Bee Keeping 101 (Part 3)

Did you catch Part 1 and Part 2?

Are you excited yet? I know I am! Now let's start digging into what you need to purchase and know to start a hive (or 2). Morrell recommends starting with 2 hives so you have them for comparison and also have one as a back-up in case one hive does not make it through the winter (you can always split the surviving hive in the spring, more on that later!).

Anatomy of a Hive

There are many layers to a hive. Some keepers choose to paint each layer a different color but they can essentially be painted any light color that you want. 

The hive should be at least one foot off the ground (on a wooden box or cinder blocks) to prevent skunks from eating the bees (or at least allow for the skunks underbelly to be exposed so they can sting in defense. 

The first layer is the bottom board which can have a screen and slide out door to allow for more ventilation in the summer and protect the bees from the cold in the winter.

On top of that is a landing board (optional). This provides a slanted place for the bees to land as they enter and exit the hive.

Next come the brood boxes in 3 sizes: deep, medium or shallow. It is important to think about the amount of weight you can lift when choosing the size as when they are full of bees and honey they are very heavy. 

The first year will start with one brood box. Once the bees have filled it a second should be added. Then the following spring, add a queen excluder (to keep the queen from laying eggs where the honey is) and add one honey super at a time once the current box is full of honey.

Spacers can be added to the honey supers to allow for less frames but then the bees will build more honey on each frame. Frames can be wooden or plastic. Plastic frames are less likely to harbor illnesses. Wooden frames can have a plastic base for them to build the honeycomb off of. To help them acclimate, put some melted wax or spray sugar water on the plastic.

Then there is an inner cover that is one piece of wood with a hole in the middle that allows moisture to ventilate out of the hive (the bees create quite a lot of humidity). Finally there is a wooden lid on top.

Optional- Once the hive has quite a few honey supers, you may want to add a 1” hole towards the top so the foraging bees do not have to go through the whole hive to get in and out. Then for the winter this can be plugged with a wine cork.

Buying Used Equipment

Best to buy from someone you trust that you know is free from diseases. 

Old boxes are typically alright but use new frames. 

If you are concerned about diseases, scrub with bleach water and take a blow torch to the inside.

Placement of the Hive

There are no minimum land requirements to keep bees. Many people in cities are starting to keep hives on their roofs!

The hive’s opening should face southeast to provide for early morning sunshine/warmth to awaken the bees and allow for the most pollen/nectar gathering for the day. Ideally it is best to have some shade during the heat of the summer afternoon and sunshine again towards the end of the day. If this is not possible, full sun (with hive painted white) is better than full shade.

It is also beneficial to have some protection on the west side for the winter to protect from wind (this could be as simple as stacked straw bales). The national average is for a 30% loss of bees and often this occurs during the winter if there is too long of a stretch of cold without a warmer day above 45 degrees.

Bees can become agitated by the sound of a lawn mower and/or weed whacker. It is best to have some form of weed barrier around the hive so you do not have to use them too close to the hive. 

You should also never approach the hive from the front but from the side or back. Remember the guard bees from part 2? Yeah, they'll be watching!

Bee Keeping 101 (Part 2)

Did you catch Part 1? If not, read it here.

 

I must admit it is very hard for me to decide which information to give you in which order, and how much to put in each post (my notes totaled 7 pages typed!). So let's start off with the basics and learn about the different jobs bees have as well as some interesting facts before we dig into the actual keeping of the hive. (For me this is the best part anyway!)

Jobs

Queen- The matriarch of the hive attracts the other bees with pheromones. The queen lays 2,000 eggs a day (mostly during the time when nectar and pollen are plenty). The queen is much smaller until her initial mating flight where she will leave the hive and mate with 4-6 other bees (in the air) and then return to the hive and will be much larger.

Nurse- They take care of the babies and feed them different enzymes to make the bees the hive needs.

Guard- Four to six bees stand guard at the landing board to ward off invading critters or people. They will often “bounce” off your head first before trying to sting as a “warning”. They avoid stinging since once they sting, the stinger gets stuck in the victim and rips their bodies, killing them shortly thereafter.

Attendants- They feed and clean the queen and drones.

Drones- They mate with the queen and then die. If there are any drones left once fall arrives they are kicked out of the hive for the winter.

Housecleaning Bees- Bees are very neat by nature. Housecleaning bees see to that anything not belonging in the hive leaves (such as dead bees).

Foragers- All worker bees become foragers during the last two weeks of their lives.

Interesting Bee Facts

The honey bee is not native to the United States but was brought here by European immigrants.

Bees have a lifespan of 30 days (unless they hatch in the fall and then they will survive about 4 months over the winter since they are not working as hard).

There will be about 60,000 bees in the hive at peak honey flow.

Bee wings can shred from being overworked. They literally work themselves to death!

Bees will not defecate in the hive.

During cold weather, bees will huddle in a volleyball-sized cluster. When days warm to 45 degrees or higher, they will exit to defecate and search for pollen and move to a location with food in the hive. Bees have starved in their own hive with plenty of food if the temperatures stay too cold for too long.

When bees take their first flight as a forager (or after the hive is moved) they will circle around the entrance to the hive to remember what it looks like and its location in order to safely return.

Bees gather most of their pollen and nectar within a 2-5 mile radius. In my area most comes from trees (maple, locust).

One bee gathers about 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime.

The color of the honey depends on the pollen/nectar sources.

The type of bees (i.e. country of origin) depends solely on the queen’s status.

Bees do not fly in cold rain or windy weather nor at night. Night is the best time to move a hive.


Which  bee fact do you find the most fascinating?

Welcome to Bee Keeping 101 (Part 1)

I was very excited to be able to attend my first ever beekeeping training (for free!) at Nixon Park this past Saturday with some friends. The training was given by Morrell Sipe, vice president of the York County Bee Keepers Association. He learned how to keep bees by taking a class through HACC (gotta look into that!). The YCBK meet on the 4^th Thursday of each month at the Penn State York campus. If you join, they will assign you a mentor that lives close to help you through the beekeeping process (I think this is AWESOME!!). The PA State Beekeeper's Association also has a lot of information as well as a monthly newsletter for joining.

Morrell also had some back issues of two journals, Bee Culture and American Bee Journal, for us to take if we like.

The former president of the YCBK, Jeremy Barnes, was there for a short time, and I have a pretty strong feeling he was one of my history professors at York College. Unfortunately he wasn't there at the end so I couldn't find out for sure!

I took an immense amount of notes and decided I needed to type them to have them organized, and thought they would make a great series here! Join me each day as I help relay some of the wonderful information given at the training and hopefully peak your interest into beekeeping (or at the very least put you in awe of God’s handiwork in these creatures!). I will accompany each piece of information with some bee pictures from my own garden : )

I thought we could start with the most boring, yet necessary section of information:

Legal Mumbo Jumbo

You need to register with the state and it costs $10 for two calendar years. The inspectors’ goal is to inspect 50% of all hives every 2 years with concentration on hives that have had disease outbreaks in the past. 

Here’s the link for the Bee Law.

 
*Disclaimer: I am in no way a beekeeping expert. I only wish to share some knowledge I gained from the training as well as excitement for the possibility of doing more to be self-sustaining. Please look into the resources further before making a decision to start beekeeping. Thank you!

Homemade Crab Soup

I love all recipes I have ever tried with blue crab meat (and Old Bay!)...crab dip, crab cakes, crab soup...you name it, I probably like it. One soup that always worried me was crab soup (not cream of crab, but the veggie-based one). I've never been a huge fan of vegetable soup and don't really make it so when I decided to make it for my family Christmas get together, I was a little concerned it would turn out alright. Thankfully with a little help from my mom, I came up with this recipe and loved every bit!

Maryland Crab Soup with Old Bay
(all organic ingredients)

7 c chicken broth/stock (homemade if possible)
1 onion, diced
3 celery stalks, sliced
3 carrots, sliced
2-3 small potatoes, diced
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can corn
1 can green beans
1/2 c frozen peas
1 1/2 lb crab meat (best to use your own picked from crabs but I used Philip's claw meat this time when it was on sale and MUCH cheaper than the "special" crab meat, which it my opinion is not better and often has more shells. You could easily use less crab meat, but why??)
1-2 T Old Bay seasoning to taste (I tend to add less since you can always add it individually to taste when eating)

Place first 5 ingredients in large soup pot and bring to gently boil until potatoes start to soften. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer until all veggies are cooked.

Eat right away or freeze. In my opinion it is better the next day :)
We enjoyed the soup with homemade soft pretzels (I ate some gf ones leftover from a previous night. I will share the recipe soon, but not quite right yet).