backyard beekeeping for homebrewers · 2014. 6. 18. · backyard beekeeping for homebrewers . bees...

Making honey more affordable while helping Mother Nature’s favorite assistants!

Backyard Beekeeping for Homebrewers

Bees and Wasps

Italians, Carniolans, Buckfast and Russians dominate the hobby and industry.

Major Types of Bees

Can you find the queen?

Russian Queen

There are three types of bees in a colony: Workers, Queen and Drones.

Bees!

• Better disease resistance

• Very good producers of honey

• Not very gentle!

• Strong hive defenders

Russians

• Industry standard

• Easier to get

• Well behaved and gentle

• Good honey producers

• Resistant to most diseases

• Prone to robber behavior

Italians

What type of bees should you raise?

Types of Hives include Skeps, Langstroths, Warre and Top Bar hives.

Types of Beehives

Mimics nature in design. Possibly safer for bees…

Top Bar Hive

More natural and possibly safer for the bees…

Warre Hive

A smaller version of the Langstroth hive. Easier to handle full boxes as they are lighter (8 frames versus ten).

Garden Hive

Popular and long the industry standard.

Langstroth Hive

Hives can be customized fopr any situation!

Customize!

Bee Suits come in all sizes…

Equipment

Gentle, careful and slow movements make the job easier!

Opening up the hive

A check of the hive to determine its health. Is the queen laying eggs? Are the bees laying up honey and pollen? There is a pattern to a healthy, vibrant hive.

Training new beekeepers!

Honey is placed in the cells by the bees and the cells covered when the honey is ready. These bees are still working on this frame.

Honey Supers

Using an extractor, the honey can be easily removed from the frames.

Extraction

The honey is drained into a bucket with a honey gate. From there the honey can be drained into jars for keeping.

Extraction

The reward for all your work and careful stewarding of the hive.

Honey!

Varroa mites can be seen with the naked eye as a small red or brown spot on the bee's thorax. Varroa mites are carriers for a virus that is particularly damaging to the bees. Bees infected with this virus during their development will often have visibly deformed wings.

Varroa Mites

More than a hundred mites can populate the tracheae and weaken the bees. The mites are generally less than 175 micrometres (0.007 in) long, and can only be seen and identified under a microscope

Trachial Mites

A queen is being raised in the enlarged queen cell on the frame.

Queen Cell

There are hundreds of different varietals of honey!

Varietal Honey

Michigan Beekeepers’ Association

• West Michigan and Southwest Michigan:

• Holland Area Beekeepers Association Donald Lam 882 W. 26th 8t. Holland, MI 49423 Phone: 616-335-2707 Email: djl2003@juno.com Web site: Holland Area Beekeepers Association

• Kalamazoo Bee Club Patrick Frary 3095 B Drive South East Leroy, MI 49051 Phone: 269-979-2882 Email: amoose36@choiceonmail.com Web site: Kalamazoo Bee Club

• Lake Shore Beekeepers (SW Mich) Jeffrey Johnston Phone: 708-289-5242 Michiana Beekeepers Ron Brooks Phone: 219-762-5242 Email:emerson3434@verizon.net Web site: Michiana Beekeepers

Local Clubs

• Saginaw Valley Beekeepers Association Norm Adams 2703 Salzburg Rd. Freeland, MI 48623 email: presidentsvbka@yahoo.com Web site: Saginaw Valley Beekeepers Association

• Southeastern Michigan Beekeepers Association (SEMBA) Clay Ottoni P.O. Box 300611 Waterford, MI 48330-0611 Phone: 248-454-9800 Email: ceottoni@gmail.com Web site: www.sembabees.org

Eastern Michigan

• Oakland Bee Club

E. L. Johnson Nature Center

3325 Franklin Rd.,Bloomfield Township, MI.

Dennis & Donna Holly

1-248-542-1316 hollysbees@yahoo.com

• Seven Ponds Beekeepers Terry Toland 248-421-6601 web site: http://www.sevenpondsbeekeepers.org/

Eastern Michigan Continued…

• Schoolcraft Beekeepers’ Club Roger Sutherland 5488 Warren Rd Ann Arbor, MI 48105 Phone: 734-668-8568 Email:rsuther@hotmail.com

Eastern Michigan Continued…

• Center Of Michigan Beekeepers (COMB) Meetings are the SECOND MONDAY of the month at 6:30 pm. Michigan State University Livestock Pavilion Mike Risk 7575 Hollister Rd Laingsburg, MI, 48848 Phone: 517-651-9842 Email: mrisk75@gmail.com Web site: combbees.org

• Mid-Michigan Beekeeper’s Club Richfield Township Hall, located at 130 E. Main Street Otisville MI. Meetings are the FIRST THURSDAY of the month at 7 pm. President: Barb Applebe Phone: 989-975-0161 Email: midmichiganbeekeers@gmail.com Web site: www.midmichiganbeekeepers.com

Mid-Michigan

• Upper Peninsula Beekeepers (Marquette Area) Barbara Hoopingarner 517-699-2428 or Jessica Shull : 1-906-343-6502 Email: jshull@miuplink.com NOTE: This club is just forming. Contact Jessica if interested!

• Michigan Beekeepers Association Terry Toland Email: president@mba-bees.org Web site: Michigan Beekeepers Association

Upper Peninsula and Statewide