Posts Tagged ‘wood bees’

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.

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.

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.

If you want to keep bees in a populated area, you will need to know the basics of bee biology, property rights, and human psychology. It can be done with very few problems. Even in a city it is possible for bees to find enough pollen to feed them and produce a honey crop at harvest. Beekeepers in the suburbs and cities need to manage their bees so they do not create a problem for the neighbors. Measures can be takes to alter the keep the bees from becoming a nuisance to other people. To do this we need to understand the circumstances, which cause bees to bother other people. The bees flight pattern is one of the ways bees can be a problem for other people. When the bees leave their hives to gather food, they will fly 3-4 feet off the ground. You can prevent them from crossing paths of people walking in their flight path by planting a hedge or building a fence at least 6 feet tall. This forces the bees to fly above the fence. The hives can also be placed on the rooftop, which starts them out flying at a higher level than most people walk. Fence, hedges, and rooftops also provide seclusion, which is very important. By keeping bees out of sight they will not be the target of vandalism or theft, also keeping bees out of sight will alleviate worried neighbors. To keep the bees happy it is important for their hives have to be in a certain condition. A good location is for the hive to be in full sun all day, shaded bees will be more aggressive. The hives should be dry and the bottom boards angled so that water runs out of the hives. The hives need to be elevated with hive stands to keep the bees off the ground and to allow for airflow to keep the bottom board dry.  Also with the hives 4 to 6 inches off the ground will make it less likely for grass and weeds to obstruct the view. If you live in a congested area, a top entrance is probably not a good idea, especially during the summer. When ever a hive with a top entrance is opened and hive bodies moved, hundreds of confused bees will be fling around because their entrance is gone. This will probably worry you and your neighbors. By providing only a bottom entrance, and working from the side or from behind the hive, the bees are not impeded from flying home even when all the upper boxes are removed. Always keep the equipment in good repair. You don’t want the cracks or chips in the hives providing extra holes for flight. A bee only stings as a defense against intruders that might want to cause harm to the hive.  Whenever a hive is open, the bees are in their most dangerous state. 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.

There are two bacterial diseases that beekeepers must be on the lookout for they are American Foulbrood and European Foulbrood. The American Foulbrood, also known as AFB, is the most serious of the bacterial diseases of honeybee brood and is caused by the bacterium Paenibacillus larvae. This disease is started and can be transferred only in the spore stage. The reason for the seriousness of the disease is the spores can remain alive and last for an undetermined length of time on beekeeper’s equipment. It is highly contagious and spreads easily via contaminated equipment, hive tools, and beekeeper’s hands. The best way to handle the American Foulbrood is to avoid it at all possibilities. To detect the disease examine the larvae. Normal healthy larvae are white, but the infected broods turn chocolate-brown and melt into a gooey mass on the floor of the cell. The colonies will display a “pepper box symptom” as the disease progresses. The “pepper box symptom” is when the bees are capping the cells, the brood capping are perforated and sunken into the cell. When the larvae are brown and have not formed a hardened scale, the symptom of ropiness can be demonstrated. To do this, poke at stick into this mass, moisten it and withdraw it from the cell. The contents will draw out like melted cheese, the ropiness, if AFB is present. As the dead larvae dries, it becomes a black scale that sticks tightly to the cell floor. These scales are difficult to remove and are site for re-infection. A single scale can contain one billion spores. It only takes 35 spores to trigger the disease. These scales are difficult to see and easily missed when purchasing used equipment. If you are around a colony that is extremely infected with American Foulbrood, it will emit a foul odor like a chicken coop. The colony dwindles and eventually collapses as more and more brood become infected and dies. The beekeeper has an advantage if new equipment and tools can be purchased, install packaged bees and maintain them in total isolation from other apiaries, hive collections. Of course this is not realistic or practical, but it always makes good sense to practice sanitation, such as washing hands and hive tools regularly. Avoid using hive equipment of unknown history, and avoid feeding bees honey from an unknown source. It is possible to breed bees that are genetically resistant to American Foulbrood and other diseases. One of the most important characteristics is the disease resistant bees is the ability to detect and remove from the colony abnormal cells of brood. The resistant queens are available from nationally advertised queen breeders. You will find the advertisements in the “American Bee Journal”, “Bee Culture”, and “Speedy Bee”. European Foulbrood, also known as EFB, is another of the bacterial diseases that effect the honeybee brood. There are some differences between the European Foulbrood and the American Foulbrood. The colonies infected with the American Foulbrood sometimes recover from the infection. The symptoms can sometimes be mistaken for those of the American Foulbrood, but there are some important differences. Instead of being a normal healthy white, the larvae with European Foulbrood are off-white, progressing into a brown, and are twisted in various positions in the cell. Larvae with European Foulbrood usually die before they are capped whereas with American Foulbrood die after they are capped. The sanitation precautions recommended in the section on American Foulbrood also apply to the European Foulbrood. Bee stocks that are bred for resistance to diseases can be expected to minimize outbreaks of European Foulbrood. There are times at the onset of a strong nectar flow that the disease will go away on its own. The beekeeper may be able to control the disease by stimulating a nectar flow and by requeening the colony. There is a preventative measure that can be used on either the American Foulbrood or the European Foulbrood, and is periodical treatments of the veterinary antibiotic TerramycinJ. It is fed as a mixture in either powdered sugar, sugar syrup, or in vegetable oil extender patties. It is very important to never feed the antibiotic within four weeks of a nectar flow to avoid contamination honey for human consumption. The use of TerramycinJ in European Foulbrood infected colonies may actually be counter productive because the medication permits those infected larvae to survive when they would have died. These survivors then are in the colony as a source of recontamination. If the infected larvae die instead, the house bees eject them from the hive and with them the source of the infection. The bacterium does not form long-surviving spores that will stay on the hive surfaces. There has been recent evidence of the disease becoming resistant to the antibiotic. One of the suspected causes is the use of the oil extender patties as a method of medicating the bees. If the bees do not consume the patties rapidly, it leads to the antibiotic staying in the hive for weeks or even months. Until the use of the oil extender patties in the 1990′s, resistance was not a problem. Beekeepers are now being told to remove uneaten patties after a month. Sacbrood is a virus infection that is like a cold in humans. There is no known cure at this time. The best preventive measure is sanitation. Comb replacement and requeening the colony is the best response to the infection. Beekeepers do not consider sacbrood a serious threat, however one larva killed by the sacbrood virus contains enough virus to kill over one million larvae. More research needs to be done on the sacbrood virus. It is unknown how the virus is transmitted to the larvae in nature, why severe outbreaks occur only during build-up season, or how the virus seems to return year after year. Symptoms of sacbrood are partially uncapped cells scattered about the frame or capped cells that remain sealed after others have emerged. Diseased bees inside the cells will have darkened heads, which curl upward. The dead prepupa resembles a slipper inside the cell. Diseased prepupae fail to pupate and turn from pearl white to pale yellow to light brown and finally, dark brown. The skin is loose and flabby and the body watery. The dark brown bee becomes a wrinkled, brittle scale that is easily removed from the cells.

As long as you aren’t allergic to bee stings beekeeping is a way for someone who doesn’t have a great deal of money and acres of land to take an active role in agriculture. The start up expense of the average hive is approximately $300 per hive (you only need one to get begin with). Once you have purchased a hive it can be kept in a remote corner of your back yard, it is not uncommon to see some suburban homes with a bee hive. If you are considering starting a beehive the first thing you should do is call your local Cooperative Extension office. They will be able to tell you if you live in an area that restricts keeping bees. They will also be able to give you the contact information of your states beekeeping organization where you can become a registered beekeeper. The next thing you need to do is select a site for your potential honey bee hive. Once you have selected a site for your beehive you will need to go about acquiring the equipment needed to successfully maintain a beehive. Some of the equipment you will need can be purchased used on EBay. If you are unable to find the equipment you need on EBay there are several on-line sites where you can purchase equipment. If you need further assistance finding and purchasing a beehive and other beekeeping equipment call your local Cooperative Extension office or the Federation of American Beekeepers. Before acquiring bees for your hive it’s important to make sure that you are properly protected, this means you have to purchase beekeepers gear. Once your hive is in place and you are confident that everything is in working order it’s time to order your honey bees. The easiest way is to order Honey Bees from an established Apiary. You should plan on placing you bee order early in the winter, the average beekeeper orders their bees in January and February. The order is typically shipped in March and April. Most Apiary’s ship their bees through the U.S. postal service. When the bees arrive at the post office your mail carrier will call and ask that you pick up the bees. Very few mail carriers are comfortable driving all over the county with a car full of young angry bees in their car and most bees are healthier if they don’t have to spend several hours in a hot car. When you pick up your bees they should have been packaged in a special carrying case that is designed just for bees. This package will be a wooden framed “house” that has a screen covering the outside. This packaging allows air to circulate to the traveling bees and keeps handlers, such as post office employees, from getting stung. When you get your bees, do not be surprised if you see a few dead bees laying in the bottom of the package. Traveling is hard on bees and they can’t all be expected to live through the trip. The rest of the bees should be clutching the sides of the container. You will notice that one bee in the container has been separated from the rest of the hive.This is your queen bee. The rest of the bees in the container will make up the rest of your bee hives hierarchy. Some Apiaries ship the queen with a couple of nurse bees. The top of the queen’s container will be covered with piece of sugar candy. You should also see a container that is filled with a sugar solution. This sugar solution is what the bees feed on while they are traveling. Once you get your bees home offer them something to drink. You do this by taking a spray bottle and covering the container with a very fine covering of water.

Beekeeping isn’t just something you go into it’s something you’re raised and brought up in. Most companies that deal with beekeeping and providing beekeeping supplies are family owned. Dadant and Sons, a company based out of Hamilton, IL has been in the business of providing beekeeping equipment and attire for the past 140 years. They sell everything from beekeeping attire from the head to the torso, and even full body suits with headwear. They also sell journals that are published about beekeeping and also selling copies from the archives as well. They have a large selection of books for giving you a short course on beekeeping to candle making since many beekeepers also not only collect and sell honey, but they make things out of beeswax as well like candles. Most family owned beekeepers usually produce the honey and beeswax items on their farms and sell the products they make at local stores. Usually it’s a family business that has been a long-standing tradition. Most beekeeping families have been at this for several generations so it’s not a new thing many families get into with this. A lot of children grow up making this into their livelihood since it’s how their ancestors made their living. Many companies now are in fact commercially owned since so many family-owned businesses are forced out because of the rising cost of running a business and many mom and pop places that were not technologically advanced were the ones who suffered because those who had the resources to invest in websites and tools needed to stay ahead in the business were the ones who made the transition into the 21st century with their businesses. This was a business that began as a simple hobby and just a small way to make extra money on the side or to just have something extra for the dinner table since honey was super popular to be put on hot biscuits and toast for dinner and breakfast since it was used as a marmalade. Honey wasn’t really a huge resource at the time since people used sugar and other things like molasses to put in their food, but when it was discovered that honey was cheap and inexpensive to make that’s when beekeeping had become a hugely popular and profitable business for many families in regions that beekeeping was a widely practiced activity. As a result of how inexpensive it was to produce honey, which became what beekeeping has developed into today. The only issues was in this day and age more pesticides was being used and the problems with having to treat much of the honey that was being made which left a lot of people wondering how safe it was to consume such a product. It was a concern since you have the organic food movement that totally goes against the use of pesticides and any means to chemically alter or treat food or livestock used for food products. Today you have family owned companies at the commercial level that produce honey products and beeswax used in cosmetics and candle making.

Centrifugal extractor is based on the same principal of a centrifuge. The frame is rotated in order to throw out the honey of the super. As a beginner you may be able to borrow one or rent one from the local association. If you are planning on making a purchase of one, you will have some choices to make. You can choice a tangential or radial, plastic or stainless steel, and manual or electric. Let’s look at tangential first. In a tangential machine the frames lie almost against the barrel of the drum. The outer side of the frame is part that empties when spinning. The machine is evenly loaded. Then it spins until about half the outer side has been extracted. You will be able to see tiny dots of honey flying from the frame and hitting the barrel. Turn the frames around so that the other side of the frame is facing outward. The spin the machine again until all the honey has spun out. The frame is turned one last time and spun for the final removal of the honey. This method prevents the combs breaking from the middle being full and the outer side empty. Each frame does have to be handled four times and the machine stopped and started 3 times. The handling time using this machine is a disadvantage; however, the extraction of the honey is more thorough than other machines. It is the most compact extractor available, so therefore cheaper than other machine. If you are extracting heather honey, this is the only type of machine to cope with it. The frames sit between rings, arranged like the spokes of a wheel in a radial machine. The extraction takes place on both sides at the same time, so there is not need to move the frames once they have been loaded. The radial machine is larger than the tangential machine. This is to ensure that the frames are far enough from the center to extract evenly. Because of the size of the machine it is capable of handling a lot more frames than a tangential. In both machines there is not major difference in rotation direction, but the electric radial machines have a reverse position to remove a little more honey from the cells and dry out the combs. The traditional material used in the construction of the machines is usually tin-plated steel. A good quality tin-plated steel will last for many years unless it starts rusting. Once the machine starts rusting there is very little to be done about the rust. The barrel can no longer be used for the processing of a food product. The tin-plated extractors have been replaced with plastic and stainless steel barrels. If you get a choice, stainless steel is more durable than plastic. If you are only extracting honey from two or three hives, a manual extractor will do the job. If you have a considerable amount of hives, the manual machine can become extremely tiring to use. When it comes to making a choice, it may depend on the money available, the stamina and the outlook of the beekeeper. The electric extractor will not only save you labor, but also reduces the time taken. The beekeeper could be uncapping while the extractor is running with the previous load.

One of the most important pieces of clothing a beekeeper wears is the veil.  Bee stings on the face can be very painful and there is the possibility of damage to the eyes and ears. If by chance a bee gets inside the veil, walk away from the hives and remove the bees. Never remove the veil when you are in with the hives. Use protective clothing to avoid getting hive product on your regular clothes, and to protect sensitive areas of your body. Avoid dark or rough textured clothes.  Bees are able to hold on to a rough texture material than smooth material. Wear white or light colored coveralls. If you are not using boots, do not wear dark socks. Boots that fasten over the coveralls or in the coveralls should be worn. A windbreaker jacket will help you to avoid being stung. Pants, veil, sleeves should be fasten securely to prevent bees from getting into your clothes. If a bee does get into your clothing, squeeze it in the clothing or walk away from the hives and open up your clothing to allow the bee to escape. Before handling bees, do not use any sweet smelling cologne, hair spray or any other products. The odor may irritate the bees or attract them. Glove should be used sparingly. Gloves are useful during bad weather or when moving colonies, but gloves can hinder the manipulating of the colonies. Without the interference of gloves, you will find that the bees respond better to a lighter touch. As a beginner you will want to contemplate the number of colonies you want to start out with. Two or three is a good number to start off with because it will give you a chance to compare the two colonies, such as the growth and the production. You can buy this equipment new or used. If it is used you will want to make sure it is in good condition. Also have it examined by the Apiary Inspection Service for any possibility of disease.  The equipment will run you $250 or more.    If you are really talented and ambitious you can build your own hives. Just make sure you have the dimensions correct because bees will build combs where you least want them.