Slides from Mapleton Beekeeping Class

We had a fun, successful beekeeping class in Mapleton on Friday, March 14. This post is photos of the slides from that presentation, in case you missed it. There were about 50 people at the hands-on portion of the class and about 86 at the classroom portion. 

Preparedness With Bees

A couple weeks ago, we were invited to speak with the Mapleton Ready group about bees. We have been excited about the response. They gave Stan and I 20 minutes to talk about bees when it comes to sustainable living and emergency preparedness. Here is what we came up with. 20 minutes is not long when it comes to bees! I thought I'd just share the slides and maybe comment on a few below the slide.

We like to help people get started with honeybees. We think there is a lot of equipment out there that beekeepers don't have to have to be successful. We try to help get folks set up with just the basics.

We also like to promote natural, sustainable beekeeping. We love the University of Minnesota Bee Lab's beekeeping manuals and Marla Spivak's work, especially when it comes to diseases and pests. 

One reason people keep bees is for food. Honey and honey comb are the first food source people think of with bees. It is a good source of carbohydrates. In fact, it provides all the carbs bees need to survive. And it's yummy!

Bees also collect pollen and store it in their hives. This is an edible protein source for humans too. It is a complete food, containing all 21 amino acids. Sometimes people with seasonal allergies consume pollen, which causes an enhanced antihistamine response, but then seems to reduce symptoms.

If there was an apocalypse, people may turn to bee larvae for food also. This is a Chinese bee larvae salad taken from the disgusting food website online. We can also consume royal jelly, and many do as an alternative medicine. It is VERY labor-intensive to harvest.

Bees also collect the plant resin, propolis. They use it to glue everything down in the hive. It also is an important part of their collective immunity. It is anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, and anti-viral. Even HIV virus couldn't live in a petri dish with a propolis solution. Humans also consume this for its anti-microbial properties. It is kinda spicy as it has essential oils in it.

Many people use honey for first aid. We keep some in our first aid kit. Honey is low in moisture and is acidic. Bacteria can't live in honey because of this. People use honey on wounds, burns, bruises, and facial blemishes. It is also a natural cough suppressant and pulls moisture from the environment (or swollen body parts).

Honeybees are important pollinators for our gardens. If we need to rely on these gardens for food, it's a good idea to make sure bees are nearby.

Ha Ha! We don't actually recommend this one, but maybe something to think about. . .

Here are some things to consider if you need to move bees post earthquake.

This slide shows many of the hive ideas around the time Mr. Langstroth patented his hive. They are slides he included in his patent application. The idea is that bees will produce honey wherever they are. We use modern hives for the beekeeper's convenience.

Above is a list of the basics one would need for one beehive. We use deeps exclusively in our operation, but have a friend who swears by mediums. The box size is not really that important.

Here are a couple ways people can get bees: Packages and Nucs. The top left photo is a package of bees. You can see the metal can of sugar syrup. The queen comes in her own smaller cage within the package cage. The queen cage is pictured top right. Our nucs come on 5 deep frames. The bottom photo shows Stan holding up a hive nucleus. It comes with bees, a queen that has been inspected for a good laying pattern, drawn comb, some honey stores, eggs, larvae, emerging bees, and workers. We start the package in a nuc box in April on new frames and then sell it a bit farther along as a nuc in May.

Above is a list of other equipment you will need that we do not sell. The top photo is a sticky pair of gloves and a hive tool. The bottom photo shows two beekeepers. On the left, he has a jacket-style bee suit with gloves and his own jeans and boots. The one on the right has a hat, veil, gloves, and is wearing his own long-sleeved shirt and jeans with boots. A hat, veil, and gloves is all you really need.

Someday, you may want to invest in extracting equipment like that pictured above.

If you don't want to purchase extracting equipment, the Barn Hive is another option used for harvesting comb honey. See www.thehoneycompany.com under "Barn Hive" for more information.

Here is our DIY version of bottling equipment. There is a post about this on our blog . . . somewhere. . .

We threw in a couple pictures in case of questions about swarms, rooftop beekeeping, and harvesting honey.

Foundation

We just received a shipment of foundation and thought it would make a great post here. 

There are 3 different measurements with foundation. They are cell size, midrib thickness, and frame depth.

Cell size refers to the size of the hexagons imprinted on the wax. Small cells yield smaller bees and potentially fewer varroa mites. Medium cells are standard in the beekeeping industry. Drone cells are the largest and will stimulate more drone bees in the hive.

Midrib thickness refers to how thick the foundation is, if you look at it from the side. The midrib is the wax that supports the cells, which poke out from it on either side. The thicker the midrib, the sturdier the foundation. Medium brood foundation is foundation with a medium-thick midrib. Thin surplus foundation is often used for producing honeycomb. Plastic foundation is all medium brood thickness.

Frame size refers to whether the frame is shallow, medium, or deep.

Above is a frame with medium cell size, deep frame size plastic foundation. It is coated with a thin layer of beeswax. We use Permadent foundation. Permadent is a brand name similar to Rite-Cell by Mann Lake and Plasticell by Dadant. This is the foundation we use the most. 

Left: Small cell, Medium midrib, Deep frame size.
Middle: Medium cell, Medium midrib, Deep frame size.
Right: Medium cell, Thin surplus midrib, Medium frame size.

We are experimenting with wax foundation in the Barn Hive. We use it to produce comb honey in deep middle bar frames. The medium midrib foundation holds up well both in the hive and in the extractor.

We avoid Duragilt foundation. It has a beeswax cells added to a plastic core. Unfortunately, the beeswax cells peel off and leave blank, slick plastic behind. The bees avoid stripped areas won't build comb there.

We haven't experimented with wired wax foundation and would really prefer not to wire our frames, as it is very labor-intensive. This is why we go with plastic Permadent foundation most often.

2014 Beekeeping Class Series

We will be teaching a series of 3 $FREE$ beekeeping classes in March. We are excited about the response, and have 30 people signed up after only 2 days of announcement! Thanks!  

The first class will be March 14 at 5:30 pm at the Mapleton Memorial Hall, 90 East Maple Street, in Mapleton, UT. 

We are planning to hold additional classes March 21 and 28, location TBA. 

We will be using Beekeeping in Northern Climates and Honeybee Diseases and Pests by the University of Minnesota Extension as a text book. Available: http://beelab.umn.edu/Resources/Beekeeping_manuals_videos/index.htm

The class will be taught in 3 parts. Classes will build on each other. 

1. Bee biology and equipment (March 14)

a. Honeybee castes and roles in the hive

b. Colony life cycle

c. Queen rearing impulses

d. Bees and equipment: where and how to buy

2. Managing colonies (March 21)

a. Selecting apiary site

b. 4 principles of productive beekeeping

c. Inspecting beehives

3. Harvesting and Bottling honey/ Bee diseases and pests (March 28)

a. Harvesting honey

b. Extracting honey

c. Bottling honey

d. Honeybee diseases and pest management strategies.

It's okay if you can't make all of the classes. You can always read up on the ones you miss. 

Bring protective clothing if you have it, as we will have live beehives to look at outside. We will have a few extra hats and veils. The inside portion of the class will start around 7:00 pm. 

Please let us know if you can come by sending an email to info@thehoneycompany.com. so we can estimate how many handouts to make. You are welcome to bring family and friends. Young Beekeepers are welcome too. 

Moving Bees at the turn of the Century

We've been studying C.C. Miller's book Fifty Years Among the Bees and came across some photos of how people moved bees by hand or with horses. If there ever is some sort of apocalypse and we need to live without electricity and gasoline, beekeeping is still doable! The prepper in me thinks this awesome! 

I wonder how fast those horses traveled with bees in the wagon behind them. Maybe there were sudden bursts of speed each time a horse got stung. . . 

I love this one! This is a jumbo (or extra deep) box carried by two ladies in their long dresses with a rope. They were taking bees into the cellar for the winter. I kinda want one of those veils.

Now this guy is smart. I wonder how far he carried this box from the field to the kitchen. A mile? Two? A deep box can weigh 80 pounds full of honey. But this one is a jumbo or extra deep box. Maybe 100-120 pounds? That's like carrying a full grown (short) woman. This rope helps distributes the weight.

 If you have a horse and need to carry 40 supers, this may be the wagon for you. I think I'd rather carry supers than full hives of mad bees on the back of a horse.

Here are some Andersen family history photos from A Century of Service, a biography of Arthur Andersen, Stan's grandpa.

This photo gem is from Stan's Great Grandpa, Nels Andersen in Emery, Utah. Note the beekeeper near the bee shed and the net-covered cargo truck to the right.



The photo below is also from our family history from around 1935 in Emery, UT. These beekeepers were smart too. They would bring the wagon 50-100 yards from the bee yard, unhitch the horses, pull the wagon by hand closer to the beehives, load it, then pull it by hand back to the horses, and re-hitch the horses to pull it home.

Or else they would drive the horse and wagon to the bee yard before sunrise, unhitch the horses, move them 50-100 yards away, load the cart, etc. (BTW, bees don't fly when it is dark or dreary.)

Beehives in Slovenia

A while back, I visited Slovenia. I was in the Carniolan region, actually, and didn't know about the connection to honey bees. (Ignorant American that I am, I cannot read Russian or Slovene.) When I came home and realized a major breed of honey bees originated in this region, I dug out the old photos to share on this blog. (Carniolan is the breed that originated there, btw.) Cool, right? 

They had large hive houses like this one pictured here. 

I love the folk art painted on these hives!

Pollen Basics

Here is a basic explanation of pollen and some photos of how it is stored in the hive. 

Honeybees collect pollen from flowers. Some of it is transferred to other flowers, fertilizing the flower so a plant can produce fruit. (Pollen is essentially the "sperm" to fertilize the flower "egg.")

Worker bees bring pollen back to the hive and store it in honeycomb cells. Later, nurse bees will feed pollen to brood. Spring pollen stimulates the queen to lay eggs to build up the colony after winter. 

Pollen is made up of amino acids, which are consumed by larvae to build the protein in their bodies. It is sometimes called "bee bread" because it has a bread-like texture when stored in the comb. 

Pollen is bee protein. Honey is bee carbohydrates. 

In the newly installed package below, bees have drawn some comb and filled some of the cells with multi-colored pollen. The pollen color is different for each plant bees visit. Bees do best when there is a variety of different pollen sources.  

Pollen from several plants can be stored in one cell. 

Bees sometimes store nectar within the same cell as pollen. (The shiny liquid below is nectar, which needs to be cured to make honey.) Having pollen below honey in cells can make it tricky to estimate how much pollen is in the hive. We really can't see it when honey cells are capped over.

One more thing: Some people like to consume pollen, or honey with pollen particles inside, to help with their seasonal allergies. It seems to help them. It is important to get pollen or honey produced in the season to match allergy inflammation.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Wishing you a happy Valentine's Day with this vintage honeybee valentine.