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What a healthy hive looks like -- what sort of bees live in the hive, what healthy brood looks like, where to place your hives so that you can manage them
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Week Two – Bees in HivesWhat a healthy hive looks like
Dara K. [email protected]
Honey Bee – Apis Melifera
Distinguished by
the production and storage of honey
Construction perennial, colonial (hive) nests made from wax
Bees in the Hive
Queen Bee- 16 days to
emerge from cell- Can live up to 3
years
Newly hatched queen needs to make a mating flight – she will collect approx. 100m sperm within her oviducts
The “Girls” in the Hive- Forager bees- House keeping bees- Heater bees- Queen carer bees
- They are sterile and don’t lay eggs
21 days to emerge from eggs – summer bees live 6 weeks – winter bees can live up to 6 months
The ‘Boys’ in the HiveDrones mate with the queen- On mating he loses his
endophallus (in the Queen) and dies
- The next male has to remove the previous endophallus, mate and will eventually die too
Emerge 24 days from egg and can live up to 4 months
Make Up of the Hive
The bees will instinctively build wax cells – honey comb
The queen will lay an egg in each cell – the egg sticks to the ceiling of the cell
Worker bees fill the cells with royal jelly to prevent the eggs from falling
Worker bees are fed royal jelly for the first 2 days of life (larvae) while Queens are fed royal jelly through out the larval life
The development of each member of a hive depends on the caste of the larvae – drone, workers or Queens
Lifecycle of the Bee
Egg is laid and royal jelly is packed around the egg
Larvae hatches out and is fed by young worker bees
The Larvae will undergo several moulting's before spinning a cocoon within the cell and pupating – the cell is capped
Worker bee hatches out – or Queen – or Drone
Bee Brood & Patterns
The temperature in the hive is important – a constant 37 degrees (so don’t open the hive on cold or windy days)
Imagine the hive brood box is a round loaf of bread - so when you look at a frame with brood – it is like looking at one slice of bread from the loaf of bread
The frames in the middle of the box will have the largest number of brood cells while the frames at the outer edge have the less (the centre of the loaf)
Typical frame will have
Brood in the centre (circular pattern concentrated)
Pollen will be stored next to and around the brood
Honey will be stored above it and to the edges of it
Drone brood is usually found at the sides
Bad Brood
Single or Double Brood Boxes? Double brood boxes gives the queen more room to lay
Higher bee numbers
Greater honey gathering capacity
BUT if low bee numbers the hive gets cold
More space to be heated
Species of Bees
There are over 20,000 different species of bees in the world
The ones you will deal with will be either
Italian Bees (smallish –yellow - cute)
English Black Bees (large – black)
Carnolian Bees (medium – cute-ish)
Selection of bees
Most of the time – its what you can buy
Carnolian bees Moderate temperament – depends on the time of the year
Good honey harvests
English Black bees Quite big in comparison to other bee species
Quite aggressive – will defend the hive vigorously
Gathers awesome amounts of honey very quickly
Italian bees Smaller
Don’t gather honey as quickly as the other species
More passive bees (passive in relation to other bee species)
Placement of the Hives
Which direction – it doesn’t matter
BUT Avoid windy places - it will make the hives stressed
Avoid the deep shade to moderate shade –
Direct sunlight is not a problem
Make sure the ground is flat (the hive will fall over especially if you get a bit of height on them)
On pallets?? Yes you can – but you don’t have to
How close – back to back –with the entrances at opposite sides
Other considerations
Easily accessible come honey harvest time – it will be a mission to heave the honey boxes up a steep hill!
Good drainage – firm dry land – that does get water logged or flooded
Good source of water near by – the bees need water to build wax, dilute the honey if it is too thick and to cool the hive in the summer when it is hot. Be mindful of your neighbour’s pool
A chicken water feeder –You can place some gravel or small pebbles in the tray to provide steps for the bees to drink from
Next Week
Managing and working with the bees
The bee calendar year – timing is everything