Planning and Hive Placement

Location is everything. This is should be considered prior to installing your bees in their permanent home. Season changes, climate, sunlight, and the elements are all things that can affect the bees and your ability to care for them. It is also much more difficult to move your hives to a different location during the middle of their foraging season. Here are some helpful tips to determine the location: Sun or Shade: Depending on where you live, the hive should be placed in early morning sun. This gets the bees out of their hive earlier in the day to forage. In the Northeast, hives can remain in the full sun for the entire season. However, in places with warmer climates, hives should receive some afternoon shade. Wind Protection: Hives should be placed in an area with a wind break, such as a fence, shed, shrubbery, trees, or bushes. This is especially true in climates where temperatures drop below freezing. Northern facing sides of the hive should especially be protected in the winter in Canada. Ideally, having the hive entrances face either east or south, especially in Western Canada. Ease of Access: You should be able to see the hives and access them easily too. This helps you to provide the inspections and care that the hives requires. Water Source: A water source should be nearby. This can be a birdbath or even a small water pot filled with pebbles for landing and water. Space Between: Make sure you put proper space between the hives in order to work them. You should be able to comfortably walk between and around them. Perfect Height: You will need to elevate your hives on cinder blocks or a platform to help keep ground moisture out and allow you work the hive without harm to your back. Elevated hives make for easier lifting. However, do not make the platform too high. You do not want the honey supers difficult to access during the foraging season. Direction of the Entrance: The hive entrances should face in the opposite direction of human foot traffic. The bees won’t mind, and this helps to prevent the bees perceiving people and pets that walk-in front of the hive entrances as potential threats. Predator Consideration: Keep you r eyes open for any critters like skunks or bear. Determine if you have predators in the area. Electric or strong fencing may be required to ensure the safety of your hives.

The Hive

Modern honeybee colonies are designed to mimic the dimensions and environment of a bees nest built naturally by wild honeybees, except with the ability to remove individual frames of honeycomb for inspection and manipulation. The space between each frame, known as the "bee space", is approximately 8 mm. This space is sufficient for the bees to move around, but not big enough so that the bees will build additional honeycomb in the space. This facilitates easy removal of the frames for inspection or extraction.

The most common hive used is the Langstroth beehive, which consists of:

The Basic Tools

The basic tools used by a beekeeper to manipulate include the following: Smoker: The smoker is used to calm the bees while the beekeeper inspects, or works around the hive. It's believed the smoke sends a signal to the bees to consume as much honey as possible in case the fire forces them to abandon the hive. While they are busy eating, the beekeeper can work around them. The smoker has a fire chamber that the beekeeper fills with flammable material (such as wood shavings or dried grass) and lights so that it smolders. Squeezing the smoker's bellows sends a puff of smoke into the hives. Hive Tool: The hive tool is used to open the hive, loosen hive parts, lift frames, and scrape up propolis and excess wax. It can even remove the venom sac from the skin following a bee sting. Beekeepers never visit a hive without this tool. Bee Brush: This brush is used to gently remove bees from the frames when collecting honey. Beekeepers are always careful not to hurt bees when removing them. Bee Suite/Veil: Most beekeepers wear special clothing to protect themselves from bee stings while they work. They should always wear a hat and veil to avoid stings around the face and eyes, but they can also wear special pants, plus a jacket and gloves. During honey removal, in unfavourable weather, and late season, it's most important to be well protected, since bees may be more defensive or aggressive. The suit is usually white, since lighter colours are more calming to bees. Beekeeping Gloves: Beekeeper gloves, usually made of leather or canvas, are very thin and pliable to allow the beekeeper more dexterity in working with bees and to reduce the likelihood of accidentally harming them. Frame rest: This tool is a simple, yet handy device that allows beekeepers to hang frames on the side of the hive while working. This means there is more room to manoeuvre frames while inspecting the hive, without crushing bees.

Basic Colony Examination

Beekeepers check their colonies approximately once every 10 days from spring until fall to ensure the colonies have good nutrition, strong health, and enough space. The best time to check the hive is on a warm sunny day with little wind to prevent chilling the brood and to take advantage of having most of the field bees away from the hive. The main things to consider when conducting an inspection are: Are there fresh eggs present? This signifies that a queen is present, even if she is not seen during the inspection. Is the brood pattern good? A spotty appearance to the brood pattern may indicate a poorly performing queen or disease issues. Does the colony have enough honey and pollen? If there is not enough food stores, and there is little external food present, the colony may need supplemental feeding. Are there any signs of disease? If so, appropriate disease treatment protocols may need to be initiated. Is there enough space? If the colony is strong and there is an abundant food source, a lack of space will cause the colony to swarm. Harvesting Honey While people raise bees for various reasons, most beekeepers aim to harvesting the surplus honey their bees produce. The honey harvest occurs in late July and August when nectar flows are at their best. Most hobbyist beekeepers use a manual or electric honey extractor. Beekeepers place harvested uncapped frames into the extractor and allow it to spin. Once a few minutes of spinning is completed, the honey is filtered from wax and debris through a series of sieves into a collecting pail. Once the honey is in the pail, it’s good to eat. What a rewarding feeling!!

Harvesting Honey

While people raise bees for various reasons, most beekeepers aim to harvesting the surplus honey their bees produce. The honey harvest occurs in late July and August when nectar flows are at their best. Most hobbyist beekeepers use a manual or electric honey extractor. Beekeepers place harvested uncapped frames into the extractor and allow it to spin. Once a few minutes of spinning is completed, the honey is filtered from wax and debris through a series of sieves into a collecting pail. Once the honey is in the pail, it’s good to eat. What a rewarding feeling!!

Hive Products - Enjoying the Spoils

It's common knowledge that most bees make honey, but did you know that they also provide us with wax, pollen, royal jelly, propolis and venom. These by-products have different uses but are all considered beneficial to our health. Most common products include: Honey: Honey is a sticky substance that bees make by gathering nectar from plants and processing it in their stomachs. They keep the honey in cells, adding an enzyme to ripen it. It's stored as a food reserve for the colony in winter, but since they make more than they need, beekeepers can collect the surplus. Honey is used to sweeten food and honey wine (mead); however, it does have medical properties as it is known to have antibacterial properties that can help prevent or heal infections. Wax: When they reach a certain age, bees naturally produce wax flakes in glands on the underside of the abdomen. They use the wax to build cells in which they raise their broods and store honey. Beekeepers can collect the wax. Beeswax is used to make candles, used in furniture polish and in cosmetics. It was traditionally used-in decorating Ukrainian Easter eggs, or pysanky. Propolis: Propolis is a sticky substance that bees collect from trees and other plants. They use it to seal cracks in the hive (it's often called "bee glue"). Propolis also has antimicrobial properties, which help keep the beehive sterile. It is to make a wood varnish, skin ointments and other health products. To collect it, beekeepers place a trap at the top of the hive. The trap is like a grid, with holes too small for the bees to pass through enticing them to fill them in with propolis. Pollen: Bees rely on pollen as a source of protein. They collect it from flowering plants. If you look closely at a bee, you may see pollen stuck to her hairs or bunched on her hind legs. Beekeepers use special traps to collect the pollen. It is usually marketed as a supplement that can boost the immune system and provide many other benefits. Royal Jelly: Royal jelly is a very nutritious substance worker bees produce through their glands and feed to the larvae and queen. In traditional Chinese culture, it is believed that eating royal jelly increases energy and prolongs youthfulness.

Record Keeping and Maintenance

Throughout the busy season, beekeepers maintain a record of what's going on. It's important to keep track of when signs of disease or pests appear, methods taken to control them and subsequent results. Beekeepers need to keep track of the dates and hives in which activities take place. When things slowdown in the apiary, beekeepers maintain and fix their hives and processing equipment in preparation for the next season. They also order supplies they might need, such as new hive boxes or jars for bottling honey.