Field Day Bee Keeping Paper

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University of Florida *

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ENY5572

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Electrical Engineering

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Jan 9, 2024

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docx

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Goodman 1 The World of Bee Keeping: The Perspective from a Future Beekeeper Introduction The following paper discusses several bee keeping topics, ranging from pest and diseases to bee keeping equipment, all learned from a Bee Keeping Field Day at the University of Florida. In each section I discuss not only what I learned, but my personal thoughts and feelings regarding what I learned, and how I may apply that information to my future bee keeping endeavors. Pest & Diseases When considering getting into bee keeping, it is important to understand the potential pest and diseases that could affect your colony(ies), before jumping straight in. Doing this is important as you can be prepared to avoid a potential hive collapse. One of the most common (and detrimental) pests to honey bee’s is the Varroa destructor mite, which, for a honey bee, is the equivalent as having a volleyball pest feeding on a human’s body. But even more destructive than their size, as the diseases Varroa vector. Several diseases they vector are thought to be: deformed winged virus (always found in colonies to some extent), chronic bee paralysis virus, ABPV-KBV-IAPV, and sac brood virus. While none of these viruses have any known cure, they do not pose an imminent threat to the colony but can cause colony collapse when other stresses are present and/or there are poor nutritional supports. The main source of prevention for these viruses is via Varroa control. It is important to note that the economic threshold of Varroa is 3 mites per 100 honey bees. There are several ways to monitor the number of Varroa in a colony. One of those ways is to place a sticky matt UNDER a screened bottom board of your hives. Again, this should be placed under the screened bottom board, to prevent trapping your honey bees, in addition to any mites. A secondary solution would be

Goodman 2 placing 1 to 2 cups of honey bees (from the same hive) in a jar, with a screened lid, then sprinkling powered sugar over the honey bees, before shaking the jar. This will separate the mites from body of the honey bees. You will then need to count the number of honey bees vs the number of Varroa mites. Lastly, the most common way to monitor the number of Varroa mites, is to place small amount of your honey bees in an ethanol solution. While this will kill your bees, it is the easiest way to accurately count the number of Varroa in comparison to the number of honey bees. Another common pest is the small hive beetle, which is not an immediate threat to a colony, unless additional stressors or nutritional threats are present. One way a keeper knows there are small hive beetles present in a hive is by seeing a white, slimy, glistening substance growing within the hive, along the combs. This is the small hive beetle larvae, consuming parts of the hive (pictured to the right). One way of treating this, is by placing feeders at the top of the frames, or between the frames, to catch the small hive beetles and their larvae. Lastly, lesser and larger wax moths will lay eggs among the honeycomb (of mostly unoccupied, stored frames and hives), which will then hatch, destroying the honeycomb while eating the wax off the frame. When they are ready to pupate, they will dig into the sides of the frame and the super, leaving little indents (pictured to the right). One way to prevent this is by storing unused hives and frames in a cool, dry location. Many beekeepers, with

Goodman 3 ample space, will store their unused hives and frames in deep freezer or cooler. Another way to prevent wax moths is via the use of moth balls, while storing your hive. To the left, there is a picture of the damage caused by wax moths to a stored frame. There are other diseases to be aware of as a beekeeper, such as AFB, which requires the immediate burning of your hive AND colony, to protect other populations of honey bees, and EFB, which can be treated with antibiotics prescribed by a veterinarian. As well as Nosema and chalkbrood, both of which are fungal diseases that are mostly managed by the colony, in addition to good nutritional support. Keeping the hives dry, with ample ventilation will also aid in helping the colony rid themselves from fungal diseases. Bee Keeping Equipment After understanding what pest and diseases to keep an eye out, it is important to then understand the important bee keeping equipment, as well as the different hive parts you may want to use to build your hive. As a backyard beekeeper, you most likely want to start with a small 5-frame super, as it is an easier, smaller (and lighter weight) hive to manage, as a beginner. However, you can upgrade to the typical 10- frame super, in the future. Pictured above is a picture of a small 5-frame hive setup. Also, in the picture above, is an example of a telescoping hive lid. However, there is a second type of hive lid, known as a migratory lid (pictured below, on the far right side of the picture). I personally would choose a migratory lid, as it allows for supplemental feeding, in the events my colony may need additional nutritional support. In the other picture on this page, you can see how the frames are set inside of a super. The frame laying

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Goodman 4 on top of the super, has a plastic foundation inside of the frame. Plastic foundation is nice, as it is already coated with wax, allowing for your honey bees to focus more on the production of honey and growth of the colony, rather than the production of wax to help build the combs of the hive. Foundations (of any types) are also important to use as a guiding tool for your honeys bees to know how to build their comb and hive, to prevent them from building their hive from frame to frame, rather than within a single frame, as you would like them to do. The Picture to the left is other useful bee equipment, that you may need from time to time, for the maintenance of your colony. I will be explaining everything by going from left to right, top to bottom. The first item is a breeder box, in which a queen bee and several drones are left to breed for a number of days. Underneath that is the hive tool, used to get through propolis. The small box on the bottom is a queen box, used to protect the queen during transport and/or shipping. The bee brush is used to gently brush the bees off the frames or other equipment, for one reason or another. The most important of all of these tools would be the smoker, used to mask the waning pheromones, when going inside of the hive. The wooden plaque or board is an entrance reducer. There is a larger entrance and a lesser entrance (both pictured below). This is used to reduce the entrance to the hive in weak or stressed colony. The last two objects are for supplemental feeding. If you are using a migratory lid, you can simply place the mason jar through the hole in the migratory lid (note the small feeding holes in the top of the mason jar lid). However, if you are using a telescoping lid, you would use a feeder, which partially slides through the entrance of the hive, to connect the mason jar with the sugar water to the hive.

Goodman 5 Entrance Reducer w/ small entrance: Entrance Reducer w/ wide entrance: Personal Thoughts and Conclusion Bee keeping seems to be both a fulfilling hobby, as well as a livelihood. However, there is a lot more than I anticipated that goes into keeping a successful hive and colony. While a colony may seem self-sustaining, there is still maintenance required when keeping a colony. The monitoring and management of pest and disease is probably the most important maintenance requirement of bee keeping because they can disseminate other local colonies (feral and private/commercial), if they spread. However, despite just the spread of potential pest and diseases, it also affects the productivity and the harvest of your colony. For me, personally, I would love to have my own hive(s) in the future, as a means to help me homestead. If my colonies were under stressors, due to pests and diseases, they would be less beneficial for my gardens, and I would have a lower crop yield rate, due to less pollination occurring. Furthermore, if I was planning on harvesting my own honey, my colony would be too weak to sustain both the colony and my family, if they were suffering stressors from pest and diseases. Another key note I learned, was the importance of nutritional health to the overall colony health. If the colony is lacking nutritionally, a pest or disease that otherwise would not negatively affect the colony, could now cause a colony collapse. In conclusion, I found the Bee Keeping Field Day to be both informative and fun, as I learned about the many aspects of being a bee keeper.