Beginning Beginning BeekeepingBeekeeping

By Michael Bush By Michael Bush Copyright 2013Copyright 2013

Presentations online

Before you take copious notes, all these presentations are online here:

http://www.bushfarms.com/beespresentations.htm

BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front)With apologies to C.S. Lewis (who said in A

Horse and His Boy, “no one teaches riding quite as well as a horse”) I think you need to realize that “no one teaches beekeeping quite as well as bees.” Listen to them and they will teach you.

BLUF (Bootom Line Up Front)

If the question in your mind starts “how do I make the bees …” then you are already thinking wrongly. If your question is “how can I help them with what they are trying to do…” you are on your way to becoming a beekeeper.

BLUFHere, then, is the short answer to every

beekeeping issue. Give them the resources to resolve the problem and let them. If you can’t give them the resources, then limit the need for the resources.

BLUFFor instance if they are being robbed, what they

need is more bees to defend the hive, but if you can’t give them that, then reduce the entrance to one bee wide and you will create the “pass at Thermopylae where numbers count for nothing”. If they are having wax moth issues in the hive, what they need are more bees to guard the comb. If you can’t give them that then reduce the area they need to guard by removing empty combs and empty space.

In other words, give them resources or reduce the need for the resources they don’t have.

Managing space:One of the primary ways that beekeepers can

control the need for resources is by managing space. Compressing a hive (removing all the unused combs or boxes) is a cure for many problems from wax moths to robbing.

PanaceaMost other bee problems come back to queen

issues.

PanaceaThere are few solutions as universal in their

application and their success, than adding a frame of open brood from another hive every week for three weeks. It is a virtual panacea for any queen issues. It gives the bees the pheromones to suppress laying workers. It gives them more workers coming in during a period where there is no laying queen. It does not interfere if there is a virgin queen. It gives them the resources to rear a queen..

PanaceaIt is virtually foolproof and does not require finding a

queen or seeing eggs or accurately diagnosing the problem. If you have any issue with queenrightness, no brood, worried that there is no queen, this is the simple solution that requires no worrying, no waiting, no hoping and no guessing. You just give them what they need to resolve the situation. If you have any doubts about the queenrightness of a hive, give them some open brood and sleep well. Repeat once a week for two more weeks if you still aren't sure. By then things will be well on their way to being fine

Misleading experimentation

Every colony does differently no matter how carefully you try to do things identically. This means that when you think to prove something with two hives treated differently, the statistical likelihood that any difference was due to the things you did differently is extremely low.

Bees are very adaptable. They live quite well in almost any shape and size of a box within certain limits. The little details of the box you put them in are unlikely to yield significant differences in results.

Equipment Decisions

Decisions: Easy things to changeTop or bottom entranceQueen excluderRace of bees

Decisions: Difficult things to change Small cell or natural comb

Kind of hive (Langstroth,Top Bar Hive etc.) Size of boxes (mediums, deeps etc.) Screened bottom boards etc.

How to get beesShaken swarm from local beekeeperPackagesNucs

Photo from Gardenplotter.com

When?Now is the time to order packages. Last

month would have been better.Now is the time to buy and/or build

equipment so it will be ready in the spring.Now is the time to read up on beekeeping

Books Complete Idiot’s Guide to Beekeeping The Practical Beekeeper The Thinking Beekeeper Top-Bar Beekeeping: Organic Practices for

Honeybee Health Beekeeping Mentor in a Book Homegrown Honey Bees: An Absolute

Beginner’s guide

Classes: UNL beginner’s classeshttp://events.unl.edu/2015/03/07/74683/

ForumsBeesource.comBeemaster.comhttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/

Organicbeekeepers

Kinds of beekeepingCommercial

FixedMigratory

SidelinerHobbyist

Photo from empireapiaries.com

Products of the hiveBeesLarvaePropolisWaxPollenPollinationHoney

Liquid, Chunk, Comb, Creamed...Photo from polyvore.com

ClimateHow many boxes for winter?How much stores for winter?Preparation for winter?Timing?

Equipment Stand Top Bottom Boxes Number of frames (width or length) Foundation? Excluder?

Essential tools Smoker Spray bottle Veil, jacket or suit Hive tool Brush “Hair clip” queen catcher

The organism: BeesCastesQueenWorkerDrones

QueenWhy queens are raised

SupersedureEmergencySwarming

Egg 3 ½ daysLarva until day 8Emerge on day 16

Worker Raised from sometime after the winter solstice

until fall. Live about 6 weeks in summer and 6 months in

winter. Egg until day 3 ½ Capped on day 9 Emerge between day 18 and 21 (depending on

cell size) Days 3-10 as nurse bee Days 11-21 as “house” bees 22- end of life as foragers

DronesLive about six weeks in summerEgg until day 3 ½ Capped day 10Emerge day 24Fly to DCA about two weeks after they

emerge

The Superorganism: yearly cycle Winter Spring Summer Fall

Personal Beekeeping Philosophy Organic Chemical Science vs Art Scale

Reasons for beekeeping Pollination Honey Pets

Ememies of the bees Skunks Mice Wax moths Varroa

Contact Info

Michael Bush

bees at bushfarms dot com

www.bushfarms.comBook: The Practical Beekeeper