simple ways to start beekeeping

24
Beekeeping From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Beekeeping, tacuinum sanitatis casanatensis (14th century)   eekeeping in !eria "oney seeker depicted on #$$$ year old cave painting near %alenc ia, !pa in &1'  Beekeeping (or apiculture, from atin apis, ee) is the maintenance of honey ee colonies, commonly in hives, y humans * eekeeper  (or apiarist) keeps ees in order to collect  honey and other products of the hive (including ees+a,  propolis,  pollen, and royal -elly), to pollinate crops, or to produce ees for sale to other eekeepers * location +here ees are kept is called an apiary or .ee yard. /epictions of humans collecting honey from +ild ees date to 10,$$$ years ago, efforts to domesticate them are sho+n in gyptian art around 4,0$$ years ago !imple hives and smoke +ere used and honey +as stored in -ars, some of +hich +ere found in the toms of  pharaohs such as 2utankhamun 3t +asnt until the 1#th century that uropean understanding of the

Upload: solomonmadhankumar

Post on 04-Jun-2018

226 views

Category:

Documents


0 download

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Simple ways to start Beekeeping

8/13/2019 Simple ways to start Beekeeping

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/simple-ways-to-start-beekeeping 1/24

BeekeepingFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation, search 

Beekeeping, tacuinum sanitatis casanatensis (14thcentury)

 

 eekeeping in !eria

"oney seeker depicted on #$$$ year old cave painting near %alencia, !pain&1' 

Beekeeping (or apiculture, from atin apis, ee) is the maintenance of honey ee colonies,commonly in hives, y humans * eekeeper  (or apiarist) keeps ees in order to collect honey 

and other products of the hive (including ees+a,  propolis,  pollen, and royal -elly), to pollinate crops, or to produce ees for sale to other eekeepers * location +here ees are kept is called anapiary or .ee yard.

/epictions of humans collecting honey from +ild ees date to 10,$$$ years ago, efforts todomesticate them are sho+n in gyptian art around 4,0$$ years ago !imple hives and smoke+ere used and honey +as stored in -ars, some of +hich +ere found in the toms of  pharaohs such as 2utankhamun 3t +asnt until the 1#th century that uropean understanding of the

Page 2: Simple ways to start Beekeeping

8/13/2019 Simple ways to start Beekeeping

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/simple-ways-to-start-beekeeping 2/24

colonies and iology of ees allo+ed the construction of the moveale com hive so that honeycould e harvested +ithout destroying the entire colony

Contents

 &hide'• 1 "istory of eekeeping• 5 6rigins

o 51 Wild honey harvesting

o 55 !tudy of honey ees

o 57 3nvention of the movale com hive

o 54 volution of hive designs

o 50 8ioneers of practical and commercial eekeeping• 7 2raditional eekeeping

o 71 Fied com hives

• 4 9odern eekeeping

o 41 9ovale frame hives

o 45 2opar hives

o 47 8rotective clothing

o 44 !moker

o 40 ffects of stings and of protective measures

o 4; <atural eekeeping

• 0 =ran or ackyard eekeeping

• ; Bee colonies

o ;1 >astes

;11 9ating of ?ueens

;15 Female +orker ees

;17 9ale ees (drones)

o ;5 /iffering stages of development

Page 3: Simple ways to start Beekeeping

8/13/2019 Simple ways to start Beekeeping

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/simple-ways-to-start-beekeeping 3/24

o ;7 !tructure of a ee colony

o ;4 *nnual cycle of a ee colony

• @ Formation of ne+ colonies

o @1 >olony reproduction: s+arming and supersedure

o @5 Factors that trigger s+arming

o @7 *rtificial s+arming

• # /iseases

• A World apiculture

• 1$ 3mages of harvesting honey

• 11 !ee also

• 15 eferences

• 17 ternal links

History of beekeeping[edit]

*t some point humans egan to attempt to domesticate +ild ees in artificial hives made fromhollo+ logs, +ooden oes, pottery vessels, and +oven stra+ askets or .skeps. "oneyees+ere kept in gypt from anti?uity&5' 6n the +alls of the sun temple of <yuserre 3ni from theFifth /ynasty, efore 5455 B>, +orkers are depicted lo+ing smoke into hives as they areremoving honeycoms&7'&4' 3nscriptions detailing the production of honey are found on the tomof 8aasa from the 2+entysith /ynasty (c ;0$ B>), depicting pouring honey in -ars andcylindrical hives&0' !ealed pots of honey +ere found in the grave goods of pharaohs such as2utankhamun

2here +as an unsuccessful attempt to introduce ees to 9esopotamia in the #th century B> y!hamashreshu ur, the governor ofș 9ari and !uhu "is amitious plans +ere detailed in a stele of @;$ B>:&4'

Page 4: Simple ways to start Beekeeping

8/13/2019 Simple ways to start Beekeeping

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/simple-ways-to-start-beekeeping 4/24

Page 5: Simple ways to start Beekeeping

8/13/2019 Simple ways to start Beekeeping

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/simple-ways-to-start-beekeeping 5/24

3n ancient Creece, aspects of the lives of ees and eekeeping are discussed at length y*ristotle Beekeeping +as also documented y the oman +riters %irgil, Caius Julius "yginus, %arro, and >olumella

2he art of eekeeping appeared in ancient >hina for a long time and hardly traceale to its

origin 3n the ook .Colden ules of Business !uccess. +ritten y Fan i (or 2ao Ghu Cong)during the !pring and *utumn 8eriod there are some parts mentioning the art of eekeeping andthe importance of the ?uality of the +ooden o for ee keeping that can affect the ?uality of itshoney

2he ancient 9aya domesticated a separate species of stingless ee

Origins[edit]

2here are more than 5$,$$$ species of +ild ees &15' 9any species are solitary&17' (eg, mason ees), and many others rear their young in urro+s and small colonies, (eg,   umleees)

Beekeeping, or apiculture, is concerned +ith the practical management of the social species ofhoney ees, +hich live in large colonies of up to 1$$,$$$ individuals 3n urope and *merica thespecies universally managed y eekeepers is the Western honey ee ( Apis mellifera) 2hisspecies has several suspecies or regional varieties, such as the 3talian ee ( Apis mellifera

ligustica ), uropean dark ee ( Apis mellifera mellifera), and the >arniolan honey ee ( Apis

mellifera carnica) 3n the tropics, other species of social ee are managed for honey production,including Apis cerana

*ll of the Apis mellifera suspecies are capale of interreeding and hyridiing 9any ee reeding companies strive to selectively reed and hyridie varieties to produce desirale?ualities: disease and parasite resistance, good honey production, s+arming ehaviour reduction,

 prolific reeding, and mild disposition !ome of these hyrids are marketed under specific randnames, such as the Buckfast Bee or 9idnite Bee 2he advantages of the initial F1 hyrids  produced y these crosses include: hyrid vigor, increased honey productivity, and greaterdisease resistance 2he disadvantage is that in suse?uent generations these advantages may fadea+ay and hyrids tend to e very defensive and aggressive

Wild honey harvesting[edit]

>ollecting honey from +ild ee colonies is one of the most ancient human activities and is still practiced y aoriginal societies in parts of *frica, *sia, *ustralia, and !outh *merica !ome ofthe earliest evidence of gathering honey from +ild colonies is from rock paintings, dating to

around 17,$$$ B> Cathering honey from +ild ee colonies is usually done y suduing the ees +ith smoke and reaking open the tree or rocks +here the colony is located, often resultingin the physical destruction of the nest location

Study of honey bees[edit]

3t +as not until the 1#th century that uropean natural philosophers undertook the scientificstudy of ee colonies and egan to understand the comple and hidden +orld of ee iology

Page 6: Simple ways to start Beekeeping

8/13/2019 Simple ways to start Beekeeping

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/simple-ways-to-start-beekeeping 6/24

8reeminent among these scientific pioneers +ere !+ammerdam, enH *ntoine Ferchault deHaumur , >harles Bonnet, and the lind !+iss scientist Francois "uer  !+ammerdam andHaumur +ere among the first to use a microscope and dissection to understand the internal iology of honey ees Haumur +as among the first to construct a glass +alled oservation hiveto etter oserve activities +ithin hives "e oserved ?ueens laying eggs in open cells, ut still

had no idea of ho+ a ?ueen +as fertiliedI noody had ever +itnessed the mating of a ?ueen anddrone and many theories held that ?ueens +ere .selffertile,. +hile others elieved that a vaporor .miasma. emanating from the drones fertilied ?ueens +ithout direct physical contact "uer+as the first to prove y oservation and eperiment that ?ueens are physically inseminated ydrones outside the confines of hives, usually a great distance a+ay

Follo+ing Haumurs design, "uer uilt improved glass+alled oservation hives and sectionalhives that could e opened like the leaves of a ook 2his allo+ed inspecting individual +acoms and greatly improved direct oservation of hive activity *lthough he +ent lind eforehe +as t+enty, "uer employed a secretary, Francois Burnens, to make daily oservations,conduct careful eperiments, and keep accurate notes over more than t+enty years "uer

confirmed that a hive consists of one ?ueen +ho is the mother of all the female +orkers and maledrones in the colony "e +as also the first to confirm that mating +ith drones takes place outsideof hives and that ?ueens are inseminated y a numer of successive matings +ith male drones,high in the air at a great distance from their hive 2ogether, he and Burnens dissected ees underthe microscope and +ere among the first to descrie the ovaries and spermatheca, or sperm store,of ?ueens as +ell as the  penis of male drones "uer is universally regarded as .the father ofmodern eescience. and his .<ouvelles 6servations sur es *eilles (or .<e+ 6servationson Bees.) &14' revealed all the asic scientific truths for the iology and ecology of honeyees

Invention of the movable comb hive[edit]

ural eekeeping in the 1;th century

arly forms of honey collecting entailed the destruction of the entire colony +hen the honey +asharvested 2he +ild hive +as crudely roken into, using smoke to suppress the ees, thehoneycoms +ere torn out and smashed up D along +ith the eggs, larvae and honey theycontained 2he li?uid honey from the destroyed rood nest +as strained through a sieve or asket 2his +as destructive and unhygienic, ut for huntergatherer  societies this did not matter,since the honey +as generally consumed immediately and there +ere al+ays more +ild coloniesto eploit But in settled societies the destruction of the ee colony meant the loss of a valualeresourceI this dra+ack made eekeeping oth inefficient and something of a .stop and start.activity 2here could e no continuity of production and no possiility of selective reeding,since each ee colony +as destroyed at harvest time, along +ith its precious ?ueen

Page 7: Simple ways to start Beekeeping

8/13/2019 Simple ways to start Beekeeping

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/simple-ways-to-start-beekeeping 7/24

/uring the medieval period aeys and monasteries +ere centers of eekeeping, since ees+a+as highly pried for candles and fermented honey +as used to make alcoholic  mead in areas ofurope +here vines +ould not gro+ 2he 1#th and 1Ath centuries sa+ successive stages of arevolution in eekeeping, +hich allo+ed the ees themselves to e preserved +hen taking theharvest

3ntermediate stages in the transition from the old eekeeping to the ne+ +ere recorded foreample y 2homas Wildman in 1@;#1@@$, +ho descried advances over the destructive oldskepased eekeeping so that the ees no longer had to e killed to harvest the honey &10' Wildman for eample fied a parallel array of +ooden ars across the top of a stra+ hive or skep(+ith a separate stra+ top to e fied on later) .so that there are in all seven ars of deal. &in a1$inchdiameter (50$ mm) hive' .to +hich the ees fi their coms. &1;' "e also descried usingsuch hives in a multistorey configuration, foreshado+ing the modern use of supers: he descriedadding (at a proper time) successive stra+ hives elo+, and eventually removing the ones aove+hen free of rood and filled +ith honey, so that the ees could e separately preserved at theharvest for a follo+ing season Wildman also descried &1@' a further development, using hives

+ith .sliding frames. for the ees to uild their com, foreshado+ing more modern uses ofmovalecom hives Wildmans ook ackno+ledged the advances in kno+ledge of ees previously made y !+ammerdam, 9araldi, and de Haumur D he included a lengthytranslation of Haumurs account of the natural history of ees D and he also descried theinitiatives of others in designing hives for the preservation of eelife +hen taking the harvest,citing in particular reports from Brittany dating from the 1@0$s, due to >omte de laBourdonnaye

oreno angstroth (1#1$1#A0)

2he 1Ath century sa+ this revolution in eekeeping practice completed through the perfection ofthe movale com hive y the *merican oreno orraine angstroth angstroth +as the first person to make practical use of "uers earlier discovery that there +as a specific spatialmeasurement et+een the +a coms, later called the bee space, +hich ees do not lock +ith+a, ut keep as a free passage "aving determined this ee space (et+een 0 and # mm, or 14to 7#.), angstroth then designed a series of +ooden frames +ithin a rectangular hive o,carefully maintaining the correct space et+een successive frames, and found that the ees

Page 8: Simple ways to start Beekeeping

8/13/2019 Simple ways to start Beekeeping

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/simple-ways-to-start-beekeeping 8/24

+ould uild parallel honeycoms in the o +ithout onding them to each other or to the hive+alls 2his enales the eekeeper to slide any frame out of the hive for inspection, +ithoutharming the ees or the com, protecting the eggs, larvae and pupae contained +ithin the cells 3talso meant that coms containing honey could e gently removed and the honey etracted+ithout destroying the com 2he emptied honey coms could then e returned to the ees intact

for refilling angstroths classic ook, The Hive and Hney!bee, pulished in 1#07, descriedhis rediscovery of the ee space and the development of his patent movale com hive

2he invention and development of the movalecomhive fostered the gro+th of commercialhoney production on a large scale in oth urope and the =!* (see also Beekeeping in the=nited !tates)

volution of hive designs[edit]

angstroths design for movale com hives +as seied upon y apiarists and inventors on othsides of the *tlantic and a +ide range of moveale com hives +ere designed and perfected in

ngland, France, Cermany and the =nited !tates >lassic designs evolved in each country:/adant hives and angstroth hives are still dominant in the =!*I in France the /eayens troughhive ecame popular and in the =E a British <ational "ive ecame standard as late as the1A7$s although in !cotland the smaller !mith hive is still popular 3n some !candinaviancountries and in ussia the traditional trough hive persisted until late in the 5$th century and isstill kept in some areas "o+ever, the angstroth and /adant designs remain ui?uitous in the=!* and also in many parts of urope, though !+eden, /enmark , Cermany, France and 3taly allhave their o+n national hive designs egional variations of hive evolved to reflect the climate,floral productivity and the reproductive characteristics of the various suspecies of native honey ee in each ioregion

2he differences in hive dimensions are insignificant in comparison to the common factors in allthese hives: they are all s?uare or rectangularI they all use movale +ooden framesI they allconsist of a floor, roodo, honey super , cro+noard and roof "ives have traditionally eenconstructed of cedar , pine, or cypress +ood, ut in recent years hives made from in-ectionmolded dense polystyrene have ecome increasingly important

"ives also use ?ueen ecluders et+een the roodo and honey supers to keep the ?ueen fromlaying eggs in cells net to those containing honey intended for consumption *lso, +ith theadvent in the 5$th century of mite pests, hive floors are often replaced for part of (or the +hole)year +ith a +ire mesh and removale tray

!ioneers of practical and commercial beekeeping[edit]

2he 1Ath century produced an eplosion of innovators and inventors +ho perfected the designand production of eehives, systems of management and husandry, stock improvement yselective reeding, honey etraction and marketing 8reeminent among these innovators +ere:

!etro !rokopovych, used frames +ith channels in the side of the +ood+ork, these +ere packedside y side in oes that +ere stacked one on top of the other 2he ees travelling from frame to

Page 9: Simple ways to start Beekeeping

8/13/2019 Simple ways to start Beekeeping

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/simple-ways-to-start-beekeeping 9/24

frame and o to o via the channels 2he channels +ere similar to the cut outs in the sides ofmodern +ooden sections&1#' (1#14)

"an #$ier%on, +as the father of modern apiology and apiculture *ll modern eehives aredescendants of his design

&' &' &angstroth, revered as the .father of *merican apiculture., no other individual hasinfluenced modern eekeeping practice more than oreno orraine angstroth "is classic ookThe Hive and Hney!bee +as pulished in 1#07

(oses )uinby, often termed the father of commercial eekeeping in the =nited !tates, authorof "ysteries f Bee!#eeping $%plained 

*mos +oot, author of the A B & f Bee &ulture, +hich has een continuously revised andremains in print oot pioneered the manufacture of hives and the distriution of eepackages inthe =nited !tates

*'"' Cook , author of The Bee!#eepers' uide r "anual f the Apiary, 1#@;

#r' C'C' (iller +as one of the first entrepreneurs to actually make a living from apiculture By1#@# he made eekeeping his sole usiness activity "is ook,  *ifty +ears Amng the Bees,remains a classic and his influence on ee management persists to this day

(a,or -rancesco #e Hruschka +as an 3talian military officer +ho made one crucial inventionthat catalyed the commercial honey industry 3n 1#;0 he invented a simple machine foretracting honey from the com y means of centrifugal force "is original idea +as simply tosupport coms in a metal frame+ork and then spin them around +ithin a container to collect

honey as it +as thro+n out y centrifugal force 2his meant that honeycoms could e returnedto a hive undamaged ut empty, saving the ees a vast amount of +ork, time, and materials 2hissingle invention greatly improved the efficiency of honey harvesting and catalysed the modernhoney industry

Walter .' /elley +as an *merican pioneer of modern eekeeping in the early and mid5$thcentury "e greatly improved upon eekeeping e?uipment and clothing and +ent on tomanufacture these items as +ell as other e?uipment "is company sold via catalog +orld+ideand his ook, H t #eep Bees - .ell Hney, an introductory ook of apiculture andmarketing, allo+ed for a oom in eekeeping follo+ing World War 33

3n the =E practical eekeeping +as led in the early 5$th century y a fe+ men, preeminentlyBrother *dam and his Buckfast ee and +'O'B' (anley, author of many titles, including"oney 8roduction 3n 2he British 3sles and inventor of the 9anley frame, still universally popular in the =E 6ther notale British pioneers include William "errod"empsall and Cale

#r' *hmed 0aky *bushady (1#A51A00), +as an gyptian poet, medical doctor, acteriologistand ee scientist +ho +as active in ngland and in gypt in the early part of the t+entiethcentury 3n 1A1A, *ushady patented a removale, standardied aluminum honeycom 3n 1A1A

Page 10: Simple ways to start Beekeeping

8/13/2019 Simple ways to start Beekeeping

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/simple-ways-to-start-beekeeping 10/24

he also founded 2he *pis >lu in Benson, 6fordshire, and its periodical Bee World, +hich +asto e edited y *nnie / Betts and later y /r va >rane 2he *pis >lu +as transitioned to the3nternational Bee esearch *ssociation (3B*) 3ts archives are held in the  <ational irary ofWales 3n gypt in the 1A7$s, *ushady estalished 2he Bee Eingdom eague and its organ,2he Bee Eingdom

3n 3ndia, <9attoo +as the pioneer +orker in starting eekeeping +ith 3ndian honeyee, *piscerana indica in early 1A7$s Beekeeping +ith uropean honeyee, *pis mellifera +as started y#r' *'S'*t1al and his team memers, O'!'Sharma and 2'!'3oyal in 8un-a in early 1A;$s3tremained confined to 8un-a and "imachal 8radesh up to late 1A@$s ater on in 1A#5, #r'

+'C'Sihag, +orking at "aryana *gricultural =niversity,"isar ("aryana), introduced andestalished this honeyee in "aryana and standardied its management practices for semiaridsutropical climates6n the asis of these practices, Beekeeping +ith this honeyee could eetended to the rest of the country <o+ eekeeping +ith *pis mellifera predominates in 3ndia

.raditional beekeeping[edit]

Wooden hives in !tripeikiai in ithuania

-i4ed comb hives[edit]

* fied com hive is a hive in +hich the coms cannot e removed or manipulated formanagement or harvesting +ithout permanently damaging the com *lmost any hollo+structure can e used for this purpose, such as a log gum, skep or a clay pot Fied com hivesare no longer in common use in industrialised countries, and are illegal in some places thatre?uire inspection for prolems such as varroa and *merican foulrood 3n many developingcountries fied com hives are +idely used and ecause they can e made from any locallyavailale material are very inepensive and appropriate Beekeeping using fied com hives is

an essential part of the livelihoods of many communities in poor countries 2he charity Bees for/evelopment recognises that local skills to manage ees in fied com hives&1A' are +idespreadin *frica, *sia, and !outh *merica

(odern beekeeping[edit]

(ovable frame hives[edit]

Page 11: Simple ways to start Beekeeping

8/13/2019 Simple ways to start Beekeeping

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/simple-ways-to-start-beekeeping 11/24

3n the =nited !tates, the angstroth hive is commonly used 2he angstroth +as the firstsuccessful topopened hive +ith movale frames, and other designs of hive have een ased onit 2he angstroth hive +as, ho+ever, a descendant of  Jan /ieronKs 8olish hive designs 3n the=nited Eingdom, the most common type of hive is the British <ational "ive, +hich can hold"offman, British !tandard or popular 9anley frames, ut it is not unusual to see some other

sorts of hive (!mith, >ommercial and WB>, rarely angstroth) !tra+ skeps, ee gums, andunframed o hives are no+ unla+ful in most =! states, as the com and rood cannot einspected for diseases "o+ever, stra+ skeps are still used for collecting s+arms y hoyists inthe =E, efore moving them into standard hives

.op5bar hives[edit]

* gro+ing numer of amateur eekeepers are adopting various topar hives similar to the typecommonly found in *frica 2op ar hives +ere originally used as traditional eekeeping amethod in oth Creece and %ietnam&11' 2hese have no frames and the honeyfilled com is notreturned to the hive after etraction, as it is in the angstroth hive Because of this, the

 production of honey is likely to e some+hat less than that of a angstroth hive 2op ar hivesare mostly kept y people +ho are more interested in having ees in their garden than in honey production per se

!ome of the most +ell kno+n topar hives are the Eenyan 2op Bar "ive +ith sloping sides, the2ananian 2op Bar "ive, +hich has straight sides and the %ertical 2op Bar "ives such as theWarre or .8eoples "ive. designed y *e Warre in the mid1A$$s

2he initial costs and e?uipment re?uirements are far lo+er 6ften scrap +ood or L5 or L7 pine isale to e used +ith a nice hive as the outcome 2opar hives also offer some advantages ininteracting +ith the ees and the amount of +eight that must e lifted is greatly reduced 2opar

hives are eing +idely used in developing countries in *frica and *sia as a result of the Bees for/evelopment program 2here are a gro+ing numer of eekeepers in the =! using various top ar hives from 5$11 on+ards &5$'

!rotective clothing[edit]

Beekeepers often +ear protective clothing to protect themselves from stings

While kno+ledge of the ees is the first line of defense, most eekeepers also +ear some protective clothing <ovice eekeepers usually +ear gloves and a hooded suit or hat and veil

Page 12: Simple ways to start Beekeeping

8/13/2019 Simple ways to start Beekeeping

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/simple-ways-to-start-beekeeping 12/24

perienced eekeepers sometimes elect not to use gloves ecause they inhiit delicatemanipulations 2he face and neck are the most important areas to protect, so most eekeepers+ear at least a veil

/efensive ees are attracted to the reath, and a sting on the face can lead to much more pain and

s+elling than a sting else+here, +hile a sting on a are hand can usually e ?uickly removed yfingernail scrape to reduce the amount of venom in-ected

2he protective clothing is generally light colored (ut not colorful) and of a smooth material2his provides the maimum differentiation from the colonys natural predators (ears, skunks,etc), +hich tend to e darkcolored and furry

!tings retained in clothing faric continue to pump out an alarm pheromone that attractsaggressive action and further stinging attacks Washing suits regularly, and rinsing gloved handsin vinegar minimies attraction

Smoker[edit]

 "ain article/ Bee smker 

Bee smoker +ith heat shield and hook 

!moke is the eekeepers third line of defense 9ost eekeepers use a .smoker. D a devicedesigned to generate smoke from the incomplete comustion of various fuels !moke calms eesIit initiates a feeding response in anticipation of possile hive aandonment due to fire !mokealso masks alarm pheromones released y guard ees or +hen ees are s?uashed in aninspection 2he ensuing confusion creates an opportunity for the eekeeper to open the hive and+ork +ithout triggering a defensive reaction 3n addition, +hen a ee consumes honey the eesadomen distends, supposedly making it difficult to make the necessary flees to sting, though

this has not een tested scientifically

!moke is of ?uestionale use +ith a s+arm, ecause s+arms do not have honey stores to feed onin response =sually smoke is not needed, since s+arms tend to e less defensive, as they haveno stores to defend, and a fresh s+arm has fed +ell from the hive

9any types of fuel can e used in a smoker as long as it is natural and not contaminated +ithharmful sustances 2hese fuels include hessian, t+ine,  urlap, pine needles, corrugated

Page 13: Simple ways to start Beekeeping

8/13/2019 Simple ways to start Beekeeping

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/simple-ways-to-start-beekeeping 13/24

cardoard, and mostly rotten or punky +ood 3ndian eekeepers, especially in Eerala, often usecoconut fiers as they are readily availale, safe, and of negligile epense !ome eekeepingsupply sources also sell commercial fuels like pulped paper and compressed cotton, or evenaerosol cans of smoke 6ther eekeepers use sumac as fuel ecause it e-ects lots of smoke anddoesnt have an odor

!ome eekeepers are using .li?uid smoke. as a safer, more convenient, alternative 3t is a +ater ased solution that is sprayed onto the ees from a plastic spray ottle

2orpor may also e induced y the introduction of chilled air into the hive +hile chilled carondioide may have harmful longterm effects&51'

ffects of stings and of protective measures[edit]

!ome eekeepers elieve that the more stings a eekeeper receives, the less irritation eachcauses, and they consider it important for safety of the eekeeper to e stung a fe+ times a

season Beekeepers have high levels of antiodies (mainly 3gC) reacting to the ma-or antigen of ee venom,  phospholipase *5 (8*)&55' *ntiodies correlate +ith the fre?uency of ee stings

2he entry of venom into the ody from eestings may also e hindered and reduced y protective clothing that allo+s the +earer to remove stings and venom sacs +ith a simple tug onthe clothing *lthough the stinger is ared, a +orker ee is less likely to ecome lodged intoclothing than human skin

2atural beekeeping[edit]

>oncurrent +ith the general chemophoic movement, the natural eekeeping movement

 elieves that modern eekeeping and agricultural practices, such as crop spraying, hivemovement, fre?uent hive inspections, artificial insemination of ?ueens, routine medication, andsugar +ater feeding, +eaken ee hives

8ractitioners of natural eekeeping tend to use variations of the topar hive, +hich is a simpledesign that retains the concept of movale com +ithout the use of frames or foundation 2hehoriontal topar hive, as championed y 9arty "ardison, 9ichael Bush, 8hilip >handler,/ennis 9urrell and others, can e seen as a moderniation of hollo+ log hives, +ith the additionof +ooden ars of specific +idth from +hich ees hang their coms 3ts +idespread adoption inrecent years can e attriuted to the pulication in 5$$@ of The Bareft Beekeeper &57' y 8hilip>handler, +hich challenged many aspects of modern eekeeping and offered the horiontal top

 ar hive as a viale alternative to the ui?uitous angstrothsyle movaleframe hive

2he most popular vertical topar hive is proaly the WarrH hive, ased on a design y theFrench priest *H Mmile WarrH (1#;@N1A01) and popularied y /r /avid "eaf in his nglishtranslation of WarrHs ook 'Apiculture pur Tus as Beekeeping *r All &54'

6rban or backyard beekeeping[edit]

Page 14: Simple ways to start Beekeeping

8/13/2019 Simple ways to start Beekeeping

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/simple-ways-to-start-beekeeping 14/24

 "ain article/ urban beekeeping 

elated to natural eekeeping, uran eekeeping is an attempt to revert to a less industrialied+ay of otaining honey y utiliing smallscale colonies that pollinate uran gardens =ranapiculture has undergone a renaissance in the first decade of the 51st century, and uran

 eekeeping is seen y many as a gro+ing trendI it has recently een legalied in cities +here it+as previously anned 8aris, Berlin, ondon, 2okyo, 9elourne and Washington /> areamong eekeeping cities

!ome have found that .city ees. are actually healthier than .rural ees. ecause there are fe+er pesticides and greater iodiversity&50' =ran ees may fail to find forage, ho+ever, andhomeo+ners can use their landscapes to help feed local ee populations y planting flo+ers that provide nectar and pollen *n environment of yearround, uninterrupted loom creates an idealenvironment for colony reproduction&5;'

Bee colonies[edit]

Castes[edit]

* colony of ees consists of three castes of ee:

• a ?ueen ee, +hich is normally the only reeding female in the colonyI• a large numer of female +orker ees, typically 7$,$$$N0$,$$$ in numerI

• a numer of male drones, ranging from thousands in a strong hive in spring to very fe+during dearth or cold season

2he ?ueen is the only seually mature female in the hive and all of the female +orker ees andmale drones are her offspring 2he ?ueen may live for up to three years or more and may ecapale of laying half a million eggs or more in her lifetime *t the peak of the reeding season,late spring to summer, a good ?ueen may e capale of laying 7,$$$ eggs in one day, more thanher o+n ody +eight 2his +ould e eceptional ho+everI a prolific ?ueen might peak at 5,$$$eggs a day, ut a more average ?ueen might lay -ust 1,0$$ eggs per day 2he ?ueen is raised froma normal +orker egg, ut is fed a larger amount of  royal -elly than a normal +orker ee, resultingin a radically different gro+th and metamorphosis 2he ?ueen influences the colony y the production and dissemination of a variety of   pheromones or .?ueen sustances. 6ne of thesechemicals suppresses the development of ovaries in all the female +orker ees in the hive and prevents them from laying eggs

(ating of 7ueens[edit]

2he ?ueen emerges from her cell after 10 days of development and she remains in the hive for 7N @ days efore venturing out on a mating flight 9ating flight is other+ise kno+n as nuptialflight "er first orientation flight may only last a fe+ seconds, -ust enough to mark the positionof the hive !use?uent mating flights may last from 0 minutes to 7$ minutes, and she may mate+ith a numer of male drones on each flight 6ver several matings, possily a doen or more, the

Page 15: Simple ways to start Beekeeping

8/13/2019 Simple ways to start Beekeeping

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/simple-ways-to-start-beekeeping 15/24

?ueen receives and stores enough sperm from a succession of drones to fertilie hundreds ofthousands of eggs 3f she does not manage to leave the hive to mateDpossily due to ad+eather or eing trapped in part of the hiveDshe remains infertile and ecome a drne layer, incapale of producing female +orker ees Worker ees sometimes kill a nonperforming ?ueenand produce another Without a properly performing ?ueen, the hive is doomed

9ating takes place at some distance from the hive and often several hundred feet in the airI it isthought that this separates the strongest drones from the +eaker ones, ensuring that only thefastest and strongest drones get to pass on their genes

-emale 1orker bees[edit]

Bee

*lmost all the ees in a hive are female +orker ees *t the height of summer +hen activity inthe hive is frantic and +ork goes on nonstop, the life of a +orker ee may e as short as ;+eeksI in late autumn, +hen no rood is eing raised and no nectar  is eing harvested, a young ee may live for 1; +eeks, right through the +inter /uring its life a +orker ee performs

different +ork functions in the hive, largely dictated y the age of the ee

!eriod Work activity

/ays 17 >leaning cells and incuation/ay 7; Feeding older larvae/ay ;1$ Feeding younger larvae/ay #1; eceiving honey and pollen from field ees/ay 151# Wa making and cell uilding/ay 14 on+ards ntrance guardsI nectar and pollen foraging

(ale bees 8drones9[edit]

/rones are the largest ees in the hive (ecept for the ?ueen), at almost t+ice the sie of a +orker ee 2hey do not +ork, do not forage for pollen or nectar and have no other kno+n function thanto mate +ith ne+ ?ueens and fertilie them on their mating flights * ee colony generally startsto raise drones a fe+ +eeks efore uilding ?ueen cells so they can supersede a failing ?ueen or prepare for s+arming When ?ueenraising for the season is over, ees in colder climates drivedrones out of the hive to die, iting and tearing their legs and +ings

Page 16: Simple ways to start Beekeeping

8/13/2019 Simple ways to start Beekeeping

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/simple-ways-to-start-beekeeping 16/24

#iffering stages of development[edit]

Stage of

development)ueen Worker #rone

gg 7 days 7 days 7 days

arva # days 1$ days 17 days :!uccessive moults occur +ithin this period # to17 day period

>ell >apped day # day # day 1$8upa 4 days # days # days2otal 10 days 51 days 54 days

Structure of a bee colony[edit]

* domesticated ee colony is normally housed in a rectangular hive ody, +ithin +hich eight toten parallel frames house the vertical plates of honeycom that contain the eggs, larvae, pupae

and food for the colony 3f one +ere to cut a vertical crosssection through the hive from side toside, the rood nest +ould appear as a roughly ovoid all spanning 0# frames of com 2he t+ooutside coms at each side of the hive tend to e eclusively used for longterm storage of honeyand pollen

Within the central rood nest, a single frame of com typically has a central disk of eggs, larvaeand sealed rood cells that may etend almost to the edges of the frame 3mmediately aove the rood patch an arch of pollenfilled cells etends from side to side, and aove that again a roader arch of honeyfilled cells etends to the frame tops 2he pollen is proteinrich food fordeveloping larvae, +hile honey is also food ut largely energy rich rather than protein rich 2henurse ees that care for the developing rood secrete a special food called royal -elly afterfeeding themselves on honey and pollen 2he amount of royal -elly fed to a larva determines+hether it develops into a +orker ee or a ?ueen

*part from the honey stored +ithin the central rood frames, the ees store surplus honey incoms aove the rood nest 3n modern hives the eekeeper places separate oes, calledsupers, aove the rood o, in +hich a series of shallo+er coms is provided for storage ofhoney 2his enales the eekeeper to remove some of the supers in the late summer, and toetract the surplus honey harvest, +ithout damaging the colony of ees and its rood nest elo+3f all the honey is stolen, including the amount of honey needed to survive +inter, the eekeepermust replace these stores y feeding the ees sugar or  corn syrup in autumn

*nnual cycle of a bee colony[edit]

2he development of a ee colony follo+s an annual cycle of gro+th that egins in spring +ith arapid epansion of the rood nest, as soon as pollen is availale for feeding larvae !ome production of rood may egin as early as January, even in a cold +inter, ut reedingaccelerates to+ards a peak in 9ay (in the northern hemisphere), producing an aundance ofharvesting ees synchronied to the main nectar flo+ in that region ach race of ees times this uildup slightly differently, depending on ho+ the flora of its original region looms !ome

Page 17: Simple ways to start Beekeeping

8/13/2019 Simple ways to start Beekeeping

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/simple-ways-to-start-beekeeping 17/24

regions of urope have t+o nectar flo+s: one in late spring and another in late *ugust 6therregions have only a single nectar flo+ 2he skill of the eekeeper lies in predicting +hen thenectar flo+ +ill occur in his area and in trying to ensure that his colonies achieve a maimum population of harvesters at eactly the right time

2he key factor in this is the prevention or skillful management of the s+arming impulse 3f acolony s+arms unepectedly and the eekeeper does not manage to capture the resulting s+arm,he is likely to harvest significantly less honey from that hive, since he has lost half his +orker ees at a single stroke 3f, ho+ever, he can use the s+arming impulse to reed a ne+ ?ueen utkeep all the ees in the colony together, he maimies his chances of a good harvest 3t takesmany years of learning and eperience to e ale to manage all these aspects successfully,though o+ing to variale circumstances many eginners often achieve a good honey harvest

-ormation of ne1 colonies[edit]

Colony reproduction: s1arming and supersedure[edit]

 "ain article/ .arming (hney bee)

* s+arm aout to land

*ll colonies are totally dependent on their ?ueen, +ho is the only egglayer "o+ever, even the est ?ueens live only a fe+ years and one or t+o years longevity is the norm !he can choose+hether or not to fertilie an egg as she lays itI if she does so, it develops into a female +orker eeI if she lays an unfertilied egg it ecomes a male drone !he decides +hich type of egg to laydepending on the sie of the open rood cell she encounters on the com 3n a small +orker cell,she lays a fertilied eggI if she finds a larger drone cell, she lays an unfertilied drone egg

*ll the time that the ?ueen is fertile and laying eggs she produces a variety of pheromones,+hich control the ehavior of the ees in the hive 2hese are commonly called 1ueen substance,  ut there are various pheromones +ith different functions *s the ?ueen ages, she egins to runout of stored sperm, and her pheromones egin to fail 3nevitaly, the ?ueen egins to falter, andthe ees decide to replace her y creating a ne+ ?ueen from one of her +orker eggs 2hey maydo this ecause she has een damaged (lost a leg or an antenna), ecause she has run out ofsperm and cannot lay fertilied eggs (has ecome a drone laying ?ueen), or ecause her pheromones have d+indled to +here they cannot control all the ees in the hive

Page 18: Simple ways to start Beekeeping

8/13/2019 Simple ways to start Beekeeping

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/simple-ways-to-start-beekeeping 18/24

*t this -uncture, the ees produce one or more ?ueen cells y modifying eisting +orker cellsthat contain a normal female egg "o+ever, the ees pursue t+o distinct ehaviors:

1 !upersedure: ?ueen replacement +ithin one hive +ithout s+arming5 !+arm cell production: the division of the hive into t+o colonies y s+arming

/ifferent suspecies of Apis mellifera ehiit differing s+arming characteristics that reflecttheir evolution in different ecotopes of the uropean continent 3n general the more northerly lack races are said to s+arm less and supersede more, +hereas the more southerly yello+ andgrey varieties are said to s+arm more fre?uently 2he truth is complicated ecause of the prevalence of crossreeding and hyridiation of the su species and opinions differ

!upersedure is highly valued as a ehavioral trait y eekeepers ecause a hive that supersedesits old ?ueen does not s+arm and so no stock is lostI it merely creates a ne+ ?ueen and allo+sthe old one to fade a+ay, or alternatively she is killed +hen the ne+ ?ueen emerges Whensuperseding a ?ueen, the ees produce -ust one or t+o ?ueen cells, characteristically in the center

of the face of a roodcom3n s+arming, y contrast, a great many ?ueen cells are created D typically a doen or more Dand these are located around the edges of a roodcom, most often at the sides and the ottom

 <e+ +a coms et+een asement -oists

6nce either process has egun, the old ?ueen normally leaves the hive +ith the hatching of thefirst ?ueen cells !he leaves accompanied y a large numer of ees, predominantly young ees(+asecretors), +ho form the asis of the ne+ hive !couts are sent out from the s+arm to findsuitale hollo+ trees or rock crevices *s soon as one is found, the entire s+arm moves inWithin a matter of hours, they uild ne+ +a rood coms, using honey stores that the young ees have filled themselves +ith efore leaving the old hive 6nly young ees can secrete +a

from special adominal segments, and this is +hy s+arms tend to contain more young ees6ften a numer of virgin ?ueens accompany the first s+arm (the prime s+arm), and the old?ueen is replaced as soon as a daughter ?ueen mates and egins laying 6ther+ise, she is ?uicklysuperseded in the ne+ home

-actors that trigger s1arming[edit]

Page 19: Simple ways to start Beekeeping

8/13/2019 Simple ways to start Beekeeping

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/simple-ways-to-start-beekeeping 19/24

3t is generally accepted that a colony of ees does not s+arm until they have completed all oftheir rood coms, ie, filled all availale space +ith eggs, larvae, and rood 2his generallyoccurs in late spring at a time +hen the other areas of the hive are rapidly filling +ith honeystores 6ne key trigger of the s+arming instinct is +hen the ?ueen has no more room to lay eggsand the hive population is ecoming very congested =nder these conditions, a prime s+arm may

issue +ith the ?ueen, resulting in a halving of the population +ithin the hive, leaving the oldcolony +ith a large numer of hatching ees 2he ?ueen +ho leaves finds herself in a ne+ hive+ith no eggs and no larvae ut lots of energetic young ees +ho create a ne+ set of rood comsfrom scratch in a very short time

*nother important factor in s+arming is the age of the ?ueen 2hose under a year in age areunlikely to s+arm unless they are etremely cro+ded, +hile older ?ueens have s+arming predisposition

Beekeepers monitor their colonies carefully in spring and +atch for the appearance of ?ueencells, +hich are a dramatic signal that the colony is determined to s+arm

When a colony has decided to s+arm, ?ueen cells are produced in numers varying to a doen ormore When the first of these ?ueen cells is sealed after eight days of larval feeding, a virgin?ueen pupates and is due to emerge seven days later Before leaving, the +orker ees fill theirstomachs +ith honey in preparation for the creation of ne+ honeycoms in a ne+ home 2hiscargo of honey also makes s+arming ees less inclined to sting * ne+ly issued s+arm isnoticealy gentle for up to 54 hours and is often capale of eing handled y a eekeeper+ithout gloves or veil

* s+arm attached to a ranch

2his s+arm looks for shelter * eekeeper may capture it and introduce it into a ne+ hive,helping meet this need 6ther+ise, it returns to a feral state, in +hich case it finds shelter in ahollo+ tree, ecavation, aandoned chimney, or even ehind shutters

Back at the original hive, the first virgin ?ueen to emerge from her cell immediately seeks to killall her rival ?ueens still +aiting to emerge =sually, ho+ever, the ees delierately prevent herfrom doing this, in +hich case, she too leads a second s+arm from the hive !uccessive s+armsare called afters+arms or casts and can e very small, often +ith -ust a thousand or so eesD as opposed to a prime s+arm, +hich may contain as many as ten to t+entythousand ees

Page 20: Simple ways to start Beekeeping

8/13/2019 Simple ways to start Beekeeping

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/simple-ways-to-start-beekeeping 20/24

* small afters+arm has less chance of survival and may threaten the original hives survival ydepleting it When a hive s+arms despite the eekeepers preventative efforts, a goodmanagement practice is to give the depleted hive a couple frames of open rood +ith eggs 2hishelps replenish the hive more ?uickly and gives a second opportunity to raise a ?ueen if there is amating failure

ach race or suspecies of honey ee has its o+n s+arming characteristics 3talian ees are very prolific and inclined to s+armI <orthern uropean lack ees have a strong tendency tosupersede their old ?ueen +ithout s+arming 2hese differences are the result of differingevolutionary pressures in the regions +here each suspecies evolved

*rtificial s1arming[edit]

When a colony accidentally loses its ?ueen, it is said to e ?ueenless 2he +orkers realie thatthe ?ueen is asent after as little as an hour, as her pheromones fade in the hive 2he colonycannot survive +ithout a fertile ?ueen laying eggs to rene+ the population, so the +orkers select

cells containing eggs aged less than three days and enlarge these cells dramatically to formemergency ?ueen cells 2hese appear similar to large peanutlike structures aout an inch longthat hang from the center or side of the rood coms 2he developing larva in a ?ueen cell is feddifferently from an ordinary +orkereeI in addition to the normal honey and pollen, she receivesa great deal of royal -elly, a special food secreted y young nurse ees from the hypopharyngealgland 2his special food dramatically alters the gro+th and development of the larva so that, aftermetamorphosis and pupation, it emerges from the cell as a ?ueen ee 2he ?ueen is the only eein a colony +hich has fully developed ovaries, and she secretes a pheromone +hich suppressesthe normal development of ovaries in all her +orkers

Beekeepers use the aility of the ees to produce ne+ ?ueens to increase their colonies in a

 procedure called splitting a clny 2o do this, they remove several rood coms from a healthyhive, taking care to leave the old ?ueen ehind 2hese coms must contain eggs or larvae lessthan three days old and e covered y young nurse bees, +hich care for the rood and keep it+arm 2hese rood coms and attendant nurse ees are then placed into a small nucleus hive+ith other coms containing honey and pollen *s soon as the nurse ees find themselves in thisne+ hive and realie they have no ?ueen, they set aout constructing emergency ?ueen cellsusing the eggs or larvae they have in the coms +ith them

#iseases[edit]

 "ain article/ ist f diseases f the hney bee

2he common agents of disease that affect adult honey ees include fungi,  acteria,  protooa,viruses, parasites, and poisons 2he gross symptoms displayed y affected adult ees are verysimilar, +hatever the cause, making it difficult for the apiarist to ascertain the causes of prolems+ithout microscopic identification of microorganisms or chemical analysis of poisons &5@' !ince5$$; colony losses from >olony >ollapse /isorder  have een increasing across the +orldalthough the causes of the syndrome are, as yet, unkno+n&5#'&5A'

Page 21: Simple ways to start Beekeeping

8/13/2019 Simple ways to start Beekeeping

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/simple-ways-to-start-beekeeping 21/24

World apiculture[edit]

World honey production and consumption in 5$$0

Country

!roduction

8;<<< metric

tons9

Consumption

8;<<< metric

tons9

2umber

of beekeepers

2umber

of bee hives

urope and +ussia

=kraine @14; 05ussia 0517 04!pain 7@$$ 4$Cermany (O5$$#) 5157 #A A$,$$$O 1,$$$,$$$O"ungary 1A@1 4omania 1A5$ 1$Creece 1;5@ 1;France 1040 7$

Bulgaria 1155 5!eria 7 to 0 ;7 7$,$$$ 47$,$$$/enmark  (O1AA;) 50 0 O4,$$$ O10$,$$$

2orth *merica

=nited !tates of*merica (O5$$;, OO5$$5)

@$7$;O 10#@0O15,$5AOO (51$,$$$

 ee keepers)5,4$$,$$$O

>anada40 (5$$;)I 5#

(5$$@)&7$' 5A 17,$$$ 0$$,$$$

&atin *merica

*rgentina

A745 (*verage

#4)&71' 79eico 0$;7 71Brail 77@0 5=ruguay 11#@ 1

Oceania

*ustralia 1#4; 1; <e+ Gealand A;A # 5;$5 717,7AA

*sia

>hina5AA77 (average

540)57# @,5$$,$$$&71'

2urkey #574 (average@$)

;; 4,0$$,$$$&71'&75'

3ran 7,0$$,$$$&71'

3ndia 0557 40 A,#$$,$$$&71'

!outh Eorea 57#5 5@%ietnam 170A $2urkmenistan 1$4; 1$

Page 22: Simple ways to start Beekeeping

8/13/2019 Simple ways to start Beekeeping

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/simple-ways-to-start-beekeeping 22/24

World honey production and consumption in 5$$0

Country

!roduction

8;<<< metric

tons9

Consumption

8;<<< metric

tons9

2umber

of beekeepers

2umber

of bee hives

urope and +ussia

*fricathiopia 4157 4$ 4,4$$,$$$2anania 5#;# 5#*ngola 57@@ 57Eenya 55$$ 51gypt (O1AA@) 1;O 5$$,$$$O 5,$$$,$$$O>entral *frican

epulic1457 14

9orocco (O1AA@) 40O 5@,$$$O 4$$,$$$O!outh *frica (O5$$#) P50O&77' P10O&77' P1,@A$O&77' PA5,$$$O&77'

.urce/ *d and Agriculture 3rgani4atin f the 5nited 6atins (  *A3 ), August 2007

!ources:

• /enmark: eekeepingcom&74' (1AA;)• *ra countries: eekeepingcom&70' (1AA@)

• =!*: =niversity of *rkansas <ational *gricultural a+ >enter &7;' (5$$5), *gricultural 9arketingesource >enter &7@' (5$$;)

• !eria&7#'

Images of harvesting honey[edit]

* eekeeper removing frames from the hive

* frame

Page 23: Simple ways to start Beekeeping

8/13/2019 Simple ways to start Beekeeping

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/simple-ways-to-start-beekeeping 23/24

!moking the hive

=sing a lo+er to remove ees from honey super prior to removal to honey house

6pening the cells: =ncapping

*n uncapping fork 

=ncapping the cells y hand using an uncapping knife

Page 24: Simple ways to start Beekeeping

8/13/2019 Simple ways to start Beekeeping

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/simple-ways-to-start-beekeeping 24/24

tracting the honey

Filtering the honey

8ouring in pots (after maturation)