Beekeeping - Honey Bee Biology

Beekeeping can be a very enjoyable pastime for many different reasons. Bees can be kept for producing honey or as pollinators. It could even be just for the fun of knowing more about nature’s ‘stinging’ insects. Beekeepers must always be aware of the reactions of bee stings and should wear protective clothing while working at the hive.

Honey Bee Biology

Being social insects, honey bees live in colonies and are interdependent for their existence. In a colony, there is usually one queen, many worker bees, and other male drones that mate with a virgin queen.

There are normally about 60,000 worker bees, sexually underdeveloped females, in a colony. They are known as workers because they collect food and water for the colony and do the other housework such as building the comb, maintaining the temperature of the hive and acting as guards by stinging any intruders or perceived threats. Although these female working bees can lay eggs under some conditions, these eggs will only develop into drones.

The males of the colony are called drones. The distinguishing features of drones are their large heads and the highly predominant eyes. Drones cannot sting as they have no stingers and their rear end is rounded. There are normally more than 300 drones in a colony, but with the advent of winter they are driven away by the workers making it difficult for them to survive outside due to starvation and hostile weather.

The queen bee of the colony is mature and can will many thousands of eggs in her life as she can lay more than 2,000 eggs in one day. Unlike other bees who rarely live more than one year, her life span can extend up to five years. She is much larger than either the drones or worker bees with a body in the shape of a slim torpedo. She uses her stinger mainly to eliminate other queens rather than protection from humans or other predators.

Bee Strains:
In the United States, there are three different bee strains. These are:

·Italian: Brought into the U.S. from Italy in the 1860s, these bee strains produce sturdy but gentle yellow-colored bees. They have replaced the German black bees.

·Caucasian: Grey to black in color, these bees are gentle in nature but they use large amounts of propolis, bee-glue that is collected from trees and used by the bees to plug holes in the hives.

·Carniolan: This is a gentle black bee and is very popular. It can adapt very well to the cold weather.

The basic requirements of honey bees are nectar, shelter, water, propolis and pollen.

Laws Relating To Beekeeping

In most cases, laws relating to beekeeping are basically the same as are applicable to other subject matters because, primarily, laws deal with principles. In order to find out which law would apply to a particular case, you only have to compare an established principle of law to the circumstances of that case. In case of theft, for instance, it does not matter whether the stolen article is a vehicle, an animal, money or a hive of bees. The offense is theft and the laws relating to theft will apply.

The basic law relating to beekeeping considers bees to be your property only if you have hived them. Bees swarm trees, rabbits run through your fields and birds make nests in your trees, but they can only be considered to be yours if you have hived them or domesticated them.

If you have captured a wild animal and it escapes, it would still be your property if you try to locate it for recovery. Similarly a swarm of bees that leave your hive and escape are considered to be your property as long as you know their whereabouts and there is a chance of their recovery.

In some early cases, it was adjudicated that bees that escape could be considered wild and without any owner when they are discovered on a tree. As such they would be the property of the owner of the land where the tree is located. Interestingly, if the bees are reclaimed by their original owner who follows them and sees them enter the tree, they would not be the property of the landowner but of the original beekeeper. However, the owner cannot encroach upon the property where the tree is located and retake the bees – he would be trespassing.

Laws regarding locating bees

Owners of bees should place the hive where, in the normal course of events, they would not bother others. The owner would be guilty of negligence if he locates them in a place where they are likely to attack other people or horses. However, the beekeeper is not liable for any attack by the bees if he has not been negligent. This means that if someone is injured through no fault of the beekeeper, it would no be his responsibility.

The basic laws can be summed up as follows:

1)If you keep or own an animal of any type (including bees), you would only be liable for any injury caused by the animal if there has been some actual or presumed negligence on your part.

2)The evidence regarding the owner having knowledge of the susceptibility of the animal to cause injury should be sufficient to prove the negligence.

3)The proof that the animal is savage and ferocious should be same as proof of express notice. Notice is presumed in all such cases.

Beekeeping - Feeding Tips

All living things need food in one form or another and bees are no exception. Beekeeping is incomplete if you do not care for your bees and give them proper nutrition.

Sugar syrup
It is not only a good food for the bees but it is also a good stimulant for increasing egg production so that the population of bees increases, thus enhancing the nectar collection.

Honey
Instead of artificial feeding, it is better to leave honey on the hives or shift some frames of honey from a hive that has sufficient honey. If artificial feeding is essential, the options are:

Syrup
A lot of comb should be filled with syrup by the bees so that the colony does not need to generate more brood. The syrup should be concentrated in equal parts of water and dry granulated sugar.

The syrup is delivered quickly by a top feeder on the right hand side which can contain plenty of syrup. The bees come from one side and are prevented from drowning by a screen. Instead of the frames, “Boardman” or frame feeders can also be used to deliver syrup as they have floating objects so that the bees don’t drown.

Care should be taken while feeding the syrup so that syrup does not drip, which might result in bees from nearby colonies stealing the syrup and depriving the original colony from its supply of syrup and honey.

Hard Candy
Bees can be fed with hard candy without producing brood in excess. However, such feeding does require some preparation time. The candy can be made using either a microwave or stovetop candy recipe. Bee candy can also be made using any peanut brittle recipe.

Granulated Sugar
Another way to feed bees without increasing brood production is by feeding granulated sugar. Bees eat granulated sugar only in the absence of sufficient honey.

Increase colony growth with proper feeding
Continuous feeding over many weeks can stimulate a colony to produce more bees. However, as it is not necessary for the feed to be consumed rapidly, lighter syrup can also serve the purpose. Although the proportions of water and dry sugar need not be very accurate, it should be remembered that if there is too much water and the weather is hot, the syrup will ferment faster.

An inverted pail feeder placed over the top-bars of the frame with an empty hive body and with a cover around the pail will serve the purpose very well. The rate of consumption of the syrup can be controlled by the number of holes in the pail.

Plastic bag feeder
A good feeder can be made with a zip-lock plastic bag by placing it on top of the frames and slicing the middle of the top of the bag. The bees will be able to drink from the slit without drowning.

Beekeeping – All About Top Bar Hives

Although it dates back to the 1600s, the top-bar beehive has evolved into its present form only since the 1960s. It has a simple design and it employs economic systems. Perfect in Kenya, it has now become very popular in the United States. Unlike the Langstroth hive, the top-bar hive is very simple to use for harvesting honey and managing bees.

Simple design and maintenance-free
Consisting of only the hive body, about 20 to 30 top bars (frames) and a lid, the top-bar hive has a simpler design than the Langstroth hive. Costly frames are not required as bees make their own comb, and after harvesting, the top bars can be used again.

Non-invasive design
The design makes it easy to check the bees without dismantling the hive. Since the bees will not be disturbed, it makes it healthier for them and for the beekeeper.

Ease of harvesting
All that has to be done to harvest the honey is to remove the bars with honeycomb. Because the bees make their own honeycomb, the top bar hive also produces more beeswax to harvest. Furthermore, a considerable amount of money is saved since there is no need for a honey extractor/centrifuge or uncapping knife. Only beginners will need protective clothing.

Better health for bees
Living conditions for bees in a top bar hive are healthy. As such, the colony becomes stronger and can resist pests and diseases more effectively than in a Langstroth hive. There will be less expense for medications and less of a chance that the hive will die out during the winter.

Disadvantages of a top bar hive
The design of the top bar hive does not bring about maximum honey production, although in some cases high production has been reported. More than likely, a hobby beekeeper would prefer the ease of operation and healthy bees more than a few extra pounds of honey.

More about top bar hives
A top bar hive is a movable comb hive and is legal to use since all the bars and combs can be shifted so that inspection of the hives can be carried out whenever required, especially in those states or municipalities where the laws require regular inspection to make sure that there is no disease.

In the past, bar-type hives that were used in Britain and America had combs that were joined to the sides of the hive and to the bars. As such, the removal of the combs necessitated the cutting away of the side attachments.

The top bar hives were invented so that the bees could be “kept” rather than just having them. Bees need not be killed to harvest honey and brood combs need not be disturbed. The designs are simple and blend well with the present day social and economic conditions.