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warhamer |
Bee Keeping
May 2 2010, 10:06 AM EDT
| Post edited: May 2 2010, 3:29 PM EDT
Jaqqedrain I'll put everything about beekeeping on this thread to make getting to it easier.Okay the first step in bee keeping post-z day is you have to have the conditons for the bees to stay in. You'll need to make a box with slates in it, the slates hold the brood=babies and the honeycomb= the raw material from bees for making wax and honey. The box should also be placed on a stand as to stop other animals such as foxs or raccoons from getting into the hive. Also make sure to make a small opening in the front of the box to allow the bees to enter and leave the colony you can cover parts of it up with grass to keep bees inside for some needed reason. Your box should be about a two feet off the ground for protection from animals you should have about seven slates about three inches apart. The slates need to be a frame of wood or other hard material easy to pick up with a honeycomb design in it for the bees to put the brood in and their honeycomb. I do now know which material you coud use for the honeycomb design it would have to be something like thin metal strands making a honey comb design; chicken wire might be able to work or not but I do not know for sure. One of the slates needs to be next to the entrance as close as possible this will be the queen excluder it will stop your queen from leaving the hive while letting the reast of the bees through. You can use inside the frame a double layer of chicken wire if it is one of the larger types. Have the chicken wire criss-crossing in a layer so that the wire one the second layer goes into the middle of each hole in the first layer making the holes smaller. If its a smaller type that is less then half a inch in diamter but no less then a quarter of an inch in diameter one layer will do. 3 out of 3 found this valuable. Do you?
Keyword tags:
Farming
food
Living
Suistainability
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PedroAsani |
1. RE: Bee Keeping
May 2 2010, 1:56 PM EDT
Please cut this into paragraphs. Wall-O-Text makes eyeballs bleed.
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warhamer |
2. RE: Bee Keeping
May 2 2010, 3:27 PM EDT
| Post edited: May 2 2010, 8:55 PM EDT
"Please cut this into paragraphs. Wall-O-Text makes eyeballs bleed."sorry pedro was in a rush and forgot to do that oh and your right I tryed to read it before fixing it and my eyes were hurting from just giving it a quick glance Do you find this valuable? |
Jaggedrain |
3. RE: Bee Keeping
Feb 15 2011, 5:52 AM EST
gahI've been off this site for so long :-( Promise I'll try to get some more up here soon! 0 out of 1 found this valuable. Do you? |
DLOWTHEMAD |
4. RE: Bee Keeping
Feb 15 2011, 9:49 AM EST
No offense to anyone, but I grew up keeping bees on my parents farm... The first step to beekeeping is GETTING A BEE SUIT!!Seriously though the rest of it looks ok. Just remember: the most important thing is keeping the queen in... they will make honey and brood comb. The slates just make it easier to handle the wax and retrieve the honey. 1 out of 1 found this valuable. Do you? |
rabidbeaver |
5. RE: Bee Keeping
Feb 16 2011, 10:30 AM EST
MEAD!!!! and honey
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Zee-Man |
6. RE: Bee Keeping
May 19 2012, 10:17 AM EDT
| Post edited: May 19 2012, 11:03 AM EDT
Slates are called frames by real beekeepers. The main thing about frames is that they define the "bee space" in the bee box, or super. Bee space is 3/8 of an inch. Honeybees will fill all space in the super with comb until there is only bee space left between the combs. A typical super will have 10 to 11 frames. A frame will have some sort of center sheet, or foundation, whether paper, cardboard, or plastic. Bees tend to not like bare plastic. Dadant & Sons as well as many other suppliers make a plastic foundation with honeycomb pattern molded onto it in beeswax. Honeybees do not need this preformed foundation, but they do seem to have a preference for using it. Frames are usually arranged perpendicular to the entrance of the colony. A queen excluder is not needed in day to day colony activity. That device is used only when combining colonies. After her mating flight, the queen bee will remain in the colony until she dies. Virgin queens need to be physically managed lest the whole colony goes off in a swarm. A beekeeper will regularly inspect his colonies, either harvesting queen cells for "nucs" or simply killing them. These are just a few things about beekeeping. Having managed 5 colonies for a few years, I can tell you there is much more to it than meets the eye. Beekeeping is fun though. Everything from making your own supers and furniture to dividing or combining colonies. If you aren't allergic, even getting stung becomes eminently bearable. Edit: Spelling Edit: Queen excluders are sometimes used to keep queens in the brood box from entering the honey comb in the supers above. This can result in poor ventilation and its concomitant problems. Do you find this valuable? |
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Zee-Man |
7. RE: Bee Keeping
May 19 2012, 10:20 AM EDT
The Hive and the Honeybee - Dadant & SonsThe ABC and XYZ of Beekeeping - Roger Morse These are two extremely good sources on beekeeping. The science of the apiary is quite extensive. Do you find this valuable? |
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Zee-Man |
8. RE: Bee Keeping
May 19 2012, 10:56 AM EDT
| Post edited: May 19 2012, 11:02 AM EDT
Supers come in three varieties; deep, regular, and nuc. Deep and regular supers are, in cross section, about 14 inches by 20". A deep super will be about 12" deep. A regular super will be 4 to 6 inches deep. Nucs are a special kind of deep super being only about 1/3 the breadth. The actual dimensions of the super is not critical. What is critical is how the space inside the box is divided. Frames must be flush with the top of the box and extend to within 3/8 of an inch of the bottom of the box. There must be enough frames in the box to divide the space equally in 1 and 1/8 inch increments. Wider increments are possible but, will result in excessive burr and brace comb. Deep supers are used for the brood box and for the colony's food supply. There will be one super for each. The bees will keep their brood in the lower super and store honey in the supers above. A deep super having 10 frames will contain about 75 to 100 pounds of honey. The nice thing about honeybees is that they will produce far more honey than what they need for any given year. Regular supers are stacked above the initial deep supers as the honeybees fill them up. The obvious advantage of the reguglar super is that, when filled, it is easier to harvest being of less weight. A nuc is used to house a new colony. Too much space in a box will stress a colony, possibly causing a swarm to be thrown off instead of endearing a new colony to its new home. Above a nuc will be a feeder box of similar cross section. In the feeder box will be placed either filled honeycomb or "feeders". A feeder is a reservoir with some method to keep the bees from falling in and drowning. Feeders are filled with either honey of a solution of cane sugar. There is no reason other than cost that fructose could not be used. Do you find this valuable? |
