Archive for March, 2011

Knowing honey bees, and having the knowledge for their management, are the two most important factors in making a start in the business of beekeeping. The knowledge should be obtained first or, at least, gaining it should keep pace with any increase in the numbers of honey bees. As in any business, it’s the same with bee-keeping, your need to have a broad and deep knowledge of the subject to succeed in this line of work. So many people fail in different kinds of business because they start it with only a narrow or superficial knowledge of their chosen profession. A very good way to gain the knowledge is working with an experienced and successful bee-keeper. This is one of the quickest ways of learning bee-keeping; and, if the teacher is competent, it can be a very enjoyable experience.

The beginner is not always able to get the best as an instructor, it is therefore, a good idea to supplement such instruction by a course of reading, and thus be able to make comparisons and discuss the instructor’s methods in the light of those procedures used by others. In fact, I am inclined to think that a thorough course of reading is the most desirable first step that can be taken by a prospective bee-keeper. Having done this, the next step is to subscribe to a honey beekeeping magazine. At this stage a season with an expert bee-keeper would be of great value, when the reading will enable the learner to use the information, and see the reason for things instead of being simply an imitator, following blindly in the footsteps of his teacher.

Many people who now keep honey bees never had any formal training. Many have become interested in honey bees from the capture of a stray swarm. Neighbouring bee-keepers would be visited, books or magazines borrowed or bought, improved hives and methods adopted, and, as the honey bees increased, so did the enthusiasm and interest, until, finally, the honey bees received more time and attention than did the regular business. Then bee-keeping eventually become a speciality or the sole business.

When a person has decided to embark on a bee-keeping venture as a business, they should learn the business thoroughly before investing extensively. No hard and fast rules can be laid down, so much depending upon circumstances. A young man with no established business would do well to pass one or two seasons in the company of some experienced bee-keeper, as has been already suggested, while a more experienced person already in business, with a family to support, may find it advisable to move into bee-keeping gradually, reading and studying as his honey bees’ increase. Whatever the method employed, let the work be thorough; and, especially, be sure to get plenty of actual experience before venturing into honey beekeeping as a business.

On occasions, a person already has some honey bees when he decides to become a full-time bee-keeper. Perhaps he never formally makes any such decision. He captures a stray swarm, and saves the honey bees, and the stock increases with such wonderful speed that the owner becomes a bee-keeper of substance and scarcely realizes it. This amazing speed with which honey bees increase is one strong argument in favour of a person securing a few colonies and building them up into an apiary instead of buying a large number of colonies at the beginning. By rearing queens that will supply the newly made colonies with brood, and you furnishing them with full sheets of comb foundation, the amount by which honey bees can  increase in a favourable season is something almost beyond belief. Just how or where the first colonies come from may well be considered.

Sometimes the person who has steady work, and a good income, can buy honey bees and in the hives that they intend to use. If the honey bees and hives can be obtained locally, from a reliable bee-keeper, so much the better. Of course, there are instances in which a person has more time than money, or there may be a trace of the opportunist in their make-up, and, in either case, the hunting of honey bees, or the putting-out of decoy hives to catch stray swarms, will appeal to them. In those parts of the country where many honey bees are kept, as in Colorado or California, there is no difficulty in catching swarms in decoy hives; in fact, there is difficulty in keeping swarms out of chimneys and the walls of buildings. While out riding one day a man in Colorado, pointed out one house where the walls were covered with five colonies.

He used ordinary boxes instead of hives, and put them pretty high up in tall trees, as a good hive, easily accessible, is quite likely to be stolen.  A piece of old black comb is fastened inside the hive or box, and the hive or box is firmly fastened to the tree so that it is not to be easily blown down, a position being chosen where the hive will be in the shade. A tree on the edge of the woods should be chosen, because, when a swarm reaches the woods, it at once begins a search for a suitable hollow in which to make its home. This is sometimes done in advance by worker bees when foraging.  The hives or boxes are examined at least once a week, more often if there is time, and when one is found to be occupied by honey bees the hive or box is removed and another put in its place.

Honey bees are also found by walking through the woods in the swarming season.  After the honey bees have been found, then the next task is getting them out of the tree and into a hive. Sometimes it is possible to shake them from a light branch into a box, if they are located on a large limb, you might need to cut off the portion where they are located, and lower it by means of a rope. Having captured the honey bees they need to be transferred from the box to a hive. Frames with drawn comb should be put in the hive.  A white cloth or canvas should be placed in front of the hive and the honey bees shaken onto it.  Make sure there is a slight incline up to the hive entrance. If the hive is left on the spot for several hours, perhaps until dusk, nearly all of the live honey bees will go into the hive.

As said at the beginning, if a person has and a reasonable income they might find it more satisfactory to buy honey bees in a hive; but if they have the time and inclination to get a start by hunting honey bees, or by putting up decoy hives, then this should help them to do it.

My name is Bob Prior-Sanderson. I am a successful bee-keeper and I publish eBooks about the long lost secrets of beekeeping by the old masters. Website: http://www.firstlessonsinbeekeeping.com
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Owning honey bees and beekeeping can be an enjoyable and rewarding activity.  Not only does the beekeeper have the benefit of pollination of his own and any nearby gardens, they are also able to enjoy delicious honey.

Everyone knows the expression “busy as a bee” and it is true.  In fact, honey bees work so hard bringing nectar back to the hive to make honey that after about 35 days of life, they actually wear out their wings and their usefulness to the colony and die.  The honey bees store the honey which can then be used as food during times when flowers aren’t blooming.   If it is a good season with a lot of nectar producing flowers, the bees are able to collect a lot of nectar and they end up making much more honey than they could ever eat by themselves.  The beekeepers are then able to harvest a good amount of honey to use for themselves or to sell for profit.

It is possible to profit from enjoying honey bees and beekeeping by selling two different types of honey. The honey that is easily extracted from the hive is liquid honey.  Beekeepers are able to remove it from the honey combs by the use of centrifuge equipment.  These machines are called extractors.  Beekeepers are also able to sell honey in another way; they sell pieces of the comb.  Comb honey is honey that is still in the original wax combs that the bees made.  Although this honey is less adaptable to use in cooking or with mixing in tea, those who prefer its natural flavors enjoy it.  This is a great example of honey bees beekeeping together to make a profit and enjoy doing it.

It is not widely known that honey comes in lots of different colors and flavors.  Different flowers have different scents.  Therefore the nectar that is given off by the flower will smell and taste different as well.  Soil chemistry is another thing that determines how honey tastes and looks.  Honey that is made from the nectar of alfalfa which grows in drier, alkali soil, may vary from white to clear.  On the other hand, honey that is made from the nectar of buckwheat which grows in more acidic soils tens to be very dark.  Plus, the quality of the honey comb that the bees make is a factor in the color and taste of honey.  The color of honey can also be golden, red, and even green hues.

It is very important that they follow state and federal regulations for processing, labeling, and handling food products when beekeepers are processing honey and other types of bee products.  It is a real business and local governments may vary in the guidelines that they have set up regarding beekeeping in the area.  Beekeepers must also consider marketing strategies to sell their honey and other types of bee products.  Where will they sell their honey and what types of consumers are they targeting for sales?  Beekeeping is a rewarding hobby but when the beekeeper is trying to turn a profit, they must view their hobby like a business and make decisions that will allow them to not only survive but thrive.

Jason Honey has been digging gardening for more than 20 years. He has used his knowledge of beekeeping to keep himself safe and his garden thriving year round. Visit his website http://www.mybeekeepingsecrets.com/honey-bees-beekeeping to read more about beekeeping now! Sign up for the 10 day email mini-course of beekeeping basics.
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Rochdale Wasps Nests

Destroyed £32.00 Fixed Price

0161 452 3165

Rochdale Wasps Nests Destroyed £32.00 Fixed Price – No need to pay above the odds we’ve got a hard and fast price of exactly £32.00

We eradicate wasps’ nests in Rochdale and Oldham with a set rate of £32.00. No excess is going to be added and if you might have more than one nest we will kill the second at no extra charge and any subsequent ones at an additional £10 each on the same visit.

Rochdale Wasps Nest

A wasps nest is built afresh each season starting with a single queen. In spring over wintering wasp queens abandon their hibernation and commence constructing new nests by using a papery product that she creates by chewing small bits of wood mixed with saliva. This is known as Wasp Paper. She will raise the initial few workers by her own efforts and those workers will then start the growth of the nest and looking after the immature wasps to follow.

Nest development gets under way in earnest in June and will eventually reach its optimum in size in August and September, when 5000 – 20,000 workers may be present. In late autumn the nest produces anywhere up to 2000 queens to hibernate and make new nests the subsequent spring. The nest is then spent and simply not used again.

A wasp nest must not be neared unprotected as wasps will easily attack to guard their nest and it is possible to acquire numerous stings.

People react differently to being stung by wasps, some are seldom affected, others suffer significant pain and swelling and some become critically allergic to being stung, which sometimes brings about sudden death attributable to anaphylactic shock.

Wasps’ nests treated after early September may require additional expense work including loft or attic fogging to wipe out emerging Queens.

Remove Wasps Nests From £32.00 in Rochdale and Oldham.