way of mating which is done when we feel like it not when the season or weather changes. Queens are identified by their buzzing sound, which is distinct to the sound that drones and worker bees make when they communicate with each other. The Queen’s buzz is more high pitched and she’s constantly surrounded with drones and workers who give their lives to protect the queen and are known to swarm incessantly which kind of falls in the wayside of how the secret service react when the president’s security is compromised and breached they will attack when they feel threatened and their duty is to protect the queen at all costs the way the president has round the clock security from the secret service. That’s how close knit a colony of bees are and that’s the mystery many beekeepers are trying to learn and match with the nature of humans and their interaction with each other. Bees are like one giant family since the majority of a hive is female, but only one will make it as the Queen who rules over the colony to carry on the next spawn of offspring to carry on the lineage of the colony. This is what makes science and technology interesting for bees and the keepers who maintain their homes to bring forth protecting and nurturing an interesting creature that people are blatantly misunderstanding a lot. Bees are like people except they fly and reproduce enough offspring to keep going non-stop for 2-3 years.

Training to be a beekeeper is a time consuming skill that many take seriously because you have to share a passion for something that was once declared a simple hobby to which has joined the billion-dollar food market. The beekeeping industry has come a long way from it being a simple hobby to where it’s going on tables across the world. Many beekeepers that have not been brought up in a family that practiced this are going to have to really learn fast from an experienced beekeeper that has had years of experience from knowing the biology and study of bees and what to expect when they turn out a good product of honey. What many people aren’t aware of is and this may sound kind of gross, but honey is actually regurgitated food because bees not only make honey, but they eat it as food during the winter months since there are no flowers around when it’s cold so it’s a way for them to sustain food through the cold months. It’s amazing that bees have mastered the art of survival during the winter months. Beekeepers also have to keep in mind that certain times of the year there may not be any honey production since bees are most active during the warm months so that’s why many of them are actually farmers since they have to have a way to make a living when it gets cold. This is an expensive hobby and it may look cheap because you can make a box put some slides in them and allow the bees to come there, but the thing is that you have to know where to put the boxes for the bees to build their hives in. You have to train yourself to be knowledgeable in the area of entomology because you have to know what insects will be compatible around bees because some insects will feed on bees, yellow jackets, hornets, and wasps which are primarily mites and are one of the most annoying insects because they’re so relatively tiny that you need a microscope to see them up close. Science plays a huge part in a beekeeper’s training and gaining experience since most people aren’t savvy to science and the elements of it which is important and necessary because you have to have some idea of how to manage bees and what to do to keep their habitat healthy and to keep pests from overtaking the hives and killing the bees. There are a lot of steps involving the proper education and training of a beekeeper and what you’re looking for is someone who is serious and dedicated to a way of life that’s been a tradition in some families for generations. Many people learn through the ranks of great grandparents, grandparents, and parents and it’s just a family tradition and way of life that’s taught to children. It wasn’t even about making money it was actually just one other chore on the farm, but in the years it slowly progressed into a farm staple that was being sold like it was produce, meat and dairy, but it’s still a profitable market anyway you look at it and it’s one of the sweetest things in the world.

No one really knows when the first time someone thought about collecting the honey from hives. We do know that the art of beekeeping has been around for a long time. Archaeologist have discovered cave drawings depicting collecting honey. These caves were found in Africa and Spain’s eastern regions. Archaeologist believe that the cave drawings were created in 7000BC. Most of these pictures show people scooping honey out of rocks and trees but a few of them depict images of humans standing, unstung, in the midst of a swarms of bees. Scientist believe that these early cave dwellers somehow learned that smoke had an interesting affect on bees. The earliest artificial bee hives were made out of pottery, clay vases and bowls, and straw baskets resembled the trees and rock crevices that the bees were drawn to in nature. Early beekeepers learned how to capture swarms of bees in these containers. Once trapped the bees proceeded to turn the containers into a bee hive. Evidence that many ancient civilizations, such as the Myans, raised bees and collected their honey. Aficionados of Roman history know that bees and honey played a role in the Roman culture. The Goddess Mellona, was the protector of the bees. The Greeks also had a great deal of respect for the honey bees. On Mt. Olympus, the home of Zeus, they sipped the nectar provided by the gods (experts believe that the nectar that the Greeks referred to was honey). Greek mythology claims that bees were responsible for building Apollo’s second temple. When he wrote his book, The History of Animals, Aristotle wrote about how bees were able to locate flowers. In the period of time between the 1500′s and 1851 was an evolutionary time for beekeeping. The first critical change in beekeeping happened late in the 1500′s. It was during this time that information was learned about the life cycle of the honey bee. Once beekeepers understood the way that bees lived they were better able to take care of the winged insects. Adaptations to artificial hives started taking place. As beekeepers, agricultural enthusiast, and scientists, yearned to learn more about the life cycle of bees, beekeepers look for ways to design a hive that would allow them to easily see inside the hive. An American, Lorenzo Langstroth, designed the first mobile bee hive. By the time the 1850′s got here the European honey bee was introduced to California. After California the honey bees were introduced to Oregon and Canada. It is believed that there are over 210,000 beekeepers currently in the United States. Collectively these beekeepers keep and maintain over three million active bee hives.

Many areas in the world are producers of honey and beeswax for medicinal and food purposes. You’ll find a lot of beekeeping in the United States, Asia, Africa, and some parts of Europe. Since beekeeping had originated in Europe and had been modernized in the United States, the way it’s done is different and the way it’s taught is different as well. Yet this is a very interesting way to see how different cultures train someone to do beekeeping as a way of life and part of the culture. The cool thing is that honey is used for mostly food in so many cultures that use it in religious and celebratory occasions when preparing certain concoctions or meals and honey is used to sweeten it. Americans are usually in the business of beekeeping to produce honey for the supermarket and for shipment overseas to markets and countries that don’t have beekeeping businesses that is advanced enough to mass produce the necessary amount to ship overseas to stores owned and operated in the United States like Whole Foods Market when they carry specific brands. Most countries overseas don’t have the system the way the United States does to mass produce a single product like honey since we managed to harvest effectively so we can produce enough to meet the needs of the market until the season to produce starts again in the spring since bees are inactive during the winter months and start again in late March early April when the mating season for bees is fresh and flowers are in abundance for them to feed and pollinate on. The U.S. alone turns out the majority of the honey that’s used when they provide to supermarkets owned by American based companies to their stores and restaurants overseas. Beekeepers could be observing hives every 7 to 8 days generally making it the ideal time on the weekend to pass time. Hives don’t need a lot of maintaining just an hour a day between the peak season around May to September. A good season can produce for a keeper 60-100 pounds of honey and depending on how much the buyer charges by the pound that’s what you go by to what you’ll make for every harvest you get. The most common annoyance to beekeepers during their harvesting and maintenance of the hives are bumblebees these are the big ugly black and yellow bees that are seen going through the flowers honey bees have already visited and these bees live underground so they can be an annoyance to beekeepers when they swarm from the ground up. Many beekeepers will move their hives around which is called migratory which is one of the secrets to increase honey production and giving bees a fresh supply of flowers to pollinate and feed from so they can produce different variations and batches of honey. Each batch produced can differ with each pollination or when hives are rotated and bees go to different flowers so that’s why sometimes honey may have distinct taste since it’s the type of flowers available to them at the time of migration.

For most of us, modern life has evolved far away from our roots in nature. Most of us live and work in a man-made, artificial environment. Very few of us have the advantage of working in a natural setting, and few of us even have the privilege of communing with nature on a regular basis.

 And yet, in spite of the barriers of modern civilization, which reduce our contact with the natural world, we all recognize the importance of nature. For the natural world is the bedrock upon which our artificial world of modern civilization rests. Though we may exist in an entirely artificial environment – leaving our air-conditioned homes to travel in air-conditioned vehicles to and from our workplace cubicle – we are just as dependent upon the workings of nature as a 17th century farmer who had to sweat in the sun and grub in the dirt for his living.

 For many of us, finding a way of reconnecting with nature provides a counterweight to the artificiality of modern life, giving a balance to our lives that seems missing without some means of communing with nature. Gardening and camping are examples of popular activities that provide an interface with nature. Another such activity that unfortunately is often overlooked is beekeeping.

 Beekeeping provides an intimate connection with nature. Watching your bees as they explode in population in the spring as they prepare for the summer’s honey production, and then winding down in the fall, ready to face the winter with the stores they’ve industriously accrued, is endlessly fascinating, no matter how many times you’ve watched the cycle repeated. And fortunately, it’s not necessary to live in the country to enjoy the hobby of beekeeping. Hundreds of hives are kept on the balconies and rooftops of most cities; there are even professional beekeepers whose hives are all located within the confines of a city.

 Of course, the production of honey is one of the major benefits of beekeeping. In most seasons, a well-managed hive will produce enough honey to allow its keeper to share in the bounty and still leave the hive plenty for winter stores. And the honey that the hobbyist beekeeper can produce is nothing like the over processed and over filtered substance sold as honey at most supermarkets. Those who have never tasted pure, unprocessed honey straight from the comb (or even better, still in the comb), will be truly delighted at their first taste of honey in its natural state. There is usually quite a demand for raw, local honey, providing a ready market for any beekeeper that wishes to expand the hobby into a part-time business.

 But there is more to beekeeping than the benefits that accrue directly to the beekeeper. Beekeepers – whether professionals with thousands of hives, or hobbyists with only a hive or two – also provide a critically valuable service to society. For a variety of reasons, some of which are not completely understood, feral, or wild honeybee colonies have been dying out in recent years, making beekeepers very important people. Agriculture is highly dependent upon the pollination provided by honeybees, with about a third of the food humans consume requiring pollination by bees. If the bees disappear, so does that food, making every honeybee colony – and every beekeeper – a valuable resource.

 Perhaps more than any other single activity or hobby, beekeeping offers an endlessly fascinating exposure to the workings of nature. And when considering the other benefits of beekeeping: the opportunity to produce nature’s purest and most delectable sweet, the chance to profit from the pastime for those who wish, and the important contribution made to society by those who care for such an important insect, it’s truly a shame that more people don’t pursue the intriguing hobby of beekeeping.

The success of the colony depends largely on the quality of the queen. As a beekeeper you may notice a difference in the production of honey from one colony to the next. The difference in production can depend on several factors, one of which is the queen. Beekeepers call this trait as “queenlessness”. When the queen is in the state does less brood rearing, drone layers and shows queenlessness, must be replaced. When beekeepers spot this condition going on in one of his colonies he will, what is known as “requeen ” the colony.  Requeening is basically introducing a new queen into the colony. Although queen bees can be purchased from commercial beekeepers, but prefer to raise the queen themselves in order to continue with a queen of the strain or stock of previous queens that has produced so much success in his colonies. Purchasing queen bees from a commercial beekeeper does not guarantee a queen of from a good strain. When rearing queens it is best to use larvae that are under 24 hours old. Larvae of this age have not been exposed to the worker’s diet. It is important that the future queen larvae be fed queen jelly. Queens are raised from the same fertilized eggs as the worker bees. When the eggs are newly hatched, they are neither a queen nor a worker bee. Once the hatched larvae is 3 days old pollen is introduced into the diet of the larvae destined to become worker bees. On the other hand the hatched larvae destined to become queen bees are raised in what is known as the queen cell which has been specially built. There are requirements to raising a good queen.  The needs to be an ample supply of nectar and good quality pollen, as well as an abundance of sexually mature, high-quality drones for mating with the newly emerge virgin queens. There must be suitable weather for mating of the drones and the queens. There needs to be a good queen mother to breed from, whose offspring worker bees (and colonies) seem to have the qualities desired, such as gentle temperament, disease resistance, low swarming tendency and excellent honey production. This is a summary of the steps to be taken for queen raising.  A starter colony must be established for the beginning of raising queen cells. A cell building colony must be established. Then there is the grafting of the honey bee larvae. Last but not lest the transferring the mature queen cells to honey bee nucleus colonies for the mating stage. As a starter colony, choose a strong two-story colony that is headed by a two-year old queen. It will be necessary to locate and temporarily remove the queen along with the comb she is sitting on with bees, to a spare empty 8-frame box or nucleus hive. Then the 2-story hive needs to move about 2 meters to the rear of its original site. Now you can prepare the starter colony by placing an empty box with a bottom board and the lid on the bottom of the hive. Four combs of unsealed brood with the adult bees from the two-story hive must be moved to the empty hive. Also place a comb of unsealed honey and pollen with bees on each side of the brood. Fill in the rest of the empty box with empty combs. Take another 2 or 3 other brood combs with extra young bees and shake them into the 2-story hive. Add a feeder of sugar syrup to the starter colony. Since the bees will be what is known as “queenless”, the nurse bees in the starter colony will be stimulated to feed and produce more brood food. Return the 2-year old queen and her comb to the bottom box of the 2-story hive.

The California almond industry is attracting the interest of beekeepers all over the country. The almond orchard’s demands for honey bees is so strong that many beekeepers in Florida have actually defaulted on their contracts with local watermelon producers to bring their bees to the west coast where they lease their hives and bees to the almond growers. Almonds were first found growing a long way from California’s sunny landscape. The first almonds were found in China and central Asia. Franciscan Padres first brought almonds to California in the middle of the 1700′s, before the American revolution. Sadly Padres efforts were unsuccessful. It wasn’t until the early 1900′s that almond lovers discovered that California’s Central Valley had perfect growing conditions for genetically improved almond orchards. Nearly a half million Californian acres are devoted to growing almonds. It is estimated that there are six thousand almond growers in the state. Today, California is the only place in North America where almonds are successfully grown for commercial use. The reason that California is so successful for almond producers is the climate. Almond trees love hot summers and cool winters. Almonds don’t like sub-zero temperatures. Because almond trees are not self-pollinating they require the use of bees in order to produce almonds. Every February, when the almond trees are in bloom, beekeepers set up hives in the orchard so that the growers can enjoy a lucrative harvest. The inability to self-pollinate force almond producers to plant multiple variety’s of almond trees. Almonds are harvested when the split in the shell widens enough for the nut to dry. This typically happens between the middle of August and early October.When the hull is completely open its time for the almond harvest to begin. When its time to harvest the almond crops, orchard owners have the orchards swept so that they are completely free of debris. Once the orchards are debris free, the mechanical tree shakers are brought in . The mechanical tree shakers gently shake the trees. The almonds fall from the trees. The almonds are left on the ground to finish drying. When the almonds are dry they are swept into rows where they are gathered by a machine and deposited in the huller. Nutritionally almonds have a lot going for them. There are only seven grams of fat in one ounce (a single serving of almonds is one ounce). Almonds do not have sodium and cholesterol free. Almonds are an excellent way to get magnesium and vitamin E. Almonds are also a source of Riboflavin, Phosphorus and copper. Seventy-five percent of California’s almond crop is exported.

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.