The Basics of a Bee:
- Bees live for about 6 weeks.
- It takes 21 days from the time the queen lays an egg to the time the bee becomes an adult.
- Once the adult bee emerges from her cell she begins immediately to clean her own area.
- As time goes by the bees take on different jobs around the hive the older they get. Taking care of the young, cleaning and feeding the queen, fanning when hot, transfer of nectar, making wax, some will become guard bees and eventually forage towards the end of their lives. they literally work themselves to death!
- The queen lays up to 1500 eggs a day. Maxing out at peak season of 60,000 bees per hive.
- The difference between a queen bee and a female worker bee is that she is fed royal jelly from a gland found within the nurse bees head while developing in her cocoon. This ripens her ovaries and changes the shape of her body. She will then mate with hundreds of drones or male bees (1 male to every 100 female worker bees in the hive) hundreds of feet up in the air. If she is well mated that will be all she needs to lay tens of thousands of eggs for a good 5 years or so.
Basic Bee Equipment:
- For the hive you are going to have a basic set up of a Bottom Board (I suggest screened bottom board to allow ventilation, this is one of the most important things you can do for your bees year round).
- Top Board (some come with an inner cover unattached and others come with the inner cover sealed to the outer cover). I have the inner cover with outer cover sealed together. I honestly don’t think it matters.
- Brood Box or “Deep” (bottom box)
- Honey Supers (anything above the brood box).
- Frames (usually 10 to each box).
- Partitions are good to have to help close off the entrance to the hive to keep robbers from creating a full out war! It looks similar to a ruler and is 3/8 of an inch thick and as long as you need it to be.
Brood and Honey Combs
Here is a picture of a frame with dark wax. Propolis (plant sap) is what gives the wax a darker color. It is a brood frame and is used to lay eggs and keep the babies healthy because of it’s anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties. If you can find someone that would be willing to give you some brood frames you are off to a much faster start to producing honey and strengthening the hive. It will take up to 3 weeks just to draw out these combs and get the frames ready for the queen to lay. When checking the hive to see how production is coming along look for 4-5 frames of capped brood. This is a good indication that the queen is doing well. I do not get into my hive more than 1-2 times a month once I feel like the queen is well established.
Here is a picture of comb that is a creamy white color. This is used for honey! You can also see off to the right they have stored propolis inside the combs to help feed the colony during the winter (good source of protein too)! We are using a hot capping knife to release the honey, getting it ready to be extracted from the frame.
Beneficial Extras
Recipe for Healthy Bee Sugar Water: