BC2 management of the commercial apiary
1. Siting of colonies2. Hives, equipment and
internal arrangement of hives
3. Control of swarming4. Feeding and overwintering5. Managing the honey flow6. Harvesting the honey crop7. Sources of expert help,
advice and courses
Siting of colonies - Out apiary
• Easy access for the bee keeper
• Protective cover from the elements– Wind & cold cause
winter losses– Shelter belts– Avoid wind eddies– Avoid frost pockets
• Good air drainage– Damp air
Siting of colonies
• Away from heavy tree canopy– Damp, cool, drumming
of rain drops
• Avoid flight lines crossing public areas
• Avoid horses, goats & machinery
Siting of colonies
Siting of colonies
Consider • Others• Danger of damage
from – Wind– Vandalism– Theft– Machinery
HivesNational
• Small • Brood chamber
– 8 7/8” deep– 11 frame
• Super – 10 frame
HivesCommercial
• Large • brood chamber • 16” x 10” • Super• 16”x6
HivesWBC
• William Braughton Carr• Large
– brood chamber
• Standard super– Super
• Double walled– Good thermal protection
• Traditional
Hives Materials
Soft wood cheaper and lighter than hard wood
¾” to 1” • Pine• Cedar
– Does not need preservatives
• Plywood
Plastic
Internal Arrangement
• Frame number• Surface area• Top space v bottom
space
Equipment
• Veil
• Overall
• Gloves
• Smoker
• Hive tool
Equipment
Equipment
Control of swarming
picture from wikipedia.org
Swarm being hived
Swarm Queen Cells
Control of swarming
Cause 1 Overcrowding• No place to put nectar so the brood nest is congested
– Add supers
• Honey or pollen congesting the brood box– Remove combs of honey and add undrawn frames to occupy
bees drawing wax
• No place to cluster– More supers
• Not enough ventilation– Screened Bottom Boards– Top entrances
Control of swarming
Cause 2 Reproductive
• This is the goal of a successful hive
• Preparation started the autumn before
• Intent is well set by early spring
Reproductive swarming sequence
• Put away excess stores to build up in late winter and hit a high enough population to be able to swarm before the main flow
• Start rearing brood in late winter• All resources focused on building up
population while storing enough honey to ensure getting through the winter
• When population peaks, backfill the brood nest
Reproductive swarming sequence
Once there are enough bees and enough stores the brood nest is backfilled starting this sequence:
• Since the brood nest is filled with nectar, this frees the emerging bees who would have been nurses so they are unemployed
• And frees the queen from laying so she can slim down to fly with the swarm
• And the hive won’t need nurse bees (no open brood) so they can swarm
• Queen cells are built
Reproductive swarming sequence
• Usually sometime right around or shortly after they are capped the hive swarms. Depending on the weather this can be as long as when the queen cells are about to emerge.
• The old queen and the unemployed nurse bees leave and cluster on a nearby branch – prime swarm– Can be up to 2/3 of the
population– Will have in excess of 10lb of
honey stored in the honey stomach
Reproductive swarming sequence
• Scout bees find a new location and they swarm flies off to their new home
• If the hive is still overcrowded one of the virgin queens will leave with more of the bees in an afterswarm (cast)
Control of swarming
• Ensure there is enough space for the hive in spring
• Inspect the hive every 7 days
• Remove queen cells if day old eggs are seen in worker cells
“Destroying swarm cells usually results in a queenless colony as they have often already swarmed
when you destroy them”
Control of swarming
• If queen cells are present and no young eggs the hive has already swarmed and new queen cells should be left to develop
Control of swarming
Signs that’s a hive has swarmed
• Aggressive bees• Low number of bees • Many queen cells• High pitched sound
from hive
Feeding and over wintering
• Syrup• Fondant• Candy
• Feeders– Miller– Contact/Bucket– Frame feeder
Feeding and over wintering
• Syrup• White sugar only• 2lb to 1 pint water• Heat will help sugar
dissolve• Feed when there are
bees to take down the syrup
• Watch out for drowning bees
• Feed in the evening to help reduce robbing
Managing the honey flow
• Ensure there are enough dawn out supers
• Enough workers• They are “queen right”• To collect from a single
source ensure there are no stored in the super as the flow begins
• Hives can be moved to the source before the follow begins– 2 weeks min
Harvesting the honey
Harvesting the honey crop
• Only carried out when the honey is capped– Prevents fermentation in
the jar
• Need to remove bees from supers– Clearer board
• Harvest honey quickly so as to prevent crystallising in the comb as it cools
Harvesting the honey crop
• Centrifuge– Radial– Tangential
• Electric or hand operated• Start slowly to prevent full
frames collapsing
• Comb needs to be unapped– Knife– Fork
• Cappings are harvested– Clean wax
• Wet frames can be stored or cleaned off by bees
Harvesting the honey crop
Harvesting the honey crop
• Sections/Comb honey
Comb Honey & Chunk Honey• Meant to be consumed still in the wax comb• Collected by using standard wooden frames
in honey supers• The frames are collected and the comb is
cut out in chunks before packaging• Chunk honey is honey packed in wide
mouth containers consisting of one or more pieces of comb honey immersed in extracted liquid
Crystallized Honey• Also called granulated honey
• Some part of the glucose content has spontaneously crystallized from solution as a monohydrate
• Can be “seeded”
Pasteurized Honey• Reduces moisture levels, destroys yeast
cells, liquefies crystals
• Sterilizes the honey and improves shelf life
• Downfalls– Excessive heat exposure results in product
deterioration– Heat also affects appearance, taste and
fragrance– Can darken the natural honey colour
Raw Honey• Honey as it exists in the beehive or as
obtained by extraction, settling or straining without adding heat above 48oC
• Contains some pollen • May also contain some small wax particles• Local raw honey is often sought by allergy
sufferers as the pollen impurities are thought to lessen the sensitivity to hay fever
• Quality is based on – Soluble solids– Water content– Flavour– Aroma– Clarity– Absence of defects– colour
• Ripe, freshly collected high quality honey at 18oC should flow from a knife in a straight stream with out breaking into separate drops. After falling it should form a bead
• When poured it should form small, temporary layers that disappear quickly, indicating high viscosity.
• If not it indicates excessive water content – over 20%
Indicators of Quality
• In the jar fresh honey should appear pure, consistent fluid and not settle in layers
• Transparent or honey that is reluctant to thicken may indicate the bees were fed sugar syrup or sugar which is bad for the bees and the honey they produce
• Fluffy film on the surface of the honey (like white foam) or marble colour or white-spotted crystallization on a containers sides is formed by air bubbles—this is an indication of high quality honey which was filled without pasteurization
Indicators of Quality
Sources of expert help, advice & courses
Expert help• FIBKA• TeagascAdvice• FIBKA• Other bee keepers• The web• Suppliers of equipmentCourses• FIBKA