THE BUCKFAST BEES

The Vigorous and Parasite Resistant Buckfast Bees

The existence of this superior Buckfast bee is a result of a long and diligent work of Brother Adam Kehrie from the Buckfast Alley an old monastery in England. He dedicated almost all of his entire life to beekeeping. When he died in 1996 at the age of 93, the Buckfast bees has been recognized as a superior breed that possesses al the good traits of a honey bee and highly admired by beekeepers around the world.

The story begun in the early 20^th century, when Karl Kehrie a 12 years old boy came over from German with a view to join the community of Buckfast Alley which is also recognized for keeping bees to fulfill its need for sugar and wax for making candles. He became a young monk under the name of Brother Adam Kehrie who was then assigned to help Brother Columban in keeping the bees.

Shortly after his assignment almost two third of his colony, 30 out of 46, were invaded and killed by the acarine parasitic mite or Acarine disease, an outbreak that killed thousands of bee colonies in the British Islands at that time. This mite attacks the bee tracheal tubes making them choked leading to a shorter lifespan.

Brother Adam found out that the remaining 16 colonies were hybrids between the Italian bee and British native black bees. The truly native black bees died during the outbreak, although they are well known as tough bees but rather bad tampered. Upon the retirement of Brother Columban, Brother Adam was assigned to manage Buckfast beekeeping.

He made a plan to rebuild the colonies with a clear objective to develop a new breed that is strong like the black bees and at the same time possesses resistance against disease like the Italian bee by the means of cross-breeding.

He spent time to travel more than 100,000 miles to search for distinct original bee races mainly in countries were the native strains had been genuinely kept and maintained. After years of long and diligent breeding experiments carried out at the breeding station of Dartmoor the final result was the Buckfast bee.    

The superior Buckfast possesses many positive traits that include: a good pollen collector, highly tolerant to tracheal mites, very gentle, low sting instinct, chalkbrood resistant, low swarming instinct and they do well in winter times.

However there is a main disadvantage of the Buckfast bees which is that they are very generous in the use of propolis to adhere the surfaces of their hive, which is against the principle of the modern hive where the comb should be easily removed for inspection.        

Today the Buckfast apiary still thrives and looking forward to proceed in the development of more superior breeds especially those which are Varroa resistant as well as new breeds with higher productivity. Thanks to Brother Adam. 

CARNIOLAN QUEEN BEE

The Dare to Kill Carniolan Queen Bee

By: Uno Birawan

Do not imagine a Carniolan queen bee as a beautiful, charming and diligent lady. This queen we are going to talk about has really the opposite of the above traits. A queen bee has nothing to do with beauty and charm. She is a big lady who dares to kill and spends her entire life to do nothing else than mating and laying eggs while well served and fed by the worker bees.

The metamorphosis of queen bees

Before a female bee becomes a queen she will go through a metamorphosis from an egg to a stage of a mature queen which will occur in about 23 days. The phases include: egg – larva – capping of the queen cell – pupa – emerging pupa, virgin queen bee – nuptial flight – a mature queen bee ready to lay eggs.

In fact, those are the worker bees that make queens. After a queen bee has laid eggs in queen cups, the worker bees start to select which among all those larvae should be developed to be queens. They will then provide more quality food, which is the royal jelly, to those selected larvae. Although all larvae are fed with royal jelly at the beginning for several days, but only queen larvae will be fed continuously and exclusively. The rest of the larvae will become worker bees.

Queen bees are raised in very special constructed cells. Initially the eggs were placed in queen cups, as the larva emerge the worker bees then build it further to become a queen cell to exclusively feed the larva. The worker bees then will cap the queen cell with beeswax. In these cells larvae will develop into pupae. In about 7 – 10 days the pupa becomes a virgin queen bee and tries to emerge from the queen cell.

Upon maturity the virgin queen bee in her peanut-like cell will try to go out by chewing a circular opening on the cap cell made by the worker bees. After most of the cap has been cut, the cap will eventually swing open resembling a hinged closure. With the presence of the virgin queen, the old mother queen will give way to the young virgin and voluntarily leave the hive with the primary swarm.

A virgin queen is a bit larger than most of the worker bees, but smaller than the mated laying queen. In fact, a virgin queen is not easily distinguished when put together with the worker bees in a frame. She moves actively and can run across the honeycomb, scrambles over the workers and may even fly if she feels annoyed by the workers. You can frequently find a virgin queen hanging on the hive wall or corner.

The deadly queen competition

As soon as a virgin queen bee emerges from her cell, she will look for other emerging queen bees with only one straight purpose, to kill them! As there are many virgin bees in a colony, with all of them having the same purpose, it is most likely that a war of virgin bees is about to happen.

Virgin bees do not just killed their direct rival virgin bees, but also the un-emerged virgin bee still occupying its cell. You can often see an opened side of a queen cell with a dead pupa inside, indicating an assassination by another virgin queen.

When the swarm mode of a colony continues and the primary swarm has left the hive, the worker bees can temporarily hold the virgins fighting each other. Some virgins may leave and follow an after-swarm, while other virgins will stay and look for an opportunity to continue the deadly competition

At the end only one virgin remains who will become the new queen bee. If a primary swarm has both a new young queen and an old queen in the same time, the new queen will let the old queen to live and continue to lie down. After a few weeks the old queen will eventually die naturally and time has come for the young virgin to take over.

The nuptial flight

This is an important phase of the queen bee where she mates with bee males and then land to start the new generation of a colony in a hive. The mating is typically carried out during a flight of the queen and male bees, hence called nuptial flight.

The mating should happen in a clear weather with the absence of rain which could be a trouble for flying insects. The queen starts to release pheromones to attract the males. However, after releasing the pheromone it often happens that the queen tries to escape the males letting only the fastest and fittest male bees to mate her. The mating will occur during the flight.

It is common that a queen will mate with a number of males and stores the sperm in a special organ in her abdomen which can last for her whole life. This sperm storage is good for about 20 years which can produce ten of millions fertilized eggs. The queen is now ready to lay eggs continuously and she totally becomes an egg laying machine to breed the younger bee generation. Oh, what a life of a queen bee.

CARNIOLAN BEES

The Superior Carniolan Bees

Carniolan bees (Apis mellifera carnica), which are also called as carniolans. The English term for these bees is ‘carnies’ which at this moment is the second most popular honey bee among beekeepers after the well known Italian bee. This bee is native to Slovenia (Carniola is a place in Slovenia) including to some other regions like southern Austria, parts of Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria and some areas of the former Yugoslavia.

The carniolans possesses a lot of benefits and superiority compared to other bees, hence they are most favored among beekeepers. They are known as gentle and non-aggressive bees which make the beekeepers feel save while working with them. They can also be kept in populated areas with less bees drifting from one hive to another beehive. Unlike the Italian bees, Carniolan bees are less prone to rob honey.

The Carniolan bees are also known to be very proficient in adjusting their worker bee population to the availability of nectar. They are able to make the adjustment very swiftly. As soon as they detect the increasing availability of nectar in springtime they multiply their worker bee population and with the same speed they can swiftly cut of their offspring production when nectar availability is decreasing. With such speedy increase of worker bees, their ability to collect large amount of honey will be very beneficial to the beekeeper.

Another benefit is that these bees are quite resistant to brood diseases which in the case of other bees could easily spread and weaken hives of other bee subspecies. A Carniolan worker bee has a longer lifespan of about 12% compared to other bees. In terms of hive management, the beekeeper needs only a small amount of propolis to seal the unwanted open spaces or small gaps in the hives.

Carniolans are more suitable for areas with long winters, where they can survive in smaller number of worker bees while keeping their honey storage at its maximum. They are also very useful in areas with strong nectar flows. They will look for honey early in the morning or late evening when the days are wet and cool.

In spite of their benefits, Carniolans possess also some disadvantages, which include their proneness to swarming when overcrowded, less ability to thrive during hot summer weather, their broodnest strength depends on pollen availability and the fact that it isn’t easy to find the carniolan dark queen bee among thousands of other worker bees.

Carniolans are about the similar size of the Western European bees but with a slimmer abdomen. They can also be distinguished by their hairy grayish brown colored stripes hence they are also called as the gray bees. The long tongue of the Carniolans (which ranges 6.5 – 6.7 mm) makes it suitable to seek nectar from cloves. They also have very short hair and a very high elbow join. 

FEEDING BEES

When, What and How to Feed Your Bees

There are times where you need to put forth the attention to feeding your bees. Neglecting the needs of your bees during different times throughout the year will cause the bees to seek for other food sources for the sake of survival. And when this happens, you’re the one who will carry all the loss cause by the swarming of your starving bees

When to feed

During the year there are two seasons where sufficient feeding should be assured. First is in the autumn after you have harvested honey crops from the hives. Make sure that you have enough honey left for storage of food through the winter. Additional feeding may be required during winter time.

The second is in early spring after the winter where the bees might be short of honey although you felt that you have left enough honey for the bees. Their honey storage is simply at a critical level. Additional feeding should be provided.

What to feed

Naturally, honey is the main food of bees. Always bear in mind that you should left a sufficient amount of honey every time you harvest the honey from the hives. On the other hand there are occasions where the bees need extra feeding, especially if you would like to stimulate a colony to produce more bees.

Syrup is the alternate food of choice in beekeeping. The syrup can be easily made in a large quantity from granulated sugar diluted in the same portion of water (1 : 1 ratio). Since syrup is tasteless and its presence is probably not detected by the bees, you can add a little honey to the syrup to attract the bees to take the syrup. If you want to use syrup to extra feed your bees to stimulate colony growth a portion of sugar and water with a ratio of 1 : 2 will be sufficient.

How to feed

You can feed your bees from outside the hive as well as from inside the hive. You can make use of a bee syrup feeder which can be placed on top of the hive, hence called a hive-top feeder. A hive top feeder is a specially designed hive box or an up side down pail with some holes. As a matter of fact you can choose from various types of feeders that are available in the market. To mention a view:

• The Boardman style entrance feeder
• One Gallon Pail Feeder Plus a Stainless Steel Screen Lid
• The 10-Frame Plastic Top Feeder
• The 8-Frame Wilde’s Wooden Top Feeder
• The Division Board Feeder
• Modified Entrance Feeder with an extended feeder into the entrance 

HONEY BENEFITS

About The Superb Benefits of Honey

By: Uno Birawan

Honey benefits, especially to health have been acknowledged since long ago. Honey provides multiple benefits to human life shown by its significance in many tradition, culture and religion. It has been used in various cooking and baking, or just as bread spread. It is also used as sweetener in many beverages such as tea and several commercial drinks.

But the prominent benefit of honey is the health benefit. Almost every religion suggests the use of honey for the purpose of healing and health keeping. The Holy Qur’an for instance, stipulates the benefit of honey in Surah An-Nahl (The Honey Bee) as it says:

And your Lord inspired the bees, saying: "Take you habitations in the mountains and in the trees and in what they erect. Then, eat of all fruits, and follow the ways of your Lord made easy (for you)." There comes forth from their bellies, a drink of varying color (honey) where in is healing for men. Verily, in this is indeed a sign for people who think (An-Nahl, ayat 68 – 69)

As is it says, honey is indeed much valuable to health. Countless research has proven various benefits to our health. And here are a few benefits to mention taken out from the long list of honey health and medical benefits.

Natural energy booster. Honey is an excellent source of carbohydrate which is the fuel to generate energy and strength of our body. Two major sugar components of a typical honey are fructose (38,2%) and Glucose (31.3%), Sucrose and Maltose about 8.4%, and water (17.2%).

Glucose is the form of sugar which will be quickly absorbed by the cells hence it could provide an immediate energy boosting effect. Fructose will be absorbed at a slower pace thus provide sustained energy. Having those two forms of sugar in honey makes it a perfect fast and sustainable energy booster. This benefit has been used by athletes to boost their performance, increase endurance and to reduce muscle fatigue.

Anti-cancer effect. Some researches and reviews have clearly indicated that certain kinds of honey polyphenols tested in laboratorial facilities showed to be a promising anti-proliferative agent. However, it is suggested by other scientists that such findings should be followed up by clinical trails for further validation before it is applied in medical practices. 

Anti-oxidant effect. Free radicals and reactive oxygen species have been associated to aging process and disease in human beings. To overcome this humans try to protect themselves by the means of taking high anti-oxidant food, where honey is one of the best choice to fulfill this requirement.

A trial with two honey treatments showed that the phenolic compound found in honey increased the antioxidant activity of blood plasma. This may be speculated that this will enhance protection against oxidative stress in healthy human therefore it could delay the aging process.

Anti-bacterial and anti-septic effect. A study by Dr. M. Subrahmanyam (1991) indicates that honey is effective for the prevention of infection because of its antibacterial or bacteriostatic properties specifically through slowing down the growth of both Gram- negative and Gram-positive bacteria. He isolated 9 bacteria species found in burn wounds and apparently all the bacteria failed to grow at a concentration of 30% honey in a Muller-Hinton (MH) medium.

Another study by Tumkur Ramachandriah Shamala and friends show that honey has remarkable antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli tested on honey feeding animals under in vitro and in vivo conditions, and show the potential health benefit after the animals have been fed with honey regularly.

As a matter of fact honey was being used for wounds healing in the past time due to its antibacterial properties. But with the introduction of penicillin and other antibiotics in the twentieth century, honey's wound healing qualities have been taken out. However, it is still used as a traditional wound treatment on many communities.

Other anti-bacterial related benefits of honey and is still used:

• Good remedy of sore throats and cough
• Good antiseptic dressing for burns and open wounds
• Anti-diarrheal and promotes rehydration.

Other known benefits of honey includes: support blood formation, skin moisturizing, insomnia (sleeplessness) cure, heals stomach ulcers and for alcohol hangover recovery.

HONEY EXTRACTOR

Honey Extractor – How It Works

A honey extractor is basically a modified centrifuge which is designed to extract honey from the hives without damaging the honey comb. The construction of an extractor includes a container that holds a basket of frames in it, which spins throwing the honey out of the frames by the centrifugal force.

The capacity of a honey extractor depends on the number of frames a container can hold. The smallest capacity is a two-frame extractor, while a large commercial one is able to hold more than hundred frames. The small ones are suitable for the hobbyist, where you the option to use a manual or an electric powered one.

Depending on how the frames are placed in the container, the type of an extractor can be divided into a tangential and radial extractor. A tangential extractor allows the honey comb to be placed with one side of the frame facing outwards, while the radial extractor allows the frames to be placed with the top bar facing outwards.

The radial type provides you with an advantage where you can reduce the amount of extraction work. You do not need to turn over the frames to extract the other side, since all the honey goes outwards already and can be directly tapped or pumped out.

After placing the honey into the honeycombs, the bees naturally cap the frames to keep the honey as storage. Thus the initial step of the extraction process is breaking and removing all the caps before the frames are placed in the honey extractor.

The uncapping task can be done with the help of an automated uncapper, but you can do it manually using a knife that is heated prior to cutting of the caps. The uncappings, which are the removed small pieces of wax, are actually rich in honey which needs to be drained by the means of a little heating.

While the automated uncapping machine works by grinding the wax surface using moving chains or prickles, but it is a bit cluttered compared to the manual uncapping. But on the other hand it needs lesser work. Prior to uncapping, several hobbyist or noncommercial beekeepers separate and keep the propolis by scraping it manually.     

Those uncapped frames will be placed in the container of the honey extractor. Be sure that all the frames are placed properly to the right direction. You should place the comb a little upward to avoid the honey flowing out and then let it spin. The yield of the honey still contains small pieces of wax hence you need to filter it through a strainer to obtain the clear honey.

After extraction you will find a thin film of honey left on the frames which should be removed and put back in the hives. Putting this left over back into the hives should be done in the early morning or late evening which is the time where the bees will take this treat aggressively. Avoid doing this when food is scarce, since other foraging bees from another nearby colony will rob the honey.

To assure hygiene, it is recommended to perform honey extraction in a special room, with an adequate temperature to allow a smooth honey flow with all the required tools and equipment ready in place. Seal the room securely to minimize the possibility of honey robbing by other foraging bees or insects.

HONEY PRODUCTION

Honey Production Business Tips

Honey production is an integral part of beekeeping. As a matter of fact, beekeeping is like running a business entity with a simple and solid management system. It consists of a factory of honey production with thousand of workers, your honey worker bees and yourself on top of the organization and concurrently holding the positions of factory, honey production section, marketing and sales manager, and maybe the finance and administration manager too.

As a business, your objective might be to produce and sell quality honey. Honey has been consumed by human since long ago and is very valuable with a lot of benefits. The use of honey has a very long history not only as a nutritious food but also as other meanings that reflects its significance in cultures and religions.

Honey production quality depends on many factors which are basically related to the source of nectar or floral source. Other factors that determine the quality of honey is processing and packaging. The floral source determines the taste and aroma of honey as well as its water content and clarity. Based on its floral source the honey production inputs can be derived from specific flower nectars or from unspecified origins, or blended after honey collection.

Most of the available honey sold in the market is blended honey or a mixture of several floral sources with different flavor, color, density and various area of origin. You can also find polyfloral honey or wildflower honey which is derived from the nectar of several flower types. Therefore you may find some inconsistency of this type of honey from season to season in its taste, aroma and flavor, depending on which flower is more dominant.

If you wish to produce monofloral honey, which is collecting honey that is derived from the nectar of a single type of flower, you need to manage that your honey bees has access to only one type of flower, which is quite a difficult task to do. As a matter of fact, you can not control all your bees, some will collect nectar from other flowers, and there is a great possibility that your monofloral honey may contain a small amount of nectar from other flower types.

Let us observe how the bees are involved in this honey production process from the collected nectar from flowers that surrounds their hive. A soon as the bees arrives in their hive, they will empty their fully stomach by regurgitating the nectar then swallow and ingest it again for several times until it gets partially digested. This is actually the transformation process from nectar to honey. The bees will do this regurgitating and ingesting together for several times until its reaches the wanted quantity which they put into the honey comb.

This newly stored nectar still contains a lot of water and some natural yeast that may cause the fermentation of the sugar content in the nectar. By nature the bees will fan their wings to produce an air stream above the honeycombs to facilitate the evaporation of water from the nectar. This produces a higher sugar concentration which will eventually prevent fermentation to occur. This is a natural process of honey production in a bee’s life, which then will be stored as food source during hard times like winter.

The task of a beekeeper is maximizing honey production by encouraging the bees to produce more honey than what will be needed by the bees. Such over production of honey will be beneficial for both the bees and the beekeeper.

At the end of a honey production process, you will get ripe honey which is a thick, sticky sweet liquid. It contains a lot of fructose and glucose with a smaller amount of maltose and sucrose. Although the common presentation of honey is the bottled liquid form, but there are other forms of honey which are subjected to various honey processing methods. The application of methods is fully the discretion of the beekeeper.

To mention some varieties that can be further developed: raw honey, strained honey, ultra-filtered honey, pasteurized honey, crystallized honey, ultra-sonicated honey, whipped honey, dried honey, chunk honey and comb honey. Each variety has its own benefit and purposes, which can be addressed to a certain market.

Well, with such many varieties of honey production, a beekeeper has a lot of challenges to fulfill some market needs and this of course, should be the job of you as a marketing and sales manager. Isn’t it?

Happy honey producing and marketing!

APIARY BEEKEEPING BUSINESS

Developing Your Apiary Beekeeping Business

Developing an apiary beekeeping business seems to be the right answer to the following question: “What should you do if your beekeeping hobby turns to be a profitable business with increasing demands for your quality honey?” There are two options, you just stay where you are and enjoy your hobby as a great activity, or you can think of something on how to expand your business. As you have done beekeeping for quite a long time, and you see that there are increasing demands with remarkable profits why not expanding your business? It is really a great opportunity to strive for.

You probably may ask yourself why think of an expansion plan, while you do not have enough space to put more beehives to look after additional bees. Or you probably do not find enough flowers or gardens in your neighborhood where your bees can get additional nectar. Or is there something else that holds you, may be your neighbors or your beekeeping license? Well, there are plenty of reasons that will lead you to a “status quo” situation. But here are some ideas that you might consider.

There are some beekeeping practices that have been applied till this moment, which is to rent a piece of land where you can use it as a bee yard or an apiary. An apiary is a place where you can put your beehives as many as you wish according to your plan. You can even pay the rent with some amount of honey that is produced in this apiary. In some instances a honey beekeeper can get paid by the farmer since they need the bees very badly to facilitate pollination.

You can work together with farmers who usually need the presence of bees to pollinate their crops. There are farmers who are willing to lend their land for free to beekeepers for the sake of bee pollination. You can make a long term deal with such farmer, and manage your beehives accordingly to the crop growing cycle. This looks like a good mutual benefit for you as a honey beekeeper and the farmer who needs the help of your honey bees, isn’t it?            

Now, let us move forwards and see how to choose a good site for your apiary. A good apiary should meet the following requirement:

Nearness to nectar sources. It should be definitely near a flowering field or crop. Bees are able to look for nectar within a distance of 3 km from their hives, but if they do not find any good stuff they are willing to travel up to 12 km in search for good nectar. If you place it too far, they might move and find another spot closer to the source, and your hives will be empty.

Temperature. Consider a place where the maximum temperature, especially during summer, isn’t extremely hot, since this may melt the bee wax inside the hive. If the bee wax melts, the bees are going to spend more time to cooling the wax by collecting more water than nectar. Please bear in mind that the melting point of bee wax is around 110ºF or 45ºC. High temperature tends to disturb the bees and get angry more easily.

Security of your beehives. Watch out for honey eating animals like the honey badger or ratel. If there are badgers in your place you should provide some extra protection by strapping your hive together using a strong baggage strap. You should also be aware of human thieves and provide the necessary protection.

Protection of passing people. If in case you have some traffic of passing people close to your apiary, it is best if you could place a high board fence with a minimum height of 6 feet. This is to avoid the bees to straightly attack passing people when flying out the hives, since they are forced to fly high above the fence and over the head of a passer.

To avoid somebody get hurt by your bees, make sure that any people, especially children, will not accidentally enter your apiary by posting some signs of precautions. 

Avoid windy places. Wind will encourage the bees to leave the hive and look for a better place. Beside that, the bees will create some blockage at the entrance using propolis and leaving some holes to maintain access. This narrow entrance will for sure slow down the bees activities. Another thing is that the bees will become less productive, since they will be spending more time on making the propolis rather than honey.

If you are serious to expand your beekeeping business, managing an apiary for honey beekeeping is a strategy to be considered. And time will come that you arrive at a point where you need to hire other people to help you in developing a successful business.

BEEKEEPING BUSINESS

Starting Your Beekeeping Business

Running a beekeeping business and being a beekeeper who manages honey bees is really an enjoyable job and with great rewards too. Just imagine how you can enjoy the sweet and delicious honey every day, while at the same time you’ll get the benefit of pollination from plants and flowers in nearby gardens. Actually, your hard working honey bees are doing the essential part of your job, the collection of honey.

You probably know very well a popular phrase that says “he works busy as a bee”. Yes indeed, bees are really hard workers. They collect nectar from surrounding areas that have flowers and put it back into the hives. It goes back and forth doing the same activities the whole day long. In spite of this hard working, they enjoy only a short lifetime of about 35 days. At the end of their lifetime, their wings become weak and they lost their value to the colony and simply die. What a pity bee.

So, why do bees collect honey so hard? They aim to store honey is to assure the availability of food supply during hard times, which is during autumn and winter when the flowers are not blooming. During summer, when the flowers bloom, the bees work hard to collect the honey in excessive amounts, even bigger than what they need and can consume. This will also be a good time for the beekeeper to harvest the honey and sell it at a profitable price.       

Beekeepers can sell the honey in two forms. The first one is the liquid honey. This honey is extracted form honey combs using a centrifuge which is called an extractor. The result is a clear and condensed liquid honey that is suitable for cooking or drink sweetener. The second form is the pieces of honey comb. Here the beekeeper sells the original pieces of the wax comb that is made by the bees. This form is a kind of enjoyment to some people that seek for natural honey flavor.   

Honey comes in different colors and flavors, since it might be originated from different flowers with different smells. Thus the color, taste and smell are determined by the kind of flower the bees are collecting nectar from.

Soil chemistry is also another factor that establishes the taste and color of honey. Flowers that are planted in dry and alkali soils like alfalfa are more likely to produce whiter to clearer honey. While flowers from a more acid soil like buckwheat produces a darker color of honey   

Another factor that determines the color and taste of honey is the quality of the honey comb made by the bees. Different quality may produce different honey color such as golden to red color.

When it comes to producing a commercial honey product make sure that you follow the rules of proper processing, labeling and handling of food products as stipulated by your state and federal regulations. Please be aware that beekeeping is also a real business with a set of regulation from your local government that you as a beekeeper should comply to. 

Being a competitive product, honey products need some touch of marketing management to be applied for the success of your business. Beekeeping may be your hobby in the beginning, but with your success in quality honey production, your hobby turns to be a profitable business. This is where you should treat your beekeeping hobby as a real business. Go for it, and be a success!

BEE HIVE CONSTRUCTION

Tips on How to Construct Your Bee Hive

Working out your bee hive construction is like some enjoyment, especially if you are fond to do such things pertaining craftsmanship. If you are not sure about yourself, you can let a skilled carpentry to do it for you. The important thing here is that you’re well informed about how to construct it the right way to get the right bee hive construction.

There are two options on how you are going to do it, assuming you do it yourself. First you can purchase a knocked down bee hive and assemble it as instructed, or second you can start from scratch to make your own equipment and parts of the hive.

Whatever your option is, please bear in mind that you should refer the design, dimension and assembly method to a standard, which is more likely the Langstroth hive design. Doing this provides you with a flexibility in the future to interchange parts and even add other ready made parts where incompatibility will not be a problem.

The Langstroth movable frame bee hive has been thoughtfully designed which includes all the practical factors such construction simplicity, easy to use, facilitate swift hive inspection, and interchangeability of frames. There are available Langstroth designs that you can purchase to be used as reference. 

The following are an example on how you can assemble tow parts of your hive, the supers and frames.

General tips

• It is suggested to using flat cedar or pine lumbers for all parts of the hive construction
• You can make a knot if it is needed but it should not be made at the edge of the lumbers or where you plan to make a handhold.
• Consider the dryness of the lumber. If it is not completely dry you should provide some allowance for shrinkage.
• Exception of materials to be used is for the hive top cover and the bottom board floor, where it should be made of plywood which is less affected by moist and temperature changes. 
• Wood pieces must be cut with precision following standard dimensions. The depth of a handhold should be precisely 16 mm or 5/8 inch.
•  Bee spaces should be exactly 8 mm or 5/16 inch. A bee space is the exact distance between combs in the hive.

Assembling the supers

Super is the structure that holds the frames. It has a standard outer length of 50.7 cm (20 inches) and a width of 41.8 cm (16.5 inches) where the depths may vary in three common dimensions:

• Standard: 24 cm (9,5 inches), for brood and supers
• Dadant:16.8 cm (6 5/8 inches), for brood and supers
• Shallow: 14.7 cm (5 13/16 inches), only for supers

Recommended nails to nailing supers, the bottom board and top cover are the 50 mm (1 1/8 inches) long nails. If available you can use an electric staple gun for your ease. Screws are good substitutes for the nails if you wish maximum durability.  

Assembly methods may vary, but here is a good recommendation which you might follow:

1. Nail metal rests to end pieces, using 16 mm (5/8 in.) common nails (no tacks please)

2. Assemble with the help of clamps

3. Nail through the top end into the side pieces

4. Take out the clamp, turn around the super, clamp and nail the other end

5. Take out the clamp, check diagonals to assure that the super is square

6. Finish it by nailing through the side pieces into the end pieces

The holding power of nails driven into the end grain can be increased if you drive the nails with an angle. To gain additional strength, the end pieces may be glued prior to nailing. You may have some metal parts to fix which include the frame rests and hive-top covers which can be made of galvanized iron, aluminum or other suitable metal

Assembling and wiring frames

It is best if you buy the frames and frame parts at your beekeeping supplier which will be able to provide you with the correct dimension. Some wooden parts of your hive, like the frames and foundation can be substituted with the plastic made ones which is considered more durable than wood. A plastic foundation sheet can also be applied to a wooden frame, where wiring for wax foundation will not be needed.

When assembling the frames remember to use only the special frame nails just to make sure that the frames are rectangle and can be correctly hanged in the supers with the right bee spaces between the hive structures. To gain additional strength and durability of the frames, the end pieces may be glued prior to nailing. 

Frame wiring tips are as follows:

1. Use #28 gauge steel wire

2. Use at least two horizontal wires for standard frames. Make sure that the wires are located across the bottom holes and the third holes up from the bottom

3. Use eyelets to avoid cutting into the wood

4. Horizontal wires must be cling tight and secured with 16 mm (5/8 in.) cigar box nails

5. For additional strength, a foundation with vertical wires may be used

Here is a link where you can download the Beehive Construction eBook provided and published by the Extension Service of the British Columbia Department of Agriculture --> eBook

THE LANGSTROTH BEE HIVE

Langstroth Hive, Your Vital Beekeeping Supplies

Are you serious to expand your beekeeping business? Then, managing an apiary for honey beekeeping is a strategy that is worth to be considered. Building an apiary of your own is quite simple, as I once told you. You can just rent a piece of land that is near to nectar sources to ease your bees to collect nectar.

Other things to consider and to attend to are the temperature of your apiary location where you should consider a place with a maximum temperature that isn’t too hot. Security of your hives as well as the safety of passing people should be taken care. And to avoid the bees leaving the hive, avoid windy places.

Now, let us talk about a beekeeper supply which is most vital to your apiary honey business. The bee hive. This is the housing of your little creatures, which are going to work for you to collect nectar and transform it into honey. And talking about bee hives, the name of Langstroth should be taken into consideration.

Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth, a Reverend from Philadelphia is the gentleman who invented the movable bee hives which today become the reference and standard of beehive construction all over the world. His invention in 1851 is considered a milestone in beekeeping.

The main advantage is that bees are encouraged to build their honeycombs into movable frames. The design of the frame is such so that the bees are not able to attach wax between frames or to the hive wall. Bees are also disabled to use propolis to cement the frames to the box sides. This movable frames makes it easier for the beekeeper to perform his delicate task, which was impossible in the past time.

The typical Langstroth hive is constructed in such way so that the frames are separated from the surrounding parts of the hive. This includes all walls, the floor, the cover of the hive and other frames. The frames are the spots where the bees build their comb. The Langstroth design has set an exact separation gap of 3/8 inch or 6.35 mm.

Removing a frame from a hive will be much easier since the beekeeper does not need to cut any combs which were the problem in the earlier hive design. Formerly, the beekeeper had to cut the adhered frames to the adjacent structures which were cemented by the bees using propolis. Removing the honeycombs easily provides practicality to a beekeeper to manage multiple hives on a regular basis in a very safe way.

The standard Langstroth hive includes (from top to bottom):

• A telescoping cover
• Inner cover
• One or more supers or hive bodies
• Queen excluder (optional)
• 8 – 10 frames of various sizes this include a cell foundation
• Brood box
• Bottom board
• Hive stand

Setting up an apiary with multiple hives is quite an easy task, since there are plenty of beekeeping kits available which include the beehives. You just decide how you are going to expand your business. You can judge this using your past experience of beekeeping. Good luck and great success!

BEE SMOKER TOOL

Usage of a Bee Smoker

A bee smoker, or just called a smoker, is a tool to produce smoke in the attempt to calm down bees. The basic principle is smouldering some fuel, which is the flameless type of combustion of the fuel.

Calming bees using smoke has been practiced since long ago in ancient times. Although it has been practiced that long, scientific studies could not satisfactorily explain why and how the bees can be calmed down by smoke.

A clear explanation is that smoke can disguise alarm pheromones. These pheromones are released by the guard bees signaling the presence of an intruder. Injured bees during an inspection of a beekeeper could release these alarm pheromones as well.  

While the smoke interrupts the defense mechanism of the bee colony, the beekeeper can freely and easily open and manage the beehives. Smoke is also a false alarm to the bees that initiates a feeding response. The bees get alert and feed themselves with honey as an anticipation of leaving the hive which they think is on fire. The distended abdomen due to honey over-eating makes it hard for the bees to bend their body when stinging.   

A typical beekeeping burning smoker includes also a below, which is a tool to deliver pressurized air in a manageable quantity directed to a certain point or area. In recent years there are some suggestions to get rid of the impractical burning smoker where you have to light up the burner and squeeze the below.

Those artificial smokes are sold in liquid form and aerosol cans. The liquid smoke is a liquid concentrate that should be mixed with a certain portion of water and put in a regular spray bottle. The disadvantage of liquid smoke is that it might stain the inner side of the hive and the possibility of being contaminating the bees.   

Let us go back to the burning smoker. There are many types of fuel that can be used in a beekeeping smoker. The appropriate type of fuel should be natural and free form harmful substances. The common used fuel is twine, hessian, burlap, corrugated card-board, pine needles, paper egg cartons and rotten wood. Other alternative fuels that are commercially sold are compressed cotton and pulped paper.

The fuel smoulders slowly due to the limited amount of oxygen in the smoker. A repeated squeeze of the below is needed to provide fresh air to keep the fuel burning. Smoulding provides thrifty usage of the fuel where one load of fuel can be lasting for hours.

In spite of the hassle of a burning smoker, some modification on its basic design has been applied. One of the modifications is adding an inner can which provide you with easier loading cleaning of the smoker. They also put some holes in the burner walls to facilitate air penetration. And to avoid burns, it is attached with an outer grid. 

BEEKEEPING STARTER KIT

Start Beekeeping with a Beekeeper Starter Kit

Starting beekeeping is really easy, assuming you have read a guide or handbook about beekeeping or gather information from other reliable resources. After you gain sufficient understanding about beekeeping, you will be ready to implement all the theories and knowledge and put them into real practices.

Fortunately, today there are plenty of beekeeping starter kits available in the market which you can start with. A typical starter kit consists of parts that are needed to construct your hive and a complete set of beekeeping protective gear plus some additional items that may be needed to make your task easier.

Most of the hive starter kits refer to the design of the standard Langstroth hive, which includes (from top to bottom):

• A telescoping cover
• Inner cover
• One or more supers or hive bodies
• Queen excluder (optional)
• 8 – 10 frames of various sizes this include a cell foundation
• Brood box
• Bottom board
• Hive stand

The telescoping cover is the outer cover is placed on top of the hive. It could be made of wood or polystyrene which fits over the hive and meant to protect the entire hive from weather. Another version of the outer cover is the migratory cover, which is made of a galvanized metal sheet.

The inner cover is a sort of barrier between the top cover and the inside of the hive which prevent the bees to glue the top cover to the upper sides of the supers. It can be made of a plastic sheet (for areas with moderate climates) or a solid cover with a communication hole (for areas with hot summer)

The supers or hive bodies are the structure that holds the frames with a standardized inner dimension. It could be made of wood, polystyrene or other plastic material and are grouped into deep, medium, shallow and comb supers providing you the flexibility to construct a brood chamber aside from storing and harvesting the honey. The supers are available in an assembled or unassembled format.

The frames and foundation are the structure that holds the honey comb and brood comb within the super. It has honey comb impressions where the bees suppose to build wax honey combs on it. The foundation should be placed at the bottom of the hive. You will usually get 8 – 10 frames of various sizes in your starter kit. Like the supers, you can choose among assembled and unassembled frames. You do not need to use all the 10 frames and use only 8 or 9 which depends on your preference.

The queen excluder is an optional part in a beekeeper’s kit. This is a divider between the brood box and the supers. It could be made of a perforated metal or plastic sheet or just a framed wire grid. This excluder is meant to prevent the queen to enter and lay eggs in the honey supers. If the queen succeeds in laying eggs in this area, it will be difficult to harvest a clean and quality honey.    

The brood box or also called the brood chamber is at the very bottom of the hive and is the place where the queen bee lays her eggs. This is the place where the broods, which is referred to the egg, larvae and pupa stages of a bee lifecycle, will develop to mature bees. 

The bottom board forms the floor of the hive. It could be equipped with an entrance reducer (optional). The bottom board is placed above the hive stand which keeps the hive off the ground and provides a landing platform for the worker bees when they want to enter the hive.

Aside from the above common hive starter kit you may also get a clothing starter kit which includes a cotton or polyester coverall jumpsuit, a mesh helmet (hat and veil) and a pair of vented leather gloves. As a matter of fact you can choose from various styles and sizes that should fit your body.

There are also starter kits that include additional items such as a beekeeping smoker and its fuel, hive tools and a bee brush. Look for the bigger smoker since it is easier to light. And last and might be the most important item is to ask for a beekeeper’s handbook if it is not included in your kit, as well as an instruction guide on how to assemble all the hive parts if you purchase the unassembled kit.

So, after you have prepared the proper bee housing from your kit, the next step will be purchasing the bees. The bees are your workers that will collect and produce honey for you. Recruiting the bee workers is another important task you should attend to if you are aiming to harvest quality honey.