Beekeeping is a leisure activity enjoyed by many people all over the world. Some beekeepers keep honeybees or solitary honeybees, while others keep guard bees for security and other purposes. There are some hobbyists who do it themselves in order to achieve the result that they are looking for – a living breathing creature to collect the pollen from. If you are one of those enthusiasts who are planning to begin your beekeeping experience, there are some things that you should consider first. You may be wondering what your next move will be after you have acquired all the required materials and gears. One of these considerations is comfort and pride.
Beekeeping is the care of bee colonies, normally in man made hives. Honeybees from one species may be placed in different hives to produce honey, and the worker bee collects the pollen collected by the bees in the hive. Most of these honey bees however are in the genus Apis, although other honey-making bees like Melipona also are kept. Honey bees play an important role in the pollination process of crops and flowers by providing nectar for the plants to feed upon, hence the need to keep bees in hives to do this.
It is believed that honeybees play a vital role in keeping the earth healthy as they forage on flowers for food. A beekeeper can take advantage of this by offering flowers and plants a chance to pollinate; thus resulting to healthier plant life. It’s no surprise then, with all the benefits that come with beekeeping, that many have turned to it as a means to earn money. People can start their own beekeeping business by investing in beehives and supplies from local and online stores. To ensure safety of your bees and to prevent any mishaps on the way, it’s highly recommended that you enlist the services of an expert when starting off with your beekeeping business.
When starting out with beehive bees, it’s important to first set up a beekeeping colony of bees that you’ll use for the entire year. However, in some cases where you want to introduce a new type of bee into the hive, you have to first purchase a bee colony of that particular kind. Once you have successfully raised the bees to be used for that new type of bee, it’s now time to introduce them into the hive. Introducing new species to a beehive requires a little bit of trial and error. Beekeepers are advised to forgo trying to handle newly introduced bees alone and instead should consult a licensed beekeeper to do this job.
In order for newbies to handle bees, you need to have at least one beekeeper in your hive with them all the time. This can be your primary beekeeper or someone else that you’ve hired to assist you in handling the bees. Foragers work better in beekeeping colonies that already have the beehives and worker bees already settled on top of the colony. They collect the nectar and other fluids from the colonies and transport them to the combs where the bees will deposit the surplus nectar for their daily diet.
The nectar is then collected by a centrifuge, which spins the liquid feeder in order for it to reach the combs. After which, the collected pollen is loaded into a pollen tube and transported to the beekeeper’s home or his work place. With the help of a pollen extractor, this extraction is made faster. However, in some beekeeping industry especially those who are engaged in floral pollination, manual extraction is usually done since manual extraction involves too much exertion. The extraction process doesn’t just involve the extraction of the pollen; there are actually many other procedures that are involved in the entire beekeeping industry such as when collecting the beeswax, preparing the frames, and even the positioning of the frames and other beekeeping equipment within the hives.
Beekeeping has been practiced for generations and it wasn’t until today that people realized that it is actually an activity that can provide them with a lot of benefits such as the production of honey, flowers and crops; all of which are essential to human comfort and well-being. So if you are considering entering into the beekeeping industry, it is very important that you know first the different aspects that are associated with beekeeping before you get yourself involved in it. One of these is pollination. Pollination is actually a process that happens in nature with the help of insects, birds, and similar organisms. It simply means that the plants and other living things around us are being pollinated by insects every day without our presence actually being felt.
To be able to pollinate, all we have to do is to make sure that we release the queen bee from the hive and allow the bees to start foraging for food. Once they find the right kind of food to eat, the bees will start to produce honey and eventually our combs without destroying them. All you have to do now is to harvest that natural honey that you have collected from your hives and start using it as a supplement to make honey and other natural products that bees produce.
