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Beekeeping benefits a lot when you run the operation while keeping proper records. Both beginner and experienced beekeepers can appreciate the importance of keeping records as a beekeeper, to the best of their abilities. Various factors determine what type of records you can keep in your beekeeping operation. The factors also influence the data or information you capture. Beekeeping records can contain text, numbers, diagrams, pictures, audio captures, and videos in use alone or in various combinations. Technologies applied in beekeeping help with data collection for records, as well as with better storage of the records.

Beekeeping comes with a number of maintenance and management activities that beekeepers have to carry out periodically. The frequency of carrying out these activities varies by necessity, and by preference of individual beekeepers. Splitting a hive is one of these activities. It is mostly done to prevent swarming. Beekeepers seeking …

Modern beekeeping for honey bee conservation and beehive products makes use of a variety of beehives. Among these is the Warré beehive. Other beehives are the top bar hive and the Langstroth beehive (check out our article on the comparison of these beehives).  This beginner’s introduction to the Warré hive explores the history of the hive and its key features. It also looks at other important areas for beekeepers using the Warré hive, including its management and components of the hive.

Bees belong to a group of insects that belong to the Hymenoptera order, ideally referring to insects with membrane wings. Within this order are a total of 100,000 species of insects. In total there are 25 thousand different kinds of bees in existence. Most people are more familiar with the honey bee, primarily because they are largely domesticated and they produce a food consumed by humans. There are however, many other bees that live a solitary lifestyle. This kind survives and thrives inside small tunnels. Bees are social insects and even in cases of solitary species, you might find a number of females sharing a tunnel. Some other bee species exhibit a semi or social organization with a hierarchical arrangement for the female bees. Bumblebees, tropical stingless bees and honey bees belong to the same family. The social organization of this group is similar across the board, with one fertile female queen vested with the responsibility of laying eggs for the colony. The other colony members will devote their lifetime to serving the queen and handling any other important tasks within the colony. These include cleaning, defense, feeding brood, feeding the queen, removal of dirt or dead bees, foraging, and many others.

Any beekeeper, particularly beginners, would not want to come across burr combs in their beehives. Burr comb is formed out of the spaces that exist between the frames. The spacing should be as even as possible. Moreover, they should be just wide enough to allow for movement of the honey bees between the combs and the hive. This means that it should not be too large or too small. Burr combs connect one frame to a another nearby frame, or one frame to the wall of the beehive. This depends on where the space occurs. This is problematic for the beekeeper since the connected frames cannot be removed easily or safely. This is because the burr comb must first be broken before the frame can be pulled from the hive. This can take a lot of time to correct.

The honeybee colony is complex by design and handle seamlessly a number of tasks: defense, communication, division of labor, food production, nest building, colony condition control, and many others. Within a colony exists a number of cells and it is crucial for the beekeeper to understand how each looks like. Knowing how to identify and analyzing queen cells is essential since this is where the future of the colony is pegged.

Bees are an important species impacting many aspects of human life, particularly agriculture. Plant production in agriculture requires fertilization of plant gametes. This is enabled by pollination, which is largely about the transfer of pollen grains from one section of the flower to another. In the best cases of pollination, pollen from one plant is transferred to another plant of the same species. This is called cross pollination. Genetic diversity in plants of the same species is better with cross pollination than with self pollination or vegetative growth of new plants. This article discusses the importance of honey bees in agriculture, and gives you a perspective on the roles all species play in sustaining life on Earth and how they impact ecosystems.

Beekeepers seeking to expand their apiaries need to get honey bee swarms for new beehive boxes. To do this, you may either purchase package bees or catch a swarm of bees yourself. In this article, we'll discuss in detail how to attract and catch a swarm of bees. It also explores different ways to make sure the swarm you catch gets comfortable quickly in their new home.

Beekeeping is a wonderful and satisfying activity for many people all over the world. It is a creative use of space for both conservation and profit purposes. Package bees are an excellent way for beekeepers to get started with a new hive. Installing package bees may also be used to strengthen weak colonies. This article will help you to have a smooth time as you will learn how to install package bees into your Langstroth top bar beehive.

The Honey Bee Social Structure Bees, like humans, have a very complex social structure, and beekeepers should understand this structure if they are to be successful. Honey bees are vegetarian and get their proteins from the pollen they eat. Honey bees also get carbohydrates from the honey that is made …