Bottom Board Openings 3/4” or 3/8”?? www.honeybeesonline.com 217-427-2678

Thanks for joining us here at www.honeybeesonline.com for some more beekeeping insights. Every time we make a beekeeping post they rapidly circulate through the beekeeping community. We find our materials and insights published in books, articles and on other beekeepers’ websites. There is a famous quote that says, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” We enjoy posting these lessons because we know it will help beekeepers become more successful.

Our first beekeeping blog was posted September 6, 2007. We’ve been sending out vital beekeeping information now for over 8 years. It requires a great deal of research, writing, testing and experience to be able to publish each of these blogs/lessons/articles. Thank you for joining us and keeping track of us through this blog. And a big thank you for those who support us through making us your main source for all of your beekeeping needs. We make our living from you buying our hives and beekeeping equipment and we appreciate it.

Here in Illinois we are having a very typical fall. Most asters are drying out, grass is slowing down, and the nights are getting cooler. While our bees are preparing for winter, so are we. We are looking for any cracks around windows and door that need caulked to keep cold air from getting in. I told a friend that up north, our homes are similar to bee hives. While bees need about 70 pounds of stored honey to make it through the winter,  we have to provide about 1,000 gallons of propane to our house to make it through the winter. I have to replace a couple of windows, place some snow plow markers around, and the list goes on.

We are also having our last beekeeping class for 2015 coming up this Saturday. We still have two spots open, so sign up today if you are thinking about taking a basic beekeeping class for beginners. Click here for more info. Our 2016 class schedule is being arranged now and will be posted within the next month. Our first round of classes usually is not offered until February 2016, so this is your last chance for a class this year.

If you can not think about winter coming then fall can be a very fun time of the year. We enjoy fall because it is a time to celebrate the bounty of summer. Harvest time means that everything went pretty well during the summer. Harvesting honey means that the bees did well all year. We enjoy pumpkins, the beauty of mums and the fun of going through corn mazes. Here in Illinois, there are places that will make huge corn mazes. This one was shaped like an eagle and was made in honor of our service men and women. I took this picture of Christian standing next to the marine marker.

Fall is baseball at its best with playoffs and the World Series! My oldest son is a big Cardinal fan and this year he forced me and Christian to go to a few games with him in St. Louis. It was Christian’s first time to go to a major league baseball game so we were teaching him the traditions such as the unique claps, corn dogs, overpriced cokes and the words to “Take Me Out To The Ball Game.” 

My oldest son David and my middle son Seth do nothing but think about the Cardinals. They never get an autograph, never catch a fly ball, never get close to the players but boy, would they love that. If any of you have connections, hook ‘em up. Anyway, on Christian’s second game a Cincinnati Reds’ player hit the longest left-handed home run in the new Stadium’s history. Well the ball bounced around in the stands and fell back on the field. An out fielder threw it over toward the guy sitting along the foul line and he stood up and tossed it right to Christian and he caught it! They were jealous.

Speaking of our marine son, Seth, he’s made it safely through his second deployment in the middle east and will be getting home soon. We are looking forward to seeing him again soon.

While fall is a fun time it does make us evaluate our hives and decide whether they are ready for winter. Have you noticed how different bees behave in the fall after the nectar flow ends? They are desperately scouring your property looking for anything sweet. I spilt a little bit of sugar in the back of my truck and I had a hundred bees on it. This is the season when hives rob smaller hives which has caused me to consider the bottom board. Let’s talk about this for a minute.

Okay beekeepers, here are two tips for you.

Know the difference between a yellow jacket and a honey bee. People will be calling you asking you to remove honey bees from their compost piles and homes, but when you arrive you will quickly see the difference. Bees have NO yellow on them at all. I always ask the homeowner to send me a picture. Here’s a picture I took of a yellow jacket eating with honey bees. See the difference? The yellow jacket has clear yellow and black markings and look at how long the yellow jacket antennae are.

The second tip is to be sure to place your entrance reducers on your hives now. Mice are  starting to find a warm home now that the nights are cooler.

Once again we are hard at work making our Burns Bees Feeding Systems which are a great way to feed your bees in the fall.  It comes with 2 holes for jars and one hole for patties. I like to feed my bees one jar of 2:1 and the other jar with 1:1. The first is for storage of honey and the 1:1 is to help build up fall brood for healthy spring and summer bees. These systems are screened so that you can change your jars and patties without bees bothering you.Maximize your effort to feed your bees prior to winter.

I recommend using these and feed your bees liquid as long as they can fly. I just posted a new video online so you can see how to place these on your hive. If the video doesn’t play, here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdpqHnKXuMM

When the temperature dips below 50 degrees (f) in the day, bees will stop foraging and that’s when I recommend feeding them with our Winter-Bee-Kind candy board all winter.

BOTTOM BOARD OPENINGS 3/4 or 3/8?

Let’s talk about the opening of the bottom board spacing without a reducer. Years ago the bottom board was referred to as a reversible bottom board. This meant that if you flip it over on one side the entrance opening would be 3/4 of an inch. Flip it over on the other side and the entrance opening would be 3/8 of an inch. We’ve always made our bottom boards this way, only we do not place a back piece on the 3/8 side because hardly anyone flips the bottom boards any longer.

Let’s talk about why they used to flip the bottom boards. The reversing of the bottom board was a practice where you would actually flip it to the 3/8” (smallest opening) during the summer and the larger 3/4” opening in the winter. The thought was that during the winter, the larger spacing of 3/4 of an inch allowed an area inside on the bottom board for dead winter bees to fall and collect away from the winter cluster. And the smaller opening of 3/8” in the summer was believed to reduce robber bees.

Over the last 20 years most people have forgotten the reversible idea and strictly run a 3/4” opening when making bottom boards. After all, it does take a great deal of work to take the hive apart down to the bottom board in order to reverse it. And let’s be practical. First, a healthy colony is very good at removing dead bees from their hive on the first warm winter day. Secondly, a strong colony can defend itself against other colonies attempting to rob its honey stores. But there’s another part of this idea that is starting to intrigue me.

A friend of mine observed that bees land on the bottom board, go to the nearest wall and walk up and then cross over. This is why we see most foragers land toward one side of a bottom board. They are attempting to grain faster access to their wall so they can gain faster access to going up into their hive and then walking across. That’s a slew of walking. It’s not impossible for bees to enter a wall or tree and walk to where their comb is located. However, to be able to enter a colony and immediately gain access to comb does seem more practical to me. This can be achieved by reversing the bottom board to the smaller 3/8” opening because it drops the bottom of the deep hive body frame down closer to the screen bottom board. A foraging bee can land, walk it and simply raise up onto the comb and walk up on any frame rather than having to go to the wall.

Forager bees usually enter a colony and hand off their payload to house bees who walk it up into the honey super. So I really do not know where this transfer takes place. On the wall? Or does the forager have to walk into the comb where house bees are waiting? By my observation, it appears it does not take place on the wall but within the comb which makes sense. If this is the case, then it makes sense that bees would rather enter and choose which comb to gain access to from the bottom rather than having to walk up above the first deep and then back down or up from there.

I observed this activity for some time and I did not see one single bee fly up from the bottom board onto frames. Bees cannot jump, so they were indeed heading to the side wall to go up.

Before you jump to conclusions and form a rigid opinion, wait!  I am NOT saying that 3/4” openings reduces a colonies healthy or ability to store resources.  Nor am I saying that a smaller opening will improve a colony’s honey production. At the most I am simply suggesting it may reduce the distance bees have to walk to get to where they are going. Whether or not that changes things, I simply do not know.

But, if you want to try it why not. You can see if it makes any difference. We are now adding the extra back piece to all our bottom boards we sell simple to give customers that option if they so choose.

Now, my own person perspective. I like the idea of the smaller opening year round for several reasons. First, reducing the walk time of foragers. Secondly, the smaller opening should reduce robbing in the fall, and mice in the winter. I said “reduce,” not eliminate. Mice are very hard to keep out of hives. In their natural habitat bees always choose smaller openings and will even add propolis to reduce entrances. However, there are less pieces of equipment that support the 3/8” spacing. Most feeders, pollen traps, etc., are made to fit the standard 3/4”. Again, this is something that you can make up your own mind about.

66% of new beekeepers are women! So come browse, shop and read awhile. Besides quality beekeeping equipment, you’ll see a complete line of jewelry, shirts, bags and skin care. Be sure and check out Sheri’s new website geared more for women beekeepers. www.beekeepingchicks.com

Check out our complete line of beekeeping supplies at www.honeybeesonline.com and call or come by and see us. 217-427-2678
David and Sheri Burns

LESSON 147: What Will Winter Storm Ion Do To Honey Bee Hives? www.honeybeesonline.com 217-427-2678

Hello from Long Lane Honey Bee Farms. We are David and Sheri Burns and we operate a family owned beekeeping business. We make all our hives by hand. We DO NOT buy other hives and assemble them. We start with large pine boards and build hives. And as an EAS certified master beekeeper we offer beginner and advance beekeeping courses, as well as queen rearing classes in our education center here on our farm. Visit www.honeybeesonline.com/classes.html for a full list of our 2014 class schedule. We sell everything to do with bees, even the bees. So we appreciate your business.

We are a one stop place where you can get everything you need to get started in beekeeping. You’ve thought about it, and now it’s time to get started in the exciting world of beekeeping.

 

Years ago we started making our own hives. They meet traditional Langstroth’s measurements but we’ve tweaked our hives because we are beekeepers and we knew what improvements we could make to improve our hives. Our complete hive was one of the first hives to be completely painted and assembled and we still build and paint them the same way. If you need a hive for spring, check our hives.

Winter weather certainly brings concern to most beekeepers. Although healthy colonies can withstand brutal winter weather, colonies that are low in numbers or food supply can fall victim to such storms as we are witnessing across the Midwest and northeast. The low temperature in Chicago tonight will be minus 13 below zero (-13 f). The high temperature in Chicago tomorrow is predicted only to reach a negative 10 below zero…that’s the high temperature!

When blasts of cold, brutal winter weather threatens colonies around the US we get questions from beekeepers asking whether their bees will survive. Colonies that were already in trouble will probably fail. Small colonies with less that 40,000 bees will likely freeze and die. Larger colonies that are healthy will likely be unaffected by winter storm Ion.

The winter colony of honey bees does not hibernate, rather bees cluster together and generate heat to keep work. The queen will be in the center of the cluster as well as possible small amounts of brood. Remember, developing pupa needs to be kept around 92 (f) degrees. Bees will work hard to generate the heat needed around the brood area and in support of the winter cluster. The greater the number of bees, the more heat can be generated. This is why it is so important to start preparing for winter in the spring, making sure your bees are developing into strong colonies all year long in preparation for winter.

Tomorrow we will receive lots of calls from beekeepers in a panic over winter storm Ion, asking us what they can do to help their bees make it through winter. When Sheri and I were discussing how to answer these questions I jokingly told her she should answer, “buy more packages”.  The tricky part of winter beekeeping is packages have to be ordered in January and February when you really don’t know yet how your existing hives will do coming out of winter. Will they make it or not? If you wait until March to find out, it’s practically impossible to buy packages this late in the year if you need replacement packages of bees.

Most people wonder if they should wrap their hive, or cover the hive with something to hold in the heat. A blanket may help your bees if they have no wind block and are in a very windy area. I would only use the blanket for short durations, taking it off when temperatures reach back into the 30s. Many insects survive winter by burring down under brush, leaves or dirt to avoid drastically cold temperatures. Of course, a blanket is feasible if you only have one or two hives but is impractical the more hives you have. A blanket on a cold night still may not help an unhealthy hive or a hive with inadequate numbers of bees. But, since you do not know how many bees are in your colony, it may be something worth trying. The reason you do not want to leave it on a hive is because it could become moist and hold too much moisture and stale air within the hive.

Should you put a heating pad or light around the hive? Again, this is a lot of work and excessive or unnatural heat can adversely affect the colony. Again, if you have a hive or two and it’s going to be –10 (f) for a night, some beekeepers claim this is helpful. Ideally, we want strong colonies going into winter so these attempts are not necessary with strong and healthy hives.

What about moving the colony into a barn or garage? Certainly this could be helpful if the hive does not have a wind block. But, a healthy hive is going to be very heavy to move. What if you move it and spill it and separate the boxes and break the propolis seal? Not good! What if you hurt your back? And if you do move them into a building, be sure to screen the front so no bees can fly out to investigate what all the shaking and groaning is about. Then, you’ll need to move them back out on a day of 50 (f) degrees or above so they can fly out from their old location. So again, this could be helpful but requires a lot of work and risk.

So what’s the best thing to do? Stay warm in your house and hope for the best. That’s really all we can do. Of course we believe in our Winter-Bee-Kind upper insulation/candy and protein board with an upper entrance/exit.  Watch my video on how it works:

It’s never too cold or late in the winter to put the WBK boards on your hives. When ordering, be sure to specify whether you have an 8 frame hive or 10 frame. Look closely to order the proper size for  your hive. Click here to order. In summary, there is very little left to do at this point. Winter preparation has to be completed during warm weather, now we sit and wait keeping our fingers crossed and saying our prayers.

Before I go, here’s some items and classes you need to know about:

BUSY BEE SPECIAL 1 Hive and one package of bees with mated queen. The hives are custom made by hand right here in Central Illinois. The packages of bees are shipped to you from Gardners Apiary in Georgia, who have agreed to help us help you fulfill your dreams of becoming a beekeeper in the spring 2014. Your hive will ship first from Illinois, then bees will ship approximately in May of 2014. CLICK HERE to read more about our BUSY BEE SPECIAL. VERY LIMITED NUMBERS.

 

 

FREEDOM KIT INCLUDES 2 COMPLETE HIVES AND SUPPLIES

Two complete hives. Each hive includes the following: CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO ORDER
1 screen bottom board with two different entrance cleats. One cleat is for use with the included entrance feeder. The other is used without an entrance feeder.
1 entrance feeder. Just add your small mouth glass jar and feed your bees sugar water if needed.
2 Deep Hive Bodies. This is the area where the bees live. Each deep hive body comes complete with 10 wooden frames with full 3/8 side bars, and are glued and stapled. Plus each frame is already assembled with plastic beeswax coated foundation. This is a total of 20 deep hive body frames.
1 Medium Honey Super. This is where the bees store their excess honey that you can
remove. This super comes with 10 wooden frames, glued and stapled, fully assembled
with plastic beeswax coated foundation.
1 Inner cover. This goes on top of the boxes, but beneath the final top cover. This inner
cover allows for upper ventilation and an vapor barrier.
1 Telescoping Top Cover. This is the final top cover with nice white aluminum metal to
help protect it from the weather.
LOOK WHAT ELSE IS INCLUDED:
1 Plastic Pith Beekeeping Hat.
1 Veil that goes around the hat to protect the face and neck.
1 hive tool. 1 Beekeeping Stainless Steel smoker with heat guard
1 Package of smoker fuel, though you can also use pine needles or other natural items.
1 Book, "First Lessons In Beekeeping" by Keith Delaplane.
2 Queen Excluder, used to keep the queen from entering into the upper super.
These hives are built right here at our honey bee farm in Central Illinois.

Plug in to one of our upcoming beekeeping classes:

Jan. 24-25 Basic Beekeeping

Feb. 8 Basic Beekeeping

Feb. 15 Basic Beekeeping

March 7-8 Basic Beekeeping

March 22 Basic Beekeeping

April 12 Basic Beekeeping

May 23-24 Advance Beekeeping

June 9-13 Beekeeping Institute

June 27-28 Queen Rearing Course

October 3-4 Basic Beekeeping

October 25 Basic Beekeeping

Stay warm and thanks for joining us for another beekeeping lesson.
David and Sheri Burns
Long Lane Honey Bee Farms
www.honeybeesonline.com

217-427-2678 M-Thu 10am-4pm central time. Friday 10am-Noon

Lesson 130: How To Find Your Queen www.honeybeesonline.com 217-427-2678

Oh that queen can be so challenging to find sometime. Today, I’m going to give you a few tips to help you find your queen. Before we get into today’s lesson let me say hello from Long Lane Honey Bee Farms. It is so nice working with the finest customers. We enjoy learning about your family and why you are interested in beekeeping. We have such a great relationship with our customers. We look forward to meeting you too, if you are just now getting to know us better. We are David and Sheri Burns, and we operate Long Lane Honey Bee Farms in central Illinois. We are located about 35 miles east of Champaign, Illinois where the University of Illinois is located. We manufacture beekeeping equipment and sell all things related to beekeeping such as smokers, suits, hive tools, protective hats and veils, gloves, queen excluders, feeders, and we even sell packages of bees, nucs (a nucleus hive) and queens that we raised here on our bee farm (apiary).
In addition to all of this we also specialize in premier beekeeping classes. We are both passionate advocates for helping teach and guide people into the wonderful hobby of beekeeping. When you take one of our beekeeping classes, you can rest assured that you are being taught by a competent EAS certified master beekeeper, one of only 130 in the world. A master beekeeper does not just have book knowledge or has passed rigorous tests,  but must have years of experience as a serious beekeeper in some aspect of apiary management such as a very dedicated hobbyist, working as a commercial beekeeper or as an apiary inspector. A certified master beekeeper must have an equivalent of a college level course in beekeeping and be well read in apicultural literature. Come join master beekeeper David Burns for either his Beginning Classes, Advance Classes or Queen Rearing Classes. Click here to read more information on our classes.  We have three Basic classes coming up Feb 23rd, March 9th, and March 23rd, 2013.(The February 9th class is full). We have people from other states take our classes. You can fly in to Indianapolis International Airport (1 1/2 hours from us) or Chicago ( 2 1/2 hours from us). Why not come and hang out with David and Sheri for the day.
Or come spend the week learning about bees at our 5 day Beekeeping Institute, June 17-21, 2013. We’ve built a new Beekeeping Education Center. For more information on our week long Beekeeping Institute, click here

LESSON 130: HOW TO FIND YOUR QUEEN

So many new beekeepers find it almost impossible to find their queen, especially if she is not marked with a color of paint. Here's some helpful pointers. 1. Choose the right frame. Queens are laying machines so she will be on a comb which has open cells which she can lay in. You'll seldom find a queen on a full frame of honey or pollen and rarely on a frame of sealed brood. When you start seeing eggs in cells, your queen will be close by. 2. Watch for a circle of bees around your queen, called a retinue. These are the bees that are carrying for the queen. Sometimes you'll find the queen moving without a retinue, so you may not see this circle of bees every time. 3. Visible comb around the queen. On very crowded frames of bees, often the queen will leave a small opening behind her. In this picture, there is almost 2 cells visible behind the queen. It takes a few seconds for the bees to fill in behind her, so you might be able to see an opening on the comb and find the queen ahead of it. 4. The queen has distinct unique characteristics: a. Longer than a worker bee. b. More slender than drones. c. Her thorax is more prominently visible than workers. (Compare in photo) d. Her wings do not extend to the end of her abdomen like that of a worker. e. Her legs will appear more "spidery" or longer as she is laying eggs.

To watch a video of us finding a queen, picking her up, marking her and placing her in a queen cage with attendants,CLICK HERE and look at the last video on the page. We work hard to encourage more people to become new beekeepers, and we want to thank our customers who share us with others. You can also forward these lessons to others, or send them a link to our website: www.honeybeesonline.com We appreciate it so much! One of the ways we can share with you on a daily basis is through our Facebook page. Last week on our Facebook page we posted a picture of a strange looking comb. Everyone took a guess and then we posted what it actually was. This is a lot of fun. Sometimes we talk about our family, sometimes about bees, honey recipes and much more. And our Facebook page is a great way for us to keep in touch with our customers and friends. Click here to like us on our Facebook page today. If you happen to be the 100th like you will receive a gift certificate. TIP OF THE DAY: Be aware that if you wrap your hive too tightly, you may actually increase excessive condensation inside the hive. This excess moisture could be very bad for your bees. An upper vent is very helpful to our colonies as it provides a way to reduce upper condensation in the hive. Our Winter-Bee-Kinds provide this upper ventilation. WINTER-BEE-KIND: In the event that your weak hive goes into winter, but runs out of food, we suggest you use one of our WINTER-BEE-KIND boards that feeds the bees, provides insulation of the top to reduce moisture and allows trapped moisture to escape through the top. Order our Winter-BEE-Kind board by clicking here. You can put them on quickly even during the middle of the winter. LONG LANE HONEY BEE FARMS PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT! OUR ROYAL HIVE KIT and our TRAVELER’S SPECIAL KIT! Feel free to contact us at: Long Lane Honey Bee Farms
14556 N 1020 East Road
Fairmount, IL 61841
(217) 427-2678 Thanks for joining us for another beekeeping lesson. We appreciate your business and interest in Long Lane Honey Bee Farms. Please visit our online beekeeping store and lessons at: www.honeybeesonline.com Please let others know about these lessons and our business. We appreciate you spreading the word! Your donations help us continue our work and research on the honey bee, such as our recent development of our Winter-Bee-Kind. These lessons are free and will provide you with as much if not more information than you would find in a $30 book. So consider making a $30 donation so that we might continue these lessons, CLICK HERE TO DONATE $30 or go to: http://www.honeybeesonline.com/servlet/Detail?no=144 Thank you in advance. David and Sheri Burns Long Lane Honey Bee Farms 217-427-2678 Website: www.honeybeesonline.com

LESSON 129: Beekeeping Supplies www.honeybeesonline.com 217-427-2678

Welcome to Long Lane Honey Bee Farms, also known on the Internet as www.honeybeesonline.com We are David and Sheri Burns and we know honey bees. We are here to help you get started in beekeeping and to enjoy the experience. We hope to earn your trust and business so we can be your one stop shop for all your beekeeping needs, including hives, bees, queens, beekeeping classes and more.
We were amazed how quickly our Feb. 9th Basic Beekeeping Class filled up. We have registrations still available in our Feb. 23rd Basic Beekeeping Class as well as in our March classes too. But do not wait too long or you will be disappointed. Also plan to pick up your honey bees supplies at the class. What you save in shipping pays for the class.
While we have taught beekeeping classes for year, we are so excited to have expanded into our new beekeeping education center. Workers are busy every day working hard to have the building finished for our new season. All of our students this year will enjoy the smell of fresh paint. This will add so much to the learning experience.
It’s winter time and the bees are facing very cold nights. If your bees are healthy and well fed, they should do well. However, if their numbers or resources are low, they will not be able to eat enough honey and pollen or produce enough heat to stay warm. Please consider using one of our Winter-Bee-Kind candy boards with insulation and ventilation to help them through these cold months of winter. Click here for more information on our Winter-Bee-Kind or to order.
LESSON 129: BEEKEEPING SUPPLIES
In today’s lesson I want to talk about beekeeping supplies. Which supplies are needed and which ones are not? Is it better to use new equipment or used beekeeping supplies? What exactly is needed to keep bees? What is the beekeeping equipment terminology. Beekeeping for beginners can be confusing, what all the pieces to a hive are called. What are the essential beginning beekeeping supplies?
First and foremost, before you purchase your beekeeping supplies, be sure you have ordered your package of bees. Bees sell out fast, usually in the winter months. But, do not make the mistake of buying your bees but forgetting to order your hive in time. If that happens, you’ll have bees but no place to put them and they will perish before you may be able to have a hive shipped to you.
Read our lesson on installing bees, or watch our video.
Here’s a quick glossary of the essential beekeeping supplies needed:

• Hive Stand

A hive stand is often unnecessary. Some feel the ramp helps the bees make it into the hive, but in nature bees do not have a ramp.

• Bottom Board

          This is the lowest item on the hive, the bottom board where the hive parts all rest. It can be screened or solid, but screened is best, allowing more ventilation and helps reduce varroa mites.  Can be closed or left open in the winter.

• Deep Hive Body (Also called a hive body, a deep, a large honey super)

Most colonies require two deep hive bodies, containing 10 frames each. This is where the bees will live, raise their young and store pollen and honey for their own use. You should not remove honey from these two deep hive bodies.

• Medium Super (Also called an Illinois super, a honey super or a super)

The honey super sits on top of the two deeps. This is where excess honey can be store which you can remove.

• Inner Cover

The inner cover fits between the super and the top cover. It usually has an oval shaped hole to accept a bee escape which can help in removing your bees out of the honey super when you are ready to harvest the honey. The inner cover allows an air buffer zone just above the hive.

• Telescoping Top Cover

This is the final, outside top to the hive. It is covered with metal and keeps water off the top of the hive.  Since it hangs over the edge of the top deep hive body, we refer to this as telescoping or hanging over the hive slightly.

• Entrance Feeder

The entrance feeder slips into the front opening of the hive and can only be used in the spring or early super. If used later, it can invite other hives to rob your hive. Usually it holds 1:1 sugar water (one part water and one part sugar) and any small mouth jar fits well.

• Entrance Cleat

And entrance cleat is sometimes called an entrance reducer. It reduces the size of opening in the front of the hive to keep mice and cold weather out during the winter.

• Frames

A wooden (sometimes plastic) frame that holds the comb.

• Foundation

Foundation usually refers to the material, wax or plastic that is fixed inside the frame. When we refer to foundation we usually mean that no comb has been built yet.  When the foundation is made into comb, we call this drawn foundation.

• Suit

A suit is a one piece pant, jacket and hood. Most are not sting proof, but sting resistance.

• Jacket with Hat

This is much like a suit only without the pants.

• Hat and Veil

Most beekeepers find this to be the workhorse of protective clothing. It covers your heat and neck.

• Gloves

Most gloves are sting resistant, but some can be sting proof. I enjoy wearing no gloves at all, but as a new beekeeper you may want to build up to this level of confidence.

• Smoker

Essential!  A smoker is a canister with a billow. Smoker fuel can be pine needles, cardboard etc. Smoke helps calm bees.

• Hive Tool

A hive tool assist beekeepers in separating the hive pieces which the bees have glued together with propolis. (For more information on propolis, read our article.)
NEW OR USED?
We all want to save a buck and when we find old beekeeping supplies, we can usually obtain them for next to nothing. However, some diseases can live for 80 years in empty, used equipment. We feel it is best to start with new beekeeping equipment. Why invest so much time and effort and end up losing your bees over poor equipment which could spread American foulbrood disease.
Like any hobby, there are many more supplies and equipment you can buy but we want you to see the basics which are needed. There are some additional supplies which can make it easier, but they are not necessary.
In our next lesson, we have had so many ask for a lesson specifically on “How To Find The Queen” so that’s our  next lesson.
Like us on Facebook, and encourage others to like us. Our Facebook page has good, up to date beekeeping information, recipes, tips, gift certificates and much more. We are up to 1,119 likes. Help us watch those numbers soar. Click on the Facebook image or go to: http://www.facebook.com/longlanehoney Every 100th like receives a gift certificate. THANK YOU IN ADVANCE!
The second way you can help us is to place a link on your website or your association or club’s website back to our main website:
Thanks for joining us for another beekeeping lesson. See you next time!

OUR HIVE KIT SPECIAL WITH BEES AND SHIPPING IS INCLUDED! Click on image below

Read what the National Geographic says we can do to help save bees and what happens when we lose our bees.
Long Lane Honey Bee Farms
www.honeybeesonline.com
217-427-2678
Please visit our online beekeeping store and lessons at: www.honeybeesonline.com

LESSON 126: Frequently Asked Beekeeping Questions www.honeybeesonline.com 217-427-2678

Hello From Long Lane Honey Bee Farms, we are David and Sheri Burns. We’re glad to be with you for another beekeeping lesson.Today, we’ll have fun answering some commonly asked questions that we’ve collected over the last beekeeping year.
 Here at Long Lane Honey Bee Farms, we have spent the last few months making hives and an unbelievable amount of Winter-Bee-Kind candy boards. Please consider using our Winter-Bee-Kind on your hives this winter. No order of Winter-Bee-Kind is too large as we have expanded our production of these candy boards. Customers have found the importance of this product that we invented that can insulate, ventilate and provide food for the hive during the winter. I’ve also observed that my hives will use the upper vent in the winter to take cleansing flights while hives with lower entrances will not. It is because as the cluster moves up into the hive, they cannot break cluster enough on cold days to go down, but can easily go up.
And, if you visit us over the next month, please be patient with our construction dust. We are undergoing a major overall of our buildings and the addition of a new beekeeping education center for our classes. We are re-working our phone system as well, so be patient with us for a few more weeks. You know how it goes, you always think the construction will be done sooner than possible, but we are making progress.
We’ve listened to our customers and so many of you have enjoyed our classes at the Farm Bureau building, but there’s something special about being at the honey bee farm. We have a full list of beekeeping classes scheduled for 2013 and look forward to having them in our education center here at our bee farm. We are always looking for volunteers that may want to come out to help work on our building. So give us a call if you can volunteer putting on the finishing touches, dry walling or some plumbing.  Click here to see our full list of 2013 classes or go to: www.honeybeesonline.com/classes.html
The 2013 beekeeping season has officially started. Orders for hives and bees is on the increase. We’ve never seen it this busy in December before. Do not be caught having waited too long to get started in beekeeping. Some people get inspired to keep bees in the spring. But by then, everyone has sold out of bees and equipment orders can be back logged. Please read our article on how to get started in beekeeping.
We have some great hive kit specials for the 2013 season: Check them out at: www.honeybeesonline.com

We are really excited about our Royal Hive Kit Special.  (These prices are for 2013 only)

The Royal Hive Kit WITH BEES!! FREE SHIPPING

(Bees not available to be shipped to CA, WA, AZ, UT, NV, ID, MT)

3 lb package with marked Italian queen. Plus a standard complete hive which includes 2 deeps, 1 honey super, screen bottom board, telescoping top cover, entrance cleat, 30 frames and and foundation, FULLY ASSEMBLED and PAINTED, FREE feeder included, FREE queen excluder included. Bees ship UPS OVERNIGHT May 1 or 2, 2013. FREE SHIPPING!

Wooden hives ships 7-14 days after order is placed. Bees ship first week in May. CLICK HERE to see more about our Royal Hive Kit Special With Bees.  Check out all our 2013 hive kit specials at: www.honeybeesonline.com 

We are now taking orders for 4 frame nucs, bees and frames from our hives with our Illinois Pioneer Queens. We only have a limited number of nucs. All nucs are for PICKUP ONLY. All nucs are inspected by the state inspector and health certificates and moving permits accompany each nuc. Click here to pre-purchase your nuc now. Each nuc contains frames of honey, pollen, brood and a queen that is mated and laying in the nuc. Nucs are only available to be picked up in June. Please DO NOT order a NUC unless you can wait and pickup one in JUNE.

Listen to our newest beekeeping podcast.

Finally we are selling our honey now online. This was a good year for honey production. If you’d like to buy a 1 lb jar of our honey in a beautiful and famous Muth jar, click here. These jars are sealed with a cork and a safety seal wrap. The jar has a raised impression in the glass of a honey bee hive.

LESSON 126: Frequently Asked Beekeeping Questions Answered

1. How Many Hives Should I Start With?

The number of hives to start with is entirely up to the individual. We recommend at least two hives because with two hives you can share resources between hives. If one hive becomes queenless and fails to replace their queen, a frame of eggs can be carried over from the other hive. If one hives becomes low in numbers, frames of brood from the strong colony can be moved over to strengthened the weak hive. Certainly starting with one hive is acceptable, but there is a an advantage to starting with more than one.

2. How Far Apart Should The Hives Bees From Each Other?

In commercial operations, four hives are placed on a single pallet. For the hobbyist, the distance between hives is usually determined based on the comfort of the beekeeper. The beekeeper may want to work all the hives without walking a considerable distance between each hive. I usually recommend at least two feet between hives.

3. Which Direction Should My Hives Face?

Traditionally, we recommend the opening of the hive should face south or southeast. However, it really doesn’t seem to matter.

4. How Close To The House Can I Put My Hives?

Use good judgment. Bees will fly miles away from their hive to find nectar. If a hive is near your house, the bees will still fly up and away. However, it may take six feet from the hive for bees to gain six feet in altitude. Keep this in mind so that hives are not placed near sidewalks, decks and clothes lines. Place them so that when the bees leave the hive, they will not be immediately near people or pets.

5. What Should I Plant To Help My Bees?

Bees will pollinate plants around your house, but not in huge numbers. In other words,  if you have 10 tomato plants you will not see thousands of bees in your tomato garden. Certainly many bees will help pollinate your flowers and garden. However, most of your bees will fly out to an area of abundant nectar such as an apple orchard, acres of clover or a large grove of basswood or black locust trees. If you have a half acre or more, planting buckwheat, clover and other flowering plants will certainly help your bees, but it is not necessary. Bees are quite capable of flying two to three miles to gather nectar.

6. Should I Buy Medication For My Bees?

When various pests and diseases were identified among bees, many chemicals became available. However, some of these chemicals proved to be harmful to bees over time. Certainly some medications do fight certain pests and diseases. However, we prefer not to use chemicals or medication in our hives. This is a personal choice.

7. How Much Honey Will I Get My First Year?

First year beekeepers should not expect  much honey from a new hive. It takes eight pounds of nectar for the bees to produce one pound of wax. The first year the colony is producing a lot of wax to build up their comb. Certainly some first year hives can produce a full crop of honey, maybe 70-200 pounds of honey. But this would be in a perfect situation, or from a second year hive. So it is better to have no honey expectations the first year, but if your bees do produce extra honey for you, it is an unexpected surprise. Year two is when you can expect much more.

8. How Much Honey Can One Hive Make Each Year?

An average hive in Illinois produces around 70 pounds per year. This can change to more or less depending on the weather and the health of the bees and the skill of the beekeeper. The most I’ve produced from one hive in one season is 210 pounds. We sell our honey for $6 per pound.  If a hive produces 70 pounds and you sell it for $6 per pound you make $420. My record hive earned  me $1,260 in honey sales.

9. Can I Save Money By Using Old Equipment?

There are several diseases that can linger in old equipment. American foul brood is one of the more deadly diseases and AFB spores can live 50-80 years in old comb. It isn’t worth taking a chance unless you are absolutely sure the old equipment was not exposed to diseases. There is really no way to test old equipment.

10. Should I Leave My Screen Bottom Board Open In The Winter?

This is a personal preference. However, we prefer to have plenty of ventilation in the hive even during the winter. We leave our screen bottom boards open. If you prefer to close the screen bottom board, simply slide in a thin piece of metal or plastic.

11. What Do You Recommend To Combat Varroa Mites?

Varroa destructor will be found in all bee hives. We recommend these natural methods:

a. Screen bottom boards, so that mites fall out of the hive.
b. Green Drone Comb Trapping.
c. Powdered Sugar. See our article by clicking here.
d. Removing the queen to break the mites’ brood cycle. For more information, click here.

12. How Do I Treat Small Hive Beetle?

Since we prefer not to use harsh insecticides in the hive, the best method is to smash and trap. We have extensive teachings (CLICK HERE FOR OUR LESSON ON SHB) and videos on trapping small hive beetles.

13. What Do I Do If I Want Northern Bees But Can Only Find Southern Packages?

All package bees come from the sunshine states, southern states and California. There is absolutely NO WAY anyone in the north can provide packages prior to May, and probably not then. Many northern beekeepers like the idea of a nuc, which is four or five frames from a strong hive, and a queen. But nuc producers can never produce the volume of bees to ever replace the number of packages sent to new beekeepers. Therefore, many northern beekeepers purchase southern packages, and if the queen fails, they replace her with a northern produced queen.

14. Should I Start With A Top Bar Hive Or Langstroth Hive?

We believe new beekeepers should start with a traditional hive and only try a top bar hive after they have become more familiar with beekeeping.

15. Which Feeder Is Best?

There are many types of hive feeders all serve a different purpose.

a. An entrance feeder is placed in the entranced of a hive in the spring. 1:1 Sugar/Water is used. This feeder does not need to be used in the summer and certainly not in the fall or it may cause other hives to rob and kill a hive. But this is the preferred feeder in the spring.

b. A top feeder is a large feeder placed on top of the hive and sugar water is held in a large reservoir. This works well, but sometimes stray bees can get under the top cover and drown in the reservoir.

c. Frame Feeders are used inside the hive in place of a frame. It’s a frame sized plastic reservoir and requires opening up the hive to refill. It cannot be used in the winter because you cannot open the hive to refill it if the temperature is below 60 (F).

Check out our recent article on Feeding Bees. Click Here.

16. How Important Is It That I Take A Beekeeping Class?

Taking a class is not required or essential, but the more you know the better beekeeper you’ll be. We have a host of classes coming up in just a few months. Click here to visit our 2013 class list in our new educational center.

17. Should I Register My Hive?

Check your local state requirement. Most states require hives to be registered and we recommend beekeepers register their hives with their state’s department of Ag or Department of Natural Resources.  Registration affords you the opportunity to receive helpful, free advice from state bee inspectors. This is always a good thing!

Thanks for joining us for another beekeeping lesson. We appreciate your business and interest in Long Lane Honey Bee Farms.

Please visit our online beekeeping store and lessons at: www.honeybeesonline.com

That’s all for now and thank you for joining us for another beekeeping lesson! Please let others know about these lessons and our business. We appreciate you spreading the word! Your donations help us continue our work and research on the honey bee, such as our recent development of our Winter-Bee-Kind. These lessons are free and will provide you with as much if not more information than you would find in a $30 book. So consider making a $30 donation so that we might continue these lessons, CLICK HERE TO DONATE $30 or go to:
http://www.honeybeesonline.com/servlet/Detail?no=144

Thank you in advance.
David and Sheri Burns
Long Lane Honey Bee Farms
217-427-2678 Website: www.honeybeesonline.com