THE LITTLE GOLDEN FOLK !
(Page 2 of 10)
March/April 1974
By Bill Benintente
When you do receive your bees-parcel post, and I'm sure your mail carrier will love you dearly for it-you must have your hive ready for them. As soon as you've placed your order for that first colony, in other words, you should start getting your beekeeping equipment together.
RELATED CONTENT
The mystery of colony collapse disorder continues, but researchers are finding widespread evidence ...
The Backyard Jungle PartXII: Hover Flies
July/August 1985
By Ron West
Here's the...
Bees and their pollinating skills are said to facilitate the production of more than $15 billion in...
Appreciating the role bees play in plant sustenance; volunteers on organic farms; powerful pruning ...
How to prevent and extinguish chimney fires....
HIVE, SWEET HIVE
The modern beehive is very simple and easy to -use. To save those scarce dollars,
you can build one . . . but factory-made equipment is so inexpensive and well made that you'll probably find it worth the slight extra expense. (A few major suppliers of apiarists' gear are listed in my note on "The Cost of Beekeeping".)
Even if you do want to make your own hives, I'd advise you to buy the first one (you put it together) and get its measurements so you can duplicate it exactly. This is necessary because you'll be interchanging components all the time and you'll want them to fit.
The first section of your colony's home-starting from the bottom-is a cypress-wood hive stand . . . which is optional but protects the main part of the structure from the deteriorating effects of moisture and vegetation. This base is set on cinders or ashes to help the pollen- and nectar-laden honeybee make it home without fighting sharp blades of grass and weeds (which
may kill or injure her if she crash-lands into them). A further aid to such an overloaded worker is an inclined board on the front of the hive stand . . . so if the returning bee misses her mark she can still struggle up the ramp to the safety of the hive's entrance.
Next comes the reversible bottom board which supports the section above. This partition also protects the hive from any nastiness below and affords a space for the bees to enter the brood chamber.
The brood chamber (commonly called the "Langstroth movable frame hive") is third up from the ground. It looks like an oversized milk crate without top or bottom, and contains 10 foundation frames on which the bees build comb to raise brood or store honey. The ten frames hang side by side in the chamber. They must be spaced just far enough apart to allow the bees to pass around and between them . . . but not so far that the insects will be tempted to build connecting links of comb (which is a nuisance to the beekeeper) between them.
The beeswax foundation, which fits snugly inside the individual frame, is a sheet of pure beeswax stamped with the same base pattern (for worker cells) found in a natural comb. The bees, finding this material laid out in such a convenient form, proceed to draw out the foundation into full, operational worker cells capable of supporting brood or storing excess honey. This is a tremendous advantage to the beekeeper because a colony ordinarily spends much time, and burns up 10 to 15 pounds of honey, making and forming a pound of beeswax.
Page:
<< Previous 1 | 2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
Next >>
