Beeman's Beehut

Monitor the Humming of bees

The Beeman — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 22:16:51 +0000

In BBC news there is a Article written about how Scotland they are putting microphones into beehives to study the hum of honey bees. This study will hopefully teach entomologist more about honey bees and their behavior.

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Organic Beekeeping

The Beeman — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 13:00:14 +0000

Looking into CCD (colony collapse disorder) I found some articles on organic beekeeping. From what they were saying was, those beekeepers who were doing organic beekeeping didn’t have any losses to their hives. This had me scratching my head and doing some research on this. I have herd of doing organic beekeeping but never tried it. I am however convinced that if we were to take up a stance to completely limit or eliminate the chemicals in which we use in beekeeping it may have a good impact.

No Chemicals, Whats this all about? Won’t the bees get sick or the mites kill them?

Well, see the first thing I’d like to point out is there are ways to prevent mites without using anything on the market. Upon doing some research I found that the foundation we use today may actually be hurting our bees. The cells in the foundation are roughly 5.4-5.5mm for regular worker foundation. If you see bees build their comb naturally you will find that natural worker comb is from 4.6-5.1mm which could mean a big difference when it comes time to capping brood. Some say having smaller cells takes a day less for bees to cap thus less chance for varroa mites to get in on the brood to reproduce. A single day in this instance can make a big difference and create less work for the bees. Here is something I found out. Did you know that bees which build their comb naturally often build it faster than they do on foundation? I didn’t know this but it makes sense because when ever we try and help out nature, we tend to screw up. I’ll talk about diseases later.

How do you get the bees to build their own cells on the frames without the comb being built every where?

Well, you have a frame and on the top bar for most frames its usually flat with a wedge you can pry out for the foundation. Don’t pry that wedge out of the top bar instead cut a 45 degree angle downward on both sides of the bar. You will have a wide part on top and a narrow part on the bottom of the bar which the bees will build on. Having this narrow edge on the bottom will help the bees figure out “ hey we’re suppose to build here on the bars and not in the big empty area between the bars”.

Now about diseases, you would want to pick good locations to put your hives. If your hives are down in a moist area all the time then there is a greater risk for foul brood. Going back to the cell diameter, this is also key in preventing disease, in that spores are less likely to get into the hive. If you go to www.beesource.com/pov/lusby/index.html. You will see an interesting article about a couple who studied bees.

Linked in Kentucky Beekeeping Group

The Beeman — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 13:00:07 +0000

Hi, I just created a Linkedin group for Kentucky Beekeeping . I’m hoping that we can get enough beekeepers from around Kentucky onto this group to chat about local events and beekeeping stuff.

Colony Collapse Disorder Caused by a Fly?

The Beeman — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 23:00:37 +0000

Over in California they are finding a type of fly which may be causing the bees to leave the colony. The fly lays an egg within the honey bee which causes the to take on zombie-like behavior. Click on the link for more information.

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Beekeeping Video of the day!!

The Beeman — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 13:00:44 +0000

I came across this video ant thought it to be totally cool!! This shows everything from beekeeping to honey mead making.

Weird Beehive’s

The Beeman — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 16:16:56 +0000

So I was out surfing the internet trying to find some pictures of an outer cover to compare with my latest project of building my own hives and I came across this.

This is Phillips Urban beehive concept which I think is re-donkulous. I really don’t know who designed it but these urban ideas never seem to hit mainstream.

ON a different site I found a Cedar Strip Custom Beehive which has a more modern feel for it.

I find this hive beautiful and would like to see a hive like this in my backyard.

Then finally everyone’s favorite HELLO KITTY!!

Beekeeping in Afghanistan

The Beeman — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 13:00:53 +0000

As dusty as it was over in Afghanistan, there are to my surprise honey bees over there. One of the Agriculture team’s had specialized in beekeeping and so I asked him some questions about bees in that area. Apparently there used to be a lot of bee hives throughout Paktya province. He took me over to the hive and we opened up to look at the bees. They were extremely gentle and really didn’t care at all if we went into the colony. They color of the bees were darker like that of the Carniolan breed.

I was trying to find the pictures to the swarm which came from this colony and went into the wall of our chapel. They went in but the guy’s got them out with little hassle.

CCD Video found on Quest

The Beeman — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 13:00:45 +0000

Here’s a video on CCD I found on Quest. Personally I believe that beekeepers feeding bees every spring instead of letting the bees storing more honey could be the problem. The video is interesting though, Click here for the site.

Become a Beekeeper

The Beeman — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 16:01:30 +0000

Here are the top 10 Reasons to become a beekeeper. Just randomly found this site with some funny reasons to become a beekeeper. I personally like number 10.

You can threaten people you don’t like with a handful of bees in the face and they won’t think you are joking.

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Beekeeping Schools Iowa

The Beeman — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 15:55:29 +0000

The Secretary of Agriculture in Iowa there is encouraging people to do beekeeping around the state. There are many schools apparently setting up to offer beekeeping classes in this coming 2012 year and hopefully there will be many new beekeepers coming out to learn.

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