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Have you ever wondered what exactly is up with Beekeeping? This informative report can give you an insight into everything you’ve ever wanted to know about Beekeeping.

Like all hobbies, beekeeping requires some basic equipment before someone can establish a successful hive. This equipment should be bought before you get a call from the post office asking you to come pick up bees.

The most obvious piece of equipment you will need is the actual bee hive.

Your beehive should be have five supers. The supers are a very important part of the beehive because they are where the bees will be storing their honey. These five supers should be between the bottom of the hive and the hive cover. These supers are very important because they are where the bees will be storing their honey and raising their offspring. Once you have an active hive each of these supers will contain nine to ten frames. You can choose if you want a hive with shallow supers or deep supers. The advantage of deep supers is that they enable beekeepers to buy only one size foundation. The disadvantage is that, when full, a deep super can weigh one hundred pounds. Once you have a hive for your bees make sure you place is somewhere that has a flat surface so that the hive wont tip over in a strong wind. Also make sure that you place it somewhere that humans and pets aren’t likely to disturb it.

A spacer is a piece of equipment beekeepers use to keep an equal amount of space between the frames while they are in the super.

Is everything making sense so far? If not, I’m sure that with just a little more reading, all the facts will fall into place.

The next piece of equipment you will need is a smoker. The smoker is what you will use to encourage the bees to leave the hive when you are getting ready to harvest the honey. The smoker is surprisingly simple in its design. The smoker consists of a funnel, a combustion chamber, and bellows. Many beekeepers claim that old, clean burlap is the best material to use in the smoker because burlap is easy to ignite and smolders and smokes. Other beekeepers prefer to use dried corn cobs. Once the fire has been lit in the combustion chamber the bellows will keep it going. The funnel directs the smoke into the hive, encouraging the bees to leave.

Another tool you will need is a metal hive tool. The metal hive tool is used to pry open the hive, separate the hive bodies, and to scrape the frames clean. Think of it as the all purpose tool of beekeeping.

No beekeeper is ready to receive their shipment of bees until they have a bee brush. A bee brush is used to gently brush bees out of the way so that the beekeeper can examine the frames.

When it is time to harvest your honey, you will need a fumer board. A fumer board is a board that is covered in bee removing chemicals and is then used to encourage the bees to leave a super and let you take their honeycombs.

If you don’t mind getting using used equipment you can find some great prices on beekeeping equipment on EBay. There are several catalogs and websites that offer beekeeping equipment, and many of those offer beginners packages.

Of course, it’s impossible to put everything about Beekeeping into just one article. But you can’t deny that you’ve just added to your understanding about Beekeeping, and that’s time well spent.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, proud owner of this top ranked web hosting reseller site: GVO

A beekeeper, whether a casual hobbyist or a large commercial producer, can not be successful unless they fully understand the life cycle of the honey bee.

The honey bees life cycle is a unique and fascinating process.

It all starts with the egg. The hives queen bee lays an egg in one of the cells constructed for the soul purpose of laying eggs. Once queen has laid the egg and moved on to lay another (during the spring months the queen can lay an average of 1900 eggs daily) the egg is attached to the cell with a mucus strand.

If you don’t have accurate details regarding Beekeeping, then you might make a bad choice on the subject. Don’t let that happen: keep reading.

When the egg hatches a larvae emerges. Nurse bees are in charge of caring for the young larvae. They feed the eggs bee bread. Bee bread is a strange mixture of gland secretions and honey. The larvae will go through five distinct growth stages. After each of these stages the larvae sheds its outer skin. When the larvae is six days old, a worker bee comes along and caps the larvae, caccooning the larvae in its cell. The larvae stays the in the cocoon for for eight to ten days, when it emerges from the cocoon it is a fully formed young bee.

The average length of life average honey bee depends on what purpose the bee fulfills in the hive. A queen bee can live for two years providing that she was able to get herself inseminated with enough sperm during her nuptial flight. A good strong queen bee can lay as many as 2000 eggs a day. She is in charge of killing her sisters and mothers. The queen bee doesn’t have to worry about taking care of herself, she is always surrounded by an entourage of worker bees who feed her and remove her waste. It is not uncommon for the elderly queen bee to leave the nest in the springtime when the rest of the hive is getting ready to swarm. Experts believe that the queen produces some sort of pheromone that prevents the hives workers bees from becoming interested in sex. A queen bee who has not made her nuptial flight is called a virgin queen. Drone bees are male bees that live only to impregnate queen bees during the queens nuptial flight.

After mating with a queen the drone dies. During the winter months, a worker bee can live up to one hundred and forty days old. During the summer months the worker bee is lucky to live for forty days, the short summer life span is because the worker bees are literally worked to death. The worker bee’s duties are wide and varied. Worker bees called nurse bees are in charge of caring for the young larvae, other workers are sent out to gather pollen to be made into honey. Some workers spend their time capping off honey combs, other workers are responsible for taking care of the queen. Worker bees are in charge of starving the unwanted drone bees and cleaning the hive. There can be any were from twenty thousand to two hundred thousand worker bees in a single hive. Worker bees are always sterile. If a worker bee lays an egg it becomes a drone bee. Workers bees are the bees that people see defending the hive.

The survival of the bee hive depends on the hive having a healthy queen that is laying eggs. If something happens to the queen the hive will die.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, proud owner of this top ranked web hosting reseller site: GVO

When you’re learning about something new, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of relevant information available. This informative article should help you focus on the central points.

Large beekeepers can not turn a profit if they limit their market to their local community. Beekeepers who have several colonies must be able to sell their product at larger grocery stores and supermarkets if they want to remain financially solvent.

In order for beekeepers to sell their honey to a larger market their packaging must meet certain USDA standards.

The first thing beekeepers have to decide is what kind of container they want to use to hold their honey. The standard size of containers used to sell honey are measured in pounds. The typical amount of honey offered to the customers can be as small an amount as a half pound or as large as five pounds of honey. Some stores perfect to sell honey that is measured in gallons, these stores offer their customers the option of purchasing a container of honey as small as a half pint or as large as one gallon. If, as a beekeeper, you are attracted to novelty containers you can choose from a variety of fun containers such as skeps, bears, and plastic squeeze bottles.

Knowledge can give you a real advantage. To make sure you’re fully informed about Beekeeping, keep reading.

Once you have settled on the perfect bottle for your honey you have to design an equally perfect label. Before you start designing a label for your honey check with your state government, most states have several laws and requirements about how labels appear on products. Make sure that the word honey is written in bold letters across the label. The word should stand out and really catch the casual shopper’s eye. Most graphic designers recommend that the honey should run parallel with the container’s base. Do not authorize a label if the design does not incorporate your name (or your farm’s name) and your address. If you use a packing or distribution company their name and address must also be included on the label. The final thing that needs to be clearly printed on the label is the net weight of the honey. If the honey you are marketing weighs between one to four pounds then the weight has to be written in both pounds and ounces. The print size used to show the net weight is not random, the font size is determined by the size and shape of the container.

If you are a beekeeper who harvests your honey more then once a season you might be able to write what flavor of honey you are selling. You might have honey that is flavored with clover, alfalfa, or apple blossoms.

Labels that have words such as unfiltered, natural, raw, and areanic refer to honey that has not been processed.

Beekeepers who have USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) grades printed on the label have passed a set of USDA grade standards. Honey that has a USDA grade of A has passed the exacting government standards. Honey that has a USDA grade of D has passed only a bare minimum of standards. The USDA grades honey based on the amount of moisture in the honey, clarity, flavor quality, and defects.

As your knowledge about Beekeeping continues to grow, you will begin to see how Beekeeping fits into the overall scheme of things. Knowing how something relates to the rest of the world is important too.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, proud owner of this top ranked web hosting reseller site: GVO

Honey bees spend their entire life pollinating flowers and making honey. Bees use pollen that they gather from flowers to create honey that the bees use to feed themselves. Beekeepers are responsible for removing the honey from the bees and using for human consumption.

After the beekeeper has collected the honey from the bees, removed the wax caps that the bees use to seal the honey in the honey comb, and extracted the honey from the honeycomb it’s time to process the honey.

Not all beekeepers have process their honey. Unprocessed honey is marketed with words like raw, areanic, unfiltered, and natural printed on the label. The words are different words to say unprocessed. Beekeepers that choose to process their honey, should have it done as quickly after extracting the honey as possible. The act of processing honey is making sure that the honey is heated and filtered. Processing honey is a sticky and hot process, it is important that the person is patient and diligent. The area where the processing is taking place should be kept clean and free of insects. Before you start processing the honey crop make sure that all your equipment is dry. Honey absorbs water. Honey that has to much water in it will ferment.

Experienced beekeepers can look at a vat of honey and tell you what type of flower the worker bees who were attracted to when they were gathering pollen. They can do this by looking at the honey’s color. The type of flower the bees collected pollen from also affects the honey’s flavor. Other factors like soil quality and honey comb quality can change the flavor of the honey. On the average lighter colored honey has a milder flavor then darker colored honey. There sre approximately three hundred different varieties of honey produced in the United States.

Think about what you’ve read so far. Does it reinforce what you already know about Beekeeping? Or was there something completely new? What about the remaining paragraphs?

The plugs that bees use to seal honey into the honey combs can be used to make bee’s wax candles.

For the health conscious, honey is a great substitute for white sugar.

Honey that is still in the honeycomb has a more natural flavor then honey that has been extracted. Extracted honey works best for flavoring teas and cooking.

Fans of natural healing have always bee big fans of honey for medicinal purposes. It is believed that honey is an excellent way to soothe sore throats, can help regulate blood pressure, burns, pressure wounds, and infectious wounds. Honey has been used by Chinese apothecaries to soothe aches and pains. The Egyptians favored using honey when they were treating wounds. Even the Greeks and Romans left behind literature that spoke of the medicinal benefits of honey for curing various forms of illnesses.

The day will come when you can use something you read about here to have a beneficial impact. Then you’ll be glad you took the time to learn more about Beekeeping.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

Many areas in the world are producers of honey and beeswax for medicinal and food purposes. You’ll find a lot of beekeeping in the United States, Asia, Africa, and some parts of Europe. Since beekeeping had originated in Europe and had been modernized in the United States, the way it’s done is different and the way it’s taught is different as well. Yet this is a very interesting way to see how different cultures train someone to do beekeeping as a way of life and part of the culture. The cool thing is that honey is used for mostly food in so many cultures that use it in religious and celebratory occasions when preparing certain concoctions or meals and honey is used to sweeten it. Americans are usually in the business of beekeeping to produce honey for the supermarket and for shipment overseas to markets and countries that don’t have beekeeping businesses that is advanced enough to mass produce the necessary amount to ship overseas to stores owned and operated in the United States like Whole Foods Market when they carry specific brands.

Most countries overseas don’t have the system the way the United States does to mass produce a single product like honey since we managed to harvest effectively so we can produce enough to meet the needs of the market until the season to produce starts again in the spring since bees are inactive during the winter months and start again in late March early April when the mating season for bees is fresh and flowers are in abundance for them to feed and pollinate on. The U.S. alone turns out the majority of the honey that’s used when they provide to supermarkets owned by American based companies to their stores and restaurants overseas.

Those of you not familiar with the latest on Beekeeping now have at least a basic understanding. But there’s more to come.

Beekeepers could be observing hives every 7 to 8 days generally making it the ideal time on the weekend to pass time. Hives don’t need a lot of maintaining just an hour a day between the peak season around May to September. A good season can produce for a keeper 60-100 pounds of honey and depending on how much the buyer charges by the pound that’s what you go by to what you’ll make for every harvest you get.

The most common annoyance to beekeepers during their harvesting and maintenance of the hives are bumblebees these are the big ugly black and yellow bees that are seen going through the flowers honey bees have already visited and these bees live underground so they can be an annoyance to beekeepers when they swarm from the ground up. Many beekeepers will move their hives around which is called migratory which is one of the secrets to increase honey production and giving bees a fresh supply of flowers to pollinate and feed from so they can produce different variations and batches of honey.

Each batch produced can differ with each pollination or when hives are rotated and bees go to different flowers so that’s why sometimes honey may have distinct taste since it’s the type of flowers available to them at the time of migration.

Now you can be a confident expert on Beekeeping. OK, maybe not an expert. But you should have something to bring to the table next time you join a discussion on Beekeeping.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, proud owner of this top ranked web hosting reseller site: GVO

The springtime is the time when honeybees reproduce. The natural means of reproduction for honey bees is called swarming. The springtime swarming period typically last about three weeks. Normally a single swarm of honey bees divide and becomes two during the swarming period.

Because swarming typically means a loss of production so beekeepers try to discourage the behavior. One way that beekeepers eliminate swarming in their hives is by purchasing new bees each spring to replace their previous bees that they turned out of the hives the previous fall. Another method commonly used by beekeepers to discourage swarming is the creation of a starter colony. Creating a starter hive and then splitting it encourages bees to stay in their hives. Some beekeepers believe that bees only swarm when they have an abundance of food in the hive. Beekeepers who subscribe to this theory use a method called checker boarding to discourage their bees from swarming. When a beekeeper checkerboards their hives they remove some of the full frames of honey, giving the bees the illusion that they don’t have any honey in reserve, and therefore discouraging the bees from swarming.

If your Beekeeping facts are out-of-date, how will that affect your actions and decisions? Make certain you don’t let important Beekeeping information slip by you.

It is unusual for a bees to swarm when there is a new queen in the bee hive. As time passes and the Queen ages is when the hive typically prepares to swarm, generally the elderly queen leaves with the primary swarm, leaving a virgin queen in her place. When the elderly queen is getting ready to swarm with the primary swarm she stops laying eggs. She concentrates on getting fit enough to fly when she leaves the hive (the only other time the queen has flown is when she went out on her nuptial flight). When smaller swarms leave the hive they are commonly accompanied by the virgin queen.

When they first leave the hive in a swarm, bees don’t typically go far from the hive they have always known. After fleeing the nest the bees settle on a nearby tree branch or under an eave. The worker bees cluster around the queen, protecting her. Once they have the queen protected, some bees, scouts, look around until they find a suitable hive to turn into their new home.

Some beekeepers see swarming as a way to restock their hives. An experienced bee keeper has no problem capturing a group of swarming bees. Beekeepers use a device to called a Nasrove Pheromone to lure swarming honey bees.
When they swarm, honey bees carry no additional food with them. The only honey they are allowed to take from the parent hive is the honey they consumed.
Although honey bees normally swarm only during the spring the same is not true of Africanized Bees, also called Killer Bees. The Africanized Bees swarm whenever they have a difficult time finding food.
Although they typically don’t go after people when they are swarming, their is something about the site of a swarm of bees that scares people. It is not unusual for a beekeeper to be called out to capture a colony of swarming bees.

Now that wasn’t hard at all, was it? And you’ve earned a wealth of knowledge, just from taking some time to study an expert’s word on Beekeeping.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

Obviously the whole reason to set up, maintain, and stock a beehive is to harvest honey. You will know that it is time to harvest the honey when you look in one of your hives supers and find that the frames are full of honey combs that your bees have covered with wax caps.

Now all you have to do is remove the honey combs.

Harvesting your honey won’t be a problem as long as your put on all your beekeeping gear, wear light colored clothes (beekeepers swear that lighter colored clothes have a soothing affect on bees) and stay calm.

Think about what you’ve read so far. Does it reinforce what you already know about Beekeeping? Or was there something completely new? What about the remaining paragraphs?

When the super is full of capped honey combs you are going to have to remove the bees from that super. There are chemicals available on the market that will make this easier. One popular chemical that beekeepers use to remove bees from the super is Bee-Go. All beekeepers have to do is apply Bee-Go to a fumer board. When the bees smell the Bee-Go they head to the bottom of the hive, leaving the super full of capped honeycombs empty for you to harvest. Another product beekeepers use to clear out supers is one called Fishers Bee Quick. Neither of these products harm the bees, the bees simply find the scent offensive and move away from it.

Now that you are in possession of the honey comb you need to prepare it to be extracted. The first step in this preparation is to remove the wax caps the bees have used to seal the honey into the honey comb. Many beekeepers prefer to use nine frames instead of ten in their supers. By using nine frames they give the bees enough room to draw the comb out, placing the cap right on the very edge of the comb. This makes it easier to remove the wax caps. Beekeepers use a metal knife to remove the caps, the knife works best if the knife blade is warmed, after all its easier to cut warm wax then it is to cut cold wax. You can keep the knife blade warm with frequent dunking in a basin that is full of hot water. Many beekeepers like to use their bread knife to remove the wax caps from the honey comb while others prefer an electrical knife that is designed just for beekeepers. What do you think bee’s wax candles are made out of. Removing the caps from the dripping honey is easy, just use a piece of cheese cloth to empty the contents into a second pot, the honey will drain through the cheesecloth and the bee’s wax caps will collect on the top.

Once the caps are removed from the honey comb the honey is ready to be extracted.

As you remove the caps, let them fall into a pot, do not just through them away. You will notice that there is a surprising amount of honey attached to these caps, honey that can be processed and used. Also there is a market for the wax caps. Once the caps have been removed from the honeycombs the honey combs are ready to have the honey extracted.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

Beekeeping isn’t just something you go into it’s something you’re raised and brought up in. Most companies that deal with beekeeping and providing beekeeping supplies are family owned. Dadant and Sons, a company based out of Hamilton, IL has been in the business of providing beekeeping equipment and attire for the past 140 years. They sell everything from beekeeping attire from the head to the torso, and even full body suits with headwear. They also sell journals that are published about beekeeping and also selling copies from the archives as well.

They have a large selection of books for giving you a short course on beekeeping to candle making since many beekeepers also not only collect and sell honey, but they make things out of beeswax as well like candles. Most family owned beekeepers usually produce the honey and beeswax items on their farms and sell the products they make at local stores. Usually it’s a family business that has been a long-standing tradition.

The best time to learn about Beekeeping is before you’re in the thick of things. Wise readers will keep reading to earn some valuable Beekeeping experience while it’s still free.

Most beekeeping families have been at this for several generations so it’s not a new thing many families get into with this. A lot of children grow up making this into their livelihood since it’s how their ancestors made their living. Many companies now are in fact commercially owned since so many family-owned businesses are forced out because of the rising cost of running a business and many mom and pop places that were not technologically advanced were the ones who suffered because those who had the resources to invest in websites and tools needed to stay ahead in the business were the ones who made the transition into the 21st century with their businesses. This was a business that began as a simple hobby and just a small way to make extra money on the side or to just have something extra for the dinner table since honey was super popular to be put on hot biscuits and toast for dinner and breakfast since it was used as a marmalade.

Honey wasn’t really a huge resource at the time since people used sugar and other things like molasses to put in their food, but when it was discovered that honey was cheap and inexpensive to make that’s when beekeeping had become a hugely popular and profitable business for many families in regions that beekeeping was a widely practiced activity. As a result of how inexpensive it was to produce honey, which became what beekeeping has developed into today. The only issues was in this day and age more pesticides was being used and the problems with having to treat much of the honey that was being made which left a lot of people wondering how safe it was to consume such a product.

It was a concern since you have the organic food movement that totally goes against the use of pesticides and any means to chemically alter or treat food or livestock used for food products. Today you have family owned companies at the commercial level that produce honey products and beeswax used in cosmetics and candle making.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

When you’re learning about something new, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of relevant information available. This informative article should help you focus on the central points.

When beekeepers go to work they have essential tools needed to keep themselves safe because having a couple hundred beestings can be fatal. This is why it’s important that beekeepers practice and exercise safety. First and foremost beekeepers wear protective suits that are supposed to be puncture and sting proof because there are cases where the bees will swarm and have covered beekeepers from head to toe. They wear a mesh screen face protector to protect their face from the bees when they’re flying around. They also use a smoker to calm the bees down.

Something about smoking them causes them to be docile and to stay where they are. This is to allow the beekeeper to collect honey or to check the hives to make sure they’re where they should be in the honey production process. Beekeepers normally keep their hives in a secluded wooded area so that bees can come and go and not pose a threat to anyone coming and going. Beekeepers also have a crowbar like tool to scrape the honey since it can be tough to remove.

If you find yourself confused by what you’ve read to this point, don’t despair. Everything should be crystal clear by the time you finish.

Beekeepers have such a lengthy access to the internet that there are hundreds maybe thousands of different companies that provide supplies to beekeepers like comb cutters, grafting tool (used in prying the layers of honey comb apart scraping honey off the comb), cages to capture the Queen, and different types of hive settings that can be from flat, elevated to upright where they slide out. Other items companies such as this also sell containers the honey is packed in the most popular item is the bear bottle since honey is a staple food for grizzly, brown, and black bears primarily the ones that inhabit much of Northern California and up and down the pacific coast through Alaska. Beekeepers also have to watch for things like pests that feed on bees and using certain kinds of feeds to keep them healthy since bees are a constant threat by mites and various kinds of pests that feed on them. Beekeepers also have to purchase stuff to treat hives for things like moths and flies that feed on the honeycomb and flies can carry diseases since they feed on animal manure and compost material.

The suits beekeepers wear are fairly inexpensive no more than $50 so it makes it easier for beekeepers to maintain an effective hold on their supplies cost wise so it’s not taking a bite out of the budget for them. The hard thing is that their biggest expense is keeping their hives pest free. It’s difficult because the hives are located in high pest areas and in secluded wooded areas that make them prone to birds and other pests. This is the riskiest part of beekeeping is the expense keepers have to go through to maintain healthy hives. Beekeepers have to apply scientific knowledge for them to make what they do work well and to also last them the entire season when they harvest honey and beeswax.

There’s a lot to understand about Beekeeping. We were able to provide you with some of the facts above, but there is still plenty more to write about in subsequent articles.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

Starting a beekeeping business may sound exciting and fun, but in all reality it’s a lot of work and is time consuming. Most people who are in this are actually doing this as a hobby. Having a hobby and a livelihood are two entirely different areas since one is something you invest time and in some cases money and one is when you’re trying to make a living at. Beekeeping is like farming you have to stay on top of the market demands and be technologically savvy because much of the business is going to depend on how fast you can produce a single product.

Yet this is where you’re going to learn that beekeeping isn’t even like that because if you expect to make a profit you would have had to have been in the business for a long time and following the trends on what the market demanded of the time. Today if you don’t even have a website consider yourself a fossil in the area of business because that’s your only link to the rest of the world by having a website or even a page.

You can see that there’s practical value in learning more about Beekeeping. Can you think of ways to apply what’s been covered so far?

Most of the companies today are commercialized because the small businesses today are just not equipped to handle the mass production of honey and small businesses won’t make a lot giving the fact you are paid by the pound and the average amount after weighing the whole season isn’t a whole lot. Commercial beekeepers average a couple thousand pounds, but farmers have to really push production if they want to average at least $15-30 a year. This is a competitive field to be selling honey and producing beeswax products since the beekeeping industry doesn’t function as a co-op like many organic farmers do in this day and age where they work together beekeeping is sub-contract work and many of these small businesses are sub-contracted by these major corporations to produce honey under their label and their food line.

Sub-contracting may sound good and all, but you are also competing for these contracts as well with other small businesses and the high risk is that you can lose your contracts if the companies who hire you aren’t happy with something for whatever reason it could be the quality of the product to anything. That’s why this is a risky business to get into because you never know what the outcome is and how the market will fair during the season since this is what a beekeeper bases their financial output by which is how much they anticipate to make on a seasonal basis.

Beekeepers almost have to base their financial gain through good weather and season with the market demand, but you can’t always predict good weather, which is what many worry about. They have more to worry about than crop farmers since they can make the difference when they get rain and lower climate suitable to the food they’re growing. Beekeeping is dependent on the activity of the bees and how well they produce honey since bees produce in certain climates and temperatures. If you’re expecting to thrive in this business understand that it’s a lot of work and a lot of time invested into making this work for the long run.

Sometimes it’s tough to sort out all the details related to this subject, but I’m positive you’ll have no trouble making sense of the information presented above.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his new GVO affiliate site: GVO