Beekeeping for Beginners: How to Make and Raise Your first Bee Colonies

By Milne Charles

If you've been toying with the idea of keeping bees but don't know where to start, where to get the bees from, how to set it up, how to set up your beehives for optimal honey production, how to maintain the health of your colony and much more, keep reading… You Are about to Discover How to Start Keeping Bees for Honey or Wax, From Scratch, Even If You've Never Done Anything Like It Before! Bees are probably the most important insects in the world, not just for their honey and wax but because they play an important part in pollination, which means without them, we would probably not have the juicy fruits we munch on. It is no wonder that commercial bee keeping is said to add $15-$20 billion in economic value every single year! This probably explains why raising bees is quickly becoming more and more popular by the day- and it's not just because it is an interesting hobby, but also because it is one of the best ways to save, make money, boost your plant garden and still get the cleanest and safest bee products (honey and wax) straight to your table. And hey, that's not the best part. These insects are some of the most independent animals on the planet. In fact, they prefer to be left alone. It is more or less a set, provide optimal conditions for them to thrive by keeping off pesticides, and forget – the bees will fend for themselves and won't require any other input from you! And they will reward you handsomely for that with tons of honey, wax and pollinated plants! Yeah, well… all that sounds appetizing, but how would I get started? I've never done this before… You wonder? Good concern. You've probably also asked yourself this: How do I acquire the bees? How do I set up a colony? What do bees eat; how do I feed them? Is honey a profitable product? How do I avoid stings; can I harvest honey and wax without having to tolerate one or two stings? If you've been having such questions and concerns, then you need this beginners' guide to beekeeping. This book will take you through everything you need to know about this easy practice right from selecting the bee itself, setting up your colony, feeding them, avoiding common problems and selling honey- just to mention the least. More precisely, this book will teach you: • The history and evolution of beekeeping, and what research says about the practice • The different types of beekeeping • The benefits and risks of beekeeping • How to select the right type of bee and set up the bee colony • The types of hives and how to choose the right one for you • How to buy, transport and feed new bees • What you need to look at as you inspect your beehive • What you need to know about bee stings • How to avert and solve common problems • What you need to know about honey prices and market demand • What you need to know about the colonies' activities in different seasons • How to harvest honey and beeswax …And much more! So if you've been desiring to establish your own beautiful hives but have been a bit apprehensive about starting because you couldn't figure out how to do so without risking your money, time and life, then I believe you now have a better reason to get started today! Even if you are scared and confused, this book will alleviate your fears and give you the much needed confidence to get started and succeed at it! Simply scroll up and click Buy Now With 1-Click or Buy Now to turn your sweet dreams into reality!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Youcanprint
• Release date: Aug 24, 2021
• ISBN: 9791220354097

Book preview

Table of contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Conclusion

Beekeeping for

Beginners

How to Make and Raise

Your first Bee Colonies

Charles Milne

Copyright by Charles Milne All rights reserved.

This eBook is provided with the sole purpose of providing relevant information on a specific topic for which every reasonable effort has been made to ensure that it is both accurate and consistent. Nevertheless, by purchasing this eBook, you consent to the fact that the author, as well as the Publisher, are in no way experts on the topics contained herein, regardless of any claims as such that may be made within. As such, any suggestions or recommendations that are made within are made so purely for entertainment value. It is recommended that you always consult a professional before undertaking any of the advice or techniques discussed within.

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Chapter One

The scientific study of honey bees

It was not until the 18th century that the systematic study of bee colonies was conducted by European natural philosophers and started to understand the fascinating and secret world of bee biology. Swammerdam, René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur, Charles Bonnet, and François Huber were influential among these research pioneers. Swammerdam and Réaumur were also the first to use a microscope and dissection to understand the honey bees' internal biology. Réaumur was among the first to create a walled glass observation hive to help monitor hives behavior. He found queens laying eggs in open cells but yet had little idea how to fertilize a queen; no one had ever seen a queen and drone mating, and several hypotheses suggested that queens were self-fertile, while others claimed that a mist or

miasma emanating from the drones fertilized queens without any physical interaction. By observation and testing, Huber was the first to show that Queens are physically inseminated by drones beyond the boundaries of hives, usually a great distance apart.

Using the style of Réaumur, Huber set up enhanced glass-walled observation hives and sectional hives, which could be opened like a book's leaves. This allowed inspection of individual wax combs and greatly improved direct hive activity observation.

Huber hired an assistant, François Burns, to make regular reports, perform meticulous studies, and take detailed records

for more than twenty years, while he went blind before he was twenty. Huber confirmed that a hive is composed of one queen, who is the mother of both the colony's female workers and male drones. He was also the first to report that mating with drones happens outside of hives and that queens are inseminated by a series of consecutive male drone matches, high in the air at a considerable distance from their hive.

In 1768/1770, for example, Thomas Wildman reported intermediate stages in the transition from the old beekeeping to the modern, explaining improvements over the devastating ancient beekeeping based on cynicism so that the bees were no longer to be destroyed to extract the honey. For example, Wildman installed a parallel pair of wooden bars across the top of a straw hive or skeptic (with a separate straw top to be later mounted) so that there are in total seven bars [in a 10-inch (250 mm) hive] in which the bees fix their combs. He also explained the use of these hives in a multi-story structure, foreshadowing the current use of supers: he explained the introduction (at the right time) of successive straw hives below and finally eliminating those above when free of brood and filled with honey so that the bees could be kept separately at the harvest for the subsequent season.

Evolution of hive designs

Apiarists and inventors on both sides of the Atlantic stumbled upon Langstroth's idea for free comb hives, and a wide variety of mobile comb hives were developed and invented in England, France, Germany, and the United States. Classic designs emerged in each country: Dadant hives and Langstroth hives are still prevalent in the US; the De-Layens trough-hive became popular in France, and a British National hive became common in the UK as late as the 1930s, while the smaller Smith hive remains popular in Scotland. The typical trough hive continued in some Nordic countries and Russia until late in the 20th century and is still retained in some regions. The Langstroth and Dadant designs, however, remain omnipresent in the US and other parts of Europe as well, while Sweden, Denmark, Germany, France, and Italy all have their own national hive designs. Regional hive differences developed to reflect the environment, floral quality, and reproductive characteristics of the different native honey bee subspecies in each bio-region.

The differences in the hive size of all these hives are negligible due to the general factors: they are all square or rectangular; they all use compact wooden frames; they all consist of a base, brood cabinet, honey super, crown board, and roof. Hives have historically been constructed of cedar, oak, or cypress wood, but colonies made from an injection molded dense polystyrene have become increasingly popular in recent years.

Hives often use queen excluders to prevent the queen from laying eggs in cells adjacent to those holding honey meant for consumption between the brood-box and honey supers. Usually, with the introduction of mite pests in the 20th century, hive floors are frequently covered with a wire mesh and flexible tray for part of (or the entire) year.

In 2015 Cedar Anderson and his father Stuart Anderson developed the Flow Hive method in Australia, allowing for the extraction of honey without costly centrifuge machines.

Chapter Two

Benefits of Beekeeping

More and more people around the world realize the need for beekeeping. You may be wondering how it can help you and what changes you can make by being a beekeeper. Needless to say, beekeeping is a beneficial job. The time spent on beekeeping will never be