NEW BEEKEEPING PHOTO

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ONE MORE GLASS HONEY JAR prototype. Let us know what you think. Thank you

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NEW BEEKEEPING PHOTO

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MahakoBees - all about the superfood raw honey
Bee Labor or Industrial Product?
A great infographic showing How to Distinguish Natural Honey

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Beekeeper GLOVES REVIEW - Beekeeping 101 Bee equipment

http://www.mahakobees.com - NEW VIDEO.Beekeeper GLOVES REVIEW - Beekeeping 101 Bee equipment

Beekeeping supplies offer many options for hand protection against bee stings. Leather beekeepers gloves are one of the most popular, but often bee keepers choose to use rubber gloves, work gloves, or work leather gloves. These don't offer a new beekeeper enough protection whilst they build up confidence looking after their beehives and bee colonies. Beekeeping supply stores usually have two or three options. We look at these in the video but also look at some other, much cheaper options that many use. We prefer to handle our bees without beekeeping gloves all together, but there are times that you simply need to put them on for protection. If the weather is unfavorable, or the bees are agitated in the beehive for other reasons, you are best advised to put the gloves to be on the safe side. Sadly, when wearing leather beekeeping gloves, the beekeeper immediately looses much of their finger control and many more bees usually die during the apiary visit and bee hive inspections, especially if you are inspecting and manipulating all the frames. All the bee keeper can do, is take extra care to minimize the unnecessary bee deaths.

Bee gloves vary in price greatly. The quality goats leather or softened cow hide beekeeping gloves, with long ventilated sleeves and an elastic band will cost about $25 dollars or more. The cheapest option in a proper beekeeping glove would be around the $15 dollar range, which uses synthetics. And then you have the other styles of gloves, such as worker gloves, gardening gloves, dish washing gloves, or just very simple food preparation rubber gloves that can and do provide limited protection, which can be as cheap as a dollar or two. These provide only minimal protection, but they at least keep your hands clean from honey, beeswax and propolis. Bees will usually sting right through these.

So, in closing, we recommend all new beekeepers to purchase the full sleeve length beekeepers gloves, and in our view, the best gloves are leather, ventilated, and softened. The extra $10 dollars is well worth the investment. The gloves will protect your hands against bee stings almost 100%, and they will last many years to come. 

Enjoy your beekeeping.
MahakoBees

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Beekeeping - how to SAVE your wired frames

HOW TO Save your wired frames. http://www.mahakobees.com/blog. 

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. 



We invite you to share this video, click the thumbs up and to SUBSCRIBE if you enjoy our content. It goes a long way in helping our pollinators in crises as we continue to combat the phenomenon of bee colony disorder where our bees simply disappear in massive quantities. Thank you for visiting. MahakoBees.

CONCERNED about bee hive colony - mites or ashes? Beekeeping experts?

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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.

MahakoBees


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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).

dark SPOTS in your honey frame? Honey harvest extraction - beekeeping 101

DARK SPOTS in your beeswax honey frame? Backyard beekeeper 101. 

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. 



To learn more, we encourage you to take a look at our range of earlier videos and specifically a short closeup of the honey bee queen eggs and larvae (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-2E76XaDYk), or alternatively our playlist of CLOSEUPS which has many related and interesting videos (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfE6cWwwWKoiXEp4xSACAmvTHSrweW0nU)



BUT, if the art of beekeeping interests you, the best place is to visit our http://www.mahakobees.com/blog website for many instructional and HOWTO videos.



We invite you to subscribe, like, and share our content.

Have a relaxing day

MahakoBees



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What? A mid WINTER SPLIT? - Backyard Beekeeping

What? A mid WINTER SPLIT? - #Backyard #Beekeeping

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.



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QUEEN CELLS CUPS - original Beeswax cell vs fake Plastic cups. Beekeepin...

QUEEN CELLS - original #BEESWAX made by bees vs man made PLASTIC queen cups. Visit our beekeeping blog and beekeeper supplies store at http://www.mahakobees.com/blog.

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.

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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 BEGINNER TIP - How to light a BEE SMOKER quickly that smolder...

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.

Have a fantastic day

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drone sentenced to DEATH by his worker bee sister! Merciless EVICTION

DRONE sentenced to death by eviction. Unique bee behavior. See the worker bee chew on her brothers wings and evict him from the HIVE. http://www.mahakobees.com. 

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.



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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