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Queens and Brood Chambers

brood weak hive get new queenOnce the weather begins to warm, beekeepers need to check their hives all the way down to the bottom board.  It’s a big task and requires taking the hive boxes completely off of the hive to inspect them.  There are many reasons to do this, but the main reason is to see where the brood cells are in the hive.  Brood cells are the cells where the queen has laid an egg that will hatch a new baby bee.  These look totally different from honey cells.

The queen lays eggs (brood) in a pattern.  The number of eggs and the pattern in which she lays them can tell you if she is strong or weak.  Weak hives may have lost their queen and need to get combined with another hive, or be re-queened.  Re-queening is where the beekeeper introduces a new queen. (You can buy them on the Internet, or from another beekeeper that raises queens.  A hive can also make a queen, but they need brood to do this.)  One queen per hive.

Getting erection for such a long period would make a difference to my hair growth. viagra generic Swelling http://secretworldchronicle.com/category/authors/ viagra sale of hands and feet High blood sugar Excessive sweating Increased growth of body hair Coarsened facial features Misalignment of teeth Heart problems Joint pain 3. These counterfeit drugs are sold at levitra sale http://secretworldchronicle.com/podcast/book-one-invasion/ very cheap rates and take advantage of this miracle product of Ajanta pharma. Take comfort from knowing that other males have experienced it and they were able to viagra 100mg overcome it and there will always be hope for a pleasant intimate life. In this picture, you can see a queen box on the lower side.  This introduces the new queen slowly giving her the best chance of being accepted.  The box is like a tiny cage with a sugar candy doorway.  The bees eat their way through the candy, which may take a day or two.  By that time, they have become accustomed to her scent and treat her as their own.  This is common practice, but is still cool to do and cool to watch someone else do.  Hopefully the new queen will lay lots of eggs in a tight pattern.

swapping brood chambersThe queen isn’t usually easy to find.  Most of the queens in our hives are not marked and are barely larger than the other bees.  We track her presence by looking at the eggs and the pattern in which they appear.  The queen only moves UP through the hive frames and not DOWN.  They are positive thinkers for sure!  Anyway, this trait would mean that the queen would eventually move up and get into the honey supers.  Beekeepers want to keep the queen and the brood at the bottom and have only honey in the top boxes.  This is critical for honey production. The way they accomplish this is to swap the two brood chambers.  The brood chambers are the two larger boxes at the bottom of the hive.  See this earlier post to learn about the parts of the hive.  If the queen has moved up into the second brood chamber, the beekeeper will swap the two so that the brood chamber where the queen is (and the brood), changes to the bottom one.  The queen will eventually move up into the second brood chamber and he will do this swap again at a later date.

Busy as Bees

Hive-KSOn our farm, we use the Langstroth hive design. Here is a picture, from Kelley Beekeeping Co., that shows the entire hive.  There are other types but this one is the easiest for honey production.  The two larger boxes on the bottom in the photo are brood chambers and the two shallower boxes on top are honey supers.  Inside each box is a series of 10 frames, each frame holds a sheet of foundation (or starter wax).  An example of a frame is shown sitting to the right of the hive in the picture.  In this example, there are forty frames, 10 in each box.  According to the strength of the hive, the beekeeper will stack more supers on top if the ones underneath are full of honey.  We’ve had hives that were so productive, they needed seven supers.  Each year, we have found ourselves needing more equipment and this year is no different.  We began with this style hive from Kelley eleven years ago, so that is where we have ordered from ever since.  The sizing is supposed to be universal, where every manufacturer builds to the same specs so you could have hive parts from anyone and they would all work interchangeably… in reality that is not true. Stick with what you start with, experience has proven that.

2015-02-07 13.10.32Equipment does not, however, come assembled.  Here is a picture of what you get.  (My personal kit is also shown in the picture with wood glue, extra nails, extra parts, and tools.)  The materials come with nails from the company, but not wood glue.  In addition to assembling the hive, its best if you paint the outside before you put it out in the weather.  So, beekeepers have to begin building these pieces long before they are needed… and they are often needed at a moments notice.

2015-02-07 17.21.18 2015-02-07 14.14.59 The first thing to put together are the boxes because then you have somewhere to put the frames as you build those.  Frames take a lot longer and are more tedious to build.  Boxes are a no brainer as you just fit and nail the dovetails together… with the handles on the outside!  Otherwise, your spouse may laugh for days and text everyone a photo asking, “What’s wrong with this picture?”
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2015-02-07 14.17.24Once built, they need painted.  You don’t actually have to paint them, but the wood lasts a lot longer if you do by keeping moisture out.  Here is an example of some weathered boxes that were not previously  painted.  We use white exterior paint and at least three coats.  Why do most beekeepers paint them white?  It reflects heat, which is important in the South, and also for greater visibility when you are on a tractor, plus, it just looks clean.  Paint ONLY the outside.  The inside must remain unpainted.  That includes the box insides, and all the frames.

2015-02-07 17.22.51You may wonder why we would need hive equipment at a moments notice?  One answer… swarms!  A swarm is when a hive colony splits itself and half of the bees fly away to form a new colony.  When you find one, it is the equivalent of free bees!  Unless, of course, your own hive has swarmed, in which case it’s like your stock has split but if you don’t act quickly, half of your investment will simply disappear.  So we catch these swarms and place them in their own permanent hive.  Putting them in a “temporary” arrangement is not practical, and the bees are likely to get insulted and leave.  Trust me, it’s better to be prepared.  Another reason for having equipment ready, is for when a hive colony has filled their current supers with honey.  If you put another super on top, they will begin working on filling it.  If you don’t have a super for them and they have nothing to do, they can become aggressive as their efforts are now turned toward defending what they have.

Feeding Bees

2014-12-27 13.40.32In the north, when it gets cold it usually stays below 45 degrees for months.  If you are a beekeeper in that climate, your bees will go into a cluster inside the hive and stay there.  This cluster, is where the bees huddle in one large mass to keep warm.  Here in the Southeast, winter temperatures fluctuate from single digits to 60 degrees quite often.  When it’s cold our bees cluster just like northern bees, but when it warms up above 54 degrees (or so), the bees think it might be Spring, so they break cluster, begin house cleaning, and send out foragers.  They expend a lot of energy only to find out that it’s still Winter.  Bees can easily starve during this time.  In fact, starvation is the number one reason for loosing a hive over Winter.  To fix this, beekeepers in our area must feed them during the warm spells.  How do you feed a bee?  Well, not by hand, although that is possible, it’s not recommended.  What we Sildenafil Citerate increases the level of CGMP which relaxes the contracted muscles around the arteries and enables a good flow of blood over their body especially over to the safe pleasure of sex. india generic tadalafil Lovemaking act requires both mental relaxation and physical activity. vardenafil online australia Apart from that it is also in store viagra regencygrandenursing.com responsible for growth of new cells and tissue. In choosing supplements cheap super cialis like this, you should be really careful enough. do is make a sugar water solution and make it available to the bees in a central location.  By central location, I mean a common area between all of the hives.  We mix this solution with a 1:1 ratio, although some of our other local beekeepers use a 2:1 ratio (sugar:water).  Bees can drown quite easily, so you can’t just put out a bowl of this solution, like you might put water out for a dog.  The bees need to be able to pick up teeny-tiny amounts, and it needs to dispense really slowly.  The set-up we use are inverted mason jars where the lids have a few small holes punched in them.  Underneath the jars, we have rocks that the solution can drip onto and the bees don’t drown.  In this picture, I’m showing two jars.  In warm weather both jars will be emptied in one day.  The reason the jars are up off of the ground is to avoid ants from stealing all of the solution, and to make it less interesting to curious dogs.

Doug to Present Talk at Hills & Dales Estate

Hills & Dales EstateOn Saturday, September 20, 2014, from 10AM – noon, join Doug as he presents an illustrated talk about honey bees at Hills & Dales Estate in LaGrange, Georgia2014-06-10 10.23.46He is thrilled to be able to promote the importance of the honey bee and to educate others on their life cycle, habitat, pollination practices and threats to survival.  Bees are important in urban settings as well as rural settings.  Hills & Dales falls into both of those categories. The beautiful gardens there depend on bees for pollination and they understand the need for continuing healthy environmental practices and offer educational programs such as this one to the public.  Keeping a healthy population of bees is a key factor in gardening on any scale.  Doug wears many hats related to This make a man feel shame about himself when he is not having the ability to develop hard http://icks.org/n/data/ijks/2017FW-2.pdf free prescription for levitra erection which lasts quite long. It also reduces vigor and vitality. buy levitra online http://www.icks.org/html/04_publication.php?cate=SPRING%2FSUMMER+2007 Intra-cavernous injection, pumping devices and contradiction rings are some manually used devices to fill the male organ to make it rock hard during canada viagra sexual intercourse. Ensure your hormone program is under the supervision of trained and http://icks.org/n/data/ijks/1482458820_add_file_3.pdf cheap cialis in canada highly qualified healthcare professionals. gardening a few of which are being a beekeeper, a gardener and an advocate for the preservation and organic cultivation of plants that are part of a healthy diet for honey bees.  We all need to do our part, and education is the first step.  See live bees in action through an observation hive!  Taste local organic honey.  Listen to the hum of a busy colony of bees.  This workshop is provided through Hills & Dales and will take place at their gardens.  Space is limited and pre-registration is required.  Workshop fees include garden admission, educational session workshop, refreshments and your own jar of honey to take home!  If you are interested you can call 706-882-3242 or email info@hillsanddales.org to register.  Check out the bee workshop teaser on their homepage below.  This graphic is a convenient link to the Hills & Dales Estate website.Hill&DalesBeeTalk