Beekeeping
Beekeeping (or
apiculture, from
Latin apis, a bee) is the practice of intentional maintenance of
honeybee hives by humans. A
beekeeper (or apiarist) may keep
bees in order to collect
honey and
beeswax, or for the purpose of
pollinating crops, or to produce bees for sale to other beekeepers. A location where bees are kept is called an
apiary.
Beekeeping is one of the oldest forms of food production. Some of the earliest evidence of beekeeping is from
rock painting, dating to around
13,000 BC. It was particularly well developed in Egypt and was discussed by the Roman writers
Virgil,
Gaius Julius Hyginus,
Varro and
Columella. A pioneering beekeeping popularizer in the 19th century U.S. was
Amos Root.
Traditionally, beekeeping was done for the bees'
honey harvest, although nowadays crop pollination service can often provide a greater part of a commercial beekeeper's income. Other hive products are pollen,
royal jelly and
propolis, which are also used for nutritional and medicinal purposes, and wax which is used in
candlemaking,
cosmetics, wood polish, and for modelling. The modern use of hive products has changed little since ancient time.
Western honeybees are not native to the Americas. American, Australian and New Zealand colonists imported honeybees from
Europe, partly for honey and partly for their usefulness as pollinators. The first honeybee species imported were likely
European dark bees. Later
italian bees,
carniolan honeybees and
caucasian bees were added.
Western honeybees were also brought to the
Primorsky Krai in Russia by
Ukrainian settlers around
1850s. These
Russian honey bees that are similar to the
Carniolan bee were imported into the U.S. in
1990. The Russian honeybee has shown to be more resistant to the bee
parasites
Varroa destructor and
Acarapis woodi.
Prior to the 1980s, most U.S. hobby beekeepers were farmers or relatives of a farmer, lived in rural areas, and kept bees with techniques passed down for generations. The arrival of
tracheal mites in the
1980s and
varroa mites and
small hive beetles in the
1990s removed most of these beekeepers because could not deal with the new parasites and their bees died.
In
Asia, other species of
Apis exist which are used by local beekeepers for honey and
beeswax. Non-
Apis species of honeybees, known collectively as
stingless bees, have also been kept from antiquity in
Australia and
Central America, although these traditions are dying, and the trigonine and meliponine species used are
endangered.
The control of a colony mainly consists in taking care of the state of the "demography" of the hives.
A colony of bees is composed of a single queen, many workers (infertile females), drones (males) and of brood (eggs, larvae and pupae). A hive is the box used by beekeepers to house a colony.
To reproduce and survive, a colony of bees tries to accumulate a surplus of provisions (
nectar and
pollen) during the more favorable seasons (when there is a lot of forage, such as flowers available, along with good weather) in order to be able to survive the more unfavourable seasons. In the countries of the Northern hemisphere, this period is the winter; in the Southern Hemisphere and in Africa, this period is the dry season, or Summer.
The population of the colony varies according to the seasons. It is important for the colony to have a large population (30,000 to 60,000+ individuals) when there is a lot of forage available, in order to achieve the greatest possible harvest. The population is minimal in the winter (6,000 individuals) in order to reduce the consumption of provisions. However, the colony should not be too weak, because the bees which overwinter have to revive the colony again in the spring. If the population was too small over winter, another problem would be encountered. Honeybees need to cluster together in winter in order to maintain the required temperature (9 degrees celsius) for their survival, and with reduced populations it would be more difficult to achieve this temperature threshold.
There are several types of beekeepers:
*Hobbyists — They have a different day job but find beekeeping fun as just a
hobby.
*Sideliners — Basically, sideliners have other income but
moonlight as "beekeepers" for extra money.
*Commercial — Beekeeping is their only source of income.
The modern hobby beekeeper is more likely to be a suburbanite: he or she tends to be a member of an active bee club, and is well-versed on modern techniques.
Some southern U.S. and southern hemisphere (
New Zealand) beekeepers keep bees primarily to raise queens and package bees for sale. In the U.S., northern beekeepers can buy early spring queens and 3- or 4-pound packages of live worker bees from the South to replenish hives that die out during the winter, although this is becoming less practical due to the spread of the
africanized bee,
In cold climates commercial beekeepers have to migrate with the seasons, hauling their hives on trucks to gentler southern climates for better wintering and early spring build-up. Many make "nucs" (small starter or nucleus colonies) for sale or replenishment of their own losses during the early spring. In the U.S. some may pollinate
squash or
cucumbers in Florida or make early honey from citrus groves in
Florida,
Texas or
California. The largest demand for pollination comes from the
almond groves in California. As spring moves northward so do the beekeepers, to supply bees for tree fruits, blueberries, strawberries, cranberries and later vegetables. Some commercial beekeepers alternate between pollination service and honey production but usually cannot do both at the same time.
 |
A beekeeper collecting a bee swarm. Note the bare hands. If the queen can be swept to the frame and placed into the hive the remaining bees will follow her scent. |
In the
Northern Hemisphere, beekeepers usually harvest honey from July until September, though in warmer climates the season can be longer. The rest of the year is spent keeping the hive free of
pests and
disease, and ensuring that the bee colony has room in the
hive to expand. Success for the hobbyist also depends on locating the apiary so bees have a good
nectar source and
pollen source throughout the year.
In the
Southern Hemisphere, beekeeping is an all-the-year-round enterprise, although in cooler areas (to the south of Australia and New Zealand) the activity may be minimal in the winter (May to August). Consequently, the movement of commercial hives is more localised in these areas.
There are considerable regional variations in the type of hive which bees are kept in. A hive is a set of wooden boxes filled with frames that each hold a sheet of wax or plastic foundation. The bottom box, or brood chamber, contains the queen and most of the bees; the upper boxes, or supers, contain just honey. The bees produce wax and build honeycomb using the wax sheets as a starting point, after which they may raise brood or deposit honey and pollen in the cells of the comb. These frames can be freely manipulated and honey supers with frames full of honey can be taken and extracted for their honey crop. In the USA, the
Langstroth hive is commonly used. The Langstroth was the first type of hive with movable frames, and other designs of hive have been based on it. In the UK, the most common type of hive is the National Hive but it is not unusual to see some other sorts of hive (Smith, Commercial and WBC, rarely Langstroth). The more traditional
skep is now largely unlawful in the United States, as the comb and brood cannot be inspected for diseases.
A few hobby beekeepers are adopting various
top-bar hives commonly found in Africa. These have no frames and the honey filled comb is not returned to the hive after extraction, as it is in the Langstroth hive. Because of this the production of honey in a top bar hive is only about 20% that of a Langstroth hive, but the initial costs and equipment requirements are far lower. Top-bar hives also offer some advantages in interacting with the bees and the amount of weight that must be lifted is greatly reduced.
Protective clothing
|
Typical Bee Protection with a stack of supers 4 high |
When interacting with the bees, novice beekeepers usually wear protective clothing (including gloves and a hooded suit or hat and veil). Experienced beekeepers rarely use gloves because they make movement clumsy and can transmit disease from one hive to another. The face and neck are the most important areas to protect, so most beekeepers will at least wear a veil.
Defensive bees are attracted to the breath and a sting on the face can lead to much more pain and swelling than a sting elsewhere while a sting on a bare hand can usually be quickly removed by fingernail scrape to reduce the amount of venom injected.
The protective clothing is generally light colored and of a smooth material. This provides the maximum differentiation from the colony's natural predators (bears, skunks, etc.) which tend to be dark-colored and furry.
Smoker
Smoke is the beekeeper's second line of defense; protective clothing provides remarkably little protection from agitated bees. Most beekeepers use a "smoker"—a device designed to generate smoke from the incomplete combustion of various fuels. Smoke calms bees by which triggering a feeding response in anticipation of possible hive abandonment due to fire. Smoke also masks alarm pheromones released by guard bees or when bees are squashed in an inspection. The ensuing confusion creates an opportunity for the beekeeper to open the hive and work without triggering a defensive reaction from the occupants. In additon, when a bee consumes honey the bee's abdomen distends, making it difficult to make the necessary flexes to sting. Smoke is of no use with a swarm, because swarms do not have honey stores to feed on in response. Usually smoke is not needed since swarms tend to be less defensive, as they have no stores to defend, and a fresh swarm will have fed well from the hive. Many types of fuel can be used in a smoker as long as it is natural and not contaminated with harmful substances, these fuels include hessian, cardboard, and rotten or punky wood. Some beekeeping supply sources also sell comercial fuels like pulped paper and condensed cotton, or even aerosol cans of smoke.
*
Instructional Video Guide to Beekeeping Beekeeping expert shows hobbiests the ins and outs of beekeeping in free online video series.
*
The American Beekeeping Federation*
The British Beekeepers' Association*
National Beekeepers Association of New Zealand*
International Bee Research Association*
The international federation of beekeepers associations,
Apimondia *
Apiary Honighäuschen at the Drachenfels*
Lessons from the hive - article*
Vinlandic Apiary - A dedicated beekeeping wiki A specialized wiki aspiring to be definitive.
