Honey bees

How to Start Keeping Bees - Guideline 1

2012-05-13T18:55:00.001+01:00

Without vegetation the honey bees cannot exist for example the South Pole and North Pole have snow all year, so there is no work for them, no vegetation that needs pollination. There are many countries in between the North and South Poles where there is plenty of vegetation with the exclusion of deserts. The deserts are not suitable because there is insufficient rainfall for plant growth and a lack of water, unlike the camel they do not have a hump for storing water. All those sandstorms would make it extremely difficult to manage your beehive, besides their survival would also be near impossible if not impossible.

Global locations where there is snow for three months or more, would need just a little more care and know how to see them through the winter period. Where there is snow you will need some basic insulation to protect the honey bees from the wind and snowstorms as they need to keep a constant temperature in the beehive. Beehives are made up of a brood box and several supers that are removable, so there could be small cracks and joins that are not fitting tightly and insulation wrapping would then cover these cracks and joins. Feeding the bees cane syrup may also become necessary during the snowy winter months. You would also need to control certain pests during winter, and keep the mice out as they like to winter in the beehives because of the warmth.

Other considerations would be the landscape in the area where you wish to keep your honey bees. Mountainous areas could make it cumbersome managing the beehives as you would need to check on them from time to time. During the robbing season, honeycombs when full are pretty heavy to carry, for this reason your beehives should be accessible to your pickup or other transport.

The geographic areas where there is no snow during winter are ideal for beekeeping as there are winter flowers and winter crops that need pollination. There is therefore no special care needed during the winter months. Although no robbing is done there is sufficient winter vegetation for the honey bees to sustain themselves. You would need to keep the beehives safe from fires and check on their water supply. In these areas they work all year doing what comes naturally.

In conclusion consider the main needs of the honey bee colony. They need enough vegetation and water to produce honey. The location should be accessible when you are robbing the beehives. Once you have chosen the area other considerations for setting up your beehive will begin to fall into place. The world of the honey bee is fascinating and they actually need very little help from us. The truth is we need them more than they need us.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5284433

18 Great Facts About Bees That You May Not Know About

2012-05-13T18:51:00.001+01:00

1. Did you know that male drone bees do not work at all, and in fact the only work they do is to mate?

2. Did you know that in fact drones do not even have a sting?

3. The bees that do the work in a bee colony are the female workers.

4. A queen will mate with up to 17 drone bees over a two day period during her mating flights.

5. In any one day, a queen can lay over 2000 eggs and she is the only one in the colony who can do so.

6. After she has mated she stores the sperm from the drone bees in her spermatheca and does not attempt to mate again in her lifetime.

7. They will tend to construct their hives either in the ground or high above in trees or on roofs, the only bees who do not do this are carpenter bees who instead make their homes in untreated wood and timber.

8. The average speed of a bee is 15 mph.

9. In order to make a pound of honey, it has been calculated that 556 bees will need to visit one million flowers to make this at all possible.

10. Did you know that It takes an astonishing 1110 stings to kill a human?

11. In order to communicate with each other, Honey bees dance for each other to let each other know what is going on.

12. Did you know that They are also extremely scrupulous about keeping their hives as clean as possible?

13. Of all the crops that we consume, bees are responsible for pollinating a third of them making them the highest pollinators of all insects.

14. The average colony contains 60000 bees which can be a frightening sight and why people resort to bee control out of fear.

15. Honey bees will look to visit 50 to 100 flowers during one nectar collection trip when they go out looking to bring it back to their nest.

16. In hives in the United Kingdom, they produce 6000 tonnes of honey each and every year.

17. Honey has some amazing life giving qualities that help other creatures to keep sustained.

18. Did you know that Honey never goes off? In fact a jar of 2000 year old honey in an Egyptian tomb was found by explorers on an expedition and it was said to taste delicious.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6752927

What is Really Raw Honey?

2011-05-23T19:21:00.002+01:00

Really Raw Honey is absolutely chapped honey. It still contains pollen, propolis, bore and alive enzymes -- all the advantage the bees put in! That's why Really Raw Honey is creamy, bland and spreadable with candied and brittle cappings. Really Raw® Honey is aggregate from fields of wildflowers buried by nature.

No added honey tastes as good!

One balm of our honey, with its characteristic balm of wildflowers, tells you this is article special. With your aboriginal taste, you'll apperceive you are bistro article absolutely extraordinary. The acidity is clashing any honey on the market. The bees accept the color, flavor, and arrangement of our honey by the varieties of wildflowers and herbs they forage. We absorb these qualities and all the nutrients the bees put in by authoritative abiding that our honey is never strained, never filtered, and never heated.

What Is Bee bite Therapy?

2011-05-23T18:25:00.005+01:00

bee bite analysis is an another medical analysis accessible for the administration of anarchic altitude like arthritis and bursitis. In a bee bite analysis session, a practitioner will anxiously acquaint bees to the patient's anatomy and animate them to sting, absolution a circuitous alloy of toxins and added compounds. A accommodating may abide one or assorted stings in a session. The cardinal is at the acumen of the practitioner, who will advance a advance of analysis afterwards evaluating the patient. Providers of another anesthetic may action bee bite therapy, and it is sometimes offered as a commutual analysis in a added accustomed medical office.

Several cultures accept a continued history of apitherapy, the use of bee articles in medical treatment, and in both Ancient Greece and China, bee sting analysis was an accustomed adjustment of analysis for a array of medical conditions. Interest in apitherapy was active in the 20th century. Controlled studies on bee sting analysis advance that it does not arise to accept a ameliorative effect, and for some patients, it can affectation risks.

Practitioners of bee bite analysis accept that melittin, a key basic in bee venom, has ameliorative effects. This admixture absolutely has antimicrobial effects, and it may additionally act as an anti-inflammatory. Bee acidity additionally contains a cardinal of added substances, some of which are accepted to account deepening or acoustic damage, and the aggregate of capacity in bee stings may serve to abrogate the benign furnishings of melittin.

Patients may seek bee bite analysis for assorted sclerosis, fibromyalgia, abiding fatigue syndrome, and gout, amid added conditions. Some practitioners anon administer bees, usually with a accurate eye to accession in the acceptance that, like acupuncture, the area of the analysis plays an important role in therapy. Others may administer injections of antiseptic and advised venom, abnormally if the accommodating is afraid or afflictive about bees.

Some patients address acknowledged after-effects with bee bite therapy. Before because this option, it is appropriate to argue a primary affliction provider to get admonition about contraindications and abeyant concerns. This analysis is not acceptable for patients with a history of allergic reactions to bee stings, alike if those allergies are mild. Repeat exposures can access the acuteness of the acknowledgment and may put the accommodating at accident for astringent complications. It is additionally appropriate to bout the ability area analysis takes place, and to ask about assurance measures in the accident of astute allergic reactions or added complications.

Scientific names for the bees and honey in several languages

2011-05-23T11:17:00.006+01:00

Scientific names for the bees and honey in several languages

This topic is the names of honey and bees after languages in the world

Language    bees     honey
german:                             Bienen                    Honig
Spanish :                           abejas miel
English:    bees                     honey
French:    les abeilles le miel
Indonesian :    lebah                 madu
Italian:        api                       miele
Portuguese:    abelhas                     mel
Ukrainian:    beacha     mil
Polish:    pszczoły miód

Irish:     beacha    mil
Turkish: arılar    bal
Czech:    včel                            med
Danish: bier    honning
Russian: Пчелы                       мед
Romanian: albine                         miere
Slovak: včiel                            med
Swedish:                       bin                               honung
Filipino:                         bubuyog                      honey
Finnish: mehiläiset hunaja
Vietnamese:                ong                               mật ong
Croatian: pčela med
Korean: pčela                           med
Latin:                             apes mella
Maltese:     naħal    għasel
Norwegian:    bier                              honning
Hungarian: méhek       méz
Dutch:                          bijen                             honing
Russian:    Пчелы                        мед
Serbian:                      пцела мед
Macedonian:    пчели    мед
Bulgarian:    пчели    пчелен мед
Greek:    μελισσών     το μέλι
Indian:    मधुमक्खियों    मधु
Thai:    ผึ้ง                      น้ำผึ้ง
Chinese: 蜜蜂            蜂蜜
Japanese:                   蜂                         蜂蜜
Arabic: النحل                             العسل
Persian:                        زنبور عسل عسل

Royal Jelly Health Benefits

2011-05-21T11:55:00.004+01:00

Intake of royal jelly has been determined to be a healthy habit that offers more than meets the eye. The health benefits make it a very popular product for those who know them. If you make it a habit of sticking to a daily intake, you will be lowering levels of bad cholesterol in your blood while the red and white blood cells are increased, together with antibodies. You will be strengthening the first defense of the body against an infection.

Royal jelly is superb as an anti-aging product. This is stressed by its rejuvenation and refreshing of crucial body functions, such as the kidney and liver filtration processes. The nutrient helps cell regeneration to take place, something physically observed by the resultant skin smoothness. Any elderly individual thus shows signs of youthfulness since the skin has limited and minimum wrinkle formation.

Main benefits that royal jelly adds to the body are observed in its nourishment of the whole body with additional essential nutrients. It has high concentrations of enzymes, proteins, Vitamins A-E, B complex vitamins, amino acids and antioxidants. In addition, the product also helps in adding more energy to the body and rejuvenating every segment of its functions. If a person’s nutrition is unbalanced or deficient, it corrects this anomaly while stimulating most glands and organs and helping in the recovery and healing of chronic illnesses.

Also, as one recuperates, there is a possibility of adding weight while one is also able to lose unwanted fat gain through cravings reduction and in minimizing addictions whether in drinking or smoking. While playing an active role in preventing against harmful radiation, it has ample qualities of working fine against cancer, providing people with a better life and enhancing their vitality.

Sexual health for both genders shows some improvement using royal jelly as a daily supplement. For men, they are able to prevent problems with their prostate, increase their sperm count while enhancing their overall sexual performance. For women, their reproductive system seems to function much better while sexual libido is improved. Other benefits include immune system improvement, body detoxification, allergies alleviation, stamina, strength and endurance improvement while delaying tumor or cancer cells development.

Royal jelly also helps with an easy and smooth fertilization process. It protects severe diabetic patients from painful wounds as its vasodilatation properties make sure varicose veins have been reduced in the body. The product has been significant in many spheres of human health, becoming more effective when used in a daily basis. Through its healthy properties and many nutrients, human life is guaranteed a longer lifespan.

Transmission of nerve messages through acetylcholine is harmonized by royal jelly since it has the product in plenty. Also, in such diseases as Alzheimer’s, which is a result of little acetylcholine, patients are given a respite. It also stimulates the glial cells growth as well as stem cells of the neural within the brain, thus being important to patients with Parkinson’s disease. The product transforms the health of man by keeping all health sectors in check.

article source: buzzle.com

Calories in Honey vs Sugar

2011-05-21T11:39:00.001+01:00

honey, bee, honeybees, pollen, propolis
A sugar free diet is the latest mantra in the market. Avoid those extra calories and reduce your weight. What's more, it helps you maintain your blood sugar level as well. In the same rhythm, people are also going ga-ga about honey. It is natural, it is healthy, and it has antioxidant properties that keeps you fit and fine. So, is eating honey better than sugar? Should I switch over to honey, or is it another marketing gimmick to make us buy their products? In order to lay all my doubts to rest, I went on to search for answers that helped me determine which is better: honey or sugar. Thus, the following write up, calories in honey vs sugar, will help you understand the difference between these two sweeteners. So continue reading further and find out more about calories in honey compared to sugar.

Calories in Honey Compared to Sugar
I shall begin with information related to calories in honey vs sugar. So, basically these are both sweeteners that help sweeten foods and drinks. Sugar is manufactured from sugarcane after denaturization of proteins, nitrogen, organic acids, vitamins and enzymes. Honey on the other hand is made from the hard work of honey bees. Coming back to calories in honey vs sugar. One tablespoon of sugar contains 46 calories. When you compare honey, it contains about 64 calories. Thus, there are more calories in honey than sugar. Do not hit the panic button, if you had honey with cereals in breakfast today. Honey is more sweeter than sugar. Thus, one adds slightly less honey than sugar. Also, honey is a lot more expensive than sugar. Thus, we are more liberal when using sugar instead of honey. So, in the end, we consume less calories with honey than sugar.

Which is Better Honey or Sugar?
As we found from the above paragraph on calories in honey vs sugar, there are more calories in honey than sugar. This made me wonder, which is better honey or sugar? People go raving about the heath benefits of natural honey. Is this true? So, I decided to dig in deeper and clear out all the doubts.

Have you heard about Glycemic Index (GI)? It is a method of measuring the effect of carbohydrate rich foods on the blood sugar levels. The scale of measuring GI is 0 to 100. Foods that rank high on the scale cause greater fluctuations in blood sugar levels. Thus, lower the ranks, healthier the food. Honey ranks 55 on the Glycemic Index, whereas sugar stands at 61. Thus, honey is better than sugar and it proves to be a better source of energy.

Speaking of energy, sugar contains 100% sucrose and honey is made up of just 1.5% sucrose. The rest is all fructose and glucose, that are a type of monosaccharides. Those who are health conscious, or athletes, will know what I am talking about. Monosaccharides or simple sugars can enter the bloodstream directly. They do not need to be metabolized into simple sugars like sucrose. Thus, they prove to be a source of instant energy and nutrients for the body.

As we move on to nutrients, you will find sugar contains no minerals, vitamins or proteins. Just plain carbohydrates (read between the lines: just plain calories). I have already explained in the beginning, sugar is made by destroying the nutrients in sugar cane. Thus, no nutrients in sugar. On the other hand, honey is a natural product made by honey bees. It contains calcium, iron, phosphorus, potassium, manganese, magnesium, vitamin B6, riboflavin, niacin, pathothenic acid, tryptophan, threonine, lysine, tyrosine, arginine, aspartic acid, glutamic acid, serine and many more vitamins, minerals and amino acids. No, this does not mean you can eat honey and get rid of those boring vegetables in your refrigerator! One tablespoon of honey does not contain enough nutrients that meet the recommended daily dose for your body. The nutrients are present, but you will have to eat a hell lot of more honey to achieve your recommended daily nutrient dose. This will lead to weight gain and yeah, diabetes!

Weight gain occurs due to excessive calorie intake in the diet. Thus, the first thing knocked off by the dietitian is sugar from your diet. You can substitute a tablespoon of honey for the sugar you are not supposed to eat. This will give you instant energy and get easily absorbed in the body. However, too much honey will cause you to gain weight. So, if you feel you can gain all the precious vitamins and minerals by eating more honey, think again. You are going to put on more weight than normal.

Honey vs Sugar: Conclusion
So, in conclusion to the calories in honey vs sugar debate, honey proves to be a better bet than sugar. Honey contains more calories than sugar. But, it is not just full of empty calories, it is packed with vitamins, minerals and amino acids in minute levels. So, the end word here, is eating honey in moderation. You should include plenty of fruits and vegetables in your diet along with a tablespoon or two of honey. Sugar in moderation will also cause no more harm than honey. Watch what you eat as this will help you remain in the 'pink of health'.

article source: buzzle.com

Bee killer diseases

2011-04-27T12:51:00.003+01:00

bee, honey bees, propolis, honey, bees, bee

Prevention is better than cure.
Learn to recognize healthy brood and bees.
Adopt hygienic practices – do not discard comb & propolis in the apiary or exchange combs.
Try not to squash bees when manipulating a colony.
Avoid robbing and drifting – don’t spill sugar syrup or manipulate late in the season, .
Assume second-hand equipment has contained a diseased colony. Blowlamp wooden parts. Do not use second-hand frames or combs.
Sterilize combs with 80% acetic acid.
Quarantine swarms – check for disease.
Never feed foreign honey or honey of unknown origin.
Consider keeping a separate hive tool and gloves in each apiary.
If in doubt, ask for advice from the Bee Diseases Officer or an experienced beekeeper.
Samples can be examined for acarine and nosema by a microscopist. A charge will be made for samples sent to the National Bee Unit.
Foul Brood must be reported to the National Beekeeping Unit or the Bee Inspector. Diagnosis of Foul Brood and treatment is free.
Don’t always lament losses. If it is your fault, learn from the experience. Survival of the fittest and Adaptation applies to bees.

Disease in this context is anything that causes the colony not to be at ease – dis-eased – not necessarily caused by a pathogen. Bee diseases may be grouped under Brood Diseases, Adult Diseases, Management and Pests:

Brood Diseases
It is essential to be able to recognize healthy brood – anything that deviates from this is suspect. Many causes of disease are to be found in most colonies, but infection is not usually apparent until the colony becomes stressed. Avoid stressing colonies and unhygienic procedures e.g. exchanging combs, spilling sugar syrup, etc.
Sacbrood is a virus disease (Morator aetatulae) found in 30% of colonies, usually noticed from May to early summer, when the ratio of brood to bees is high. Old beekeeping books refer to Addled Brood now identified as Sacbrood (Yates). Sacbrood disease prevents larvae from pupating (5 th moult) once they have been sealed in their cells. Larvae that have died from sacbrood become fluid-filled sacs stretched on their backs with their heads towards the top of their cells. Adult worker bees eventually uncap them. Diseased larvae turn from pearly white colour to pale yellow and the head curls up as the body dries to a thin, dark brown scale. Unlike American Foul Brood, the scale has a distinctive Chinese slipper shape and is easily removed in one piece. Adult bees recognize and remove affected larvae. Adult bees can be infected by feeding on contaminated pollen or by ingesting larval body fluids – the virus multiplies and collects in the hypopharyngeal glands that produce the food given to young larvae. However, infected bees cease to eat pollen and cease to feed larvae. Sacbrood is usually transitory and not a matter of concern. Combs can be re-used – the virus becomes non-infectious within a few weeks.

Chalk Brood is caused by the fungus Ascophaera apis, widespread and found in seemingly unaffected colonies – often appears in the Spring in expanding colonies. The trigger is not completely understood. High carbon dioxide levels in the brood nest, as may occur if there are insufficient bees to ventilate the colony, and deficiencies of pollen are possible factors. It may also be genetic, in which case re-queening may be the cure. The fungal spores are ingested by the larvae and germinate in the gut. Strands of fungus invade the larval tissue and the larva dies, frequently after the cell has been capped. The dead larva is chalky white at first, often with a yellow centre, and becomes very hard and loose in the cell (mummies). Additional black/grey spores may develop on the surface. Mummies are removed by house bees and can be seen outside the hive or on the floor. Chalk Brood mummies should not be confused with discarded mouldy pollen, which has coloured layers. Combs can be sterilized using acetic acid.
American Foul Brood is caused by the spore forming bacterium Paenibacillus larvae larvae. The spores contaminating the brood food develop into bacteria that penetrate the gut wall and multiply in the larval body tissues. The larvae usually die after the cell is sealed from ’blood poisoning’. The comb has a pepper box appearance where diseased larvae have been removed. Cappings may appear moist, sunken and perforated. Initially the dead larvae are slimy and dry to form brown scales, which can be seen if the comb is tilted to the light. The scales are difficult to remove and are highly infective – spores have been known to be viable after many years. Diagnosis can be confirmed by the ‘ropiness test’: a matchstick is inserted into a suspect cell, twisted and withdrawn slowly. If AFB is present the larval remains will be drawn out as a brown mucus thread. AFB is a notifiable disease – the BDO will arrange for bacteriological confirmation. A standstill order will be put in place. If confirmed, the BDO will supervise the burning of bees and combs. Bee Disease Insurance provides compensation. Do not feed foreign honey or honey of unknown origin, which may contain AFB spores. Swarms, drifting and robbing may bring AFB. You are not allowed to treat with antibiotics.
European Foul Brood is caused by the bacterium Melissococcus plutonius. The bacteria feed on food in the larval gut and starve the larvae. Larvae usually die before the cell is sealed. Affected larvae are seen in unnatural positions (‘stomach ache’), colour changes from pearly white to cream and eventually dry to form a brown scale (removable by the bees). In early stages, infected larvae have a melted wax appearance. Cell contents do not rope. EFB is a notifiable disease. The BDO will obtain microscopic confirmation. If confirmed, treatment with antibiotics by the BDO may be used if the infection is light – a shook swarm method of treatment may be recommended.

N.B. American & European are not geographical terms – both occur in Europe & America. Foul refers to the smell associated with the decomposition of the brood.
Varroasis is not a disease but an infestation by the parasitic mite Varroa destructor (previously jacobsoni). Since reaching this country in 1992, it has become endemic throughout the U.K. and most of the world. Your colonies will have varroa mites. Doing nothing is not an option – without treatment colonies will die within 3 years (there are no long-standing feral colonies). You must learn to monitor colonies for levels of infestation and treat when necessary with the approved varroacides in the correct manner – failure to keep to the time-scale has resulted in resistant mites. Fit varroa screens to hives in order to monitor levels of infestation. Uncap drone brood. Place a super frame in the middle of the brood box and destroy the drone brood built under the frame (varroa mites prefer drone brood). You must remove the brood traps - leaving them will have the opposite effect! 1,000 mites is now taken to be the highest acceptable population. Treat with Apistan/Bayvarol or Apiguard - other treatments may be time-consuming, temperature dependent, ineffective or pose a health risk to bees or humans (especially formic acid). Mite resistance requires Integrated Pest Management, a combination of methods used at different times of the year. There is no 100% knockdown treatment. Varroa breeds in sealed cells of brood – since a newly hived swarm has no brood, it can be treated to give a clean start. Apart from seeing mites, you may see stunted bees with distorted wings resulting from the varroa mite sucking the larval ‘blood’ – this is usually an indication of a high level of infestation. The puncturing of the larvae enables non-apparent viruses to take hold such as Slow Paralysis Virus and Deformed Wing Virus (Acute, Chronic, Cloudy Wing Viruses) – the colony dies from virus infection. Although varroa is now endemic in the UK and from 2005 will no longer be a statutory notifiable disease, the NBU will continue to offer advice on its control as it does for other serious nonstatutory diseases.

Average Daily Natural Mite Mortality

Jan - March <2 no action 2-7 plan future control 7> consider control

April - June <1 no action 1-7 light control 7> severe risk

July - Aug <2 no action 2-8 light control 8> severe risk

Sept - Dec <6 no action 6-8 light control 8> severe risk

Light control might be drone brood culling, artificial swarming, dusting with icing sugar, etc. rather than heavy control using chemicals.
Stone Brood is caused by a fungus, either Aspergillus flavus or Aspergillus fumigatus. It is extremely rare and only mentioned because you will come across it in books!
Neglected Drone Brood. This is not a disease but a condition, which can be confused with EFB during the discoloured larvae stage or AFB at the scaling stage. The cause is a drone laying queen or laying workers. Drone brood is raised on worker cells resulting in stunted and malformed drones. The colony is usually small and will have dwindled, the bees eventually neglect the drone brood in worker cells, which then die of starvation before sealing. They decompose and become yellow to brown. The decomposing larva becomes a brown watery mass (which does not rope) and eventually dries to a scale which can be removed by the bees.

Adult Diseases
Acarine is an infestation by the mite Acarapis woodi. The Isle of Wight disease in 1904 – 1920s was probably acarine. Despite the signs of acarine given in beekeeping books, there are no visible external signs – the signs usually given (crawling bees, dislocated wings, etc.) are those of Chronic Bee Paralysis associated with acarine (although not proved as a vector). The mites infest the trachea. Dissection and microscopic examination (20x) of the first thoracic trachea can confirm diagnosis. Send a sample to a microscopist (in a paper container not plastic). There is no approved medicament in the U.K since FolbexVA was withdrawn in early 1990 and Frow Mixture was banned. Oil of Wintergreen and menthol have been used as a treatment and creosote! The life of an infected bee is shortened. It usually has little effect in the active season. The mite is spread from old bees to very young bees. A severe winter may cause an infected colony to dwindle in the spring. Some strains of bees are more susceptible than others – the ‘tracheal mite’ is a huge problem in the U.S.A which uses Italian/NZ crosses. There are external acarine mites: A. exturnus, A. dorsalis & A. vagans – little is known about them.
Nosema is caused by Nosema apis, a spore forming protozoa. The protozoa multiply in the ventriculus (30 – 50 million spores) and impair the digestion of pollen thereby shortening the life of the bee. The spores are later excreted. There are no obvious signs of nosema, although Dysentery (q.v.), excreta on combs and hive, frequently accompanies heavy infections. Bees normally defecate away from the hive – sometimes the bees defecate in and about the hive because of the excessive build up of waste matter in their guts. The excreta containing spores is cleaned up by the bees and they become infected. Infected colonies fail to build up normally in the spring. Dead bees may be seen outside the hive after cleansing flights. Confirmation of Nosema is by microscopic examination (400x): 30 bees are crushed in water and a droplet is examined for white, rice-shaped bodies. Send a sample to a microscopist in a paper container (not plastic). Nosema is the most common disease and is to be found in seemingly healthy colonies. In Infectious Diseases of the Honey Bee (Dr. Bailey & Brenda Ball), it is stated that of 80 apparently healthy colonies, 79 contained the spores of nosema. Avoid crushing bees which can release millions of spores. Replace and sterilize combs with 80% acetic acid (100 ml./brood box for one week – air before use). Treatment with the antibiotic Fumidil B (prepared from Aspergillis fumigatus the causative agent of Stone Brood!) inhibits the spores reproducing in the ventriculus, but does not kill the spores.
Amoeba is caused by a protozoan amoeba-like parasite Malpighamoeba mellificae. Cysts are ingested with food and germinate in the rectum. They migrate to the malpighian tubules (the ‘kidneys’) to create more cysts that then accumulate in the rectum and are excreted. The infection seems to have no effect on the colony, there are no specific symptoms and no treatment. Often seen under a microscope when examining a sample for nosema - grainy circular cysts, larger than the rice shaped nosema spores. The spores are destroyed by acetic acid.
Since colonies have been treated for varroa, you are unlikely to see a similar (and harmless) parasite Braula coeca, the bee louse, a wingless fly. Braula (which has 6 legs, varroa has 8) breeds under cell cappings. Adults feed on honey taken as queen or workers are feeding. Tunnels can spoil appearance of comb honey.
Viruses. Nosema, acarine, varroa, etc. in themselves do not kill a colony – they weaken it and thereby allow viral infections to take over. It is for this reason that Dr. Bailey considers that it was viral infection (Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus?) and not acarine that killed so many colonies in the Isle of Wight Disease – the symptoms described such as crawling bees, trembling wings, etc. are those of CBPV. It is only in recent years that viruses have been identified using the electron microscope. There are no cures for viral infection, they are immune from any antibiotic treatment. Viruses only multiply in living cells of their hosts and any medicament which kills the virus would kill the host. In practice, most colonies terminally weakened with nosema or acarine exhibit signs of CBPV, particularly clustering on top bars and continual trembling.
Management
Chilled Brood is not caused by a pathogen. The optimum brood temperature is 35º – 37ºC. If there are insufficient bees to maintain this temperature, the brood will die. In the Spring the queen may have laid a patch of brood that the bees can’t cover if the temperature drops. Spray poisoning (q.v.) may reduce the number of bees. A characteristic is that brood of all stages, sealed and unsealed are affected. The outer boundaries of the brood cluster are affected first as the bees retreat to maintain the inner core at the correct temperature.
Dysentery is not a disease but a condition caused by excessive build up of waste matter in the rectum i.e. diarrhoea. It is usually due to unripe honey/late feeding, granulated stores, fermenting stores, feeding brown sugar, etc. The signs are fouling of combs, hive parts and around the entrance. Dysentery is usually associated with nosema. A badly affected colony will be weakened and may succumb to viral infection. Soiled comb should be replaced and sterilized.
Poisoning. A sudden reduction in the number of foraging bees, a large number of dead or dying bees outside the hive, may indicate poisoning by bees alighting on sprayed crops. Legislation has reduced the number of incidents. Apart from the evidence of dead bees, the colony may become bad tempered and shivering, staggering and crawling bees may be seen (similar to CBPV). Returning foragers spin around on the ground until they die. Dead bees usually have their proboscis (‘tongue’) extended. If you suspect poisoning, contact your association’s Spray Liaison Officer. Note time and day and try to locate location and time of spraying and witnesses. If possible take 3 samples of 200 dead bees – use a paper or cardboard container not plastic – bees carrying pollen loads are useful in identifying the source of the problem. Send one sample to the National Bee Unit, Sand Hutton, Yorkshire, YO4 1BF, including all known details. Keep the remaining two samples in the deep freezer for future use. Do not expect a speedy response. If the colony is badly depleted reduce the entrance to guard against robbing.
Starvation. A preventable ‘disease’ – the beekeeper should never allow colonies to starve because of mismanagement. Many years ago, MAFF (as it then was) conducted a survey on winter losses and found starvation to be the major cause. Heft your hives! Starvation can occur at any time of the year, but especially in the spring when there is brood and little food coming in. Poisoning will reduce foraging. The signs are sucked larvae being thrown out, drones evicted, and immobile bees. When regular inspections are being undertaken, check that there is a minimum of 10 lb. of stores each week – this is based on a conservative estimate of 1 – 1.5 lb. per day. A full brood comb holds about 5 lb. and a super comb about 3 lb. of honey.
In the autumn, colonies have to be fed sufficiently and early enough for them to ripen and store food, where they can reach it when conditions are freezing. Bees can starve surrounded by plenty. “Spring feeding should be done in the autumn”! Ensure colonies have about 40 lb. sealed stores to see the colony through the winter. Emergency action involves spraying warm syrup on immobile but living bees, pouring sugar syrup into empty comb cells, and feeding with a contact feeder. It is generally too cold for bees to take down syrup (1 kg/1 litre) until early March. The simplest alternative method of feeding is to make a hole in the side of 1 kg. bag of sugar, dunk the bag briefly in water, then place it over the feed hole of the crown board, just above the cluster (add another super or eke & top crown board). Fondant, homemade candy and commercial feeds may also be used.
Healthy but weak colonies (3-4 seams) should be combined in the autumn. “The best packing for bees is bees”. Be careful not to overfeed and, therefore, overwork the bees in a nucleus. The loss of, say, 1,000 bees in a full colony can be supported. The same number dying in a small nucleus could be more than it can bear.
The classic signs of starvation are of bees with their heads in the cells and their abdomens protruding. Some bees in the middle of the cluster will have crawled into empty cells. So when the clustered bees die and fall away, these cell dwellers are left behind. Dead bees in cells are therefore thought to be indicative of starvation. Colonies deemed to have died from starvation usually have no food or food out of reach.

Pests
Bald Brood. The Greater Wax Moth (Galleria mellonella) larva hatches among the brood and chews its way through brood cappings in a straight line. The bees remove the silky tunnels and leave the bee larvae bare which are not recapped. Bald Brood may also be caused by a genetic trait. There is no treatment – the brood emerges normally but is sometimes crippled with deformed wings and legs owing to faecal pellets from the wax moth larvae. Stored comb is vulnerable to damage since the larvae feed on wax, larval skins and pollen. The use of paradichloro-benzine (PDB) to protect stored comb is now illegal. This has been replaced by sulphur strips, which are ignited to fumigate combs – also prevents pollen going mouldy. Certan is a solution of Bacillus thuringiensis and is sprayed on the combs – the larvae die after ingesting the insecticide. Mellonex is a similar product. Deep freezing kills all stages of wax moth. Acetic acid kills all stages. Greater Wax Moth has become more evident in recent years – maybe resulting from the loss of feral colonies and the use of varroa screens under which they pupate. The larva scoops out a boat-shaped depression in a wooden part of the hive and in this spins its cocoon and pupates. Combs can be attacked in weak colonies. The Lesser Wax Moth (Achroia grisella) can cause similar problems. The Greater Wax Moth has a wingspan of up to 3.6 cm. and the Lesser Wax Moth a wingspan of 1.8 cm.
Beekeepers opening hives in the cold, ‘spreading brood’, filling observation hives, moving bees, removing honey … and Vandals.
Autumn preparations should include taking precautions against pest damage to hives and colonies. Wasps and bumblebees should be kept out of hives. In the winter all outside hives are at risk from mice and in many locations hives are also vulnerable to damage by woodpeckers and badgers, etc.
If a colony dies, the hive should be closed to prevent robbing and the cause of death ascertained.
The combs from dead colonies need assessment. Dispose of any combs that are really dark coloured or unsatisfactory – if you can not see sunlight through a brood comb, then it is too old. You can save the wax. Frames can be cleaned by immersion in boiling water and washing soda (an old Burco boiler is ideal). You could burn the lot and start again! Usable combs can be exposed to the fumes of 80% acetic acid (but don’t expose yourself) which will kill nosema spores, EFB bacteria, the early stages of wax moth larvae and chalk brood spores in about 10 days. The hives should be cleaned and scorched with a blowlamp – don’t be over-enthusiastic.
Colonies that appear sick, e.g. not building-up in the spring, should be left alone. Feeding may help if they are short of food. Otherwise, give them a small entrance and leave them alone. In April, sick colonies can be united. Don’t unite sick colonies to healthy ones. Keep only the combs with brood and deal with the rest as above. As soon as the queen in the united colony is laying, the broodnest can be lifted above an excluder leaving the queen below. Three weeks later, the old brood combs can be removed.

The movement of food as well as bees around the world may bring more problems. Tropilaelaps clareae is a mite which has been found infesting colonies of Apis dorsata and Apis mellifera in the Far East. The Small Hive Beetle (Aethina tumida Murray), native to southern Africa, was found in the USA in 1998 and is causing widespread damage to colonies. Both are notifiable diseases.

article source: britishbee.org.uk

bee stings, is it a cure

2011-04-12T15:29:00.011+01:00

A bee can kill you...but for the vast majority of you, a bee sting is simply a bit of pain. For the minority of people who have severe reactions to bee stings, the symptoms can range from a swelling of the total body, to vomiting shaking, trouble breathing, even coma, shock and death and die. In fact, more Americans die from bee or other insect stings than from snake bites every year.

Carry Your Own Stinger

If you know you are allergic to bees, carry a shot of epinephrine with you at all times and get medical help right away. If you haven't been stung before and aren't sure if you are allergic or not, pay close attention to how you feel right after a sting.

Don't Mess Around

If you have bigger problems than pain or swelling around the bee sting area, get medical help fast! Usually, allergic symptoms set in within 20 minutes after a bee sting, and the sooner you have a reaction, the more allergic you are.

For the Rest of You

Even if you aren't allergic, you can have pain and swelling from an insect sting, but you doesn't have to suffer for very long. First, identify the critter who zapped you. If your attacker was a honey bee, locate the stinger and venom sac at the site of the sting and scrape it out of your skin immediately.

When you leave a honey bee stinger in, the sac continues to pump venom into your system for two minutes after the sting. Don't squeeze the sac or try to pull it out-you will just be pushing the venom right into your skin.

If it was a yellow jacket or some other wasp or hornet, you don't have to worry about it leaving a stinger behind. But you do have to get out of the area fast, because these little guys can come back and sting you several more times.

Pop a Pill

After a bite, you can take aspirin or ibuprofen for the pain, and an antihistamine like Benadryl, to help reduce swelling. If the sting area continues to feel painful, apply an ice pack or heat to the sting for relief from pain and swelling. People have also gotten relief from stings by applying ammonia or enzyme-based meat tenderizer to the site immediately after they've been stung. Others have reduced pain and swelling by applying a baking soda or charcoal paste to the sting. In a pinch, apply mud to the sting, wrap it with a bandage or piece of cloth, and leave it on until the mud dries.

Don't Pick a Fight

The best way to treat stings is to avoid getting stung while outdoors. Try not to attract bees or other stinging insects by wearing light-colored, white or khaki neutral clothes, because bees are attracted to prints or dark colors. Don't wear hair spray, cosmetics, deodorants or other perfumed products which may fool bees into thinking you're a giant flower. If you continue to have bee sting problems, talk to your doctor about increasing the amount of zinc in your body. Bees seem very attracted to people with zinc deficiency. Finally, pay attention to your surroundings and be ready for trouble.
article source: ezinearticles.com

The most important bee diseases spread

2011-04-12T15:12:00.006+01:00

Various diseases of honey bees
Honeybees like all living organisms are susceptible to diseases and pests, from Nosema ceranae to American foulbrood. However, some of these are more toxic to bee colonies than others, but it is important for the beekeeper to be able to recognize which might be disease, or pest related. Responding to the problem quickly and accordingly is paramount to a healthy colony of bees.

Honeybees only live in colonies therefore it is crucial for the beekeeper to look at the entire colony to determine if the damage is by disease or pests. However, the beekeeper must be careful before assuming that conditions affecting the colony, a drop in honey production or a decline in population for example, can be the result of disease or pests. Pesticides and nutritional deficiencies can also do damage to colonies as well, so it is essential the beekeeper be as informed as possible and quickly seek expert advice when diagnosing problems with the colony. The best place to obtain help with diagnosing diseases or pest problems is with your state's Dept of Agriculture.

There are two distinct life forms in the life cycle of the honeybee, the adult stage and the brood stage and most diseases are specific to either one or the other.

Here are but a few of the more common of the diseases and pests

BACTERIAL DISEASESAMERICAN FOULBROOD (AFB) - This disease is the most widespread and destructive of all the bee brood diseases. It only affects the bee larvae and is highly infectious and deadly to bee brood.

Treatment - Because of the persistence of the spores (which can survive up to 40 years), many State Apiary Inspectors require an AFB diseased hive to be burned completely.

EUROPEAN FOULBROOD (EFB) - is also a bacterium that infests the mid-gut of an infected bee larva. European foulbrood is less deadly to a colony than American foulbrood.

Treatment - A recent technique called 'Shook Swarm' replaces all brood frames in a single operation, thus removing all potentially diseased equipment at one time, helping to minimize disease transfer to effectively control the disease, the advantage being that chemicals are not used

CHALKBROOD - is a fungal disease that infests the gut of the larva. The fungus will compete with the larva for food, ultimately causing it to starve.

Treatment Hives can generally be recovered by increasing the ventilation through the hive.

PARASITESVARROA MITES - have led to the virtual elimination of feral bee colonies in many areas and is a major problem for kept bees in apiaries. The treatments are generally segregated into chemical controls and "mechanical" controls.

ACARINE MITES - is a small parasitic mite that infests the airways of the honeybee. Commonly controlled with grease patties placed on the top bars of the hive.

NOSEMA Ceranae - by far the most damaging adult disease of honeybees. Nosema is normally only a problem when the bees cannot leave the hive to eliminate waste (for example, during an extended cold spell in winter or when the hives are enclosed in a wintering barn). When the bees are unable to void (cleansing flights), they can develop dysentery.

PESTS

Wax Moth - The destruction of the comb will spill or contaminate stored honey and may kill bee larvae. A strong hive generally needs no treatment to control wax moths; the bees themselves will kill and clean out the moth larvae and webs.

Small Hive Beetle - is a small, dark-colored beetle that lives in beehives originally from Africa.

Infestations continued unabated will eventually drive out the colony. Pupation occurs outside of hive in ground so prevention taken to keep fire ants to enter hive are reportedly effective against the Small Hive Beetle.
article source: ezinearticles.com/

The Queen of bees

2011-04-09T23:11:00.000+01:00

Every beekeeper runs into a testy hive once in awhile. Bees can get defensive for a lot of reasons. Most often, it is the beekeepers fault, dropping something, bumping the hive, moving too quickly, disturbing a frame of bees.

The weather can make bees cranky too. If the weather is cool and cloudy, a lot more bees will be at home that day with nothing else to do but defend the hive. This is why it isn’t a good idea to open up a hive when rain is threatening. A poor nectar flow can can have the same effect.

On a sunny day during a good nectar flow, when a hive is opened, the bees should be so absorbed by their work that they barely notice you. That is why, when a beekeeper has a hive that is consistently defensive no matter how good the weather is, something must be done.

In a case like this, the queen has passed down a trait of excessive defensiveness to her young and since all the bees in the hive have hatched from her eggs, they all are defensive. This means a hive that is difficult to work with and potentially hazardous.

So how does a beekeeper change the behavior of this problem hive? By changing the genetics and introducing a new queen. Easier said than done.

The hive in question is on a rooftop in downtown Chicago. It is an extremely successful hive with lots of bees storing lots of honey. Just what a beekeeper likes to see, but very difficult to work on.
In order to introduce the new queen, the hive must be opened up and the old queen must be found and killed. Harsh, yes but necessary.

It is never easy to find a queen in a hive that is many boxes tall and full of bees. The task is extra difficult when there are angry bees flying all around. Lots of smoke is required to confuse and distract them while the search goes on for the soon to be ex-queen. Eventually she was found and executed.

As quickly as possible, the new queen, inside a small screened box called a queen cage, was placed inside the hive. Doing this allows the bees to get used to her pheromone scents and accept her as their new queen. If all goes well, they will release her and she will begin laying eggs.

Worker bees with her genetics will begin to hatch out of their cells 21 days from the day they were laid. At the rate of 1000 to 2000 eggs per day, her takeover will be complete in a matter of weeks.

Can we be certain the hive will be as successful or productive or even less defensive? Not completely.

article source: chicagohoneycoop.blogspot.com

Wax And Chemicals

2011-04-09T22:52:00.000+01:00

bees.honey.beeswax.bee.propolise.
A concern to all of us is the build up of chemical treatments in wax. This persists, even through processing into new comb foundation, so chemicals are being added to hives just by giving them new foundation.

the thought is that these combs then get more contamination and the problem gradually worsens, eventually to a doomsday type scenario.

What I want to discover is if contamination levels in wax are continuing to increase. From one perspective, much wax comes from cappings, which is new wax not made from the foundation. Of course bees run over the capping causing contamination, but is it worse than previous?

So are contamination levels still gradually creeping up in the average piece of wax that might be used for foundation, or have levels reached a point where they stabilised?

And yes I have googled for this. There is plenty info about contamination, just not about wether it's endlessly getting worse. Hoping someone might know.

Desired traits in bees

2011-04-09T22:41:00.002+01:00

For obvious reasons, when selecting which colonies you wish to graft from, you should always select from your "best" colonies. But "best" is really a subjective analysis, and open to a wide range of potential definitions. More often than not, you are selecting for a number of different qualities, such as honey production, spring buildup, gentleness, hygienic behavior, long lifespan, pollen foraging, low propolis, low swarm tendencies, ect.

But what is the order in which you should be selecting for? Is any one quality more difficult than others to select for?

Lets start off by putting this into an example. Lets say, for the sake of argument, that there are only three qualities that the bees have: honey production, spring buildup, and gentleness. Lets also say that it's our desire to max out all three of these qualities into one strain. Lets also say that I only have three hives (we will ignore the inbreeding implications that this makes, it's just for the sake of argument): one is high in honey production, but low in the other two categories (i.e. slow to buildup, and very aggressive); one is high in spring buildup only; and the last is very gentle, but not very productive (i.e. slow to buildup and low honey production). Which one of the three would you select from first? Or does it not matter that much? Or is it a rather subjective analysis, looking at which of the three qualities is MOST important to the individual?

The way you go about it could matter. For example, if gentleness is the easiest to select for, and spring build up is the hardest to select for, you would obviously want to select for spring build up first. Then breed out multiple queens, of which you select the best honey production from (assuming that all of the offspring would still score high in spring buildup). Then breed out multiple sets of those queens until you can finally select for high gentleness. If you went about it the opposite way (selecting for gentleness first, then selecting for honey production, ect.) it could take substantially longer to get the end result, if at all.

Personally, at the moment I have two sets of queen cells sitting in the finisher: 5 cells are from a MH hive that seems to have an above average (although not all together too high) hygienic behavior, moderate to slightly above average honey production and slightly below spring buildup, while being VERY gentle to work with. The other 7 cells are from a VSH hive that seems to have very high hygienic behavior, very high spring buildup, but is VERY aggressive to work with. I'm wondering if it's better off to start with one set, or the other, or just both and see what I get.

article source: beesource.com

Varroa

2011-04-09T22:27:00.006+01:00

Varroa,bees,Varroa,honey,Varroa,beeswax,propolise
Agricultural Research Services (ARS) are making positive strides in creating a strain of honeybee which is proactive in attacking the Varroa mite head on!

ARS are focusing on creating honeybees with a certain genetic trait; Varroa Sensitive Hygiene. The VSH trait in the bee means it is more likely to find and remove mite infested pupae from the capped brood developing sealed inside the comb cells. This can be obviously difficult for the bees to detect as the mite attacks the brood within the capped cells and so rely on the protective layer of wax to escape the bees natural sanitation tendencies.

ARS scientists at the agency’s Honey Bee Breeding, Genetics and Physiology Research Unit in Baton Rouge, LA have developed honey bees with a high expression of this VSH trait. The VSH is a specific trait and form of hive hygeine that not all honeybees possess. The VSH developed bees show an aggressive pursuit of Varroa in the hive.

The Bees form groups and chew through an mite infested cell cap, lift out the infected brood and eject them from the broodnest.

This hygiene destroys the mite’s frail offspring preventing the reproductive output of the mites and preventing the usual Varroa mite hive takeover!

The team at ARS conducted field trials using 40 colonies with varying levels of VSH bees contained in each colony. The mite population growth was significantly lower in the VSH and hybrid colonies than in the colonies without VSH developed bees.

Of course if you believe in evolution the bees will eventually develop this trait on their own but would the bee population be too decimated by then to recover. After all bee breeders have been messing around with bee behaviour for years, perhaps to the detriment of the bees themselves; perhaps breeders have been focusing on certain traits like honey production and temperament and not hygiene and disease resistance.

Personally I think the discovery of the VSH trait is good for bees and humankind. I just wonder if fiddling with genetics is ever a good thing to do? What are your thoughts?

article source: honeybeekeeping.co.uk

Beekeeping glossary

2011-04-02T18:48:00.001+01:00

Bees Miracle, bee was a real machine, He integrated plant, Every day I learn something new from the bees
Let's learn beekeeping

Abdomen: Segmented posterior part of bee containing heart, honey, stomach, intestines, reproductive organs, and sting.

Acarapis woodi: Scientific name of acarine mite, which infests tracheae of bees.

Acarine disease: Condition caused by Acarapis woodi.
Acid board (also Fume board): A rimmed hive cover containing a pad of absorbent material into which benzadehyde or butyric anhydride (bee repellents) is poured. Used to remove bees from honey supers.
AHB: Africanized honeybee.
Alighting board: Extended entrance of beehive on which incoming bees land.

Allele: One of a pair or series of alternative genes that can occur at a given point on a chromosome.

American foul brood (AFB): Contagious disease of bee larvae caused by Bacillus larvae.
AMM (Apis Millifera Millifera): The European dark bee (Apis mellifera mellifera) was domesticated in modern times, and taken to North America in colonial times. These small, dark-colored honey bees are sometimes called the German black bee, although they occurred originally from Britain to eastern Central Europe.

Antennae: Slender jointed feelers, which bear certain sense organs, on head of insects.

Anther: Part of plant that develops and contains pollen.

Apiarist: Beekeeper.
Apiary: Group of bee colonies kept in one location (bee yard).
Apiculture: The science and art of studying and using honey bees for man’s benefit.

Apis: The genus to which the honey bee belongs.

Apis mellifera: Scientific name of the Western honey bee.

Apis cerana: Scientific name of the Eastern honey bee, the honey producer of South Asia, also called Apis indica.

Apis dorsata: Scientific name for the large honey bee of Asia which builds open air nests of single comb suspended from tree branches, rocky ledges, etc.

Apis florea: Scientific name for the small honey bee of Asia.

Artificial insemination: See instrumental insemination.

Autopollination: The automatic transfer of pollen from anthers to stigma within a flower as it opens.

Bacillus larvae: Bacterial organism causing American foulbrood.

Balling a queen: Clustering around unacceptable queen by worker bees to form a tight ball; usually queen dies or is killed in this way.

Bee bread: Pollen stored in cells of the comb and used by bees for food.

Bee dance: Anthropomorphic term for one of several physical maneuvers conducted within a bee colony; it has very inaccurate correlations relative to a forager’s flight experience in the field (distance and direction of the site visited), but odor on the dancer’s body appears to be the means of communication that recruits use to find the same nectar or pollen source.

Bee escape: Device to let bees pass in only one direction; usually inserted between honey supers and brood chambers, for removal of bees from honey supers.

Bee gum: Usually hollow log hive.

Beehive: Domicile prepared for colony of honey bees.

Bee louse: Relatively harmless insect that gets on honey bees, but larvae can damage honeycomb; scientific name is Braula coeca.

Bee metamorphosis: The transformation of the bee from egg to larva to pupa and finally to the adult stage.

Bee moth: See wax moth.

Bee paralysis: An adult bee disease of chronic and acute type caused by different viruses.

Bee space: A space (1/4- to 5/16-inch) big enough to permit free passage for a bee but too small to encourage comb building. Leaving bee space between parallel beeswax combs and between the outer comb and the hive walls is the basic principle of hive construction.

Beeswax: Wax secreted from glands on the underside of bee abdomen; molded by bees to form honeycomb.
Bee tree: A hollow tree occupied by a colony of bees.

Bee veil: See veil.

Bee venom: Poison injected by bee sting.

Bee yard: (See Apiary).

Bottom board: Floor of beehive.

Brace comb: Section of comb built between and attached to other combs.

Braula coeca: See bee louse.
Boardman feeder: A small, wooden feeder placed at the hive entrance and holding an inverted pint or quart glass jar of sugar syrup. Not recommended.
Brood: Immature or developing stages of bees; includes eggs, larvae (unsealed brood), and pupae (sealed brood).

Brood chamber: The area of the hive where the brood is reared; usually the lowermost hive bodies.

Brood comb: Wax comb from brood chamber of hive containing brood.

Brood nest: Area of hive where bees are densely clustered and brood is reared.

Burr comb: Comb built out of place, between movable frames or between the hive bodies.
BT: Bacillus thuringiensis. Bacillus thuringiensis aizawai strain NB200 is a part of a large group of bacteria, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), that occur naturally in soil. These bacteria are toxic to certain species of insects and can be used as an insecticides. Once ingested by larvae, Bt bacteria release a toxic protein into the insect digestive system. This protein causes death by attaching to the gut, eventually rupturing it. Different strains of Bt are toxic to specific groups of insects. Bacillus thuringiensis aizawai strain NB200 is known to be toxic to numerous species of moths, including many pests of agricultural crops.
Capped brood: Brood (either last larval stage or pupal stage) that has been capped over in its cell.

Capped honey: Cells full of honey, closed or capped with beeswax.

Cappings: Beeswax covering of cells of honey which are removed before extracting.
Cappings spinner: A centrifuge with wire-screened baskets used to separate honey from wax.
Castes: The three types of individual bees (workers, drones, and queen) that comprise the adult population of a bee colony.

Carniolan bees: A race of honey bees which originated in the southern part of the Austrian Alps and northern Yugoslavia.

Caucasian bees: A race of honey bees native to the high valleys of the Central Caucasus.

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD): a phenomenon in which worker bees from a beehive or European honey bee colony abruptly disappear. While such disappearances have occurred throughout the history of apiculture, the term colony collapse disorder was first applied to a drastic rise in the number of disappearances of Western honey bee colonies in North America in late 2006. The cause or causes of the syndrome are not yet fully understood.

Cell: The six-sided compartment of a honeycomb, used to raise brood or to store honey and pollen. Worker cells approximate five to the linear inch, drone cells are larger averaging about four to the linear inch.

Cell cup: Initially constructed base of queen cell; also made artificially for queen rearing.
Checkerboarding: A management technique to prevent swarming, termed by Walt Wright.
Chilled brood: Brood that has died because of chilling. It can be a result of mistreatment of the bees by the beekeeper. It also can be caused by a pesticide hit that primarily kills off the adult population, or by a sudden drop in temperature during rapid spring buildup. The brood must be kept warm at all times; nurse bees will cluster over the brood to keep it at the right temperature. When a beekeeper opens the hive (to inspect, remove honey, check the queen, or just to look) and prevents the nurse bees from clustering on the frame for too long, the brood can become chilled, deforming or even killing some of the bees.

Chromosomes: The structures in a cell that carry the genes.

Chunk honey: A jar of honey containing both liquid (extracted) honey and a piece of comb with honey.

Cleansing flight: Flight bees take after days of confinement, during which they void their feces.

Clipped queen: Queen whose wing (or wings) has been clipped for identification purposes.

Cluster: Loosely, any group of bees that forms a relatively compact aggregation. A winter cluster is composed of all the bees in the colony huddled as closely together as necessary to maintain the required temperature. As the ambient temperature increases, the cluster expands until it loses its identity but it will reappear if the temperature drops.

Colony: Social community of several thousand worker bees, usually containing one queen, with or without drones. (See social insects.)
Comb: (See honeycomb).

Comb foundation: Thin sheet of beeswax impressed by mill to form bases of cells; some foundation also is made of plastic and metal.

Comb honey: Honey marketed and eaten in the comb.

Corbicula: See pollen basket.

Creamed honey: Honey made to crystallize smoothly by seeding with 10 percent crystallized honey and storing at about 57°F.

Cross pollination: Transfer of pollen between plants which are not of identical genetic material.

Crystallized honey: Honey hardened by formation of dextrose-hydrate crystals. Can be reliquefied by gentle heat.

Cut comb honey: Comb honey cut into appropriate sizes and packed in plastic.
Dearth: Severe to total lack of availability, usually in reference to nectar and/or pollen.
Demaree: Method of swarm control, by which queen is separated from most of brood; devised by man of that name.

Dextrose: Also known as glucose; one of principal sugars of honey.

Diastase: Enzyme that aids in converting starch to sugar.

Diploid: An organism or cell with two sets of chromosomes, for example, worker and queen honey bees.

Disappearing disease: A condition in which colonies become weak from causes which are not readily identifiable.

Division board: Flat board used to separate two colonies or colony into two parts.

Division board feeder: A wooden or plastic trough which is placed in the hive in a frame space to feed the colony honey or sugar syrup.

Drawn comb: Comb having the cells built out (drawn) by honey bees from a sheet of foundation. Cells are about 1/2-inch deep.
Drift: Movement of bees from their original hive into a neighboring hive frequent with drones and surprisingly common with workers.
Drone comb: Comb with about four cells to the inch and in which drones are reared.
Drone congregation area (DCA): an area where many drones from surrounding colonies gather to mate with queens during their nuptial flights.
Drone layer: A queen which lays only unfertilized eggs which always develop into drones. Results from improperly or non-mated queen or an older queen who has run out of sperm.

Dwindling: Rapid or unusual depletion of hive population, usually in the spring.

Dysentery: The discharge of fecal matter by adult bees within the hive. Commonly contributing conditions are nosema disease, excess moisture in the hive, starvation conditions, and low quality food. Tan, brown, or black fecal smears on combs or outside of hive indicate such a problem.

Escape board: Board with one or more bee escapes on it to permit bees to pass one way. Used to empty one or more supers of bees.

European foulbrood (EFB): Brood disease of bees caused by Streptococcus pluton and possibly associated organisms.

Extracted honey: Honey removed from the comb by centrifugal motion (in a special machine called an extractor) and marketed in the liquid form.

Extractor: Machine that rotates honeycombs at sufficient speed to remove honey from them.
Festoon: A unique cluster of bees that link themselves together by their tarsi (feet) in a loose network between combs in a hive. Normally, these are aggregates of wax-producing bees.
Field bees: Those bees in the hive who are mature enough to fly from the hive on foraging missions; also termed forager bees.

Food chamber: Hive body containing honey provided particularly for overwintering bees.

Foundation: (See Comb foundation).

Frame: Rectangular, wooden honeycomb supports, suspended by top bars within hive bodies.

Fructose: (See Levulose).

Full sisters: Queen or worker bees produced by a single queen and sired by different drones that are related to each other as brothers (used in bee breeding).

Fumagillin: Antibiotic given bees to control nosema disease.
Fume board: See Acid board.
Galleria mellonella: Scientific name of greater wax moth, whose larvae destroy honeycomb.

Gamete: A male or a female reproductive cell (egg or sperm).

Gene: A unit of inheritance located at a specific location in a chromosome.

Gene pool: The genetic base available to bee breeders for stock improvement.

Germplasm: All the hereditary material that can potentially contribute to the production of new individuals.

Giant bee: (See Apis dorsata).

Glucose: (See Dextrose).

Grafting: The transfer of young larvae from worker cells to queen cups.

Granulated honey: (See crystallized honey).

Half sisters: Queen or worker bees produced by a single queen and sired by drones that are not related to each other.

Haploid: An organism or cell with one set of chromosomes; for example, drone bee.
HBH: Honey-Bee-Healthy, an essential oil additive to honey bee feed to control varroa mites, tracheal mites and to reverse the parasitic mite syndrome (PMS) seen in colonies infested with varroa mites.
Hemizygous: The condition in which only one allele of a pair is present. Drones are hemizygous at all loci.

Heterosis: Hybrid vigor.

Heterozygous: An organism with unlike members of any given pair or series of alleles (bee genetics).
HFCS: High Fructose Corn Syrup
Hive: Man-constructed home for bees.
Hive stand: A device that elevates the bottom board up off the ground.
Hive tool: Metal tool for prying supers or frames apart.
HMF (Hydroxymethylfurfural): an organic compound derived from dehydration of sugars.
Hoffman frame: Self-spacing wooden frame of type customarily used in Langstroth hives.

Homozygous: An organism with identical members of any given pair or series of alleles.

Honey: Sweet, viscous fluid elaborated by bees from nectar obtained from plant nectaries, chiefly floral.

Honey bee: Genus Apis, family Apidae, order Hymenoptera.
Honey bound: When the brood nest is bounded or restricted by cells/comb filled with honey.
Honeycomb: Comb built by honey bees with hexagonal back-to-back cells on median midrib.

Honeydew: Sweet secretion from aphids and scale insects.

Honey extractor: (See Extractor).

Honey flow: Period when bees are collecting nectar from plants in plentiful amounts.

Honey house: Building in which honey is extracted and handled.

Honey pump: Pump for transferring liquid honey, usually from the extractor to storage tanks.

Honey stomach: (Honey sac) An enlargement of the posterior end of the oesophagus in the bee abdomen. It is the sac in which the bee carries nectar from flower to hive.

Honey sump: Temporary honey-holding area with baffles usually placed between the extractor and the honey pump; tends to hold back sizable pieces of wax and comb.
Hot room: An insulated portion of a warehouse with radiant or forced air heating that can produce temperatures up to 100°F.
Hybrid: Offspring from two unrelated (usually inbred) lines.

Hymenoptera: Order to which all bees belong, as well as ants, wasps, and certain parasitic insects.
II: (See Instrumental Insemination)
Inbred: A homozygous organism usually produced by inbreeding.

Inbreeding: Matings among related individuals.

Inner cover: A cover used under the standard telescoping cover on a bee hive.
Instrumental insemination: The act of depositing semen into the oviducts of a queen by the use of a man-made instrument.
Integrated Pest Management (IPM): is a pest control strategy that uses a variety of complementary strategies including: mechanical devices, physical devices, genetic, biological, cultural management, and chemical management. These methods are done in three stages: prevention, observation, and intervention. It is an ecological approach with a main goal of significantly reducing or eliminating the use of pesticides while at the same time managing pest populations at an acceptable level.

Introducing cage: Small wood and wire cage used to ship queens and also sometimes to release them into the colony.

Invertase: Enzyme produced by bees that speeds inversion of sucrose to glucose and fructose.
Inverted or invert sugar syrup: is a mixture of glucose and fructose. It is obtained by splitting sucrose into its two components. Compared with its precursor sucrose, inverted sugar is sweeter and its products tend to stay moist and are less prone to crystallization. Inverted sugar is therefore valued by bakers, who refer to the syrup as ‘trimoline’ or ‘invert syrup’.
Italian bees: A race or variety of honey bee which originated in Italy and has become widely dispersed and cross-bred with other races.

Jumbo hive: Hive 2-1/2 inches deeper than standard Langstroth hive.

Langstroth: A minister from Pennsylvania who patented the first hive incorporating bee space thus providing for removable frames. The modern hive frequently is termed the Langstroth hive and is a simplified version of similar dimensions as patented by Langstroth.

Langstroth frame: 9-1/8- by 17-5/8-inch standard U.S. frame.

Larva: Stage in life of bee between egg and pupa; “grub” stage.

Laying worker: Worker bees which lay non-fertilized eggs producing only drones. They occur in hopelessly queenless colonies. Laying workers will lay multiple eggs per cell, have a spotty brood pattern, eggs laid on the sides of the cell or off center, and drone brood in worker sized cells.

Levulose: Noncrystallizing sugar of honey which darkens readily if honey is overheated.

Line breeding: Mating of selected members of successive generations among themselves in an effort to maintain or fix desirable characteristics.

Locus: A fixed position on a chromosome occupied by a given gene or one of its alleles.

Mandibles: Jaws of insects.

Mating flight: The flight of a virgin queen during which time she mates with one or more drones high in the air away from the apiary. Queens usually mate with 6 to 10 drones on two or more mating flights.

Mead: A wine made with honey. If spices or herbs are added, the wine usually is termed metheglin.

Metamorphosis: Changes of insect from egg to adult.

Migratory beekeeping: Movement of apiaries from one area to another to take advantage of honey flows from different crops.

Mite: See Acarapis woodi and Varroa jacobsoni.

Mutation: A term used to describe both a sudden change in the alleles or chromosomes of an organism and the changed form itself as it persists.

Nectar: A sweet secretion of flowers of various plants, some of which secrete enough to provide excess for the bees to store as honey.

Nectaries: Special cells on plants from which nectar exudes.

Nosema disease: Disease of bees caused by protozoan spore-forming parasite, Nosema apis.

Nucleus (Nuke, Nuc): A small colony of bees resulting from a colony division. Also, a queen-mating hive used by queen breeders.

Nurse bees: Three-to 10-day-old adult bees that feed the larvae and perform other tasks in the hive.

Observation hive: Hive with glass sides so bees can be observed.

Ocellus (ocelli): Simple eye(s) of bees.
Orientation flights: Short orienting flights taken by young bees, usually by large numbers at one time and during warm part of day.
Package bees: A quantity of bees (2 to 5 lb) with or without a queen shipped in a wire and wood cage to start or boost colonies.

Paralysis: (See bee paralysis).

Parthenogenesis: Production of offspring from a virgin female.

Pheromones: Chemicals secreted by animals to convey information or to affect behavior of other animals of the same species. (See queen substance.)

Pistil: The combined stigma, style, and ovary of a flower.

PMS (Parasitic Mite Syndrome): For years we have been seeing diseased bee larvae with symptoms resembling a cross between foulbrood and sacbrood. The USDA Beltsville Bee Lab has found these diseased larvae to be infected with one, or commonly several, viruses. This new disease seems to be limited to colonies infested with Varroa mites. Additionally, beekeepers have experienced bees disappearing completely from previously healthy colonies in the early fall. This situation is most likely associated with Varroa mites, viruses or a combination of both.
Pollen: Male reproductive cells of flowers collected and used by bees as food for rearing their young. It is the protein part of the diet. Frequently called bee bread when stored in cells in the colony.

Pollen basket: Area on hind leg of bee adapted for carrying pellets of pollen.

Pollen cake: Cake of sugar, water, and pollen or pollen substitute, for bee feed.

Pollen substitute: Mixture of water, sugar, and other material, such as soy flour, brewer’s yeast, etc., used for bee feed.

Pollen supplement: Pollen substitute added to natural pollen in a pollen cake.

Pollen trap: Device which forces bees entering hive to walk through a 5-mesh screen, removing pollen pellets from their legs into a collecting tray.

Pollination: The transfer of pollen from the anthers of a flower to the stigma of that or another flower.

Pollinator: The agent which transfers pollen; e.g., a bee.

Pollinizer: The plant source of pollen used for pollination; e.g., pollinizer varieties of apples and pears must be planted in order to produce a crop. Bees must carry the pollen from one variety to another.

Proboscis: Mouth parts of bee for sucking up nectar, honey, or water.

Propolis: A glue or resin collected from trees or other plants by bees; used to close holes and cover surfaces in the hive. Also called bee glue.

Pupa: Stage in life of developing bee after larva and before maturity.

Queen: Sexually developed female bee. The mother of all bees in the colony.
Queen cage candy: A special fondant made from Nulomoline, drivert, and glycerine; used to feed queen and attendant bees in queen cages.
Queen cell: Cell in which queen develops.

Queen cup: The beginnings of a queen cell in which the queen may lay a fertile egg to start the rearing of another queen.

Queen excluder: Device usually made of wood and wire, with opening 0.163 inch, to permit worker bees to pass through but excludes queens and drones. Used to restrict the queen to certain parts of the hive.
Queenright: A colony of bees with a properly functioning queen.
Queen substance: Pheromone material secreted from glands in the queen bee and transmitted throughout the colony by workers. It makes the workers aware of the presence of a queen.

Race: Populations of bees, originally geographically isolated and somewhat adapted to specific regional conditions.

Ripening: Process whereby bees evaporate moisture from nectar and convert its sucrose to dextrose (glucose) and levulose (fructose), thus changing nectar into honey.

Rendering wax: Melting old combs and wax cappings and removing refuse to partially refine the beeswax. May be put through a wax press as part of the process.

Requeen: To replace a queen in a hive. Usually to replace an old queen with a young one.

Robbing: Bees steal honey from other hives. A common problem when nectar is not available in the field.
Ropiness: Having the characteristic of sticky elasticity and stringing out when stirred and stretched.
Royal jelly: Glandular secretion of young worker bees used to feed the queen and young brood.

Sac brood: A fairly common virus disease of larvae, usually nonfatal to the colony.
Scale: A dehydrated, dead larva shrunken to an elongated thin, flat chip at the bottom of a cell.
Scout bees: Worker bees searching for nectar or other needs including suitable location for a swarm to nest.
Screened Bottom Board (SBB):
Sealed brood: Brood in pupal stage with cells sealed.

Self-pollination: The transfer of pollen from the anther to the stigma of the same flower or to flowers of the same plant or other plants of identical genetic material such as apple varieties, clones of wild blueberries, etc. (See autopollination).

Septicemia: Usually minor disease of adult bees caused by Pseudomonas apiseptica.
SHB: Small Hive Beetle (Aethina tumida). The small hive beetle can be a destructive pest of honey bee colonies, causing damage to comb, stored honey and pollen. If a beetle infestation is sufficiently heavy, they may cause bees to abandon their hive. The beetles can also be a pest of stored combs, and honey (in the comb) awaiting extraction. Beetle larvae may tunnel through combs of honey, feeding and defecating, causing discoloration and fermentation of the honey.
Skep: A beehive, usually of straw and dome-shaped, that lacks movable frames.

Slumgum: A dark residue, consisting of brood cocoons and pollen, which is left after wax is rendered by the beekeeper.

Smoker: Device used to blow smoke on bees to reduce stinging.
SMR (Suppress Mite Reproduction): Scientists at the Honey Bee Breeding Genetic & Physiology Laboratory (USDA, Agricultural Research Service) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, have selected bees that are resistant to this [varroa] mite. The mechanism of resistance is a trait of the honey bee that suppresses mite reproduction (SMR). This trait prevents female mites from producing progeny. Because SMR is a trait rather than a stock, SMR genes can be added to any population of honey bees by using traditional breeding methods.
Social insects: Insects which live in a family society, with parents and offspring sharing a common dwelling place and exhibiting some degree of mutual cooperation; e.g., honey bees, ants, termites.

Solar wax melter: Glass-covered box in which wax combs are melted by sun’s rays and wax is recovered in cake form.

Spermatheca: Small saclike organ in queen in which sperms are stored.

Spermatoza: Male reproductive cells.

Spiracles: External openings of tracheae through which bees breathe.
Spring dwindling: A condition in which the colony population decreases in size during spring at which time exponential population growth is anticipated.
Stamen: Male part of flower on which pollen-producing anthers are borne.

Sting: Modified ovipositor of female Hymenoptera developed into organ of defense.

Sucrose: Cane sugar; main solid ingredient of nectar before inversion into other sugars.

Super: A wooden box with frames containing foundation or drawn comb in which honey is to be produced. Named for its position above the brood nest. The same type of box is referred to as a hive body when it is situated below the honey supers and is intended to be used for brood rearing and pollen storage.

Supersedure: The replacement of a weak or old queen in a colony by a daughter queen – a natural occurrence.

Supersisters: Queens or worker bees produced by a single queen and sired by identical sperm from a single drone (subfamily).

Surplus honey: A term generally used to indicate an excess amount of honey above that amount needed by the bees to survive the winter. This surplus is usually removed by the beekeeper.

Swarm: Natural division of colony of bees.

Tarsus: Fifth segment of bee leg.

Thorax: Middle part of bee.

Tracheae: Breathing tubes of insects.
Tracheal mite: (See Acarapis woodi)
Trophallaxis: the mutual exchange of regurgitated liquids between adult social insects or between them and their larvae.

Tumuli: Nest mounds (wild bees).

Uncapping knife: Knife used to remove honey cell caps so honey can be extracted.

Unite: Combine one colony with another.

Unsealed brood: Brood in egg and larval stages only.
Varroa destructor: An external parasitic mite that attacks honey bees Apis cerana and Apis mellifera.
Virgin queen: Unmated queen.
VSH (Varroa Sensitive Hygiene): USDA ARS scientists Dr. John Harbo and Dr. Jeffrey Harris at the Honey Bee Breeding Laboratory in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, have defined and tested a trait of the honeybee which appeared to suppress mite reproduction (SMR). Recently it has been better defined as “varroa sensitive hygiene (VSH).” This is a form of behavior where adult bees remove pupae that have reproductive mites but do not disturb pupae that have mites that produce no progeny.
Walk-away split: Frames with eggs and worker bees are removed from a queenright hive and installed into an empty brood chamber or nuc. The bees should create a queen cell out of a suitable egg. Once the queen hatches, successfully mates and returns to the hive, the hive will be queenright. Another option is to remove one complete brood chamber from a hive that has newly laid eggs in it, including bees, and move to a new location for the start of a new hive.
Washboarding: Worker honey bees exhibit a “group” activity known as rocking or washboarding on the internal and external surfaces of the hive. This behavior is believed to be associated with general cleaning activities but virtually nothing is known as to the age of worker engaged in the behavior, under what circumstances workers washboard and the function of the behavior. Washboarding behavior appears to be age dependant with bees most likely to washboard between 15-25 days of age. Washboarding increases during the day and peaks through the afternoon. Workers may respond to rough texture and washboard more on those surfaces. The function of this behavior remains to be elucidated.
Wax glands: Glands on underside of bee abdomen from which wax is secreted after bee has been gorged with food.

Wax moth: Lepidopterous insect whose larvae destroy wax combs.

Wild bees: Any insects that provision their nests with pollen, but do not store surplus’ edible honey.

Winter cluster: Closely packed colony of bees in winter.

Wired foundation: Foundation with strengthening wires embedded in it.

Wired frames: Frames with wires holding sheets of foundation in place.

Worker bee: Sexually undeveloped female bee.

Worker comb: Honeycomb with about 25 cells per square inch.

Worker egg: Fertilized bee egg.

Article Source: beesource.com

Essential Equipment for Starting a Beehive Part Two

2011-03-29T08:40:00.000+01:00

After the hive is set up a beekeeper will need a few tools and bits of clothing in order to manage the hive.

1. Hive Tool:
It would be impossible to inspect a beehive without a hive tool. That is the beekeeper name for a pry bar. It is used to open and inspect hives, and scrape wax and propolis out of the hive. It can be an emergency hammer, scrape bee stingers off skin and pull nails. You can’t keep bees without one.

2. Smoker:
It is a misnomer to say that using smoke “calms” the bees. That isn’t what happens. The smoke distracts the bees, allowing the beekeeper to make an inspection or harvest frames of honey. It is basically a metal can with a bellows and a spout attached to it. Beekeepers get to start a fire inside it, close the lid and then use the smoke to manage the bees.

3. Gloves:
Not all beekeepers use gloves but since that is where a beekeeper is most likely to get stung, it might pay to wear some. There are different kinds made with different materials but any good fitting sturdy pair of gloves will work.

4. Hat and Veil:
More important than gloves is a hat and veil. A veil is just a mesh screen that keeps the bees away from your head. You may be tempted on a sunny day when the bees are busy, to work your hive without a veil. That is the day a guard bee will go right for your face.

5. Frame spacer:
This tool makes it easy to properly space the frames of honey or brood inside the hive. Proper spacing is very important because if frames are placed to close together or far apart, the bees will either close the gap or build more comb in between the frames. While this is perfectly logical from a bee’s perspective, it makes working a hive more time consuming and messy for the beekeeper.

6. Bee brush:
This brush has long soft bristles and is used when a beekeeper is harvesting frames of honey. A frame of honey is pulled up out of the hive and the bees are gently brushed off, back into the hive, Then the beekeeper quickly hides the frame of honey in a separate box with a lid so the bees can’t get at it again.

7. Feeder:
When a new package of bees is installed, they go into an empty hive with no food. A feeder is used to supply sugar syrup until there is enough natural forage for the bees to bring back to the hive to make into honey.

8. Beekeeping book or Beekeeper:
Everyone starting out in beekeeping needs a good source of information. Beekeeping is fascinating but can be very confusing almost all the time.
A good book or experienced beekeeper are invaluable.

Article Source: chicagohoneycoop.blogspot.com

Essential Equipment for Starting a Beehive Part One

2011-03-29T08:33:00.000+01:00

This is the time of year when beekeepers order new equipment and supplies for the coming beekeeping season. If you are just starting beekeeping this year the numbers and variety of equipment available can get pretty confusing. So here is a list of basics and why you will need them.

1. Hive boxes (also called supers):
These come in three sizes - deep, medium and shallow. Traditionally, 2 deep boxes have been used as brood chambers with 3 or 4 or more boxes (medium or shallow) on top as needed for honey storage. There is actually no hard and fast rule here. Many beekeepers use all medium boxes throughout the hive. This helps reduce the weight of each box for lifting. If you have back problems you could even use shallow boxes all throughout the hive. So, 6 boxes as a minimum for deep and medium. More if you wanted to use only shallow boxes. (Top bar hives are an alternative but they deserve a blog post on their own.) You will only need two boxes to start out, adding boxes (supers) as needed for extra room and honey storage.

2. Frames and Foundation:
For each box you have for your hive, you will need 10 wooden frames that fit that box and foundation for the frames. Foundation is intended to give the bees a head start on their comb building. You can buy all beeswax foundation or plastic foundation with a thin coat of beeswax applied to it. Alternatively, you can provide empty frames and let the bees build their comb from scratch but that can be a bit tricky and it takes the bees longer to get established.

3.Top Cover and Inner Cover: There are two covers for a hive that are used together. The inner cover goes directly on top of the top box of your hive and has a hole in the center. It helps to both ventilate and insulate the hive. The top cover is usually called a telescoping cover. It is like the lid of a box and is most often covered in galvanized metal which makes it waterproof, keeping the bees protected from the elements.

4. Bottom Board and Hive Stand: The last two parts of a beehive. The hive rests directly on top of the bottom board. Traditionally these are made of solid wood but screened bottom boards have become an important alternative. Screened bottom boards are a great help for ventilating the hive in Summer and for control of Varroa mites. The hive stand can be made of anything solid enough to support the weight of a full beehive. Wooden hive stands are available for sale but bricks, concrete blocks or found lumber are just as good. What is important to remember is that the hive needs to be at least 6 inches off the ground.

5. Entrance Reducer: There is a space between the bottom board and the bottom box of the hive where the bees enter and leave. Depending on the time of year, a small piece of wood with different sized holes cut out of it is used to enlarge or reduce the size of the hive entrance.

So, that is part one of the basic list of necessary equipment for starting a beehive.

Article Source: chicagohoneycoop.blogspot.com

The Queen is Dead, Long Live the Queen

2011-03-29T08:20:00.000+01:00

Every beekeeper runs into a testy hive once in awhile. Bees can get defensive for a lot of reasons. Most often, it is the beekeepers fault, dropping something, bumping the hive, moving too quickly, disturbing a frame of bees.

The weather can make bees cranky too. If the weather is cool and cloudy, a lot more bees will be at home that day with nothing else to do but defend the hive. This is why it isn’t a good idea to open up a hive when rain is threatening. A poor nectar flow can can have the same effect.

On a sunny day during a good nectar flow, when a hive is opened, the bees should be so absorbed by their work that they barely notice you. That is why, when a beekeeper has a hive that is consistently defensive no matter how good the weather is, something must be done.

In a case like this, the queen has passed down a trait of excessive defensiveness to her young and since all the bees in the hive have hatched from her eggs, they all are defensive. This means a hive that is difficult to work with and potentially hazardous.

So how does a beekeeper change the behavior of this problem hive? By changing the genetics and introducing a new queen. Easier said than done.

The hive in question is on a rooftop in downtown Chicago. It is an extremely successful hive with lots of bees storing lots of honey. Just what a beekeeper likes to see, but very difficult to work on.

In order to introduce the new queen, the hive must be opened up and the old queen must be found and killed. Harsh, yes but necessary.

It is never easy to find a queen in a hive that is many boxes tall and full of bees. The task is extra difficult when there are angry bees flying all around. Lots of smoke is required to confuse and distract them while the search goes on for the soon to be ex-queen. Eventually she was found and executed.

As quickly as possible, the new queen, inside a small screened box called a queen cage, was placed inside the hive. Doing this allows the bees to get used to her pheromone scents and accept her as their new queen. If all goes well, they will release her and she will begin laying eggs.

Worker bees with her genetics will begin to hatch out of their cells 21 days from the day they were laid. At the rate of 1000 to 2000 eggs per day, her takeover will be complete in a matter of weeks.

Can we be certain the hive will be as successful or productive or even less defensive? Not completely.

Article Source: chicagohoneycoop.blogspot.com

Black Bees

2011-03-26T09:55:00.000+01:00

Bees are some of the most commonly seen flying insects. As per entomology, they are closely related to other social insects, like the ants and wasps. Bees are not only important as sources for honey and beeswax, but they play a crucial role in the overall functioning of the ecosystem. Bees along with certain types of flying insects are primary pollinating agents for nearly all types of flowers. In fact, they account to about 80 percent of insect pollination.

Most of us are not bothered about the types of bees and their respective colors. As of date, about 12,000-20,000 species of bees are identified scientifically under 7-9 families. Of the identified species, approximately 600 types of bees are social in behavior and live in colonies. In a single bee hive, there may be 40-45,000 bees. More information on black bees and their types are discussed in the following paragraphs.

Types of Black Bees
So, you have noticed some black bees in your garden and are keen to identify the species? Truly speaking, nearly all types of bees are dark in color. Most of them are gray, brown or black, with or without stripes in the abdomen portion. However, you will also find bees of yellow, metallic green, blue or red colors. Different types of black bees, differing in size and their color pattern, are highlighted below.

European Dark Bees
Also known as German black bees, the European dark bees are domesticated on a wide scale. The characteristic features of these bees are compact body, less hair in the abdomen and thick hair growth in the thorax areas. The aggressive subspecies of these black bees can be identified from yellowish bands present on the sides of the abdomen.

Bumblebees
A classic example of large black bees with yellow stripes is the bumble bee, a common plant pollinator distributed widely. If you notice black bees in the ground, most probably they are bumblebees. Though bumblebees are beneficial for agriculturists, they are aggressive and can sting repeatedly, especially, when irritated.

Carpenter Bees
They are not purely black, but carpenter bees are bluish black in color. The name is coined with reference to the specific attribute that these bees bore wood for making their nests. Classified as solitary types, female carpenter bees are fertile and they build their own nests. These black bees sting, but do not pose a threat to passerby.

Ground Bees
Basically ground bees are related to the yellow jackets and they resemble each other in their color pattern. However, these black bees are much smaller in size and more aggressive than the yellow jackets. Body adorned with bright yellow and black stripes, the ground bees build their nest underground, about 2 inch to 2 feet below the surface.

Western Honey Bees
Another type of black bees is western honey bee, which stores honey in the combs. They are small black bees (abut 1.3 cm in length), of which some have yellow and brown bands in the abdominal portion. Colonies of western honey bees are reared by beekeepers all across the globe for their beneficial products.

The above mentioned black bees vary in color (purely black, black and yellow striped bees), size (small and large), feeding habit (feed on specific flower or many flowers) and overall behavior (social, semisocial or solitary). While handling any type of black bees in house or garden, make sure you are equipped with protective gears, as bee stings are quite painful. Some of them even have the ability to sting many times, thus, adding to skin irritation symptoms.

Article Source: buzzle.com

Honey In The Home

2011-03-26T09:43:00.000+01:00

There are thousands of uses for honey in cooking and baking. The list of recipes issued by the American Honey Institute of Madison, Wisconsin, is almost endless. In practically every copy of apicultural magazines, domestic or foreign, there are new suggestions for the use of honey in preparing cakes, bread, biscuits, muffins, jelly-rolls, waffles, griddle-cakes, puddings, fritters, mouss�s, and all kinds of confectionery. Preserves, jams, jellies, candies, ice-cream, icings, hard sauce, meringue, salad dressings (plain or French), cinnamon or pecan toast, etc., are more delicious when made with honey. Apples baked with honey are very delectable.

Honey is excellent for baking pastries and bread. They remain sweet, moist and palatable for an indefinite period. When bread and pastries, baked with honey become dry�often only after many years�and are transferred for a few days to a damp place, they will change to their original condition on account of the great hygroscopic property of honey. (Some people say that honey pastries are so tasty that they are consumed long before they have a chance to become stale). Honey jumbles are sometimes as good ten years later as on the day they were baked. Cakes and bread made with honey are easily masticated and digested and have a distinct laxative effect. Martial (XIV. 222) refers to the fact that honey was extensively used in antiquity for baking purposes when he remarks: "Bakers prepare for you sweet cakes in thousands of forms because the bees work for them."

Honey cakes were extremely popular in ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome. The Egyptians fed honey cakes to their sacred bull Apis and the sacred crocodiles. On the wall-painting of the tomb of Rekh-Mi-Re the mixing and baking of honey cake is reproduced. In the tomb of the Pa-Ba-Sa a man kneels and prays before honey cakes. They were used in Egypt during all ceremonial oc-casions. Cerberus, the three-headed dog, and the serpents guarding Hades were fed on honey cakes, likewise the sacred serpent guarding the Acropolis.

Cheese-cake baked with honey was a favorite subject and highly praised by all Greek poets. Cheese-cake was glorified by Euripides and Aristophanes and honey cake by Anacreon and Sophocles. Horace praised the "ova mellita", eggs with honey. In Rome, libum was a sacrificial honey cake, the root of German "Leb"-kuchen; placenta was baked for festive occasions; scribitta was decorated with inscriptions and savillum was eulogized by Cato as the most savory of all cakes.

The pain d'epice (gingerbread), made with honey, has always enjoyed great popularity in France. Mention of it is made as early as 1530. The panis mellitus of the Romans, baked with honey and anis, was a similar pastry. The Lebkuchen of Nuremberg (Germany) has a world-wide reputation. The German Lebkuchen is made of flour, honey, spices, alcohol, almonds, citron and orange peel. In its manufacture the main requirement is to allow the dough to rest for a considerable time before baking. This will accomplish the amalgamation of the flavors of its component parts. The dough is often kept for several months before it is placed in the oven. In Hungary and in all Slavic countries honey cakes are made in the shape of hearts, human or animal figures and are in great demand at country fairs.

Wheat, corn, groats, sago, tapioca, barley, beans and lentils are often mixed with honey, vinegar, oil, mustard and spices. In Turkey a great assortment of confectionery is made with honey. They call it chalva. Pastry made with honey and nuts, called baclava, is the favorite dessert of all Orientals. The Arabs make up bars similar to our chocolate-bars, from sesame oil, ground nuts and honey which they call halva. Sesame seed, honey and nuts, called sahm-sahm, is another favorite confiture of the Arabs. Most oriental sweetmeats were prepared with honey. The snow-white Anatolian honey, collected by the bees from the blooms of the cotton plant, was a great favorite of the seraglios of ancient Constantinople. Recently in California confections have been made with apples, oranges, walnuts, raisins and honey.

Candy made with honey has a more distinguished taste and cannot be compared with candy made with sugar. Honey preserves the aroma and prevents staling. Honey candy seems to satisfy the craving for sweets more quickly and there is no desire to keep on ruminating unremittingly as in the case of sugar candy. Several pieces of honey candy go as far as a whole box of the cane-sugar variety. The ordinary chocolate candy contains as much as 40 to 6o% cane or beet-root sugar. The cheaper the candy the more sugar it contains. Honey possessing much higher sweetening power requires a smaller amount of admixture. The same applies to honey ice cream, which, in addition to being smooth and delicious, is also more satisfying and cloys the appetite against further indulgence. But, of course, sugar is cheaper and freezes at a higher temperature. Adding honey to chocolate candies would also require less cocoa, which in itself is a harmful substance. The cocoa plant absorbs a great amount of manganese from the soil. Manganese is a metallic substance which produces symptoms similar to those caused by lead or mercury. It is supposed to impair the intellect and affect the stomach and gall bladder. Cocoa, be-sides, contains oxalic acid.

Honey with butter, cream or cottage cheese are very satisfactory and wholesome combinations. Honey preserves butter from becoming rancid if the honey is previously heated and the yeasts and enzymes destroyed. The mixture will keep for two or three weeks under refrigeration. It is an excellent spread for children and grown-ups over bread and pancakes and will also overcome one of the greatest objections to honey, i.e., its extreme fluidity. It is an oversight on the part of the great milk companies not to market a delicious honey cream, which would preclude the use of unsavory cod-liver oil and the purchase of expensive vitamin pearls.

The best Italian Zampaglione, the Dutch Avocat and the Danish R�dgrid d are prepared with honey: likewise the German red groats, Rote Gr�tze, Kaiserschmarren, the French Biscuit de Savoie and the Tourte � la Frangipane.

Foreign cookbooks, especially the older ones, contain valuable suggestions and numberless recipes for baking bread, muffins, cakes, cookies, etc., with honey. There are choice combinations to improve the flavor of honey with spices, e.g., anis, coriander, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom seeds, nutmeg, etc. The Farmers' Bulletin No. 653 of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Honey and its Uses in the Home, is a valuable pamphlet and covers the subject well. In cooking and baking, honey has unlimited possibilities. Let us be guided by the oft-repeated statement of our ancestors, "Honey bread is good to the last crumb".

Article Source: honey-health.com

Not all honey bees

2011-03-26T09:28:00.000+01:00

Two things happened yesterday to prompt this post: first, the DC Public Parks hive at the Lederer Youth Garden was wrongfully accused of harboring terrorists, and second, misperceptions about honeybee ferocity are causing nearby jurisdictions to get antsy about bees.

The collage at left depicts three critters which are not honeybees, but are far more likely to sting people than honeybees are—even so, people usually start the fight. They are, from the top, a yellowjacket, a bald-faced hornet, and a European Giant Hornet (here depicted eating a honeybee). I'm picking on the vespids for a particular reason: their lifestyle choices are really close to most humans', and there lies some of the reason for all the conflict.

Honeybees are purely vegetarian, with a stinger only suited to hive and last-ditch self defense. Hornets, wasps, and their kin are primarily hunters of other bugs, using that efficient stinging apparatus all day, every day. Honeybees get everything they need except water from plants, vespids get their protein mostly from other creatures, and if necessary, your picnic meats.
OK, back to the local story.

At Lederer, like at many gardens, there is a lot of hay around to use as mulch. Yellowjackets love to nest in low holes in rotting wood, vegetation, leaf litter, etc. For most of this year, that stack of bales was one heck of a great place to raise a family in their estimation. By mid-summer, when the gardeners got nearer the bottom of the pile, some disagreements arose. I think it is interesting that people have been working in that garden since April, almost every one of them passing through the gate next to the hay bales, but it took until July and the partial destruction of nesting habitat for there to be a problem.

Don't get me wrong: yellowjackets and people cannot share close quarters. It does not work, and I will agree that eradication is necessary in many (if not most) cases, though I will try to get you to use soapy water rather than pesticides.

In the MidAtlantic, if you run into a nest of stinging insects located at less than 6 feet above ground which is not in a human-made hive, you need to leave my honeybee girls out of it! Feral bees will want to be as close to 40 feet up in a hardwood cavity as they can manage. I've seen wild colonies making do at about 8 feet up, but not for very long, I'm afraid.

The second factor, local counties becoming unfriendly to bees and beekeeping, has begun to intensify in recent weeks. Howard County, Maryland recently reinterpreted its zoning to consider beehives as animal shelters, requiring the kinds of setbacks necessary for chicken coops and cow barns, distances dictating a minimum property size of 3.5 acres, with a hive set dead in the middle. Frederick County, Maryland, has recently fallen into a similar situation, where a beekeeper ran afoul of his homeowners association for one reason or another, and they decided to complain about his bees as well. At least in the first case, the complaint was based completely on paralyzing fear.

I understand fear, and its relationship to survival. But survival depends on knowing the difference between what you should fear (And why! And when!) and what you should live with happily. More is not more in the case of fear: you jeopardize both your own life and the viability of the surrounding environment by calling for the eradication of everything you do not understand.

So last year I made a handout which compares bees and the three species above, mostly for presentations to garden clubs and neighborhood associations. I'd like folks to use it if they think it works, comment on anything that doesn't.

Article Source: citybees.blogspot.com

If You Want to Help the Honeybees.... Plant a Tree

2011-03-25T22:20:00.000+01:00

There are so many articles and comments on the internet about beekeeping and efforts to "save the honeybees". Some of these involve buying a product with the assurance that a portion of the proceeds will go to honeybee research. That's a good enough thing but I tend to see it as more of a marketing tool for the businesses that do it rather than as a serious source of much needed funds.

Another kind of article encourages well meaning homeowners and gardeners to plant "bee friendly" plants in their backyards. While this is an admirable and kind thing to do, it goes much further toward providing habitat and forage for native pollinators; a just as important and not much recognized area of concern.

Planting "bee friendly" plants in the backyard won't do that much to directly help the honeybees. It's because of the way they search out nectar sources, report back to the other bees in the hive and focus on the most abundant source that is blooming at any given time.

Because of their numbers, forty to eighty thousand bees in the Spring and Summer, they need to produce a lot of food. That's why a backyard garden is nothing for a honeybee to write home about. Honeybees have evolved into very efficient foragers over the eons they have been on the Earth. Flying from flower to flower, backyard to backyard is energy inefficient. It requires too much flying for the nectar collected.

This is where trees come in. Nearly all kinds of trees produce flowers. Most of us don't see them, either because the flowers are not very prominent or because we just don't raise our heads up from the sidewalk or take a serious look out of the car window. Flowering trees are one of the most concentrated nectar sources available to honeybees. There are thousands of blooms on a mature tree. When the bees find a blooming tree they will work that tree until every flower has been visited several times. The distance from flower to flower is minimal, providing maximum foraging efficiency.

Article Source: chicagohoneycoop.blogspot.com

Plum in Bloom

2011-03-25T21:59:00.000+01:00

The plum is the first white-blooming tree seen in the woods early in the year. Plums blossoms have just started showing in the Mid-South. Plums can be seen in large thickets and scattered among the understory of forests. In the next few weeks some stands of plum in full bloom will give the woods the appearance of a late winter snowfall. Their locations often reveal pioneer homesteads long abandoned. When one encounters plums, pecans, mimosa, sassafras, yucca, forsythia, daffodil, catalpa, or wisteria in the woods, bricks and rubble of earlier dwellings are usually close by. We often find a number of varieties of plums in a woodlot, forest margin, or abandoned farmstead. Along with wild plums one may find Chickasaw plums, thought to have been cultivated by the Chickasaw Indians and early settlers. Many domestic plums require pollination by honey bees or bumblebees to produce fruit. Wild animals attracted to the fruit scatter plum seeds.

In today’s photo, an aging forager gathers pollen from a plum blossom. The old worker bee, a survivor of the winter, has lost much of the hair from her abdomen, giving her a black, shiny appearance. The bee clings onto the plum flower using the pads and hooks of her feet. Using body attachments shaped like combs and rakes, the worker preens the pollen granules from her hairy body, into pellets of gray-colored pollen to be carried on her hind legs. The arrival of pollen being brought into the hive in late winter serves to stimulate the queen to increase egg laying. Plums provide valuable nectar and pollen early in the year when it is most needed for winter survival and for starting the colony’s population build-up for the spring. The plum is a member of the important family of bee plants, the roses. Other roses include California’s almonds and other fruit trees: pears, peaches, cherries, and apples. Hawthorns, blackberries, strawberries, and greenbrier are also roses. The bees and beekeepers welcome the plums in bloom.

Article Source: peacebeefarm.blogspot.com

Wild honey bees

2011-03-25T21:51:00.000+01:00

We can learn much about honey bees by observing bees in their natural habitat. Residents of my Arkansas Delta county called today and described a colony of honey bees living in a huge, hollow cottonwood tree at their home. Cottonwoods are among the tallest trees in the Delta, climbing to nearly 150 feet. This gnarled tree had weathered many a season and showed the damage of numerous wind storms and lightning strikes. Hollow cavities in storm-damaged trees provide excellent spaces for honey bees to build their nests.

The colony moved into the ancient tree this past October. Colonies that swarm late in the year often fail to build enough comb and store a sufficient amount of honey to survive the winter. Fortunately, there was a good nectar flow from goldenrod this past fall. If you click on today’s photo, you can see the entrance to the natural honey bee nest about 23 feet above ground on the underside of a large, hollow limb. Four sheets of clean, light-colored beeswax honeycomb hang down from the opening in the tree. The darkened comb previously held brood and pollen. Like a screened bottom board on a modern bee hive, the open bottom of this natural nest allows hive debris and parasitic Varroa mites preened by the bees to fall to the ground. All of the exposed comb is empty; the bees have moved their cluster upward over the winter. The empty cells filled with air make excellent insulation for the colony’s nest. The sheets of comb themselves help calm the winter winds. The homeowner and I watched the honey bees actively flying from their natural nest. An international pilot, he discussed how insecticides are sprayed inside the cargo holds of aircrafts before landing in foreign countries to prevent the unwanted transfer of bees or other insects. This colony should be successful in its new home. It found a suitable tree and a family concerned with protecting the bees and the environment.

Be Mindful of Bees

2011-03-23T12:17:00.001+01:00

Do you know we rely on Honey Bees for a third of our food supply? Among that are some of the foods we love most: vegetables, fruit, nuts, juice, smoothies and... ice-cream! (One ice-Cream manufacturer is so concerned that they have launched a campaign)

Whenever we see a bee we should fall on our knees in deep gratitude and flow oceans of love. Most of us are unaware that our food supply depends on bees, and so we fail to acknowledge their importance in our lives, and we even mistreat them.

Bee numbers are falling rapidly. Bee keepers globally are aware of a problem called 'colony collapse' where whole colonies of bees die, or mysteriously 'disappear'. The Almond crops in California depend on bees for pollination. No bees = no almonds. Bee-keepers in the USA are already importing bees in vast numbers from Australia to pollinate essential food crops. Australia is the only remaining continent that has so far escaped the blight. America, Africa, Asia and Europe are seeing drastically-falling bee numbers.

So where are the bees going? There are some virulent viruses that attack bees. Varroa destructor virus -1(VDV1) is an old suspect and even though it has been around for some time it is usually fatal to a bee colony. More recently scientists discovered Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV), which most bees are susceptible to, although Australian bees seem to have developed immunity. This may explain why Australian bees are not falling down with colony collapse, and it gives cause for hope to develop bee immunity in other continents.

As with humans, the ability to develop immunity depends upon good health. Stress weakens immunity and makes us more prone to illness. Believe it or not, commercial bees are often 'stressed' which compromises their immunity to disease. You might wonder: what could 'stress' a bee? Well, we do: humans.

A bees day is busy, and they do different jobs in a hive. Depending upon your job, as a bee, you might spend your day creating wax to build and repair the hive, or producing honey to feed the larvae and other bees, or nursing and feeding the larvae, or going out to collect pollen, which is needed for food and making honey, and bring it back to the hive.

As bees go about their business of gathering pollen from blossoms, they also collect whatever chemicals have been used on that crop. One study found 25 different pesticides in a single bee. This is fatal chemical overload. Their bodies are working overtime to remove chemical toxins, so they have no resources left to build their immune systems and resist viral infections.

As if to add insult to injury, we then transport our weakened bees in trucks, over thousands of miles, where we expect them to pollinate extensive agricultural crops. (Exposing them to more chemical pollution).

Overworked, in unnatural conditions, and poisoned by pesticides, our little bees have no chance when they come into contact with these deadly viruses.

We need to take much better care of our bees. Make sure they are healthy, and develop sustainable ways to work them, keep them healthy, and support them in developing resistance to disease. If not, who knows what we will lose. We may not even realize until it's too late.

How you can help:

The good news is that in some areas, bees are surviving better in towns where they are safe from crop spraying. This means we can make a huge difference in our own back yards.

Respect the role of bees and let them live.
Educate others of bees' importance and vulnerable situation.
Teach your children how special bees are when it comes to our food.
Share your awareness and gratitude for bees.
Let's agree, bees need our help.
Plant more flowering plants, plan and refrain from using chemicals in your own back yard. There are many alternatives to spraying. (For example: ladybug larvae will eat greenfly and other aphids, and you can purchase them from specialist suppliers)
Do a little research about alternatives to spraying.
Consider buying or making a bee house to support bees.
If you enjoy unusual hobbies you may consider bee-keeping. In London, UK for example ordinary people are setting up bee-hives in their back yards and on rooftops! In towns and cities there are fewer chemicals, and more people who can make a difference. It could be town and city-dwellers who save our bees.
Get involved! Support organic farmers.
Buy organic produce as much as possible to send a clear message that you don't want crops that have been sprayed.
Support groups, companies and charities that are helping bees.
Write, campaign, petition your political representatives to raise awareness of this issue.

Article Source: ezinearticles.com