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.



We invite you to subscribe to our channel and appreciate all thumbs up.

Bee good

MahakoBees



•Website:                  http://www.mahakobees.com

•Blog:                        http://mahakobees.blogspot.com.au/

•Blog kids:                 http://beekeepingwithkids.blogspot.com.au/

•Youtube:                  https://www.youtube.com/user/mahakobees

•Google+:                  https://plus.google.com/+MahakoBees

•Facebook:                https://www.facebook.com/mahakobees.mahakobees

•Pinterest:                http://www.pinterest.com/mahakobees/

•Twitter:                   https://twitter.com/mahakobees

•Flickr:                     https://www.flickr.com/photos/125372235@N04/

•Stumbleupon:           http://www.pinterest.com/mahakobees/

•Reddit:                    http://www.reddit.com/user/MahakoBees/

•Tumblr site:             http://mahakobees.tumblr.com/

•Tumblr blog:            https://www.tumblr.com/blog/mahakobees



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

HIVE SIZES explained - brood and hive supers - beekeeping 101

HIVE SIZES  explained - brood and hive supers - beekeeping 101

visit us on: http://www.mahakobees.com/blog/index.php. 

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!

Have a great week everyone!

MahakoBees



•Website:                  http://www.mahakobees.com

•Blog:                        http://mahakobees.blogspot.com.au/

•Blog kids:                 http://beekeepingwithkids.blogspot.com.au/

•Youtube:                  https://www.youtube.com/user/mahakobees

•Google+:                  https://plus.google.com/+MahakoBees

•Facebook:                https://www.facebook.com/mahakobees.mahakobees

•Pinterest:                 http://www.pinterest.com/mahakobees/

•Twitter:                   https://twitter.com/mahakobees

•Flickr:                      https://www.flickr.com/photos/125372235@N04/

•Stumbleupon:           http://www.pinterest.com/mahakobees/

•Reddit:                    http://www.reddit.com/user/MahakoBees/

•Tumblr site:             http://mahakobees.tumblr.com/

•Tumblr blog:            https://www.tumblr.com/blog/mahakobees



Music composed, performed and provided by Groovey - Adam Kubát a Pavel Křivák. You can visit their website on: http://www.groovey.cz/

QUEEN bee and her bees in the hive - the beekeeper

QUEEN bee and her bees in the hive - the beekeeper inspects to swarm control. Http://www.mahakobees.com/blog for much more info, products, and discussions.

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. 

Have a great weekends!

MahakoBees





•Website:                  http://www.mahakobees.com

•Youtube:                  https://www.youtube.com/user/mahakobees

•Google+:                  https://plus.google.com/+MahakoBees

•Facebook:                https://www.facebook.com/mahakobees.mahakobees

•Pinterest:                  http://www.pinterest.com/mahakobees/

•Twitter:                   https://twitter.com/mahakobees

•Stumbleupon:           http://www.pinterest.com/mahakobees/

•Tumblr blog:             https://www.tumblr.com/blog/mahakobees



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).

the EVIL MoTHSTER MONSTER - every beekeeper's nightmare

Th3 EV1L MoTHSTER - The EVIL MONSTER

a MUST see for every beekeeper. View the full video and many more on our http://www.mahakobees.com channel. See you there. 

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.

MahakoBees


•Website:                  http://www.mahakobees.com

•Youtube:                  https://www.youtube.com/user/mahakobees

•Google+:                 https://plus.google.com/+MahakoBees

•Facebook:               https://www.facebook.com/mahakobees.mahakobees

•Pinterest:                  http://www.pinterest.com/mahakobees/

•Twitter:                    https://twitter.com/mahakobees

•Stumbleupon:           http://www.pinterest.com/mahakobees/

•Tumblr blog:            https://www.tumblr.com/blog/mahakobees


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).

His first QUEEN BEE sighting EVER!

His first QUEEN BEE sighting EVER! The Young Beekeeper

His 1st QUEEN BEE sighting! How EXCITING! Our young BEEKEEPER got his bee suit on, smoked the beehive, and searched for the honeybee queen. AND found her Royal Highness! Visit our blog on http://www.mahakobees.com/blog for many great videos and articles.


Beekeeping with kids is EASY. Yes, there are some costs to get started, such as the beekeepers suit and veil in a small size, but such a bee suit will cost you around $70, which if you buy it 3 sizes over your child's current size will last you for many years. As will the small beekeeper gloves and any other items you may wish to purchase from your local beekeeping supplier or an online beekeeping store for your young budding beekeepers. If you have siblings, they can easily share and or pass down the line their suits as they get older.

Either way, it is a small investment for a fantastic cause as your kids will love the fact they are out there in the field with you working the hives in your apiary. They get to see nature in action, they feel like they are contributing, learning new skills, they gain an understanding of not only the honey bee life cycle, but the cycle of life in general. They will get to witness how the honey bee colony its social networks operate. Your children will also gain respect. They will quickly learn, that frustration, anger, or short tempered behavior will not get them very far in beekeeping, and a few stings later, they will automatically begin to adjust their actions and behavior accordingly. Oh and let's not forget, they will also understand, that honey does not just drop from the sky by magic. It takes hard work by both the bees themselves and the beekeeper, but always make sure you reward your children for their hard work with plenty of the the amazing liquid gold so they can learn the different taste profiles honey has depending on which flowers are in bloom at that time. Honey will display different colors, density, aromas, flavors, and will be either in abundance or a scarce resource for the bees. All this will educate your child, you will spend quality time together, and make everyone feel good.


So what are you waiting for? Visit our Beekeeping with kids playlist for some inspiration: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfE6cWwwWKohLHWVc60tgnU3HzLUSGqXo


If you are new to beekeeping or don't have a beehive as yet, then you should start by contacting or visiting your local beekeeping association, which will provide you with lots of useful information, such as your local council regulations, licenses or registrations you may need to adhere to, they will show you and tech you the basics, possible provide you with access to a beehive so you can test the waters to see if you are ready to embrace all the tasks of a beekeeper, and then, if all goes well, get a beehive. You can do this in a form of an established hive, a small starter hive or a nuc box, or purchase (or build your own hive) and order a package of 3,000 or so bees with a queen which you can then install into your new hive. There are also many interesting books we recommend you read, and we have a list of these on our blog: http://www.mahakobees.com/blog, so come and visit us and look around.


Have a fabulous day

MahakoBees


•Website:                  http://www.mahakobees.com

•Website:                  http://www.mahakobees.com/blog

•Blog:                        http://mahakobees.blogspot.com.au/

•Blog kids:                 http://beekeepingwithkids.blogspot.com.au/

•Youtube:                  https://www.youtube.com/user/mahakobees

•Google+:                  https://plus.google.com/+MahakoBees

•Facebook:                https://www.facebook.com/mahakobees.mahakobees

•Pinterest:                 http://www.pinterest.com/mahakobees/

•Twitter:                   https://twitter.com/mahakobees

•Flickr:                      https://www.flickr.com/photos/125372235@N04/

•Stumbleupon:           http://www.pinterest.com/mahakobees/

•Reddit:                    http://www.reddit.com/user/MahakoBees/

•Tumblr site:             http://mahakobees.tumblr.com/

•Tumblr blog:            https://www.tumblr.com/blog/mahakobees



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 "Cipher2". We appreciate your kind contribution - (incompetech.com).

HOT knife vs HEAT gun part 2 - the VERDICT post extraction

HOT knife vs HEAT gun part 2 - the VERDICT post extraction

Well, the experiment is over. Our mind is
made up. If you would like to know the outcome, click the video link HOT knife vs HEAT gun part 2
- the VERDICT post extraction  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00TydRGmm6U)
or the thumbnail above and take a look at the results. We believe most of you
will be surprised with the results. 

So, let’s talk about the outcome. Is there a place for the heatgun in beekeeping? That is a resounding YES. Is it good, great, or fantastic at
uncapping the honey frames? In our view, it is not. It works OK at the best of
times, and only on very specific frames, where tiny air pockets exist in between
the honey and the wax capping itself. In absence of such air pocket, the wax
did not pop open or melt at all. It simply heated the wax, heated the honey
(which is what you want to avoid if possible – although the hot knife also
heats it, so the comparison is on par for both methods), and then the wax hardened
again, thus sealing the #raw honey inside the cup/cell again, never to be
extracted unless further uncapping process, such as the use of an uncapping
fork is used.

There is a valid argument for the use of #heat gun for the
uncapping process in that it reduces the need for beeswax cappings processing.
This does take considerable time if you choose to harvest the cappings, strain them
(to reduce loss of your honey harvest), then wash, clean, melt, filter, and
refine a few times to produce a product ready for further utilisation or sale
to the many beeswax dependent industries, such as cosmetics and candle making. You
can watch our 3 part video series where we cover the beeswax processing for small
home based quantities:

1)

Beeswax Processing Part 1 - simple cleaning filtering melting
and rendering wax cappings at home

2)

Beeswax Processing Part 2 - simple cleaning, filtering,
melting and rendering wax cappings at home

3)

Beeswax Processing Part 3 - simple cleaning, filtering,
melting and rendering wax cappings at home

However, the amount of beeswax that is left behind on the frame
itself is substantial as it is not removed by the knife, leaving a mess on the
comb itself. It also leaves the frame dirty and uneven. The hot knife tends to
level the comb nicely to maintain a healthy bee space in between your frames
and the comb is nice and straight to pull in and out of the hive as required during
the hive inspections and honey harvests if done on a frame by frame basis. Then
there is the much reduced efficiency of honey extraction to take into
consideration. All beekeepers are aware of the hard labour that it takes to go
to their apiary location, open the hives, inspect, collect the frames,
transport back to the processing sheds, extracting the honey/beeswax and by-products,
and so on. Then the trip back, re-deploy the honey supers and frames. The work
is immense. Now if you use the heat gun, the yield is almost ¼ or more less than
it otherwise would be using the more traditional, tried and tested methods. So
yes, the honey and wax are returned to the hive, so nothing is essentially
wasted (unless you are going into winter, in which case there is a problem with
so much honey retained inside your frames, but that is a separate issue), but
all that means, is that you will have to make the next visit much sooner, and
extract on a more frequent basis as the bees will fill the frames much faster –
obviously… as they are half full already.

If you choose to use the uncapping fork, then the uncapping time taken
per side of the frame is about the same and the hot knife, AND THEN you have to
deal with the tiny amounts of the uncapped beeswax anyway. Get all your gear
dirty, get the strainer out, get the beeswax washed, dried, processed,
filtered, and poured into moulds anyway.

Lastly, you don’t have the by-product that can also bring in more
revenue, or save on further costs by reusing your own beeswax for foundation if
that is how you choose to assemble your honey frames.

To conclude, this little experiment was fun and interesting to do.
It was certainly exciting at first to see all the beeswax cappings just pop
almost instantaneously, and one would be forgiven for thinking they found a
holy grail in the time consuming uncapping process, BUT… once the entire process
was completed, it was clear that it was just that. A mirage, a fun experiment,
and one that we will probably only undertake to show and teach others about the
pros and cons in our educational courses.

We hope you found this 2 part HOT knife vs HEAT gun
series educational, interesting and that we provided you with an unbiased
objective perspective on the issue. We appreciate your support and trust we can
see you come back regularly to check out our weekly video updates. We value
your feedback and invite you to SUBSCRIBE.
Enjoy your beekeeping!

MahakoBees

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 Train Robbin'Scoundrels for providing "their royalty free music "Murrow's Boys". We appreciate your kind contribution.

•Website:                  http://www.mahakobees.com

•Website blog:           http://www.mahakobees.com/blog

•Blog:                        http://mahakobees.blogspot.com.au/

•Blog kids:                 http://beekeepingwithkids.blogspot.com.au/

•Youtube:                  https://www.youtube.com/user/mahakobees

•Google+:                  https://plus.google.com/+MahakoBees

•Facebook:                https://www.facebook.com/mahakobees.mahakobees

•Pinterest:                 http://www.pinterest.com/mahakobees/

•Twitter:                   https://twitter.com/mahakobees

•Flickr:                      https://www.flickr.com/photos/125372235@N04/

•Stumbleupon:           http://www.pinterest.com/mahakobees/

•Reddit:                    http://www.reddit.com/user/MahakoBees/

•Tumblr site:             http://mahakobees.tumblr.com/

•Tumblr blog:            https://www.tumblr.com/blog/mahakobees

All about BEESWAX

ALL ABOUT BEESWAX playlist contains videos that relate to beeswax, including discussions on its origin, its wax properties, beeswax uses, how to process bees wax, general how to instructional videos and the benefits of this amazing waxy material that the honey bees produce from their glands for only a short period of time in their short honeybee life. Enjoy the series, share it with others, and subscribe if you enjoy our channel. We upload new videos each week. Visit http://www.mahakobees.com for more information. MahakoBees

HOT knife vs HEAT gun extraction method - the WINNER is! PART 1

HOT knife vs HEAT gun? The WINNER IS? - PART 1 

Visit http://www.mahakobees.com for many great videos. Here, we study the claim that a heat gun is faster and generally better for uncapping raw honey frames. Take a look and you be the judge! 

There are many ways you can extract a fresh fully capped honey frame. Generally, most smaller home based or hobby beekeepers will uncap their honey frames using a HOT knife (see our tempting closeup Beekeepers Hot Knife Uncapping Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iqfW_0EHVw), Serrated Kitchen knife, or the Beekeeping Uncapping Fork. This is sufficient for beekeepers with 1 to possibly 50 beehives. It may get too time consuming to use these methods beyond this number of hives and automation may be a wise choice with semi or fully automated spinning uncapping blades or wires. 



There is however, yet another method that has been revealed on numerous other beekeeping YouTube videos and beekeeping websites. This involves the use of a HEAT gun. So, we thought we would give it a try, bought ourselves a ROK Heat Gun and recorded the process and results of this experiment. Our part 1 video examines the results one could expect by using this HEAT gun method, and we compare the results with the more traditional beekeepers HOT knife method. We explain both in detail so you can make your own opinion, and hopefully try and test them yourself following our easy instructions. Both are a valid method, both have their unique benefits and disadvantages and both may suit you depending on your specific application and situation. 



In part 2, we will review the results in more detail - post honey extraction. Make sure you don't miss it. We hope you find our videos valuable enough to share with your family, friends, colleagues and beekeeping associations, subscribe and if you would like to let us know how we are doing, please press the thumbs up or down accordingly. Your feedback is very important to us and we appreciate your time.



BEE nice and have a great beekeeping weekend!

MahakoBees





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 Train Robbin'Scoundrels for providing "their royalty free music "Murrow's Boys". We appreciate your kind contribution.



•Website:                  http://www.mahakobees.com

•Blog:                        http://mahakobees.blogspot.com.au/

•Blog kids:                 http://beekeepingwithkids.blogspot.com.au/

•Youtube:                  https://www.youtube.com/user/mahakobees

•Google+:                  https://plus.google.com/+MahakoBees

•Facebook:                https://www.facebook.com/mahakobees.mahakobees

•Pinterest:                 http://www.pinterest.com/mahakobees/

•Twitter:                   https://twitter.com/mahakobees

•Flickr:                      https://www.flickr.com/photos/125372235@N04/

•Stumbleupon:           http://www.pinterest.com/mahakobees/

•Reddit:                    http://www.reddit.com/user/MahakoBees/

•Tumblr site:             http://mahakobees.tumblr.com/

•Tumblr blog:            https://www.tumblr.com/blog/mahakobees

small HIVE BEETLE beekeepers ENEMY! SHB beekeeping 101

small HIVE BEETLE beekeepers ENEMY! SHB beekeeping 101

View more videos on http://www.mahakobees.com

Small Hive Beetle is a common invader of the #Apis Mellifera or otherwise known as the European Honeybee. #SHBT is a small dark shiny black beetle that flies into the hive entrance at great speeds and therefore slip right past the guard bees. The small hive beetle is very destructive to any hive in greater numbers, but if you keep your hives strong, they will happily dedicate bee resources throughout the beehive to keep this intruder under control.



The small hive beetle (#SHB) does not like the light, so it is drawn towards the darkest areas of the hive, which are typically in the corners of the beehive, in crevices of the honey frames, under the top cover and off course in the darker empty comb cells. The bee colony, if strong, will designate many small hive beetle chasers which will keep the beetle cornered in a particular area. If the small hive beetle gets into the grasp of a bee however, it will tear it to bits or grab it and fly it out of the hive. If the bees however manage to trap the beetle in a single spot long enough, the beetle will die of dehydration and starvation, and we have seen the bees even create a propolized barrier around the beetle so it cannot escape. 



SO why is the Small Hive Beetle such a big problem you ask? Well it lays hundreds of eggs throughout the beehive, into the empty cells, and the eggs and larvae appear to the bees as their own, so they continue to feed it well into its larvae stage, and that is when the beetle larvae will destroy the colony and the beehive unless it is strong enough to protect itself from the intrusion.



Beekeepers can help the bees by firstly managing their hives in a sustainable manner and visiting the beehives often and regularly to check on their beehives during their inspections. Each visit should reveal the state of the health and strength of the colony and the beekeeper should get an indication of the small hive beetle population. In our future videos, we will look at some of the traps #beekeepers use to trap the beetles. There are many options available, both organic and natural and chemical. The small hive beetle traps also come in many various shapes and sizes, and many beekeepers have spent many years investigating and trialing a way to prevent the hive beetles entry in the first place, which it seems, is still kind of a holy grail. We would be very keen to hear from any beekeepers out there that may have successfully created a barrier to entry so please post your comments below and lets share ideas on this topic that troubles most beekeepers the world over. 



We hope you enjoy our videos and content, and we invite you to subscribe to our MahakoBees channel, click the thumbs up, and come back soon. We post at least once a week!



Have a fantastic day

MahakoBees



•Website:                  http://www.mahakobees.com

•Blog 1:                     http://mahakobees.com/blog/

•Blog 2:                     http://mahakobees.blogspot.com.au/

•Blog kids:                 http://beekeepingwithkids.blogspot.com.au/

•Youtube:                  https://www.youtube.com/user/mahakobees

•Google+:                  https://plus.google.com/+MahakoBees

•Facebook:                https://www.facebook.com/mahakobees.mahakobees

•Pinterest:                 http://www.pinterest.com/mahakobees/

•Twitter:                   https://twitter.com/mahakobees

•Flickr:                      https://www.flickr.com/photos/125372235@N04/

•Stumbleupon:           http://www.pinterest.com/mahakobees/

•Reddit:                    http://www.reddit.com/user/MahakoBees/





Music composed, performed and provided by Groovey - Adam Kubát a Pavel Křivák. You can visit their website on: http://www.groovey.cz/

Bee smoker HOMEMADE BELLOWS - Beekeeping for beginners beekeeping 101

Bee smoker HOMEMADE BELLOWS - Beekeeping for beginners beekeeping 101

Bee smoker HOMEMADE BELLOWS. Visit us for all the videos at http://www.mahakobees.com. In this installment, we review a standard bee smoker and a homemade bellow replacement we found second hand. We found leather to be one of the best commercially available materials for beekeepers bee smoker as is is durable, long lasting, flexible, relatively fire resistant, and light. However, this very unattractive bee smoker is challenging the status quo. Yes, it is homemade bellows, yes it may be cheap, and yes it may look rather ugly, but boy we found it very practical on many levels and we understand why the creator made it the way he/she has. We purchased this bee smoker from a beekeeper that was retiring, and this was an item on the pile to be dumped. We picked it up for just a few dollars, if nothing, just to see how it worked and if it was useful. And it is. We can confirm, that this bellow, although rubber, and welded rather awkwardly, works very well and is not only practical but also long lasting. This bee smoker is more than 7 years old, and has been used in the field extensively all these years.



We find these benefits as explained in the video itself, it is light, comfortable, and mainly, it is easy to clean from the beeswax and propolis that usually builds up on the timber / wooden backing of a leather or synthetic leather bellow. So you cannot heat treat it, or easily remove the propolis/beeswax. This design reduces the glove/hand contact to just the thumb, and even then, the backing is metallic (i.e. steel) so it can be heat treated and scraped of with a spatula. 



Here is some history on beekeeping bee smokers we have referred to in the past and a fabulous video produced by OutOfBlueSky that covers the history of bee smokers better than we ever could, so go and take a look. The video link is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR3U523TLgI



Enjoy your day

MahakoBees



Music composed, performed and provided by Groovey - Adam Kubát a Pavel Křivák. You can visit their website on: http://www.groovey.cz/





Bee Smokers - excerpt from 

http://keepingbee.org/bee-smoker-honey-equipment/:



Smoker for bees - a device that allows the beekeeper to create and send a stream of smoke to the right place.



Bee smoker has a simple structure: a metal cylinder -- this is a furnace, which burns coal and generates smoke, small "forge" bellows blow air into the furnace, and a stream of smoke comes out the top of the smoker.



Bee smoker - honey equipment

Bee smoker as a honey equipment was established in ancient Egypt and the neighboring nations of North Africa. Then it was a clay vessel with two openings, reminiscent of a turtle. They pawned burning fuel through the large hole, the air was got by mouth, and the smoke escaped through a small hole. Such a primitive device is still used by the natives of Algeria.



The idea of fur smoker for bees belongs to an american beekeeper Hamet, who in 1870 gave a description of his proposed coarse and heavy instrument. For the formation of the smoke beekeeper had to push the bellows with both hands.



In 1883, the famous american beekeeper Kvivbi have created a more perfect instrument, but it has a major drawback: it's bellows were connected directly to the camera for fuel. As a result the bellows quickly burnt.



Finally, the third american beekeeper Binh went further: he separated bellows from the furnace  and smoker for the bees got the type that we use in the present. Certainly, the construction of bee smoker was improved over the years and  now it is a comfortable, lightweight, durable, affordable device. Great contribution was made by such world-renowned beekeepers: Ruth, Lavinsky, Clark, Kenturi, Lynes, Rotshyuts, Tseringer.





Bee smoker.

Let's look at some of the structural details of bee smoker. Seemingly simple device, and yet it is thoroughly planned.



It consists of two-walled cylinder, with one end it is closed down, and the other -- has hinged on the hinge cover with the top of a truncated cone. This cone is a nozzle to direct the smoke.



Modern bee smoker is designed so that the fuel doesn't fall out of the hive, mesh,  inserted into the lid prevents it. On the bottom it also has a mesh, which prevents contact between the fuel and the bottom, so that smoker is not dangerous to put on the painted roof of a neighboring hive. In addition, this grid is used as a ashpan for heating.



Beekeeping smoker is used not only to work with the bees, but also for the putting certain medications to the notch. For these purposes, there are smokers with long nozzle.