assisting beekeeping and operations

1. Livestock Production Level II
Module title: Assisting beekeeping operations

2. Introduction
Animal production- raising animals for food or other
products/uses. These are animals like honeybees, poultries,
beef cattle, dairy cattle, fish, swine, draft power etc---.
Apiculture- The science and art of raising honeybees for
economic benefit ( commercial purpose).
Beekeeping- is the maintenance of healthy colonies of
honeybees in hives designed for easy operation for
beekeepers and for the removal of beehive products.
Honey bees- social honey constructing insects living in
colonies.
Larva –wormlike immature form of the honey bee in its
second stage of metamorphosis.
Metamorphosis – The series of changes in form through
which an insect passes; egg to larva to pupa to adult.

3. Brood: Immature stages of the bees that have not yet
emerged from their cells (egg, larva, pupa).
Brood chamber: That part of a hive interior in which
brood is reared. The chamber includes one or more
hive bodies and the combs/frames within.
Brood foundation: Heavier wax foundation sheets, usually
wired with vertical wire and used in the brood nest
frames in the brood chamber.
Brood nest: The part of the hive interior in which brood is
reared. It is the warmest part of the hive kept at 35
degrees centigrade/95 degrees Fahrenheit.
Brood rearing: The raising of young bees from eggs to
adults.

4. Comb: A back-to-back arrangement of two series of hexagonal
cells made of beeswax to hold eggs, honey and pollen.
Drone: The male honeybee, which develops from unfertilized
egg.
Drone brood: Brood that is reared in larger cells and produces
drone bees.
Field bees/foragers: worker bees 16 days old or more that work in
the field collecting pollen, water and nectar.
 Why we Develop Beekeeping?
Beekeeping provides valuable products that generate money.
1. Honey
2. Beeswax
3. Pollen
4. propolis
5. Royal jelly (bees milk
6.Bee venom
7.Brood

5. Honey bee life cycle is complete
metamorphosis
W/c means Egg, larvae, ,pupae &Adult.
Egg Larvae Pupae Adult
Queen 3 5 8 16
worker 3 6 12 21
Drone 3 7 14 24

6. In normal time In one colony there are
• One fertile queen
• From 20,000 to 80,000 sterile female
workers
• From 300 to 800 fertile males /drones

7. The Queen
She is recognized
by her long abdomen,
 Her thorax is larger than that of the worker.
her head is round.
The queen has a sting but is only used to fight rival
queens.
She has no collecting apparatus like pollen basket,
long proboscis for drawing nectar
wax glands to secrete wax to build comb cells.
As a queen, she usually does not feed herself.
Main duty egg laying & coordinating the bee colony

8. The Drones
The drones are the colony members that show
 a high degree of laziness.
His presence is for mating purpose
A drone is much broader than a worker
 but shorter than a queen.
Their compound eyes, large
their wings are the largest of those of the three
castes;
Drone has no suitable proboscis for gathering nectar
and has no sting to defend itself or the colony.
 He has no pollen basket and glands to secret wax for
comb construction.

9. Workers
Workers are the smallest and most numerous of the
bees.
workers have a triangular shape.
The workers are females but they are sterile
Their tongue is longer than that of the other caste, to
enable them to suck nectar from flowers;
 they have a special sac for carrying honey and water,
pollen basket for carrying pollen,
 a well developed sting,
Their heads contains glands producing royal jelly,
salivary gland in the thorax produce enzymes which
ripens the honey; and four pairs of wax glands to
produce wax.
worker bees divided into two based on age
they are called nursery bees and field bees
.

10. Duties of nursery bee
• Cleaning:
• Feeding the brood
• Queen tending (Taking attention for the queen) :
• Orientation flight:
• Comb building:
• Guarding
Some activities of field bees include
• Nectar collection:
• Pollen collection:
• Propolis collection
• Water collection
• Communication about forage

11. Bee castes

13. Lo1 prepare tools, equipments and materials
Importance of honeybees
To provide hive products like
- Honey - wax -propolis
-Bee colony - bee venom - royal jelly
 To pollinate plants
1.1 Identify tools, equipments and materials for
beekeeping work
Before starting beekeeping work, beekeepers or experts
should prepare the necessary materials, tools and
equipments. These are

14. Personal protective clothes
Bee veil- to protect head and face from bee sting
Bee suit – to protect body from bee sting
Hand gloves – to protect hand from bee sting
Pair of boots - to protect feet from bee sting
Tools
Bee brush – to remove bees from combs to be taken
Uncapping knife – to remove capping before putting
combs in honey extractor
Honey extractor – to remove honey from combs
Sprayer – to spray water to settle bees

15. • Hive tool / chisel- to open hive and separate boxes
• Smoker - to give gentle steady flow of smoke

16. Feeder and drinker – to provide feed and water
Casting mould – to make artificial /foundation
sheet
Queen cage – to handle queen
Queen excluder – to restrict movement of queen
Cooking utensil
Strainer – to strain honey etc…..
Materials used in bee keeping
– dry fuel wax
– honey omo
– alcohol

17. 1.2 OHS procedures and safety working practices
 To avoid risks a person who works with honeybees should
- wear personal protective equipments
- prepare necessary equipments for the operation
- Avoid disturbance/sound pollution
- not approach bees with smells
- Prepare light and work with pair or more
- work at an appropriate time and place
- handle hives or frames gently
-Identify potential OHS hazards and give solutions
-Clean and dry materials, tools, and equipments before
and after use etc…

18. LO2 Undertake beekeeping operations
Beekeeping work should be undertaken in well
prepared and potential areas. Through out the
year different beekeeping work activities are
practiced. Some of the activities are colony
transferring, colony inspection, colony
supplementary feeding ,honey harvesting, honey
extraction and making foundation sheet.
2.1 site selection
Successful site selection is important to promote
sustainable bee culture development and to save
time, energy, and capital investment.

19. • Availability of flowering plants
• Availability of road, electricity and market
• Wind direction
• Presence of original colonies
• Absence of bee Predators and enemies
• Availability of water nearby etc….
After selection of site prepare the site by leveling the
ground, fencing, weeding, erecting shelter and
fumigating etc…

20. 2.2 Colony transferring
• It is transferring of colonies from one hive to
another or from local hive to modern.
• activities in colony transferring are
A. before transferring
- preparing materials like smoker, mat, knife,
plate, bee bush, casting mould, chisel, etc…
- foundation sheet preparation and fixing to
frames
- placing of colonies on the site for at least 3 days
to have good sense of orientation of the site

21. B. transferring
• Smoke around the colonized hive and open the
hive
• Allow bees to transfer from the local hive to the
modern hive
C. After transferring
Check weather the transferred colony is settled or
not
Allow the bees to form clusters

22. 2.3 colony inspection
is examining colonies to ensure their well being as
well as their growth and production.
Colonies can be inspected internally and externally.
A. external inspection of colonies
It is examining of how colonies are progressing by
observing them from outside. During this time look
- observe flow of pollen and nectar caring bees
- condition of bees near hive entrance ex. Dead bee
- hive arrangement
- signs of disease
- bee enemies etc…

23. B. Internal inspection
• It is examining of colonies by opening hives
• During internal inspection look for
- honey ripeness
- signs of disease or pests attack
- presence of queen and egg laying capacity
- presence of sufficient feed reserve
- colony sufficient room
- presence of queen cells in the colony etc…

24. 2.4 Supering
• It is an increase in box hives while building up the
colony in order to provide more space within the
nest. While supering a similar size of improved
hive is to be added on top of the one under work.
This is done when
- bees in the hive becomes more populated and
they require additional space.
While supering fix foundation sheet to the super
frames.

25. 2.5 Honey harvesting
Honey is a sweet thick substance composed of sugars
made from nectar.
 Honey harvesting is removing of honey crop from
hives in order to provide beekeeper with an income
and to control swarming.
• Honeybees make honey from collected nectar by
adding invertase enzyme to the nectar in wax cells of
the hive.
Mostly honey is harvested when ¾ of the honey
frame is capped with wax.
When taking honey from hives it is essential to leave
bees with sufficient honey to satisfy their needs.

26. Sample of Ripped(sealed) honey

27. During harvesting honey
• Wear personal protective equipments
• Puff some smoke through the entrance and wait
for 3 minute for bees to rush
• Open lid using hive tool and puff smoke
• Insert the hive tool under the frame in one side
and lever it up. Remove the bees over the frame
by shaking and brushing
• Continuously puff in a little smoke , and gently
remove all the frames
• Place the frames in empty boxes and
Finally, Transport the frames to extracting area

28. 2.6 Honey extraction
It is the separation of honey from wax and inert
materials.
Procedures of honey extraction
Clear bees from the frames
Uncap the comb/ cells using uncapping knife/ fork
Place proportional frames in balance in to honey
extractor and operate it
Strain the extracted honey to a storage tank or
container
Remove the wax and other inert materials
Clean up

29. 2.7 feeding honeybees
• It is providing of feed to honey bees during
presence of bee forage and harsh condition to
strengthening them.
• At this time provide
- sugar syrup
- sugar
- fruits
- powder
- pollen substitute etc…

30. LO3. Handling and cleaning of materials
• After completion of work clean up all materials
and equipments
• Records in beekeeping
- honey production
- origin of colony
- age of colony
- health status of colony
- production of other beehive bee products etc----