Week Two – Bees in HivesWhat a healthy hive looks like

Dara K. Dimitrovdkd4@waikato.ac.nz

Honey Bee – Apis Melifera

Distinguished by

the production and storage of honey

Construction perennial, colonial (hive) nests made from wax

Bees in the Hive

Queen Bee- 16 days to

emerge from cell- Can live up to 3

years

Newly hatched queen needs to make a mating flight – she will collect approx. 100m sperm within her oviducts

The “Girls” in the Hive- Forager bees- House keeping bees- Heater bees- Queen carer bees

- They are sterile and don’t lay eggs

21 days to emerge from eggs – summer bees live 6 weeks – winter bees can live up to 6 months

The ‘Boys’ in the HiveDrones mate with the queen- On mating he loses his

endophallus (in the Queen) and dies

- The next male has to remove the previous endophallus, mate and will eventually die too

Emerge 24 days from egg and can live up to 4 months

Make Up of the Hive

The bees will instinctively build wax cells – honey comb

The queen will lay an egg in each cell – the egg sticks to the ceiling of the cell

Worker bees fill the cells with royal jelly to prevent the eggs from falling

Worker bees are fed royal jelly for the first 2 days of life (larvae) while Queens are fed royal jelly through out the larval life

The development of each member of a hive depends on the caste of the larvae – drone, workers or Queens

Lifecycle of the Bee

Egg is laid and royal jelly is packed around the egg

Larvae hatches out and is fed by young worker bees

The Larvae will undergo several moulting's before spinning a cocoon within the cell and pupating – the cell is capped

Worker bee hatches out – or Queen – or Drone

Bee Brood & Patterns

The temperature in the hive is important – a constant 37 degrees (so don’t open the hive on cold or windy days)

Imagine the hive brood box is a round loaf of bread - so when you look at a frame with brood – it is like looking at one slice of bread from the loaf of bread

The frames in the middle of the box will have the largest number of brood cells while the frames at the outer edge have the less (the centre of the loaf)

Typical frame will have

Brood in the centre (circular pattern concentrated)

Pollen will be stored next to and around the brood

Honey will be stored above it and to the edges of it

Drone brood is usually found at the sides

Bad Brood

Single or Double Brood Boxes? Double brood boxes gives the queen more room to lay

Higher bee numbers

Greater honey gathering capacity

BUT if low bee numbers the hive gets cold

More space to be heated

Species of Bees

There are over 20,000 different species of bees in the world

The ones you will deal with will be either

Italian Bees (smallish –yellow - cute)

English Black Bees (large – black)

Carnolian Bees (medium – cute-ish)

Selection of bees

Most of the time – its what you can buy

Carnolian bees Moderate temperament – depends on the time of the year

Good honey harvests

English Black bees Quite big in comparison to other bee species

Quite aggressive – will defend the hive vigorously

Gathers awesome amounts of honey very quickly

Italian bees Smaller

Don’t gather honey as quickly as the other species

More passive bees (passive in relation to other bee species)

Placement of the Hives

Which direction – it doesn’t matter

BUT Avoid windy places - it will make the hives stressed

Avoid the deep shade to moderate shade –

Direct sunlight is not a problem

Make sure the ground is flat (the hive will fall over especially if you get a bit of height on them)

On pallets?? Yes you can – but you don’t have to

How close – back to back –with the entrances at opposite sides

Other considerations

Easily accessible come honey harvest time – it will be a mission to heave the honey boxes up a steep hill!

Good drainage – firm dry land – that does get water logged or flooded

Good source of water near by – the bees need water to build wax, dilute the honey if it is too thick and to cool the hive in the summer when it is hot. Be mindful of your neighbour’s pool

A chicken water feeder –You can place some gravel or small pebbles in the tray to provide steps for the bees to drink from

Next Week

Managing and working with the bees

The bee calendar year – timing is everything