Place your questions here.
Q> Why is bee pollen good for us? Doesn’t pollen cause allergies?
A> Bee pollen is one of the richest, most complete foods in nature and contains a wide variety of essential vitamins, minerals, enzymes, protein and amino acids. It is extraordinarily rich in most of the B vitamins and also contains only a few calories per serving. Bee pollen is easily absorbed, so the beneficial effects are noticed quickly. It also contains naturally occurring antioxidants.
Bee Pollen also contains Lecithin which helps to remove fat stores from the body and stimulates the metabolism. Lecithin also helps in the assimilation of nutrients in the digestive process.
Honey contains different pollen particles in it and over a period of time; by eating honey, you can develop certain immunities to specific pollen allergies.
Q> I have a lot of burr comb in the hive. Should I remove it or just leave it alone?
A> You should always remove burr comb when you find it. The burr comb is hard to work around. Go ahead and remove it and try to do a better job keeping proper “bee-space” between the frames. Bees will not build burr comb if proper bee-space is followed.
Q> What is bee-space?
A>Bee-space is a space big enough to permit free passage for a bee, but too small to encourage comb building the by bees. It measures ¼ to 5/16 of an inch.
Q> I understand that you like to use two brood boxes for your hive configuration. The queen will have plenty of room to lay in and the hive population can be kept strong and lessen hive congestion.
Can I add that second brood box without using a queen excluder between the two boxes and let the queen go up and down to lay eggs in both boxes? If so, could I use two brood boxes in the season when bees are growing in numbers and super on the top with queen excluder between second brood box and honey super? We always use a brood box (deep) as honey supers.
We here in India have a problem with wax moths in summer time which starts in May till July/August. This is the month we do not have any or very little flowers to keep bees supplied with pollen. Though we feed sugar syrup, our hives are weak with fewer bees. It is difficult to find pollen supply. If pollen supply was provided and bees were fed with sugar water, will the queen continue to lay eggs? In India our winter is mild and we do not have snow fall.
A> Beekeeping management is directly related to the environmental conditions in a given area. Here in the southern USA can be different from the northern parts of the USA.
It sounds like in India you have to develop a management program that is better suited for your conditions. The basics in beekeeping management should be consistent no matter where you live. The difference should be in how and when you apply those basics.
For an example; here in Texas, our normal environmental conditions allow us to provide our bees with two brood boxes to live in full time. The bees are able to thrive and maintain that amount of space under normal conditions. When the honey flow arrives, we add a honey super above those two brood boxes. The queen will not usually move above those two brood boxes so an excluder is not necessary as long as you don’t leave the honey supers on for an extended period of time. After the honey flow, we remove all of the honey supers for our use and leave the two brood boxes for the bees to use. If we find a weak hive, we figure out why the hive is weak and fix the problem. It may be that the queen is still good but the hive has too much room. We then remove a box and run that hive in one brood box until the population builds back up and then we add the second box.
“Never give the bees more room than they are able to care for”.
In your area, you may need to run your hives in one brood box or one brood box and medium box for the bees. Then place an excluder on top of that when you add a honey super. The point being that you should run your hives according to the environmental conditions in your area. If you are having trouble with wax moths, you are providing more room than the bee population can care for. Moths are opportunists and will take advantage of a weak hive.
As your hive population grows, you should expand their space. When the population declines, you should limit their space. It may be that your bees could grow into two brood boxes for the honey flow. This will allow your bees to store honey in both brood boxes and then maybe store more in a super above for you. In two brood boxes, this would provide honey for your bees for a longer period of time which means that you would not have to feed your bee’s as much sugar water, if at all. Honey is always better for your bees than sugar water. When the hive population declines and the stores are used up, remove a brood box and run the hive in a smaller space if necessary. Add space and then remove it according to the bee’s needs and your location.
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Q> I see some bees standing on the landing board fanning their wings. Is this something normal?
A> Yes. Bees will line-up and fan their wings when the temperature is hot. This is how the bees cool down their hive. The bees will also fan their wings when they are reducing the moisture level from newly gathered nectar.