Speaker Howard Toll - Bee Keeping

Howard's wife knew somebody who kept bees. He was interested and she contacted him to tell him that a lady called Natalie in Dewsbury had a swarm of bees and he ended up with them in a Nuc. He didn't really know what to do with them so having paid £100 for the swarm he had to pay out £130 for a 2 day course. He then bought a beehive.

In order to transport bees keepers will usually have a Nuc box, pronounced nuke. It is a smaller version of a normal beehive, designed to hold fewer frames (usually 5 or 6). It is usually made of polystyrene with a wire mesh frame too small for the bees to get out of but which allows build on together with some sugar syrup. You then put the swarm in the Nuc and let the bees start to colonise the nuc before moving the frames to a standard beehive.
A standard hive has 12 frames. It consists of

• Hive stand: the upper hive components rest on this, providing a landing board for the bees and helping to protect the bottom board from rot and cold transfer.
• Bottom board: this has an entrance for the bees to get into the hive.
• Brood box: the lowest box of the hive and where the queen bee lays her eggs and where the bees over winter as the temperature stays around 30 degrees centigrade.
• Honey super: usually shorter than the brood box, but is the uppermost box(s), where honey is stored.
• Frames and foundation: wooden or plastic frames with wax or plastic sheets with honeycomb impression where bees build wax honey combs.
• Inner cover: provides separation from an overly hot or cold outer cover and can be used as a shelf for feeding or other purposes.
• Outer cover: provides weather protection for the hive.
  

Howard thought he would make money out of the bees by selling the honey. This was a fallacy as for the first year he had to leave the bees to build up the colony so that they could survive throught the winter.

The life cycle is that the queen starts to lays between 1,500 and 2,000 eggs per day. The males (drones) fertilise the eggs - these are about twice the size of worker bees with huge eyes and do no other work and even do not have a sting. The eggs hatch after 3 days to become larva. After 8 days the larva cocoon for 10 days when they emerge as bees. The worker bees stay in the hive for 21 days tending to the hive, the eggs and guarding the colony. Then they start foraging for nectar. They do this for 3 to 5 weeks before becoming too old and die.

The queen will live for 5 to 7 years. Either when she starts to do a poor job or if she does too good a job then the workers will produce a new queen from one of the larva by feeding it only Royal Jelly while a normal larva will only be given it for 1 or 2 days. It only takes 16 days from laying the egg to a Queen being fully fledged compared to 21 days for a worker.

When an existing queen realises that a new queen is on the way she leaves with a swarm of up to half the hive to produce a new colony elsewhere. The swarm sends out scouts to find a new place to live. Once found the scout guides the swarm to it by using angles to the sun.

Once a new queen emerges she flies off to get inseminated by males from another hive. If she gets killed while out the workers start again on producing another queen. If she returns OK she then kills any other potential new queens by stinging.

At the height of the season a beehive can contain 80 to 150 thousand bees. When they initially produce their honey it is very runny so they fan it with their wings until the water content falls to 18% then they cap the cell with wax.