Posts Tagged ‘Honey Bee’

There are many great reasons for keeping honey bees. From harvesting honey, to collecting beeswax, and even crop pollination, bees serve many helpful purposes. Here are a few helpful tips for keeping honey bees on your property.

This Great Bee Keeping Guide “Modern Beekeeping” Teaches You All You Need To Know so as to keep Your Own Healthy Bees and Produce Your Own Great Honey! Click Here To Download Adam Mills’s Modern Beekeeping Guide.

1. Feed Your Bees: While the bees are getting used to their new hive, or during cold weather months, you will need to provide food.  You will need to mix sugar syrup and administer it to the bees through use of a Boardman feeder, or by placing the syrup inside the top cover near the opening in the inner cover.

This type of feeding allows your bees to have access to the syrup, without attracting pests or intruders. It is important to note that bees consume a great deal when they are first establishing a hive, so make sure to check the syrup level often. Once the bees begin to produce honey, you will no longer need to supply syrup, however you should leave some honey in the hive as a food source during the winter and early spring months.

2. Make Sure Water Is Handy: Bees need to have a proper water source, especially during warm weather months. Bees use water to cool down their hive during periods of hot and humid weather, and also use it as a dilution material during honey production. That being said, you should never place a container of water too close to the hive because bees can drown quite easily.

3. Be Considerate: When keeping honey bees, you should always be considerate of others. Remember, you want the bees, your neighbors do not necessarily feel the same way.

A wooden fence around your hive can prove quite beneficial. Make sure you set the fence up in the same direction as the hive opening so the bees can fly over the fence and above nearby homes.

For More Bee Keeping Tips, Click Here To Download Adam Mills’s Modern Beekeeping Guide.

Some time ago I downloaded this ebook from Adam Mills and started to read it one summers evening. The first thing I found was that there was a warmth and enthusiasm to the writing which I found engrossing. This Great Bee Keeping Guide “Modern Beekeeping” Teaches You All You Need To Know so as to keep Your Own Healthy Bees and Produce Your Own Great Honey! Click Here To Download Adam Mills’s Modern Beekeeping Guide.

Harvesting honey is an exciting and fun process. This is the time when all of your hard work pays off, and you finally get to enjoy this sweet treat. However, before you begin, there are a few things you should know to make the process easier. Here are three simple tips for harvesting honey.

Prepare Your Area: As we all know, honey is extremely sticky. Every item you handle will become sticky (counter tops, tools, doorknobs, etc.) so you should contain the stickiness by working in a clean barn, on the porch, or in the garage rather than working in your kitchen. Keep a bucket of water handy to rinse your hands and a clean towel to dry off with. Set up all pieces of equipment and tools before handling the comb, and lay down a few drop cloths or newspapers on the floor.

Harvest In A Confined Area: Harvesting honey should be done in a closed room.  This keeps the honey clean, and it helps to keep the bees from stealing it, and bringing it back to the hive.

Warm The Honey: Warm honey flows much easier than cold honey. This will allow you to spin the honey out of the comb faster, which results in more honey being extracted from the comb. Warm honey also flows through strainers and filters much faster, without clumping up. Honey should be heated to about eighty degrees Fahrenheit (twenty-seven degrees Celsius) for optimal flow. Use caution to ensure you do not heat the honey too much or else you may melt the wax comb.

For More Bee Keeping Tips, Click Here To Download Adam Mills’s Modern Beekeeping Guide.

Many people are worried that the cute furry polar bear will lose its ice habitat due to global warming later in this century. The polar bear does not have a real problem today, but many people worry about their future without ice nevertheless. The same concern is shared about global warming’s undesirable future impact on tigers, penguins, turtles, birds, and many other species later in this century and next.

However, few people seem very concerned about the more immediate crisis of the disappearing honey bee. It may be hard to get the same popular concern for a species that can leave people with an unpleasant sting. Indeed, the honey bee can be somewhat annoying at the cookout or picnic. They are certainly not the cute, furry, white, ice-bound inhabitants that are identified so clearly with a warming climate.

The reality though is that the problems in the hives of the honey bee are far more important to us. The disappearance of the honey bee certainly deserves more immediate attention and concern than the potential problems that the polar bear and other species may experience later in this century.

The pollination of the honey bee is crucial to our agriculture and the world’s food supply. Without the honey bee, prices of vegetables, fruit, meat, eggs and dairy prices will all spiral through the proverbial roof. It would be world food price inflation on steroids. Without the pollination of the honey bee, the world food supply would be greatly compromised. People just could not afford or obtain today’s basic food staples. In fact, without the honey bee, the only pollination that would occur would be wind pollination. The result of a world without honey bee pollination would leave us with a diet that consisted of grain and seafood.

Therefore, if we want to continue to regularly eat meat, eggs, fruits, nuts, vegetables; such as, carrots, cucumbers, broccoli, onions, pumpkins, squash, apples, blueberries, avocados, almonds or cherries, et al, we need to give this disappearing honey bee mystery (CCD) some immediate political attention. (See also: The Honey Bee Mystery Called Colony Collapse Disorder on eworldvu.com) .

In 2008, the latest news on the problem of the disappearing honey bee is not very reassuring. It is now estimated that nearly half of Italy’s 50 billion bee population died last year. That bee mortality rate will have a drastic effect on the country’s 25-million-euro honey industry which could plummet by at least 50% this year, and wreak havoc on fruit crops. Meanwhile, the situation in the U.S., where up to 70% of honey bees have already died, is far worse than in Italy. The worldwide bee epidemic has also hit France, Germany, Britain, Brazil, Australia, and Canada.

Meanwhile, world politicians continue to ignore the severity of the problem. In the United States, the honey bee problem and its ramifications have not even been discussed in any 2008 Presidential election event. All the presidential candidates promise the usual increasing bounty of new government spending oblivious to the fact that the disappearing honey bee crisis, if unresolved, may create huge food price inflation and food scarcity during their second presidential term in office.

In the First National Beekeepers Conference in January 2008 in Sacramento, California, beekeepers complained about the lack of government action as they confront financial catastrophe. In general, United States honey bee inspection remains critically under funded, understaffed, and under appreciated.

While there still is no solution to the problem of colony collapse disorder, ongoing research into the problem is focused on three main theories – pesticides (herbicides, fungicides), mono-nutrition, and viruses. There may be just one cause of CCD or it could be a combination of several problems. The truth is that we are not near a solution to the problem of disappearing bees from their hives since a cause has yet to be clearly identified and time may be running out.

In the United Kingdom, the British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) said that if the crisis continued, honeybees would disappear completely from Britain by 2018, causing “calamitous” economic and environmental problems. Unfortunately, in a recent meeting between Lord Rooker, the British farming minister, and the BBKA , the minister refused to increase spending on disappearing bee research, even though in November, he appeared to admit the severity of the threat, when he said: “If we do not do anything, the chances are that in 10 years time we will not have any honeybees”.

Professor Francis Ratniek, a bee expert at Sheffield University, said: “If there was to be a bee collapse the effect on Britain would be huge. In Britain we haven’t had our fair share of bee research funds and research into bee disease has decreased just as the threat to colonies is increasing. A complete die-off is a worst case scenario”.

So as we proceed through this 2008 Presidential election year, people need to ask this question to the political candidates when they request our vote. What will they be doing from the White House about the disappearing honey bee to insure that we will not be on a diet of grain and fish by the end of their second term in office? If they don’t know how to answer the question, don’t be surprised. They may not even know about the current worldwide environmental crisis of the disappearing honey bee called Colony Collapse Disorder.

The truth is that the 2008 Presidential candidates may be more concerned about the possible effects in the next century of global warming on man and its impact on the habitat of species like the polar bear. After all the candidates political platform for success on election day at the ballot box is to appear to be environmentally proactive to every voter. Indeed, for the politician in 2008 , talking about saving the polar bear from melting ice next century is much preferred to talking about the catastrophic potential effect of the disappearing honey bee of today.

Once upon a time there was a flourishing abundance of Honey Bees in the wild.   Until one October day of 1852, a fellow named Lorenzo Langstroth appeared not only to patent his “Langstroth” hive but was considered to be the “Father of American Beekeeping”  later on.    He was very into researching all kinds of insects and ants to observe their culture.   Honey bees where his favorite pastime.   With the hives, the bees where able to produce massive colonies with an over abundance of Honey in as little as a few months !    Just about 70 years later,  something started to happen to Honey Bees and they have been diminishing at an alarming rate since the 1970′s.   For those who aren’t aware of this seriousness, let it be known that 1/3 of our food source  is pollinated by Honey Bees.    What are we going to do about it ?    Can we do anything to help ?
CCD (colony collapse disorder) is the blame for most of our hives troubles these days.  Back in 1896 was the first ever recorded CCD incident.   Nothing was thought of it and was left nearly untouched for 80 years.  In 1972,  there began the most dramatic reduction in Honey Bee population through 2006.  Literally millions of bees where disappearing from North America in the Western region along with Western & Central Europe.  Why ?  Research is still being conducted to this day and some glimmer of hope is on the horizon.   
Recent studies have shown that the Varroa mite is the prime culprit for CCD.   Where are these mites getting their diseases from ?    Like most diseases and virus strains, they adapt and overcome the pesticides given to eradicate them, resulting a stronger mite.    Over the past few decades their resistance to a product called Apistan (Varroa Mite pesticide) has rendered it just about useless.   Reading the label on this chemical states that is “Toxic to Bees and Fish”.    I, for one am Pro-Organic when it comes to treating these ailments.   Let nature defend itself !    Our bodies fight new strains of infection and virus constantly to keep us healthy,  insects are the same,  they persevere.   In further studies of CCD, it was diagnosed that the Varroa mite was a carrier of a virus that attacks the bees Ribosomes.  Ribosomes are part of the DNA structure called RNA and produce proteins to interact with DNA.   Once the Ribosomes are altered by the virus, sends mixed signals to the DNA and compromises the bees immune system resulting in sort of a hemorrhaging action until death.   
There is still a promosing outlook.   Since diagnosis,  it appears that the bees immune system are adapting to the threat.     Up to around 80% of wild bees and domestic where wiped out due to this and they’re fighting back.   Hope is in the air.   Ever heard the term, “Life finds a Way ?”    It’s in our best interest and our futures interest that we help and aid the cause to repopulate Honey Bees.    Our little friends do a lot of work in their short life spans,  let’s help them by planting Purple (Russian Sage),  White (Flowering Fruit Trees), or Yellow Goldenrod flowers, and by using natural or organic pesticide methods. Did you know that a weed called “Queen Anne’s Lace” will deter ants ?     Another race of Honey Bee has entered into the picture in America  that’s pretty much Varroa Mite resistant.  The Russian Honey Bee.  Very docile and easy to work with,  much less high producers of HONEY !    Let’s give some applause to our “Nature’s Heroines”.   Clap, Clap, Clap !!!
For more information regarding Russian Honey Bees, Visit: http://GreenAnything.net/honey-bees.php
OR
Visit us for discussion at :   http://www.beesource.com/forums  .  Sign up and I’ll see you there…….SwedeBee1970

A beekeeper, whether a casual hobbyist or a huge commercial producer, can not succeed unless they comprehend the life cycle of the honey bee.The honey bees life cycle is a unique and fascinating process.It all starts with the egg. The hives queen bee lays an egg in one of the cells constructed for the soul reason for laying eggs. Once queen has laid the egg and moved on to lay another ( throughout spring months the queen can lay an average of 1900 eggs daily) the egg is accompanied the cell so with a mucous secretions strand.When the egg hatches a larvae emerges. Nurse bees are in charge of treating the young larvae. They feed the eggs bee bread. Bee bread is a strange mixture of gland secretions and honey. The larvae will execute five distinct growth stages. After each one stages the larvae sheds its outer skin. When a persons larvae is six days old, a worker bee comes along and caps the larvae, caccooning the larvae in its cell. The larvae stays the in the cocoon for for eight to 10 days, when it emerges from the cocoon it is a fully formed young bee.The average length of life average honey bee depends on what purpose the bee fulfills in the hive. A queen bee can live for two years providing that she was able to get herself inseminated with enough sperm during her nuptial flight. A good strong queen bee can lay as many as 2000 eggs a day. She’s in charge of killing her sisters and mothers. The queen bee doesn’t have to care about attending to the best interests of herself, she is always surrounded by an entourage of worker bees who feed her and remove her waste. It is not uncommon for seniors queen bee to leave the nest in the springtime when the rest of the hive is preparing to swarm. Experts believe that the queen produces some kind of pheromone that prevents the hives workers bees from becoming interested in sex. A queen bee who has not made her nuptial flight is called a virgin queen. Drone bees are male bees that live only to impregnate queen bees during the queens nuptial flight.After mating with a queen the drone dies. During the wintertime, a worker bee can live up to one hundred and forty days old. Throughout summer months the worker bee is lucky to live for forty days, the short summer life span is because the worker bees are literally worked to death. The worker bee’s duties are wide and varied. Worker bees called nurse bees are in charge of treating the young larvae, other workers are sent out to gather pollen to be made into honey. Some workers spend their time capping off honey combs, others are contributing to attending to the best interests of the queen. Worker bees are in charge of starvation the unwanted drone bees and cleaning the hive. There might be any were from twenty thousand to two hundred 1000 worker bees in a lone hive. Worker bees are always sterile. If a worker bee lays an egg it turns into a drone bee. Workers bees are the bees that people see defending the hive.The survival of the bee hive depends on the hive having a nourishing diet and frequent exercise queen that is laying eggs. If something happens to the queen the hive will die.

Beekeeping is a great way for someone who doesn’t have  loads of money and acres of land to take up a hobby that is both rewarding and that you can make some money from. The start up expense of the average hive can be from $300 to $400 per hive. To start I would only recommend the one.

You can locate your hive at the bottom of your garden or a  remote corner of your back yard, it is now becoming more common to see suburban homes with a bee hive at the back of their house.

Before you rush out and buy your first bee hive it is worth checking with the local authorities or Cooperative Extension office. They will to tell you if you live in an area that beekeeping is allowed. Remember to ask them for the contact information of your local areas beekeeping organization where you can become a registered beekeeper.

Select a site for your honey bee hive.

Now that you have selected your site you will need to buy the basic equipment. I would recommend searching on the internet to find your local beekeepers association or use eBay and if all that fails try the local yellow pages. If you are struggling to find a hive you could always build one, instructions can be found at http://www.30media30.com/beekeeping/  there is nothing more satisfying than building your own bee hive.

Now that your hive is in place and you are happy and confident that everything is in 100% it’s time to order your honey bees. The easiest and best way is to order Honey Bees is from an established Apiary. Honey Bees should be ordered early in the winter, the average beekeeper orders their bees in January and February. The order is then shipped in March and April but depending on your country this may vary, ask before you bye.

Bees can be either, sent by post / shipped or collected, although a lot of couriers do not like to transport bees. Again check with the Apiary for the best way to transport your bees to their new bee hive.

When your bees arrive they should have been packaged in a special carrying case that is designed just for bees. The package should be a wooden framed “house” that has a screen covering the outside. This packaging allows air to circulate to the traveling bees.

On unpacking your bees, do not be surprised if you see a few dead bees at the bottom of the package, this is normal. Bees do not like traveling and they find it hard, so unfortunately you will loose a few. You will find the rest of the bees clutching the sides of the container.

You should also 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.  Good Apiaries will ship the queen with a couple of nurse bees and some times the top of the queen’s container will be covered with piece of sugar candy.

With the bees there should also be a container that is filled with a sugar solution. This sugar solution is food for the bees. As soon as you get the bees home offer them something to drink, do this by taking a spray bottle and covering the container with a very fine covering of water.

If you would like to know more about beekeeping and how to keep bees or looking to take this up as a hobby then visit

http://www.30media30.com/beekeeping/