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Post by bkeeper on Dec 25, 2009 20:18:18 GMT
IF this is the right place:
AND IF anyone is interested:
I will be happy to talk about beekeeping.
As you might have guessed from my username.
Merry Crimbo.
TTFN
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Post by Mahatt Micoat on Dec 25, 2009 20:30:51 GMT
I would be interested to hear about it, not because I plan to take it up but because it IS interesting.
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Post by bkeeper on Dec 25, 2009 21:44:21 GMT
Crikey! I am reminded of the old joke - "I don't know what to talk about. I never got this far before."
So - I run about 120 colonies of bees ("Hives" is simply the name for the box in which they are kept, and I have about 150 of those in various states of repair). I qualify as "semi-commercial".
Answers to the usual first string of questions: - Yes - I do get stung. - As few times as possible but usually once or twice to many each week from March to October. (How often?) - Yes, it does hurt but it is a penance. Some hurt a lot more than others.
Incidentally, I'm not a great fan of honey, but I really like working with the bees and trying to out-guess them.
It is true that the bees are having problems at the moment, but we are trying very hard to keep them going. The main trouble is the new parasitic mite Varroa destructor, which jumped species from the Asian honey bee Apis ceranea. Our European honey bees A. mellifera have no resistance to Varroa, and a life-cycle which gives the mite a lethal advantage.
Oh no - I'm depressed again.
I will miss Sir Terry as he was a champion of the bees and passed on my occasional serious bee-related messages to his 8 million listeners. Strangely, he also chose to pass on some of my sillier ones as well, which was nice.
TTFN
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Post by Mahatt Micoat on Dec 26, 2009 8:58:28 GMT
How often do you have to empty the hives, do you spin your own combs to get the honey out, how do you make runny honey into "set" honey (or don't you), do you make use of the wax from the combs, is there anything you need to do to the honey before selling it (like pasturisation in milk?
*pauses for breath and tries to think of other bee/honey type questions that I have wondered about in the past*
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Post by Phil Occifer™ on Dec 26, 2009 14:32:50 GMT
I would love to have a hive (or two). We live in the countryside and it seems only natural to support this most industrious flying worker. So where do I begin?
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Post by bkeeper on Dec 26, 2009 23:17:56 GMT
To start with Phil Officer's question, "how do I start?":
It's a fascinating, satisfying, relaxing, and occasionally profitable hobby, but not something everyone can do. There are only around 30,000 beekeepers in the UK, and only 300 of those are commercial / semi-commercial.
The first and most important thing to do before you spend any serious money is to find out if you can really stand being in amongst the bees. Then find out something about how to do it, where to site beehives, and so on.
You can learn a lot from books or the web, but by far the best way is to find your local association and go to some meetings, talk to people (try to stop them!) and handle some bees. To find them, Google 'BBKA' & follow the links, or call your local council & get some names & phone numbers from their list of beekeepers who take swarms, & call them.
There are many books, but my favourite is "Guide to bees and honey" by Ted Hooper. Have a look in your library at others. A very good place to get info. on the web is BeeBase, the National Bee Unit's site, and that is where you should register once you get bees. But be careful, there are some funny ideas on the web.
If you need more help on that , just ask me.
Now to Mahat's questions.
I need to start at the beginning.
There are many designs of modern beehive, but they all follow a basic pattern. They are made up from several parts: floor; brood box (where the queen lives, lays eggs, brood is reared and honey and pollen are stored); inner cover; roof. In the spring/summer, between the brood box and inner cover will be a queen excluder (a metal or wire grid which allows workers to pass through, but prevents the larger queen and drones moving upwards); one or more super boxes - shallower than the brood box, and used for storing honey.
Inside the boxes are wooden - sometimes plastic - frames holding the comb in which the eggs are laid, brood is raised, and honey and pollen (stores) are stored.
Through the spring and summer the brood nest grows, more and more workers bring in honey and pollen, and the brood nest is filled up. Then the bees store honey in the supers when the brood box is full. The queen lays up to 2,000 eggs a day in April / May so there is not much room for stores. Workers live for about six weeks at the height of the season (but 6m over the winter).
There may be a stock of honey in the supers around the end of May and many beekeepers take that off, replacing the full supers with empty ones. I prefer not to, as sometimes (2009 for example) there will be bad weather and the bees will have insufficient stores in the brood box to survive. Then they will need that honey in the supers.
The main honey flow stops in late July, which is when the honey is removed.
Then, if the bees are taken to the heather moors, there will be a crop of Ling heather honey by mid-September,
So - one to three times a year honey is removed. It will be extracted by spinning, although heather honey is thixotropic (non-drip) due to the presence of a small amount of protein. Sometimes, if the honey has granulated, it has to be brought back to runny using moderate heat. Then it is strained to remove bits of wax and so on. Pollen grains are not removed.
I, and most beekeepers, will have an extractor, but many associations have an extractor to hire to beginners for a small sum. Or another member of the your association will be of help.
Honey is sterile due to the fact that it is a very strong mix of sugars (around 83%) so does not need pasteurisation.
Because of this concentration it granulates easily. So by taking a "starter" of honey which has set with fine crystals, adding a small amount into clear honey (1/10) and mixing for a few minutes, then storing at 14.5 deg C stirring occasionally, after a few days there will be a batch of set honey. It will need warming up to around 30deg C before it can be bottled.
The scrap wax is either given back to the bees as foundation in new frames for them to build their comb, or made into candles, polish, or creams.
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Post by Mahatt Micoat on Dec 26, 2009 23:27:43 GMT
Fascinating, thank you.
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Post by bkeeper on Dec 27, 2009 11:41:21 GMT
You're welcome, I was worried that I might have bored you to death.
It was a welcome break from the rellies and the Christmas Festivities (if ever anything was more mis-named!)
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Post by idiotmittens on Dec 29, 2009 12:45:58 GMT
I have 2 hives at Mitten Acres and am fascinated with the little creatures.
I did a 6 month part-time course at one of our local colleges. 3 months of classroom study, one evening per week, and 3 months of practical work on the college's hives, one Saturday afternoon per week. As I'd never been close to a hive before, it was a great introduction to bee keeping, and I would highly recommend it. I came away with my Basic Beekeeping Certificate from the BBKA.
As bkeeper says, contact your local association and I'm sure someone will give you a 'taster' of looking into a hive and handling bees, before you go the whole hog and get set up with a colony.
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Post by Ena BumDance on Dec 29, 2009 20:10:50 GMT
IF this is the right place: AND IF anyone is interested: I will be happy to talk about beekeeping. As you might have guessed from my username. Merry Crimbo. TTFN I was stung on my foot by a bee this summer it nuzzled between my foot and my sandle and I stood up without realizing. Did you know vinegar helps to relieve the pain? Sorry the bee died.
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Post by bkeeper on Dec 29, 2009 22:46:05 GMT
Poor bee. It was probably the vinegar. They prefer honey. Anyway, you are still with us so you know that you are safe to keep bees. When do you want to start?
I started with two hives, & got carried away. 120 at the last count, although this winter might reduce the numbers somewhat - that's if the Varroa doesn't.
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Post by Ena BumDance on Dec 30, 2009 22:21:20 GMT
Well I am still here. I am free in February. I think I might be too scared.
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