Lorain County Beekeepers Association

Transcription

1 Lorain County Beekeepers Association

2 1. Telescoping Cover 2. Inner Cover 3. Shallow Super 4. Medium Super 5. Queen Excluder 6. Hive Body 7. Bottom Board 8. Entrance Reducer 9. Hive Stand

3 Deep, Medium and Shallow Eight Frames Ten Frames Nucs Your personal health issues

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5 Purpose: The thick bottom board of the beehive which provides a landing surface for the bees to enter the hive. Also available as a screened bottom.

6 Purpose: Similar to a picture frame, used to hold the foundation for the bees to build their comb for brood and honey production. Available in plastic and wood. Frames available in deep, medium and shallow sizes. Can buy preassembled or assemble yourself. Top bar the largest to aid in frame removal when checking your hive.

7 Sheet of beeswax or plastic which consists of uniform honeycombs.

8 Purpose : Brood chamber for the queen to lay eggs. Consists of 10 or 8 frames. Measures 9 1/8 deep.

9 Purpose: Limits the bees access to the hive Controls ventilation and temperature during cooler months.

10 Purpose: Prevents the queen from laying eggs in the supers during honey season.

11 Purpose : Most popular size for surplus honey storage. Measures 6 5/8 deep.

12 Purpose: Used for surplus honey storage, mostly for comb honey. Measures 5 11/16 deep.

13 Purpose: Seals the top of the hive to provide protection from wind, rain, sun and predators.

14 1. Telescoping Cover 2. Inner Cover 3. Shallow Super 4. Medium Super 5. Queen Excluder 6. Hive Body 7. Bottom Board 8. Entrance Reducer 9. Hive Stand

15 Personal Hygiene Properly clothed Inspection times

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17 Available in a variety of types and materials.

18 Sterilize it after each hive inspection using a 10:1 water / bleach solution. Can also use isopropyl rubbing alcohol. Recommended to have one hive tool for each hive so there is no cross contamination between hives.

19 Use fuels that burn slowly and give a lot of smoke! Dry wood chips, dry leaves, dry pine needles, twigs Compressed wood pellets

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26 Notebook to record your bee activity: Date, time, temperature, weather conditions. Colony temperament. Number of frames of brood, honey and pollen. Manipulation made in the hive that day. Treatments medication / feeding / supplements Nectar source. Location of queen. Anything unusual queen cups, increase in drone production, presence of mites.. Will help during your second year as a reference as to what you did and when you did it.

27 Lorain County Bee Inspector Jon Reichel Lorain County Beekeepers website Ohio State Beekeepers Association Books: Beekeeping for Dummies The Sacred Bee Beekeepers Handbook

28 Check with city, township and village ordinances to make sure you are able to keep bees. Low traffic areas Easy access for hive inspection Sun / shade Windbreak Fresh water

29 Hive entrance to face south to southeast Level ground Elevated Can t find the ideal location, don t worry, bees adapt

30 Forms are available: Ohio Department of Agriculture Division of Plant Health, Apiary Program

31 Package installation

32 Nucs Package Bees

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35 When you get home from picking up your bees place the bees in a cool, safe, dark place and let them rest. Spray them with a little temperate water. Prepare a spray bottle of 1:1 sugar syrup. 30 minutes before installing, spray the bees lightly with the sugar syrup.

36 Step 2: Gather your equipment Hive Tool Pocket Knife Thumb tacks or duct tape Marshmallow, fondant Camera Put your veil on and head to your hive with your bees!

37 Use your hive tool to pry the wood cover off or remove the staples for the bee package. Bang the package down on the ground sharply to knock the bees to the bottom of the cage.

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42 Remove 5 of the frames from your hive. Remove the cork at the end of the queen cage with a small pocket knife. Check to make sure there is candy in the hole. Protect your queen!

43 Position the queen cage so the screen faces sideways, with the candy side up. Place it just below the top bar and on the inside of the 5th frame, leaving a gap so she can get out. Attach the tab to the side or top of the frame with a thumbtack and / or duct tape.

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45 Spray the bees one last time with the sugar syrup. Bang the package down so the bees drop to the bottom.

46 Remove the can of sugar syrup covering the hole Flip the package upside-down and tap / pour / shake out about ½ of the bees directly over the queen. These bees will get her scent on them. Dump the rest of the bees into the open area where the remaining five frames will be replaced.

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49 Replaced the remaining 5 frames Make sure the frames fit snugly together and the space between the two end frames and sides of the deep hive body are equal to each other.

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51 Replace inner cover with the notched ventilation hole facing up. Replace the telescoping cover with it pushed forward with the gaps on sides equal. Place a heavy rock or paving stone on top to keep the wind from blowing it off. Leave the box your bees came in next to the hive for stragglers to find their way into the hive. Add your entrance reducer to the smallest opening.

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54 Once you have installed your bees in the hive, you will need to feed them until they have a source of pollen and nectar. Expect to feed until bees have about frames of comb drawn out or they stop eating your food. Stop feeding when you put your honey supers on. Also need to feed during summer dearths.

55 Feeding Your Bees in the Spring 11 cups of water 5 pounds of white sugar Bring your water to a rolling boil in a stockpot. Turn off the burner, remove the stockpot from the heat source and mix 1/2 of the sugar into the hot water, stirring until it is completely dissolved. Once the mixture is no longer cloudy, add the remaining sugar and stir until fully dissolved. Once it is completely cooled you can add this mixture to your feeder. It is very important that you do not allow the mixture to continue to cook as you add the sugar because the sugar will caramelize and make your bees sick.

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57 Check to see if the queen has been released. If she s not in the cage, close everything up and walk away! It s critical to leave the bees alone the first week to give them time to accept their queen. If they are stressed, they may reject her! If she is still in the cage and alive, spray the candy with a little sugar syrup and recheck in a couple of days.

58 Metal container with air pumping bellow attached. Smoldering fire built in metal container and bellow pumps out smoke through the nozzle.

59 Use fuels that burn slowly and give a lot of smoke! Dry wood chips Dry leaves Dry pine needles Twigs Compressed wood pellets

60 Crumpled newspaper size of a tennis ball and place in bottom. Light paper. Squeeze bellows and light the paper Matchstick size kindling Add increasingly thicker kindling

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62 Smoke masks scents which bees rely on to communicate. Use only natural things in your smoker. Put a puff or two into entrance to announce your arrival. Puff smoker into the oval hole of the inner cover, replace the telescoping cover and wait 30 seconds.

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64 Hold the frame at the tabs of the top bar Turn vertically like a book Return horizontal and view back side.

65 Replace frames gently Placement of frames Equal distance from outside of frames.

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67 7 of 10 Rule Add a box when your bees have 7 of 10 frames drawn out with comb Adding a second deep Pull a couple of drawn frames from your 1 st deep and switch them with empty frames from the 2 nd deep to encourage the bees to move up. Don t pull drawn frames from the center of the hive, keep brood together

68 7 of 10 frames drawn out in second deep box Make sure the queen is not in honey super, you don t want her laying eggs there.

69 Continue to follow 7 of 10 rule. Add as many supers as desired depending upon how soon you plan on extracting honey. Always add new super closest to the deep box

70 Propolis is a resin-like material from the buds of poplar and cone-bearing trees.

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72 Heart and sole of the hive. Without her, the hive will not survive. Only one queen in the hive. Produces chemical smells to keep the colony under control. Lays eggs to make babies. Can live for 2 or more years. Should be replaced every 2 years.

73 Most of the bees in the hive are worker bees and live for 6 weeks Nurse Bee Guard Bee Field Bee Takes care of the queen

74 The only male bee in the colony Larger and stronger than the worker bee. No pollen baskets. Cannot build comb. Cannot defend the hive due to no stinger. His only job is to impregnate the queen. Drones need to be taken care of by the worker bees also!

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76 The queen lays an egg that looks like a piece of rice standing up in the comb in that has been cleaned and prepared by the worker bees to raise new honey bees. The fertilized eggs become worker bees and the non-fertilized eggs are drone bees. They are in an upright position which make it hard to see.

77 Larva After 3 days the egg hatches into a larva which are snowy white and look like little grub worms. The nurse bees start to feed them and they are very hungry. First they get royal jelly and then to go a mixture of honey and pollen, sometimes called bee bread. By day 8, they are 5 times the size they were when born. The worker bee then seal the larvae in the cell with a porous capping of tan beeswax. Once the larvae are sealed, they spin a cocoon around their bodies.

78 Pupa Lots is going on underneath the cocoon and behind the wax capping. The cocoon is starting to look like an adult bee. The eyes, wings and legs are developing. Eyes are first pink, then blue, then black. Lastly the fine hairs that will cover the bees body start to develop. After 12 days the adult bee will chew her way through the wax capping to join her brothers and sisters.

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82 Agenda 1. Diseases 2. Pests 3. External Stresses 4. Strong Hive 5. Weak Hive

83 1. American Foulbrood 2. European Foulbrood 3. Chalkbrood 4. Sacbrood 5. Stonebrood 6. Nosema

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87 Signs & Symptoms: Brown or reddish spots on the white larvae Badly deformed newly emerged bees Seeing varroa mites on adult bees Colony suddenly dies in late autumn Treatments: Powder Sugar Shake Spistan Apivar Checkmite Mite Away Quick Strips Apiguard

88 Varoa Mites cause viruses Terramycin kills good bacteria in the bee gut Suggest DMF Probiotics after mite treatment

89 Fungus that affects the intestional tract, like dysentry Signs & Symptoms: Colonies do not build up Bees appear weak, shiver, crawl aimlessly Spotting on the hive Treatments: Fumigilin-B (antibiotic placed in syrup water)

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94 Sudden die off of a colony of bees Causes Parasites, pathogens, pesticides, other possibilities Warning Signs All or nearly all of bees disappear suddenly None or few bees in the hive Capped brood is left behind Pollen and capped honey in hive Empty hive is not invaded by opportunists (robbing bees, wax moths, small hive beetle, etc )

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96 Signs & Symptoms: Weak bees stumbling around on ground Bees cannot fly, fall to ground Wings are K-wings (could also be Nosema) Bees abandon hive in early spring Treatments: Sugar and grease patties Menthol crystals Essential oils Honey B Healthy Apiguard Api-Life Mite Away Strips Apivar

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99 Signs & Symptoms: Little black or dark brown beetles scurrying across the comb Creamy larva on the comb and bottom board Treatment: CheckMite GardStar

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102 Signs & Symptoms: Sign of a weak colony Treatments: Try to keep hive strong PDB crystals (para dichlorobenzene) Para Moth Cold Weather

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105 Signs & Symptoms: Fungal disease that affects larvae Damp conditions in early spring Treatments: No medical treatment needed Can be confused with chilled brood Can help bees by removing chalkbrood yourself.

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108 Weather Winter Extreme Heat Dearth Signs: Bees hanging out Bearding

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110 Signs of a strong hive Good laying pattern of brood Good honey production Adequate number of workers vs drone No queen cells or cups No pests or disease Happy Bees!

111 Signs of a weak hive: Spotty brood Queen cells Queen cups Lots of drone brood Bee population not increasing Disease Pests Poor honey production Unhappy Bees Unhappy Bee Keeper!

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