HTFG Kauai: 2011

This is my review and notes of the Bee class held last week. I would highly recommend this class to anyone that is thinking about starting a hive. The class helped me get a grasp on several concepts and the fundamentals that I wasn't able to pick up from reading online and talking to people.

These notes are from a class titled “Introduction to Beekeeping – Starting Your Apiary”. The class was funded by the Department of Labor fund and the Rural Development Project. The class took place on the KCC campus and farm apiary. The class was given October 27^th – 29^th with 5 hours of classroom training and 3 hours of field training. Big thanks to Jimmy Trujillo for organizing this, Danielle Downey for the lecture and fieldwork and many others who made it possible.

WARNING: The notes here should not be referred to as facts, and it is suggested that anyone do more checks with a reliable source. Any errors in the notes are the fault of the note taker :)

Presentation given by Danielle Downey – Hawaii Apiary Specialist

Flower Anatomy

Pollen is the male cell. Farmers can use a pollen trap to determine what pollen is being brought back to the hive. Bees are attracted more to open flowers than closed flowers (like the carnation). Plants that produce nectar only produce that nectar to attract pollinators, and for no other reason.

Hive

The hive is between 92 and 95degrees. The bees to thermo regulation to keep the hive at a constant temperature.

Propolis – Plant bud resin, used by the bees like glue/clay the propolis has aniti-microbial elements. It is used in modern medicines to treat cuts and as a throat lozenges. The baby cells are sealed with propolis. Propolis can be yellow, red or brown in color.

The box is made of frames. Smaller frames are sometimes preferred because when filled with honey they weigh less. A full box of honey can weigh up to 100lbs. The top boxes may be empty or all honey.

The hive is made up of a hive cover, a super (optional), a queen excluder (optional), brood chamber with entrance reducer, and a bottom.

The queen excluder is designed to keep the queen in the lower box and away from the honey. The queen excluder is highly recommended item.

It is highly recommended to keep the hive off the ground.

Bee’s wax is a lipid. Wax is expensive (in units of honey) to make. It takes 10 parts honey to make 1 part of wax. Bees wax can be found as a furniture treatment, candles or frame.

Honey is a carbohydrate.

The hive should be placed where the morning sun hits the entrance. Place in a sunny dry spot. Clear ground with no weeds, away from a wind punishing entrance, the ground should have good drainage, the hive should have a water source (with something floating for the bees to get up and out of the water if they fall in).

Bees

Bees can fly 3 miles from the hive, or up to 10 miles.

The antennae are a pheromone sensory organ. Bees use polarized lights. They use visual glues to find their hive. Bees can communicate with one another using a sophisticated “Bee dance”. The bee dance is a wiggle and spin that tells the direction and distance to the source of food or a new hive location. See youtube Beedance (waggle dance).

A 2 ½ x 1 x 1 hive box could fix about 5-10K bees. The larger hives can hold up to 60,000 bees.

Drones (the males) have big eyes and a big body. The drones are only tasked with mating (nothing else). The drones cannot sting. The drones leave the hive to find a virgin queen that has left her colony. The drones mate with the queen (who collects his sperm), then the drones explode (?). The exploding drone makes a “pop” sound. There can be up to 3000 drones in a colony. When resources get scarce the drones get evicted.

Workers make up the majority of the colony. Workers are attracted to a Nasanov Pheromone. The Nasanov pheromone can be used in a bee trap. When a worker stings, the stinger emits this pheromone which signals to other bees that they should attack this point. The workers are also capable of emitting an alarm pheromone. They emit the alarm pheromone, the bee lifts its abdomen and fans its wings. Older workers do the riskier tasks (guarding the entrance, defend the nest, drag out the dead, and forage). This maximizes the life of the worker bee (it doesn’t make sense to have the new bees do the risky tasks). The youngest bees do work in the center of the hive. As they age they move to periphery of the hive and eventually do tasks outside of the nest.

Queens have a longer abdomen. The queens can sting multiple times. There is one queen / mother per hive. That queen is the mother to all 60K bees. Queens are a valuable asset. Queens can be purchased on line for about $20. Queens cannot be imported to Hawaii due to the diseases and pests that can travel with a purchased queen. Queens can be exported from Hawaii. Breeding queens can be a business. Hawaii has an extended Bee Season which makes it optimal for queen rearing. The queen emits a Mandibular pheromone that inhibits queen rearing (ovary development of other females), attracts (male) drones, stabilizes the swarms, and stimulates foraging.

Development

Eggs take 2-3 days to hatch. The hatched larvae spend approximately 16 days in the larvae stage where they are fed in the cell by the bees. After 16 days cocoon and emerge as bees. Each egg the queen lays Is either fertilized (a female) or not (male). This means the male cells only have the genes of the queen and not of a companion male. All the bees are fed royal jelly for a few days. If the bees continue to receive the rich royal jelly diet they become a queen. A leaner diet produces a worker. Before a new queen emerges from the hive the old queen takes have the hive with her and swarms.

Swarms are a splitting of the colony. Swarms are typically not aggressive or defensive. The queen is at the center of the swarm and all the bees are attached to one another. The scouts leave the swarm to find a good location. When the scouts come back they have a dance off to find the next location to swarm to. To catch a swarm, use a pillow case, bucket, etc. If they are attached to a branch, hit the branch and they will fall into the bucket. They need air circulation so be sure whatever is used to capture the bees provides good air flow. After the bees fall into the bucket, set the bucket down so that all the others can collect into the container. In Hawaii, swarms start to peak around June.

Foraging bees are not dangerous. They are foraging for food and water. They will sting if you step on them or if they get trapped in your clothing. Bees are attracted to darker colors (all of their natural enemies have darker color fur coats). When a bee is near you, do not swat or blow on it. Do not allow bees to get into your hair, as they will crawl down to your scalp and sting you. When near a hive do not use devices that emit a lot of carbon dioxide or make a lot of noise and/or vibration (mowers, edgers, etc.). Always use a smooth slow movement.

Weak bees can be fed.

Bees for rent

Bee colonies can be rented. Currently on the mainland, 2 million bee colonies are rented to farmers. The highest value for a hive is $150/hive/6 weeks. Almond farmers pay the most money because they rely most on the bees. The almond season is 6 weeks out of the year. Bee colonies are packed on flatbed trucks and hauled around the mainland to pollinate farms. This is possibly how many of the bee diseases have spread quickly through the mainland.

Types of Bees

There are solitary bees and hive bees.

Honey bees, leaf cutters, carpenter bees, Yellow face bee. The yellow face bee lives in hollow twigs, collects pollen balls, lays eggs, and then seals it with cellophane (like divider).

The carpenter bee is the larger bee and can be yellow or black.

There are over 60 species on Hawaii.

Lifespan

A summer bee can survive 6-8 weeks. A winter bee can live for 3-4 months.

The queen can live 1-2 years.

History

The first honey bees were brought from California in 1857 to Oahu to help with Kiawe (a cattle feed).

Between 1918 – 1941 approximately 1 million pounds of honey were produced per year. About the same amount of honey that is made today.

The first evidence of foul brood was found in 1981.

Pests/Diseases

Varroa mite, small hive beetle, Nosema Ceranae

Small hive beetle thrives on fruit, feral hives. It is long lived, and is a strong flyer.

Stings

When stung by a bee, scrape the stinger off (with a fingernail, license, credit card, dull knife).

1.) Do not try to pull out the stinger with your fingers or tweezers. This only squeezes more venom out.

2.) Wash the sting area with running water and soap. This cleans the area and removes any pheromones.

3.) Put an ice bag wrapped in a towel or cloth over the site to help reduce swelling.

4.) Watch the victim for at least 30 minutes for signs of an allergic reaction.

A normal bee sting is a localized reaction (red, with swelling, and may last 1 day). A person who is stung can take an antihistamine (children’s Benadryl chewable). An allergic (systemic) response includes difficulty breathing, throat closing. Many people believe they are allergic when they are not. Many people experience hyperventilation when stung. Hyperventilation is the rapid shallow breathing and the person who was stung has a pink face. A person exhibiting an anaphylactic reaction will have slow breathing (wheezing), will feel tired (may faint), their face or tongue may swell, and will turn blue. A person showing an allergic reaction should be given an epipen. Call 911. An epipen can be acquired from an allergists. As a beekeeper it is a good idea to get a prescription for an epipen. The epipen is an epinephren.

Hive Inspection

How to inspect a colony

1.) Approach from the side (do not block the hive entrance)

2.) Look at the entrance and ground for bee activity. Look for dead bees.

3.) Always move slowly, and smoothly. Do not bang anything.

4.) Use smoke to clear the bees. This makes it easier to inspect things. The smoker signals to the bees that the hive is fire, the bees go deeper in the hive, suck up honey and leave. They will avoid stinging in order to get the resources out of the potentially burning hive.

5.) Do not drop any parts or break anything.

6.) Always assume the queen is there. Don’t accidentally kill her.

7.) Turn the lid over on the ground.

8.) Try not to smash the bees

9.) Work the bees in the morning rather than the heat of the day or in the evening. The bees are less cranky in the morning.

10.) Inspection starts with the brood nest.

11.) Bee inspections should be done every 2-4 weeks.

12.) Any burr combs should be removed.

13.) Start by removing the frames near the sides of the box, this creates space to remove the center frames. When removing frames be careful to not crush the bees.

14.) Look for the queen. Look to see if a new queen is being raised.

15.) Look for nectar, pollen and honey.

16.) Examine for returning foragers.

17.) Sick, dead and deformed bees can be found in front of the hive.

18.) Examine the brood, eggs, larvae and pupae for fungal disease, parasites,

19.) Examine the adults for gut parasites or mites.

20.) Check the wood, wax, honey and pollen for the wax moth, hive beetle, ants and rodents.

21.) Label the frames and always put them back in the same order.

Equipment

Keeper - Suit, veil, gloves, sleeves, ankle straps, shoes, smoker, hive tool

Hive - Hive bodies, frames, top cover, bottom board.

Resources - Information

http://www.hear.org/starr/images/?o=insects insects of Hawaii, published by Forest and Kim Starr

http://kauaibuzz.blogspot.com/ Kauai Beekeepers Association KBEE

www.hawaiibee.com HDOA Apiary Program

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesbasics.htm - A great set of reading material

http://www.beesource.com/forums/archive/index.php/f-239.html

Resources – Retailers

http://www.mannlakeltd.com/ Mannlake

https://kelleybees.com/Products/ Walter Kelly (I believe this is the right sight…)

My open questions

1. How does one go about “re-queen”ing a hive?

2. Can a top bar hive be mixed with a frame hive?

3. What is the “barrel tax” mentioned in passing discussions?

This post is long overdue. In February, we visited Auny Helen in Kilauea.

Some notes from the meeting:
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Cacao Farming

The seed pods can be opened and the seeds placed directly in top soil to grow. Use a large aluminum pan to grow many seeds together. When about 2 inches tall move them to plastic bags with dirt. When one to two feet tall move to the ground. When transplanting to the ground don't disturb the main root.

When planting in the ground you can mix the natural soil with potting soil. Chicken manure is potent and can burn the roots. If fertilizing with chicken manure do it lightly and leave a bout 2 foot radius from the trunk.

The leaves from the cacao and the pods make a great fertilizer. Don't rake around the tree. fertilize with a bucket of mixed nitrogen (one bucket per tree). The fruit grows all year. The fruit is pollinated by the bull nat.

The fruit can be harvested when the pod is large, and when scraped with your finger nail it turns yellow. They also have a distinct thump noise to them.

The tree doesn't need to be pruned. It will naturally thin its own fruit. The tree will not let go of the pods when they are ripe. It will hold onto them and let them rot (to prevent competition on the floor).

They need wind shade, and prefer shade as keikis but require full sun when older. Planting is about 6 feet apart.Maturity is 3 or 4 years. Full maturity is 6 or 7 years.

When the fruit is harvested it must be processed within one to two days. The process to harvest is to cut the fruit. Remove the seeds and pulp. Use the sun or warm air to dry and ferment. The fermentation takes place for 7 or 8 days at 115degrees. A clear liquid will ooze out that can be made into cider. The fermentation process requires oxygen which is achieved by fermenting in a certain type of wooden box (type?). The fermented seeds are stirred once a day. After 8 days the seeds are washed and then dried.

Selling price < $20 per pound of processed and fermented seeds. Rest of the process from what I can recollect is adding butter, melting, cooling, heating and cooling, and sweetening (with sugar and nuts).
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