MahakoBees Beekeeping

Saturday, 29 November 2014

NEW BEEKEEPING PHOTO

MahakoBees.com/blog - We May Have Figured Out What’s Killing The Bees. Are We Brave Enough To Save Them

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Thursday, 20 November 2014

NEW BEEKEEPING PHOTO

DIY MULCH from a BANANA tree - Save money and make you own mulch. NEW http://ift.tt/1q4NHBv VIDEO

DIY MULCH from a BANANA tree - Save money and make you own mulch. If you have a banana tree, you know that there is a lot of leaves and spent banana tree trunks you need to deal with. It is best to use a machete to cut the banana tree down (a banana tree is in fact a herb, rather than an actual tree). You will need a good quality and very sharp machete to do this as the banana trees can get quite large. If you need assistance with finding one, here is a couple of links to machetes we found to be great:

1 - http://ift.tt/1uNbl72

2 - http://ift.tt/1uNbl74

3 - http://ift.tt/1r0aL0F

After a banana tree trunk fruits, it no longer produces any fruit, so it is important to cut it down so the tree can use its energy for new shoots and subsequent fruit. As you can see in the video, we cut the banana tree down, strip the leaves, and place the trunk on grass. Then we use the machete to cut slices off the trunk. those we then cut in halves or smaller pieces. The banana tree consists of cardboard like layers, much like onion rings, but each ring is a dense cardboard like structure, making it an excellent heat and water insulator. It is also far superior to any hay or grass clippings as it lasts much longer in your garden. We place these under and around our trees and the veggie gardens to prevent water evaporation and reduce the growth penetration of weeds.

Give it a go. Its fast, easy, and free saving you money and you no longer need to go to the tip either. A win no matter how you look at it. So if you have a green thumb, have a banana tree and own a machete, give the DIY Mulch from banana trees a go.

If you enjoy our videos and we have helped you or entertained you in the very least, please share, subscribe and hit the thumbs up button. We appreciate it.

Have a great day!

MahakoLife

Visit our sister site for fantastic BeeKeeping related videos on http://ift.tt/1opiWHi

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Monday, 17 November 2014

NEW BEEKEEPING PHOTO

Cute - thanks for sharing. We plan to run similar beekeeping for kids activities. Support our efforts on Patreon where every small contribution counts. Thank you. MahakoBees

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Friday, 14 November 2014

NEW BEEKEEPING PHOTO

MahakoBees.com

Nuc box beehive with free form honeycomb built by our super productive bees. Get the nuc box from our beekeeping supplies store and decorate it to your liking too. Post a pic!

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Thursday, 13 November 2014

SUPER productive bees in our Nuc box BEEHIVE - beekeeping equipment

NEW VIDEO - Custom Made Nuc box BEEHIVE decorated by bees themselves. http://www.mahakobees.com/store.html looks briefly at our custom made beekeeping nuc hive which our hyperactive and super productive honey bees filled to the brim with burr comb and golden honey. We also show you a close up of our handmade wooden hive entrance reducer which assists new bee colony splits in protecting their hive entrance until they grow in numbers.

So when would a budding beekeeper use such a small beehive, or a nucleus beehive? These hives are typically used for splitting your colonies or to relocate a small swarm of bees if you are lucky enough to find one. The hive itself can come in many forms, shapes and sizes. Standard width is 4 or 5 Langstroth style full depth frames and the hive body itself is usually made out of wood, much like a normal full size brood chamber would be with an entrance and a top cover. There are also polystyrene and cardboard versions available in various local beekeeping supplies outlets, but these are used for transportation generally. The nucs can also be user to raise queens if you have lots of beehives and want to save money on re-queening.

Once you order one (or better yet, make one), it is usually flat packed like other timber beehives and needs to be assembled. It functions exactly the same way as a normal full size hive would, but the space is smaller and most importantly, the hive entrance is much smaller in width, which enables the new guard honey bees to protect the colony from being robbed, attacked or invaded by pests such as the wax moth and small hive beetles. We add an additional adjustable hive entrance reducer which further restricts the opening because the bees in their first few days after migration only have a few guard bees available for hive protection, so the reducer helps by reducing the opening further minimizing their exposure to external threat. Once the colony fills up all the frames and you have a healthy fertilized and laying queen, you can either migrate them to a full hive or add a second level to the nuc. You will need to make that decision depending on where you live and how strong your bee colony is as well as other factors such as the season you are in, availability of food and flowering plants, and availability of your beekeeping equipment.

If you are interested in splitting your hives and making your own bees or would like to try rearing your own queens, or you just like the look of these hives, come and visit our simple online beekeeping supplies eStore at: http://www.mahakobees.com/store.html and have one shipped to your door today.

We appreciate your support and invite you to click the thumbs up, share and subscribe if you enjoy our content. Thank you for visiting.

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 "Sidewalk Shade". We appreciate your kind contribution - (incompetech.com).

Saturday, 8 November 2014

NEW BEEKEEPING PHOTO

Click the image to see the cute hive this bee is protecting.

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Thursday, 6 November 2014

NEW BEEKEEPING PHOTO

mahakolife:

What a monster of a tick. Check out the clip:

http://ift.tt/1tLMK1W

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NEW BEEKEEPING PHOTO

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BEE SAFE Small Hive Beetle trap review Diatomaceous Earth Physical Insecticide

NEW BEEKEEPING VIDEO. Review of a BEE SAFE Diatomaceous Earth Small Hive Beetle trap, which is a bee safe non-toxic Physical Insecticide. Especially the super fine Absorbacide - http://amzn.to/10YbxVA - ultra fine dust less than 15 microns in size - which acts like razor blades to the small hive beetles outer casing. Once the hive beetles outer wax coating is compromised, it dries out and dies quickly. As it is a physical insecticide, the beetles will not build up a resistance to it. Diatamaceous Earth DE is a relatively safe insecticide to use for the control of the little pest hive beetles, however, in larger amounts, it can also kill your bees. So use it wisely and carefully. Still, the crystalline silica shards are non toxic, which to us is a whole lot more acceptable for use in our apiary than their chemical based counter parts. DE does not present any health hazards and has been approved by CSIRO for organic food producers. Other alternatives include oil based traps, such as the AJ Beetle Eater, or Beetle Blaster http://amzn.to/10YbCJ0, trap or similar under hive IPK Screened Bottom Board & Small Hive Beetle Traps http://amzn.to/1y8lMAI that also work well. These contain vinegar and oil in a dark plastic trap which has small openings on the top and as the bees chase the beetles around the hive, the beetle enters the trap and can no longer escape. Fantastic traps, but a little too messy. Oil often spills throughout the hive, and need to be replaced, emptied or replaced. Not the most pleasant task a beekeeper has to do during a hive inspection. So, we are trialing this neat version of Diatamaceous Earth Small Hive Beetle Trap. Costs around a dollar per unit, is reusable, kills beetles over a long period of time if kept DE remains dry, is bee friendly and easy to handle even when propolized by the bees. Beekeepers can prepare the traps away from the beehive, and simply place them on top of their frames under the top cover for easy access and manipulation.

There are many great ways beekeepers deal with hive beetles and their control methods will vary widely. Similar traps can be homemade using a CD cover, a politicians sign, or any other similarly shaped containers. Let us know in the comments section below what methods you may have used or continue to use, especially if they work well. We’d love to hear from you!

Hope you can join us next time, and please subscribe, share and/or give us thumbs up if you have found our videos useful. We and the bees very much appreciate your support.

MahakoBees

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