How To Become A Bee-Keeping Pro!

 Family Owned Beekeeping Companies

Beekeeping supplies 

Companies that have beekeeping stuff deal with all the equipment that is required for this business, like attire for bee keeping which is essential from head to torso, full body suits and just head gear. Along with this equipment they also sell journals and books on beekeeping to help people to understand this field better. Some of the better known beekeeping companies have been in the business for more than a hundred years.

 Books for providing short courses in beekeeping

Beekeeping families have a lot of subsidiaries to the beekeeping business too. They use the bees wax to make candles and collect honey which is sold locally in the stores. The books have information on candle making and collecting honey too apart from instructions on the main business which is bee keeping. These family businesses are mostly long standing ones and continue from one generation to the other.

Businesses have advanced technologically

Stepping into the shoes of their ancestors has not been easy for many of the families. Only those families where the parents thought of the new technologies and got their business mechanized with the latest equipment, and advertised with on the internet with their own websites so that they could bring in more customers and higher profits, was the business profitable and worth running. For others the cost of maintaining an old business was too high and they could not handle the expenses anymore. As most descendants of beekeeping families knew no other business they preferred to stick to it, and if the financial situation was not good, then they became commercially owned businesses A business that once started as a hobby, with just about enough honey to put on toast and biscuits in place of marmalade, became a big time business with the popularity of the use of honey. Earlier honey was not a very popular edible thing as people used sugar and molasses for sweetening their food, but once they found that honey was much cheaper, beekeeping became popular and was taken up by many as an agricultural business. However, now the only problem is that people worry about the safety of the honey that is collected because of all the pesticides that are used. Now with organic foods being more popular and a movement by organic food growers, there is a lot of honey that is free of pesticides. Now many families owned companies supply bees wax for candle making and cosmetics to other manufacturers of these commodities

California's Almond Orchards

Perfect almond growing conditions in California

Almonds were initially found in central Asia and China, far away from California. Almonds were first brought to California by Franciscan priests, but they were not very successful in cultivating almonds here. It was almost 200 years later in 1900, that those who were interested in almonds found that the climate and weather conditions in California were perfect for almond cultivation.

Almost 6 thousand almond growers in the state, cultivated over half a million acres of land to cultivating almond orchards that were genetically far superior to what was available earlier. Almonds are grown successfully for commercial use only in California, and the main reason is the climate in this state which is most suitable for growing almonds. Almond trees need cool winters and hot summers and do not thrive in below zero conditions, and that is what exactly the climate of California is. Bees are required for pollination as the almond trees are not self pollinating. The almond trees are in full bloom in February and it is during this time that bee keepers set up their bee hives in the almond orchards so that the harvest may be lucrative for the almond growers. Because of the inability of almond trees to self pollinate, the almond growers plant several varieties of almond trees.

Harvesting of almonds

Almonds are harvested after August and in the beginning of October. Almonds have to be harvested when the shell splits and the nut dries up completely, because of this opening in the shell. When the almonds are ready to be harvested, the orchard owners have the areas swept clean of all debris so that the area is completely clean. Once this has been done they call in the mechanical tree shakers which shake the trees gently and all the dry almonds fall to the ground. They are left there to dry up completely. The well dried almonds are swept into rows and are deposited in a huller after being collected mechanically.

Almonds are high in nutrition

Almonds are a highly nutritious food as they contain vitamin E, Magnesium, Riboflavin, Copper and Phosphorous. At the same time it is very low in fat content and is free of cholesterol and sodium which are bad for the heart. More than half of the almonds cultivated in California are exported. 

Beekeeping In Different Areas Of The World

Several locations all over the world produce honey for food and medicine. There are many beekeepers in certain parts of Europe, Africa, Asia and the United States. Though bee keeping started in Europe and was brought to the United States later, it is more modernized in the United States. There are different cultures for keeping bees in different countries. Honey is used as food in most of the cultures and in some for religious concoctions that are sweetened with honey. The Americans make honey for commercial purposes to be sold in supermarkets and also to send it abroad to other countries for sale. The honey is put into containers with their brand names put on it and sent out to areas where honey is scarce or not produced at all.

There is no mass production of honey in many countries

Unlike in America, most of the other countries do not produce enough honey to be able to ship some to other countries too. America manages to harvest enough honey in one season so that it lasts them until next spring to get ready for the next shipment. The bees are usually inactive during the winter and produce honey only in the warmer summer months when there are more flowers around the place for pollination. This is when the mating starts too and then the bees are busy producing honey and taking care of the larvae. United States is known to produce the most honey around the world and also to provide it to the supermarkets all over the world

Maintaining of hives

The hives do not need too long a time on a daily basis for maintenance. If the beekeepers watch over the hives one hour on a daily basis this should be sufficient. This is needed mainly during the peak season which is between May to September. If the season is good the beekeeper can get around 60 to 100 pounds of honey. What also matters is the price that the beekeeper gets per pound of his honey and with this he can gauge what his earning will be in the future for every harvest.

How to increase the produce of honey

The biggest problems the beekeepers face are the bumble bees which hide in the ground and swarm up from there to visit the flowers that have already been visited by the bees. To avoid this beekeepers changes the place of the hives around, and this is also beneficial to the honey production as the bees have new flowers to pollinate and more honey is cultivated this way. This is called the migratory system amongst the beekeepers when they change the place of their hives. The different batches of honey produced with this vary according to the pollination. The taste of the honey depends on the flowers that the bees have been pollinating.

Beekeeper Training – An Industry In The Making!

 Many bee keepers are taught how to cultivate certain varieties of flowers where the bees can collect nectar and store it in their hives. Bees are most inactive during the warm summer months and live on the honey that they make in the winter time. However, bees will continue to make honey until their hive is not substantially stored with honey. So, if a farmer is trained properly he will know how to remove the honeycombs and remove the honey. This will fool the bees into thinking they have not made enough honey and will then go out make some more. However this can only be done in the cold winter months. So, a farmer must know how to time the harvesting of honey from the hive. It's amazing that bees have mastered the art of survival during the winter months. Beekeepers also have to keep in mind that certain times of the year there may not be any honey production since bees are most active during the warm months so that's why many of them are actually farmers since they have to have a way to make a living when it gets cold. This is an expensive hobby and it may look cheap because you can make a box put some slides in them and allow the bees to come there, but the thing is that you have to know where to put the boxes for the bees to build their hives in. You have to train yourself to be knowledgeable in the area of entomology because you have to know what insects will be compatible around bees because some insects will feed on bees, yellow jackets, hornets, and wasps which are primarily mites and are one of the most annoying insects because they're so relatively tiny that you need a microscope to see them up close. Science plays a huge part in a beekeeper's training and gaining experience since most people aren't savvy to science and the elements of it which is important and necessary because you have to have some idea of how to manage bees and what to do to keep their habitat healthy and to keep pests from overtaking the hives and killing the bees. There are a lot of steps involving the proper education and training of a beekeeper and what you're looking for is someone who is serious and dedicated to a way of life that's been a tradition in some families for generations. Many people learn through the ranks of great grandparents, grandparents, and parents and it's just a family tradition and way of life that's taught to children. It wasn't even about making money it was actually just one other chore on the farm, but in the years it slowly progressed into a farm staple that was being sold like it was produce, meat and dairy, but it's still a profitable market anyway you look at it and it's one of the sweetest things in the world

Bee Keeping Safety Equipments 

 

All beekeepers have to protect themselves while they work with their bees. If they get stung by a swarm of bees it could be a fatal attack and so the bee keepers cannot afford to take chances, but have to ensure their own safety always. 

Safety equipment for bee keepers

Beekeepers have to wear suits that cover them and protect them completely from head to toe and that cannot be punctured by the bees, and through which the bees cannot sting them. To protect their face they have a mesh screen and also use smokers to calm down bees that have become very agitated. The smoker calms down the bees while the beekeeper gets the honey out of the hive. They also have to check that the bees are in their hives getting on with the honey making procedure and the only way they can do all this is if the bees are calm. Beekeepers also have a crowbar to scrape the honey out which can be quite difficult to remove. The bee hives are usually placed in secluded areas so that the bees do not become a menace to those who are moving around in that area. This is also to ensure that the bees are not disturbed by too much of noise and human traffic which will antagonize them and make them swarm.

Beekeepers get their tools on the internet

Most beekeepers prefer to get their bee keeping equipment on the internet as this way they can access hundred of different companies and get exactly what they want. The need among other things, tools for grafting the comb apart for scraping up the honey, comb cutters, special cages for capturing the queen bee, and many other things like containers for the honey. Honey is the favorite food of grizzly bears and bee keepers have to safe guard their bees from pests which could eat them up. Bees also have to have particular kinds of feeds which keep them healthy. Bee hives also have to have treatment against invasion from flies and moths which carry infection and diseases from compost and animal manure to the hives.

Expenses incurred by the bee keepers

The body suits that the beekeepers wear are fairly cheap, and do not dent the finances of the bee keeper, but what is an expense is keeping the hive safe from pests. This is not an easy task as the hives are situated in places like dense forests where there are many pests and birds to disturb the hives. So the beekeepers have to keep abreast of the new techniques to maintain their beehives in a healthy manner and safe guard them against pests.