Bee Hive
Beekeeping Equipment and the Honey Bees
Like many hobbies, beekeeping requires some basic equipment before someone can establish a successful hive. This equipment should be bought before you get a call from the post office asking you to come and pick up the honey bees. You can buy honey bees and hive together locally from someone in your local association, club or group. They are also often for sale in bee journals and magazines but get advice from an experienced bee-keeper.
Beware of the reason why the honey bees are being sold. The first hive and honey bees I bought were being sold because the honey bees were very aggressive/defensive. The seller was very good; because he told me they were aggressive and he had difficulty handling them. I got advice from my local bee inspector who said he knew the honey bees and yes they were aggressive/defensive but he felt that they could be calmed with gentle handling, but not the ideal choice for a beginner. I bought the honey bees, hive and equipment at a knock-down price. My first experience of opening that hive was a disaster, the veil was weak and when I put it on a hole appeared in the rear which I was unaware of. The honey bees found it in seconds and started crawl all over the back of my neck. As calmly as I could I closed the hive and headed away from the hive they had started to sting by this time. I removed the veil and jogged to the house to get my wife’s assistance. She scraped nineteen stings out of my neck, head and face, they were very painful.
Within the week I had obtained another veil and an all-in-one white boiler type suit and went back to the honey bees. Yes they were still very aggressive, or defensive as some prefer to call it, and smothered my gloved hands and left their stingers in the leather but didn’t actually sting me. The hundreds of honey bees on my hands made handling the frames difficult as I was a novice and very nervous and I think they knew. It took me nearly eighteen months to calm them down. I always worked slowly and deliberately with no jerky movements and spoke to them about how good I thought they were. How effective speaking to them was I am not sure but it helped me and gave me confidence when I told them what I was going to do next. They were never gentle like the honey bees I have now but at least they stopped smothering me and stinging my gloves. So my advice is get advice from an experienced beekeeper or an expert.
The most obvious piece of equipment you will need is the actual beehive. A floor with landing board, brood chamber, queen excluder, super (s), crown board with Porter bee escape and feeding aperture and of course the roof with waterproof covering.
Your beehive should have at least one super but preferably more. The supers are a very important part of the beehive because they are where the honey bees will be storing their honey. These supers should be between the bottom of the hive i.e., the brood chamber and the hive cover or roof. The supers are very important because they are where the honey bees will be storing their honey for feeding and raising their offspring in the brood chamber below. Once you have an active hive each of these supers will contain nine to twelve frames depending on the type of hive. You can choose if you want a hive with shallow supers or deep supers. The advantage of deep supers is that they enable bee-keepers to buy only one size foundation. The disadvantage is that, when full, a deep super can weigh one hundred pounds or more.
Once you have a hive for your honey bees make sure you place it somewhere that has a flat surface preferably off the ground on a stand so that the hive won’t tip over in a strong wind and the damp won’t seep up from the ground. Also make sure that you place it somewhere that humans, livestock and pets aren't likely to disturb it.
Some bee-keepers use spacers others judge the spacing by eye. A spacer is a piece of equipment bee-keepers use to keep an equal amount of space between the frames while they are in the super.
The next piece of equipment you will need is a smoker. The smoker is what you will use to control the honey bees and move them when you open the hive particularly in preparation for harvesting the honey. The smoker is surprisingly simple in its design. The smoker consists of a funnel, a combustion chamber, and bellows. Many bee-keepers claim that old, clean burlap or Hessian is the best material to use in the smoker because they are easy to ignite and smoulder and smoke well. Other bee-keepers prefer to use dried corn cobs, hay, straw and some use old socks not nylon of course. Once the fire has been lit in the combustion chamber the bellows will keep it going. The funnel directs the smoke into the hive, encouraging the honey bees to move away.
Another tool you will need is a metal hive tool. The metal hive tool is used to pry open the hive, and separate the hive bodies and frames, and to scrape the frames clean. Think of it as the all purpose tool of beekeeping, it can also be used to remove bee stings by scraping it across the skin. Never try and remove a sting by pulling it out with your fingers you will just squeeze the poison sac and push more venom in. By all means use the fingernail to scrape out a sting or your hive tool.
No bee-keeper is ready to receive their shipment of honey bees until they have a bee brush. A bee brush is used to gently brush honey bees out of the way so that the bee-keeper can examine the frames for brood.
When it is time to harvest your honey, you can use a fume board. A fume board is a board that is covered in bee removing chemicals and is then used to encourage the honey bees to leave a super and go down to the brood chamber and let you take their honeycombs by removing the complete super. You can also use a crown board with a one way Porter bee escape. Once they have gone through the Porter they can’t get back this can take 24 to 48 hours.
If you don't mind getting and using used equipment you can find some great bargains on beekeeping equipment on auction sites. There are several catalogues and websites that offer beekeeping equipment, and many of them offer beginners packages. If you acquire previously owned i.e., second-hand equipment you must ensure they are cleaned and sterilised. This can be done by washing with washing soda and flaming/scorching with a blow-lamp/torch.
What happens to the bees in a bee hive when the queen bee dies?
Just curious!
So does that mean that whilst the worker bees are waiting for the new queen larvae to hatch they get a holiday?
Every bee colony needs a queen bee. Out of all of the thousands of bees that inhabit a typical colony, only the queen can reproduce. Consequently, her death is a major event. To ensure the colony's survival, the worker bees will work to have a replacement ready for the queen if she is old or is not producing an adequate amount of eggs. This process is called supercedure. Although queen bees can live for 5 to 7 years, younger queens lay more eggs. So, in bee colonies managed by a human beekeeper, the supercedure process may be induced by deliberately injuring the queen. If the queen dies unexpectedly, the workers will raise emergency queens by switching worker bee larvae to a diet of royal jelly, a special food that turns female bee larvae into queen bees. In managed hives, the beekeeper will often provide a new queen instead of allowing emergency queens to claim the throne, as they are often smaller and not as productive.
During the supercedure process, worker bees build cells called "queen cups" to house their replacement queen bee larvae. In an emergency, regular worker bee breeding cells are expanded. In both supercedure and emergency situations, workers usually raise several replacement queens. Only one of these queens will survive. The honor of survival goes to the first queen to emerge from her queen cup. She will sting the other queens to death before they leave their cells. Then, if the old queen is still alive, she may kill her as well. Or, the workers may kill the old queen through what is known as the "cuddle death," surrounding her and pressing on her until she gets too hot and dies. After the old queen is dead, the new queen will seek out male bees from other hives to mate with to ensure that the colony does not become inbred. Once she has mated, the new queen will spend the rest of her life laying eggs, being fed and groomed by a retinue of worker bees.
If a queen dies unexpectedly and the workers are unable to raise an emergency queen to replace her, the colony will fail. Stimulated by the absence of a queen and the pheromones she secretes as well as the absence of new larvae, worker bees will sometimes begin laying eggs. However, only the queen bee has the instinct and ability to mate. Eggs laid by workers will still hatch, but because they are not fertilized, they will all be drones, or male bees. Drones do not collect any food or do any work, so the number of productive bees will dwindle until the colony disappears. The only hope for a queenless hive is for a new queen to be introduced from outside the hive by a beekeeper.
