Beekeeping Posts

Harvesting Honey Supers

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When it comes time to harvest honey – that magical moment that you have been waiting for! – there are several methods available to get the job done. While no one method is necessarily better than another, some methods are better suited to hobbyists, whereas others are more appropriate for commercial or larger-scale beekeepers.

The basic goal of honey harvesting is to separate the bees from the honey and to remove a honey super off the beehive without taking any bees with it. The bees store honey in the super – it’s where they cure and maintain the honey. In any strong honeybee colony, there will be bees inside working on tasks such as maintaining the temperature of the colony and building beeswax to coat and preserve the frames of honey. Your goal when harvesting is to clear them out so you are not carrying bees back to your house or facility.

The first and most commonly used method of removing the honey super is with what is known as a fume board. It is used by both hobbyists and commercial beekeepers alike, including us here at Wildflower Meadows. (The beekeeper in the photo is gathering his fume boards.)  A fume board is typically coated with a chemical repellant that drives the bees downward, away from the frames of honey. It’s placed on top of the honey super, clearing the box of bees below.

If you are a backyard beekeeper and only have one or two honey supers to harvest, another simpler method is to use a basic bee brush. A bee brush is an inexpensive and invaluable tool used by all beekeepers, which works great if you only have a small amount of honey to harvest.  When using a bee brush, simply pull the honey frames out one by one and gently brush the bees away. This method is more time-consuming than other methods, but it is perfectly effective for a small-scale hobbyist.

There is one thing you should be cautious of when using a bee brush, however. If you have not placed a queen excluder below your honey super, there is always the risk that the queen may have wandered up into the honey super. You do not want to brush a queen honeybee and risk potential injury to her abdomen or damage to her sensitive reproductive system. If you are not using a queen excluder and are brushing bees off your honey frames, you will want to look for the queen on the frames you are pulling first. If you find the queen, it would be best to carefully place her back into the hive by gently picking her up by her wings or thorax.

Another popular honey harvesting method used by hobbyists is using a device called a hive escape board. This is a one-way entrance that allows bees to fly out of the honey super but not back inside. This is an easy and stress-free way of clearing bees out of a honey super, however, it is time-consuming, usually requiring at least 24 hours to be effective.

We have experimented with various escape boards over the years, but generally have been disappointed. The main disadvantage of an escape board is that the honey super itself must be in pristine condition, with no holes or cracks where the bees can reenter.  Sometimes the bees will escape through the escape board and simply reenter through a nearby hole! Or worse, the bees escape through the board, only to have robber bees enter through a hole, starting a robbing episode.  Another concern with escape boards can be that ants and small hive beetles can quickly gain the upper hand as bees disappear from the super. In a healthy colony, guard bees are guarding the honey for a reason. If they are drained out of the honey super with an escape board, there will be few or no guard bees remaining to protect against infiltrators, leaving pests free to run amok.

Many commercial beekeepers who have thousands of boxes of honey to harvest, have no time for brushing frames, using escape boards, or often even for fume boards. Instead, some of these no-nonsense beekeepers choose to go for the most efficient and speediest method of honey harvesting – the bee blower.

A bee blower is basically a glorified leaf blower that literally blows the bees right out of the box!   While some mechanical blowers are specifically marketed for beekeeping, a beekeeper could literally use an actual leaf blower to blow bees during honey harvesting. Beekeepers who use blowers typically tip a honey super on its side before they powerfully blow the bees right out of the super, either in the direction from top to bottom, or bottom to top.

Although this is fast, efficient, and effective, it also is loud and obnoxious. Bee blowers quickly destroy the natural ambiance of an apiary and have the unfortunate side effect of making bees, (and peaceful beekeepers alike) angry and annoyed. Realistically, bee blowers are another method where beekeepers should use queen excluders. Without a queen excluder, the queens could be blown all across an apiary and lost for no reason!

Why Do Bees Produce So Many Drones?

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Drone bees often get a bad rap—they don’t produce honey, don’t defend the hive, and they consume vital resources. So then why do queen bees produce so many of them? The answer, put simply, is that there must be enough drone bees available at any given time in order to sustain the reproduction of bees and the viability of the species overall.

All queen honeybees must mate with drone honeybees. This mating never takes place inside the hive but rather takes place outside the hive while in flight. Several days after hatching, a queen bee will leave the hive for her first mating flight. Queens will only mate during a brief period of their lives; however, they mate with up to ten to twenty drones at a time, collecting and storing their sperm. By the end of her mating flight, a queen may have up to one hundred million sperm stored within her that she’s able to utilize for egg fertilization throughout the next several years of her life. Collecting sperm from multiple sources allows the queen’s offspring to be genetically diverse. This genetic diversity improves the overall health of the colony, furthering a colony’s ability to fight off disease.

The queen bee mating ritual happens at “drone congregation areas” where the queen is greeted by hordes of drone bees. Drones leave their respective hives—sometimes venturing miles away from their colonies—in hopes of being one of the few lucky suitors. Unfortunately, the process of successfully mating often results in the drone’s death as its endophallus is ripped off, leaving its abdomen open.

While many drones are lost due to successful mating, realistically, drones only have a 1 in 1,000 chance of mating with a queen—meaning that many drones don’t actually die from mating at all.

In addition to the loss of drones that meet their ultimate demise through mating, many drones are lost from other causes. The flight to drone congregation areas can sometimes prove to be a difficult feat, resulting in drone loss due to natural and environmental reasons. These losses are normal and need to be made up by excess drone production in the individual colonies that surround the drone congregation areas.

Spring Requeening

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Although there are advantages to requeening a colony in the summer or fall, traditionally, beekeepers requeen colonies in the spring. One of the best reasons to requeen early in the season is to prevent swarming. Spring requeening reduces a colony’s tendency to swarm because, generally, colonies with very young queens tend to settle in with their new queen. It is older queens that are more likely to swarm. Why? Perhaps the new and young queen’s powerful pheromones signal the colony to keep her in place. Also, the requeening can distract a colony from swarming—at least while the new queen is being accepted.

A distinct advantage of installing a new queen in the spring is that a young queen brings enthusiastic and youthful energy into the hive at the very start of the season. This recipe for vigorous egg-laying leads to large population growth before the honey flows down the road. It’s perfect timing. This also means that the colony’s population should stay considerably large heading into the later part of the year and winter.

Besides the bees themselves, beekeepers who requeen in the spring also gain some advantages from this timing. Early in the season, colony populations are generally smaller, making it easier to locate the old queen. Also, if a new honey flow is just starting, the bees will tend to be on their best behavior and not as apt to behave defensively. During a honey flow, adult bees get locked into foraging. A colony will put up with a lot of beekeeper activity during a honey flow. The bees are focused on foraging and colony growth and are less apt to sting.

However, there are a couple of downsides to requeening in the spring.  The first is that spring weather can be turbulent, meaning that rainy and cool weather can damper a beekeeper’s ability to work the bees. A preordered queen’s date may not match the ideal weather for opening and work with a colony. Summer weather, in general, is more stable.  Running into adverse weather can also actually affect queen acceptance. If a new queen is introduced right before a long spell of inclement weather, the bees could go hungry and agitated, hampering the acceptance of the new queen.

Another downside to spring requeening is the possibility of additional queens or queens-in-the-making in the hive during requeening.  Beekeepers who requeen in spring, like all beekeepers, should always be on the lookout for natural queen cells during the requeening process. These natural queen cells are more apt to be present during the spring than any other season and must be eliminated while requeening.  One or more new and feisty virgin queens emerging from one of these queen cells is the last thing that a beekeeper wants to see during requeening. No one wants a newly purchased and precious queen having to deal with a battle royale before she even gets started!

What Happens When a Queen Bee Dies?

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The queen bee is the heart of the hive and the life source of the colony. Without a queen bee, a colony cannot function.

A queen bee may meet her demise in various ways. Sometimes, death may come suddenly, perhaps from a beekeeping accident or an unexpected attack from other bees. Other times, a queen may live a long life and die of old age.

When a queen bee dies, the entire colony becomes aware of her absence within as little as four hours. The bees figure this out by the lack of the queen’s pheromone. In a healthy beehive with a queen, the bees constantly pass along a queen’s pheromone from one bee to another as the bees shuffle through the hive. This movement circulates the queen’s scent within the hive. The absence of this pheromone indicates to the rest of the hive that a queen is no longer present.

Once this realization takes place, the bees switch into emergency mode. The colony appears agitated, and the bees start buzzing loudly. This distinct buzzing is what some beekeepers call a queenless roar. This urgent realization of queenlessness triggers the raising of a new queen.

A healthy colony will attempt to replace a missing queen by initiating multiple queen cells. Producing a new queen begins when a few young larvae are chosen for special treatment and are fed a special diet of royal jelly throughout their development. It takes approximately 16 days after eggs are laid before any virgin queen bees hatch from these queen cells. Typically, the emerging virgin queens will fight each other, leaving only one alive to venture off to become mated and then mature to become a laying queen. This maturing process, which occurs after a successful mating, takes another 7 to 10 days.

This lengthy process requires the colony to continue without a queen. During this period, while the colony waits for the new queen to be established, it is especially vulnerable to becoming permanently queenless. If, for whatever reason, the colony’s virgin queen does not properly mate, or if the virgin queen gets killed somewhere along the way, the colony is sunk. The colony now has no more larvae to manufacture a new queen. Therefore, unless a beekeeper intervenes with a commercially raised queen, such as one purchased from Wildflower Meadows, the colony will eventually dwindle and die off.

Why Do Beekeepers Need to Purchase Queen Bees?

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While each of the honeybees in a hive plays their own role, the queen bee is unique in that she influences the behavior and performance of an individual colony in a way that no other single bee can. She is the genetic backbone of the colony—and all the bees, as her offspring, carry her genetic signature.

As a result, beekeepers know that they can control the performance of a colony to a significant extent simply by managing the quality of the queen bee in the hive. There are two pieces to assessing a queen’s quality: the performance of her offspring, and of course, her own performance. Both are vital.*

For assessing a queen’s offspring’s performance, a beekeeper commonly considers the following:

  • Disease Resistance: Is the colony robust and able to withstand diseases such as American foulbrood?
  • Temperament: Are the bees gentle and easy to work with?
  • Honey Production: In conditions of good nectar flow, are the bees making a considerable amount of honey?
  • Honey Consumption: Does the colony save its stores or consume large amounts of honey, requiring extra supplemental feeding?
  • Population Control: Does the colony have the desired population at the right time of year?
  • Mite Resistance: Does the queen carry the VSH trait to control the spread of parasitic mites?
  • Swarming Tendency: Does the colony seem to want to swarm more than normal?
  • Overwintering Success: Does the colony appear very weak in the spring?

In assessing a queen’s own performance, the beekeeper also considers the queen herself:

  • Laying Performance: Is the queen laying enough eggs and in a tight brood pattern?
  • Quantity of Drones: Is the queen laying more drones than worker eggs?
  • Health: Is the queen injured?
  • Age: Is she young and vigorous, or aging and on the way out?
  • Presence: Is she even in the hive, or did she perish somewhere along the way?

So, why do beekeepers need to purchase queen bees? The first reason is to manage the genetics of the offspring. The second is to manage the performance of the queen herself.

The third, and perhaps most common reason for purchasing a queen bee, is to enable the beekeeper to easily divide or split an existing colony. All new colonies need queens. The easiest, most reliable, and most surefire way for a beekeeper to obtain a quality queen of known genetics is to purchase that queen from a reputable queen breeder.

*With an instrumentally inseminated breeder queen, the queen’s own performance is more important than the offspring’s because the genetics in the offspring are already largely predetermined due to the selection of the parents.

Eucalyptus Honey

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While California is well known for its picturesque palm trees, one can’t help but also notice the multitude of eucalyptus trees that seemingly sprout up everywhere. You might think that eucalyptus could even be the state tree, but there is no unseating the majestic redwoods that have deservedly earned that honor. Nevertheless, eucalyptus can be found in abundance throughout much of California, especially in the coastal and temperate areas of the state, where Wildflower Meadows is located.

Many different kinds of eucalyptus can be found around our apiaries – so many that there’s no keeping count. Some are large and sprawling; others are smaller and shapelier. Some have dark green leaves; others are light green. Eucalyptus is not technically just one tree, it’s actually a genus that includes over seven hundred species of flowering trees. Most species of eucalyptus are native to Australia, not the U.S., but they were introduced in California in the late 1700s.

From a beekeeper’s perspective, eucalyptus is gold. Nearly all the trees blossom with rich nectar-producing flowers. Plus, with all the different species, the flowering is varied and staggered over many months. Some species blossom in the summer, some in autumn, and some in the winter. It’s hard to imagine why a tree would blossom in the winter, but many beekeepers surmise that certain types of eucalyptus trees, being Australian natives, never abandoned their Australian seasonality.

Most species of eucalyptus have fluffy white, cream, yellow, pink, or red flowers. The flowers are a little unusual, however, making them easily recognizable. They get their fluffy appearance from a large display of stamens, instead of petals. Some are pretty to look at, others are not particularly attractive from a human perspective. Nevertheless, from the bees’ perspective, nearly all eucalyptus flowers are a treat! Eucalyptus blossoms are not necessarily known for being a rich pollen source for bees, but they do produce nectar – and often lots of it.

Although the leaves of eucalyptus plants are well known for their powerful essential oils – which are used for pharmaceutical purposes, disinfecting, insect repellent, flavoring, and fragrances – the nectar from the blossoms doesn’t quite deliver exactly the same flavor. The honey does, however, contain the eucalyptol compound, which gives it a somewhat medicinal, distinctive taste along with some healing properties.

Historically, eucalyptus honey has been used to treat coughs, common colds, congestion, and respiratory diseases due to its anti-inflammatory properties. Its antibacterial properties also make it helpful for treating minor cuts and burns. Eucalyptus honey promotes relaxation when consumed or when added to a running bath as well. The honey has a beautiful dark, reddish amber color and can be a great addition to food, beverages, or simply eaten from the jar.

How Many Hives Should a Beekeeper Have?

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The right number of hives depends on your goals as a beekeeper.  If you are a beginner, you may want to start small at first, as you learn about their bees and gain skills along the way. Whereas a skilled beekeeper may want to build his or her hobby into a business that can scale over time. In the end, you as a beekeeper must decide how much time and money you wish to invest – more hives mean more equipment, maintenance, space, and of course time after all.

There are many advantages to keeping multiple hives. Most experienced beekeepers recommend that even brand-new beekeepers maintain at least two hives. Investing in two hives up front may seem like overkill, but it will almost certainly prevent potential stress down the road and likely save money in the long run.

Countless unexpected situations can arise within the first year of keeping bees; and with only one hive you have nothing to fall back on if things go bad.  This leaves you and your hive vulnerable to being completely wiped out. For a new beekeeper with only a single colony, a rough winter could mean starting over completely from scratch in the spring, which can be costly because having to buy bees can be expensive.

Having two beehives not only ensures there are extra resources on hand to share between hives – such as brood, nurse bees, worker bees, or even pollen and honey – it’s also a safeguard in the event you lose an entire colony. It is common for new beekeepers with little experience to lose all, or part of a colony within the first year, especially over the winter. Starting with multiple beehives means it’s possible to share bees among your colonies if some do inevitably die.

More experienced beekeepers may want to keep even more than two hives to increase their odds of success.  If there was an ideal number of hives for a backyard beekeeper, most beekeepers would estimate that 2-5 hives are optimal.

Of course, you will also need enough space. Each beehive takes up about 22-inches by 16-inches of space and can be placed as close as 6-inches together, but more space is always better. Plenty of space is needed surrounding your hives as well, both for maintenance and security. If beehives are kept too close together, it can sometimes cause them to “drift” into a hive that’s not their own. Over time this can affect the bees’ populations – strengthening some hives while weakening others.

Ultimately, when deciding how many hives you’d like to keep, you must consider how much space, time, and money you have available to invest. If you want to make a business out of beekeeping, you’re going to need a lot of hives, and likely more than one apiary. A smaller scale operation that runs part-time with a responsible beekeeper can manage around 100 colonies. This size business isn’t likely to earn enough income from honey, pollinating services, or selling bees to live off, but it can be a solid source of extra income.

Commercial apiaries, however, can have anywhere from 500 to 2000 beehives each. Here in California, as well as in other parts of the US, some large established commercial beekeepers have upwards of 10,000 or more colonies. California beekeepers rely heavily on almond pollination for their income, and are paid per colony, meaning more colonies equals more money – and professional beekeepers need it! Maintaining a business of this size requires a major investment in equipment, labor, storage, and logistics.

The Dance of the Honeybee

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Many beekeepers may notice their honeybees dancing, but they may not realize there’s a lot more to it than a captivating show. Dancing is the main “language” of the honeybee, allowing them to communicate important information to one another. As with many species in nature, communication is vital to existence. A honeybee colony relies on communication, teamwork, and of course, resources – such as water, food, or shelter, to survive. Afterall, without resources to sustain the colony, there’s no hope for a strong, thriving hive.

Worker bees forage for resources and return to the hive to inform others once they’ve made a discovery. To efficiently collect the new resources, honeybees must first communicate the distance and directions to the resource’s location. When the bees return to the hive, they bring samples of the nectar or pollen they’ve discovered to distribute to the colony. While the taste and scent of the sample helps bees to know what’s available out there, more specific information about the location is shared through dance.

Once the sample has stirred interest and gathered an audience, worker bees begin their dancing. Bees use different patterns within their dance performances to provide specific details about the location to fellow worker bees. They will usually perform one of a few dances: the round dance, the waggle, or a mix of the two. There are important differences between these dances, including how they look and what information they provide.

The round dance, also known as “circle dance”, has a simple pattern. Bees simply walk in a circle, turn around in the opposite direction, and walk the same circular path. They will repeat this action several times, however, the dance provides information about only one thing – the distance the resource is from the hive. The round dance is performed by honeybees when the new resource is located only a short distance from the hive, usually within approximately 50 meters. Although this dance does not give bees directions to the new resource, their keen sense of smell will pick up on the scent from the pollen or nectar sample that was shared.

Honeybee dancing begins to get a little more specific the further the new resources are from the hive. The waggle dance is performed when resources are more than 150 meters from the hive. This dance provides worker bees with plenty of information about the location, as well as directions on how to get there. When performing the waggle dance, also referred to as the “wagtail dance”, honeybees follow a figure-eight pattern with a side-to-side “waggle” motion in the middle.

It is this waggle motion that tells other bees the vital details they need to know, including which directions to take from the hive, and how far away it is. Worker bees may waggle with more enthusiasm depending on the quality of the food source, they may repeat the action more often, or they may change direction to indicate specific details about the path taken. In fact, researchers have found that the directions given by honeybees are extremely accurate!

Honeybees also use another dance that is a combination of both the round and waggle dance. The transitional dance, sometimes called the “sickle dance,” is performed when the new resource is located between 50 and 150 meters away. The sickle dance is very similar to the waggle dance, in that honeybees follow the same figure-eight pattern, however, with this dance, there is no waggle motion in between.

There is still some debate among researchers about how much honeybee communication relies on dancing, rather than their distinct sense of smell and inherently good vision. However, after several experiments, the majority of scientists have concluded that dancing is a vital part of honeybee communication. Although floral smells are important when locating nectar and pollen, the dance of the honeybee has proven to be essential to their ongoing survival.

What Color Should You Paint a Beehive?

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As a beekeeper, you’ve probably noticed that bee boxes tend to be painted in different colors.  Many beekeepers, especially commercial beekeepers, tend to paint their boxes a standard white color.  This is the most familiar look for a beehive and is perfectly acceptable.  However, some beekeepers – particularly backyard hobbyists – prefer to let their artistic side run wild! Either choice is fine; but as always in beekeeping, there are a few basic guidelines to consider.

Should you even paint your beehive? The answer is yes.  There are several reasons why bee boxes should be painted—for both, the benefit of the bee colony and for the beekeeper.

Paint helps your boxes last longer. After a season or two exposed to the elements, you can expect your bee boxes to experience some wear and tear. Environmental forces like sun, rain and temperature changes can warp, crack, rot, or otherwise deteriorate the wood. A good layer of paint will help protect the wood by minimizing damage from weather, keeping your bee boxes looking great for longer.

Painting your bee box can also help with temperature regulation. Light paints, such as white, can help reflect sunlight and keep the hive cooler in hot temperatures. Dark paints can help absorb the sun’s warmth and keep the hive warmer in the winter. Depending on the climate you live in, you may wish to choose either light or dark paint for your bee box.

Sometimes beekeepers choose to be discreet about their beekeeping endeavor – not all neighbors are a fan of bees after all.  Painting the beehive the color of the surrounding buildings or environment can help camouflage it from unwanted attention from neighbors, vandals, or other prying eyes.

There are a lot of options for painting a beehive when it comes to color. You may wish to stick with plain white, or you may prefer to get artistic and paint fun designs on your bee box — anything goes! If you prefer the beauty of the natural wood grain, you can also use a clear coat to protect your bee box without changing its color.

While the choice of color is solely up to each beekeeper, we do have a couple important recommendations. For instance, sticking to light pastel colors or white will help keep your hive cool during warmer months.

Also, painting different colors may be helpful if you are raising your own queens, and are painting two-way or four-way queen rearing boxes for queen mating. Using different colors, one for each side of the box will assist with the mating process.

Whichever color you choose for your bee box, make sure the paint you choose is safe for the health of your bees. It’s best to use a non-toxic, water-based paint that is low in volatile organic compounds (VOCs ) – which are toxic chemicals that can release as the paint dries. Since the box will be outdoors, be sure to choose an exterior-grade paint that is meant for outdoor use. Always allow enough time for the paint to fully cure before introducing any bee colonies to the box. This will prevent your colony from encountering any VOCs or sticky wet paint. Finally, and importantly, only paint the exterior of your bee box. Never paint areas where the bees will walk or live, which includes the inside and entryways to the box.

Is it Better to Keep Bees at Home or in an Outside Apiary?

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As an aspiring beekeeper, you can choose to keep your honeybees at your home, on your property in places such as your backyard or rooftop (depending on your local laws). You can also choose to keep your bees on a hosts’ property at an outside apiary.

Which is right for you? Home apiaries are not only very convenient, but the proximity allows you to closely monitor the bees and protect them against pests such as ants. It also allows you to regularly enjoy the bees and work with them on your own schedule — whenever you’re free or whenever the feeling strikes.

While it can be great to have the bees on your property, some aspects of at-home apiaries are less enjoyable. There may be issues with local zoning laws that prevent you from beekeeping how you’d like, depending on your location. Neighbors and house guests may worry about having the bees around, and you’ll need to be vigilant if any children or pets visit your home so that no one gets stung.

Outside apiaries are an alternative to at-home beekeeping. Setting up your apiary in the countryside can provide you with a beautiful destination, along with a built-in an excuse to get out of the house and enjoy nature.  Outside apiaries can be located away from people, so there is less reason to worry about upsetting neighbors or anyone being stung by the bees.

Since you must travel to an outside apiary, however, you must plan more and have an organized way of transporting your supplies. An offsite location may require you to have a truck, especially for loading supers of honey. Moving honey from an outside apiary can often be a heavy, messy task that requires more work and investment than when you are at home. Outside apiaries can also require tenants to provide an appropriate amount of honey to the owners about once per year, in exchange for use of their land.

If you are considering keeping your bees at an outside apiary, here are some questions you should consider to help you decide:

  • Is the apiary accessible by car?
  • How long is the drive to and from the apiary?
  • Do you have the time to make the drive regularly?
  • What are the wind and weather conditions at the apiary location?
  • Will bees be safe from predators or possible vandals at the apiary?
  • Is the apiary located in an area with sufficient flowering plants?