We have tried to answer your most frequently asked questions about beekeeping below. While trying to cover these questions, we tried to make sure that the answers are informative and give you immediate answers in clear language.
We have tried to address all the related FAQs from what is beekeeping to how much you can ear from this and everything in-between. In fact we have also even answered your question of how to send honeybees away.
What are beekeepers called?
The beekeepers are called apiarists. They are also known as apiculturists but this term is hardly any used for the beekeepers and only the term apiarist is commonly used for them. The term apiarist is derived from a Latin word Apis meaning bee. The suffix ist is taken from the Greek language meaning “a person connected with.” An apiarist is a person who keeps honey bees either in boxes or in beehives.
An apiarist enjoyably works with these strange pets because the honeybees along with other pollinators ( ants, wasps and hummingbirds etc) are very essential for a healthy environment. For this reason, bee spotting is always encouraged by scientists for better quality fruits and vegetables. Therefore a good apiarist is always considered to be a strong environmentalist.
The honeybees are never controlled by the apiarists. They only keep the beehives, the boxes and the relevant equipment and the bees are allowed to leave wherever they want to but the bees always come back to the hives as the hives are a much cleaner and a darker shelter for them. It is also the duty of an apiarist to manage the honeybees’ colonies to promote honey production in a better way.
What is beekeeping called?
Beekeeping is also known as Apiculture. Apiculture deals with the management of bee colonies in artificial hives ( man-made hives). Apiculture is a process of raising honeybees scientifically.
The term has its roots from a Latin word Apis meaning bee. It is quite obvious that there are other beekeeping terms derived from the same word Apis for instance apis mellifera. Apis Mellifera is a scientific term for the Western Honey Bees. Apis means bee and mellifera in latin is used for honey production. apiculture or beekeeping is the care and management of honey bees for the production of honey and wax
Most of the apiarists raise the same honeybees which belong to the genus Apis, but they also raise other stingless honey-producing bees such as Melipona.
Apiculture is not only a source of collecting honey but also the products that the hives produce including propolis, bee pollen, flower pollen, beeswax and royal jelly etc which are used by the commercial industry in different products
Apiculture also has a positive ecological role to play in the pollination of many flowering plants, thus enhancing the production of various crops such as sunflower and certain fruits.
The apiculturists also work as bees breeders and generate income by selling them to other beekeepers
How much do beekeepers make?
The income of professional beekeepers varies from $40,000 to $55,000 in the United States. Those having a 5 years experience of working at an apiary are estimated to earn around $14 to $22 dollars per hour in the United states. This income may be higher or lower depending upon the climatic conditions and better equipment. Beekeepers or apiarists form part of the agricultural industry, along with breeders and farmers.
A profit of $300 to $500 per hive is generated every year in a region with sufficient nectar sources and healthy bees.
In olden times the professional beekeepers generate income though honey selling and by renting out bees for pollination. Now the number of beekeepers who earned their livelihood by selling honey have reduced to low. The bee colonies can be moved from one place to another where the nectar flow is abundant.
Keeping this in mind, some beekeepers focus on the pollination jobs to earn money because the honeybees are portable and their colonies can be moved from one place to another.
The US beekeepers are unable to compete in the local market due to the low prices of imported honey and therefore cannot earn much up to their expectations.
How often do beekeepers get stung?
Beekeepers are always at a risk of being stung by honey bees at the time of collecting honey but it does not mean that they are repeatedly stung by them.
On the contrary they are stung only a few times every year because a professional beekeeper fully knows how to move around the hives. Using precautionary equipment like masks, gloves or bee suits help them to minimise the stings.
Most beekeepers will only be stung a handful of times every year. That’s because a skilled beekeeper understands how to move calmly around their hives while using a bee smoker to prevent swarms and attacks. Proper use of bee suits, masks, and gloves also help to keep bee stings at a minimum.
Honeybees sting only when they feel threatened or when they are defensive. A bee might sting if they are hit by a human or if their hive is being terrorized by a swarm of wasps, or find nothing to eat. So the beekeepers know it all and always follow the precautions when they are around the beehives.
How much is a beehive worth?
A single new hive may cost around $160 alongwith clothing and gear. One can often find complete kits containing bees, boxes, and gear and finds it quite economical
How much does beekeeping cost?
As it is evident that initiation of beekeeping involves a lot of things including a beehive, bee brush, a hive tool, a bee smoker and protective gear. The price of these items varies at different places but estimated to cost around $250. One can also buy a starter kit which includes all the above mentioned items and a guide book for the beginners. The prices of these kits range from 200 to $450.
For bees, it is highly recommended to buy bees from a gentle stock and not a nasty one. The nasty ones may ruin the business
Among the gentle stock, the package bees contain worker bees and a caged queen bee. They are kept in a new hive and given a sugar water solution to establish themselves in the hive.
The other one is a nucleus colony which is an already established colony. It includes worker bees and a queen 5 frames of combs , nectar, and pollen. Her things that you will probably want to purchase down the road, like more bee boxes and a honey extractor, but the above is what you will need to get started. The starting cost for beekeeping ranges from about $400-$650.
When did beekeeping start?
It is amongst the oldest methods of food production. The early evidence of beekeeping can be taken from rock painting, dating back to around 13,000 BCE.
Beekeeping was well established particularly in Egypt and can be seen in the writings of Roman writers including Gaius, Virgil, Julius, Columella, Hyginus and Varro. In the United States, Amos root was popularised as a beekeeping pioneer in the nineteenth century.
Western honey bees were imported to America by the American Colonists both for honey and the pollination. The same was done by Australian and New Zealand colonists.
The imported honey bee species were like European dark bees. Afterwards, the Italian bees, Caucasian bees and carniolan honey bees were also added.
The American Reverend Lorenzo L. Langstroth, also known as the Father of Beekeeping in America, started scientific beekeeping in 1851.
Around the 1850s, the Ukrainian settlers brought the Western honeybees to the Primorsky Krai in Russia . These were much similar to the Carniolan bees and were imported to the U.S. in 1990. These Russian honey bees have shown resistance to the bee parasites, Varroa destructor and Acarapis woodi.
Prior to the 1980s, most U.S. hobby beekeepers were farmers or relatives of farmers, lived in rural areas, and kept western
Is beekeeping cruel?
The beekeeping in the modern time is not as cruel as it was in the olden times as the new beekeeping techniques involve zero destruction of honeybees larvae and the queen bee. Until the 19th century, beehives got destroyed for collecting honey and obtaining other bee products.
This would lead to the destruction of many larvae within the comb cells. There was also a risk of the queen’s death, resulting in the collapse of an entire colony.
Modern hives are created in such a manner that the risk of destruction is reduced to low. These hives contain removable frames or bars on which the bees build their honeycomb. This means that the honey comb can be removed by opening the hive without destroying the structure.
Moreover, the queen is housed in a brood box in the modern hives. The mesh in the hive that separates the queen bee from the comb only allows the workers to get in and out but too small for the queen bee to enter the comb and therefore she cannot lay eggs in the comb. Therefore, the larvae remain safe in the brood box and are not killed when the honey is collected from the combs.
How to get honeybees to leave?
There are a number of methods to get honeybees to leave without killing them to collect honey and bee products. But proper equipment must be used for the process like a beekeeper suit or leather gloves. Bees in large numbers can be lethal . One can also call a professional if he is prone to bee allergies If you have a bee allergy,
Following are a few methods to get the honeybees fly away
- Smoke
It is the best way to get honey by keeping the honeybees away. Honey bees are smoke sensitive creatures. When they smell smoke. They consider it to be a forest fire. They leave and never come back. By burning cardboards and dead firewood under the beehive will work immediately. One should not stick to the place to watch the bees running away. It is better to go inside.
- Garlic Spray
As we know that garlic has a strong smell and bees cannot stand any such smell, we can make them run away. We can make a garlic spray by crushing a few garlic cloves and mixing them with water.
Once again, bees have a strong sense of smell, and we all know garlic has a very strong scent. Crush a couple of cloves of garlic and mix it with water to create a garlic spray. The Spray can be sprayed around home and around their hive.
Peppermint and cinnamon
Peppermint has a very strong smell and therefore spraying them helps in getting the bees away. It is necessary to wear protective gear when dealing with bees.
Will bees keep hummingbirds away from feeders?
Both the bees and the hummingbirds are pollinators and the bees are undesirable guests at hummingbird feeders. Likewise the wasps and the ants are also attracted to these feeders. These unwanted guests contaminate the sugar water which stops the hummingbirds from returning to the feeders. The presence of bees on these feeders will make the feeder overcrowded and there will ultimately be no place left for the hummingbirds who come there for the nectar.
Whether you make your own or buy a commercial nectar, the same food source that attracts hummingbirds also attracts bees and wasps. The hummingbirds may feed next to a few bees, but large numbers of bees can be detrimental to the hummingbirds—and wasps can become aggressive, chasing off the tiny birds who leave in search of another food source
How to get bees to produce more honey?
To get an excessive amount of honey from the bee colonies, it is crucial to add boxes to these hives for receiving incoming nectar during the spring season when the flowers’ growth is on the rise. These boxes are known as supers, and adding these supers to hives is called supering.
What is the best time to start beekeeping?
The best time to start beekeeping is spring but it may differ from area to area due to different climatic zones. But the ideal time is when the cold or rainy season comes to an end and the flowers start blooming. A beekeeper must start his preparation much earlier than the spring, most likely in autumn.
In the United States beekeeping depends upon the environment they live in. For example there is a wide range of climates between the Eastern and Western Coast. In the eastern states, there are hot and humid summers and cold and dry winters. The south-western states remain warm to hot whereas the tropics are wet and dry.
