Perhaps you have come across the name Melipona bee and wondered what it is. There is also so much hype on the benefits of Melipona honey. What exactly is the Melipona bee and does its honey have more benefits than any other honey? Well, we shall delve into all these in this article.
Read More »Hive Increase – How to Increase Bees in the Hive
The number of honey bees in the colony determines the overall hive strength and how good the colony is at collecting resources. Once a small swarm has been settled into a beehive, the beekeeper has to quickly promote an increase in the number of bees, in order for the colony …
Read More »How to Clean a Dead Beehive and Reuse it
It's not something that any beekeeper would ever wish for, but honeybee colonies can sometimes die off. There are various reasons for this happening ranging from the weather and diseases to pesticide chemicals. When an entire colony dies off, you have to clean the beehive and prepare it for its next use. In this article we will discuss how to clean a dead beehive and get it ready for a new colony of honeybees. Cleaning a dead beehive should have focus on all areas and parts of the hive. It also has a role in preventing re-occurrence of the mass death of honeybees.
Read More »What is the Role of a Bee Broker?
Honeybees serve a key role in agriculture for humans. The nectar collected by honeybees is used for making honey, and it is the only food made by an insect which humans consume. The worker bees play the role of converting nectar into honey using their enzymes. Moreover, honeybees also provide pollination services, and this is where bee brokers come in. A bee broker may be described as the individual who is in the honeybee business for commercial purposes. They engage in a number of activities which we shall discuss in this article.
Read More »The Importance of Good Beehive Management Practices
Individuals engage in beekeeping as a hobby or as a business venture. The importance of good beehive management practices is seen in both hobbyist and business beekeeping operations. They both require observation, control, and maintenance of the beehives in the best condition for habitation by honeybee colonies. Even conservation beekeepers should practice proper beehive management to achieve the best results in their beekeeping. Beehive management is the set of practices, activities, and routines that you carry out to ensure your beekeeping operation meets its objectives. Poorly managed beehives lead to stressed bees. They also result in low-quality beehive products in amounts that are less than the maximum yield possible.
Read More »CheckInspect – Check the Weather for your Beehive Inspection
Technology has given us various physical and virtual tools in beekeeping. The CheckInspect tool is a web application that helps you decide if its optimal to check on your beehives or wait. It is available to all beekeepers across the globe. The online beehive inspection suitability tool uses weather information and your settings to determine if your conditions are optimal or not. On every determination the tool gives you, it adds a short reason to help you understand the determination.
Read More »Apiculture: What Is Beekeeping & How It Works
Beekeeping, or apiculture as it is also known, is the human activity of maintaining honey bees. A beekeeper, or apiarist, is someone who keeps honey bees for the purpose of collecting their honey and other products that are produced by the hive such as propolis, beeswax and royal jelly, or …
Read More »How the Bee Population Increase Benefits the Environment
Bees play a key role for the survival of the human race and therefore we have a responsibility of ensuring their survival. A bee population increase will benefit the environment given the many benefits they provide to all living creatures and plants.
Read More »What is Bridge Comb and How to Remove it?
Honey bees build comb in the beehive and in the wild too. The comb they build is usually straight downwards and only extends sideways to a uniform wideness. Sometimes however, they may build comb that is not straight downwards. It may extend sideways and join more than one frame in a beehive. This is called bridge comb - honeycomb that is built in a way that is not expected in and joins two or more frames at the top or bottom. In addition to this, you might find honeycomb built in other wrong places in the beehive. Other types of unusual honeycomb in beehives are brace comb and cross comb, and they are all collectively called burr comb.
Read More »Do You Need a Brood Booster for your Beehives?
The brood is the lifeline and the future of the bee colony. Therefore, the beekeeper that is able to raise a healthy brood is guaranteed of success from the beginning. The process of feeding your brood with brood booster can be simple but the catch lies in determining whether it is necessary to feed the bees with it or not, getting the right measurement and deciding when to do so.
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