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What's Happening To All The Bees?
Watch a web video on Honeybee Colony Collapse Disorder from Quest - KQED Public
Television
Small Scale Beekeeping: A Complete Guide Book This is a manual for
getting started with small scale beekeeping development projects. The
intention is to provide an overview of beekeeping and its possibilities as a
tool for development. No attempt is made to duplicate technical information
given in other readily available resources on beekeeping. The idea is to
provide an orientation to the realities of small-scale development
beekeeping. once oriented to these realities, you should be able to adapt
more technical material to the situation in your community.
BeekeepingStarterKit.com
(a sales site) Learning Center has a series of PDF files and online tips pages worth
perusing:
Beekeeping Basics - (Formerly
Fundamentals of Beekeeping) - Text covers the basics of beginning beekeeping.
Information on managing parasites, pests and diseases; honey production and
processing; pollination; handling beeswax; pollen trapping; and a guide to
important floral sources.
Deserted beehives, starving young stun scientists: [4-30-2007] By Dan Vergano and
Patrick O'Driscoll, USA TODAY ~ "The bees were gone," David Hackenberg says.
"The honey was still there. There's young brood (eggs) still in the hive. Bees
just don't do that." On that November night last year in the Florida field where
he wintered his bees, Hackenberg found 400 hives empty. Another 30 hives were
"disappearing, dwindling or whatever you want to call it," and their bees were
"full of a fungus nobody's ever seen before."
Colony Collapse
Disorder (CCD) is the name that has been given to the latest, and what seems
to be the most serious, die-off of honey bee colonies across the country. It is
characterized by, sudden colony death with a lack of adult bees in/in front of
the dead-outs. Honey and bee bread are usually present and there is often
evidence of recent brood rearing. In some cases, the queen and a small number of
survivor bees may be present in the brood nest. It is also characterized by
delayed robbing and slower than normal invasion by common pests such as wax moth
and small hive beetles.
Diseases & Pests: On
this page you will find information on how to identify and treat/manage the
diseases and pests of honey bees including the most important American foulbrood
and varroa mites.
Honey Extraction Centrifugal This Bulletin explains how to build a wooden
honey extractor. Honey hives are placed in two containers. These are spun with a
pulley mechanism. Thus, the honey is extracted by centrifugal force.
A Year in the Bee Yard - Pennsylvania
A sort of single line entry diary of a beekeeper
Bee Serious If your garden isn't producing the way you think it
should, you may bee missing an important component...
Beginning Beekeeping: [PDF]
ENT-41: Beginning Beekeeping for Kentuckians,
Beginning beekeeping Using old bee equipment, [PDF]
Beginning Beekeeping,
Beekeeping: Beginning beekeeping,
and
G7600 Beekeeping Tips for Beginners and
4-H Basic Beekeeping Manual (PDF FILE)
Colony Management Includes
Managing for Honey Production,
Managing for Pollination, and
Management of Wild Honey Bees
Country Hills' Guide to Beginning Beekeeping
The purpose of this handout is to give an overview of the equipment
needed to get you started, as well as a few key elements of beekeeping to
assist you in keeping your colony strong and productive.
Honeybee.com's Beginning Beekeeping
Information
Farrar's Life of the Honey Bee Its Biology and Behavior
with an Introduction to Managing the Honey-Bee Colony. Original Article
printed in American Bee Journal (1968) Vol. 108, No.2 : 60-63
'Go Beekeeping' - Advice for the Hobby
Beekeeper Basic Beekeeping class
(FREE!), and Intermediate Beekeeping class for the beginning hobby
beekeeper on this site.
Live Pictures of Bee Colony The Amazing Beecam! Beecam is an electronic CCD (Charged Coupling
Device) camera we have trained on an observation hive in our laboratory.
This camera periodically takes 26 snapshots of the bottom frame of bees at
close range. Those frames are sent to you one after another as an
almost-live animation.
Organic Beekeeping Certification and
Practical Information from University of N.C.
How to buy bees If you
are replacing winter losses, or starting new beehives in equipment you
already have, you are immediately faced with a decision: "Shall I buy
package bees or nucs?" The primary appeal of packages is simplicity in
shipping. They can be sent via the post office. But nucs are a better
choice, if they are available. A package will dwindle for a couple weeks
because there is no brood until you install it. A nuc will have brood
already hatching, when you install it. Queen acceptance is more certain, and
a nuc will almost never abscond, as packages sometimes do. Nucs can often be
obtained from a commercial beekeeper, particularly those who migrate south.
You can think of each hive as a cow, and the nucs as spring calves.
Commercial beekeepers usually make a lot of nucs for their own use, and
generally are happy to sell some. If you are in the north, you need to
establish a "southern connection," as early nucs are trucked from the south.
Late nucs may have to be maintained for a year before they do anything for
you.
Protect Yourself When Buying Used Equipment It is risky to buy
used beehives. You run a gamble of purchasing comb that is contaminated by
American Foulbrood disease. If you put new bees into this equipment, they
will catch this terrible disease. Sometimes this occurs when you buy from a
hobby beekeeper who may not have recognized the disease. He kept bees for
years and was disease free, so he was fine. But then the bees got sick and
died, and he didn't understand why. So he gets discouraged and sells the
remnants. Or you may get equipment from someone who knows very well they are
diseased, but doesn't care that he is defrauding you.
Can I Keep Bees in Suburbia? The best answer I've ever heard, is
quoted from George Styer, a beekeeper in Sacramento, with his kind
permission ...
Urban Beekeeping Australia: Beekeeping is becoming increasingly
popular in towns and cities throughout Queensland with over 2 000 households
registering hives. This provides honey for home consumption, enjoyment in
watching these highly social creatures and the opportunity to join an
amateur beekeeping group. However, honeybees possess a sting and therefore
require proper and responsible management so they do not create a problem
for neighbors.
Africanized Bees: Arizona Lesson Plans: Africanized honey bees
have moved into the Southwest and are here to stay. In addition to the
safety issues that need to be addressed because of the defensiveness of
these bees, honey bees are also fascinating subjects to study. These lesson
plans were developed to familiarize students with honey bees and bee safety
issues through a variety of interesting activities.
Database of northern USA bee forage plants Ohio: Honey bees and
plants have a special relationship. Each benefits the other. Flowering
plants provide food for honey bees; in turn, bees provide pollination for
many plants, enabling them to reproduce.
Control Varroa mites without chemicals Holland: Here is the
method used to kill 95% of the varroa mite in a hive
Starvation lurks to catch the complaisant beekeeper. A common
mistake for inexperienced beekeepers is to assume, too soon, that the bees
have made it through the winter. The sight of spring flowers and bees
visiting them, makes the keeper think the bees will now feed themselves.
Sadly this is not always true.
Washboarding Did you ever see this mysterious bee-havior? 2
slides. No one has explained (to my satisfaction) why bees sometimes
washboard. They space themselves out evenly on the front of the hive, and
move forward and backward in rhythm.
Hiving an Easy Swarm - a Brief Slide Show - 5 slides. Swarms are
the natural means of reproduction for honeybees. They used to be common,
back in Grandpa's day, when the woods were full of wild bees, and beekeepers
used to catch a lot of swarms to replenish their losses. Today wild swarms
are rare; most swarms are from beekeepers who haven't taken very good care
of their bees.
A swarm that came to me while I was making nucs Can't get any
easier than this! Seventy nucs make my trailer tires a little squishy, but
this represents a long, hard day splitting bees. These baby hives or nucleus
colonies are like the calves from the cow. The cow is the hive that made it
thru winter in good shape and is ready to reproduce. Think of the colony as
the organism, each bee is just a cell in the organism.
Transferring Wild Bees into a Hive - a Slide Show. A wild swarm
attatched to the bottom of this air conditioner on the back of a store in
the middle of Hemingway. This is August, with temperatures hovering near
100, but the owner says they gotta’ go.
Listen to young queens piping (Note: You must have a computer
that can open sound files) A young
queen, when she senses the presence of other young queens, will sometimes
issue a challenge to them. It is a high pitched buzzing/beeping sound. To
hear this your computer must be enabled to produce sound, and you may have
to turn up the volume.
Removing Honey Bee Nests
Removing honey bee nests from cavities (walls of houses, hollow trees) is a
time-consuming, labor-intensive practice that should be undertaken by
professionals. Continuous honey bee flight activity to and from a hole in a
building is an indication of a nest. Many times, this can be confirmed by
listening for bees buzzing inside.
How to Prevent Bee Stings
Most types of bees are not highly defensive and mean no more harm than does
a fly. Notably, however, are the social bees such as honey bees and bumble
bees which can be quite defensive around a nest, but under other
circumstances have no desire to sting.
Biting and Stinging Insects
About 75% of the world's animal species are arthropods. While most of these
species have no appreciable interaction with humans, a few cause significant
medical or agricultural problems. This review is concerned with the small
number of medically detrimental species which possess venom that causes
morbidity and mortality when humans are bitten or stung. We restrict our
discussion to the most important groups of venomous arthropods: the
arachnids (spiders, scorpions) and insects of the order Hymenoptera (bees,
wasps, ants). These species have a venom apparatus consisting of a gland or
pair of glands and a system (fang, sting) meant to inject venom. Beyond the
scope of this review are arthropods that employ toxins without delivery
systems (i.e, topical noxious repellents) or those which vector disease.
This review covers the relevant species worldwide (focusing on North
American species), with special reference to the dermatologic expression of
the injury.
Making your own?? Bee Hive Construction Info!
This page makes use of Adobe Acrobat PDF files. You will be able to open PDF
files after downloading the free Adobe Acrobat Reader software, then view
and print them at any resolution from your COMPUTER!
You will need version 4.0 or higher to open these files.
Paul's Solar Wax Melter Instructions
Here is a beautifully simple solar wax melter which Paul devised .
Solar Wax Melter Plans
A solar wax melter is a glass-covered box that uses the heat of the sun to
melt beeswax and separate it from honey and other materials with which it is
found in honey-bee colonies. The melter can be used to render old combs,
cappings, burr comb, and other hive scrapings containing wax. It is also
handy for removing beeswax from excluders. The melter produces wax of high
quality and eliminates the need for the sometimes hazardous job of rendering
wax in the house.
Top Bar Hives - Construction, FAQs, More -
Great International Reference!
This website is devoted exclusively to collecting and distributing
information about beekeeping with top-bar hives (tbh's). Tbh's offer many
beekeepers an inexpensive but satisfying way of keeping bees that produces
less (but better) honey and more beeswax.
Observation Bee Hives
Observation hives are easily constructed when top bars are used. There
are no frames to limit the size, no bee space to be concerned about except
on the faces of the combs.
Bee Tool's Observation Bee Hive Construction
Here follows a set of drawing supplied by Dennis Thorell for distribution on
the web. This observation hive has a number of features which make it a very
desirable and adaptable design. The basic design is for a double-deep hive,
but the builder could change a few dimensions and add a Westyern or Semi
super, or additional deeps. It is easy to service and manage, and features a
built-in feeder.
Build a Bee Vacuum
These are really easy to make and are COMPLETELY invaluable in catching
hard-to reach swarms or removing existing hives.
Bee Venom Collector Device
There is perhaps, no other bee hive product who's harvesting methods and
devices are so secretly kept from a novice than bee venom. Even though the
literature of venom collection is growing rapidly, the utilization and
availability of collector devices is limited to a few suppliers or not
available at all.
Bee Biology - including Queen Mating
A typical small hive contains perhaps 20,000 bees and these are divided into
three types: Queen, Drone, and Worker. The chart below compares these
types...
Glenn Apiaries' Bee Breeder's Bibliography
Dedicated to breeding honeybees for high honey production and disease
resistance. We provide instrumentally inseminated queen bees for stock
improvement and research.
Queen Bees &
Queen Breeding and Instrument Insemination
Science News Magazine Article on Mites and
Russian Resistant Bees This
parasite, which first turned up among U.S. honeybees 11 years ago, has taken
a devastating toll. Feeding off their hosts' blood, the energy-sapping mites
weaken and soon kill the bees (SN: 2/8/97, p. 92). Moreover, mites in four
states have developed resistance to the one pesticide approved for use
against them, notes Thomas E. Rinderer of the U.S. Department of Agriculture
honeybee laboratory in Baton Rouge, La.
Beekeeping and the Tracheal Mite
The honey bee tracheal mite (HBTM) (Acarapis woodi) has been a
recognized problem by beekeepers since 1917 (Adam, 1968). Indeed, in 1922,
the U.S. Honeybee Act (a Federal egulation) prohibited the importation of
all life stages of honey bees into the U.S. primarily to keep this parasite
out of the country. The HBTM was found in Mexico in 1980 (Wilson and
Nunamaker, 1982). A National survey was conducted from 1980-82 to determine
if the HBTM was in the U.S. By the end of the survey the HBTM had not been
found in the United States (Shimanuki et al., 1983). However, the mites were
found in Texas in 1984 (Delfinado-Baker, 1984) and must have reached S.
Arizona as early as 1988 since several beekeepers in this area had unusually
heavy over-winter losses the winter of 1989-90.
Controlling Mites with Essential Oils
Essential oils have been shown to provide effective mite control in honeybee
colonies. This site will provide the latest essential oil research results,
treatments, and lists of world literature.
Recommendations on Controlling Hive Beetles
and Mites In the last 15 years
the managed honey bee colonies and honey bees living in the wild (feral
bees) have been under constant attack by a host of introduced pests. These
pests include the tracheal mite, Acarapis woodi, (first found in NC in
1984), the varroa mite, Varroa jacobsoni, (first found in N.C. in 1990), and
the small hive beetle, Aethina tumida, (first found in NC in 1998).
Varroa Mite Information
The Varroa mite, Varroa jacobsonii, is an external parasite of honey bees.
It feeds on the hemolymph of both brood and adult bees. The entire life
cycle of these mites is spent with the bees. The Varroa mite originated in
Southeast Asia where it is a parasite of the Eastern honey bee, Apis cerana.
It was first discovered on the Western honey bee, Apis mellifera, in 1960.
The crossover resulted from beekeepers intermingling the two species, and
further spread has been encouraged by beekeepers transporting colonies. This
mite is now found on every continent except Australia.
Varroa Mite Disease Fact Sheets
The Varroa mite (Varroa jacobsoni is considered to be the most
serious pest of honey bees worldwide. First discovered in the United States
in 1987, the mites were detected in North Carolina three years later. The
mites are now found throughout the state and most of the country.
The Effect of Stress on Various Races of Bees
This summer, three of our home bee colonies swarmed, taking the original
queens away with the swarm. For whatever reason, a new queen didn't take,
leaving us queenless in Seattle. (Well, Kent actually, but that's besides
the point!) In researching which new strain of bee to use, I created a table
of advantages and disadvantages of the various strains in order to lead to a
better understanding of the various characteristics of the main strains of
bees. This information seemed too useful to keep to myself. After all, there
are more experienced bee keepers in the world whose experience may not match
the article written in the May 1997 issue of Bee Culture magazine (page 32)
or the Washington State Bee Keepers Exam booklet from which I gleaned this
information.
A True Bear in the Bees Tale
From 20 meters away I could see that the hive had been toppled and that the
area was strewn with broken frames. Since I only wear my beekeepers suit
when I am occasionally inspecting inside the hive, I was not prepared to
approach the seething fury of bees that lay ahead of me. In fact a lone
guard bee flew right at me and stung the top of my foot.
Where Have All the Bees Gone?? - from Penn
State In the spring of 1993,
entomologist Maryann Frazier encountered a mystery. "Beekeepers began
calling to report that they had no bees in their colonies," she recalls.
"When bees don't have enough food over the winter, beekeepers often will
find a big cluster of dead bees in the colony. But these keepers were saying
that not one bee was left in their colonies. This was very weird. They had
seen bees making flights in February, but by April, there were no bees. What
happened to them?"
STARTING AN OBSERVATION HIVE OF HONEY BEES
Certainly the best method to
learn about honey bees is through the use of a glass observation hive. It is
equipped with glass on both sides so that the queen and all activities of
the bees may be observed at all times. Honey bees are truly amazing
creatures to watch, and an observation hive allows you to see day-to-day
activities within the hive without disrupting or irritating the bees.
BeeKeeping - A BEEKEEPING GUIDE by HARLAN H.D. ATTFIELD
"The Internet Apiculture & Bee Keeper’s Archives"
– vast archives of bee
keeping knowledge.
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