Joined: Oct 04, 2004 Posts: 5437 Location: Oklahoma
Posted: Sun May 29, 2005 12:33 pm Post subject: [Food] Beekeeping
I've been meaning to start this thread for awhile. I am a new beekeeper. I will add more soon, but for now here is the story of the day I picked up and hived my bees (reposted from my own blog):
Quote:
I picked up the bees at the apiary at 1pm. There were people in bee suits, and some without, working on a loading dock in front of a big warehouse. The dock had numerous boxes of caged bees, and there were clouds of bees swarming in the air all around. Tens of thousands of them. I couldn’t see where I was supposed to go, so I stood back from the swarms and waited around looking dumb until a guy in a bee suit finally walked over and asked me what I needed. I told the guy I was there to pick up some bees, and he told me to wait a minute. He went in the warehouse. A couple of minutes later a very old guy in normal clothes walked through the swarms to me. I showed him my invoice and he sent me next door to his relative’s apiary. At this place it was pretty obvious where I was supposed to go; there was an office. A woman led me into a dark warehouse where a huge fan was blowing hard on 4 small boxes of bees. She had me wait there while she got a worker to help me. The boxes were connected in pairs by small pieces of wood. The guy used a loud electric saw to cut them apart, then he brushed off most (not all) of the loose bees clinging to the outside of the box and put it on the floor of the front passenger seat of my car, and I left with my new tiny livestock.
I wasn’t nearly as freaked out as I thought I’d be driving around with thousands of bees in the car. In fact it was kind of cool. Every now and then one of the stowaways would decide to fly off the box, and I’d open the window and out she’d go. This happened 4 times. Two hours later when I got to my destination there was only one hobo left outside the box.
I brought the box inside and set it in a dark cool place. The bees were buzzing in an agitated way, and hanging in a big clump off the inside top of the box, clustered around the queen cage. When I sprayed them with sugar syrup they got very quiet and immediately started lapping it up. You could easily see their tongues slurping the syrup, way cool. I took some time to relax and let the baby play, sprayed them again, and went out to get some needed items while the bees cooled off and ate. Then I put them back in the car and we took them to the hive location.
I set up the hive and removed one of the 10 frames to make room for the queen cage. I put on my veil and gloves and put the baby in a playpen about 20 feet away from the hive. When everything was ready, I tipped the cage over to get ahold of the syrup can plugging the hole in the top. Then I uprighted the box, banged it to get the bees to the bottom, pulled out the syrup can and queen cage and put a board over the hole to keep the bees inside while I dealt with the queen. Here is where it began to get interesting, because while the books say “a few bees may be clinging to the queen cage” it was more like 100, and they began swarming around me. It made me nervous, especially when one landed on my bee veil, however they were not aggressive.
I almost lost the queen. The queen cage is a small box with screen on one side, wood on the others, and corks at both ends. One cork holds in a candy plug that slows the queen’s introduction to the hive so the bees will accept her, the other simply plugs a hole. I pulled out the wrong cork, and she almost got out before I managed to get my gloved finger over the hole. Unfortunately I dropped the cork and couldn’t find it, so I stood there floundering for a minute until I realized I could just use the one from the other end! So that worked fine. I pushed a hole in the candy with a nail to give them a head start getting her free, then I hung the queen cage between two of the hanging frames in the hive. Most of the bees that escaped when I pulled out the queen were following her around, so they went in after her.
Now came the scary part. I had to open the big box again and dump all the bees into the hive. The books say they will pour out kind of like liquid and be immediately attracted to the sweet wax in the hive. This was true - for about half of them. In no time I had thousands of bees swarming all around me, landing all over me, and making a lot of noise. I didn’t freak out although I was certainly not the most calm I’ve ever been. I had to bang the box to get most of them out, and I didn’t get as many of them actually down in the hive as I hoped. I’d say about 2/3 went in the hive, the rest were swarming around or stayed in the box. I let them calm down for a minute before putting the top on the hive. During this time I realized I had a bee inside my shirt, and I regret to say I was unable to free her without getting stung on my side. So she died and I got one sting, which wasn’t too painful. I did remember to scrape the stinger out so the venom sac didn’t have much time to keep working on me. Once things seemed as calm as they were going to get for awhile I put the top on the hive, set up the bees’ temporary food supplement (more sugar syrup, to help them get going while they build their comb), cleaned up and went home to have dinner.
Overall this was certainly an interesting experience, and I’m glad to have the scariest part of beekeeping over and done with! Next time I’ll know better what to expect. Can’t wait to check on them in a week!
Joined: Oct 23, 2004 Posts: 488 Location: Canada/Quebec Province
Posted: Sun May 29, 2005 2:55 pm Post subject:
One of the greatest thing about beekeeping is..they go outside of you land ! Unlike most of the farming stuff,they are not limited by the size of the land directly available ..
Of course,there is no such thing like "free lunch",but beekeeping is what come the closer of it !
Joined: Nov 24, 2004 Posts: 75 Location: West Lafayette, IN U.S.A.
Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2005 12:41 pm Post subject:
Way to go!
I've been very interested in beekeeping, but I admit that I'm intimidated by all the information out there, as well as the cost of all the things some experts say are necessary. I look forward to hearing more about your new experiences!
Joined: Oct 04, 2004 Posts: 5437 Location: Oklahoma
Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2005 3:57 pm Post subject:
Two books that have helped me a lot are The Queen and I and Keeping Bees. Don't buy a "beginner's kit" anywhere without reading one of these books first. The kits don't really come with everything you need and they tend to be overpriced. My favorite supplier so far is Dadant & Sons and they have a huge variety at good prices.
I find that being dressed properly makes all the difference in the world when going into the hive. I wear gloves and tuck my sleeves into them, tuck my bee veil into my collar, tuck my shirt into my pants, and tuck my pants into my socks. That keeps the bees from getting into my clothes. When I do this I feel confident and am able to handle the bees properly. They like gentle and smooth motions.
It is really easy to tell when they are upset by the sound they make. I think we are hardwired to fear that angry buzz.
I kept bees as a child. It's great fun though extracting the honey is a very messy job. And you WILL get stung, maybe several dozen times depending on how much you upset the bees, but you kind of get immune to it and it doesn't even hurt after a while. One thing that I learned. If you live somewhere like southern California where eucalyptus trees grow, use it's leaves in the smoker. It has a sedative effect on the bees and they won't bug you as much. Now, I don't know if this has anything to do with the fact that Koala bears sleep all day but I know it doesn't affect humans. _________________ -Dac
Winners never quit and quiters never win, but those that never win and never quit are idiots.
Joined: Apr 17, 2005 Posts: 2723 Location: Vancouver Island
Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2006 5:50 pm Post subject: Re: [Food] Beekeeping
An ancient bump from the past. How did the beekeeping work out
Shannymara?
Also a quick question for anyone that knows. Can the hives me placed in a partially shaded area? I'm thinking about looking into a hive in the back yard but it's heavily wooded. The wide won't let me put one in the front where it's cooking hot sunny I'm sure. _________________ shame on us, doomed from the start
god have mercy on our dirty little hearts
Joined: Oct 04, 2004 Posts: 5437 Location: Oklahoma
Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2006 8:18 pm Post subject: Re: [Food] Beekeeping
strider3700 wrote:
An ancient bump from the past. How did the beekeeping work out
Shannymara?
Also a quick question for anyone that knows. Can the hives me placed in a partially shaded area? I'm thinking about looking into a hive in the back yard but it's heavily wooded. The wide won't let me put one in the front where it's cooking hot sunny I'm sure.
Oh, thank you for asking! The mites got to them and killed the hive within a year. I brought this up at that permaculture class I took and the instructor said to look into more naturally shaped, round hives. She said the mites tend to breed in the corners of the box hives we use. I have been meaning to research this and keep forgetting, so I appreciate your bump!
I think it's actually good for the bees to have the hives in shade, especially if you live in a hot area. I had my hive on the edge of the woods facing a field full of wildflowers and clover.
I'll post here again with whatever I find about round hives. Anyone here have any experience with that? Do they make a difference as far as keeping the mites at bay? _________________ "Every junkie's like a setting sun..." - Neil Young
Joined: Jan 03, 2005 Posts: 1185 Location: western Wisconsin
Posted: Tue Jun 27, 2006 1:36 pm Post subject: Re: [Food] Beekeeping
As far as I know, any hive that you use must be accessible to inspect the insides of it, and have removable frames. This is necessary to inspect them for diseases or pests in the hive. Not sure if any round hives (skeps) would be legal.
Joined: Oct 11, 2005 Posts: 245 Location: Southern USA
Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2006 12:37 am Post subject: Re: [Food] Beekeeping
I plan to start beekeeping within a year or so as part of my PP planning so I've done a good amount of research into this area. I'm by no means an expert, but I have picked up a few things.
If I recall correctly facing the hive towards the rising sun is preferred as well as some shade later in the day. The sun orients them, warms them in the morning and they do need some protection from the heat during the summer so partial shade is a must.
As far as mites go, that seems to be a major problem in the beekeeping industry since the introduction of the varroa mite in the late 80's. It has wiped out entire hives all over the country as there is no native predator of it.
From what I've read, a good shaking of powdered sugar over the top of the opened hive will greatly reduce their numbers. It seems the fine powder causes the mites to lose their grip as well as increase the bees grooming behavior.
Combine that with a bottom-screened board for trapping any fallen mites and periodically freezing drone broad (preferred food source of varroa) and you should be able to keep your hives intact.
Joined: Oct 04, 2004 Posts: 5437 Location: Oklahoma
Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2006 7:10 am Post subject: Re: [Food] Beekeeping
Jellric wrote:
periodically freezing drone broad (preferred food source of varroa)
Thanks for the information and suggestions, Jellric. For those who don't know, I wanted to mention that to use the drone freezing method you have to install frames with special foundation that has cells sized to encourage the production of drones and then freeze the whole frame. _________________ "Every junkie's like a setting sun..." - Neil Young
Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2006 7:55 am Post subject: Re: [Food] Beekeeping
It's not legal to have a round hive. The combs need to be removable and be available for inspection. With skeps (round hives) the comb is not available for inspection without destroying the hive.
As far as mite breeding preferences, female mites will preferentially lay eggs in drone cells. Drone cells are a bit larger than worker cells. One IPM for mite control is to save frames that have lots of brood cells and insert them into hives. The queen lays drone brood in those cells and the mites are drawn to that comb and lay eggs, ignoring the worker cells. The beekeeper then removes the frame with the drone brood containing the mites, thus reducing the mite population in the hive. However, the beekeeper must be diligent in removing the drone brood once it is capped. If the frame of drone brood is left in the hive, it doesn't remove mites, it adds mites.
We've found that continously shaded hives don't do as well as those on open more exposed places. The exposed hives have fewer mites and produce more honey. I think the shade creates a more humid environment that may favor mites.
One last word about mites. Researchers are finding that mites carry viruses and these viruses (but not the mites) may be causing disease.
Joined: Nov 24, 2005 Posts: 743 Location: The ever shrinking wilds of Norway
Posted: Fri Sep 29, 2006 12:49 am Post subject: Re: [Food] Beekeeping
What would one do with the bees in wintertime? Bees doesn't exist naturally here.
Do you have to replace the honey with sugar to keep the bees from starving? Since sugar are cheap today, there would be a good profit ratio on the honey. When the sugar becomes equally expensive, that will be bad for business, right? _________________ http://livingprimitively.com/
Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2008 7:31 am Post subject: Re: [Food] Beekeeping
I'd just like to bump the bee topic.
I've started reading about beekeeping in preparation for starting next spring. What troubles me is that there is a lot of medications required to protect them. While I don't have a problem with this in principle, it's not PPO-sustainable.
There are books on oganic beekeeping which I will be reading - Perhaps they will have other, non-chemical solutions to bee afflictions.
Shannymara, did you at least get Honey before the hive died? Have you since tried again?
Joined: Oct 04, 2004 Posts: 5437 Location: Oklahoma
Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2008 7:41 am Post subject: Re: [Food] Beekeeping
hermit wrote:
Shannymara, did you at least get Honey before the hive died? Have you since tried again?
No, they didn't make it a full season. I think it was a combination of the intense heat, our not living on the property full time so I wasn't able to monitor and assist them enough, and possibly whatever is killing bees generally these days.
I never used any chemicals. I have heard that the smaller cell size foundation helps with some of the parasite problems. Also I heard that keeping them in skeps, or whatever the round hives are called, helps because the parasites like corners (natural bee hives don't have lots of 90 degree angles).
I would love to try again when I am in a position to give them more time; it is really fun as well as a source of honey and wax. _________________ "Every junkie's like a setting sun..." - Neil Young
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I love bees. We have wild (feral) honeybees in an oak tree, but I think it would be fun to try to raise some in hives. Maybe some day.
