All beekeepers know, that building and maintaining your beekeeping equipment such as the beehives, frames, beeswax foundations, queen excluders and all the bee related tools of the beekeeping trade is time consuming and costly. Here is a quick tip on how you, as a new beekeeper, can save yourself many hours of your time by saving the frames before each peak honey flow season.
It is recommended, that as part of your beekeeping frame rotation schedule, to have all your old drawn beeswax honey comb foundations extracted and removed at least once every 1 to 2 years. This reduces the potential for spreading diseases within your apiary and keeps the wax nice and clean for each new beekeeping season. You can melt the beeswax comb, process it, render it, purify it, and reuse it for new foundation sheets, or to make candles, creams or other cosmetic products. We show you this process in a small home based backyard beekeepers way in this series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfE6cWwwWKog1Mx0wdsnkPbeIDvo-qPng.
So nothing goes to waste. The Honey Bees simply need to draw the new honey comb on top of the new beeswax foundation sheets, and use it either as honey stores or as the new brood frames in your lower hive boxes.
So, what are we suggesting? Simple. Firstly, watch our earlier video series on how to build a solid timber honey frame: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRWxK2zc4qQ. Once you have a solid full depth honey frame assembled, add foundation and put the frame into rotation in your hives. A year later, once you extract the honey and the beeswax inside the honey frames becomes darker, use a sharp knife to cut along the inner edge of the timber frame, and then carefully cut the wax along the wires. Remove the strips of beeswax and melt. The beekeeping frame should now be relatively clean of all beeswax. Then, use a heat gun or a blow torch to melt the remaining wax, and to kill any remaining parasites, wax moth eggs, and to coat the frames with the beeswax for protection. (See this video on HOW TO clean frames and kill wax moth eggs using a heat gun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwRAW7_xLw0).
This will save you lots of time and effort by reducing the time spent on rewiring your frames and you get some wax for new foundation sheets as well. Not to mention, it will go a long way in saving you money by reducing requirements for treating diseases and controlling unwelcome parasites in your bee colonies in the apiary. So all in all, a worthwhile investment we think.
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NEW VIDEO - ever seen this in your beehive? On your brood frames? On your bee larvae?
What do you think it is? We are perplexed somewhat, as these black spots are distributed throughout the frame on all larvae, but the pollen cells are clean. The consistency and distribution of the black smears or spots is very even, that we think it is not bee smoker and ashes related. In which case, what is this? Can anyone help?
We have researched the issue and cannot find anything conclusive. Please take a look at the video and let us know in the comments section or via email if you have experience with this, seen it in the past or perhaps are aware of the issue and perhaps how to treat this.
The beehive that this frame was extracted from was perfectly OK. The video is taken 1 day from its extraction from the hive, so you can see ants crawling around, but they would not be the cause of these black markings. Could it bee fungus? Hopefully nothing more serious like AFB or EFB, even though these symptoms are not indicative of those. No other similar symptoms exist in the beehive itself and the queen is laying fine. The colony is very strong, possibly too strong and is getting ready to swarm as we approach spring and warmer temperatures. If there is a treatment we should investigate, please let us know.
We appreciate all beekeepers opinions, feedback and advice. Especially from the experienced and expert beekeepers. Your time and input is much appreciated. Hopefully its something minor.
Music composed, performed and provided by Groovey - Adam Kubát a Pavel Křivák. You can visit their website on: http://www.groovey.cz/. Also, a big thank you goes to Kevin McLeod for providing his royalty free music "Skye Cuillin". We appreciate your kind contribution - (incompetech.com).
http://www.mahakobees.com/blog. The dark spots can be many things, but more often than not, it will be pollen. It is often difficult to see as the bees cap the honey with a white beeswax capping. But if you shine light through the honey frame, you will see the spots. They are perfectly normal and are very good for you. In fact, they are very good for you in many ways. Unless you are allergic to honey and pollen, you should try and eat RAW honey in your diet as it helps prevent and in many cases cure hay fever by introducing your local flora into your body, therefore reducing hay fever symptoms when local trees and plants flower.
It is not advisable to give children under two years of age raw honey or pollen. Seek medical advise prior, and seek medical help immediately should your child consume raw honey and show adverse reaction to it.
Mid WINTER SPLIT required to prevent swarming. See all the drones at entrance? http://www.mahakobees.com/blog. At a glance we could see hyperactivity at one of the hive entrances. It is middle of winter in Australia, but the bees don't mind. There is still plenty of flowering trees and plants around, and the temperatures range from 5C (41F) at night to 26C (79F) in the day. In the sun, it can easily get to 35C (97F), so the honey bees are very active. Yes, the queen slows her laying, yes the drones are mostly evicted (see our DRONE EVICTION video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWSBfbAixo0&list=TLv0QzyBZoGSnAy635ZPGocQaJdtWePfqP), and there is no #honey flow, but none the less, if the hive is doing well, they can swarm and we certainly need to add honey supers at least once. In fact, several hives have 4 full honey supers on top of a single brood box with a queen excluder.
Clearly, this is not your typical winter activity for most beekeepers around the world, and we are very lucky to be located here in Australia, because we rarely worry about preparing bees for overwintering, we never need to feed our bees any sugar water or pollen patties, and as you can see, we can even encounter the odd swarming situation and need to split the hive or manage the colony to prevent it.
In this short clip, we ended up removing plenty of the drone comb and splitting the hive into a small nuc. A video on how that went mid winter and how the new hive progressed with making a #queen and establishing themselves as a strong hive will be released soon. It's on the cutting table now. So we invite you to subscribe and click the thumbs to show support. We release new videos weekly so join us if you like bees, are a beekeeping enthusiast, or just like to learn what all the buzz is about.
We take a look at queen cells or otherwise known among #beekeepers as queen cups. The bees frequently make their own original beeswax versions inside the #beehive, usually due to the beehive is either ready to split the colony and #swarm into a new location, or for supercedure of the aging or otherwise under performing or in the sudden absence of queen bee. In the case of a queen dying for some reason, the colony is not queen right, and as such they must quickly create several queen cups or cells and place any freshly laid eggs inside and begin feeding the select few royal jelly. The queen cell is much larger than a normal worker bee cell or in deed a drone cell. The egg and subsequent bee larvae that was destined to become just another worker bee will now be fed exclusively large amounts of the honey bee produced royal jelly, and this will trigger it to develop into a queen bee rather than the worker bee. Nonsense you say? Well... in a way, you are right. This is kind of a miracle on many levels. Not only will the egg develop into an entirely different creature physiologically, but its lifespan will also increase rather dramatically. A typical worker bee will live for about two months and perhaps longer during the winter months, whereas the queen bee can live for six or more years!!! Yes, rather impressive! And all because it was fed a different diet! That's it. No other magic. No wander many scientists are studying this amazing substance and are hoping to find a formula to this elixir of life.
In any case, we look at the difference or similarities of the original honey bee made queen cell which is entirely made from beeswax to the exact specification that is consistent in all hives right around the world, and the fake, man made plastic queen cells or cups beekeepers use in larger operations to produce new queens in large quantities. Beekeeping often requires new queen bees to build up populations for honey flows and other pollination services, and in such circumstances, it is faster and financially viable for #beekeeping operators to simply purchase already fertilized queens. It saves time and increases production.
What amazes us, among all the other amazing facts about the bees, their colonies, social interactions and natural instincts is their ability as a collective to monitor their colony as a complex collective and manage all their workers, drones and queen bees without any other input. Completely by instinct it seems. Unless we are missing something and cannot see the writing on the wall or listen in at the #bees frequency or dimension. Beekeeping is an eye opening hobby. We encourage you to join a beekeeping association, subscribe to our channel and click the thumbs up to help us spread the word about honey bees and their tremendous importance in our lives.
Music composed, performed and provided by Groovey - Adam Kubát a Pavel Křivák. You can visit their website on: http://www.groovey.cz/. Also, a big thank you goes to Kevin McLeod for providing his royalty free music "Undaunted". We appreciate your kind contribution - (incompetech.com).
HOW TO light a long lasting #bee #smoker quickly and easily in only minutes, that will smolder for hours.
An essential skill for anyone starting out in the #beekeeping #hobby or beekeeping industry. We have many smokers available at our online store http://www.mahakobees.com/store.html ready for immediate shipping (mostly free in USA), so feel free to visit and get yourself a smoker or an entire backyard beekeeping starter kit if you are ready to indulge in this excellent earth saving hobby as an apiarist.
A bee smoker is essential for a #beekeeper. Most beekeepers will not undertake a regular hive inspection without a well lit bee smoker. The cold smoke masks the pheromones of the guard bees and alerts the bees that a fire may be approaching. This helps the bee keeper because the bees gorge on honey, fill their stomachs in preparation for an urgent migration if necessary. Once the bee stomach is full, they are less likely to fly around and sting the beekeeper doing the beehive inspection in their #apiary.
This video describes full instructions to light a bee smoker, items needed, and the step by step guide to a successfully smoldering beekeepers smoker. The steps outline using hay and wood filings, but also a layer of insulating cardboard (or ideally non-toxic paper as correctly noted by Honey-B-guys in the comments below), which protects the bee smoker itself, insulates the heat, and certainly maintains the smoldering coals a lot longer than usual. Make sure you pack the smoker well for a long and easily reinvigorated smoke with just a few puffs of the #bellows.
We trust you will find this beekeeping 101 howto video and if you do, we invite you to subscribe, share, and thumbs up below. We very much appreciate it.
Our blog http://www.mahakobees.com/blog has many interesting beekeeping videos and articles. Come and check it out and help our beekeepers save our bees which are currently under great threat from pesticides, pests, viruses and colony collapse disorder! Once thee bees go, we will struggle to feed ourselves.
This video was a lucky take, as it shows a closeup of the bee hive entrance as the worker bee evicts her brother the drone from their colony. It is winter here, and the bees are still evicting their drones mercilessly. As the queen bee reduces her egg laying activities, the worker bees forcefully push the drones out of the bee hive.
The male drones don't have a stinger and as such, are powerless against the worker bees (their loving sisters) even though they are 30 percent larger in mass. Only a few will remain in the hive as a precautionary backup plan should the queen fail to continue to lay eggs for any reason. The worker bees would kick off the supersedure process and immediately begin nursing an egg into a new queen. Several of them at a time in fact and the first one would typically kill the others before they hatch by stinging the queen cell with her stinger. Only the queen can sting repeatedly without loosing her venom sack. The queen stinger lacks the return hooks and is more like a wasp stinger. the Queen stings rarely though otherwise.
So, as this video shows, beekeeping is a very interesting hobby. Should you be considering joining the beekeeping industry, come and visit our blog for more information as to what beekeeping entails, what to expect, helpful information on how and why to get started and visit our store for useful beekeeping books, beekeepers tools of the trade, even the hives and all things related to beekeeping - http://www.mahakobees.com/store.html.
We invite you to subscribe to our channel and appreciate all thumbs up.
Music composed, performed and provided by Groovey - Adam Kubát a Pavel Křivák. You can visit their website on: http://www.groovey.cz/. Also, a big thank you goes to Kevin McLeod for providing his royalty free music "Undaunted". We appreciate your kind contribution - (incompetech.com). Beekeeping,Bee,Bees,Honey bee,Hive,Beehive,the hive,eviction,drone,drones,worker bee,beekeeper,the beekeeper,hive entrance,bee colony,colony collapse disorder,queen bee,queen,hive split,swarm management,swarm,bee swarm,drone bee,bee keeper,drone killed,drone eviction,honey,propolis,bee behaviour,bee eviction,get out,drone flight,drone wings,bee drone,honey bee drone,beekeeping in winter,colony collapse
Our new video is out for this week! We thought we would discuss the hive body sizes, which every #beekeeper must consider sooner rather than later. The #hive must be practical not only for the bees, but also for the beekeeper, so the size of your brood box or your #honey supers will be essential.
We recommend to every new beekeeper or anyone looking into starting their first hive or two, to first seek assistance by reading beekeeping books (we have an extensive beekeeping library on our website http://www.mahakobees.com/store.html), and most importantly, to join their local beekeeping association, bee club or just seek a group of like minded people that have had experience and can share their experience with you in your geographical location. They will in most cases be happy to assist and guide you in the right direction. To get started in beekeeping though, you will need the basics: #beehive, #bee suit, #beekeeping tools, bee smoker, and either a package or a nuc with #bees and a new fertilized #queen bee.
Your first bee hive will most likely be a small nucleus hive with 5 frames, with three to six thousand bees, colonized on 4 or 5 full depth frames. Brood boxes (the bottom box where the queen lays her brood) will in most cases be a full depth hive box. You may need one or two of these depending on your location. Then you may choose to use a queen excluder with honey supers above your brood hive boxes. These will depend on the size you are willing to carry. A honey filled full depth honey frame can weigh up to 3 kg (6lb), with 10 or 8 frames in the box. The frames plus the box itself can weigh up to 40kg (90lb). SO it gets HEAVY! You have been warned! But it is the most efficient ways to get excellent honey production if that is what you are trying to achieve. You can then use an IDEAL honey super, or the HALF honey super. What ever you do, find out which one suits you the most, and stick with that size. Standardization makes every beekeepers life much easier. The hive is much easier to manage as the bees expand, swarm, and shrink in numbers for winter.
We hope the video provides helpful information and we invite you to subscribe for weekly video updates. We try to be different to other generic beekeeping channels and present interesting videos in a new light. So click the thumbs up and join us!
The beekeeper should visit the hive frequently. In Australia and other warm climates, more so. The weather sunny and temperate all your round and the honey bees have plenty of pollen to gather for colony expansion and always growing their beautiful organically healthy raw honey stores. Once fresh #honey is capped, it will remain fresh for many decades, never spoiling.
This video however shows the #QUEEN, her circle of worker bees, also referred to as her carers. These worker bees constantly circle the queen bee, provide her with food and water, and nutrition. They provide guidance and protection, and keep a close eye on her to ensure she is doing a good job at laying eggs and that she is fit for purpose. The bees do two things. They aim to expand by swarming, and collect food stores in the form of raw honey and pollen that provides them with all the nutrition they need to maintain a healthy life. If the weather is mild, the queen will continue laying eggs throughout the winter and therefore it is important to inspect the hive frequently to check on the colony size, food stores, and the available space. Once space is insufficient, the bees begin to make plans for swarming.
Swarm control is important to a bee keeper, because once the hive splits, beekeepers lose half their honey producing stock. This greatly reduces their capacity to produce honey, new bees, and other products such as raw pollen, beeswax, propolis and possibly royal jelly. If your local beekeeper does not maintain the hives appropriately, you may find yourself with swarming bees in your backyard. This may require you call in swarm removal services, which may or may not be free in your area. Although #swarming bees are generally at their most docile and non aggressive state, you may need to take extra precaution if you or any of your loved ones are allergic to bees, or more specifically, express an allergic reaction to a bee sting. The bee stinger releases bee venom, which may cause pain and swelling under normal circumstances, however to those unfortunate enough to be allergic to the bee stinger, you may display anaphylaxis symptoms as a result of the allergy. This is a serious situation for anyone with this condition as swelling is extremely fast and may cause difficulty in breathing and even death if left untreated quickly. This rapid allergic reaction is referred to as anaphylactic shock. Use of an EpiPen which induces epinephrine in the form of a self injecting pen can slow the allergic reaction and save lives. We will cover this topic in more detail in our future videos, especially in relation to young children.
Back to this video about our beautifully colored golden Italian Queen bee. The queen is the only one that can sting repeatedly without dying. However, the use of the queen bee #stinger on beekeepers is very rare. The queen #bee has a life span of many years, typically 4-5, depending on which book you read and off course on the climatic conditions your #hives and bee colonies live in. The queen bee is much larger than the other worker bees and has only one role in the beehive. Emerge as the one and only queen bee in the colony, undertake a mating flight during which she will mate with numerous drones which incidentally pass away after the act, and upon a successful fertilization and return to the hive, she then remains inside for many years laying between one and three thousand eggs each day.
Please visit our blog to learn more about the bees and support the vital beekeeping industry. Click http://www.mahakobees.com/blog or visit any of our social sites listed below. We appreciate your support, so please click the thumbs UP, and subscribe.
Music composed, performed and provided by Groovey - Adam Kubát a Pavel Křivák. You can visit their website on: http://www.groovey.cz/. Also, a big thank you goes to Kevin McLeod for providing his royalty free music "Call to Adventure". We appreciate your kind contribution - (incompetech.com).
We had an intruder visit our empty frame of brood comb. All beekeepers have spare frames, foundation, honey supers, entire hives in fact, always in preparation for capturing bee swarms, or to simply split their hives if and when required. This poses a problem for most beekeepers, because many pests love to utilize the frames whilst the bees are not. The comb and the frames remain unprotected and are exposed to many creatures, such as ants, cockroaches, mice, small hive beetle (SHB) and more worryingly the dreaded evil monster, the wax moth! Or as we refer to it in this video title, Th3 EV1L MoTHSTER!
In this video, we take a close up look at the cocoon of this insect pest which has made its way into our stored #honey frame. Luckily, we were able to locate it and in the end, we had to dispose of it and several of its brothers and sisters. Once they hatch, the damage they can cause is extensive, and not only does it render the frame and comb useless, but there are bound to be more eggs in the nooks and crannies of the frame which may cause further problems to your hive down the track should you deploy these frames without proper treatment.
So, how doe one protect themselves against such a pest? What pest control precautionary measures can you take? Do you call in an exterminator? Do you use harsh chemicals? What is one to do if you find yourself inundated by these pests?
Answer is not simple and there are many different ways you can protect yourself. Definitely do not use any harsh chemicals. Remember, these frames are going to be used in your hives and they form the most crucial part of the bee colony. The comb itself should be free of any pesticides, sprays, or other harmful chemicals. To reduce the potential of a wax moth invasion, you need to clean the frames, do not leave them exposed to the outside world, keep them covered, check them regularly, and ideally, you would in fact simply cut out all the old comb and heat treat the entire frames. Another method that is often used and we found useful as well, is to freeze the entire honey supers with the frames inside. If space does not allow this, then you can freeze them frame by frame. This can be tedious though and time consuming. Each frame should be kept well below zero degrees Celsius (below water freezing point) for at least 24 to 48 hours. This will destroy most eggs or hatched baby larvae and in deed any other #pests and #parasites that may have found a way into your hive.
NOTE: this will not treat or remove the dreaded foul brood. Burning your hives, frames and sadly destroying the bees themselves is the only way to combat this problem. There is much written about the various form of foulbrood, how to identify it, and the various ways to treat each variant. We may do a video on this in the future also, even though we do hope to never encounter this crippling disease.
So, once you have frozen or heat blasted your frames, place then in a dry, isolated, enclosed area, place a large and tough plastic bag over your boxes with frames, and depending on your views on treatments, you may choose to add a moth ball or two near or within the bag to reduce the risk of a wax moth chewing through the plastic. That however is not our practice, but others have suggested this in other blogs and videos. The choice is yours.
We hope you find this video useful, enjoyable and educational. We would be pleased to see you click the THUMBS UP for us and invite you to SUBSCRIBE. Your help and support is very much appreciated. Don't forget to visit our MAHAKOBEES BLOG on http://www.mahakobees.com/blog.
Music composed, performed and provided by Groovey - Adam Kubát a Pavel Křivák. You can visit their website on: http://www.groovey.cz/. Also, a big thank you goes to Kevin McLeod for providing his royalty free music "Hitman". We appreciate your kind contribution - (incompetech.com).
