Beekeeper practices

Honey Bees are known for their efficiency. One can compare the working efficiency of honey bees to that of a man. In a beehive, each bee is assigned with a special task which results in the smooth functioning of the whole system of collecting nectar and making honey and the honeycomb. Honey is prepared by a particular type of bee called Apis mellifera. On an average a beehive consists of 40000 to 50000 bees, most of the bees in a hive are workers who keep on collecting nectar and pollens...

Beekeeping is a strenuous job and because the beehives need to be cleaned at regular intervals. Beehives will gather propolis, old wax, dirt, debris of the hives and bad honey. Dirty hives invite pests, parasites and diseases. Cleaning their hives make the gloves dirty and sticky with the remains of the beehive and the stings that have been left by bees on them while you were doing your job. Here is a short guide on how to clean the dirty bee gloves.

A bee brush is an important tool for a beekeeper. It comes handy while removing the bees, especially when one doesn’t resort to using fume boards or escapes to remove them from the honey. The bee brush also comes in handy while removing honey from the honey-supers and when they are massing.

Miner bees are also referred to as digger bees. Their scientific name is ‘Andrena,’ and there are more than 1,300 species of them across the world. They are black and yellow in color and dig burrows in the ground. They are solitary bees and do not swarm. Mining bees live individually and the female rear their young in the burrows they dig. If your garden soil is moist and suitable for their living, you may find several bees nesting in the same area.

For those who love bees, raising bees can be enormously satisfying. Over the years, interest in beekeeping has increased a lot. There are several factors responsible for the increase in the desire to raise honey. It could be producing honey, having an extra source of income and more. But before you get yourself some bees and a beehive, how much do you really know about bees, especially mason bees? Mason bees are very easy to raise. They are gentle by disposition and are known for their...

Honeybees are easy to raise and won't give you a hard time unless provoked. The fascinating part is that honeybees can take care of themselves. But there is more. Honeybees can be gentle and docile, but they can also be aggressive when feeling threatened. Their attraction might make you try your hands at beekeeping. But first, you would have to learn how to raise honeybees. Given below are a few points that might help you raise our own honeybees.

Beekeeping can be a fun and yet a very challenging task. Indeed, installing a beehive is a lot easier than maintaining it. If you think after installing the beehive and bringing in the bees that your job is done, think again. It is equally important to care for your bees and beehive after installing them. Start it immediately after the installation work is done. Right maintenance will create encouraging conditions for the honey bees and support a healthy honey harvest.

A lot of beekeepers are often curious about other members of the bee family like bumblebees, which can be easily sighted because of their bright black and yellow color. We have had a lot of people ask if the bumblebees can also make honey so here are some details about these vibrant-looking pollinators:

Many beekeepers, especially beginners, are hounded by the thought that collecting honey from the bees can be a problem for the colony. And while there is a possibility that your colony can be negatively affected after a harvest, this can be avoided. Beekeepers have to be sensitive towards the needs of the colony and over time, they develop an idea about how much honey their colony would require to survive. Honey becomes the main source of food for honey bees when there are no more flowers...

Every colony has a single queen bee – the one who rules the roost and is responsible for producing new bees. While her survival depends on the rest of the bees in the colony, the rest of the bees are also equally dependent on the queen to continue laying eggs so that the colony can thrive. This inter-dependence is at the heart of every bee colony. So let’s find out how quickly a queen bee can start laying eggs and the factors affecting it.

A hive is made up of a large number of worker bees who are responsible for the upkeep of the colony. The queen bee is tasked with laying eggs and the drone bees have the sole purpose of mating with the queen. Then queen bee and the drones mostly fly out of the colony for mating purposes. While drones tend to last a single season where they would die soon after successfully mating with the queen bee or would be ejected from the colony when winter begins to set in. Queen bees can live for up...

The mites are pretty common in the world of bees. They can spread over colonies, attaching themselves to bees. Varroa mites are the one that can really hurt the bees. When the infestation is low, colonies show very few symptoms. But as the mite population rises, symptoms become more obvious. It can ultimately lead to a drop in the honey bee population. A lot of products and procedures are available that can help you reduce or eradicate Varroa mites populaces. But how you apply those methods,...