Basic Beekeeping Course
The Basic or Beginning Beekeeping Course is designed to familiarize you with the BASICS needed to advance to higher education as far as beekeeping goes. Of course it is not intended to be all inclusive nor all encompassing. Beekeeping is for many a hobby, art or perhaps a profession with many different facets. Our intent is to help you on your way to a beegin with your new hobby.
The Apis Mellifera or honey bee. The bee that most everyone is familiar with and is seen on plants pollinating or collecting nectar. Of this genus there are several (24) different races of bees. That may sound like a lot of bees, but we will be discussing the basic bee most everyone uses--the Italian honey bee (A. mellifera ligustica). It was introduced to the United States around 1859.
Chapter 1
A lesson on races of bees:
Italian(Apis mellifera linguistica) Probably the most widely used bee in the United States. It varies in color from blonde to a rustic brown. One will normally see the term three banded Italians. That is because you will see the bands (rings of darkness) on the abdomen. The Italian honey bee builds large populations of bees, use a lot of nectar and pollen to feed this large population, produce honey crops in some areas of 200 pounds per hive, and over-winterswell in large clusters. Most are gentle and easy to work.
Carnolian (Apis mellifera carnica) This is a dark bee. In fact the queen is very hard to find in a hive unless they are marked. They thrive in cooler climates. Although they go into winter cluster with smaller populations than the Italian, they use up less food and build up fast in the spring of the year when nectar and pollen become available. Pure Carnolians are very gentle bees and are recommended to the hobbyist who is just beginning "the beekeeping experience." They do demonstrate a tendency to swarm. Cross-bred Carnolian beesseem to be a bit aggressive.
Caucasian(Apis mellifera caucasica) This a gray bee. It comes from a region of the Caucasus Mountains in Europe. Pure Caucasians are gentle and prolific. They winter well and do not swarm excessively. The chief criticism is that they tend to build burr comb between frames and gather and use large amounts of propolis.
German Black (Apis mellifera mellifera) Originally from throughout northern Europe, this was the first honey bee brought to the New World. They are brown/black in color and winter well. German black bees are nervous, aggressive and build up slowly in spring.
Africanized Honey bee (Apis mellifera scutellata) and its hybrids - These honey bees originated throughout east Africa. In the 1950s, this race was imported to Brazil and began migrating northward. Compared to European races, this bee and its hybrids are extremely defensive, have smaller nests, the queen emerges earlier and swarm more frequently.
Other names will pop out at you from the various ads. These will include: Starline, Midnite, Double Hybrid, Russian, Buckfast, New World Carnolian, Minnesota Hygienic Italians, Russian, etc. These bees are still lines developed from the above races of bees.
As a new beekeeper, experiment with different races or lines of bees. This is to find which breed works best for you in your area or particular requirement. It is almost like comparing a Chevrolet and a Ford. They both get you to where you want to go most of the time.
Chapter 2
Workers - Reproductively underdeveloped females that do all the work of the colony. A colony may have 2,000 to 60,000 workers. The workers tend the queen and young drones as well as the young brood. All bees develop through a complete metamorphosis: after three days, the egg hatches into a worm-like larva which feeds voraciously and grows and molts each day for about four days. It then goes into a resting stage, the pupa, which lasts for another few days in a capped cell until the bee emerges as an adult. This process takes 16-24 days depending on season and class of bee. As mentioned previously, workers feed the young larvae and seal the pupa into the cell. They also feed the emerged young adults until they are old enough to fend for themselves. The young worker tends larvae (nurse bee) and uses its wings to help ventilate the hive. As it gathers strength, it will start cleaning out old used cells for reuse, may tend the queen (attendants) or young drones, or work on capping cells. Depending on the season, and after a few days have passed, the worker works at gathering operations. The bee will fly out of the hive and visit flowers in search of nectar and pollen (field bee), or will visit trees for harvesting resin to make propolis. The propolis is used as glue and caulk to seal cracks in the hive. The nectar and pollen are collected and returned to the hive for use and/or storage.
Queen - A fully fertile female specialized for producing eggs.
When a queen dies or is lost, workers select a few young worker larvae and feed them a special food called "royal jelly." These special larvae develop into queens. Therefore, the only difference between workers and queens is the quality of the larval diet. There is usually only one queen per colony. The queen also affects the colony by producing chemicals called "pheromones" that regulate the behavior of other bees.
Drones - Male bees. A colony may have 0 to 500 drones during spring and summer.
Drones fly from the hive and mate in the air with queens from other colonies. Drones are tolerated in the hive only when there is a possibility that they may mate with a queen. Thus a few are tolerated in spring and fall, more in the summer, but none in the winter. The workers keep the drones out of the hive to starve to death in the autumn. Drones, like queens, lack the body parts to effectively harvest nectar or pollen to feed themselves. Drones also lack a stinger of any kind. They are designed for mating only.
Chapter 3
Life Stages of a Bee.
Under normal circumstances the queen lays all the eggs in the hive. There are four stages of embryo development--egg, larva, pupa, and adult. This kind of development is called complete metamorphosis. Workers and queens develop from fertilized eggs and drones from non-fertilized eggs. The egg is incubated in the nursery region called a brood nest at a temperature of approximately 91°- 97° F. Once hatched, the larva is fed between 150-800 times a day. and gains about 900 times the weight of the egg by the fifth day. They are mass-fed brood food called worker-jelly and gradually changed over to pollen and honey. Now the cells are capped over and develop into what their genetic traits and food sources allow them to become. As she emerges, she will become a vital part of hive life. This may include feeding and cleaning larva, tending to the queen, building new comb, capping cells of brood--honey or pollen, heating or cooling the hive or other duties as necessary. Afterwards she will become a field worker, gathering pollen, nectar or water.
The queen develops from a fertilized egg after 3 days to a larva at about day 4.5, then develops into a pupa at day 7.5 becomes capped, then emerges at day 16. The worker develops from a fertilized egg after 3 days, to a larva at about day 5, then develops into a pupa at day 9 becomes capped, then emerges at day 21. The drone hatches from an egg on day 3, develops into a larva on day 5, becomes capped at day 10 then emerges at day 24.
The lifespan of a queen is 2-5 years, a worker 15-38 days in the summer and 140-320 days in the winter, while the drone lives a mere 4-8 weeks...
The queen lays all her eggs in hexagonal beeswax cells built by workers. Developing young honey bees (called "brood") go through four stages: the egg, the larva (plural "larvae"), the inactive pupa (plural "pupae") and the young adult.Newly emerged workers begin working almost immediately. As they age, workers do the following tasks in this sequence: clean cells, circulate air with their wings, feed larvae, practice flying, receive pollen and nectar from foragers, guard hive entrance and forage. The castes have different development times.
Development time of honey bee.
Days after Laying EggStage / Queen / Worker / Drone
Hatching / 3 / 3 / 3
Cell capped / 8 +- 1 / 9 +- 1 / 10 +-1
Emerges from cell / 16 +- 1 / 20 +- 1 / 24 +-1
Laying, foraging / flying / 28 +- 5 / 42 +- 7 / 38 +- 5
Unlike colonies of social wasps and bumble bees, honey bee colonies live year after year. Therefore, most activity in a bee colony is aimed at surviving the next winter.
During winter, bees cluster in a tight ball. In January, the queen starts laying eggs in the center of the nest. Because stored honey and pollen are used to feed these larvae, colony stores may fall dangerously low in late winter when brood production has started but plants are not yet producing nectar or pollen. When spring "nectar flows" begin, bee populations grow rapidly. By April and May, many colonies are crowded with bees, and these congested colonies may split and form new colonies by a process called "swarming." A crowded colony rears several daughter queens, then the original mother queen flies away from the colony, accompanied by up to 60 percent of the workers. These bees cluster on some object such as a tree branch while scout bees search for a more permanent nest site - usually a hollow tree or wall void. One of the daughter queens that was left behind inherits the original colony. After the swarming season, bees concentrate on storing honey and pollen for winter. By late summer, a colony has a core of brood below insulating layers of honey, pollen and a honey-pollen mix. In autumn, bees concentrate in the lower half of their nest, and during winter they move upward slowly to eat the honey and pollen.
Chapter 4
BEE BIOLOGY.
Main Structures: The bee has 3 main external structures. The head, thorax and the abdomen. Located on the head are five sets of eyes, the antennae and feeding structures. On the thorax or middle section of the bee are the muscles that control the wings, the 3 pair of legs and the respiratory system. The abdomen is the longest part of the bee and contains the wax secreting glands, the sting, and ovaries (queen only). There are numerous other parts which will be covered later.
The Head: Bee vision: 5 sets of eyes-- three simple (ocelli) and two compound. The compound eyes are composed of many light sensitive cells called ommatidia. This is how bees perceive color, light, and directional information. The feeding structures of the bee include the tongue (proboscis), and the jaw or mandible. The tongue is used for lapping or sucking fluids such as nectar, honey or water. The jaws are used for shaping beeswax, manipulating pollen and glandular secretions and moving objects.
Thorax: The thorax has the muscles which control the legs and wings. On the legs have special pollen collecting structures or hairs which are used for groomingalso. Here on the abdomen is located the spiracles. These are the respiratory system for the bee--this is the site of tracheal mites. The thorax also has an armor plating to keep the bee from drying out just like on the abdomen.
Abdomen: The abdomen is the longest section of the bee and has armor plating called tergites (top) and sternites (bottom) that protect the bee and keep it from drying out. The wax secreting glands are located on the underside of the abdomen and a scent gland located just above the sting. The hind legs have pollen baskets in which to carry the fresh pollen back to the hive for use to feed young bees. This section also contains the sting. This is a barbed object which penetrates the skin and continues to pump in venom into the victim until it is scraped off. Honey bees can only sting once, since it ultimately causes their death--unlike the yellow jacket or hornet, which may sting several times.
The sting of a bee also releases an alarm odor readily picked up by other bees--so in order to reduce the number of stings--remove the sting as quickly as possible and smoke the area to cover the odor.
Chapter 5
Bee Nutrients
Pollen: Pollen is stored in broodcomb cells and is the main supply of protein and vitamins for the hive. Pollen is 6 to 28% protein by weight and usually contains the 10 amino acids essential for bees.
Nectar: Nectar is from 5 to 80% sugar but is less than 0.2% in protein, so nectar is the carbohydrate supply for the hive. Nectar is placed in honeycomb cells and the bees tending the honeycomb evaporate the water from the nectar by rapid wing movement to create ventilation. When the amount of water remaining in the nectar is less than 18%, the mixture is called honey and the bees cap off the cells. A mixture of honey and pollen is called "bee bread" and is the food for most larvae and bees. When a worker egg has been selected to become a queen, it is moved to a much larger queen cell and is fed large quantities of "royal jelly" which is similar to bee bread but contains more mandibular gland secretions and more honey (34% vs 12%). The larger cell for growth, larger food supply, additional carbohydrate, and more worker secretions results in the development of a queen.
Chapter 6
SUPPLIES
Not all beekeepers use all of these components. Many variations are dependant upon individual beekeeping style, purpose, environmental conditions, etc...
Bee veils: Purpose: To protect the head from bee stings. Bees are defensive insects and will seek out anything that disturbs the hive. They are attracted especially to the eyes and nose. They also become entangled in one's hair. For the beginner, it is not a comfortable feeling to have a bee crawling around in one's hair. Choices include square, round, and jackets with attached veils. Prices vary. If you can afford the expense, we would recommend a complete suit with attached bee veil. This type of suit will provide the maximum of protection from stings.