How To Keep Bees – Simple Beginners’ Guide
Bee keeping is a hobby, believe it or not. These little stinging creatures can be a lot of fun if handled with care and there are a lot of sweet returns too. However, if you intend to take up this hobby iyou are best advised to get some basic knowledge about bee keeping – and the necessary mandatory equipment too if you do not want the post office calling you to collect your bees from their viscinity.
Now, the most basic piece of equipment that is required for bee keeping is the bee hive itself. Let us take some time to understand the structure and the necessity of the bee hive. It is not like you are required to go out and get yourself a natural bee hive from out of a tree. THis is not at all recommended as these little creatures are very possesive of theit home and the occupants so you may just as well land yourself in bed with multiple stings that may also prove fatal at times. The hive we are talking about is contruced out of wood and looks like a small wooden cabinet to be kept outdoors.
The beehive you need should have 5 supers. These are the most important part of a bee hive as this is the part of the hive that the bees use to store their product – honey. These 5 supers are placed between the base of teh hive and the top cover. Each of the 5 supers contain 9 to 10 frames where theb bees keep their off spring and honey. You decide if you want to have deep supers or shallow supers. Deep supers mean that you will have to get yourself a one – size foundation unlike the shallow super where you wil need multiple size foundations. The bad part of a deep super is that you will have to lug out a hundred pound weight when it is full.
When you are ready to set up yur hive ensure that you place it on a flat surface where it will be pretty difficult for the hive to tip over when a strong wind blows. Also place it in a place where people and animals will not be able to reach it and disturb the bees.
Now for something called a spacer. these are bits of equipment or rather wooden planks that are used to space out the frames in the super. You will need a few of these but do not wory a beehive kit will usually have all that you wil require to set up your bee hive.
Now when the bees have created enough honey and you need to get it out of the hive you will need to have a ‘smoker’. This is not a cigarette puffing human but a piece of bee keepng equipment that is used to ‘smoke’ the bees away from the hive so that you can safely cllect the produce inside the supers. Smokers are simple in design and are constructed out of a funnel and bellows. You will need to use some smoking material such as ‘Brlap’ to create a lot of smoke, dried corn cobs are another good alternative to create a lot of smoke.
Your bee hive will come with a metal hive tool used to pry open the beehive and scrape the honey from the frames. A furmer board is used to engourage the bees to leave a super and let you take their honeycombs. Now for the bees themselves, You could order them or set up your bee hive and wait patiently until they find it and build their colony themselves.
Go to the net and find the best way to order your bee hive and also the inmates. This may be the start of a very interesting hobby.
- Abhishek Agarwal
Bee Pollen Supplement
Bee wise! Don’t swat the bee that stings! Recent research is creating quite a buzz revealing three naturally-produced products by bees gifted with healing benefits for many of today’s health concerns. Bee pollen, royal jelly and propolis have been used by the ancient Chinese and in the Middle East for about 3,000 years.
What is Bee Pollen?
Bee pollen is a flower’s male reproductive element. As bees fly from blossom to blossom, retrieving nectar and pollen, bee pollen gets collected on their legs. “Pollen traps” set by beekeepers collect the tiny balls of pollen from the bees’ legs.
Bee pollen consists of approximately 55 percent carbohydrate, 35 percent protein, 2 percent fatty acids and 3 percent minerals and vitamins—in variable amounts depending on the plant source.
Bee Pollen – Packed with Antioxidant Power!
Bee pollen is packed with antioxidants called flavonoids—myricetin, quercetin, rutin, and trans-cinnamic acid.
Myricetin helps white blood cells remove the “bad” LDL cholesterol from the bloodstream. Quercetin is a natural antihistamine, beneficial for allergies. Rutin helps as a remedy for varicose veins. Rutin helps protects veins throughout the body and studies have supported the theory that it may help prevent other health problems as well. The body uses trans-cinnamic acid to make its own antibiotics, and this trans-cinnamic acid also powers the detoxifying processes of the liver.
Bee Pollen May Help to Improve Skin
Studies have indicated that Bee pollen may rejuvenate unhealthy or aging skin. Dr. Lars-Erik Essen, a dermatologist in Halsinborg, Sweden, says: “Through transcutaneous nutrition, bee pollen exerts a profound biological effect. It seems to prevent premature aging of the cells and stimulates growth of new human tissues. It offers protection against dehydration and injects new life into dry cells. The skin becomes younger looking, less vulnerable to wrinkles, smoother, and healthier with the use of honeybee pollen.”
Bee Pollen Helps to Increase Energy, Vitality and Stamina.
Bee pollen increases athletic performance. James Higgins, owner of the Hillsboro, Ohio-based Higgins’ Apiary and treasurer of the American Apitherapy Society says, “Bee pollen is used by Olympic athletes all over the world. Many say it gives them more energy and better performance.”
Other Benefits
Bee pollen has shown benefits to health in a number of ways including supporting the immune system, endurance, helping to fortify intestinal strength, and assisting to desensitize the body to certain pollen allergies. Because of its high antioxidant content it helps support the body and combat free radical driven health issues.
What is Royal Jelly?
Royal Jelly is a thick, milky secretion produced by worker bees to feed bees during the first three days of life as larvae. Only the Queen Bee continues to receive the jelly throughout her life. As a result, she grows to be 50 percent larger than other female bees and lives two to five years, as opposed to the ordinary bee’s lifespan of six weeks.Royal Jelly contains a powerful antibacterial protein called royalisin. Rich in amino acids, royalisin is effective against “Gram-positive” bacteria, which include staph and strep species (Fujiwara S, Journal of Biological Chemistry, July 5,1990;265:11333-7).
What is Propolis?Propolis is a waxy, resinous sap which bees collect from the buds of trees and plants to use as a sterile sealant for their hives. It contains more than 150 compounds, including vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and flavonoids. Propolis helps to fight bacteria, viruses and fungi and recent research shows it may be responsible for making the beehive the most sterile place in the animal kingdom.
Many of the benefits of propolis come from its components, flavonoids and ethanols, which function as antioxidant free-radical scavengers. Phenols (antioxidants) in propolis function similarly to vitamin E, as reported in a study published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology (Jan. 1994;21:9-13). Other research also describes propolis to show anti-inflammatory properties and that it could also prevent blood clots (Drugs Under Experimental & Clinical Research, 1993; 19:197-203).
In the light of today’s nutrient-deficient diets, bee pollen, royal jelly and propolis are being popularly used to close the nutritional gap. Since these substances are not found in any other food we need to take this as a supplement. You should check with your doctor before taking any supplements. Bee products are not recommended for people with asthma.Notice:Any bee product can provoke an allergic reaction in a susceptible individual. If you experience any type of reaction we recommend you discontinue use of this product and consult a physician.
Disclaimer
Despite the confidence and optimism expressed bythe researchers, and the weight of evidence gathered from numerous studies, according to FDA standards, the findings expressed here should still be considered as inconclusive and further studies must be done before a positive health claim can be made. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
- Kevin Agrawal
20 Amazing Honey Bee Facts!
Copyright (c) 2008 Ruth Tan
Some honey bee facts really deserved to be shared, after all so many healing and health-promoting opportunities for us humans start with this little busy creature. As you read the following 20 truths about honey bee, you will be so intrigued just like me by this tiny fellow’s extraordinary abilities.
1. The honey bee has been around for 30 million years.
2. It is the only insect that produces food eaten by man.
3. Honey bees are environmentally friendly and are critical as pollinators.
4. They are insects whcih are scientifically known as Apis mellifera.
5. They have 6 legs, 2 compound eyes made up of thousands of tiny lenses (one on each side of the head), 3 simple eyes on the top of the head, 2 wings, a nectar pouch, and a stomach.
6. The honeybee’s wings stroke 11,400 times per minute, thus making their distinctive buzz.
7. A honey bee can fly for up to six miles, and as fast as 15 miles per hour, hence it would have to fly around 90,000 miles – three times around the globe – to make one pound of honey.
8. The average honey bee will actually make only one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime.
9. It takes about 556 workers to gather 1 pound of honey from about 2 million flowers.
10. It takes one ounce of honey to fuel a bee’s flight around the world.
11. A honey bee visits 50 to 100 flowers during a collection trip.
12. A colony of bees consists of 20,000-60,000 honeybees and one queen.
13. Worker honey bees are female, live 6 to 8 weeks and do all the work.
14. The queen bee lives for about 2-3 years and is the only bee that lays eggs. She is the busiest in the summer months, when the hive needs to be at its maximum strength, and lays up to 2500 eggs per day. Click here to learn more about the Honey Bee Life Cycle,
15. The male honey bees are called drones, and they do no work at all, have no stinger, all they do is mating.
16. Each honey bee colony has a unique odour for members’ identification.
17. Only worker bees sting, and only if they feel threatened and they die once they sting. Queens have a stinger, but don’t leave the hive to help defend it.
18. It is estimated that 1100 honey bee stings are required to be fatal.
19. Honey bees communicate with one another by “dancing”.
20. During winter, honey bees feed on the honey they collected during the warmer months. They form a tight cluster in their hive to keep the queen and themselves warm.
Of these honey bee facts, No 19: Honey bees communicate with one another by “dancing” is perhaps the most memorable. And the most incredible to me is No 2: It is the only insect that produces edible food for man! The more I learnt about honey’s great creator -the honey bee itself, its highly organized society, how it acts with such intricate cooperation, and the various bee products, the more I admire and respect this amazing creature. It is no wonder why sometimes the colony is called a superorganism.
“Unique among all God’s creatures, only the honeybee improves the environment and preys not on any other species.” ~ Royden Brown
“If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live?” ~ Albert Einstein
- Ruth Tan