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Archive for the ‘Beekeeping’ Category

Honey bees spend their entire life pollinating flowers and making honey. Bees use pollen that they gather from flowers to create honey that the bees use to feed themselves. Beekeepers are responsible for removing the honey from the bees and using for human consumption.

After the beekeeper has collected the honey from the bees, removed the wax caps that the bees use to seal the honey in the honey comb, and extracted the honey from the honeycomb it’s time to process the honey.

Not all beekeepers have process their honey. Unprocessed honey is marketed with words like raw, areanic, unfiltered, and natural printed on the label. The words are different words to say unprocessed. Beekeepers that choose to process their honey, should have it done as quickly after extracting the honey as possible. The act of processing honey is making sure that the honey is heated and filtered. Processing honey is a sticky and hot process, it is important that the person is patient and diligent. The area where the processing is taking place should be kept clean and free of insects. Before you start processing the honey crop make sure that all your equipment is dry. Honey absorbs water. Honey that has to much water in it will ferment.

Experienced beekeepers can look at a vat of honey and tell you what type of flower the worker bees who were attracted to when they were gathering pollen. They can do this by looking at the honey’s color. The type of flower the bees collected pollen from also affects the honey’s flavor. Other factors like soil quality and honey comb quality can change the flavor of the honey. On the average lighter colored honey has a milder flavor then darker colored honey. There sre approximately three hundred different varieties of honey produced in the United States.

The more authentic information about Beekeeping you know, the more likely people are to consider you a Beekeeping expert. Read on for even more Beekeeping facts that you can share.

The plugs that bees use to seal honey into the honey combs can be used to make bee’s wax candles.

For the health conscious, honey is a great substitute for white sugar.

Honey that is still in the honeycomb has a more natural flavor then honey that has been extracted. Extracted honey works best for flavoring teas and cooking.

Fans of natural healing have always bee big fans of honey for medicinal purposes. It is believed that honey is an excellent way to soothe sore throats, can help regulate blood pressure, burns, pressure wounds, and infectious wounds. Honey has been used by Chinese apothecaries to soothe aches and pains. The Egyptians favored using honey when they were treating wounds. Even the Greeks and Romans left behind literature that spoke of the medicinal benefits of honey for curing various forms of illnesses.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, proud owner of this top ranked web hosting reseller site: GVO

The survival of a colony of bees living in a bee hive depends on the queen bee. Without a queen bee the hive will eventually die. The hives queen is the only female bee in the hive that has fully developed reproductive organs. The queen is not in control of the hive. Her soul purpose is to lay eggs that will develop into bees that will fill other roles in the hive.

The queen bee is determined when the bee is still in its larval stage. The larval that has been set aside as potential queens are fed extra royal jelly. Royal jelly is a secretion that the worker bees store in their heads. Larvae that the hive feels will make potential queens are also kept in Queen cells. Queen cells differ from cells used in the rest of the hive because they are larger and are designed vertically instead of vertically, the queen hangs, head down, during her development.

Potential queen larvae must be determined within four days of the time the larvae is laid.

When it is time for the queen to leave her cell, she chews through the cap. As she chews she emits a sound that is believed to warn other hatching queens of her arrival. Music aficionados will recognize the sound as a G sharp. It is not unusual to find that after the first queen bee has hatched that the rest of the queen cells have a slit in them where the young queen has chewed through, effectively killing the developing larvae inside the cells. Beekeepers call the destroyed larvae, virgin queens. Worker bees will try to keep several young queens alive at a time in order to have a backup Queen available if the first queen is unable to find a mate or does not survive her nuptial flight.

The best time to learn about Beekeeping is before you’re in the thick of things. Wise readers will keep reading to earn some valuable Beekeeping experience while it’s still free.

When the new queen is old enough to fly she leaves the hive. While she is away from the hive she must find several drone bees from a different hive to mate with. It is important that the queen mate with at least twelve drones during this nuptial flight. The sperm that she collects during this flight will be the sperm that she uses for the rest of her life. If the queen is unable to make the nuptial flight the survival of the rest of the hive is in peril. Most hives try to keep several virgin queens alive to help prevent that from happening.

Most hives allow the old queen to continue to lay eggs, however when it is time for the rest of the hive to swarm, she leaves the hive.

Once they have mated with a queen the drone bees die.

It is normally easy to see which bee is the queen bee when she is surrounded by other bees. She has a abdomen that is considerably longer then her fellow hive mates. To make identifying the queen faster many beekeepers mark their queen with a tiny bit of paint.
The average life span of the queen bee is two to three years.

So now you know a little bit about Beekeeping. Even if you don’t know everything, you’ve done something worthwhile: you’ve expanded your knowledge.

About the Author
At Nayxa we program our own applications and we have continuously opened several lines of R & D, allowing us to place ourselves at the forefront of Wind Engineering. Visit us to discuss your next wind energy project

The following article covers a topic that has recently moved to center stage–at least it seems that way. If you’ve been thinking you need to know more about it, here’s your opportunity.

Large beekeepers can not turn a profit if they limit their market to their local community. Beekeepers who have several colonies must be able to sell their product at larger grocery stores and supermarkets if they want to remain financially solvent.

In order for beekeepers to sell their honey to a larger market their packaging must meet certain USDA standards.

The first thing beekeepers have to decide is what kind of container they want to use to hold their honey. The standard size of containers used to sell honey are measured in pounds. The typical amount of honey offered to the customers can be as small an amount as a half pound or as large as five pounds of honey. Some stores perfect to sell honey that is measured in gallons, these stores offer their customers the option of purchasing a container of honey as small as a half pint or as large as one gallon. If, as a beekeeper, you are attracted to novelty containers you can choose from a variety of fun containers such as skeps, bears, and plastic squeeze bottles.

See how much you can learn about Beekeeping when you take a little time to read a well-researched article? Don’t miss out on the rest of this great information.

Once you have settled on the perfect bottle for your honey you have to design an equally perfect label. Before you start designing a label for your honey check with your state government, most states have several laws and requirements about how labels appear on products. Make sure that the word honey is written in bold letters across the label. The word should stand out and really catch the casual shopper’s eye. Most graphic designers recommend that the honey should run parallel with the container’s base. Do not authorize a label if the design does not incorporate your name (or your farm’s name) and your address. If you use a packing or distribution company their name and address must also be included on the label. The final thing that needs to be clearly printed on the label is the net weight of the honey. If the honey you are marketing weighs between one to four pounds then the weight has to be written in both pounds and ounces. The print size used to show the net weight is not random, the font size is determined by the size and shape of the container.

If you are a beekeeper who harvests your honey more then once a season you might be able to write what flavor of honey you are selling. You might have honey that is flavored with clover, alfalfa, or apple blossoms.

Labels that have words such as unfiltered, natural, raw, and areanic refer to honey that has not been processed.

Beekeepers who have USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) grades printed on the label have passed a set of USDA grade standards. Honey that has a USDA grade of A has passed the exacting government standards. Honey that has a USDA grade of D has passed only a bare minimum of standards. The USDA grades honey based on the amount of moisture in the honey, clarity, flavor quality, and defects.

About the Author
At Nayxa we program our own applications and we have continuously opened several lines of R & D, allowing us to place ourselves at the forefront of Wind Engineering. Visit us to discuss your next wind energy project

The country is full of apple orchards. Apple orchards are where the apples you buy in the supermarket come from. Applesauce is made out of apples grown in orchards. People who drink apple juice and apple cider enjoy the produce provided by the hardworking orchard owners. Without apple orchards there would be no apple pies. The world would be a sadder place without apple orchards.

In the springtime people drive past apple orchards and see tidy row after tidy row of apple trees, their spreading boughs fragrant with the scent of delicate apple blossoms. In the summer they can drive past the same orchard and see the same trees, leaves shining in the sunshine. In the fall those same trees are laden with apples, crunchy and full of juice. In the winter, the spreading limbs of the apple trees spread wide and are blanketed with a layer of glittering snow. When they stop to admire the artistic trees they notice that unlike other types of agriculture endeavors the only time they see anyone working amongst the trees is when the trees are heavy with fruit and the farmers are picking the apples. It doesn’t take very long for the passer bys to start thinking about how easy it would be to own an orchard. When the opportunity to purchase an apple orchard comes along, these people can hardly walk away from the opportunity.

The reality is that there is a lot more to owning an apple orchard then picking apples and pulling in money.

I trust that what you’ve read so far has been informative. The following section should go a long way toward clearing up any uncertainty that may remain.

The casual passerby thinks that owning an apple orchard won’t be much work, the reality is that a great deal of backbreaking labor goes into maintaining the orchard. The trees have to be pruned. The trees have to be sprayed to protect them from being ravished by insects. In addition to caring for the trees there is a lot of general maintenance chores that have to be taken care of. There is also the task of removing the old, unproductive trees and replacing them with young trees.

The next thing to consider when purchasing an apple orchard is the size of the orchard. According to the experts an apple orchard has to be at least ten acres large in order to break even. That’s just breaking even. In theory a larger orchard means a larger profit margin for the orchard owner, but a larger orchard also means that the owner will have to buy more insecticide, rotate more trees, hire more employees, and spend more money on the equipment needed to maintain the orchard and harvest the apple crop.

Perhaps the biggest error newcomers to the apple orchard business make in the spring time when the apple trees are in bloom. In order for the trees to bear fruit the flowers have to be pollinated. Although the wind can help pollinate the flowers, honey bees are better. Many new orchard owners think that there are enough bees in the wild to pollinate the acres of apple trees. These owners are making an assumption that could harm their yearly yield. Experienced owners know that to ensure they get a profitable harvest they need to work with local beekeepers. They lease the hives and the honey bees from the beekeepers. The hive owners set up the hives in the orchards. The extra bees assist in the pollination.

Sometimes it’s tough to sort out all the details related to this subject, but I’m positive you’ll have no trouble making sense of the information presented above.

About the Author
By Brian Parish, feel free to visit his top ranked data recovery affiliate site incorporating data recovery los angeles and advanced disk recovery services.

This interesting article addresses some of the key issues regarding Beekeeping. A careful reading of this material could make a big difference in how you think about Beekeeping.

Many areas in the world are producers of honey and beeswax for medicinal and food purposes. You’ll find a lot of beekeeping in the United States, Asia, Africa, and some parts of Europe. Since beekeeping had originated in Europe and had been modernized in the United States, the way it’s done is different and the way it’s taught is different as well. Yet this is a very interesting way to see how different cultures train someone to do beekeeping as a way of life and part of the culture. The cool thing is that honey is used for mostly food in so many cultures that use it in religious and celebratory occasions when preparing certain concoctions or meals and honey is used to sweeten it. Americans are usually in the business of beekeeping to produce honey for the supermarket and for shipment overseas to markets and countries that don’t have beekeeping businesses that is advanced enough to mass produce the necessary amount to ship overseas to stores owned and operated in the United States like Whole Foods Market when they carry specific brands.

Most countries overseas don’t have the system the way the United States does to mass produce a single product like honey since we managed to harvest effectively so we can produce enough to meet the needs of the market until the season to produce starts again in the spring since bees are inactive during the winter months and start again in late March early April when the mating season for bees is fresh and flowers are in abundance for them to feed and pollinate on. The U.S. alone turns out the majority of the honey that’s used when they provide to supermarkets owned by American based companies to their stores and restaurants overseas.

Is everything making sense so far? If not, I’m sure that with just a little more reading, all the facts will fall into place.

Beekeepers could be observing hives every 7 to 8 days generally making it the ideal time on the weekend to pass time. Hives don’t need a lot of maintaining just an hour a day between the peak season around May to September. A good season can produce for a keeper 60-100 pounds of honey and depending on how much the buyer charges by the pound that’s what you go by to what you’ll make for every harvest you get.

The most common annoyance to beekeepers during their harvesting and maintenance of the hives are bumblebees these are the big ugly black and yellow bees that are seen going through the flowers honey bees have already visited and these bees live underground so they can be an annoyance to beekeepers when they swarm from the ground up. Many beekeepers will move their hives around which is called migratory which is one of the secrets to increase honey production and giving bees a fresh supply of flowers to pollinate and feed from so they can produce different variations and batches of honey.

Each batch produced can differ with each pollination or when hives are rotated and bees go to different flowers so that’s why sometimes honey may have distinct taste since it’s the type of flowers available to them at the time of migration.

You can’t predict when knowing something extra about Beekeeping will come in handy. If you learned anything new about Beekeeping in this article, you should file the article where you can find it again.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his Perpetual20 training site for great bonuses: Perpetual20

When you’re learning about something new, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of relevant information available. This informative article should help you focus on the central points.

Modern science has allowed us to cultivate a food product that works much better than sugar and is readily available, but the issue is that the production element is seasonal unfortunately. That’s because bees are less active during the cold months and that can slow production down until around late March early April when the flowers officially bloom which makes pollen the plentiful for bees to feed on. Science is a mystery for bees because in some ways they resemble humans by how they sense changes in weather, environment and the organization of how they live resembles a lot like humans.

If bees were able to live like humans we would be compatible yet the only thing that separates humans from bees is that the females are not permanently grounded and pregnant where humans only have a gestational period of 9 months and have a choice of how many children they have where bees are constantly reproducing with no break in between since the Queen will mate with 2-3 drones by the temperature of the weather and then she’s inseminated for a good 2 or 3 years and she’ll keep making babies until the sperm runs out or stops producing eggs.

The more authentic information about Beekeeping you know, the more likely people are to consider you a Beekeeping expert. Read on for even more Beekeeping facts that you can share.

The average queen once she’s mated can turn out 2000 eggs a day during the spring run and essentially live for another two years and then a new Queen is reared to take over the colony. Basically Queen bees have the monumental task of keeping the population fresh and all colonies are not the same since different species of bees will live identical to each other, but they may have a different mating pattern and schedule. Humans are about right there, but we have a different way of mating which is done when we feel like it not when the season or weather changes.

Queens are identified by their buzzing sound, which is distinct to the sound that drones and worker bees make when they communicate with each other. The Queen’s buzz is more high pitched and she’s constantly surrounded with drones and workers who give their lives to protect the queen and are known to swarm incessantly which kind of falls in the wayside of how the secret service react when the president’s security is compromised and breached they will attack when they feel threatened and their duty is to protect the queen at all costs the way the president has round the clock security from the secret service.

That’s how close knit a colony of bees are and that’s the mystery many beekeepers are trying to learn and match with the nature of humans and their interaction with each other. Bees are like one giant family since the majority of a hive is female, but only one will make it as the Queen who rules over the colony to carry on the next spawn of offspring to carry on the lineage of the colony. This is what makes science and technology interesting for bees and the keepers who maintain their homes to bring forth protecting and nurturing an interesting creature that people are blatantly misunderstanding a lot. Bees are like people except they fly and reproduce enough offspring to keep going non-stop for 2-3 years.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, proud owner of this top ranked web hosting reseller site: GVO

Current info about Beekeeping is not always the easiest thing to locate. Fortunately, this report includes the latest Beekeeping info available.

There’s approximately 20,000 species of bees throughout the world making them the interest of beekeepers who rely on them to cross pollinate because when bees do that it changes not only the flowers they collect pollen from creating new species of flowers, but it also changes the consistency of the honey the produce. Beekeepers also track bees when they cross breed with other species of bees and that’s how they track their habits from mating to origin of where they come from. Beekeepers will also track their honey production since different species of bees will also produce different consistencies of honey.

Most bees were originated from places in Europe, Africa and some parts of Asia, but with the fact that many bees were brought over by immigrants to the United States over the centuries. Bees are found on all continents except Antarctica. The evolutions of bees are derived from wasps since they’re cousins with the exception that wasps aren’t pollinating insects and their ability to be organized rivals wasps, beetles, flies, and butterflies. Bees are also categorized in two social classes that are ideal for beekeepers to adapt their system of managing bees and hives.

So far, we’ve uncovered some interesting facts about Beekeeping. You may decide that the following information is even more interesting.

Most bees born are usually female you have few males, and females will fight each other for control of the hive and colony. Now most people when they hear about the African bee they think killer bees when in fact the Africanized honeybee is in fact not dangerous as people make them out to be. It is this species of bee that is the most popular with beekeepers and the beekeeping industry alike. The African honeybee are the most readily used when they produce clover honey which is the most used and produced honey. One reason that the African bee is so popular is because they’re not an aggressive species that will readily attack someone, but they will attack when they’re defending the hive and the Queen-who will go into permanent residence inside the hive after she becomes pregnant and isn’t seen ever again. Usually most beekeepers remove portions of the hive, but leave the one that contains the queen where it’s.

Bees are generally docile, but they do get annoying when they fly around you during picnics because of the fact that their sense of smell will direct them since they don’t have very good eyesight. Their sense of smell is what helps them find flowers they pollinate and sometimes with the food people eat in this world the smell can mimic flowers which can result in them getting their scents mixed up. This is why you’ll likely find bees swarming around trash because debris on food wrappers can attract them because sweet scents resemble flowers and plants. Beekeepers should be careful about dispensing their trash because bees can smell sweet scents for long distances and what can be harmless such as disposing trash can turn into a huge pest problem when they start gathering in places that isn’t their normal habitat.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, proud owner of this top ranked web hosting reseller site: GVO

Starting a beekeeping business may sound exciting and fun, but in all reality it’s a lot of work and is time consuming. Most people who are in this are actually doing this as a hobby. Having a hobby and a livelihood are two entirely different areas since one is something you invest time and in some cases money and one is when you’re trying to make a living at. Beekeeping is like farming you have to stay on top of the market demands and be technologically savvy because much of the business is going to depend on how fast you can produce a single product.

Yet this is where you’re going to learn that beekeeping isn’t even like that because if you expect to make a profit you would have had to have been in the business for a long time and following the trends on what the market demanded of the time. Today if you don’t even have a website consider yourself a fossil in the area of business because that’s your only link to the rest of the world by having a website or even a page.

I trust that what you’ve read so far has been informative. The following section should go a long way toward clearing up any uncertainty that may remain.

Most of the companies today are commercialized because the small businesses today are just not equipped to handle the mass production of honey and small businesses won’t make a lot giving the fact you are paid by the pound and the average amount after weighing the whole season isn’t a whole lot. Commercial beekeepers average a couple thousand pounds, but farmers have to really push production if they want to average at least $15-30 a year. This is a competitive field to be selling honey and producing beeswax products since the beekeeping industry doesn’t function as a co-op like many organic farmers do in this day and age where they work together beekeeping is sub-contract work and many of these small businesses are sub-contracted by these major corporations to produce honey under their label and their food line.

Sub-contracting may sound good and all, but you are also competing for these contracts as well with other small businesses and the high risk is that you can lose your contracts if the companies who hire you aren’t happy with something for whatever reason it could be the quality of the product to anything. That’s why this is a risky business to get into because you never know what the outcome is and how the market will fair during the season since this is what a beekeeper bases their financial output by which is how much they anticipate to make on a seasonal basis.

Beekeepers almost have to base their financial gain through good weather and season with the market demand, but you can’t always predict good weather, which is what many worry about. They have more to worry about than crop farmers since they can make the difference when they get rain and lower climate suitable to the food they’re growing. Beekeeping is dependent on the activity of the bees and how well they produce honey since bees produce in certain climates and temperatures. If you’re expecting to thrive in this business understand that it’s a lot of work and a lot of time invested into making this work for the long run.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his Perpetual20 training site for great bonuses: Perpetual20

Like all hobbies, beekeeping requires some basic equipment before someone can establish a successful hive. This equipment should be bought before you get a call from the post office asking you to come pick up bees.

The most obvious piece of equipment you will need is the actual bee hive.

Your beehive should be have five supers. The supers are a very important part of the beehive because they are where the bees will be storing their honey. These five supers should be between the bottom of the hive and the hive cover. These supers are very important because they are where the bees will be storing their honey and raising their offspring. Once you have an active hive each of these supers will contain nine to ten frames. You can choose if you want a hive with shallow supers or deep supers. The advantage of deep supers is that they enable beekeepers to buy only one size foundation. The disadvantage is that, when full, a deep super can weigh one hundred pounds. Once you have a hive for your bees make sure you place is somewhere that has a flat surface so that the hive wont tip over in a strong wind. Also make sure that you place it somewhere that humans and pets aren’t likely to disturb it.

A spacer is a piece of equipment beekeepers use to keep an equal amount of space between the frames while they are in the super.

Once you begin to move beyond basic background information, you begin to realize that there’s more to Beekeeping than you may have first thought.

The next piece of equipment you will need is a smoker. The smoker is what you will use to encourage the bees to leave the hive when you are getting ready to harvest the honey. The smoker is surprisingly simple in its design. The smoker consists of a funnel, a combustion chamber, and bellows. Many beekeepers claim that old, clean burlap is the best material to use in the smoker because burlap is easy to ignite and smolders and smokes. Other beekeepers prefer to use dried corn cobs. Once the fire has been lit in the combustion chamber the bellows will keep it going. The funnel directs the smoke into the hive, encouraging the bees to leave.

Another tool you will need is a metal hive tool. The metal hive tool is used to pry open the hive, separate the hive bodies, and to scrape the frames clean. Think of it as the all purpose tool of beekeeping.

No beekeeper is ready to receive their shipment of bees until they have a bee brush. A bee brush is used to gently brush bees out of the way so that the beekeeper can examine the frames.

When it is time to harvest your honey, you will need a fumer board. A fumer board is a board that is covered in bee removing chemicals and is then used to encourage the bees to leave a super and let you take their honeycombs.

If you don’t mind getting using used equipment you can find some great prices on beekeeping equipment on EBay. There are several catalogs and websites that offer beekeeping equipment, and many of those offer beginners packages.

Now you can be a confident expert on Beekeeping. OK, maybe not an expert. But you should have something to bring to the table next time you join a discussion on Beekeeping.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his Perpetual20 training site for great bonuses: Perpetual20

Obviously the whole reason to set up, maintain, and stock a beehive is to harvest honey. You will know that it is time to harvest the honey when you look in one of your hives supers and find that the frames are full of honey combs that your bees have covered with wax caps.

Now all you have to do is remove the honey combs.

Harvesting your honey won’t be a problem as long as your put on all your beekeeping gear, wear light colored clothes (beekeepers swear that lighter colored clothes have a soothing affect on bees) and stay calm.

If you find yourself confused by what you’ve read to this point, don’t despair. Everything should be crystal clear by the time you finish.

When the super is full of capped honey combs you are going to have to remove the bees from that super. There are chemicals available on the market that will make this easier. One popular chemical that beekeepers use to remove bees from the super is Bee-Go. All beekeepers have to do is apply Bee-Go to a fumer board. When the bees smell the Bee-Go they head to the bottom of the hive, leaving the super full of capped honeycombs empty for you to harvest. Another product beekeepers use to clear out supers is one called Fishers Bee Quick. Neither of these products harm the bees, the bees simply find the scent offensive and move away from it.

Now that you are in possession of the honey comb you need to prepare it to be extracted. The first step in this preparation is to remove the wax caps the bees have used to seal the honey into the honey comb. Many beekeepers prefer to use nine frames instead of ten in their supers. By using nine frames they give the bees enough room to draw the comb out, placing the cap right on the very edge of the comb. This makes it easier to remove the wax caps. Beekeepers use a metal knife to remove the caps, the knife works best if the knife blade is warmed, after all its easier to cut warm wax then it is to cut cold wax. You can keep the knife blade warm with frequent dunking in a basin that is full of hot water. Many beekeepers like to use their bread knife to remove the wax caps from the honey comb while others prefer an electrical knife that is designed just for beekeepers. What do you think bee’s wax candles are made out of. Removing the caps from the dripping honey is easy, just use a piece of cheese cloth to empty the contents into a second pot, the honey will drain through the cheesecloth and the bee’s wax caps will collect on the top.

Once the caps are removed from the honey comb the honey is ready to be extracted.

As you remove the caps, let them fall into a pot, do not just through them away. You will notice that there is a surprising amount of honey attached to these caps, honey that can be processed and used. Also there is a market for the wax caps. Once the caps have been removed from the honeycombs the honey combs are ready to have the honey extracted.

Take time to consider the points presented above. What you learn may help you overcome your hesitation to take action.

About the Author
By Brian Parish, feel free to visit his top ranked yeast infection affiliate site: yeast infection