Three hives on platform scales
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Three hives on platform scales |
For some reason, my fear of being stung was far greater than that of the average person. One time, when up on an extension ladder, a hornet came over to check me out. My reaction was to drop my hammer and almost fall off the ladder. Thinking about it afterwards, I realized that to avoid a simple sting, I could have been severely injured or hurt someone down below!
They say that the best way to overcome a fear is to confront it. It was time to test the theory. We had a friend who kept bees on his property so I talked to him. He introduced me to someone who sold bee equipment. I bought the materials to make a base, two full supers, three shallow supers, frames, inner cover and outer cover, as well as smoker, hive tool, brush, gloves, hat, net, and, of course, a book on beekeeping.
Description
For those who have little idea of the items I purchased, the following is a brief description. If you should decide you want more information, there are many books which will provide much better descriptions.
Base - a bottom board with three 3/4" x 3/4" side pieces in the shape of a 'U' around the top, leaving the front end open. When a super is placed on top of the base, the open front space allows the bees to enter and exit. This space can be reduced in the fall and more so in the winter.
Full Super - a four sided open ended (top and bottom) wooden box with hand holds for lifting. Inside the top, there are indentations on each end piece which will support the individual frames. The purpose of the full supers is to supply a home for the queen bee, the many thousands of worker bees and, in the summer months, the drones whose only purpose is to possibly fertilize a virgin queen. This is where the queen is supposed to lay her eggs, where the nursery bees care for the young and where nectar and pollen are stored. As the hive increases in size, another full super is usually added.
Shallow Supers - are the same as the above but less deep. Their purpose is usually to encourage the bees, which try to make much more honey than they can possibly use, to do so and then to take it from them. A good beekeeper is actually a good thief! The reason they are shallower is that a full super, if used only for storing excess honey, could easily weigh 40 pounds or more. It is hard enough to lift a full shallow super when it is on top of two full supers and three other shallow ones.
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Bees on a hot summer day |
Individual Frames - Inside the super, there is room for ten frames. The design of the 'modern' hive is based on the 'bee space' which is the space needed for a bee to pass through. Being very efficient, bees will fill in any space larger than that. The frames hang down into the hive just as bee comb does in a natural hive. Natural comb has rows of hexagonal shaped wax cell or 'barrels' back-to-back so that the bees can fill them with nectar, pollen or raise young in them. The distance to the next hanging comb is the 'bee space'. Having observed this engineering design, someone copied it. In assembling the frames a sheet of plastic foundation is placed in the middle. Both sides of this sheet are covered with a thin layer of beeswax with the hexagonal shape of the individual cells stamped into it. The rows of frames with the cells already started (well sort of), encourage the bees to build comb on either side of the plastic foundation. Because of the spacing of the frames, the bees stop building the cells when they arrive at the bee space between the frames. The beekeeper can easily open the hive and remove individual frames to check on the condition of the bees and replace the frames without hardly disturbing the bees at all (usually).
There are also molded one-piece plastic frames which some beekeepers favor and others don't like.
Inner Cover - is a thin piece of masonite in a wooden frame. It fits over the top super and under the cover. There is an oblong multipurpose hole in the middle. This is used to blow smoke through, sometimes feed the bees through, etc. Also, there is a often notch in the front to allow the bees a second entrance in the summer.
Outer Cover - is as it sounds, to cover and protect the hive. It is covered by a thin sheet of metal offering additional protection from the weather. A heavy stone or brick is usually placed on top for extra security.
Smoker - All cultures that have worked with bees have known that for whatever reason, smoke has a calming effect on the bees. The smoker is a stove through which air from a bellows is force into the burning fuel and smoke comes out the chimney or spout. It seems that every beekeeper has their own favorite fuel and would use no other. Mine is very simple, pine wood shavings. I save old burlap which I cut into strips 2" wide x 8" or 10" long for starting the fire, always making sure I have spares ready. As soon as I arrive at the hives, I start the smoker using the burlap and shavings.
Hive tool - is a combination pry bar and scraper. As bees seal (glue) every joint with propolis, a sharp pry bar is necessary to separate the supers and the individual frames. Often, extra propolis and wax must be scraped from the various parts.
Brush - for brushing off bees that are in the way or large black ants that sometimes take up residence in between the inner and outer covers.
Protection - I have seen pictures of men with bee beards and women in bikinis while working hives, but not I. My 'uniform' consists of a white bee suit, special leather gloves, lightweight helmut and net. It can be disconcerting to be working the hive and have a bee crawling up inside your pant leg or net.
Bee Books - Finding a good one was important as it became's my 'bible' for beekeeping.
Organizations - My state has bee associations in each county full of people who love to help and advise newcomers. They also offer courses and workshops. If I had known this when I started beekeeping, learning would have been so much easier.
For more information see The Middlesex County Beekeeper's Association
Working (with) the Bees
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My Godson was visiting and agreed to give me a hand checking the |
hives. Although his first experience working with bees, he did very well. |
Special woodworking skills are not required to assemble the hive pieces, simply time and patience. Two coats of a white latex paint are usually applied to the exterior for protection.
When the bee package I had ordered arrived, my friend showed me how to place them in the hive. It is important to understand that even after all these years since man started beekeeping, the honey bees are still wild creatures who will only remain in my artificial hive if I make it comfortable and convenient for them! So that is what I must try to do - to entice them to stay. Again, each beekeeper develops his/her own techniques for transferring the bees to the hive. The basic idea is to remove the queen cage from the bee package. The little cage which has a queen and a few workers to feed her is set to one side. I remove a few frames from the center of the hive, pour and shake the 3-6 thousand bees into the open space, having used sugar water and now smoke to calm them down and get them to go deeper into the hive. Then I replace the frames, puncture a small hole through the candy blocking her escape and insert the cage in between the frames and close up the hive.
If everything works out well, it takes a few days for the queen to dig her way out through the sugar candy. Meanwhile, the workers are getting accustomed to her smell (or she is taking on theirs) so that they do not kill her upon exiting the cage. I check in a few days to see if the cage is empty and remove it. Then I leave the hive alone for three weeks after which I check for brood.
As explained in the books, it is important to feed sugar water to the bees until they don't want it anymore because they are finally finding their own supplies. When a hive is started on new foundation, it will take more time for them to build out comb than if the comb has been previously built out. Eventually, the new hive should show plenty of brood comb and honey comb. Then it is time to start adding shallow supers. All honey stored in the shallow supers is for the beekeeper. As the nectar cures into honey, the bees cap the honey. When a shallow super is fully capped, it can be removed from the hive. There should always be other supers in various stages from building out of comb (new foundation) to capping over.
Harvesting the Honey
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Shallow supers waiting extraction |
Removing the cappings from the frames is so much easier with a decapping tool |
At the end of the first season, my friend let us separate the honey at his home using his extractor. The following year, we purchased a two frame, manual, stainless steel extractor.
There are various ways of removing the bees from the shallow supers. My method is to load them on to my garden cart with the bees still in them and bring them down to the picnic table. One at a time, I turn a shallow super on its side and, using an electric leaf blower, blow the bees out of the super. A cloud of bees is blown out, all of which head back to their respective hives by nightfall. I must then quickly put the super back in the cart and cover it with a blanket because the bees will just as quickly try to re-enter the super. The supers are taken into the pantry and stacked. A few bees do enter the house but they head for the windows, attracted by the light.
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Placing a frame into the extractor |
Separating the honey with centrifugal force |
Draining honey from the extractor |
The extractor is rinsed out and dried. I use cables and small turnbuckles to attach the extractor to the wooden frame of the trapdoor in the pantry floor.
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The honey is filtered and placed in clean jars |
Frames are removed from the supers two at a time. Before being placed in the extractor, one side of each frame must have the caps to the individual cells removed. Now, I use a special electric knife to remove the cappings. To prevent having to plug-in and unplug the tool when it gets too hot, I use an adjustable transformer capable of supplying the wattage of the knife. I simply lower the voltage to the point where the temperature is just right.
The machine uses centrifugal force to throw the honey out of one side each of two frames set in a basket rotated at high speed. The honey gathers in the bottom of the tank and is removed periodically. Frames of similar weight must be chosen or the extractor will be out of balance and vibrate loudly.
The honey is passed through a special filter and then poured into the cleaned jars. Most commercial honey is heated to prevent it from turning into a sugar state while on store shelves. This process changes the honey and reduces the quality. If our honey does sugar during storage, we simply place the sealed jars in the dishwasher when washing the dishes and that heat is sufficient to change it back to liquid form.
We have often had friends volunteer (even bringing their children to watch) to help extract the honey. We use at least five gallons of honey each year just for ourselves.
Winter to Spring
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Only two full supers remain on each hive for the winter |
Depending on the beekeeper, methods of preparing the bees to make it through the winter vary from almost nothing to wrapping the hive in insulation. If the hive doesn't appear to have enough honey stores to get them through the winter, sugar water can be supplied to them in the fall months. The front entrance is closed down to an opening the size of a nickel. The bees cluster around the queen and gradually consume the honey stored in the full supers. The movement of their wing muscles generates the heat required to keep them warm. On days above 45 degrees, they leave the hive to relieve themselves. I snow blow a path up around the hives, remove snow from the entrance and swivel a thin stick through the hole to make sure the entrance is clear of dead bees.
I do not believe in sealing up or insulating the hive because moisture must be allowed to escape as humidity may be their worst enemy during the winter.
By the middle of February, the queen should have started laying again in preparation for springtime. This is a dangerous time for the hive because they might have made it through the winter only to starve waiting for the first nectar flow. If necessary, sugar water should be fed to them until they don't want any more. Early spring inspection of the hive is important to see if they are doing fine on their own, need help or have died and a new package of bees must be ordered as a replacement.
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Thoughts
The bees are going to do their own thing whether you are constantly watching them or not. Most of the time the beekeeper is wise to simply leave them alone. If one suspects that the queen is not doing well or that additional supers are needed, etc., then the hive should be opened up and examined. Over the years, I have purchased old platform scales, repaired, cleaned and oiled them and installed the hives on the scales. The scales are still accurate to within a pound. I am able to keep track of how each hive is doing without even entering the hives and am warned for when I should. One year I had a hive that increased in weight 10 to15 pounds a day for nearly a month. As in most endeavors, there are negatives as well as positives. There have always been diseases and now two varieties of mites are causing the loss of many hives. The latest books in beekeeping, beekeeper's associations, and the internet offer the best methods of combating these problems.
Because of the mite problem, few wild hives survive for long on their own. This means that our trees, flowers and vegetables are more dependent than ever on the aperculturalist's bees for pollination. We are always fascinated watching the bees at work and take for granted the contribution they make. Besides, they helped me get rid of my fear of stinging insects.
Contact: info@manninghouse1860.com