Beekeeping Basics

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Basic Beekeeping
Beekeeping basics: Keeping honey bees is a fascinating and profitable pastime that can
be enjoyed in several ways. You may want to keep bees for the honey they produce, or
you may want to keep them for their services as pollinators, or just because you would
like the fun of learning about one of nature's most interesting insects.
You can keep honey bees almost anywhere in the United States. We would like to alert
you to the fact that keeping bees is not for everyone. If you have had an allergic reaction
to a stinging insect such as wasp or bee, you should use extreme care. A single honey
bee sting can bring on serious reactions to some people -- even causing death. Normal
reactions include: pain, and swelling at the sting site. The good news is that one can wear
protective equipment designed to avoid bee stings.
Basic facts about honey bee biology::::::
Honey bees are social insects. This means that they live together in a colony and
depend on each other for survival.
Most of the bees in a colony are workers. Some are drones whose function is to mate
with a virgin queen. Usually there is only one queen in a colony.
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Worker bees are sexually underdeveloped females.
They may number as many as 60,000 in a colony. The
population of a colony depends on a number of factors
such as: the egg laying ability of the queen, the space
available in the hive (area where the bees live) and the incoming food supply.
They are called workers because that is what they do. They collect food and water
for the colony, build wax comb, do the housework, maintain the interior
temperatures of the hive and guard the hive against intruders [in other words:
they can sting]. Female worker bees under certain conditions can lay eggs but
because they are not mated, they produce eggs that only develop into drones.
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Drones are the males in the colony. Note the general shape of the drone. Notice
two things: 1) the head is large and the eyes predominate the head and 2) the rear-
end of the drone is rounded [they have no stinger and can not sting]. Although
they are usually considered worthless, they contribute to the continuation of one
generation to the next generation. The worker bees usually determine the number
of drones that can be found in a colony. A strong healthy colony may have as
many as 300 or more drones. As winter approaches, the workers drive the drones
from the hive to starve.
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The queen is a mature female. She lays thousands of eggs during her life time.
A good queen may lay over 2000 eggs in a single day. A queen has the longest
live span in the colony living for up to five years. She is larger than the other
bees in the hive and has a slim torpedo shape. She does have a stinger, but uses it
to kill other queens. I have handled thousands of queens and have never been
stung by one.
Bee Strains
As a beginning beekeeper you should know that there are three primary strains of
bees kept in the United States. If you are wanting to purchase bees, these three strains are
what most breeders offer. These are:
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Italian -- This strain of bees was imported to the U.S. from Italy during the
1860's. It has proven to be a rather hardy bee, industrious, relatively gentle, and
yellow in color. Historically, before the Italian was introduced to the U.S. the
German Black Bee predominated but because of the outstanding characteristics of
the Italian, beekeepers rapidly switched and the German Black Bee is no longer to
be found in the U.S. for sale.
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The Caucasian strain is a gentle bee grey to black in color. They have a tendency
to use an excessive amount of propolis. (Propolis is called bee glue - it is a
gummy substance collected by bees from trees and is used to seal holes and
spaces in their hive).
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The Carniolan strain is one of the more popular bees in current use today. It is a
black bee and is very gentle. Its outstanding characteristic is that it seems to adapt
very well to colder climates. You may see terms like "Russian", New World
Carniolan or "Yugo". These bees are Carnolian strains.
What bees need:
Honey bees need shelter, nectar, pollen, propolis, and water.
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Shelter -- In nature, the honey bee uses a number of natural cavities to build their
brood nest. The term "Bee Tree" was once common. It referred to a tree that had
a colony/swarm of bees living in it. The reason we can keep bees is because
honey bees will adapt to man made hives for shelter.
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Nectar -- Bees can't make honey without nectar (nectar is the liquid sugary
substance produced by flowers). Hundred of plants produce nectar but they are
not all major sources of honey. Often we refer to honey as "wild flower honey".
What that means is that the honey produced by the bees comes from a number of
nectar sources. However, bees do produce crops of honey from certain major
nectar sources and these are easily identified by taste and color-- examples
include: buckwheat, clover, fireweed, goldenrod, locust, tulip popular, tupelo,
sage, sourwood, star thistle just to mention a few.
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Pollen -- As worker bees gather nectar from flowers, tiny particles of pollen stick
to their bodies and are accumulated in pellets on their hind legs. The hind legs are
equipped with pollen baskets (hairs and special structures on the bees leg) to carry
the pollen back to the hive. Pollen is sometimes referred to as "beebread". Pollen
contains the nutrients that are converted into larval food by special glands in the
worker bees which is then used to feed young larvae. it should be noted that
honey bee workers also produce what is called "Royal Jelly". Royal Jelly is a
special food that is given to larva to be raised as queen bees. It has been
estimated that a strong colony of bees may use 100 pounds of pollen each year.
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Propolis -- As we have already described it, propolis is used by the bees to cement
holes and cracks in their hive. It is gathered by honey bees from secretions in
trees and shrubs. Bees have been know to encase a dead mouse inside their hive
with propolis.
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Water -- Water is essential for the survival of the hive. Bees should always be
located near a good water source or the beekeeper should provide one for the
bees.
Getting Started:
The best time to start beekeeping is in spring time. Fruit trees and flowers are in bloom
and should supply the new colony with sufficient nectar and pollen. If you have never
kept bees before, do not start with more than two or three hives. Having a few bees
around doesn't make you a beekeeper. Some people become bee-havers. The difference
lies in how much you know about bee behavior and how successfully you apply this
knowledge!
Who can keep bees?
Beekeeping can be undertaken by anyone who has enough ability and determination to
look after the bees properly, enough courage to work with bees, and enough money to
buy bees and equipment. Please note: Before you get into beekeeping, you should check
to make sure local zoning laws allow you to keep honey bees and what your reaction is to
bee stings.
Getting bees
Traditionally a person starts beekeeping by building hive equipment, buying packages of
bees, and installing the bees into the equipment. It is possible that you could purchase a
nuc (a nuc is a small hive. Generally it can be three, four, or five frames of brood and
bees with a queen. The bees have begun to build new comb and the queen is already
laying eggs. Or a person could buy a complete hive. We will discuss each:
1) The complete hive This is the easiest way to get started. It does have some
drawbacks.
Double Deep
 Story and a half
Single
Above are three typical configurations of bee hives that you might find for sale. The
price you will pay for a hive can vary considerably. Don't pay more than what you would
spend for brand new equipment and bees. At present that should be no more $150.00 per
double hive configuration.
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The hive will have to be moved to your location. The question here is who is
going to move the hive? If it is your job to move the hive, you will need some
means to pick it up, some means to transport it, and a method to prevent the bees
from getting out of the hive.
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Check for disease You should also make sure the bees and equipment are free of
American foulbrood. The easy way to do this is to have the bee hive inspected by
a state or county bee inspector. Note: Not all states have inspectors. If your state
does not have bee inspectors, then have someone who you can rely on inspect the
bees before you purchase them.
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Check for condition of queen and bees If you wait until spring to purchase a hive
of bees, you have the advantage of being able to examine the brood nest. Is the
queen laying a good brood pattern? Is there a good population of bees? Do the
bees have enough honey stores to carry them through a period of drought? If you
can not answer these question, find someone to take along with you who can
answer them.
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Condition of the hive Usually the hive will not be made of new boxes or frames.
Frames that contain comb which is very dark and black are old. Older frames will
often have damage from mice at one time, and the bees fill in the area of the comb
eaten away by the mice with drone cells. Frames like this will need to be
replaced. Boxes, lids, and bottom boards my also need to be replaced before
long. Wood that is not protected by a good coat of paint will rot in time. This
happens to the bottom board first because it comes into contact with the ground or
blocks it rest on.
The major advantage is that you do not need to do much. The major disadvantage is
you could be buying some else's problems.
2)
Nuc's
A nuc is nothing more than part of a hive of bees. It does not come in a full size hive
body. Often nuc's are sold in cardboard boxes which provide a temporary shelter for the
bees. The nuc will have a laying queen (usually a young queen), several pounds of bees,
drawn comb in which the queen is already laying eggs, some honey and pollen stores and
is roughly four weeks ahead in development than a package of bees would be. The bee
population in a nuc will not decline because new bees are emerging to replace worker
bees that die. The hive made up with a nuc will develop much faster than a hive made up
with a package of bees.
The major advantage is that you get a quicker start with a nuc than with a package of
bees. The major disadvantage is the possible spread of disease carried on the frames of
the nuc.
3)
Package bees/ swarms
I have included both package bees and swarms together for one obvious
reason: They both develop at just about the same rate. Package bees are
ones which are shipped in screen wire cages for the purpose of starting new
colonies. They are sold as 2 pound, 3 pound, and 4 pound packages with
the 3 pound package being the most popular.
Swarms on the other hand are found hanging in a tree or on some other object such as
parking meter or maybe even a car. Usually they are free for the taking because the
person who owns the property wants them gone. At one time swarms were plentiful but
no more due to the mite death of many of the wild bees that populated trees in our cities
and forest. They do occur though and you might contact your local fire department and
let them know that you would collect such a swarm if the fire department is notified by a
worried property owner.
The major advantage of starting a package of bees is: 1) you know that your bees are
disease free, [bees shipped in packages must be state inspected at the point of origin] 2)
you can install them into new equipment to insure that disease is not transported from
other comb, and 3) you can follow the development of your hive of bees from its very
beginning thus learning more about the development of a hive. The major disadvantage
is the new colony is going to take more time to develop and most likely produce little
honey the first year.
The Modern Hive
At one time, honey bees were kept in a number of shelters. These included:
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Logs often called bee gums which were cut from trees and set upright on a base
to which was added often a box on top to gather the honey.
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