Recent Developments in Apiculture

Recent Developments in Apiculture

Modern Beekeeping- An Introduction

Modern Beekeeping are specialist suppliers of high quality beekeeping equipments and beekeeping supplies. It includes the different as well as efficient techniques and developments in disease management, hive management and in all the aspects of apiculture. 

As at May 2006, 2707 beekeepers owned 300 569 hives on 18 996 apiaries (Table 10.4). Beekeeper numbers continued to decline during 2005/06, falling by 240, compared with 261 last year and 582 in 2004. However, hive numbers increased by 7641 and reversed the downward trend of the past several years.

Recent Developments in Hive management

Thermometer

When the winter is very cold and temperature steadily declines, the cluster is forced to rise and move away from the front of the hive faster. If a sufficient amount of honey is not left in the top body, the colony may starve even if an abundance of honey still remains at the bottom of the hive!

               

to install any thermometer with a sensor to monitor temperature inside of your hive. Such a small investment will help you control temperature inside of your hives year-round.
            During wintertime, if you notice an unexpected temperature drop, you will get a chance to prevent a possible loss of your colonies

Sensors

Sensors are located in the center of the area above the frames.

Recent developments in Pest and Disease Management

Immunizing The Bees

To improve bees' defensive response to bacteria, I immunize them with freshly-grated onion twice a year, once during late autumn and once in the early spring if my colonies may succumb to disease.

External Beetle And Wax Moth Trap:

A 2 liter drink bottle with a hole cut 1 1/4" below the neck shoulder. Fill with equal amounts (1/4 – 1 cup each) of vinegar, sugar, and water. Shake until the sugar is dissolved. Then add a very ripe thinly sliced unpeeled banana or slum gum or rotten orange and place it in a warm place to begin fermentation. Then hang it from a tree near the apiary or the stored supers.

Dowda Method Of Powdered Sugar Dusting:

This may work better during broodless periods, but treatment may be too late once a broodless period has been reached in the fall. You need 10X powdered sugar, a measuring cup, a sifter (tea strainer or flour sifter), and a bee brush.

 The hive must have a screened bottom board (1/8” mesh). Insert a dry bottom board or piece of poster board below the screen. Separate the brood chambers and sift 1 cup of 10X powdered sugar over the brood frames of the lower chamber.

Brush the sugar off the top bars down between the frames. Replace the upper brood chamber, sift another cup of powdered sugar and brush it down too.

 Wait at least 5 minutes, remove the bottom board and check for mites. Leave the bottom board out for ventilation. If you see a lot of mites, repeat this every few days.

Comb Drying And Storage:

After the last honey of the year has been extracted from your supers, stack them outside near your bee hives alternating orientation and let the bees lick the wet combs dry over a few days and then store them over the fall and winter.

 Only store honey supers that contain no pollen and have had very little brood in them as wax moths will damage pollen-laden comb quickly. Cut out any wax moth tunnels the following spring before placing them back in service.

Managing Dead Outs And Over-Winter Deaths:

A colony in which the bees all died during the growth and production season (spring, summer, or fall) is a dead out. This is possibly secondary to a serious brood disease, such as AFB. Dead outs allow other robbing bees to pick up and transmit brood diseases back to their colony and also allow pests such as wax moths and SHBs an ideal area to proliferate.

Therefore dead outs require timely removal from the apiary to prevent disease and pest spread. Colonies that die over winter and are found in late winter / early spring are not dead outs and are typically not due to disease (other than to mites, which also die with the colony).

Although the dead bees and uneaten pollen frames of over-winter deaths should be removed from the hive, the hive itself may be safely left in the apiary until the weather warms up.

Varroa Destructor

Varroa destructor is an external parasitic mite that attacks the honey bees Apis cerana and Apis mellifera. The disease caused by the mites is called varroosis.

Characteristics Of Varroa

Varroa destructor can only reproduce in a honey bee colony. It attaches to the body of the bee and weakens the bee by sucking hemolymph. In this process, RNA viruses such as the deformed wing virus (DWV) spread to bees. A significant mite infestation will lead to the death of a honey bee colony, usually in the late autumn through early spring.

The Varroa mite is the parasite with the most pronounced economic impact on the beekeeping industry. It may be a contributing factor to colony collapse disorder, as research shows it is the main factor for collapsed colonies in Ontario, Canada and Hawaii, USA.

Control Or Preventive Measures And Treatment

Chemical Measures

Varroa mites can be treated with commercially available miticides. Miticides must be applied carefully to minimize the contamination of honey that might be consumed by humans. Proper use of miticides also slows the development of resistance by the mites.

Synthetic Chemicals

• Pyrethroid insecticide (Apistan) as strips
• Organophosphate insecticide (Coumaphos (Check-mite)) as strips
• Manley's Thymol Crystal and surgical spirit recipe with sugar as food

Naturally Occurring Chemicals

• Formic acid as vapor or pads (Mite-Away)
• Powdered sugar (Dowda method), talc, or other "safe" powders with a grain size between 5 and 15 µm (0.20 and 0.59 mil) can be sprinkled on the bees.
• Sugar esters (Sucrocide) in spray application
• Oxalic acid trickling method or applied as vapor
• Natural hops compounds in strip application (Hopguard)

Physical, Mechanical, Behavioural Methods

Varroa mites can also be controlled through nonchemical means. Most of these controls are intended to reduce the mite population to a manageable level, not to eliminate the mites completely.

Limited drone brood cell method, is based on limiting the brood space cell for Varroa mites to inhabit (4.9 mm across — about 0.5 mm smaller than standard), and also to enhance the difference in size between worker and drone brood, with the intention of making the drone comb traps more effective in trapping Varroa mites. Small cell foundations have staunch advocates, though controlled studies have been generally inconclusive.

Freezing drone brood method takes advantage of Varroa mites' preference for longer living drone brood. The beekeeper will put a frame in the hive that is sized to encourage the queen to lay primarily drone brood. Once the brood is capped, the beekeeper removes the frame and puts it in the freezer. This kills the Varroa mites feeding on those bees. It also kills the drone brood, but most hives produce an excess of drone bees, so it is not generally considered a loss. After freezing, the frame can be returned to the hive. The nurse bees will clean out the dead brood (and dead mites) and the cycle continues.

Drone brood excision method is a variation applicable to top bar hives. Honey bees tend to place comb suitable for drone brood along the bottom and outer margins of the comb. Cutting this off at a late stage of development ("purple eye stage") and discarding it reduces the mite load. It also allows for inspection and counting of mites on the brood.

Birth Control For Varroa

The pads are handy to use, but the real beauty is that by putting them smack dab in the center of the broodnest, the fanning by the bees drives the vapors right through the brood cappings where it can kill the tiny, soft skinned, pale male and developing female mites. if you can kill the male mites before they can mate with their partnerss, then even if some females emerge, they won’t be able to reproduce!

Recent Developments In Feed Management

Pollen Supplement

Hack’s Sack Protein Patties - Procedure

1. 125 lbs. Sugar (Add water and keep wet. Should be a little thicker than pancake batter.)

2. Add either 3 cups citric acid or 4 quarts of lemon juice, (this is to put the ph at 4 ½ to 5) 3. Add 1 cup Honey Bee Healthy

4. Add ½ bag Vitamins & Electrolytes

5. Add 10 lbs. pollen (optional)

(keep the mix wet)

6. Mix in 25 lbs. of Inedible Dried eggs

7. Add 3 ½ cups Canola Oil

8. Mix in 24 lbs. (2 gallons) Honey

9. Finish by adding 50 lbs. Brewtech Brewers Yeast. Water until it has the consistency you desire.

This formula tests out from 16-20% protein

Ultimate Fondant Recipe (Bee Candy, Bee Feed Paste)

Fondant (also known as bee candy or bee paste) is used as emergency feed for honey bees - usually in the winter as a defense against low honey stores.  Fondant, in solid form, is usually placed on the topmost hive frames where the honey bees can access it as the cluster moves upward in the wintertime.

it is mostly "inverted sugar" - sucrose (white table sugar) that is broken down, using heat and a catalyst, into two simpler sugars: fructose and glucose.   Fructose and glucose are far easier for bees to digest.  Although some beekeepers have used baker's (cake) fondant (e.g. vanilla flavoring and starch which is detremental to the bee's Digestive System).  

Equipment For Making Fondant

• Big pot (depending upon how much you are making - e.g. a 5 quart or bigger pasta pot).  I use one of those pots used for cooking turkeys in oil from Walmart).
• A strong mixing device for stirring the sugar/water mixture. 
• Electronic "instant-read" pocket kitchen cooking thermometer (strongly suggest NOT using an unwieldy candy thermometer )
• Something to pour the fondant into (pans, plastic bags, plastic frames, etc.
• Scale (one of those electronic kitchen scales are great at this) - you wont need this after the first few batches as you'll know what to do and accuracy is not that important.
• Gloves to prevent injury