Honeybees are a vital part to te food supply in our country. Each year, honeybees help the agriculture industry with pollination as well as our gardens, trees, and flowers in our yards. Although honeybees produce about 400 million pounds of honey each year, millions of acres of U.S. fruit, vegetable, and seed crops depend on honeybee pollination. This means that about one-third of the total human diet is derived directly or indirectly from insect-pollinated plants. Not only do we depend on pollination of food, but livestock feed also depends on honeybees. The bees pollinate alfalfa, clover and other foods for livestock.
The Importance of Beekeepers
Beekeepers play a vital role in helping the agriculture industry and every day gardens. Beekeepers help maintain the hives success by providing a home for the honeybees through the use of bee hives. Beekeepers monitor and help bees in their honey production. Bees have less tendencies to swarm or leave the hive when beekeepers have relieved the hive of the overflow of honey or the loss of expandable space. With beekeeping comes necessary tools to help in supporting the hive as well as collecting the honey produced by the bees.
First, the beekeepers needs to build and have a supply of equipment such as the hive itself, deeps with frames (this is where the bees live and grow), supers with frames (this is where the honey is stored). Other supplies include a smoker, beekeeper's suit which consists of overalls, hat, veil, and gloves, and tools. These tools include a bee brush, scraper, feeder pails, queen excluder, and screen bottom boards. Finally, a beekeeper may have an extractor, uncapping knife, and honey storage containers when it comes time for collecting honey.
First, the beekeepers needs to build and have a supply of equipment such as the hive itself, deeps with frames (this is where the bees live and grow), supers with frames (this is where the honey is stored). Other supplies include a smoker, beekeeper's suit which consists of overalls, hat, veil, and gloves, and tools. These tools include a bee brush, scraper, feeder pails, queen excluder, and screen bottom boards. Finally, a beekeeper may have an extractor, uncapping knife, and honey storage containers when it comes time for collecting honey.
Some Notes on Honeybees
A hive consists of many parts. The deep hive box is where frames are kept for bees to reproduce and maintain their colony. The deep will consist of eight to ten frames, one queen, drones (male), and worker (female) bees.The queen's job is to lay eggs. The drones purpose is to mate with the queen. The worker bees gather nectar and pollen, take care of the queen, build wax cells, and guard the hive among many other jobs. The average life of a honeybee is about 30 days.
Above the deep, you will find supers. The supers are where the worker bees keep nectar to turn into honey. Between the deep and super, a beekeeper may place a queen excluder. This queen excluder is just that - it keeps the queen out of the super so that only honey is stored in these upper boxes. Most hives will have anywhere from 1-4 supers for honey. During the winter months, the supers get taken off the hive so it's easier for the bees to keep the hive warm. Usually in the fall a hive will have two deeps for the winter. One will be full of honey to provide food for the bees until Spring. The other will remain empty so the bees have room in the winter.
Above the deep, you will find supers. The supers are where the worker bees keep nectar to turn into honey. Between the deep and super, a beekeeper may place a queen excluder. This queen excluder is just that - it keeps the queen out of the super so that only honey is stored in these upper boxes. Most hives will have anywhere from 1-4 supers for honey. During the winter months, the supers get taken off the hive so it's easier for the bees to keep the hive warm. Usually in the fall a hive will have two deeps for the winter. One will be full of honey to provide food for the bees until Spring. The other will remain empty so the bees have room in the winter.
Fun Facts
- Bees can fly faster than you can walk or run! (More than 15 mph)
- It takes a lot of flowers to make one pound of honey. (About 2 million flowers produce one pound of honey!)
- Only female bees are the worker bees.
- A worker bee may have many jobs - not just gathering nectar or pollen.
- One honeybee will produce only 1/12 teaspoon of honey in her lifetime.
- Bees make 11,400 strokes per minute to create their "BUZZ" sound.
- The honeybee is Wisconsin's state insect.
- Honeybees communicate with each other by dancing!
- A queen will only attack another queen in order to keep her hive.
- Worker bees make perfect hexagons for their wax cells.
- Grubs grow to be adult bees in 28 days.
- There are over 4,000 bees on one frame alone! Most boxes have 10 frames in them!
The Need to Worry?
People worry about honeybees and the dangers of them. Honeybees main purpose is to forage for food. Since honeybees can only sting once and die, the chances of being stung by a honeybee is uncommon. The honeybee may only sting if she feels that her life is threatened or if the hive is threatened. Should the honeybee sting, here's a tip: The honeybee's stinger is a barbed-like shape that needs to be "scraped" out of the skin in order to get rid of the venom. Never pull out the stinger with a tweezers as this may inject more venom into the body. When working with honeybees, beekeepers rarely get stung by a bee - and they are working inside the hives!