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Beekeeping

A Primer on Starting &Keeping a Hive

By

DOMINIQUE DEVITO

Contents

IntroductionAbout Honey & Bees

Beekeeping

Chapter OneSupplies Youll Need to Keep

Bees

Chapter Two

Developing & Sustaining aHealthy Hive, by Season

Chapter ThreeUnderstanding the Life Cycle& Behavior of Honey Bees

Chapter FourKeeping Bees Healthy

Chapter FiveHarvesting the Honey

Chapter SixUsing the Honey and Beeswax

Chapter SevenCooking with Honey

BEEKEEPING RESOURCES

Introduction

AboutHoney Bees

&Beekeeping

This book is being written at a timewhen honey bees around the world aregetting attention not just for themiraculous and life-sustaining work theydo so wonderfully well, but for the very

real threat to their existence: colonycollapse disorder (CCD). Researchersaround the world are trying to determinewhy whole colonies of bees areabandoning their hives and disappearingwithout a trace. Besides the personallosses to beekeepers of establishedhives that are there one day and gone thenext, there is the danger that fewer andfewer foods that require pollination willget itand in the U.S. alone, 80% ofpollination is done by honey bees.(More information can be found aboutCCD in Chapter 4 and in the BeekeepingResources section.) Essentially, there isno greater time to develop an interest inbeekeeping.Not only will you come to better

understand the life of honey bees, but bystudying whats happening with yourhives, you can be part of the globalconversation about the influences thatjeopardize the honey bees veryexistence.Every hive counts, and beekeeping canbecome for you what it is for others whopursue ita purposeful passion. Beforegetting started keeping bees, theres lotsto know about honey bees themselves.

ScientificClassification ofthe Honey Bee

The honey bee that willbe discussed in this bookbecause it is mostfrequently kept bybeekeepers in the UnitedStates is the Europeanhoney bee, Apismellifera. Honey beescomprise the genus Apisin the family Apidae,order Hymenoptera.They are of the kingdomAnimalia, phylumAnthropoda, and classInsecta.

A (BRIEF) HISTORYof the HONEY BEE

The history of honey bees is as old asthat of humankind. They are an ancientinsect, for sure. A fossilized piece ofpine sap dating 3040 million years agocontains a bee preserved for the agesand looking remarkably similar to thehoney bee we know today. A Spanishcave painting dating to around 6000 BCportrays a man harvesting wild honey asthe bees buzz around him.Honey bees are native to Europe, Asia,and Africa, and most ancient references

to honey bees are found in these cultures.The Egyptians, Romans, Greeks,Palestinians, Jews, and many othersfrom these regions celebrated honey andits many blessings. There was thesweetness of honey, which was highlyvalued, but also the medicinal propertiesof honey, including its use as anantibacterial healer for the skin. Honeywas also fermented to make a sweetwine, or mead, which was drunk atceremonious occasions (and manyothers, for sure!).In whatever ways ancient peoplesworshipped and used honeyanddeveloped their beekeeping skills toensure that their lands were blessed withithoney and bees were an integral part

of their lives. They were so integral, infact, that when they colonized lands thatdid not have them, hives were imported.This happened in the Americas,Australia, and New Zealand. Honeybees came to the United States in theearly 1600s, and spread across thecountry with settlers and others so thatthey were soon pollinating plants in allof North America. They extended intoCentral and South America, too. Theydidnt make it west of the RockyMountains by themselves, howeverthey were brought by ship to Californiain the 1950s. Honey bees were importedto Australia and New Zealand in the1800s and were soon an integral part ofthose countries growing seasons.

A Prevalent StateInsect

So important is the honeybee to so many farmersin the U.S. that over onequarter of our UnitedStates have the honey beeas their state insect. Theyare: Arkansas, Georgia,Kansas, Louisiana,Maine, Mississippi,Missouri, Nebraska,New Jersey, NorthCarolina, Oklahoma,South Dakota,

Tennessee, Utah,Vermont, West Virginia,and Wisconsin.

Fun Factsabout Honey Bees

Bees maintain a temperature of9293 degrees Fahrenheit intheir central brood nestregardless of the outsidetemperature.

Honey bees produce beeswaxfrom eight paired glands onthe underside of theirabdomen.

Honey bees must consumeabout seventeen to twentypounds of honey to be able tobiochemically produce eachpound of beeswax.

Honey bees can fly up to 8.7miles from their nest in searchof food. Usually, however,they fly one or two miles awayfrom their hive to forage onflowers.

Honey bees are entirelyherbivorous when they foragefor nectar and pollen but cancannibalize their own broodwhen stressed.

Worker honey bees live for

about four weeks in the springor summer but up to six weeksduring the winter.

Honey bees are almost theonly bees with hairycompound eyes.

The queen may lay 600800 oreven 1,500 eggs each dayduring her three- or four-yearlifetime. This daily eggproduction may equal her ownweight. She is constantly fedand groomed by attendantworker bees.

A populous colony maycontain forty thousand to sixtythousand bees during the late

spring or early summer. The brain of a worker honey

bee is about a cubicmillimeter but has the densestneuropile tissue of any animal.

Honey is 80 percent sugarsand 20 percent water.

Honey has been used formillennia as a topical dressingfor wounds, since microbescannot live in it. It alsoproduces hydrogen peroxide.Honey has even been used toembalm bodies such as that ofAlexander the Great.

Fermented honey, known asmead, is the most ancient

fermented beverage. The termhoneymoon originated with theNorse practice of consuminglarge quantities of meadduring the first month of amarriage.

Honey bees fly at 15 miles perhour.

The queen may mate with up toseventeen drones over a one-to-twoday period of matingflights.

The queen stores the spermfrom these matings in herspermatheca, a storage sac;thus she has a lifetime supplyand never mates again.

When the queen bee is about tolay an egg, she can control theflow of sperm to fertilize anegg. Honey bees have anunusual genetic sexdetermination system knownas haplodiploidy. Workerbees are produced fromfertilized eggs and have a full(double) set of chromosomes.The males, or drones, developfrom unfertilized eggs and arethus haploid with only a singleset of chromosomes.

From the Carl Hayden Bee ResearchCenters Tribbeal Pursuits, part of theUSDA National Agricultural Library

According to the American GardenHistory blog on beekeeping, The honeybee was so important in the colonialeconomy that in 1776, the new state ofNew Jersey printed its image on itscurrency. In the 18th and 19th centuries,the beehive became an icon inFreemasonry as a symbol of industry andcooperation. The bee skep is one of thesymbols of the state of Utah because itwas associated with the honey bee, anearly symbol of Mormon pioneerindustry and resourcefulness. Thebeehive is still part of todays Mormonculture.

For centuries, beekeeperskept bees in conicalformations made of strawand, sometimes, linen.They were called beeskeps, illustrated above.

Native Americans didnt necessarilytake kindly to the invasion of honey beesacross the land. The author JohnBurroughs included this passage in Birdsand Bees, which appears in theRiverside Literature Series collection ofhis works:

The Indian regarded the honeybee as an ill-omen. She was thewhite mans fly. In fact, she wasthe epitome of the white manhimself. She has the white manscraftiness, his industry, hisarchitectural skill, his neatnessand love of system, his foresight,and above all, his eager, miserlyhabits. The honey bees great

ambition is to be rich, to lay upgreat stores, to possess the sweetof every flower that blooms. Sheis more than provident. Enoughwill not satisfy her, she musthave all she can get by hook orby crook.

Burroughs was fascinated by the honeybee:

There is no creature with whichman has surrounded himself thatseems so much like a product ofcivilization, so much like theresult of development on speciallines and in special fields, as thehoney bee. Indeed, a colony of

bees, with their neatness andlove of order, their division oflabor, their public spiritedness,their thrift, their complexeconomies, and their inordinatelove of gain, seems as farremoved from a condition ofrude nature as does a walled cityor a cathedral town.

TWO EARLY AMERICANPIONEERS

Modern beekeeping had its inception inL. L. Langstroths development of his

movable-frame hive, patented in 1872.Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth (18101895), a native of Philadelphia, at anearly age took such an extraordinaryinterest in insects that he was punishedfor wearing holes in the knees of hispants while studying ants. He graduatedfrom Yale with distinction in 1831 andwas ordained a minister after a course ofstudy at Yales divinity school. Periodsof severe depression limitedLangstroths work as a minister andteacher, but his patient and sensitiveobservations of the activities in hisbeloved beehives would change thehistory of beekeeping.Langstroths genius was to recognize theimportance of bee space for optimal

hive design. Bee space is the term nowapplied to the roughly - to -inchcorridor that bees require in a hive.When they have less space than that, theyplug the gap with propolis, a tough,sticky resinous substance that beesobtain from certain trees; with greaterspace, they construct a brace comb thatconnects hive frames. Both of these aregreat nuisances to beekeepers.Langstroths hive, a box enclosingparallel hanging frames, each movableand interchangeable, with all suspendedparts being surrounded by bee space, isa perfected home for bees and aperfected tool for their keeper. Becauseof the ease with which bees can behandled with movable frames,

Langstroths hive design has alsofacilitated the study of bee behavior.

Well learn more aboutthe basic hive, illustratedabove, in Chapter 1.

Moses Quinby (18101875) is the fatherof commercial honey production. In hisearly twenties, Quinby established abeekeeping business, eventually owning1,200 hives in New Yorks MohawkValley. As a practical man, he sought tomake his business more efficient andcreated several beekeeping aids: one ofthe first honey extractors in the country,the first useful knife for preparing combsfor honey extraction, and the firstpractical smoker, a hand-operatedbellows that blew smoke through a tinfirepot. The latter was a very popular

improvement over the previous practiceof using a smoldering stick to subdue thebees during hive inspection or combremoval. Quinbys original book, TheMysteries of Beekeeping Explained,was published in 1853.

Beekeeping ConsiderationsWhile you should feel nothing butencouraged to launch into the pastime ofbeekeeping with gusto, there are somepractical aspects of it that you mustcarefully consider before getting started.These include the amount of time youcan devote to beekeeping; the placementand available space for hives; and yourbudget.

Time

An established hive doesnt actuallydemand daily attentionthough youcould certainly give it that. What youwill need is the time to start your hobbyright, by making critical choices aboutsupplies (see Chapter 1), what yourshort- and long-term goals are relative tothe number of hives you want to have,what you want to do with the honey,whether you want to develop a beeswax-related business, and so on.While you may be excited to get into abeekeeping hobby, how does your familyfeel about it? If theyre ambivalent, theymay soon come around if you helpeducate them about the proper care andkeeping of the beesand if they canparticipate in and savor the honey

harvest. Dont go into it thinking that thiswill magically happen, though. They mayjust as soon become resentful of a newhobby that takes up your leisure time anddoesnt include them. In fact, if theyregenuinely opposed to the idea from thebeginning, reconsider the timing. Youmay have young children who wont beable to conduct themselves properlyaround the beesand who need as muchof your time and attention as you canmuster. Perhaps the demands of yourjob(s) take almost all your waking hours,and your partner is pressing you to spendmore time with him or her already, oryour current lifestyle is alreadyoverbooked. On the other hand, it maybe the best time, but the important thing

is to make beekeeping a consciouschoice.Once youve thought through all theseissues (and others discussed below) andyou have your hives set up, you willneed to check your hives only about oncea week. Thats assuming that all is goingrelatively wellthe weather isseasonally appropriate, there are noparticular disease or pest problems, andso on.

Your Bees AreYour Pets

Just as you areresponsible for thehumane treatment of adog, cat, bird, smallanimal, reptile, fish, orany other kind of livinganimal you want to keepas a companion in yourhome or with yourfamily, so you areresponsible for theproperand humanecare of your bees. Theyare living creatures whodepend on you to keepthem safe from intruders(bears, for example),keep them healthy, and

help maintain the properlife cycle of their hives.

LocationYou can keep bees almost anywhere solong as youre sure that their basic needsare met. You dont even have to have agarden of your own to satisfy your beesthey will travel up to a three-mileradius to find what they need. A hivedoesnt take up much space, either, andthere are many beekeepers living incities. To optimize life for the bees andto be able to enjoy the hobby, you willneed to make sure that:

1. Your hive is fairly accessibleto your home. Commercial

beekeepers haul hives all overthe place, but its a lot ofwork, and the honey can bevery heavy at harvest time.Your hive(s) should besomewhere where itsconvenient for you to check onthem fairly frequently, andwhere you wont have to gotoo far when its time toharvest the honey.

2. Your hive has a source ofwater nearbybut is also in aspot with good drainage! Beesuse water to dilute honeywhen it gets too thick and tocool the hive when it gets toowarm, but they do not like to

be wet. Consider, too, that ifthere isnt a nice pond orstream nearby, the bees willget water from a neighborsgarden hose, pool, livestocktroughs, and so onwhichwill be fine for them, but maynot make your neighbors toohappy. For your bees and yourneighbors, if you dont have awater source nearby, you maywant to use buckets or a smallpool and create and maintainthis source.

3. Your hive is in a place that iswell ventilated, but not in aplace where air gets trappedso that it gets too hot or too

cold, or in a place where thewind blows too strongly orgusts. With this in mind, thetops of hills or their valleysare not good locations forbeehives.

4. Your hive is in a place withpartial sun. Ideally, it shouldreceive dappled sunlight sothat there isnt direct sunbeating down on it to overheatit or too little sun, whichmight keep it too cool. Ashady spot can keep the hivetoo damp and the bees willnot want to busy themselves.

5. Your hive is facing southeast.

This way the bees are wakingup with the sun and getting towork.

WHERE ARE theFLOWERS?

Bees feed on nectar and pollen, andflowers are their source. If you want toknow what plants are contributing to themakeup of your bees honey, take note ofthe flowering plants within five miles ofyou. These will of course vary byregion, but prevalent sources acrossNorth America include clover, aster,

fruit trees, berry bushes, goldenrod,dandelion, ragweed, mustard, cotton,and so on.

Spray Warning

If you live nearcommercial farms forfruit or cotton crops,consider what pesticidesthey may be using onthem. Talk to the farmersthere about their spraystoxicity to bees;doublecheck themanufacturers websites

if possible. The last thingyou want to do is investin a hive only to learnthat the farmer a fewmiles down the roadsprays something that cankill bees. In Chapter 4,theres a discussion ofdiseases affecting beeswhere you can learnmore about this issue.

Now you know some interesting thingsabout honey bees and about beekeepingand theres always more to learn!Finding a beekeeping club in your areawill keep you up to date on advances in

the hobby and connect you to a like-minded groupnot to mention be a greatsupport system for you. To close thischapter, heres another passage fromauthor John Burroughss essay, Birdsand Bees, in which he shares hisobservations of bee behavior:

Among the humbler plants, let menot forget the dandelion that soearly dots the sunny slopes, andupon which the bee languidlygrazes, wallowing to his knees inthe golden but not over-succulentpasturage. From the bloomingrye and wheat the bee gatherspollen, also from the obscureblossoms of Indian corn. Among

weeds, catnip is the greatfavorite. It lasts nearly the wholeseason and yields richly. It couldno doubt be profitably cultivatedin some localities, and catniphoney would be a novelty in themarket. It would probablypartake of the aromaticproperties of the plant fromwhich it was derived.

Chapter 1

SuppliesYoull Need

To Keep Bees

Like with any hobby or specialtyinterest, when it comes to supplies, youcan really go crazy and load up on allkinds of things. There is certainly roomfor that in the beekeeping hobbyespecially if you want to package yourhoney in a particular way, or start

making candles, or set up multiple hives,or (on the down side) need to deal witha particular disease, which will involvemedications. There are many companiesthat sell beekeeping supplies of allkinds, and you should explore them notonly for their range of products andservices, but to give you ideas about thekinds of things that are involved inbeekeeping. (The names and contactinformation for several catalogcompanies are listed in the Resourcessection.)

In this chapter, well stick to thebasics: what is essential for getting yourbeekeeping hobby up and running. Thisincludes:

Hives and Their Components

Beekeeper Attire Hive Tools Bees

The ALL-IMPORTANTHIVE

As you work with the boxes that makeup a beehive, be thankful to L. L.Langstroth for inventing them. It wasnttoo long ago (1872) that the bee-lovingPhiladelphian developed and patentedthis systemand its been used eversince. Langstroth freed beekeepers fromhaving to use traditional bee skeps

dome-shaped apparatuses made fromthickly braided grass or straw loopedtogether in a dome shape. Gardeners inthe eighteenth and nineteenth centuriesoften included bee skeps in their gardensto ensure that bees were there topollinate their flowers and produce.Bee skeps had only one small entrywayfor the bees, and the only waybeekeepers could know what was goingon inside the hive was to wait untilharvest time. At that point, they wouldencourage the bees to move to a newbeeskep while they dismantled theabandoned one to collect the honey,honeycomb, and wax. This was a messyand wasteful process.

The beauty of the boxed hive system isthat it allows beekeepers to monitor thehives. Boxed hives are made up ofmultiple pieces, each with its ownfunction. The parts of the beehive cometogether to form a space that is efficientfor the bees, and for the beekeeper.There are parts that shouldnt be moved,and parts that can and should be moved.The hive is built from the bottom up,and, when assembled, functions like aluxury apartment buildingallowingsafe and easy access and everything anoccupant wants and needs (but is easyfor the superintendent to maintain). Takea look:

A typical hive setupincludes, from top tobottom, (1) outer cover,(2) inner cover, (3)shallow super, (4)medium super, (5) queenexcluder, (6) hive body(also called a broodchamber), (7) bottomboard, and (8) hive stand.

OUTER COVER /TELESCOPING TOP

The outer cover is a wooden orpolystyrene cover that fits on top of thehive. Another option to cover the hive isa telescoping top, which is covered with

heavy-duty aluminum, galvanized steel,or plastic to keep rain and snow out ofthe hive.

A telescoping top isdesigned to keep the hivesafe and dry. This one

shows a reinforced rim,thick plywood, and asecurely attachedaluminum top.

Another option for safelytopping a hive is this

decorative top fromBrushy Mountain BeeFarm. It is designed togive a more finished lookto a hive, and is coatedwith copper, which takeson a beautiful patina overtime.

INNER COVER The purpose of the inner cover is toprovide insulation from heat and cold bycovering the super and limiting airmovement. There is typically an openingin the inner cover through which you canfeed the bees.

A basic inner coverinsulates the hive.

SUPERS Similar to a hive body but not as deep,

the super is where the excess honey thatyou will be harvesting is made andstored. Honey produced in the hive bodyneeds to be left there for the bees to feedon and live on through the winter. Honeymade in the super is yours. For a large,productive hive, a beekeeper may wantto add an additional super. These can bestacked. When full, they typically weighabout forty pounds, whereas the hivebody can weigh up to eighty or morepounds. The supers are filled withremovable frames, as wellanywherefrom five or ten per super, depending onthe size.

Supers are used to storehoney.

QUEEN EXCLUDER This is a frame that supports a metal orplastic perforated surface. The holes in

the surface are large enough for workerbees to pass through, but not for thequeen. The excluder thus prevents thequeen from traveling too far up in thehive, limiting her to laying eggs in thehive body. If the queen is able to get intothe upper boxes (the supers), theworker bees would follow with pollen,which can taint the honey.

A queen excluder,available in plastic ormetal, prevents queensfrom traveling too far upin the hive.

HIVE BODY / BROOD

CHAMBER The first hive body box should be a deepone. It typically contains ten removableframes. This box is also called the broodchamber, as it is where the bees live andwhere the queen lays eggs.

BOTTOM BOARD This is a board that serves as the bottomfloor of the beehive.

HIVE STAND The entire hive sits on a hive stand. Thisprovides a firm base for the hive andelevates it off the ground, making iteasier for the bees to get in and out. It is

made up of three rails and a landingboard, which is the first thing the beestravel across when they return fromforaging.

The hive stand supportsthe entire hive.

Variations of the Basic Hive

There are different-sized supers. Itsadvisable to start with a large- ormedium-sized one and add a small one ifnecessary. Some beekeepers like to usean escape board, a frame that houses atriangular configuration containing awire screen. When it comes time toharvest honey, the escape board isplaced between the super and the hivebody. When the bees are in the hivebody, they cant get back into the superwith the board in place. This preventsthe bees from becoming upset when youremove the honey-laden super.

An escape board isplaced between the superand hive body duringharvesting.

You may want to consider a hive topfeeder, too. When there is little or no

nectar to forageespecially in thewinterthe bees still have to eat. Youcan feed them through the inner cover,but a hive top feeder makes this jobeasier. It goes on top of the hive bodyand under the telescoping top. Itsreservoir can hold a gallon or two ofsugar syrup.

Materials andProtection

While there areadvantages to plasticcomponents, mostbeekeepers prefer to

have wooden hivesandthe wood used istypically cypress, as it ishighly resistant to rot. Ifyou choose to go withwood, you must paint allthe outer surfaces (do nottreat any of the interiorsurfaces of the hive).Choose a light-coloredpaint made for outdoorsurfaces.

Another handy component is an entranceguard or reducer. This is a notchedwooden cleat that limits bee access tothe hive. It is used to help prevent

swarming; it further insulates in colderweather; and it can keep mice out.

An entrance guard willinsulate the hive in coldweather and keep miceout.

Speaking of mice, another pest thatafflicts honey beeswith even greaterdamageis the varroa mite. There willbe a more in-depth discussion of this in

Chapter 4, but as part of your hive, youcan install a varroa screen. Varroa miteswill typically fall off bees as a matter ofcourse, but they will also climb backinto the hive and reattach themselves.With a varroa screen in place, the mitesthat fall off the bees fall through thescreen and are unable to get backthrough it and into the hive or onto thebees. For beekeepers looking to limit theamount of pesticides they use, a varroascreen has been shown to significantlyreduce mite populations withoutpesticides. It is used in place of a bottomboard.

OUTFITTING YOURSELF

Honey bees are fairly docile creaturesand only sting when they feel threatenedor upset. Of course, disturbing the hiveis something that will upset them.Though some beekeepers pridethemselves on knowing their bees sowell they can work on their hives withlittle protective outerwear, this iscertainly not recommended for abeginner beekeeper. These three itemsshould be part of your protective gearwhenever you visit your hives:

VEIL The purpose of the veil is to protect yourhead and neck, though some models

extend down to the waist. Veils fit overa helmet and include ties that help yousecure them around your arms and chestso they stay in place while you work.

HELMET Helmets protect the top of your head.Beekeeper helmets are typicallyventilated, as much of the hive work isdone in warm summer months.

GLOVES It makes sense to cover your hands sincethey are what you will use to work onthe hives. There are several varieties ofgloves made of different kinds ofmaterials. Ask fellow beekeepers what

they prefer; you will probably need toexperiment to see which you like best.You may find that the gloves areawkward and clumsy and are more of ahindrance than a help. You may want toreserve the thicker gloves for timeswhen the work is more labor intensiveor the bees are more disturbed, such asharvest time or late in the season. Formore routine care, though, you may wantto use lighter-weight gardening gloves orsimply leave the gloves off.

Color Matters

Bees dont like dark

colors, so go white orlight when outfittingyourself to work aroundyour hives. Most bee-specific protective gearis white, whichsimplifies things.

Beyond these essentials, there are somebasic rules youll want to follow tofurther protect yourself. First, wearclothing that covers as much of you aspossible. Long pants, long-sleeved shirt,leather or rubber-coated boots. If youwear everyday clothes, secure the endsof your sleeves and bottoms of your pantlegs with Velcro straps or elastic that

will prevent the bees from accessingyour skin. Beekeeping catalogs offereverything from accessories to full-bodycoverage, and you can choose what youwould be most comfortable wearing.

SPECIALTY TOOLS

HIVE TOOL This absolutely essential tool is a metalinstrument that has a flat side on one endand is bent on the other end. It also has ahole that can be used for pulling outnails or other hardware. It is used toscrape, extract, and manipulatejust

about everything. Dont visit your hiveswithout one.

Every beekeeper needs ahive tool, which is used todo everything fromseparate supers, pullnails, and manipulate

hive parts.

FRAME GRIP A frame grip is a handy thing, too. Itworks like a giant ice pick to help youget a good grip on a frame when youreready to remove it for inspection orcollection. There are also frame holdersyou can attach to the hive body or superto make manipulating the frames easier.

Another tool to makehandling the frames in ahive much easier is aframe grip like this one.

SMOKER

Another must-have is a smoker. Even thehuman portrayed in a cave paintingdating to 6000 B C was using smoke tocalm the bees so he could work aroundthem. Todays smokers are designed sothat the fire chamber is fueled by asimple bellows that releases a cloud ofcool smoke. Learn how to work onefrom an experienced beekeeper beforeventuring to the hive with one byyourself, and remember that a littlesmoke goes a long way.

When it comes time toinspect your hives, youllneed a smoker, whichsafely contains a firechamber attached to a

bellows that allows forthe careful application ofsmoke.

BEE BRUSH When you remove a frame from the hive,there will inevitably be bees on it. Thegentlest way to remove them is with aspecially made bee brush. It has super-soft bristles that wont hurt the bees. Ourancestors used goose feathers for this.

The Best for LastBees!

Yes, your bees! You will need to

establish a colony in your hive, and thatstarts with a queen and her brood. Youcan order a bee package to get started,which is a queen and about fourthousand worker bees per pound. Athree- or four-pound package will get asingle hive off to a good start. The otherway to get a colony is to order a nuc,or nucleus, which is essentially acomplete hive bodyframes and all.These are harder to find, as fewbeekeepers want to part with such anestablished hive. Besides, it is notdifficult to get started with a package,and its fun to watch your colonydevelop and grow.

Common honey bees in the Western

world are strains of the Apis millifera,which evolved from the European orAsian bee, Apics cerana. The milliferastrains can interbreed, though themillifera and cerana strains cannot.Which strain you start off with should bedetermined by the weather extremes inyour area (hot and sunny summers orlong, cold winters, for example).Todays strains have all been bred to beresistant to certain diseases and to befairly docile while also beingproductive. Some are more suited tocolder climates and some to warmerclimates.

Listed by overall popularity, the fourmost widely available strains are:

ITALIANS (Apis mellifera ligustica)

Since being imported into the U.S. in thelate 1800s from the Apennine Peninsulaof Italy, these bees have truly taken offwith beekeepers. Why? Because they aregentle and highly productive. They arefairly disease resistant, and they cansurvive a cold winter. Their largecolonies demand a lot of food in thewinter, though. They are yellowishbrown with dark bands across theirabdomens.

CARNOLIANS (Apis mellifera carnica)

Originating in the mountains of Austriaand the former Yugoslavia, Carnoliansare as gentle as Italians but not quite asproductive. On the plus side, the colonysize in winter is naturally reduced and istherefore less labor intensive to feed andkeep alive. They are equally diseaseresistant. Carnolians are darker coloredthan Italians and have gray rather thanblack bands across their abdomens.

CAUCASIANS (Apis mellifera caucasica)

Appreciated for their cold-hardiness, theCaucasian bees, while gentle, are not asproductive as Italians. They are mostprized for their ability to overwinter

with minimal upkeep, hailing as they dofrom the rugged Caucasus Mountainsnear the Black Sea. Caucasians also tendto be robbers (marauding bees that stealhoney from other hives).

RUSSIANS (A strain of Apis mellifera)

When varroa mites became a real plagueto bee colonies across the United States,the search began for a strain that wasresistant to this nasty pest. It wasdiscovered that honey bees from the fareastern coast of Russia, nearVladivostok, had been exposed to themites for more than 150 years. A team ofresearchers from the USDA Honeybee

Research Laboratory in Baton Rouge,Louisiana, identified the strain,conducted breeding experiments, andfound that, indeed, it was more resistantto the mite. The strain was importedwith much anticipation only recently,and is becoming increasingly popular.Not only is it verroa resistant, but theRussian bee fares well in cold climates.

Bee HierarchyWithin Apis mellifera, there are threedistinct castes of bees. They aredifferent in appearance, but moreimportantly, in function. The three castesare queen, drone, and worker bees.When you order bees, all three castesare included.

THE QUEEN Without a queen there is no hive. She isthe heart of the colony, producing theeggs that will hatch new bees, and

regulating the colony through scent andbehavior. The other bees all take theircues from the queen, and exist to serveher and the hive. Whenever you checkyour hives, the first thing youll want toensure is that your queen is there andlooking healthy. When you order bees,the queen is usually marked for easieridentification.

THE DRONE Drone bees are the least populous of themembers of the hive, so you wont (orshouldnt) see too many of them. Smallerthan the queen but larger than the workerbees, the drones serve one function onlyto mate with the queen. Once that job

is complete, the drone dies. Drones havevery large eyes and, interestingly, nostinger. As winter approaches, dronesare forced from the hive by the workerbees and left to die in the cold.

THE WORKER Worker bees are female, but they do nothave the fully developed ovaries of aqueen and therefore cannot reproduce inthe hive. They perform many tasks togrow and protect the hive, not the leastof which is foraging and bringing backpollen and nectar. Worker bees havefairly short life spanssix weeks duringthe most active time of yearand theirresponsibilities vary during that time

from feeding young larvae to supplyingwater, building comb, warming andprotecting eggs, and other functions ofthe hive.

How a QueenComes to Be(e)

The worker beesdetermine which larva ofall that are laid andproduced will becomethe next queen of thehive. Once thedetermination is made,that larva is fed royal

jelly. This substance is apotent mix of digestedpollen, honey, and nectaralong with a specialchemical secreted from agland on the head of eachbee. Once she hatches,she takes flight and thedrones must fly after andmate with her.

With an understanding of the suppliesyoull need, the next thing to do isresearch supply companies to see whichones youll want to use. A listing of themajor suppliers is in the Resourcessection, though you should also ask the

members of your local beekeeping clubfor suggestionsor just surf online tosee whats available. Have fun!

Chapter 2

Developing& Sustaining

A HealthyHive, By Season

So far youve learned a bit about beesand youve explored the supplies youllneed to keep them. This chapter willexplain how to set up your hives andcare for your bees throughout the year.

Keeping bees is a bit like growing agardenyou need to get started and setup when its appropriate. Just as youshouldnt plant corn in midsummer andexpect a healthy crop, so you shouldnttry to get a hive started midseason. Toget the most enjoyment from your hobby,follow the dictates of climate and theseasons in your area.

EARLY in the YEAR

Getting into beekeeping is an excellentNew Years resolution, as January is thetime you need to start planning. Almostregardless of where you live in the

United States, this time of year is whenbees are less active if not inactive.Things will get buzzing from south tonorth as the days and weeks go by, thedays get longer, and the temperaturessteadily increase. Local beekeepingclubs suggest the following activities forlate winter and early spring:

January/February

Research local beekeeping clubsin your area and contact themabout upcoming events andmembership. One or more ofthem should offer an introductorybeekeeping class. This is a greatplace to not only learn moreabout beekeeping, but also to

meet others just like you who aregetting started. They can becomeyour friends and allies as youlearn the ropes. Its also a placewhere youll meet at least a fewof the beekeeping clubs officersor dedicated members, who willbe happy to guide you inwhatever ways you need.

You should be deciding andordering whatever kind ofequipment youll want and need.Read as much as you can aboutbeekeeping to inspire andeducate yourself before the beesarrive. Work with the

beekeeping club to find andsecure the best source for yournew colony. Often the clubsbring in starter packs orsometimes know of memberswho are looking to sell nucs(preexisting nucleuses, which aretypically already in a hive box).

March/April

Determine where youre going tolocate your hive(s) on yourproperty, taking intoconsideration all the thingsdiscussed in Chapter 1.Assemble the hive, and if you arestarting with wood, be sure to

paint the outside surfaces and thehive stand. Plan to install thebees into the hive around thetime that dandelions areblooming in your area.

The Bees ArrivalIf you order bees through the mail, youshould alert your local post office as totheir arrival date. Chances are the staffhave received packages of bees before,but it only helps to alert them and letthem know that you will be coming tocollect them as soon as they arrive. Askthem, too, to put the box in a cool, darkplace until you get there.

Regardless of how long your bees havebeen traveling, theyll be tired andrestless when they arrive. You will hearthem buzzing inside the package. Youllbe curious to check them out, and youlllikely want to acclimate them to theoutdoors as soon as possible. Slow andsteady is your best course of action,though. There are some things the beesneed before you work with them.

When you leave the post office, try to gethome as soon as possiblenow is notthe time to stop for breakfast with afriend! Get the bees home and put thepackage where it is cool and dark inyour homea barn, the basement, or thegarage. Take off the outside packaging

so the bee cage is exposed. It consists ofa queen cage on the top and a screenedarea where the worker bees are. Use aspritzer bottle to gently spray cold wateron all the bees. Dont soak them, butspray to cool them and provide themwith a drink. Remember, bees are lessactive when theyre cool.

Let the package sit for about an hour tosettle the bees. Put a large sheet ofplastic under the box, as the next thingyou want to spray it with is sugar syrup.This will feed the bees and further relaxthem. Dont brush the syrup over theircage as you dont want to risk injuringany parts of the bees.

Rehoming Your BeesSeasoned beekeepers agree that the besttime to transfer a package of bees to anew hive is in the late afternoon or earlyevening. This is the time theyd naturallybe seeking to return to the hive and settlein for the night, so it makes sense. If itsan especially hot or windy day, you maywant to wait a day. The best conditionsare a somewhat cool and still day.

Prepare your hive by removing a few ofthe frames in the hive box and havingeverything else ready. Prepare yourselfby putting on a long-sleeved shirt, longpants, and veil to cover your face andneck. If you want to cover your hands,

use garden gloves so you have somecovering but also plenty of dexterity.Fumbling with the bees at this point willonly aggravate them.

Take the package of bees to the newhive. Remove the wooden cover andposition the queen between two framesin the hive box. Lightly spray the beeswith sugar syrup again, then shake andlightly tap the package so the bees settleto the bottom.

Standing beside the hive box, open thepackage, tilt it up and over the hive box,and gently shake out the bees. Theyshould move toward the queen and into

and on the hive box. Let them settle in abit, then gently replace the frames intothe box. Secure the inner cover over thehive box, and slide in the entrancereducer so the opening is minimized. Putthe protective outer cover on the hive tokeep it dry.

Once youve done all this, your next jobis to let it bee. Give your girls about aweek to acclimate. Depending on theweather, they will be eager to get towork. This is a great opportunity toobserve them as they settle in. Keeping adistance of at least three or four feetfrom the hive, watch them go in and out.You may see pollen on some of theworkers, and you may even be able to

spot a larger drone bee among thecolony. Look at, listen to, and even smellwhats happening with the bees. Itsfascinating!

For the first six weeks or so, continue tofeed your bees. Using the feeder tray orsome other specialized hive top feeder,continue to provide sugar syrup for thebees. They will not stop foragingbecause you are providing a foodsource; rather, the sugar syrup willensure that they stay healthy andproductive while they are acclimatingand foraging.

A Basic Recipe forSugar Syrup

INGREDIENTS10 cups cold water

5 pounds whitegranulated sugar

In a large pot, bring thecold water to a rollingboil. Turn off the stoveand stir in the sugar. Itsa good idea to removethe pot from the stove toprevent any sugar from

burning or caramelizing.All you want is for thesugar to dissolvecompletely. When it isdissolved in the hotwater, allow the entirepot to cool to roomtemperature. Feed thesugar syrup to the hivethrough the hive topfeeder or other systemyouve installed. Bediligent in cleaning upboth in your kitchen andaround the hive aftermaking, transporting, andserving the sugar syrup.It is appealing to many

other creatures besidesthe bees! Dont clean upwith chemicals. Bringeverything back into thehouse and use soap andhot water to cleaneverything thoroughly.

This easy-to-use feedingsystem is a great way toprovide sugar syrup orwater to the hive. Itattaches near theentrance. All you need isa quart-sized glass jar.

SPRINGCONSIDERATIONS

May/June

As things start to bloom allaround you, the bees will reallyget into high gear. If youre amorning person, you can seethem leaving the hive andheading out into the world, thenreturning later in the day, oftenwith multicolored pollen.

As their work progresses, youll

want to begin checking the hiveson about a weekly basis. Youcould add a super on top of thehive box for honey production.You should ask fellowbeekeepers what theyre doingabout potential pest problems atthis time of year, too. Again,depending on how everythinggoes, you may even be able toharvest some honey by July, soget ready!

Inspecting the HivesAnd now, the moment of truthyourfirst look inside the hives. Exciting,

scary, confusingit will be all of thesethings. What it wont be is boring.Consider yourself a beekeeper and savorthe experience. Give yourself theadvantage of checking the hives on asunny, warm day. Check on them at atime when you think the bees will beactively working. When theyre busy,theyre less inclined to pay attention toyou.

When youre dressedbut before youput on your helmet, veil, and glovesget your smoker ready. Think of it as aminiature charcoal grill. Youll want toget a fire going in the bottom with somenewspaper and kindling, and once thatsgoing, add larger kindling or make it

easy on yourself by using smoker fuelthats available through beekeepingsupply companies. Theyre typicallycompacted cartridges of cotton fibers orwood nuggets. Theyre safe to use sincetheyre natural, and not synthetic, whichcould harm the bees.

Pump the bellows a few times whileyour smoking material is going, to keepthe flames stoked. Put on your protectivegear, and walk calmly over to your hive.Gently blow smoke in the entrance andnear the hive. Standing to the side of thehive, slowly take off the outer cover,blowing smoke into the hive as you doso. Remove the outer cover, then blowsome more smoke down into the hive.

Working slowly and deliberately withyour hive tool, continue to pry off thelayers of the hive, gently blowing smokeinto the hive as you do so. Finally, youllhave the frames exposed and youll beready to start your inspection.

Stay Calm!

Sounds simple tosomeone who isntstanding over a colony ofbuzzing bees.Beekeepers throughouttime have noted that the

calmer and more focusedyou are while tending toyour bees, the lessdisturbed the beesbecome. A steady andattentive demeanorpaired with light-coloredclothing and the properprotective gear will keepyou safe as you workaround your hive.

The frames will be sealed together withpropolis, a sticky substance, and youllhave to pry them apart. Start with thesecond one in from the side youreworking from. Lift the frame with both

hands and slowly bring it up and out ofthe hive. Your checklist for inspectionis:

1. Is the queen there? Is shealive? Is she healthy?As the colony grows, finding thequeen can become difficult.Youll know everythings okay,though, if you see eggs in thecomb. These are fairly easy toidentify if you hold the frame upso that light shines through thecomb. The eggs look like littlegrains of rice in the pockets ofthe comb. If there are eggs, thereis a queen.

2. Are there larvae?When eggs hatch they becomelarvae on their way to hatchingyoung bees. The larvae look likesmall white blobs curled up inthe bottoms of the comb cells.These are tended to by workerbees designated as nurses whosteadily feed the larvae honeyand pollen. If you find eggs andlarvae, youll know your queenis doing her thing. If you dontsee eggs or larvae, or if the eggsarent hatching into larvae, thereis probably a problem with yourqueen.

3. Does the comb appearhealthy?The overall health of the comb isindicated by the number of eggs,the compactness of the broodchambers, the color of the waxcap, and a generally healthyappearance. If the comb iscoming together in a tightlypacked way with a nice patternof eggs, larvae, and cappedbrood cells, youll know yourhive is functioning to form.

Recognizing the

Queen

Of the incomparablethrill of watching thequeen bee interminglewith the workers anddrones, the author JohnBurroughs wrote in Birdsand Bees:

The queen, I say,is the mother bee;it is undoubtedlycomplimentingher to call her aqueen and investher with regalauthority, yet she

is a superbcreature, andlooks every incha queen. It is anevent todistinguish heramid the mass ofbees when theswarm alights; itawakens a thrill.

Before you haveseen a queen youwonder if this orthat bee, whichseems a littlelarger than itsfellows, is not

she, but when youreally set eyesupon her you donot doubt for amoment. Youknow that is thequeen. That long,elegant, shining,femininelookingcreature can benone less thanroyalty. Howbeautifully herbody tapers, howdistinguished shelooks, howdeliberate hermovements! The

bees do not falldown before her,but caress herand touch herperson.

April Showers, May Flowers,Bee-ware!

If youre new to beekeeping, you mightbe wondering what is especiallyattractive to your new charges. Learningabout the plants they frequent willinform you of the flavors you might findin the honey when you harvest it. Here isa partial list of springtime bloomers that

honey bees are attracted to in thenortheastern United States:

Apple treesCherry trees

Black locust treesBuckeye

Chestnut treesChives

DandelionHawthorne

HeatherHoneysuckle

MaplePearPhlox

Purple deadnettle

Willow

Beware a ColdSnap

Depending on where youlive, it is very possiblethat the temperature maybe close to 80F one dayin May and then dropbelow 50F the next. Ifthat cool, cloudy day isthe one you havescheduled to examineyour hives, find out whatthe forecast is for later inthe week and hold offuntil the temperature

climbs again and the sunis out. Removing frameson a chilly day exposesthe brood to the coldtemperatures and canpotentially kill them. Itwill also reduce thetemperature of the hive,which imperils thedeveloping larvae.

Hive AliveIts impossible not to hear the beesworking all around you when you go tothe hive. Getting a sense for how thebees sound can key you in to how theyredoing, too. You will be able to tell

whether their humming and buzzing is thenormal sound of bees simply workinghard, or whether its a sound thatsindicative of something amiss. JohnVivian, author of Keeping Bees,describes the bees sound this way:

You will quickly learn to gauge acolonys mood by its hum. Acontented colony makes a soundthat varies in intensity, butremains in a low-frequencyrange that is pleasant andsoothing to human ears, a happysound appropriate to a warmspring day with fruit trees inbloom. After the opening hum, anunsmoked and happy colony will

sound content, and bees that flyup to inspect you will buzzaround slowly, acting curiousrather than hostile so long asyour movements are deliberate.

In advising new hobbyists on how toassess the temper of the bees, he adds,

If several bees come out flyingstraight and fast to check you,stand still until they depart.Smoke them if they land on you.Alarm a single bee and it cansignal the colony that dangersafoot.

Vivian has excellent advice about how

the bees sound can alert you to veryreal danger, too. He writes,

A hostile colony will warn youin unmistakable terms. The humbecomes loud, shrill and strident,a highpitchedbeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee sound. Thevibration rate is unpleasantbordering on fearsome tohumans, high enough to causeinner ear discomfort in manyanimals. It is an adrenaline-generating alarm signal thatstrikes a primordial chord inhumans, the same as arattlesnakes burrrr or a dogsgrrr or an infants high keening

wail. You are best advised toretreat and try again on the nextwarm and sunny day.

Another way to keep beesquiet while youre

working around the hivesis with a speciallydesigned manipulationcloth, which has anopening that fits over asingle frame whilecovering the others.

SUMMERCONSIDERATIONS

July/August

If you think that your first colonywont produce enough honey fora harvest, think again! It mightnot, but you never know, and youshould be thinking about howyoull manage this. Assummertime progresses and youare checking your framesweekly, you will notice thecollection of honey in the combcells in the upper rightand left-

hand corners of the framestoward the center of the hivebox. Your busy bees should beextending the comb to six ormore of the frames. If things arelooking good and the egg andlarvae production seems steadyand healthy, you should addanother hive body box and then asuper. Be sure to put the queenexcluder between the hive boxand the super so that the upperbox is only for honey production.Remember, too, that the beesneed honey to live on over thewinter, so even though youreseeing promising honeyproduction, dont take too much.

While youre inspecting frames at thistime of year, youll need to startmonitoring the types of cells that arebeing nurtured by the nurse bees. Beesare instinctually self-regulating, and ifthey sense crowding in the colony, theywill nurture new queens so that thecolony can split. When a colonysnumbers swell and a new queen ishatched, the colony will swarm, with alarge number of them flying off to bewith the new queen.

How Does HoneyHappen?

Honey is the liquid thatis sealed inside thehoneycomb. It isproduced from the nectarthat bees collect as theyforage. When the nectaris brought to the hive, itis about threequarterswater. The bees work toevaporate most of thewater, and as they do so,enzymes transform thenectar into honey.

This is rare in first-year beekeeping, butit can happen. Rather than fall victim toa swarm departure, you want to provide

your colony with room to grow, which iswhy you need to monitor the hive foractivity. As you observe the cellscontaining the larvae, you will see thatthe majority of them are horizontallyoriented. The smaller ones house theworker bees, the larger (far fewer) oneshouse the drones. These cells arevertically oriented and larger than therest. These are queen cells, also calledsupersedure cells. If theyre located onthe top part of the frame, its anindication that the queen is notperforming to peak capacity, so thecolony is preparing to replace her. If thesupersedure cells are forming on thebottom of the frame, the colony ispreparing to swarm.

A Summer SwarmSwarming is a natural instinct of bees,and beekeepers need to recognize whenits time to do something to preventswarming. The first thing you want to dois alleviate the overcrowding, and thistypically means dividing your hive.Working midday on a warm, sunny dayso that most of the worker bees will beoff foraging, youll need to removeseveral frames with comb and a queenand transfer them to a new hive box.Make sure theres a queen in the originalhive box, or install a new or youngerqueen. If you need a new queen, itsbetter to introduce one yourself so thatthe transition is smoother for the colony.

John Burroughs has an insightfulreflection on swarming in his essayBirds and Bees: Apparently, everyswarm of bees before it leaves theparent hive sends out exploring partiesto look up the future home. The woodsand groves are searched through andthrough, and no doubt the privacy ofmany a squirrel and many a wood mouseis intruded upon. What cozy nooks andretreats they do spy out, so much moreattractive than the painted hive in thegarden, so much cooler in summer andso much warmer in winter!

Swarming is most likely to happen

through midsummer, so that is when youwill need to be diligent about watchingfor it. Your weekly inspections of thehives should keep you abreast of thesituation, and if youre unsure aboutwhat youre seeing, consult with anotherlocal beekeeper.

To retrieve a swarm thathas settled in thebranches of a tree, youcan use this contraptiondesigned by beekeeperJames Hipps. Its a five-gallon bucket securelyattached to a ten-footconduit with a connectorthat allows you to closethe bucket when the beeshave been shaken into it.

Howland Blackiston, author ofBeekeeping for Dummies, has a handy7/10 Rule:

When 7 of the 10 frames in thelower deep are drawn intocomb, add a second deep-hivebody with frames andfoundation.

When 7 of the 10 frames in theupper deep are drawn intocomb, add a queen excluderand a honey super.

When 7 of the 10 frames in thehoney super are drawn into

comb, add an additional honeysuper.

Other summertime concerns includebeing on the lookout for hive robbers,and harvesting your honey.

Hive RobbersBees are always patrolling theirenvironments, and if natural nectarsources become scarce, they will gohunting for any that might be availableincluding nectar sources in other hives.In the discussion about types of beesearlier in this book, one of thecharacteristics mentioned was atendency to rob. Its an aggressivebehavior that does come naturally to

most bees, so be on the lookout for it.Identifying a Robbery

If your hive is under attack, themarauders will do everything they can toenter and kill off the bees living in it.Meanwhile, the bees that are there willdo everything they can to keep the enemybees at bay. This results in heavy losseson both sides.

Hives that cant protect themselves risklosing everythingthe bees, the honeystores, everything. It is a disaster for thebeekeeper (and the hive, of course).

As you get to know your bees, youll geta feel for their normal behavior and

activity. There will be lots of action atthe hive when nectar is flowing, andyoull see the bees busily entering andexiting the hive. You will be able to tellthe ones that belong there when theyreturn as they will be weighed downwith nectar and pollen. The guards at thehive entrance do a good job of patrollingfor invaders, too.

When robber bees threaten, everythinggoing on around the hive becomesfrenzied. The robber bees themselvesmay not enter the hive directly, but willfly around the sides looking foropportunities to get past the guards.Guards will be frenetically defendingthe hive entrance, or may be engaged in

battle at the entrance or on the ground infront of the entrance. Robber bees willbe leaving the hive with honey stores, sothey will be weighted upon exiting thehive.

HANDLING A ROBBERY The first line of defense against robberbees is to reduce the size of the hivesentrance. This makes it more difficult forthe intruder bees to enter and easier forguards to defend. This can be done byputting grass at the entrance to narrowtraffic flow. More aggressive actionsvary depending on the beekeeper. Hereare some suggestions:

Place a sprinkler on top of thehive. This simulates rainfalland can deter robbers.

Place a sheet thats beenthoroughly soaked in waterand then squeezed dry over theentire hive, making sure thesheet reaches to the ground.This prevents robber beesfrom finding their way in.

Dilute some Liquid BeeSmoker with water in a spraybottle and spray the bees at theentrance. This usually stopseveryone instantly.

PREVENTING A ROBBERY

As with most potentially harmfulsituations, prevention is the best cure.Guard against a situation where otherbees are robbing your hive bymaintaining safe and sanitary beekeepingpractices. These include diligenthandling of any sugar syrup andcollected honey, as any open sourceswill attract beesyours and others.When working around your hives, besure that your supers are covered whenyou remove them, be sure the hole to theinner cover gets closed, and keep thesize of the entrance to a minimum.

FALL CONSIDERATIONS

September/October

Fall is an interesting season forbeekeepers, because it is a busyone for both keeping up withproduction of honey and yetslowing down the activity of thehive as winter approaches. Thereare many late-blooming plantsthat bees feed on well intoSeptember and even earlyOctober, depending on yourlocation. For these months, yourbees may be as busy as ever and

you may even be able to harvestmore honey.

Remember that as much as youenjoy the honeyand possiblywant to sell it to other honeyloversthe bees must haveenough honey in the hive to feedthemselves through the winter. Ifyou live in a colder climate,figure on at least sixty pounds;bees in warmer climates maymake due with thirty pounds forthe winter, but its better to erron the safe side and leave themplenty. This quantity is typicallyfive to ten full frames of honey.

As the days grow shorter and cooler, thebees will begin to settle down for thewinter. When the daytime temperaturesfall below about 57F, the bees willbegin to cluster. It is your job toadequately prepare the hive for them sothey can survive the winter. As youvebeen inspecting the hives through thesummer, you should have been noticingwhether the queen was still activelylaying eggs. If you had any kind ofindication that your colony might swarm,the bees may have been alerting you tothe fact that the queen is not asproductive as she should be. For the lifeof the colony over the winter, it willneed a strong queen to survive and tostart laying again in early spring.

Some beekeepers will requeen thecolony every fall to ensure that there is ayoung and productive queen in it overthe winter. If you have several coloniesand only one or two of them appearweak, you may want to combine thecolonies. Ask an experienced beekeeperfor advice in this area. Before it gets toocoldwhile temperatures are still in thefifties and sixtiesyou should feed thebees a two-toone sugar syrup solution.Start with a small amount and work up,depending on how many bees you have.So for example, into one part boilingwateryou may want to start with twocups of waterstir and dissolve twoparts sugar, which in this case would befour cups of sugar. You can administer

medication in the sugar syrup at this timeof year, too. (See Chapter 4 on diseasesthat affect honey bees.)

Another way to providenourishing sugar syrupfor your bees is with hivetop feeders, which fitunder the inner cover.

HUNKERING DOWN forthe WINTER

November/December

You may want to bundle up yourbeehives for the winter, and thisis a sound instinctin part.While you certainly want toprotect the hive from freezingcold and harsh winds, you alsoneed to provide adequateventilation. Without it, as thewarm air from the cluster risesand reaches the top of the hivewith no place to go, it will

condense and form drops of coldwater that will drop back downinto the hive and chill the bees,with often fatal results.

The inner cover features an oval hole forventilation and through which to feedoccasionally. If you place the innercover so the flat side is down and youexpose the notch in its ledge, this canserve as a means of sufficient ventilationand as an emergency exit, if need be.When you put the outer cover on, though,be sure to push it forward a bit so thehole in the inner cover stays open.

Hopefully when you set them up in thespring, you located your hives in a place

that protected them from the wind. If thenatural protection of that spot iscompromised during the winter, youshould reinforce it by building awindbreak. Place some strong posts inthe ground and put burlap or otherwindbreaking material between them.This will greatly reduce the force of thewind blowing against the hive.

Youll want to keep mice from trying toget into the hive, too. The best way to dothis (and provide additional insulation)is to reduce the entrance as much aspossible and then, for the space thatexists, secure some metal screening thathas a three-eighths- to half-inchsizedmesh over the open spot. This is large

enough for bees to get through, but notmice. Dont think the wood alone willkeep mice out. They will just nibbleaway at the wood until theres a spacelarge enough for them to wiggle throughand thats not a big space.

Beekeepers who live in the northernUnited States or Canada and other coldplaces sometimes wrap their hives inthick tar paper as added protection.Some beekeepers feel that this trapsmoisture, which can be detrimental. Thisis another time when knowing otherlocal beekeepers or belonging to abeekeeping club can come in handy. Askseveral of them what they do. Whileeveryone will have an opinion, you

should be able to reach a consensus andat least decide what will be best for youand your hives.

If you choose to wrap the hive, becareful not to block your source ofventilation. Youll also want to put aheavy rock or two on the top of the hiveso the paper doesnt blow off.

Winter = Waiting andWondering

Once youve fed and prepped your hivesfor the winter, you should leave themalone until spring. You may notice someactivity around the hive. The bees dontactually hibernate, so they are still

active within the hive and will emergeevery once in a while. Some will die,and you may find them near the entrance.Just brush them away and dont worrythey are the older bees who need to dieso the younger ones can live on andcontribute to repopulating the colony inspring. For the most part, the bees arefocused on survivalkeeping the queenfed so she can begin laying eggs again inearly spring, and feeding themselves bymoving around the hive to access storedhoney.

And Then, Spring Again!It may seem like forever between thetime you batten down your hiveshatches in late fall and the first time the

sun shines on a still day in early springand sends temperatures into the fifties.When that day comes, however, it is thefirst sign that the natural world isreawakening in your part of the universe.Hooray!

You can take a quick peek at the hive ona day like the one described abovedont get carried away and risk exposingthe bees to temperatures that are toochilly, or to a cold breeze despite awarm sun. Wait for a day when the air isstill, the sun is out, and it really is atleast 50F outside. In your protectivegearand with your trusty hive tool andsmoker in handyou can go check thestatus of your hive.

Gently pry off the cover and take a lookinside without moving anything. Do yousee the colony? Are there still a lot ofbees there? They should be movingaround as they are assisting the queen inher early egg-laying days. If all lookswell, you can gently remove a framefrom near the center of the box. See ifyou can find the queen, or at least take alook to see if there are eggs being laid. Ifthings look good, put the frame back inthe hive box and call it a day.

Start feeding your bees a few weeksbefore you know things will beblossoming. This will ensure that the

bees are getting the energy they need tobe as productive as possible. It alsoallows for a means of medicating thebees, as the medicine can beincorporated into the sugar syrup (moreon that in Chapter 4). In addition to thesugar syrup, you can supplement with apollen substitute until you see that thebees are bringing in pollen from theirown trips. The pollen substitute furtherstrengthens the hive and stimulates egglaying by the queen.

If your initial inspection yields an emptybox or a lot of dead bees, dont worrytoo much. Chalk it up to experience, calla fellow beekeeper to commiserate, andstart making plans to bring in another

package and restart your hobby. Thishappens to the best of the beekeepers,and you will just need to move on.Prepare for your new package as you didearly last year, by getting the hive ready.This year, that will mean cleaning theold hive thoroughly so there are notraces of the last colony.

BEEKEEPERS YEAR inREVIEW

Dick Johnson is a longtime member ofthe Catskill Mountain Beekeeping Clubin New York State (Catskillbees.org).He also writes a column for theWindham Journal called HoneybeeCorner. In the January 22, 2009,column, he summarized a beekeepersactivities for the year:

JANUARY: Join a local honeybee club.FEBRUARY: Attend a

beginners introductory course,read and learn as much as youcan about beekeeping, and orderyour bee supplies and bees asearly as possible.MARCH: When your suppliesstart coming in, start assemblingyour hives.APRIL: Choose the properlocation and plan for a bearfence if needed. Try to installnew bees around the time thatdandelions are blooming.MAY: Feed new packages,check for good laying queen andparasites. For established hives,watch out for swarms. Watchyour bees bring in multicolored

pollen from hundreds of fruittrees and spring flowers.JUNE: Split hives with extrabrood, order extra queens. Addnew super boxes for honey crop.Sit alongside your hive, watchthe activity at the entry, andinhale the delightful aroma of theripening honey.JULY: Harvest early honey,extract and return supers for laterharvest. Make up splits and nucsfor next season. Observe theincreased yield of vegetables inyour garden as your beespollinate them.AUGUST: Take off late honeyharvest. Plan for fall disease or

parasite management as needed.Do not collect any honey insupers while applying anymedication.SEPTEMBER: Heavy nectarflow from goldenrod and astersmay be harvested if nomedication is used or else leaveon hive for winter colonysupplies. Be sure to leaveenough honey on each hive forthem to eat and keep warm allwinter.OCTOBER: Install entry mousescreens at first frost. Begin plansfor winter hive protection. Windprotection and ventilation areneeded.

NOVEMBER: Put the hivesaway for the winter and wait fornext spring. Enjoy your firsthoney harvest and give away orsell your surplus. Continue toattend bee club meetings andshare your stores and new funwith bees.

Theres no listing for Decembergottalove a hobby that gives you a month off!

Chapter 3

UnderstandingThe Life Cycle& Behavior of

Honey Bees

Weve already learned that there arethree types of bees: workers, queens,and drones. The queen is responsible forlaying the eggs that will develop intoworkers and dronesand into new

queensthough it is the workers whoidentify which eggs they want to feed aspecial diet so that they become the nextgeneration of queens. All bees followthe life-cycle stages of egg, pupa, larva,and adult, just like butterflies. Each,however, takes a different amount oftime to go through those phases.

LIFE CYCLE

Queen bees spend all their time goingfrom cell to cell and laying eggs in them.A productive queen can lay twothousand or more eggs a day and sustaina colony of tens of thousands of bees.The cells she chooses have beenprepared for the eggs by industriousworker bees who clean them so that theyare sterile and spotless. If the cell isntsatisfactory, the queen will move on toanother one.

Worker bees also regulate the

proportion of workers to drones whenthey build and clean the cells. Largercells are for drones and there are farfewer of them. When the queen depositsan egg in a worker cell, it becomes aninfertile female worker. The wider cellsare reserved for drones, which start outas unfertilized eggs but develop intofertile males. Beekeepers can instantlytell whether their hives are healthy byidentifying eggs, pupae, and larvae incells. The eggs can be hard to spot atfirst, as they are teeny-tiny, and thequeen lays them in an upright position sothat each sits at the bottom of a cell.

After three days, regardless of whichtype of bee they will become, all eggs

evolve into larvae. Still tiny, these looklike puffy grains of rice. As they grow(quite rapidly) they shed their skins fivetimes. The worker bees feed the larvaeas they grow, and after just five days forworkers and queens, and seven days fordrones, their cells are capped withbeeswax. The developing larvae thenspin a cocoon around their bodies, andenter the pupa stage of life. The pupaedevelop all of the features of a full-grown bee as they grow. The pupae havedifferent growth rates depending onwhich type of bee they will emerge as.The drones take the longest to developfullyabout twenty-four days from theday they are laid as eggs. Worker beesemerge from their cells after twenty-one

days. When queen cells are allowed tofully develop, they emerge from theircells in just sixteen days from the timetheyre laid as eggs. Queens are fed aspecial diet by the workers so that theyemerge fertile and ready to mate with adrone. If the queen is laying eggs, andthose eggs are hatching, then the hive isalive and well.

The bees chew their way out of theircells and then go through someadditional phases of development. Theplentiful worker bees spend their firstfew days cleaning the area where theeggs are laid. They then go on to feedolder larvae with a mixture of honey andpollen. When the worker bees are about

seven days old, their pharyngeal glandsdevelop so they can produce royal jelly.They continue to nurture developing eggswith honey, pollen, and royal jelly if theegg is slated to be a queen.

When they are about a week old, workerbees begin taking short flights from thehive. When they are nearly two weeksold, the wax glands on their undersidesdevelop and enable them to startbuilding cell walls and combs. Workerbees do everything: They nurse theyoung, they fan the hive for ventilation,they process the pollen and nectar thatare brought into the hive, they guard thehive against intruders, and they serve thequeen bee. At approximately three

weeks of age, they begin activelyforaging. In another three weeks, whenthey are about six weeks old, their livesare spent and they die. When they expire,other bees remove them from the hive,taking the corpses some distance away.

The bees that emerge as fertile droneshave just one job: to fertilize a youngqueen. The drones dont have stingers,so they cant defend the hive. They arefed by worker bees until they go out onflights looking for queens. They liveabout eight weeks, but drones thatemerge in late summer may not even livethat long, as they are excluded from thecluster of the hive during the winter.When the temperatures drop and the

colony moves in on itself to cluster forthe winter, young worker bees willactively chase drones out of the hive,sending them to their frosty deaths.

Queen bees who survive long enough toemerge from their cells have an instantfollowing of worker bees, who tend totheir every function as they establish anew colony. The success of an entirehive depends on the genetic makeup ofits queen bee, as her genes will be inevery egg that is laid in the hive. Duringa particular year, the bees that are bornto the hive may have the genetic makeupof any number of male bees along withthat of the queen bee, as her mating flightenables her to collect six to twelve

million sperm to use throughout her life.To mate, a virgin queen leaves the hiveon six or seven consecutive days andflies to a particular area that is shared byseveral colonies. The drones go there,too, and mating occurs in midflight.

ON the BEHAVIOR ofBEES

There are excellent books, essays,poems, and other writings about bees.(You can find their titles in theBeekeeping Resources section of thisbook.) There are even wonderful moviesabout them. In the earlier chapters, thewriter John Burroughs is quoted inseveral places. He lived near theCatskill Mountains in New York, andwrote extensively about the naturalworld as he observed it. Fortunately forus, one of his favorite subjects was the

honey bee. If youre looking for anunderstanding of the nature of Apismellifera, this passage from ThePastoral Bee, from Birds and Bees,written in the late 1800s, is trulyinspirational:

The honey bee goes forth fromthe hive in spring like the dovefrom Noahs ark, and it is not tillafter many days that she bringsback the olive leaf, which in thiscase is a pellet of golden pollenupon each hip, usually obtainedfrom the alder or the swampwillow. In a country wheremaple sugar is made, the bees gettheir first taste of sweet from the

sap as it flows from the spiles,or as it dries and is condensedupon the sides of the buckets.They will sometimes, in theireagerness, come about theboiling place and beoverwhelmed by the steam andthe smoke. But bees appear to bemore eager for bread in thespring than for honey; theirsupply of this article, perhaps,does not keep as well as theirstores of the latter, hence freshbread, in the shape of newpollen, is diligently sought for.My bees get their first suppliesfrom the catkins of the willows.How quickly they find them out.

If but one catkin opens anywherewithin range, a bee is on handthat very hour to rifle it, and it isa most pleasing experience tostand near the hive some mildApril day and see them comepouring in with their littlebaskets packed with this firstfruitage of the spring. They willhave new bread now; they havebeen to mill in good earnest; seetheir dusty coats, and the goldengrist they bring home with them.

When a bee brings pollen intothe hive, he advances to the cellin which it is to be deposited andkicks it off as one might his

overalls or rubber boots, makingone foot help the other; then hewalks off without ever lookingbehind him; another bee, one ofthe indoor hands, comes alongand rams it down with his headand packs it into the cell as thedairymaid packs butter into afirkin.

The first spring wild-flowers,whose shy faces among the dryleaves and rocks are sowelcome, yield no honey. Theanemone, the hepatica, thebloodroot, the arbutus, thenumerous violets, the springbeauty, the corydalis, etc., woo

lovers of nature, but do not woothe honeyloving bee. It requiresmore sun and warmth to developthe saccharine element, and thebeauty of these pale striplings ofthe woods and groves is theirsole and sufficient excuse forbeing. The arbutus, lying low andkeeping green all winter, attainsto perfume, but not to honey.

The first honey is perhapsobtained from the flowers of thered maple and the goldenwillow. The latter sends forth awild, delicious perfume. Thesugar maple blooms a little later,and from its silken tassels a rich

nectar is gathered. My bees willnot label these different varietiesfor me as I really wish theywould. Honey from the maples, atree so clean and wholesome,and full of such virtues everyway, would be something to putones tongue to. Or that from theblossoms of the apple, the peach,the cherry, the quince, the currantone would like a card of eachof these varieties to note theirpeculiar qualities. The apple-blossom is very important to thebees. A single swarm has beenknown to gain twenty pounds inweight during its continuance.Bees love the ripened fruit, too,

and in August and Septemberwill suck themselves tipsy uponvarieties such as the sops-of-wine.

The interval between theblooming of the fruit-trees andthat of the clover and theraspberry is bridged over inmany localities by the honeylocust. What a delightful summermurmur these trees send forth atthis season. I know nothing aboutthe quality of the honey, but itought to keep well. But when thered raspberry blooms, thefountains of plenty are unsealedindeed; what a commotion about

the hives then, especially inlocalities where it is extensivelycultivated, as in places along theHudson. The delicate whiteclover, which begins to bloomabout the same time, isneglected; even honey itself ispassed by for this modestcolorless, all but odorlessflower. A field of these berriesin June sends forth a continuousmurmur like that of an enormoushive. The honey is not so whiteas that obtained from clover butit is easier gathered; it is inshallow cups while that of theclover is in deep tubes. The beesare up and at it before sunrise,

and it takes a brisk shower todrive them in. But the cloverblooms later and bloomseverywhere, and is the staplesource of supply of the finestquality of honey. The red cloveryields up its stores only to thelonger proboscis of the bumble-bee, else the bee pasturage of ouragricultural districts would beunequaled. I do not know fromwhat the famous honey ofChamouni in the Alps is made,but it can hardly surpass our bestproducts. The snow-white honeyof Anatolia in Asiatic Turkey,which is regularly sent toConstantinople for the use of the

grand seignior and the ladies ofhis seraglio, is obtained from thecotton plant, which makes methink that the white clover doesnot flourish these. The whiteclover is indigenous with us; itsseeds seem latent in the ground,and the application of certainstimulants to the soil, such aswood ashes, causes them togerminate and spring up.

The rose, with all its beauty andperfume, yields no honey to thebee, unless the wild species besought by the bumble-bee.Among the humbler plants, let menot forget the dandelion that so

early dots the sunny slopes, andupon which the bee languidlygrazes, wallowing to his knees inthe golden but not over-succulentpasturage. From the bloomingrye and wheat the bee gatherspollen, also from the obscureblossoms of Indian corn. Amongweeds, catnip is the greatfavorite. It lasts nearly the wholeseason and yields richly. It couldno doubt be profitably cultivatedin some localities, and catniphoney would be a novelty in themarket. It would probablypartake of the aromaticproperties of the plant fromwhich it was derived.

Buckwheat honey is the blacksheep in this white flock, butthere is spirit and character in it.It lays hold of the taste in noequivocal manner, especiallywhen at a winter breakfast itmeets its fellow, the russetbuckwheat cake. Bread withhoney to cover it from the samestalk is double good fortune. It isnot black, either, but nut-brown.

How the bees love it, and theybring the delicious odor of theblooming plant to the hive withthem, so that in the moist warmtwilight the apiary is redolentwith the perfume of buckwheat.

Yet evidently it is not theperfume of any flower thatattracts the bees; they pay noattention to the sweetscentedlilac, or to heliotrope, but workupon sumach, silkweed, and thehateful snapdragon. In Septemberthey are hard pressed, and dowell if they pick up enoughsweet to pay the runningexpenses of their establishment.The purple asters and the golden-rod are about all that remain tothem.

It is the making of the wax thatcosts with the bee. As with thepoet, the form, the receptacle,

gives him more trouble than thesweet that fills it, though, to besure, there is always more orless empty comb in both cases.The honey he can have for thegathering, but the wax he mustmake himselfmust evolve fromhis own inner consciousness.When wax is to be made thewax-makers fill themselves withhoney and retire into theirchamber for private meditation;it is like some solemn religiousrite; they take hold of hands, orhook themselves together in longlines that hang in festoons fromthe top of the hive, and wait forthe miracle to transpire. After

about twenty-four hours theirpatience is rewarded, the honeyis turned into wax, minute scalesof which are secreted frombetween the rings of the abdomenof each bee; this is taken off andfrom it the comb is built up. It iscalculated that about twenty-fivepounds of honey are used inelaborating one pound of comb,to say nothing of the time that islost.

But honey without the comb isthe perfume without the roseitis sweet merely, and soondegenerates into candy. Half thedelectableness is in breaking

down these frail and exquisitewalls yourself, and tasting thenectar before it has lost itsfreshness by the contact with theair. Then the comb is a sort ofshield or foil that prevents thetongue from being overwhelmedby the shock of the sweet.

It is a singular fact that the queenis made, not born. If the entirepopulation of Spain or GreatBritain were the offspring of onemother, it might be foundnecessary to hit upon somedevice by which a royal babycould be manufactured out of anordinary one, or else give up the

fashion of royalty. All the bees inthe hive have a commonparentage, and the queen and theworker are the same in the eggand in the chick; the patent ofroyalty is in the cell and in thefood; the cell being much larger,and the food a peculiarstimulating kind of jelly.

In certain contingencies, such asthe loss of the queen with noeggs in the royal cells, theworkers take the larva of anordinary bee, enlarge the cell bytaking in the two adjoining ones,and nurse it and stuff it andcoddle it, till at the end of

sixteen days it comes out aqueen. But ordinarily, in thenatural course of events, theyoung queen is kept a prisoner inher cell till the old queen has leftwith the swarm. Later on, theunhatched queen is guardedagainst the reigning queen, whoonly wants an opportunity tomurder every royal scion in thehive. At this time both thequeens, the one a prisoner andthe other at large, pipe defianceat each other, a shrill, fine,trumpet-like note that any earwill at once recognize. Thischallenge, not being allowed tobe accepted by either party, is

followed, in a day or two by theabdication of the reigning queen;she leads out the swarm, and hersuccessor is liberated by herkeepers, who, in her time,abdicates in favor of the nextyounger. When the bees havedecided that no more swarms canissue, the reigning queen isallowed to use her stiletto uponher unhatched sisters. Cases havebeen known where two queensissued at the same time, when amortal combat ensued,encouraged by the workers, whoformed a ring about them, butshowed no preference, andrecognized the victor as the

lawful sovereign.

The peculiar office andsacredness of the queen consistsin the fact that she is the motherof the swarm, and the bees loveand cherish her as a mother andnot as a sovereign. She is thesole female bee in the hive, andthe swarm clings to her becauseshe is their life. Deprived oftheir queen, and of all broodfrom which to rear one, theswarm loses all heart and soondies, though there be anabundance of honey in the hive.

The common bees will never use

their sting upon the queen; if sheis to be disposed of they starveher to death; and the queenherself will sting nothing butroyaltynothing but a rivalqueen.

The bees do not fall down beforeher, but caress her and touch herperson. There is but one fact orincident in the life of the queenthat looks imperial andauthoritative. Huber relates thatwhen the old queen is restrainedin her movements by theworkers, and prevented fromdestroying the young queens intheir cells, she assumes a

peculiar attitude and utters a notethat strikes every bee motionless,and makes every head bow;while this sound lasts not a beestirs, but all look abashed andhumbled, yet whether theemotion is one of fear, orreverence, or of sympathy withthe distress of the queen mother,is hard to determine. The momentit ceases and she advances againtoward the royal cells, the beesbite and pull and insult her asbefore.

A MORE SCIENTIFIC

APPROACH

Scientists are always striving to learnmore about honey bee behaviorparticularly in light of the recent globalepidemic of colony collapse disorder(CCD). Here are some basic ways tounderstand why honey bees do what theydo.

As discussed earlier, the worker beesimport into the hive nectar and pollenessential to making honey. They willhave reached a certain stage ofdevelopment before they can makeextended trips from the hive and back.

When they start leaving the hive, theirfirst trips are short, because they arelearning from the older bees.

Older worker bees are foraging experts,having made many trips to and from thehive. They dont want to waste their timeor that of their fellow hivematesreturning to places where there is littlein store for them. Instead, they find theplants that are worth the trip, sometimesgoing back and forth several timesduring a single day.

The SMELL or the DANCE?

When worker bees find somethingreally good, they communicate it to theother worker