Bee Keeping & Making Honey
Bees are one of the most beneficial insects known to man. Without them crops are not pollinated, and without them human food supplies would be in grave danger. Though a source of some concern for people who are allergic to bee stings, honey bees are relatively peaceful creatures. Bee keeping can be a business but is more often done as a small side venture for the hobbyist.
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Bee Keeping Basics
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If you are in an area where there is a good supply of flowering plants, you have the makings of a place to keep bees. A water supply and housing for the bees is the second requirement. A bee hive or box can be bought pre-made and is easy to set up. It should be in a protected area away from high winds. Be considerate and allow plenty of space for bee flight paths if you have neighbors. A training program or bee keeper apprenticeship is not a bad idea, to help you learn the basics. You need to watch the health of the queen, the hive for mites or disease, and collect the honey while ensuring the bees have enough to survive.
Equipment
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A bee hive is a large layered box with frames inside. Some of the frames are for honey production, some are for breeding the new bees and the honey supply for the colony itself. Separate frames for collecting honey are called supers, and are more shallow than the hive body or brood chamber. This is a deep box which can hold 10 frames of comb and is also called the nest. There can be a queen excluder, or a frame which keeps the queen isolated in the nest and away from the honey collecting frames. A hive box is set up in a particular way, and you should learn the proper technique from the beekeeper you purchase your box from. Other equipment is simple: a hive tool for separating frames in the hive, a bee suit or veil and gloves, a smoke device to calm the bees when collecting honey, a spray bottle for sugar syrup, and jars or containers to hold what is collected.
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Ways to Get Bees
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You can buy a hive box already occupied with a hive from a beekeeper. This is most often done in winter when bees are less active. Be sure you check the condition of the hive and know it is a reputable beekeeper. Another method is to install packaged bees in a newly purchased hive box. Introducing the bees to the hive and making sure the queen survives the moving in period will take monitoring, and at times a second queen has to be ordered if the first queen dies. The final and trickiest method is collecting a swarm or wild hive. Property owners with a swarm are often happy to have it removed. Use a 5-gallon plastic bucket with a screen lid, use the smoke tool or spray the bees with sugar syrup to slow them down and collect the swarm in the bucket. Install them in the hive once you have them back at your property. Be sure the queen is in residence and survives the move. If not, order a new queen for the hive immediately.
Management
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Most hive management takes place during the winter months when the bees are less active. Checking for disease and pest infestations can take place when the bees are closely quartered. Feeding and medicating should be done during this time. Beekeepers will feed the hive sugar syrup to boost egg laying and preserve hive numbers, as food stores get low for bees in winter with just natural production and often hive numbers are reduced. Some beekeepers re-queen the hive in early spring to install a newer younger queen that is a more productive egg layer. Creating new hives can also be done by purchasing a new queen, introducing her into a new hive box with several frames of bees from the old box and creating an entirely new colony. With proper management, good honey production is likely, as the bees are well fed, cared for, and ready to start collecting nectar and producing honey as soon as they are able to.
Honey Collection
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There are tools for extracting honey that require a bit of an investment. However, doing the job without them is messy and difficult and often results in honey that is not as clean and presentable. A knife to slice the combs open, a tank to let the combs drain, a screen to catch the wax, dead bees and debris, and a collecting tank with a spigot are all equipment that make this job easy. If you purchase your bee supplies from a beekeeper, they may have used equipment for sale in good shape.
Other Options
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Honey can be sold in the comb without extracting it; some buyers and companies prefer this form. Removing the entire comb from the frame is the easiest way to accomplish this. Sometimes chunks of honeycomb are sold with or without added honey. The beeswax is also a valuable product, and the caps from the combs, once cut away for extraction, can be washed and melted down, made into products or sold raw to companies that use it.
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References
- Photo Credit apicoltore image by lino beltrame from Fotolia.com
