Is
there a cost to remove the bees from my property?
Some beekeepers will
remove honeybees for free others will charge you depending on the
complexity of the removal. Many times bees take up residence inside
of walls and ceilings of home and take hours to remove. Some beekeepers
will perform the removal of the bees from wall of homes other will
not. Contact your local beekeeper to see if he can help you.
Click on the "Locate
Removers" link above to find beekeepers in your state willing
to remove honeybees from your property.
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How do bees make
honey?
Honey bees collect nectar from flowers, which is then turned into
honey by a combination of the bee's digestive enzymes that invert
the sugars, and evaporation.
It is due to the types
of flowers visited by the bees as to why honeys vary in taste, color
and tendency to crystallize. Some flowers, like cotton blossoms
for example, can produce a nectar that results in an almost clear,
and very light flavored honey. Others like Tahoka daisies can produce
a dark honey resembling something very much like molasses in both
taste and smell. Clover blossoms, due to their abundance of both
long flowering seasons and high nectar production provide one of
the largest sources of nectar used by bees to produce honey in many
areas. Most clover produces a light golden-amber honey that is not
overly delicate or strong and appeals to many. Clover honey has
saturated the market in many areas for decades, so much so that
some people growing up today may not even know other delicious honeys
even exist!
Together with pollen,
the nectar gathered from these flower blossoms provides food for
the bees. They will easily hoard as much as they can, and often
more than they could ever use. The nectar is brought back to the
hive by a field bee (the older worker bees), where it is then given
over to a house bee (the younger worker bees). The house bee will
then take the nectar and place it in a cell, whereby the constant
flow of air over the cell produced by other bees "fanning"
their wings slowly draws the moisture from the nectar. Bees will
usually place nectar that is being processed into honey above the
areas of honey that have their cells capped for storage. These cells
are in turn usually located above or outside of those used for storage
of pollen, with the nest of brood residing in cells located in the
center of the nest below the pollen storage areas.
Honey is more than just
nectar concentrated by evaporation, however. As the nectar is moved
by the house bees from cell to cell until is finally ready to fill
a cell and be capped over with a thin layer of beeswax, it is ingested
by the bee into its honey stomach where enzymes act on it to invert
the simple sugars in the nectar into honey. This combination of
inverting the simple sugars in nectar and evaporating it to a viscous
state of approximately 18% or less moisture provides the bees with
a food that can be stored for more or less indefinite periods of
time. Even when the cells of honey have become heavily crystallized,
bees have been known to add water to the crystals to dissolve them.
The bees will use this
honey as food for themselves, as well as mixed with pollen to create
a substance known as "bee bread" to feed to their young.
In order for a hive to make it through the winter, a healthy storage
of honey needs to be collected. Fortunately for us bees are hoarders
by nature when it comes to honey and often collect far more than
they need. If ready with strong hives at the start of a season of
heavy nectar flow, the amount of surplus honey a beekeeper can harvest
at the end of the season can be quite considerable.
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How do honey
bees carry pollen?
Click to enlarge! Honey bees carry pollen back to the hive in a
small "basket" of fine hairs on the outside of their hind
legs. As the bee scrapes pollen off its body, hairs on the leg collect
the pollen. It is then transferred to the basket opening with a
minute comb at the mid-joint of the leg. There is even a "pollen
press" as part of the joint that will pack the pollen into
these baskets. When the basket is full the bee will return to the
hive and unload the pollen "pellets" out of the baskets
into a cell. The house bees then take care of packing the pollen
down in the cell until it's needed for food for the brood.
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Where do bees
get beeswax?
Bees actually produce their own beeswax. On the underside of the
bee's abdomen there are eight glands that secrete the liquid wax.
As the wax hardens it forms small flakes that are then removed by
the bee with its hind legs and brought up to the bee's mandibles.
Here, it is masticated into a malleable form where it is then used
to build comb. To give you an idea of just how small these flakes
are, one pound of the wax equates to about 570,000 of these flakes.
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What are supers?
Supers are wooden boxes that have no top or bottom. Supers are stacked
one on top of another as needed when the bee's population or honey
storage requirements grow in size. A "standard" hive has
a bottom floor, one or more supers that act as a hive body for the
brood nest, usually one to several supers for honey storage and
a cover for the hive. In the U.S. most beekeepers have standardized
on supers that hold ten frames and come in four basic sizes... deep
(9 5/8"), medium (6 5/8"), shallow (5 11/16") and
comb (4 1/2" for round section, 4 3/4" for split section).
In Europe other sizes and styles are used including the more garden
ornamental WBC to National, Commercial or even a large Modified
Dadant. In some areas plastic or Styrofoam supers are marketed and
used.
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Why do beekeepers
paint their hives white?
Actually, not all beekeepers paint their hives white. A lot do,
and this is to help the bees in keeping the hive cooler in summer,
especially if the hive is located in direct sun during the heat
of the day. White (or light colors) have also been proven to be
colors bees don't seem to mind. Some beekeepers in colder areas
stain or paint their hives a darker color to help the bees keep
the hives warmer in the early spring when they start raising brood.
Commercial beekeepers often use whatever light colored paint they
can find on sale. Light blues, yellows and greens are not uncommon.
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How do honey
bees keep their hive at a constant 93-95° Fahrenheit temperature?
Honey bees do this in several ways. As the temperature rises inside
the hive due to warm weather, they will ventilate their hive by
having some bees create an increase in air flow through the hive.
The bees do this by lining up in one direction into the hive and
back out again, and fanning their wings. This creates an intentional
draft through the hive that keeps temperatures down. Should the
weather get hotter some of the bees will then collect water, placing
these drops of water in cells and spreading thin sheets of water
between their mandibles. The bee's fan-current evaporates the water,
lowering the temperature even more (and you didn't think bees knew
about air conditioning!). During cooler weather and winter the bees
will actually "cluster", creating a ball shape that is
hollow with the queen in the middle. The bees take turns eating
honey and vibrating as they move through the cluster wall. The heat
given off by calories being burned in the process warms the cluster.
However, during the dead of winter when there is no brood being
raised the temperature does in fact fall below the 93-95° range
to about 85° Fahrenheit.
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How do beekeepers
get the honey out of the comb?
There are several ways of doing this, and the amount of honey being
collected usually determines the process taken. If the beekeeper
only has a super or two of honey, the comb can be broken up and
strained through a fine-mesh bag into a bucket. Another alternative
is a pair of wooden paddles hinged together to form a press that
is used to squeeze the honey from the comb. Both these methods destroy
the comb, which bees use honey to produce. As such, beekeepers usually
use what is called an "extractor". An extractor is a round
stainless steel (or super heavy-duty plastic) barrel with baskets
(tangential) or frame clips (radial) inside attached to a vertical
rod. The rod extends through the top of the extractor and is attached
to pulleys or gears. The baskets spin inside the tank when a hand
crank is turned (more expensive or very large models are motorized).
The frames of honeycomb, once the cappings have been removed, are
placed in the baskets or frame clips and then spun around until
all the honey comes out of the combs by centrifugal force. The bottom
of the extractor has a valve for draining the extractor of the honey
collected. Using an extractor enables beekeepers (and bees) to use
the frames of empty comb again, saving the bees time and honey in
creating new comb each time they're needed.
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My jar of honey
is crystallized. Is it ruined?
Not at all. The sugars in honey may start to crystallize over time
(honey from some nectar sources faster than others). This in itself
does not harm the honey in the slightest. As a matter of fact, many
commercial honey producers intentionally crystallize barrels of
honey by storing them at temperatures of about 52-56° Fahrenheit.
as it makes them easier to handle. "Whipped honey" is
honey that as been "seeded" with very fine honey crystals,
then occasionally stirred over a period of days until the honey
is uniformly crystallized and smooth. To reliquefy a jar of crystallized
honey, take a pan of hot (not boiling) water and set the jar of
honey down in the water bath (top cracked open and well above the
water level). The crystals should melt and become liquid again.
Repeat if necessary. If your honey is "raw", unprocessed
(but filtered) honey, make sure the tempurature of the hot water
is not over 95° Fahrenheit to preserve the full "naturalness"
of the honey.
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Why do some queen
bees have a painted dot on them?
Most suppliers of queen bees will mark the queens they ship to you
with a colored dot of paint on the top of the thorax for a very
small fee (.50 cents or so). This colored dot not only helps you
quickly find the queen among the other bees in the hive should you
need to, but will also signify what year the queen was introduced
into the hive. Queen breeders use a color numbering system so that
queens marked with blue indicate years ending in 0 or 5, white a
1 or 6, yellow a 2 or 7, red a 3 or 8 and green for years ending
in 4 or 9.
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What is "bee
space"?
In 1851 a beekeeper, Rev. L.L. Langstroth noted that honey bees
allowed themselves 3/8" between combs. If a hive had a 1/4"-3/8"
space it wouldn't be filled with comb. Anything over 3/8" was
filled with comb, anything less than 1/4" was filled with propolis.
He took this "discovery" and created the first movable-frame
hive and is called by many the Father of Beekeeping.
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Why is some honey
a light color, and some dark?
The color of honey depends on its nectar source. Usually, early
spring honey is lighter than honey collected in fall, again due
to the nectar source. Some flowers produce a light, almost clear
honey (such as cotton), other blossoms provide a nectar that produces
a golden amber color (such as the common clover honey seen in stores).
Others, such as buckwheat produce a very dark, almost molasses-color
honey. There are shades of honey that cover the spectrum between
these colors as well. Besides the color of honey, the nectar source
also determines the taste of honey. It is common that the lighter
the honey the milder the taste (but not always).
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What is propolis,
and what do bees do with it?
Propolis is a combination of gums and resins bees collect from trees
and plants, as well as wax, pollen and oils. Bees like a tight hive,
and use propolis to "glue" loose items in the hive and
seal cracks. That's why you'll find frames glued down with propolis,
and cracks between supers sealed. Some strains of honey bees, such
as the Caucasians, use propolis heavily in their hive, and even
use it to narrow the entrance as needed. Propolis is usually sticky
when warm, and brittle when cold. It is also high in antibiotic
properties and has been used in medicinal remedies since ancient
times.
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What is a queen
excluder?
A queen excluder is a metal or plastic grill (similar to the wire
shelving in refrigerators) that is placed between supers. The space
between the grills is .16", which prevents the queen or drones
from entering the supers placed above the excluder. Beekeepers place
the excluder above the super containing brood to keep the queen
from going into the honey supers and laying eggs. Since pollen is
usually stored close to the brood, this ensures that the supers
will contain only honey. Excluders are usually put on the hives
in spring before the main honey flow, and removed in fall after
the last harvest of honey.
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What's the best
way to get comb honey?
Click to enlarge! There are about as many best ways to get comb
honey as there are ways. What's important is for a strong nectar
flow be present. This will help the bees fill the comb quickly,
and minimize "travel stain" on the comb from propolis
in the hive that bees track around on the bottoms of their feet.
Some beekeepers use special 4 and 1/2" comb supers that have
special frames and accommodate round plastic inserts that sandwich
thin foundation. After being taken off the hive, the frames are
separated leaving four round sections of comb honey. When the two
open sides of these plastic rings are covered, they make a ready-package
for sale. Others use a standard shallow frame (with thin foundation)
and cut out the comb in squares or rectangles when harvested.
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If supers hold
10 frames, why do some beekeepers use 9?
Using nine frames in honey supers has a definite advantage when
it comes time to extract your honey. Some beekeepers use only eight!
For one, even though there is the same amount of honey there are
less frames to extract. Also, if you are using a decapping knife
it is much easier to cut off the cappings as the comb is wider and
the cappings extend beyond the edges of the frame. However, if frames
of foundation are placed in the super, you should always use 10
frames. If you don't the bees will create burr comb to fill the
space between the frames (which is too big... remember the 3/8"
bee space?). If you've got frames of already-drawn comb, try using
9 in the super next time. I think you'll be impressed!
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Won't setting
sticky supers outside after extracting cause robbing behavior in
the apiary?
It depends on a couple factors. If there is a dearth of nectar coming
in from the field it very well may lead to robbing. If the supers
are placed in close proximity to other hives (especially if there
are weak ones present), probably "yes" again. If you choose
to put the supers outside for the bees to clean, make sure to stack
them so there is plenty of access to the frames in as many areas
as possible to keep fighting to a minimum. Personally, I prefer
to put the supers back on the hives over the inner cover (make sure
the oblong hole in the inner cover is open). It may take a little
longer for the supers to get clean, but I haven't had any problem
with robbing by doing so. Make sure there's empty comb below the
inner cover for the bees to store the honey from the extracted supers
or you may find they use the very supers you're wanting them to
clean!
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Do you have to
sterilize jars before bottling the honey?
No. Honey is anaerobic, contains natural antibiotics in minute amounts
(hydrogen peroxide is one of them), and therefore does not need
to be stored in sterile containers. They do need to be clean, though!
Many beekeepers use canning jars, recycled mayonnaise jars, plastic
milk cartons or whatever they find that will work. Commercial producers
use newly manufactured jars. Run the jars (new or recycled) through
the dishwasher rinse and dry cycles right before you use them to
remove any dust particles (which hastens crystallization).
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Why aren't there
more FAQ's?
This area is still under construction. More will come! |
