Learn techniques and
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
About This Book 1
How This Book Is Organised 2
Part I: Getting Hooked on Honey Bees 2
Part II: Starting Your Adventure 2
Part III: Looking Inside Your Hive 3
Part IV: Common Problems and Simple Solutions 3
Part V: Sweet Rewards 4
Part VI: The Part of Tens 4
Icons Used in This Book 4
Where to Go from Here 5
Part I: Getting Hooked on Honey Bees 7
Chapter 1: To Bee or Not to Bee? 9
Discovering the Benefits of Beekeeping 10
Harvesting liquid gold: Honey 11
Bees as pollinators: Their vital role in
ensuring our food supply 11
Helping the bees; helping the environment 13
Passing on your knowledge 13
Good for your wellbeing; good for your health 13
Determining Your Beekeeping Potential 15
Environmental considerations 15
Being responsible and considering others 16
Costs and equipment 16
Time and commitment 17
Beekeeper personality traits 17
Overcoming Fear of Stings 17
Knowing what to do if you’re stung 19
Building up a tolerance 19
Watching for allergic reactions 20
Chapter 2: Life Inside the Honey Bee Hive 21
Basic Body Parts 21
Skeleton 22
Head 22
Thorax 24
Abdomen 25
The Amazing Language of Bees 25
Pheromones 25
Shall we dance? 26
Dividing Honey Bees into Three Castes 27
Her majesty, the queen 27
The industrious little worker bee 30
The woeful drone 34
The Honey Bee Life-Cycle 35
Egg 36
Larva 37
Pupa 37
Part II: Starting Your Adventure 41
Chapter 3: Locating Your Hive 43
Getting Over ‘Buzz Off!’: Consulting Family and Neighbours 43
Location, Location, Location: Where to Keep Your Hives 45
Providing for your thirsty bees 47
Understanding why your honey varies in colour and flavour 49
Knowing When to Start Your Adventure 50
Chapter 4: Stocking Up on Basic Beekeeping Equipment 51
Finding Out about the Modified National Hive 52
Knowing the Basic Parts of the Hive 53
Hive stand 54
Floor 55
Entrance block 55
Brood chamber 56
Queen excluder 58
Super 58
Frames 59
Foundation 61
Crown board 65
Roof 66
Ordering Hive Parts 66
Preparing for assembly 67
Adding on Feeders 68
Miller and Ashforth rapid feeders 68
Bucket feeder 69
Frame feeder 71
Stocking Up on Your Personal Beekeeping Equipment 72
Smoker 72
Hive tool 73
Covering Up with Bee-Proof Clothing 74
Veils 74
Gloves 75
Really Helpful Accessories 76
Elevated hive stand 76
Frame rest 78
Bee brush 78
Other necessities 79
Chapter 5: Obtaining and Hiving Your Bees 81
Determining the Kind of Bee You Want 81
Deciding How to Obtain Your Initial Bee Colony 83
Picking a reputable bee supplier 84
Deciding when to place your order 84
Buying a nucleus colony 85
Transferring your nucleus to a hive 86
Purchasing an established colony 87
Capturing a wild swarm of bees 88
Ordering package bees 88
Meeting and Greeting: The Day Your Bees Arrive 89
Bringing home your bees 90
Feeding your bees 90
Buzzing with Excitement: Putting Your Bees into the Hive 91
Part III: Looking Inside Your Hive 97
Chapter 6: Opening Your Hive 99
Setting an Inspection Schedule 99
Preparing to Visit Your Hive 100
Making ‘non-scents’ a part of personal hygiene 101
Getting dressed up and ready to go 101
Lighting your smoker 102
Opening the Hive 104
Removing the crown board 106
The Hive’s Open! Now What? 107
Chapter 7: What to Look for when You’re Inspecting 109
Exploring Basic Inspection Techniques: Examining a Full Colony 109
Removing the first frame 110
Working your way through the hive 112
Holding up frames for inspection 112
Understanding what to look for every time 113
Replacing frames 117
Closing the hive 118
Establishing a Colony from a Nucleus 119
Managing your nucleus 119
Starting your Colony with a Package of Bees 121
Checking in: A week after hiving your bees 121
The second and third weeks 124
Weeks four to eight 125
Chapter 8: Your Work throughout the Seasons 129
Lazy, Hazy Days of Summer 129
Your summer to-do list 130
Your summer time commitment 130
Falling Leaves Point to Autumn Tasks 131
Your autumn to-do list 131
Making one hive from two 133
Your autumn time commitment 134
Clustering in a Winter Wonderland 134
Your winter to-do list 135
Your winter time commitment 136
Spring Is in the Air: Starting Your Second Season 137
Your spring to-do list 137
Making two hives from one 138
Your spring time commitment 140
Administering spring medication 141
Reversing hive bodies 141
Part IV: Common Problems and Simple Solutions 145
Chapter 9: Heading Off Potential Problems 147
Avoiding Absconding 147
Swarming 148
Absconding 156
Where Did the Queen Go? 157
Letting nature take its course 157
Ordering a replacement queen 158
Introducing a new queen to the hive 158
Avoiding Chilled Brood 160
Dealing with the Dreaded Robbing Frenzies 161
Knowing the difference between normal and
abnormal (robbing) behaviour 161
Putting a stop to a robbing attack 162
Preventing robbing in the first place 162
Ridding Your Hive of the Laying Worker Phenomenon 163
How to know if you have laying workers 163
Getting rid of laying workers 164
Preventing Pesticide Poisoning 166
Chapter 10: Treating Diseases and Considering Colony Collapse Disorder 169
Medicating when Necessary 170
Knowing the Big Six Bee Diseases 170
American foulbrood (AFB) 171
European foulbrood (EFB) 172
Nosema 172
Chalkbrood 173
Sacbrood 174
Stonebrood 174
A handy chart 174
Shedding Some Light on Colony Collapse Disorder and Vanishing Hives 177
Unlocking the mystery of the Mary Celeste hives 177
Discovering more about CCD 178
Exploring Potential Causes of CCD 179
The mobile phone theory 179
Pollinating insect research 179
A Final Word 181
Chapter 11: Buzz Off! Dealing with Honey Bee Pests 183
Preventing Parasitic Mites 183
Varroa mites 183
Controlling Varroa the natural way 192
Acarine (Tracheal mites) 193
Wax Moths 196
Ants, Ants and More Ants 197
Keeping Out Mice 198
Dealing with Birds that Have a Taste for Bees 199
Pest Control in a Nutshell 199
Chapter 12: Raising Your Own Queens 201
Why Raising Queens Makes You Proud 201
Accentuating the Positive: Choosing Good Traits 202
What Makes a Queen a Queen 204
Buzzing with love: Queen mating 205
Creating Demand: Making a Queenless Nuc 206
Queen Rearing: The Miller Method 207
Using an Artificial Swarm to Raise Queens 211
The Doolittle Method: Grafting 212
Tools and equipment 212
How it’s done 214
Trying Out the Jenter System 216
How it’s done 216
Providing nuptial housing 219
Finding a Home for Your Queens 220
Part V: Sweet Rewards 223
Chapter 13: Getting Ready for the Golden Harvest 225
Choosing Extracted, Comb, Chunk or Soft-Set Honey 226
Using the Right Equipment for the Job 228
Honey extractors 228
Uncapping knife 229
Honey strainers 229
Other handy gadgets for extracting honey 230
Comb honey equipment 233
Honey containers 233
Planning Your Honey Harvest Set-Up 233
Labelling and Selling Your Honey 235
Creating an attractive label 235
Finding places to market your honey 237
Chapter 14: Honey, I’m Home: Harvest Time 239
Knowing When to Harvest 240
Getting the Bees Out of the Honey Supers 241
Shakin’ ’em out 242
Using a bee escape 242
Fume board and bee repellent 244
Food of the Gods: Honey Extraction 246
Cleaning Up after Extracting 249
Controlling wax moths 249
Harvesting wax 250
Part VI: The Part of Tens 253
Chapter 15: Ten Fun Things to Do with Bees 255
Starting an Observation Hive 255
Planting Flowers for Your Bees 257
Brewing Mead: The Nectar of the Gods 259
Getting Creative with Propolis 262
Propolis tincture 263
Propolis ointment 263
Making Candles and Polish from Beeswax 263
Beeswax candles 264
Beeswax furniture polish 264
Beauty and the Bees 265
Beeswax lip balm 265
Beeswax and olive oil salve 265
Getting up Close with a Microscope 266
Chapter 16: Ten Frequently Asked Questions about Bee Behaviour 267
Chapter 17: Ten Delicious Honey Recipes 271
Appendix A: Helpful Resources 279
Honey Bee Websites 279
Apiservices 279
Bee Master Forum 279
BeeHoo 280
British Beekeepers Association 280
Bush Farm 280
Cornwall Honey 280
David A. Cushman 280
The Beespace 281
Vita (Europe) 281
Bee Organisations and Conferences 281
Apimondia: International Federation of
Beekeepers’ Associations 281
The BBKA Spring Convention 282
Bee Diseases Insurance Ltd (BDI) 282
Bee Improvement and Bee Breeders Association (BIBBA) 282
International Bee Research Association 283
The National Bee Unit of the Central Science Laboratory 283
The National Honey Show 283
The National Farmers Union 284
Bee Journals and Magazines 284
American Bee Journal 284
BBKA News 284
Bee Craft 285
Bee Culture 285
The Beekeepers Quarterly 285
Bee World 285
Beekeeping Supplies and Equipment 285
The Bee Shop 286
B. J. Sherriff 286
Brunel Microscopes Ltd 286
Compak 287
Giordan 287
Maisemore Apiaries Ltd 288
Modern Beekeeping 288
National Bee Supplies 288
Swienty Beekeeping Equipment 289
E. H. Thorne 289
Appendix B: Glossary 291
Index 297
