These instructions are based on the Kenyan top-bar hive popularised by Phil Chandler of Biobees.  This is a basic guide with a few suggestions of “upgrades” and really is a woodworking project of the simplest kind.

Build List

Sides: wooden planks or boards or 25mm thick (1”), 300mm wide (~12”) which can be formed from two 150mm or three 300mm and 1220mm long (48”).  915mm (36”) is an option but if you are in any way successful you will wish you had built a bigger one.

Ends: wooden planks or boards or 25mm thick (1”), 300mm wide (~12”, formed as above), 450mm long (~17 ¾“).

Legs (if wanted): four 100mm x 50mm (4” x 2”) at a length comfortable to you.  Approx.  800mm (31 ½”) works for me.

Top bars: 430mm x 38mm x 25mm (17” x 1 ½” x 1”)

Mesh floor: Mesh with gaps of ~2 mm (8 holes per linear inch).  Stainless steel options are available from custom wire-mesh suppliers specifically for top-bar hives at around £25 for 5 (~$42) already cut to size.  Alternatively, aluminium craft mesh can work well at a lower cost, though it is less badger resistant.  (Although a mesh is recommended some prefer just using a solid floor in which case ignore.  The “ecofloor” which is growing in popularity also does not require the mesh).

Winter floor: 1220mm x 180mm x 25mm (48” x 7” x 1”)

Follower boards: three plywood or wooden boards attached to top bar.  A board 890mm x 280mm (35” x 11”) will make three follower boards.

Roof: 50mm x 50mm (2” x 2″).  I recommend making this on the hive so the lengths are based on what is required for a snug fit.  Approximately two 505mm and two 1220mm.  25mm x 50mm (1” x 2”) is acceptable depending in preference and local weather conditions.

Sundries: Wood screws, nails, waterproof wood-glue, M8 nuts and bolts for leg attachment.  Raw linseed oil and beeswax for weatherproofing.

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Top bars are the de facto top of the hive.  When making top bars it is important to include a comb guide of some kind.  This tells the bees where they should be building their comb otherwise they will build it across the top bars sticking them together and making it impossible for you to get them apart and get at the honey.

There are lots of ways to do this and I have given an example of four in the picture below:

1.  My preferred method, and the one championed by Phil Chandler (of Biobees fame), is using a wooden strip either a half round or triangle.  These are easily made with a table-saw or band-saw if you have one.  Nail along the middle of the top bar and rub with beeswax as a primer.  The bees like to attach to the lowest point so will, in theory, follow the line of the dowel.

2.  The method named by Wyatt Mangum (author of 200 Top-bar Hives) as the gold standard for keeping straight comb.  You buy standard wax foundation and cut into thin strips.  You then melt the bottom edge of the strips to the top-bar (a soldering iron works a treat).  This is made easier if you can cut a groove into the top bar first.  This is a very quick way of doing lots of top-bars but has the drawback of you having to buy something!  There is also a small danger that the bees will not initially reinforce the join to the top-bar making it more likely to break off if you handle it wrong.

3.  The simplest method, but probably the least reliable for straight comb.  Cut a groove, melt some wax, poor it in.  Done!

4.  A variation on 1, if you can’t/don’t want to cut dowel strips, glue some lolly-sticks (popsicle-sticks) in place and then rub beeswax on them.  If you really are making this hive with minimal tools and want the lowest-tech option, McCartney Taylor (Founder of “Learning Beekeeping” on YouTube) uses pieces of string soaked in beeswax and tacked onto the top-bar in a straight line.  No power tools required.  I haven’t tried this myself but it seems to be successful for him.  It may seem like I have spent a disproportionate amount of time on the top-bars, but, to the bees, this IS the hive.  The rest is weather-proofing.  This is the part the bees attach comb to and live on.  If there is a problem in the rest of the hive (provided the bees survive) you can lift out the top bars with the comb and bees in place and put them in another box.  Straight comb makes your life easier, and correctly spaced comb makes the bees life easier.

I have listed 38mm (1 ½“) as the top-bar width but some people use 34mm or 36mm and use 6mm spacers in honey areas so the bees can make that comb wider.  This depends partially on preference and partially on type of bee.  I recommend starting with 38mm (1 ½“) and working it out from there.

Follower boards are required to enable you to section off the colony into a smaller area of your top-bar hive.  This means they do not have to heat the entire hive all the time, and it also allows you to make splits or maintain more than one colony in the same hive.  Follower boards can also be used to adapt entrances, add feeders, and in a full hive, it may be the only bar you can remove.  The follower board is essentially a top-bar with a board the exact internal dimensions of your hive attached.  This can be made most easily by using a piece of plywood, or by fixing planks of wood together to provide a sufficiently wide board.  Using an 280mm (11”) wide board/sheet, measure alternating 381mm (15”) and 127mm (5”) (see illustration below).  Then cut along the diagonals and you have a board roughly the internal dimensions of your hive.  This can then be attached to a top bar.

The bottom will likely need some trimming to size (especially with a mesh bottom).  Depending on the boards your hive is made from (my first was reclaimed timber and not particularly straight), your follower board may or may not fit well.  It is important the follower board fits snugly, but do NOT panic!  There is quite often some gapping, this is normal.  I make up for this by placing a tape “skirt” around the edges, helping plug the gaps.  I know other horizontal-hive beekeepers who use a piece of corrugated cardboard, slightly larger than the follower board, stuck behind to deal with this issue.  If you’re keeping more than one colony in a hive, it is best to have two follower boards in between them.

By making the follower boards first you can now flip them upside down and use them as a jig for putting together your hive.  Lay your hive sides on follower boards and you have the dimensions you require.  You can now place your end board in place and screw them on.  This provides the correct gap for the top bars to be flush with the top of the hive end (see below).

The bottom will likely need some trimming to size (especially with a mesh bottom).  Depending on the boards your hive is made from (my first was reclaimed timber and not particularly straight), your follower board may or may not fit well.  It is important the follower board fits snugly, but do NOT panic!  There is quite often some gapping, this is normal.  I make up for this by placing a tape “skirt” around the edges, helping plug the gaps.  I know other horizontal-hive beekeepers who use a piece of corrugated cardboard, slightly larger than the follower board, stuck behind to deal with this issue.  If you’re keeping more than one colony in a hive, it is best to have two follower boards in between them.

By making the follower boards first you can now flip them upside down and use them as a jig for putting together your hive.  Lay your hive sides on follower boards and you have the dimensions you require.  You can now place your end board in place and screw them on.  This provides the correct gap for the top bars to be flush with the top of the hive end (see below).

Placing hive sides onto follower boards to attach ends gives correct top-bar spacing for the ends.

Once the ends are in place you can attach your mesh bottom by simply screwing into place.  The slant on the board give a convex shape to the mesh which can allow a tighter fit for the follower boards and a small air gap between the mesh and the winter bottom.  If you prefer to go with the solid bottom it would be worth planning the slant to give a flat level edge to receive the solid bottom and provide a snugger fit and better heat retention.

 Legs are not essential and some people choose to build a hive without legs.  This is useful if you are intending to build separate hive stands, allowing you to move hives between them.  The aforementioned Wyatt Magnum has hive stands the height of his truck’s flatbed so he can easily slide them on or off between the stands.  However, for most home-hivers who are keeping their hives in permanent locations, fitting legs is the sensible option.  These can be any length that is comfortable for you.  I have made them so they are the right height for a wheelchair.  I generally make them around 900mm long (~35 ½“) for me (I am 6’ 1” tall), but then I have also just cut a piece of wood I had into four equals lengths.  The legs also form the ledge on which the lid/roof rests, so, fitting them equally is important.

I fit the legs so that, once fitted, the ledge created to receive the roof frame is 25-30mm (1 3/16“) from the top of the hive end.  This is best achieved by standing the hive on its end (as shown in the previous picture) and clamping both legs into position.  Next, drill two holes for each to receive your M8 bolts.  The top bolt will go through into the hive, the lower bolt will go through the hive end outside the hive (see below).  Once fitted, cut the leg tops level, and its ready to receive the roof frame.

Roofing the top-bar hive is really where you can get creative, should you want to.  As I said, the top bars are the de facto top of the hive.  The roof is just a weather cover so can be as simple or elaborate as you want.  Having said that, there are quite a few advantages to doing a little more work at this point.  To make the rectangular roof frame, I measure each hive end and cut the end parts of the frame to fit, plus an additional 5mm clearance (just over 1/8“).  So, the ends are 450mm (width of hive end) + 5mm = 455mm.  But do put the lengths on the hive and mark the “actual” size then add 5mm.  If you then flip the hive over and rest the legs on these lengths you can then easily screw the front and back of the roof frame into place.  This ensures that if your wood isn’t completely straight, or your cuts aren’t square you still have a roof that a) you can get on and off of the hive, and b) will keep the weather out, but stay on when it’s windy.

At this point, if you want to, you can screw a panel to the roof frame.  Either a piece of ply, political signage, or some corrugated tin.  Since the legs on which the roof frame will rest is 25-30mm down (1 – 1 3/16”) using 50mm x 50mm timber (2” x 2”) gives you sufficient clearance above the top-bars to fit a piece of insulation to stop both loss of heat and heat gain.

The sun on a flat roof in hot climates may well result in comb collapse without a piece of insulation.  My preference is to pitch the roof.  This isn’t a lot more work and creates a much more weather proof design.  The pitch provides an air gap as insulation, a place to put additional insulation in the winter, and a place for a top-bar feeder.  In my part of the world it can also get very windy.  A pitched roof is much less likely to blow off in the wind and will also reduce the chances of the hive blowing over (in the same way a spoiler pushes the back-end of your car down).

It is very easy to provide a pitch for your roof.  All you need is a piece of 100mm x 25mm (4” x 1”), you then cut it the length of your hive end and draw two diagonal lines from the bottom corner to the top middle of the board giving you two right-angle triangles and a large isosceles triangle (see diagram).  Cut along these lines you have one pitched end, and by fixing the two right-angle triangles together you get the other pitched end.

Glue and nail these to the end of the roof frame and you can use either a panel on each side, or I use feather-edge fencing strips as they are cheap and easily replaced.  I now also place hinges on the roof to make things a little easier but this is another optional extra.

That is your hive finished except for one very important thing: your bees need a way in!  The entrance is another part that can be as complicated or simple as you like.  By far the easiest entrance is just drilling three 25mm (1”) holes in the hive body 25mm (1”) above the hive floor.  These can be in the end or in the side depending on preference.  I have switched entirely to end entrances as this means for my long hives I can have one colony in each end, making in-hive splits easier.

There many and more entrance variations, I mostly now use periscope entrances.  This is an entrance by which the bees enter low on the outside and emerge high on the inside.  This has advantages in heat retention, reducing wind cooling the hive, making the hive more defendable to wasps and the like, and potentially reducing mite-drop from brood onto entering bees.  The periscope entrance can be most easily achieved by simply placing a follower board on the inside with three more drilled at the top.  This has the added advantage of giving you access to the front of the colony when you want it, without having to move all the top bars along beforehand.

All that is left is a coating of weatherproofing.  Many people use standard wood preservers but the preferred method by the natural beekeeping community is using raw linseed oil with beeswax melted into it (approx. 10:1 raw linseed oil to beeswax ratio).  Make sure you do not add this to the inside of the hive (the bees will weatherproof that for you).  A few coats of this and you are good to go, hive finished and ready to receive bees (see “Bees for Free!” for a how to).

References and Links:

Wyatt Mangum’s website: http://www.tbhsbywam.com/

Phil Chandler’s site and hive plans: http://www.biobees.com/build-a-beehive-free-plans.php

Michael Bush’s Site and hive plans: http://www.bushfarms.com/beestopbarhives.htm

McCartney Taylor’s website and youtube guides: http://learningbeekeeping.com/beekeeping-articles/top-bar-hive-design-plans/

The post Budget Backyard Bee Box appeared first on Homestead.org.

The spring and autumn harvests are sacred. These seasons bring peak bee activity and the most potent honey. The Gurungs see the ritual as a spiritual connection to nature and their ancestors, despite the danger.

Good Vibrations

Inside the hives, bees headbutt each other—a vibrational “stop signal” warning of intruders. They release alarm pheromones and flap their wings rapidly to alert the colony. When they sting, a potent chemical, isopentyl acetate, intensifies their defense.

Still, the hunters climb. Bees swarm, stinging hands and faces, but the men press on. The hives, sometimes holding up to 130 pounds of honey, are fiercely guarded. Yet the hunters manage to secure their prize.

They pray to Rangkemi, god of the bees and revered ancestor, for protection. By middle age, Gurung men perform the task with fearless confidence, proving their courage and commitment to the village. Life in the village is deeply spiritual, guided by elders and rooted in Buddhism and Animism.

Where It Begins

The journey starts with a three-hour trek along rugged trails—paths walked for generations. These trails symbolize the Gurungs’ bond with nature. Once at the cliffs, the hunters build a smoky fire to calm the bees. Though soothed, the bees still prepare to defend their hives.

Job Security

Apis Laboriosa, the Himalayan giant honeybee, is the world’s largest—and most aggressive. The bees form protective curtains around their hives and attack intruders without hesitation. The hunters accept this as part of the job.

After the fire dies down, they construct bamboo ladders and sacrifice a chicken to appease the gods. Then, they scale the cliffs, risking their lives for honey known for its psychoactive effects.

Some Don’t Make It Home

Despite prayers and rituals, some hunters fall. Their names are carved into the cliffs, and Gurung death ceremonies—Pae or Anghum—guide their spirits to the ancestral realm, ensuring lifelong protection for their families.

Mad honey is more than tradition. It’s consumed for health, sold globally, and known for its hallucinogenic and aphrodisiac properties.

The Secret Ingredient

What makes mad honey mad? Rhododendron flowers, which grow wild in the Himalayan mountains, produce a toxic substance called grayanotoxin. Bees drink the nectar and carry it back to the hive, secreting it into the honeycomb cells. This toxin is what gives mad honey its hallucinogenic—and sometimes dangerous—qualities.

Holistic Honey? I Don’t Think So

All it takes is a spoonful to feel the effects—good and bad. Trendy wellness circles tout mad honey as a holistic cure-all. But holistic healing treats the entire body in a positive way, including mood, behavior, and well-being. That’s not the case here.

True believers claim it can erase problems, pain, and even emotional baggage. That’s a tall order with no scientific backing. One spoonful might bring calm—or it might bring nausea, hallucinations, a drop in blood pressure, or worse.

Nepalese villagers have consumed it for generations and may have built up immunity. Westerners? Not so much. The toxin levels vary wildly, making health claims hard to verify. And while it’s legal in many places, sellers may not be upfront about the risks.

So don’t go in blind. “Look before you leap” applies here. Too many chase a psychedelic experience without understanding the cost.

Dosage Facts

Low doses: May create a sense of calm and mild euphoria
Higher doses: May cause nausea, dizziness, unconsciousness

Medicinal Uses

Has been used to treat high blood pressure, diabetes, and pain

Some History

Greek soldiers in 401 BC took in too much of the honey and had bad trips. They had to quit their mission and lie down for days until the vomiting stopped.

Fun Facts

• Mad honey does not taste like regular honey. It has a slightly bitter, earthy taste.
• Mad honey is available on the open market and costs from $6.00 to $50.00 an ounce
• Its effects vary depending on where and how it was harvested
• The honey is legal in the USA, but has been banned in South Korea, Australia, and Brazil.
• Many users say the negative effects outweigh the positive effects, so be sure of your source when purchasing it online.

The Shiver Dance

This is a quick vibration that the bees do with their short wings. It prepares the other bees in a hive to prepare to defend the hive and the queen, or to retreat.

Prepping For The Honey Hunt

Before any hunting begins, the people dance, feast, and make offerings to their gods. This is how they make sure things will go well and the hunters will return safely.

Gurung Witches

In some villages, there are sometimes older women who are thought to be witches. They are respected for their powers but are also shunned to some extent since they are capable of evil. They may be exiled from the village, but not as often these days, because it is now illegal to brand someone as a witch.

Gurung Tourism

The Gurung Tourism Entrepreneurs’ Association promotes tourism that is sustainable and works to preserve the culture of not just the Gurungs, but of all the indigenous peoples of the area. Annual festivals are held, and homestays are growing in popularity.

During a homestay, tourists can enjoy the native foods, experience the rituals performed, and even help with chores.

The people are friendly, and the mountains and scenery are unmatched. This keeps tourists coming back and is a huge boon to the economy.

A Sensory Pilgrimage

Many come just to watch the honey hunters. They are offered a taste of the honey and learn of its history and meaning.

Sacred springs, cliffside shrines, and shamanic rituals are also part of any trip to the Gurung villages. Some say the entire adventure induces a trance-like atmosphere. That’s because life there is a mix of ritual and reality and gives a taste of another way of living so different from that of westerners. It’s the magic of the Himalayans, which are known for their mystical qualities.

There are many reasons to visit Nepal—the majestic mountains, the spiritual culture, and, of course, to see one of the last, great, breathtaking feats of courage and skill of the mad honey hunters.

The post Mad Honey, Anyone? Inside The Hives Of Apis Laboriosa appeared first on Homestead.org.

Beeswax is made by bees as a building material to form the hive structure known as the honeycomb. That honeycomb produces many pounds of useful beeswax. Honeycomb is a luxurious yellow or brown color; every hive will contain several sheets of this beeswax comb. If you raise your own bees, then you can easily harvest your own beeswax to use around the homestead. But if you do not raise them yourself, then you can purchase beeswax from a beekeeper or a commercial outlet. When purchasing commercially, note that beeswax can be bought in yellow, white, or bleached shades. Regardless of where you get it, the possibilities for using beeswax around the homestead are almost limitless.

Beeswax is commonly used in many body care products since it provides a safeguard against irritants while still allowing the skin to breathe. It also has antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and antiviral benefits, which makes it useful in treating skin irritations. One of the most common uses for beeswax is lip balm. It is a simple item to make at home and it also saves money otherwise spent buying organic brands at the store. The cost to make it is pennies per container. You can make DIY beeswax lip balm using beeswax, coconut oil, and a butter such as shea, cocoa, or mango. It can be flavored with several flavor choices; just pick your favorite essential oil for flavor.

Homemade Beeswax Lip Balm

• 1 T. beeswax
• 2 T. butter
• 2 T. coconut oil
• 20 drops essential oil

Melt all the beeswax, butter, and coconut oil in a double boiler. Add and stir in your essential oils, then carefully pour into your small lip tubes or tin. Beeswax is extremely flammable; never use it over an open flame, always use a double boiler and never leave the heat on while away from it. Beeswax has a high melting point and can take a while to fully melt, so be patient.

Homemade Beeswax Lotion Bar

Another handy body aid made with beeswax is a lotion bar. A lotion bar is a solid bar of hand lotion, just rub the bar between your hands until it’s warm, then rub it on your skin like lotion. You will need a mold to make your lotion bar; a cupcake mold works great! Make your own with this easy lotion bar recipe:

• 3.5 oz. olive oil
• 3.5 oz. shea butter
• 2.5 oz. yellow beeswax
• 30 drops essential oil or fragrance oil

Combine the olive oil and yellow beeswax in your double boiler, or if you’d like you can use a microwave and a glass measuring cup. If using the microwave, heat using 30-60 second bursts until the beeswax is fully melted. Once melted, use caution for it will be extremely hot. Add your choice of essential oil or fragrance, stir then pour into the mold, let it sit, and when it is solid and cooled, remove it from the mold and keep it in a jar, tin, or baggie, and in a cool place.

Using Beeswax in Salves and Ointments

Salves and ointments are other great provisions that you can make using beeswax, and they can be a lifesaver on the homestead. Salves and ointments are made using beeswax as the stabilizing agent. Some examples of this are drawing salve, itch relievers, sore muscle rubs, and even a diaper rash ointment. One of the most used salves on our homestead is the drawing salve. It’s great for splinters and stings. You can find several various recipes for salves with beeswax on the internet. All will involve melting beeswax with a herb-infused oil, and essential oils.

Beeswax salve even works for the armpits in the way of natural deodorant. Chemical-free deodorant is especially critical for women because the lymph nodes in the armpits help to eliminate toxins in the breast tissue. Many store-bought deodorants contain chemicals that mimic natural hormones and have been linked to breast cancer. You can find a ton of homemade deodorant recipes on the internet, however simple is often better, so try this one to start. Remember this is not an antiperspirant, it is a deodorant.

Chemical-free Deodorant

• 3/4 oz. beeswax
• 2 oz. coconut oil
• 3/4 oz. shea butter
• 2 T. baking soda
• 2 T. corn starch
• 1/4 c. arrowroot powder
• 10-20 drops tea tree oil (you can also add another 10-20 of any other essential oil for fragrance)

Melt the beeswax, coconut oil, and shea butter, remove from it from heat. Add baking soda, corn starch, and arrowroot powder. Stir it until smooth, then add tea tree and essential oils. Pour into either a used empty deodorant container or new ones if you choose.

DIY Beeswax Mustache Wax

Men aren’t to be left out of the great body products that can be made from beeswax: you can also make mustache wax and hair pomades. Beeswax is great for moisturizing dry hair, maintaining dreadlocks, and as wax control for beards or mustaches. If you are searching for an easy mustache wax, try this. You will need:

• Beeswax
• Coconut oil
• Essential oil of choice
• Tins for storage

Take equal parts beeswax and coconut oil, melt them together, stir, then remove the mixture from heat and add a few drops of essential oil. Pour into the tins, let it harden and you have a beeswax-based ‘stache wax!

Using Beeswax Around the Homestead

Beeswax isn’t just for the body: its benefits extend to food preservation as well, still bringing great health benefits with it. One wonderful fact about beeswax is that it is totally edible! After all, it is what we press to get the honey. Therefore, it’s a great alternative for some other food-related tasks.

Beeswax is a great way to grease your pans and cookie sheets. Keep a block or chunk of beeswax in the kitchen to use when you want to grease something. Warm the sheet in the oven, then rub it down with the beeswax. The warmth will soften the beeswax and allow it to coat the pan. If you repeat this every time you use the pan, eventually it will take on a permanent coat of wax, eliminating the need to grease it every time.

Reusable Food Wrap

A reusable food wrap can also be made from beeswax. There are commercial versions of this available, but you can make your own without a lot of effort. Beeswax food wraps are eco-friendly and better for your health than plastic wrap.  You can reuse them time and time again; just rinse clean with cold water and mild soap. Don’t use hot water, as that would melt the wax! Choose a material that is 100% cotton and thin, cut the size and shape you want. Supplies needed are:

• Beeswax pellets or shredded form
• Cotton material
• Parchment paper
• Cookie sheet
• Paintbrush (that you don’t mind saving to use again or discarding it)

Use parchment paper to line the cookie sheet and place the fabric on top of the parchment paper. If your fabric is one-sided, place the patterned side facedown. (Use a new piece of parchment paper each time you make another wrap.) Evenly dispense a generous amount of beeswax pellets all over the fabric. Make sure to get pellets near the edges also. Heat the sheet in the oven for about 4-8 minutes.

When the beeswax is completely melted, take the tray out and use a paintbrush to spread the wax evenly over the entire fabric. Remove the fabric from the baking sheet and hang it to dry. When using it, the warmth from your hand will help form the cloth into the shape you need. When refrigerated it forms a firm cover to protect your leftovers with. Use the food wrap to cover bowls and plates, wrap sandwiches, snacks, or bread. Why not make a few sheets and give them as a gift to a friend?

Do you make your own cheese? Many homesteaders make a lot of cheeses and beeswax is a great natural cover for cheeses and easy to use because of its low melting point. Make sure the cheese is dry so the beeswax will adhere and use it as you would any other cheese wax.

When it comes to canning, beeswax has been the main choice for hundreds of years to prevent jam spoilage. Simply melt it and pour it over the top of jams and jellies.

DIY Beeswax Furniture Polish

Several household chores can be managed with ease by simply using beeswax. The common chore in every home of using furniture polish to maintain your wood furniture can be done with a beeswax polish you make yourself. A simple combination of:

• 4 T. beeswax
• 1 c. jojoba oil
• 4 drops eucalyptus oil
• 4 drops lemon oil

Melt the beeswax and stir in oils, pour it into a pint-sized mason jar. Let it cool for a couple of hours, then keep the jar sealed when not in use. Use a soft cloth to apply polish in small amounts to the surfaces of your wooden furniture, then buff the polish to a shine with another clean, soft cloth.

Do you use hand saw often? Rub some beeswax on the saw teeth, and it will cut through wood more easily. The same principle applies for nails and screws: rub a little beeswax on and they will go into the wood much easier, with less chance of splitting the wood.

Beeswax can also keep your granite and concrete countertops shiny. Just take warmed beeswax and rub it in, allow it to dry, and then wipe down the counter to remove any excess. The beeswax also helps to prevent staining.

Waterproofing with Beeswax

Do you have leather items or shoes and boots that could use waterproofing? Beeswax can do this for you. Simply rub beeswax all over the leather surface and then use a blow dryer or heat gun to melt the beeswax. Let it stand until dry; now it’s ready to go out in the weather.

Do those shoes and boots need a polish as well as waterproofing? Once again it is beeswax to the rescue! All that you need  to make your own polish is:

• 2 T. white beeswax (Note: White beeswax is preferred to allow color pigment)
• 1/2 c. olive oil
• A small tin or storage jar
• 1/2 t. oxide pigment powder (optional, for color)

Combine the olive oil and beeswax in a double boiler or microwave, once it is a blended liquid, add the pigment and stir until smooth. Pour the liquid into your tin or jar and let it solidify. Now it is ready to use!

Caring for Cast Iron with Beeswax

When applied to cast iron pans, hand tools, and shovels beeswax can help prevent rust. Seasoning cast iron cookware with beeswax is all-natural and edible as well as a great way to waterproof, helping to prevent that dreaded rust. Beeswax hardens better at room temperature than oils so you won’t get that sticky residue that sometimes happens with oil either. Here is how to treat cast iron cookware with beeswax:

• First, clean the pan using salt and a stiff brush, steel wool, or plain soap and water. Rinse well with hot water. Dry thoroughly with a towel.
• Heat the pan up a bit to get out any extra water.
• Sprinkle in some beeswax just enough so you can spread it around as it melts.
• Take a paper towel and push the wax all over the pan, bottom too.
• Place the pan in a 400-degree oven for around 30 minutes to an hour. It will make smoke as the wax is burned off, so have ventilation.
• It is finished when most of the wax is gone and the pan has a dry-shiny appearance.

Homemade Beeswax Candles

Considering all the ways of using beeswax around the homestead, the best-known use has to be candlemaking. Beeswax makes great candles because they emit negative ions when burned, which means they reduce dust, dander, and mold that float in the air we breathe. They actually work to purify the air instead of polluting it as other wax candles do!

Container candles are simple to make with beeswax; just make sure your container can handle the heat. A good choice for this would be canning jars or metal tins. You can purchase wicks that have a metal tab on the bottom that will stick to the container with a dab of hot glue. When the wick is secure, pour in the melted wax and place a clothespin across the top of the jar to keep the wick straight. Allow it to cure for a couple of days, then trim the wick to about 1/4 inch above the wax. When lighting your candle, direct the flame at the wick’s base so that some of the wax melts and is drawn up into the wick—this will help it burn correctly. Never leave a candle unattended.

Beeswax has so much to offer; it has even more than what could be listed in this article, so take some time to do even more research for yourself. I am sure that you will find beeswax to be a boundless help to have around any homestead. It even has a very long shelf life, making it the perfect tool for those who desire to be more self-sufficient. As a natural product, beeswax is safe when used for most purposes around any homestead. However, keep in mind that even though beeswax is considered to be safe when used in most conditions, including skin applications, it is always wise to consult with your doctor if you have any preexisting conditions or concerns. That way, you can truly enjoy using this sweet and wonderful tool!

Many of the items used in this article can be found at Amazon.com.  Purchases made through this link help pay for content on Homestead.org.

You might also enjoy “Natural Alternatives to Costly, Chemical, Household Products“.

The post Using Beeswax Around the Homestead appeared first on Homestead.org.

This enabled us to have vegetable patches, which are an avenue we have pursued with enthusiasm if not success.  We grow vegetables and fruit; make jams, chutney, and wine.  All of which make excellent presents (when we are willing to part with them), and have more recently made a foray into pigs.

This year, I began to consider the idea of beekeeping.  I thought this was an excellent complementary activity that would fit very well with our lifestyle, as well as providing something else that could be put in jars.  However, my father-in-law, already a beekeeper, makes it seem like hard work.  He is always fiddling with something, worrying about something else, or needing something more.  It also looked quite expensive to get going.  He has now been at it four years and has been extremely prolific, but has only just received a return on the initial investment he put in.  I found this quite worrying as what if I didn’t like it once I had started?  What if it didn’t work?  It is certainly a lot of money to have wasted on a whim.  So this was my starting position… Reasons NOT to begin beekeeping:

1.  The investment in equipment is too high.

• National Hive £200 ($325) (1 brood box, 2X supers, 1 floor, 1 roof).  In the U.S., Langstroth hives are more common and are more expensive still.
• Frames, Foundation, Queen excluder, Dummy boards, Crown board/clearer £150 ($250)
• Hive stand £20 ($35)
• Smoker £35 ($60)
• Bee suit £45 ($75)
• Hive tool £10 ($17)
• Queen marking equipment £30 ($50)
• Honey extractor, honey buckets, sieves £300-£400 ($475-$650)

Costs can easily get higher than this, and this is for just one hive.  You will soon realise that you need a lot more spare parts, additional supers, another brood box to over-winter, queen rearing equipment, and on, and on.  Then you need somewhere to store everything you aren’t using, and probably a chiropractor on retainer for after you’ve tried to move it all.

2.  Bees are expensive!

To purchase a nuc (a nucleus or “nuc” is a small hive containing just five frames of bees including the Queen, some workers, and young bees in various stages of development from eggs to near hatching, this is called brood) costs around £250 ($400) in the U.K. depending on the genetic strain of bee you are buying.  Specific “pure” strains will often cost more as certain beekeeper-preferred characteristics can be attributed to each strain, e.g., calmness, disease resistance, increased honey production, and decreased swarm tendency.

3.  It all seems like such a lot of hard work!

Having to check the bees constantly to assess how they are, do they have enough food, how are their varroa levels (a parasite that lives on bees, a topic worthy of a whole article to itself), are there signs of brood diseases (another article), are they swarming/superseding/queen right (article, article, article), et cetera.  Not to mention the lifting of 25-plus-kilogram supers when they are full of honey (and potentially bees).  Do I have the time, will, and back for the task?

4.  Bees sting.

I am not afraid of a bee sting.  A few bees are of no concern to me whatsoever.  50,000 bees who think I am trying to steal their honey (which I may well be doing) is another thing entirely.  All that protective clothing MUST be for a reason because it is certainly not for style.

5.  I have not the least idea what I am doing.

Just some of the things listed in the first few headings above give you an idea as to the massive area of knowledge and learning you are leaving yourself drowning in when it comes to bees and beekeeping.  Other beekeepers are more than happy to provide their opinions in abundance, but rarely can you find concord between them… The collective noun for a group of beekeepers is a “disagreement of beekeepers”.

Hang on a minute, surely this can’t be right.  Honey bees have been on this planet for 50 million years doing exactly the same thing.  I really don’t understand how just because beekeepers are involved it should be so expensive, difficult, and complicated.  There must be another way.  As such, I donned my Google hat (other search engine hats are available) and set to work on finding an alternative.

I can tell you there are quite a few different types of hives out there.  The National hive is certainly the most common in the U.K., with the Langstroth hive taking the lead in the U.S., but there are many more options available.  There are also quite a few different ways of doing things even using the same hives.  The hive used and process by which you use it are too different things, but there was one way that caught my attention.  I stumbled upon the concept of “natural beekeeping”.  I believe there is still some discussion as to an exact definition of natural beekeeping but the basics are that “the bees know what they are doing” and “keep it natural”.  I liked the idea of that approach, not only that, but it appeared as though I could make a hive in my shed just out of the scrap wood I had laying around!  I opted for a Kenyan top-bar hive (believe it or not these were developed in Canada).  The building plans were available for free online and easy for anyone with even the most basic woodworking skills to make.  Within one month my list had changed considerably:

1.  The investment in equipment is too high.

The cost to produce my hive has been around £30 ($50) in total.  Though on top of this I did also buy a bee suit and smoker.  The bee suit gets used only about 50% of the time, and I still haven’t taken the smoker out of the box.  I could have easily spent a lot less had I wanted to.  I have since made hives from old packing crates and pallets for the grand price of £0.00 ($0.00), the only cost being some screws and raw linseed oil to weatherproof.    

The Kenyan top-bar hive (KTBH) I made has everything it needs already in there, with no additional supers or brood boxes required.  I would recommend spending some money on public liability insurance, but this is fairly cheap and usually available with membership to a local beekeeping association (which I would also recommend joining, at least to start).  Friends of Bees also provide this insurance without needing to affiliate to an association.

2.  Bees are expensive!

With some guidance, I built a bait hive (basically a small hive designed to attract a swarm of bees) and caught some not far from my house.  FREE BEES!  This meant a) no outlay for me, b) the bees were already adapted to live with my local climate and plant life, c) there was a real buzz (no pun intended) associated with having caught them myself, it’s a cross been catching a fish and opening a Christmas present, and d) did I mention they were free bees?  If you let people in your neighbourhood know you are interested then they can let you know if a swarm turns up in their garden and you can go and collect it.  This is a little trickier as there is a real timing issue, especially if you work full-time.  The bait hive is a good starting point as it’s just a wait and see, and you can place as many as you can make.  You can knock them up very quickly as they don’t have to over-winter.

There are arguments that the import of queens from other countries and the maintenance of genetically pure bee strains inhibit the development of resistance to some of the diseases currently affecting bees.

3.  It all seems like such a lot of hard work!

This part is still contentious and there are certainly hands-on and hands-off methods.  As it is, I check the hive every couple of weeks, and will leave it alone completely through winter checking again in February.  When it comes to diseases some natural beekeepers have a no-treatment approach, but most use more natural treatments.  These include essential oils or oxalic acid instead of the more highly-toxic chemicals used in conventional beekeeping which are arguably more effective as a varroa treatment.  As for the lifting, well, because in a KTBH the bees build their comb naturally down from a wooden bar placed across the top of the hive, these are what you remove for harvesting.  A single comb at a time can be removed if desired, which, when full of honey, may weigh no more than a couple of kilograms.  This makes this type of hive perfect for those who are physically limited.  In fact, I have just finished building one for a farm providing free holidays to families with disabled children.

4.  Bees sting!

Well, this part is still true but often not much of an issue.  I so far have been stung… once… by the bees, anyway.  I manage to be stung by stinging nettles every time I go to the hive.  A commonly observed phenomenon of natural beekeeping is that the bees seem a lot more calm and friendly.  I can easily remove the hive roof and check inside the colony whilst wearing shorts and a t-shirt.  Many believe this because hive inspections are much less invasive and involve less heat and hive scent being lost from the colony than with conventional framed hives.  Others think it is simply because bees are allowed to build their comb naturally without being constrained by using foundation.  Provided you don’t do anything which is construed as a direct attack on the hive—dropping one of their combs, knocking over the hive, or squishing bees—they don’t seem to mind you being there.  My four-year-old daughter has come to the hive with me in the past to help me feed and watch the bees and we took no more than a water mister with a little peppermint oil added.  If this isn’t your experience, on the upside, there is evidence to suggest bee venom is an excellent treatment for inflammatory diseases such as arthritis.  That is, of course, providing you are not allergic.

5.  I have not the least idea what I am doing.

This also continues to be true.  I have joined my local beekeeping association but many conventional beekeepers I have spoken to in regard to natural beekeeping are skeptical, others are dismissive, some are downright abusive.  I don’t think this comes from a bad place but is simply because every beekeeper wants to do right by their bees.  No one keeps bees in order to abuse them, and the concepts of natural beekeeping perhaps seem accusatory of conventional techniques, leaving them understandably defensive.  They are still, however, excellent sources of local information for seasonal advice, as well as a source of potential backup queens.

I have noticed that, more so than any other community, online or otherwise, the natural-beekeeping community seems intent on the sharing of information and continuation of their cause.  There are online forums such as BioBees started by Phil Chandler, that have natural beekeepers, new and old, sharing knowledge, ideas, and advances.  There are more free books, hive-building plans, articles, translations, and opinions (of varying quality and increasing quantity) than you have the paper to print them on.

The more I learn about bees, the more I want to learn about bees.  They are truly fascinating, though I am taking care not to become what this beekeeper’s wife terms a “bee bore!”  The thing to remember is that even if you don’t know what you are doing, the bees do!  Primum non nocere: first, do no harm.  If you’re not sure, often it is best to leave them to it until you do.  There is a wealth of information and advice in books, online, and through seeking local mentors; you are never fully alone.  I will never forget what I was told when I first housed my swarm and was beginning to worry about…well, everything a new nervous beekeeper worries about, and that is, “Bees will often succeed in spite of the beekeeper” and I have certainly begun to realize the wisdom of these words.

The post Are Bees for Me? appeared first on Homestead.org.

Indeed, honey bees provide all of these services to their keepers. But they could, if harnessed, provide them in surplus so you could not only produce what was needed for the homefront but use the extra for bartering or selling to be a part of the family’s income.

And taken yet a step further, honey bees themselves can be increased and sold just as bees to stock new colonies, as small nucleus colonies ready to build up during the season, or large, full-size colonies ready to produce in the current season. Queen honey bees, too, can be raised and selected to thrive in the local environment, like your open-pollinated corn, or sold to other beekeepers in the area.

A few hives of bees can do all of this for their keepers, but there’s still more. Almost nothing in the backyard continuously captures the imagination as totally as a box full of fascinating, industrious, well-behaved, and productive bugs. If you ever open the box they live in you will get just an inkling of what I mean. But open it twice, and you’re hooked.

Getting started, like many new ventures, has a learning curve to be dealt with. The most important part of that curve is assuming responsibility for the well-being of a living being under your care… not unlike family pets, chickens, cattle, or other friendly or productive animals. A beehive may appear as only a box full of bugs, but a honey bee colony has a personality and lifestyle all its own, and as its keeper you must learn its ways and wiles so you do the best you can to protect it from the dangers of the bee world, and manage it so that it is as naturally productive as it can be without the stresses of industrialized beekeeping.

Moreover, as you know full well, animals are variably susceptible to their own particular problems, and each has its own special nutritional, housing, and behavior needs. Honey bees are no different, and if you keep this in mind the recommendations to follow make perfect sense.

Before You Begin Beekeeping

Before you begin this adventure, a piece of solid advice is to, if at all possible, visit with a local beekeeper and find out what they have to say about keeping bees where you live. Not all places are created equal when it comes to bees, and every location poses its own advantages and problems. In fact, go a step further and offer some free labor in exchange for the information and experience this beekeeper can share. Help install packages, examine colonies, feed bees, harvest honey, and work in the honey house extracting the honey and handling the beeswax later. You will be rewarded far, far more than the short time you donate to the cause.

There’s an old saying in educational circles that goes: “Tell me and I may remember. Show me and I’ll probably remember. Make me do it and I’ll remember for always.” Books help, videos help, listening to speakers helps, but actually doing the work is the best way there is to learn.

That experience alone usually separates future beekeepers from those not destined to be beekeepers, so if you’re still in the game the next step is to get a few good books at the library or bookstore and find a local beekeeping association so you can meet more local beekeepers, sign up for any beekeeping classes they sponsor, and attend meetings to learn even more.

Good introductory books include:

• The Backyard Beekeeper by Kim Flottum
• Beekeeping For Dummies by Howland Blackiston, and
• The New Starting Right With Bees by Kim Flottum, Kathy Summers, & the  Editorial Staff of Bee Culture Magazine

If you want continuing up-to-date information there are two beekeeping magazines: Bee Culture, published by the A.I. Root Company, which focuses on beginning and sideline beekeeping topics; and the American Bee Journal, which tends towards more advanced topics. Both offer free sample copies if you contact them.

Home Sweet Hives

Once you’ve started the process you’ll find out that the first thing you need to do is to decide where the bees are going to live. Specifically, where will the hives sit? Whether on your property or someone else’s, there are some fundamentals you should consider relative to location—exposure to the elements, prevailing wind, shade, small predators like skunks, raccoons, and even toads, and large predators like bears, vandals of a teenage nature, or nuisance animals like cattle.

If you live in tropical, or nearly so, locations, a bit of afternoon shade can be advantageous for both you and the bees. But if you are further north, no shade at all is the best place to be. Having the colony facing south or south-east is ideal, but there are other considerations.

Be a good neighbor. If you are in the country, that is, the nearest neighbor is at least a couple hundred yards from you, then colony location becomes much easier—it only has to meet your specifications. However, if you have neighbors close enough to shout at, you really need to practice good neighbor beekeeping. That means keeping bees out of their pet water dishes, swimming pool, or birdbath. You should be aware of when you work bees, so when your neighbors are outside you aren’t working your bees. And absolutely, you need to make sure that it’s legal to keep bees where you are. Sometimes it’s not.

In all cases with beehives, out of sight, out of mind is a good rule to follow. It just makes things easier, so consider putting bees behind fences, behind buildings, using living screens like evergreens or sunflowers, or some other device to keep your hives out of sight if neighbors are close.

Once you’ve made provisions for water for your bees and arranged it so flight paths are high overhead because of fences and screens, plan on how your bees will sit where you want them to sit. Up off the ground is good, to keep the bottom off damp ground and to keep skunks, toads, ants, and other nasties at bay. Too, a beehive that sits up 18 inches or so off the ground (the recommended height) is easier to work because you won’t be putting heavy boxes full of honey all the way down and having to lift them all the way back up when you’re done.

Though there are several types of hives on this hive stand, notice that there is room between them to place heavy boxes when working each hive, and that the stand is about 18” high to keep skunks, ants, and such at bay. Also, you won’t have to place heavy boxes all the way down to the ground, and then pick them up again when working any of these colonies. Material inside the hive that falls down, will fall completely out, keeping the floor inside clean, and being out from the evergreen wind block behind these hives, makes it easy to stand behind them when working the bees. Stand in front and you block the entrance, and generally irritate the bees. Off the ground makes it easier to mow or clean around too… lots of advantages to getting your bees up and off the ground. After a couple of hours examining colonies, you will be very glad for this little piece of advice. Hive stands then, should be raised a bit off the ground, and be large enough to accommodate at least one more colony that you put on them… a stand large enough for three, then, should always hold two colonies. Life gets a lot simpler when your work is easy. Be aware that by the end of the season, these hive stands will be holding as much as a thousand pounds of beehives, honey, bees, and equipment. Sturdy is as sturdy does here.

Bees live in beehives, and beekeepers need to provide those. What to get, how many, what kind, what size, what else? This is where belonging to a local club is a lifesaver. Beekeepers in different climates do use different kinds, and sizes, and styles of equipment because the environment requires or allows more or less space for bees to live in.

What Do You Need?

Sometimes a local beekeeper isn’t available to ask, so here are some very general recommendations. A honey bee colony requires two deep brood boxes for the bees to live in, store some honey and pollen in, and raise their young. A deep brood box (also called a hive-body) is one that holds eight or ten frames of comb and are 9-5/8” tall (or so… exact standards in beekeeping equipment are a bit fuzzy). This can weigh as much as 90 pounds or so when full of bees, honey, and pollen.

Your beehive also needs additional boxes, called honey-supers (super = above), that are stacked above the brood boxes for the bees to store honey in. These honey-supers can be the same size as a hive-body or, to confuse things, there are two sizes of smaller boxes—one is called a shallow honey-super because it is only 5 -11/16” tall. This will weigh about 30 pounds or so when full of honey. The other is a medium honey-super because it is 6-5/8” tall, and weighs about 50 or so pounds when full. Which box to use will depend to some degree on your ability to heft.

A beehive needs a floor, called a bottom board, that has a large, screened area so debris falls completely out of the boxes rather than accumulate inside. The beehive should also have an inner cover that sits directly on top of the top box (think of this like the ceiling in your house), and an outer cover that goes over the inner cover (much like the outside roof). Together, these two covers keep the internal environment somewhat controlled and the elements out.

You’ll need a collection like this—bottom board, brood chamber(s) for raising young, honey-supers for storing honey, and covers—for each colony you want to start. But consider this: equipment made by one company may not be perfectly suited to fit equipment from another company. Think Ford parts for a Toyota vehicle. So once you pick a supplier, pretty much stick with that supplier so your equipment always fits.

But each hive you have needs additional equipment to help it get started and to continue running. For instance, you’ll need feeders… yes, you sometimes need to feed your bees. Like free-range chickens, cattle in the field, and cats that hunt… sometimes, they still need to be fed because nature isn’t as generous some days as others.

So what do bees eat? Sugar syrup… a mix of half sugar and half water, fed in a container that the bees can get to inside, or sometimes outside the hive. There are a variety of feeder styles available and each has advantages and disadvantages. Find them in the catalogs you get from the advertisers in the journals you read, on the web (see references at the end) or from local suppliers, you find out about at club meetings. And don’t hesitate to ask other beekeepers what they use… and why they use what they do.

You will also need beekeeping attire—protective gear to wear when working with bees. A good veil to keep bees out of your hair, and a light-colored, lightweight protective suit to keep your clothes clean when in the hives is a good start. And beekeeping gloves. Having bees walk on your hands the first few times in a hive can be very distracting, so use beekeeping gloves until you are comfortable with this aspect of the craft.

Smoking Encouraged

Along with the attire you get, you must have a smoker. This amazing tool lets you keep bees. When you puff a little bit of smoke across the top of an open colony the bees inside retreat down to rapidly consume honey and they stay out of your way as you do your work. Any communication between them inside is disrupted because the smoke masks all the chemical signals going on and they can’t talk… the confusion goes on for several minutes while you work. Then, when it begins to clear, they stop eating honey and start again to the top, a bit more smoke gives you a few more minutes to work undisturbed. You have maybe 15 minutes though before all this smoke simply overloads the system and they quit eating and start checking out the problem. That’s when it’s time to move to the next colony.

Spring is the best time of year to begin this adventure because it gives the bees the longest possible time to build up their population, get enough food collected and stored, and prepare for the winter to come.

So to start, you need a safe place to put your beehives, the right kinds of hives to put them in, the right gear to wear, and next, the bees to put in those hives.

What Kind of Bees?

Let me be right out front with what’s next. Honey bees are susceptible to a variety of pests and diseases. The worst of these is a tiny external mite that infests both brood and adult bees. It damages the bees, its bite injects material that compromises the bees’ immune systems, and they vector many of the lethal viruses that can, and do, kill honey bees.

The beekeeping community has spent more energy, money, time, and resources fighting this beast than any other, ever. And the success rate has been, at best, barely noticed. Varroa mites have been, and remain a formidable enemy. The frontal assault has been to throw chemicals at it, and then more chemicals at it. And the story is always the same… with only a few choices available these very adaptable mites quickly develop resistance to everything they encounter… and continue to thrive. After a time the very few choices are gone, and the mites remain. The chemical treadmill story is the same for all of modern agriculture.

Meanwhile, a few integrated pest management control techniques have been discovered that seem to be successful and new management practices have helped the problem. But still… varroa mites have not gone away. However, a proven way to deal with this type of problem is to select bees that are naturally resistant or tolerant to these mites. These bees, through behavior, psychology, or plain good luck, seem to be far less affected by these pests. You can buy strains of resistant bees or you can buy strains of bees that are partially resistant to varroa mites. Either of these will reduce your dependence on artificial controls for mites, reduce the need for chemicals in your hives, and reduce the cost of keeping bees. Russian honey bees are one type that has shown resistance, as are any of the many types that demonstrate strong hygienic behavior that helps keep colonies clean and free of these pests.

Of course, other bees are available. But your best choice seems obvious to me.

You can order any of these honey bees through the mail (bee sellers advertise in the journals) or pick them up locally if a beekeeper travels to the producer and picks them up. Once you’ve ordered and received your bees, there a thousand places to find out about installation and summer management. You’ll need to make sure they are constantly fed (see feeders, above) so they have a steady source of food, and make sure, as the population increases over the summer that you supply enough hive-bodies and honey-supers to give them plenty of room to expand. Always err on the side of just a little too much room rather than not quite enough.

Honey bees are bought by the pound, and they come in boxes like this. They can come in the mail (your post office will call you when they come in and you will have to go get them. Don’t delay, post office people usually don’t like bees in the post office). Or, a local supplier will go and get a load for you to pick up, like this. They will schedule arrival times, and don’t delay…get those bees out of the package and into a hive as fast as you can (and the weather permits). Once installed, feed, feed, feed, feed them sugar syrup until they don’t take it anymore, which may be as much as 2 or 3 months, depending on the weather.

Installing your package of bees. Once home, take 4 or 5 frames out of your deep hive body so you have room for the bees. Carefully remove the feeder can and the queen from the package, dump the bees into the opening in the hive body, hang the queen in the hive so the screen is facing the opening between frames, not the frame next door, and she and the bees can get together (they have to feed her or she will die, and to replace her will cost you about $20.), slowly replace the frames, add the feeder you are using and close up the hive. Wait about 5 or 6 days before releasing the queen. To release her, open the hive, remove the cage she is in, and remove the cork over the candy end of the queen cage so the bees can eat the candy and open the hole and she can walk out.

Join a club, meet other beekeepers, read everything you can find on keeping bees, visit other beekeeping operations, take classes, and don’t hesitate to go out to your colonies and take a look inside as often as you feel the need. That’s the only way you’ll ever learn what’s going on inside. And have fun… there are few things in life as totally satisfying as watching a colony of honey bees develop from a tiny bunch of bees to a full-size, healthy colony producing honey for you… and for the many generations you and they will produce. Welcome to the wonderful world of being a beekeeper.

Beekeeping equipment suppliers will send free catalogs if you contact them.

Brushy Mountain Bee Supply www.brushymountainbeefarm.com

Mann Lake Supply www.mannlakeltd.com

Dadant www.dadant.com

Walter Kelley www.kelleybees.com

B&B Honey www.bbhoneyfarms.com

Root Publishing www.BeeCulture.com

Rossman Apiaries www.gabees.com

Glory Bee www.glorybeefoods.com

Betterbee www.betterbee.com

The Lost Art of Beekeeping?

The post Beginning Thoughts on Keeping Bees appeared first on Homestead.org.

That was the turmoil I faced in my own head when I became a full-time homesteader and realized I needed these beauties for my gardens and orchards.  Though these questions kept haunting me, one day I decided to face this mysterious and “dangerous” creature that made my heart beat fast and put my nerves on edge.  My homestead journey had brought me many new experiences and had a huge learning curve on so many levels.  Being a city slicker, almost everything the homestead offered was both a delight and a fright.  The simple, beautiful, and tiny bee was no exception.  Thus, I decided to approach the art of beekeeping with bravery and lots of research.  They say “knowledge is power”, so I figured if I studied and learned all I could about these little creatures, my own knowledge would empower me and I could safely add bees to our homestead.  They had always intrigued me, though all I had learned from my city life was to fear them and run.  As I began to learn about them, a surprising yet hidden truth emerged within my heart:  I was a “Wanna BEE Lady”!  I did have it in me to love my bee friends—it was my past training (or lack thereof) that was holding me back.  The more I read, the more confident I became.

There are many different bees and yet we tend to lump them all into one category: the “don’t mess with bees ‘cause they will sting you” category.  While I realize that some people will remain in this category, I bravely decided that I could not.  The more I studied, the more I wanted to add them to our homestead.  Their work was an important asset to our homestead goals of self-sufficiency and living in tune with Mother Nature.  As a matter of fact, one unexpected and beautiful gift that the homestead life brought to me was an ignited desire to experience all that nature offers.  Mother Nature offered the simple, elegant bee.  I wanted to experience its mystery.  I wanted to work alongside them to created nutritious food and beautiful flowers.  I mostly wanted to not be afraid anymore.

First, it is important to understand the basics of the bee itself.

Did you know that there are approximately 20,000-25,000 known species of bees worldwide?  That’s a lot of different bees!  The more I studied, the more I realized the place where I could begin my bee journey: the solitary bee and its home.  There are more solitary bees than colonizing bees, and with the colony collapse scare (and my own fears), I knew I could handle the simple solitary bee as a new beekeeper.  So, what exactly is a solitary bee?

By basic terms, “solitary” defines this creature.  The solitary bee does not live in a colony of bees with a queen.  Solitary bees build their own individual places to nest/live and females lay their eggs in each cell in the nest by themselves.  The male and female also live separately but can be within the same larger structure.  In fact, while you will have each solitary bee building their nest in its own individual place, you may find several different species of bees living in the same area or structure together.  Picture a larger house but with many little individual rooms in which only one creature lives.  This is the solitary-bee home.  Thus, solitary bees are known to be communal rather than social or colony-oriented.

Solitary bees vary in size as well as their coloring, but they are all excellent pollinators. In fact, I learned that solitary bees are much better at pollinating a lot of plants than the honeybee.  They are easy to draw to your property if you will just provide them with some natural resources in which to build their homes.  Most importantly, I learned that solitary bees will only sting when they are provoked; an example given was if they were caught in your clothing and trying to get out.  There are also a number of solitary bees that do not sting at all.  Yes, these were the bees for me!

I decided to take a local class on building a solitary-bee structure, given by the Master Gardeners and local extension agency.  It was very helpful and encouraging.  Turns out, the bees that are local to my area are the most common ones: the Mason bee and the Leafcutter bee (although there are many others).  By building my own bee structures/homes or “hotels”, I could increase the solitary-bee family on my own homestead and this was my primary “Wanna Bee” goal.

Below are both pictures and instructions that I received from this class as I built my own solitary-bee houses:

Solitary bees are out there everywhere because they make their homes from natural resources found around them.  Sand, soil, leaves, plant hairs, wax, twigs, reeds, and/or any small cavity might find a solitary bee.  Since they need a type of cavity or small hole in which to build their nest, we can provide a space that will draw them to build.  For my class, I chose two different structures to build.  One was a natural piece of log from a downed tree and the other was a birdhouse I had purchased but not used yet.  Here is what I was instructed to do in our class with each solitary bee house project:

I drilled holes into the tree log.  The log of wood you use must be preservative-free.  You can also use a purchased block of wood, just make sure it, too, is preservative-free.   You can use different drill bits to make different size holes (to accommodate different solitary-bee sizes).  Most holes are between 7/32 inches up to 1/2 inch wide and 4-6 inches deep.  The holes need to be smooth on the inside and closed at the end.  This was all I needed to do before placing it outside for the bees to use.

Next, I worked on the two purchased birdhouses that I had not used.  Within the birdhouse, you will need to create the tunnels and cavities for the bees to build their individual nests.  The class provided bamboo pieces so I chose several to place inside the birdhouse.  Remember, what will be the back end of the bamboo pieces needs to be closed.  Some of mine were closed, but for those that were not, I glued a mason-jar lid on the end.

I then used parchment paper to make smaller holes.  I wrapped many individual pieces around a pencil to form the hollow cavities that would be their actual nesting place. I used masking tape (or scotch tape) to secure the parchment pieces.  (You can also use paper—but not plastic—straws for the reeds and won’t have to roll them). Some in the class had pampas grass stems and they made perfect reeds.   To roll the parchment reed, cut parchment paper into 6 x 5-inch pieces.  Roll length-wise side to side on the pencil for a 6-inch straw.  Tape the roll closed and close one end of the straw by folding the end over and securing with tape or stapling closed.  Leave the other end open for the bee to enter.

I then placed my many parchment “reeds” within each larger bamboo piece.  The reeds need to be fairly snug but do not need to all be the same length within the bamboo.  In fact, differently sized reeds will bring different bees so you can use a variety if you wish. You can also add small twigs and leaves to decorate the home and also help the bees with the materials to build their nest.  Here is a picture of my Birdhouse Bee Hotel:

For both structures, you might choose to paint on some color or even decorate them with natural items such as leaves, sticks, or acorns.  I learned that bright, fluorescent blue is highly attractive to bees.  However, it is best NOT to use oil-based paints.  I also learned that it will please you as the builder to decorate it and make it aesthetically appealing.  It will help you want to you to maintain your bee hotel each year.

You could even use something like a nut can, coffee can, or a CD container as the outer structure, placing the parchment “reeds” within the cylinder.

Once your homes/hotels are finished, correct placement is important:

1.  Place in the spring before mid-April.

2.  Place on the eastern side of a structure (building or tree) for morning sunlight and to avoid the harsh afternoon sun.

3.  Place at least 4-5 feet above ground on a structure such as a tree, fence post, or building.  Make sure they are very secure so they will not shake or fall off.  Also, don’t put them near birdhouses.

4.  Make sure you will be able to remove the inner parts of the structure and clean out the used reeds or straws each year (or re-drill the holes for the log home).

Here are some final instructions to build a solitary-bee house or hotel:

1.  Begin observing your homes for the new adult bees to emerge in the spring and early summer, so that when they are gone you can replace the new nesting reeds and materials.  This will need to be done each spring as you do not want to ever use last year’s material.

2.  If using the log-home idea, each year the drilled holes will need to be cleaned and drilled again.  If using the parchment reeds or straws, each year the old reeds will need to be removed and new reeds will need to be placed in the structure.

3.  This is the handout given to us in our class and was very helpful.  There is plenty of information online on other styles of solitary-bee homes, or you can also call or visit your local agricultural extension agency of your county.

This journey was wonderful for me.  I went from a bee-avoider to a bee-friend to a bee-attractor!  Choosing solitary bees as my introductory encounter with bees was a great decision and helped me overcome my fears.  I no longer run when I see a beautiful bee; I stop and observe.  I also now live right alongside my bee friends and we are getting along just fine!   I think they are happy that I decided to build a solitary bee house for them… I know I am.

The post Are you a Wanna Bee? Build a Solitary-bee House appeared first on Homestead.org.

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In the northern parts of the U. S., summer, and most of autumn, are once again gone. Though a hard frost hasn’t coated the windows and weeds yet—except in the far reaches—most of the flowers are finished and only stalks and seed heads remain. Still, there’s a few straggling asters left in the wettest parts of the fields, sought after by desperate bees but ignored by most for they know those lonely white flowers are barren and gone. Nature has little left for the bees. However, on rare days when it warms to over 50… when the sun shines and the wind settles enough… ambitious bees go looking for the last of the season’s wine. It’s in their genes to seek and find.

This first winter can be daunting for a beekeeper just beginning. But then, winters are always daunting… that a box of bugs manages to stay alive, moving, buzzing, raising young, eating, sleeping… when only inches away it’s cold… too cold for them to live… is one of those fascinating mysteries beekeepers revel in. Here’s how it works, and how you can help.

It’s still not too late to feed sugar syrup in central and southern parts of the U.S., and there is a host of inhive feeders available to use. These replace a frame in the bottom box if there’s room. If the weight of the colony is low, feed the bees a 2:1 sugar:water solution until they quit taking it.

First, bees don’t heat the inside of their hive. The air, well, most of the air inside that stack of boxes is just about exactly the same temperature as the outside air… so it’s cold inside in the winter. Rather, when the temperature begins to drop the bees’ first order of business is to keep the brood warm… and the brood needs to stay at right about 93 degrees or so… warm by any standard. To do that the bees begin to gather together and cover the brood, using their bodies to warm the brood in the beeswax cells they are covering. But wait… bees are cold-blooded… not like you and me. How’s that work?

Some bees stand directly on the surface of the comb that contains capped honey and stored pollen plus they are hovering over and covering all the brood, both sealed and open. Some bees go headfirst into cells next to brood on both sides of the comb and generally fill all the empty space beside, over and under any brood in the comb so the brood is completely, totally surrounded. When the brood is covered and safe the remaining bees do the same, head first in cells, standing on the comb surface, rubbing and touching and filling in all the empty spaces.

Protein supplements may also be necessary if there isn’t much pollen stored. The bees won’t need it now so much as shortly after the beginning of the new year, when the queen begins laying eggs in earnest again. Without a steady source of high-quality protein egg laying will be restricted and the population of the colony will be compromised for early nectar and pollen flows next spring.

What you end up with is a bunch of bees forming a football-shaped cluster basically in the lower center of the hive, encompassing all of the brood and some of the honey they previously stored. They protect the brood, and they eat the honey. But remember, they’re still cold-blooded. What they do next is amazing.

The individual bees on the outside of this mass of bees turn to face the center of the cluster, exposing the tips their abdomens to the outside… where the business part of the bee is—the sting. Once positioned, these bees, and many of the bees inside the mass of bees close to the surface, but usually not those closest to the center, begin to vibrate their wing muscles… and, just as you and I begin to warm up when we exercise, these vibrating bees begin to warm up and that heat is transferred to the rest of the bees in the cluster.

Wide-open spaces lend themselves to too much wind. If your bees have this kind of landscape surrounding them, seriously consider a windbreak to help reduce the stress on the hive. Use snow fence, fence posts with landscape burlap, straw bales, or any temporary fence to keep cold winds at bay.

Meanwhile, the bees in the center consume the honey, feed the young brood if any are present, and tend to the needs of the queen—who may, or may not still be producing brood. Remember that these bees are crammed in together taking up less than a quarter of the space they were when it was summertime. Consider putting 20 people in a typical elevator…and having them run in place…the effect is the same in the beehive.

One other factor is that bees are covered with hairs…lots of hairs. Pushed close together, these hairs add insulation to each bee, and slow the loss of body heat and warm air from the mass to the cold world outside the cluster. Meanwhile, the bees on the outside of the cluster, shivering and vibrating like mad also reduce the flow of warm air away from the inside of the cluster.

Last resort feeding is to put sugar on the inner cover surrounding the inner cover opening. Don’t make this a habit, plan ahead and get the food on the bees sooner.

So for a time, all is well with the world. But after a bit of this—depending on the temperature—the bees on the outside begin to tire, they use up their food reserves and can no longer continue. Hunger, cold and exhaustion set in; they must be warmed, fed and rested or they will perish, and with them, all the bees inside the cluster. When these bees are on the edge, close to collapsing, they slowly move toward the heat, the warmth, the food…life. But this heat-holding layer must be maintained or all is lost. And it is replaced… well, usually it is. Warm, well-fed, rested bees from the inside of the cluster migrate toward the outside of the cluster to replace those moving in. Recall that not only bees on the very outside of the cluster were holding heat in, vibrating muscles and keeping everything warm, but many just below of the surface were also…and it is these that move to the surface, while the warmest bees begin to move up and outward.

All the bees in the cluster need to eat. The first assumption here is that there was enough food in the hive, in the right place in the hive. First, the bees eat the food they were covering but after a time all that is gone. And since heat rises, the bees follow the warm air upwards in the hive and move up to where more honey is stored… providing they, or the beekeeper, provided more to be stored. This works, all winter long. As long as the air just outside the cluster stays warm enough for the bees to move. If it doesn’t, if the outside air is so cold the bees can’t warm it enough, they can’t move the cluster, they can’t move to more honey, and they will starve… inches from more food.

This is why bees don’t rule the world.

Beekeepers need to make sure, when they put their colonies to bed for the winter that they have both provided enough honey for the whole of the winter and early spring, and made certain it is in the absolute most convenient location in the hive. How much? They’ll need 50-60 pounds of honey, more if way up north. Where? Place it just to the sides and above the cluster, which should be very near the bottom of the hive in the fall, so the cluster can rise, en masse, to the top, consuming all that honey as it goes.

Since you have already taken your losses in the fall, plan now on how you will replace those losses next spring by purchasing packages or nucs from local beekeepers (probably your best choice). Making splits from your existing colonies is a good choice too, but that requires a whole different set of preparations.

And one more thing: ventilation. All that warm air contains respiratory moisture. The moisture condenses when it comes in contact with the cold sides and inside top of the hive (like warm breath on a cold window). Condenses, collects, and then drips down on the bees. Cold, wet bees are unhappy bees. And pretty soon, dead bees. You have two choices: provide lots of ventilation so that warm air rises and exits the hive immediately, creating almost a gale inside the hive, but keeping the drips away, or, sealing it up so the warm air rises, but is trapped and isolated above the bees and beneath the cover—some beekeepers simply use batten insulation, or homosote board, or a super filled with straw or leaves—whatever it takes to hold the moisture so it doesn’t drip back on the bees.

And then wrap the hive… but not too much. Just a layer of roofing felt paper will do. Make sure to leave the ventilation intact, and not to cover the entrance below, or above if you use one.

A simple plastic wrap can be used in place of roofing felt. It is durable, reusable and protects the colony from the ravages of the wind.

And that should mostly do it: food, ventilation, and protection from the wind and elements. Knowing what your bees need, and why, makes the planning easy.

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Kim Flottum is Editor-in-Chief at Bee Culture Magazine.

Bees for Free

The post Wintering Bees appeared first on Homestead.org.

Instead, right now is the perfect time to make a conscious effort to begin the too-often-overlooked chore of taking care of the bees, that take care of the bees, that do go into winter. That’s a three-generation leap if you think about it. There are a lot of parallels in regular life that use similar rules. I’ll give you a for instance. Right now the tomato plants in my garden are just beginning to show signs of late blight, an insidious disease that takes out tomato plants later in the summer. If I let the plants go and they collapse and die right there in the garden, all the inoculum that collects on the dead tissues of the plant, now decomposing in the soil, lie dormant for a year or more, waiting to strike next season when the right environment and a host plant are ready. But at the first sign of infection, if I remove and destroy infected plants by burning them, I’ve stopped further infestations in their tracks… my proactive treatment saves future season’s plants, and takes anything resembling a necessary chemical treatment out of the equation. The same goes for fire blight on apple trees. Once observed, it can be removed and stopped from spreading further in the original tree and on to other trees in the orchard. No chemicals needed, and no further outbreaks expected.

So, too, for your bees. If you do your homework now, before winter, when it finally arrives all the preparation pieces are in place and your bees have everything they need, long before they need it.

Start with making sure the bees in the boxes today are healthy. Of course, the biggest problem honey bees have is that pesky varroa mite. If you’ve been on top of things all summer you have been keeping the mite population in check by routinely trapping and removing them in drone brood; plus, you have a screened bottom board so when a mite gets brushed off a bee it falls through the bottom and away from the bees; and you’ve and dusted your colonies with powdered sugar most every time you have checked the bees all summer long. Those three pest management techniques work remarkably well and will generally keep mite populations manageable in an otherwise healthy hive. The only other necessary task is to make sure that mite population is reasonable…

And here’s where things can get tricky. You need to monitor mite populations during the summer anyway, just to make sure they aren’t getting out of hand, or that something weird hasn’t happened. You do that with a sticky board placed under your screened bottom board. Most screened bottom boards come with a slot under the screen to slide in a piece of cardboard with “goo’em” on it so when mites fall from above, rather than fall all the way to the ground, they go through the screen but are trapped in the sticky on the board, which is below the screen so the bees aren’t trapped in it, too. There are some numbers you can use to gauge the mite population using this device… for a full-sized colony, no more than a dozen mites a day should be caught on that sticky board… maybe 15, but more than 20 and you have a healthy population of mites.

“So, what,” you ask?

Well, this is the tricky part. Do you treat that colony with one of the soft essential oil mite treatments to knock down the mites so there aren’t as many in the colony going into winter? Or, do you grit your teeth and restrain yourself because, dang it, those bees were supposed to be survivor bees, or Russian bees or hygienic bees or… well, they were supposed to be resistant, or tolerant, or… remember, you bought them so you wouldn’t have to treat, right? So, don’t treat. The battle is on and it’s bees vs. mites. If the bees win, you win. If the mites win… you buy more bees. But you’re not breeding queens here, you’re just keeping bees.

Long story short, if you purchased bees that were supposed to be tolerant or resistant to mites and you find you have more mites right now than you should, my advice is to use a soft treatment and knock down the population… even tough bees can use the help, and if you keep it short you won’t be messing up your bees or the nest they have… err on the side of helping. Like removing that tomato plant… get the nasties out of there.

Now if you are breeding bees, or tomatoes, that’s an entirely different story… your eradication policy will be entirely different… but most of us are consumers, not producers… and keeping them alive is important.

If you’ve been visited by small hive beetles already you know you have them. Populations build slow all summer, but begin to explode right about now, especially if you have a colony that’s small… say a split or a nuc… or one that’s weak because of other problems. If you have beetles, and you haven’t been trapping them, do so now. There are a variety of traps on the market that are somewhat effective, and some that are simply expensive. Go for those that are a frame or fit between frames as they tend to be the easiest to use and least expensive. There’s a new model about to come out this fall that’s disposable I’m told, and costs about a buck. I’m waiting with bated breath for that to show up. Small hive beetles can destroy a weak colony between now and winter, and make life miserable for a strong colony, and you when harvesting. Get those traps in.

The rest of the story is pretty straight forward… clean up any lingering problems, but especially American foulbrood (if you find it, burn it is my policy, but some colonies easily handle small outbreaks. However, at this time of year that can be a dangerous call) and you’ll have a healthy colony.

But what about food? Yes, this has been shown of late to be as, or even more, critical than mites in the ongoing health problems our bees face. This problem comes in three flavors… enough food, good enough food, and clean enough food. Let me explain:

Enough… drought in some parts of the country has severely limited the plants bees visit. Others this year have had cool, rainy weather… both limit the availability of good food and enough food. If you live wherever the weather sucks this year… be aware of the food problem.

If you live, like I do, with mostly corn and soybeans in the immediate area you have a lot of two kinds of food… Think a daily diet of breakfast cereal and salad—good for awhile, but not for long. Monocultures dominate the universe in some places, leaving out much of what a balanced diet calls for, thus, you need to provide the missing nutrients, vitamins, minerals and the rest. My suggestion is that if you offer your bees some of the pollen you collected earlier this season, or a protein substitute available from bee supply companies and they take it, they needed it. If they don’t you’ve invested a buck in knowing they don’t. This is very cheap insurance.

At the same time, these two crops, along with many others unfortunately, harbor a beekeeper’s favorite foe… pesticides. Is the pollen your bees have stored good pollen, clean, without pesticide residues? How do you know…? You don’t really. If you check, you might find that the local farmer is spraying beans for aphids, corn for worms, or they were seed-treated before planting. Some of the newer pesticides are systemic and will end up in pollen and nectar in treated plants. Bees harvest this deadly diet and bring it home to store. In general, big agriculture is more foe than friend, and the further away you can stay the better.

It’s still late summer and, in many places, there is still a fall flow of honey to be had, so read the treatment label carefully before treating with your honey supers still attached. But if the season is over, the sooner you can treat, the better, because you want to make sure that you take care of the bees that go into winter.

Next time we’ll look at actual winter prep… and unless you live in southern Florida or Texas, there are several things to do so your bees do okay all winter long.

Wintering Bees

The post Preparing Bees for Winter: Getting Ready to Get Bees Ready For Winter appeared first on Homestead.org.

1.  Buy a nuc.  A nucleus (or nuc) is essentially a small hive.  A conventional, framed beehive will have 10-12 frames of bees.  A nuc will probably have around 5 frames, on which there will be bees in various states of development.  There will be eggs, larvae, capped brood (when the larva is metamorphosing into an adult bee).  There will be a spread of bees of different ages, and, of course, the Queen herself.  It will have a little bit of honey already stored, and have some bees which are foraging and others feeding larvae.  This is a starter hive which is—given the right conditions, and provided the queen lays well—capable of growing and thriving.  This is also the most expensive option.  Prices for nucs vary dramatically but hover around the £250 ($380) mark depending if you are buying a particular strain of bee.  A nuc for a genetically pure bee strain is most expensive.

2.  Buy a package of bees.  Yes, this is exactly what it sounds like.  A package of bees literally arrives in the post.  This is much cheaper option than the nuc. Package bees are certainly more popular in the United States than they are in Europe and there are a number of things that need to be considered with packages that don’t with nucs.  

First, this is just a box of bees.  There is no new generation in egg, larvae, and capped brood form to keep a constant rolling population of bees on the go.  There is no comb, or drawn out foundation for the bees to store nectar and pollen in, or a queen to lay eggs in.  In fact, most importantly, there is NO QUEEN.  

You can purchase a queen along with your bee package, but it is not the queen the bees were laid from.  This means the queen needs to very carefully and correctly introduced to the large box of bees that your mailman just nervously delivered.  The queen will be in small cage to protect her until the bees get used to her smell, but if the bees and the queen are not properly introduced then the package bees will kill the queen.  Obviously, you do not want this to happen.  

It is essential that the bees are fed when they arrive as they will not have any stores available to them and will have spent some time in transit during which they were unable to forage.  Also, the more they are disturbed the more likely they are to reject the queen so you have to leave them bee (sorry).

These are perfectly legitimate ways of starting out and most new beekeepers will choose one of these options.  In my opinion, these options have two inherent flaws.  One being the bees you are buying are not well acclimatized to your local area; by this I mean they are not used to the seasonal weather, and they have not adjusted to the locally available food sources.  The other reason is simply why, oh why, oh why would you pay for bees when you can get them for free?  Bees that are not only locally acclimatised, but ready, willing, and driven to develop and build up a new bee colony.  I am, of course, talking about swarms!

A swarm isn’t just a group of bees, it is the reproductive unit of a hive.  In spring, when the food is coming in, and the bee population is swelling, the hive may collectively make the decision to swarm.  Swarm season is usually from April to June, depending on the weather, but can extend out into late July.  Eggs are selected to be made into new queens and, when they are capped and ready to go, a large portion of the bees along with the current queen up and leave en mass.  This is the “prime swarm”.  They gorge themselves on honey before they go which leaves them able to rapidly build new comb when they arrive at their new home.  The queen is already able to lay, so things progress pretty rapidly.  

Meanwhile, in the old hive, depending on how many new queens manage to hatch, one or more “cast swarms” may result, where a unmated or “virgin” queen along with a few more bees leave to find a new home.  A cast swarm takes more time to establish as there are considerably less bees, and the queen cannot lay any eggs until she has mated.  If she fails to mate, the colony fails.  

Collecting bee swarms, in my opinion, is the best way of starting a hive.  These bees have made the decision as a colony to set up a new home.  They are motivated and pre-programmed to provide you exactly what you want to start a new colony, in a new hive, in a new place.  All you have to do now is catch one!

You can literally head out and catch yourself a swarm.  You will need a bee-suit, although it is possible to do this without a bee suit.  Swarms are not predisposed to stinging as they have gorged themselves on honey and are pretty blissed out.  They are also singularly focused on finding a new place to live and setting up the hive.  Any sting would reduce resources available by resulting in the death of the bee.  Stinging is also a mechanism developed to defend the hive itself.  At this stage there is no hive, so, no defense!  Having said that, this is not a perfect world, and if you’re reading this you have probably not done this before, so suit up.  You will also need:

• A box: this can be a (small) hive, a wicker basket, or literally a cardboard box.
• A water mister: not essential, but spraying a fine mist on the bees can stop them taking to the air and keeps them together.  Useful if they have settled on something you can’t move.  Some people will also use, or prefer the use of, a smoker.
• Secateurs: Again not necessarily essential, but bee swarms can settle anywhere.  Being able to remove some of the foliage around a bee swarm to give you better access is very useful.  You can even use it to just cut off the entire branch the swarm and settled on and put it in your box.

Now you need to spread the word you interested in a bee swarm.  Tell your friends, put cards in the local shop.  There are often online registers where you can provide your contact information which is then made available to anyone seeking a swarm collector. 

Next step…wait… and wait… and wait. 

When you finally get a call, I would recommend first ascertaining whether or not this is a genuine bee “swarm”.  Make sure they are not bumble bees or wasps, but also that they are not an established colony.  If they have already found a place to call home and accepted it as their hive do not get involved.  Remember you are new to this and the removal and transplant of an established colony is very different from collecting a bee swarm.  When collecting a swarm of bees, practically consider that you are providing them with a service of finding them a home without them having to find it for themselves.  When moving an established colony, they believe you are attacking their hive and tearing them home apart. 

Once you have established there is a swarm go as soon as you can.  Swarms do not settle for long and will be driven to finding a new place to live.  When you get there, don’t be a hero.  If the swarm isn’t reachable leave it alone.  If they have settled nicely on the branch of a tree place your box underneath the swarm and give the branch a firm, sharp shake.  The majority of the bees will fall directly into the box, many will take to the air.  Get as many off as you can at this point. 

However, if they are on a solid object such as a fence post, a door frame, car tire, or anything else you can’t just shake off you need a different approach.  Very lightly mist the bees with water and then gently, very, very gently brush the bees into your box.  You can buy long thin bee brushes with extremely soft bristles (usually pig or horse hair) to do this.  Alternatively, a goose feather works well.  I have seen this done using a gloved hand but there is a danger that you will damage the queen this way so I do not recommend it. 

Then place the box on the ground under where the swarm was and cover it leaving an entrance for the bees.  Within a few minutes the flying bees will either start to accumulate back on the swarm site, in which case you didn’t get the queen, or start to move into the box in which case you did.  Some may return to the swarm site initially anyway as it will still smell a little of their queen.  What you hope to see on and around the entrance of your box is “fanning”.  Fanning involved a number of bees tilting their abdomens in air and using their wings without taking off.  This sends a homing smell to all the bees in the air to allow them to target in on their new home.  If you have been successful they will move in fairly quickly. 

You can now leave the swarm till the evening, when it cools down, to settle.  To install the swarm in your hive can be as easy as taking them to the hive in the early evening and providing a ramp up to the hive entrance.  When poured out onto sheet under the ramp the bees will form a procession up the ramp and into the hive.

Bees for Free

Another way of catching swarms is by letting them come to you.  “Swarm traps” or “bait-hives” are by far my preferred way of doing things.  It allows you to do things to your own timetable so you don’t have to drop everything and head out at a moment’s notice.  This basically involves providing an attractive hive option.  The scout bees which are sent out from a swarm will then find your bait hive and consider it a good new place to live. 

This does mean you are going to have to build some stuff.  The type of bait-hive you use can vary dramatically depending on the type of hive you want to use in the long term.  If you are using a warré hive, you could use two of the boxes which will form part of the hive.  For conventional hive types such as Nationals and Langstroth, a single brood box or homemade nuc works just fine.  If you are doing a top bar hive, you could use pretty much anything the right size which will take your top bars across the top.  Once occupied these top bars or frames can simply be transferred into your hive (if it is not already occupied, it is always worth setting up your actual hive as a bait hive as well). 

These options have the distinct advantage that once the bees settle in and start building comb they are less likely to leave it.  In cases where you remove the bees from the bait hive and place them somewhere else there is a much greater chance of them absconding.  Not to mention the waste of resources if they have built comb and the queen begun laying.  

The basic requirements for a bait-hive are:

• A volume of about 40 litres: 20-60 litres seem to be successful.  If you are using a Kenyan or Tanzanian top-bar hive this is approx.  10 bars across a roughly 30cm-deep container.  For warré hives, this is two warré boxes.  For conventional framed hives this usually equates to a brood box.  Some people simply use two plant pots stuck together.

  

• Weather-proof: Ply-wood, political signage, or even a plastic bag.  Anything you can use to keep the wind and rain out.  Full hive roofs and floors can be used but are not necessary for trapping.
• An entrance: Not too big, a drilled round entrance of ½ inch to 1 inch works just fine and can be blocked with a wine or champagne cork when you need to move it.

When you build your bait-hive, rub all around the inside on the hive with beeswax.  You can buy this fairly cheaply online and it makes the inside smell like a hive making it more attractive.  If you can get hold of a piece of old comb from another beekeeper (whose apiary you know is disease-free) or the wood already coated with propolis (a weatherproofing substance that bees produce for the inside of their hives) then that is much better. 

To further increase your chances of catching a swarm you can buy some lemongrass oil, which, again, is fairly cheap and readily available.  Put a cotton or wool ball with the lemongrass oil on it in a Ziplock bag, left only slightly open (this reduces the speed at which the lemongrass oil evaporates) and place it inside the bait-hive.  Then place a few drops on the entrance.  Now all you have to do is site your bait-hive.  The best places are:

• Near established colonies: If you already see honey bees in the area then you certainly have a good chance.  Please, please, please don’t go and put one of these outside the house of another beekeeper and tell them I told you to do it.  You should always have the permission of the landowner to site a bait-hive on their land.  Expect a few to get stolen, too.  I always write on my bait hive what they are and my telephone number in case there is a problem.
• Near resources: Bees (especially prime swarms) prefer somewhere that fills the boxes on their house-hunting checklist.  Good forage nearby, a water supply, some resinous trees for propolis production. 
• Not too exposed: The bees will prefer a trap that is sheltered from the worst the weather can throw at it.  In the UK, this mostly means wind and rain, but in hot climates, shelter from the worst of the afternoon sun is a must for them.
• South facing entrance: This appears to be a preference.
• Elevated position: They seem to like being off of the ground, probably in order to reduce the chance of a badger breaking in.  There is a balance to be struck between elevation for the bees’ sake and access to you to retrieve the trap.  It is one thing placing an empty trap 10 feet up a tree using a ladder.  It is another thing entirely taking it down when it is full of bees, and perhaps comb, and hopefully honey.  Five-six feet off of the ground appears to be a good balance.  Using the flat roofs of sheds and garages is ideal.  Having the trap elevated also makes it less likely for people to come in contact with the bees and be stung.

Once your traps are sited, you only need to look in on them once a week or so.  Try to go at the same time of day when the bees will be out flying and active so you can tell if the trap is occupied.  If it appears empty then put another drop of lemongrass oil on the entrance and leave it alone.  You can try knocking on it to see if it sounds empty, or weighing with luggage scales, you can even put a stethoscope on the side and hive a listen for buzzing. 

Whatever you do, try not to open it until you are sure it is occupied.  Sometimes a few scout bees might be investigating the trap or even spending the night.  If you disturb them by opening it up they will not come back.  It is important to approach the hive from the side and not in direct flying-line of the entrance.  If your face is in the way of a bee flying out they will make their displeasure known.  If the trap is a hive of activity (again, sorry) then next you need to move them to the hive location. 

Wait until nighttime, plug up the entrance (preferably ensuring they have ventilation) and move them.  If you are moving them more than two miles you should be fine.  If you are moving less than two miles there may be problems with the bees going back to the original trap site.  Plugging the entrance hole with some grass and putting some branches over it causes them to reorient, reducing the loss of these foragers.  You can also take another trap to the original location the following evening to collect any that have clustered there and bring them back to the hive location.  They will usually just walk in the same as the swarm hiving. 

Do try and get another trap out near the same location soon after because there is a very good chance you will catch a cast swarm there.  It’s a good idea to site a number of bait-hives.  The more you have, the greater your chance of catching something.  If you are particularly successful and end up with more colonies than hives you can either combine several small colonies to make them stronger, or even sell them to recoup any investment in materials you have made.  Ultimately, though, once you have the bees all you have to do is “keep” them.

https://www.homestead.org/beekeeping/are-bees-for-me/

Garden Seeds, Honeybees, You, and Me

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“The bee is a symbol of wisdom, for as this tiny insect collects pollen from the flowers, so men may extract wisdom from the experience of daily life.” –Manly Palmer Hall

As a beekeeper’s wife, I admit, I participate as a co-dependant to my husband’s enthusiasm for these buzzing insects.  Only those who love keeping bees, (and those who love their beekeepers) realize that keeping honeybees is not a hobby, it is not merely a business, nor is it just an occupation; keeping honeybees is a passionate obsession.

The whole world seems to be obsessed with bees these days.  I have been informed that honeybees are second only to human beings on Internet searches.  The recent Colony Collapse Disorder scare seemed to have caused the general population to realize how important bees are to our livelihood.  As a beekeeper’s wife, bees are not only essential to my livelihood; they are a big part of my life.  I have had bees in my living room and kitchen, in my hair and bed… and even up my skirt.

One spring afternoon I went out our kitchen door to take some scraps to the chickens when I heard the unmistakable hum of a swarm of honeybees.  I looked up to see a mass of them swirling above the apiary (the place where beehives are kept).  I could tell that they had not been away from their mother hive for long as they were still in the wide-open scattered stage.

I always get a thrill when I witness the fellowship of a swarm massed in the sky, numbered in the thousands, cooperating with one mind, revolving like a hurricane.  For a moment I just took a deep breath and let the wonder of the swarm wash over me.  They were striking out on their own, seeking to be independent of the mother hive, making their multiplying flight.  It gives me the same feeling that a new birth, or the first snowdrops of spring, does.  I knew that my beekeeper would want to know about our bee hurricane and that, if he could get to them in time, he might be able to entice the run-away bees to land in a hive box.

Our daughter then came running around the smokehouse corner exclaiming, “Mom! A swarm!” (If you want things to get exciting around our place, you detect a swarm.)  I sent her to the black-raspberry patch where her father was picking berries.  He dropped his basket when she gave him the news and hurried to where I was watching them.  A few of the bees were still flying out and searching for a temporary staging spot from where they could seek their new home.

Soon they began to congregate, forming a tight little group, known as a cluster, on the overhanging branch of the white pine which stands shading our apiary from the hot afternoon sun.  The cluster looked like a dark vortex hanging in the shape of an old-fashioned sugar cone.  By this time my husband had located his ladder and asked me to hold it as he shimmed up and to the top of the wisteria trellis positioned beneath the pine to get closer to the bees.  He placed his swarm bucket, which he carried with him, as close as he could to the swarm of bees.

I was hoping that the trellis was good and sturdy and he would not come crashing through it.  I was reassuring myself with a conversation in my head, saying, “Yes, he made the trellis for the wisteria after all, and wisteria can pull down houses—which I know he realizes—and so I am sure that he made it strong!”

In the next second, any concerns that I had for my spouse as he tight-roped across the wisteria were dispelled.  My worry turned to myself, as in my ear was the unmistakable song of a frantic trapped bee.  Tangled in my hair her buzz rose in intensity with each passing moment as she became progressively more embedded.  Everyone has heard the old saying about someone having a bee in their bonnet; I would much rather have one in my bonnet than in my hair!  I imagined what it was going to feel like to be stung on the brain.  I hollered up to my husband about my predicament hoping that he might have some good suggestions, or come down and help me, but he was preoccupied.  He merely responded with a distracted, “I hate it when they do that,” and, “They like fuzzy stuff.”

I abandoned the ladder, and him, and flew towards the house.  Flipping my hair over and upside down I hoped to shake the trapped insect out of my web of hair.  I came upon our daughter and begged her to help me get this bee out of my hair as I pointed toward the spot where the buzz seemed to be inching closer and closer to my scalp.  Finally, she spotted the bee and I knew at that moment that I had let her hang around that bee loving Father of hers too much when she paused to say,

“Mom, I hate to kill the poor little thing.”

“HONEY!”  I exclaimed with my head of hair bobbing upside down in front of her, “WILL YOU JUST KILL THE BEE!”

Finally, comprehending my frantic state she grabbed two books and clapped them together on the section of my hair that was vibrating. “Well, you are going to have bee parts in your hair,” she tells me.

I sighed with relief when after another clang of the books the buzzing near my brain was silenced. “They only live about six months anyway,” I told my daughter, “And the last thing that I was worried about was bee parts in my hair!”

My crisis over, my thoughts once again returned to the beekeeper, and I wondered if he had made it down from the trellis.  I put a bonnet (sans bee) over my head and went out to check on him.  He was beaming because he had been able to shake the branch that the swarm had gathered on and had captured the queen in his bait hive.  Once you have the queen, you have the swarm.

“A swarm of bees in May is worth a load of hay.
A swarm of bees in June is worth a silver spoon.
A swarm of bees in July is not worth a fly.”  –May Day Proverb

What is the meaning of this old proverb?  June is pushing it and July is definitely too late, as they will not be able to collect enough nectar to survive the coming winter.  Beekeepers love catching swarms in early spring; doing so is both exciting and productive.  I have watched my husband pull some pretty wild maneuvers to obtain one.  My heart was in my throat one day as I watched while he climbed a ladder, precariously propped in the back of the pickup truck and leaning up against a tree, to retrieve the desired swarm.

Another afternoon we received a call from the local Sheriff’s office forwarding us the phone number of a family in a small nearby town who were hysterical about a swarm of bees that had settled in their yard.  Most beekeepers look forward to these calls, as this is when they get to play.

Children had been busy on their bicycles spreading the word up and down the street.  As we pulled up at the address, it seemed as if the whole neighborhood had come out and gathered on the lawn to witness the swarm and the coming of The Bee Man.

Later, some of the spectators related that the kids were disappointed when he arrived without a beekeeper’s suit on, as they had been told that he would come all dressed in white, with a veil over his face.  But their disappointment was soon replaced with awe when my husband, unprotected, approached the swarm and seemingly charmed the raving bees into his box and carried them to his truck, like magic.

Of course, most magic tricks contain a bit of deception, but in the beekeeper’s case, it was just that he knew something about bees that the viewers were not aware of, and that is the fact that swarming bees are not aggressive because they are without a hive to protect.

My favorite part of that swarm-catching event was when a boy, of seven or so, came up to my husband as he was carrying the bees to the back of his pickup truck and politely asked if he could help.  He was not as afraid of honeybees as the others because his mother had just recently acquired some hives and he was learning about them.  Carrying the load that he had been assigned, he walked beside my husband and looked up at him, and exclaimed, “I am PROUD to be a Beekeeper!”  My beekeeper went back home that evening musing, “Is this what life is supposed to be like? It is isn’t it!”

“To carry a grudge is like being stung to death by one bee.”  –William H. Walton

I was very intimate with a very nice honeybee one day last summer.  I was out behind the barn picking the first black raspberries.  It was pretty wild in there with brambles above my head and weeds up to my waist.  I just had to try for the big ones that I saw dangling just out of reach so I put my foot up on an old fence I thought would support me.  But it broke, causing me to do the splits across the brambles.  I had a skirt on and I guess that must have been when the hitchhiker got in.

Slowly, I got myself up out of my predicament, finished up in the patch, and started towards the cherry tree to see if there was anything ripe there.  I felt something itch so I opened up and shook, you know how you do, figured I knocked it off of me, whatever it was, and went on to the cherry tree when I felt something on my butt cheek.

With my mind on picking cherries, I absentmindedly reached behind and patted my skirt where the bump was. I was thinking, “What in the world?”  I figured it was another pair of underwear getting bunched up, losing the elastic and I would have to throw them away.  No wait, this bump was moving around on the inside of my underwear!  I reached up under my skirt, plucked whatever it was and pulled it out.  Soft and fuzzy in my hand, was it a caterpillar?  No, a bee sat there and looked at me for one dazzled moment before it flew away to go on about its business.  Perhaps it was a drone or a queen, as thankfully, it did not sting me!

“In general, bees have been thought of as messengers of the spirits.”  –Thomas D. Worrel, The Symbolism and the Bee and the Beehive

Recently, I was conversing with a lady who said that they now had honeybees in their yard because a swarm had landed there.  They called a beekeeper to come out who brought them a super hive box for the bees to move into.  She mentioned that it felt like a blessing with all the bees of the world disappearing, and here they just had a hive move right into their yard.  This made me chuckle inside as I was remembering all the frantic calls that my husband and fellow beekeepers have received through the years from people who were freaking out because they had bees in their yards.

Could it be that the threat of Colony Collapse Disorder is what it took to make people appreciate bees?  Instead of considering all flying creatures a nuisance perhaps now we will stop and wonder, before we swat or spray, just what are we destroying.  It seems that humans only think that something matters if it directly affects us. Protected in our artificial bubbles with our central air and water purifiers, being entertained by our televisions, we hardly notice nature.  We think that we can take away all the habitats of the wild things and spray toxic chemicals everywhere then we wonder, “What is happening to the bees and is it true that if they die we will die?”

Perhaps now, we will wake up to the fact that we are all connected in a delicate web of life; I am grateful for the threat of Colony Collapse Disorder if it caused this to happen.  There is some speculation that Colony Collapse Disorder is not even real.  Scientists say there is no proof that the mysterious disease blamed for the deaths of billions of bees actually exists. You can read about it here in an article on BBC News.

Yet the fact remains bees are being affected by something.

“The beehive is found in Masonry as a reminder that in diligence and labor for a common good, true happiness and prosperity are found.” –Manly Palmer Hall

I believe that some of the appeal of keeping honeybees is that a lot about them is still a mystery.  Sometimes we can only wonder at their ways.  When my husband was the County Apiary Inspector, I went along with him into the field as he went to investigate an apiary that had been neglected because the owner had become ill.

My beekeeper was somber as he approached the hive and saw what he had dreaded, no activity.  Honeybees were not flying in and out of the passageways, so, without bothering to put on his veil, he lifted the lid on one of the boxes.  Gravely he asked me if I wanted to see their last emotion.  I said, “What do you mean?”  He then showed me how the bees in the center had perished looking for food, with their heads buried deep in the cells that had run out of honey.  The outer bees remained at their stations where they had been keeping the hive warm.  Not one of them was out of position, each still attended to her duty right up until the moment of death.

“’Well,’ said Pooh, ‘what I like best— ‘ and then he had to stop and think.  Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn’t know what it was called.” –A.A.Milne

While there are a few things that I don’t enjoy about being married to a beekeeper, like the threat of getting stung, having bees everywhere—even in my hair and underwear—there are many things that I love about it.  For one thing, my husband is doing something that he has a passion for; he believes in what he is doing and he is contributing something worthwhile to the world… and I love honeycomb.  Early every summer I start craving my first taste of our new crop of that golden ambrosia, honey still encased in the structure that the honeybees stored it in.  I have given it another name: I call the little glistening squares of honeycomb, honeycakes. 

My husband tells me that when there are a lot of blooms and the weather is warm and dry, this makes for a good bee-run.  During times like this, it is easier for the bees to make wax and they can make it fast.  The faster the wax is produced, the more tender is the honeycomb; he compares it to eating sweet corn, fresh.

All in all, I have found the retired beekeeper to be correct in his prediction.  It has been a whole new world for me, one filled with both good and bad, but all very interesting.

If you are interested in keeping bees you can contact your County Agricultural Extension Office for information about local beekeepers and bee-keeping associations.  Honey Bees and Beekeeping is a great website, full of information about honeybees and getting started with them.

“I think these are the wrong sort of bees.” –Pooh, The Honeybee Tree by A.A. Milne

Often my husband will get calls from people who think that they have honeybees in their yard when it is really wasps or hornets.  These flying insects cause much of the bad reputation that bees have to live with. Bee Culture Magazine has a great online, printable page which illustrates the different nests of stinging insects with great drawings of the specimens themselves.  Paper wasps, bald-faced hornets, bumblebees, carpenter bees, yellow jackets and finally, honeybees adorn this colorful page for those who would like to touch upon their knowledge.  It comes in color but I love printing this page out in black and white and letting the children color it in as a fun way to teach them about the different kinds of bees.

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