BEE KEEPING: APICULTURE

Honey bee
Are social bees that produce honey, which is of economic use1
There are many types of bees
The following is bee classification
Kingdom – Animalia
Phylum – Arthropoda
Class – Insect
Order – Hymenoptera
Family – Apidae
Genus – Apis
Species – Apis Mellifera
Apis Doesata
Apis Florea
NB:
1. Apis Dorsata
Giant bee
Cannot easily be domesticated
2. Apis cercana
Makes many combs in dark environments
3. Apis florea
Is the small bee in small combs
4. Apis mellifera
 Found in most parts of the world
 It is the social honey bee
 Nests in dark environments e.g. holes in trees
 Bees have simple eyes and compound eyes
 Allowing them to form mosaic images
 The thorax has heavily build muscles

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  The female bee has spermatheca in which it stores sperm as it maintains them for
the rest of her life
 The female has a long abdomen
 Workers collect food, they are hairy
 The propolises is long enough allowing them to collect nectar from plants
 Workers have a sting, which is straight and highly barbed, and a poison sac
Factors considered when siting an apiary

 Food (forage)-An apiary should be sited where there are ample acreage of nectar and
pollen producing plants within 3 km throughout the growing season
 Accessibility-An apiary should be accessible for ease of management and
transportation of products and equipment’s
 Drainage-A well-drained place is recommended to avoid absconding due to high
humidity. Water logged soils cause rotting of hives and posts. The water also leads to
inaccessibility to the apiary
 Water-The presence of a stream of running water or fresh water within a short distance
of an apiary is ideal. If there is no permanent source, water can be supplied in containers
with floating sticks for bees to step on to avoid drowning. Water is also necessary for
diluting feed and cooling the hive.
 Shelter-Colonies should be sheltered from frost, wind, floods and high temperatures.
Winds cause drifting of bees, communication and short duration of floral secretion.
Artificial or natural shade is necessary to reduce the effects of strong winds and high
temperatures.
 Fence-Trees and bushes or hedges to surround the apiary cause the bees to fly high
when leaving and returning to the apiary, thus reducing the risk of them becoming a
nuisance to the nearby farms activities. The area should be fenced to exclude livestock
and other animals that might disturb bees
 Proximity-It should be sited away from cultivated fields where large numbers of
people work every day. Schools, highways and estates should be avoided so that bees do
not become a nuisance to people.
  Distance between apiaries-This depends on acreage of floral sources and the
number of colonies within the area. Commercially, apiaries should be at least 2-3km
apart. It is recommended that each apiary should not have more than 25 colonies.

Development of honey bee

Bees have a complete metamorphosis life cycle of egg - larva – pupa – adult

QUEEN WORKER DRONE

Egg Lays eggs fertile/unfertile 3 days to hatch 3 days to hatch
3 days to hatch
Larvae Takes 5 days to convert to pupa 6 days 7 days
Pupa Takes 8 days to convert to adult 12 days 14 days
TOTAL 16 DAYS 21 DAYS 24 DAYS

1. Queen
 She is the leader in the colony
 She is the only one in the hire
 She is the only fertile female in the colony
 She is the mother of all bees in the hire
 Her only duty in the colony is to lay eggs for the propagation of the species
 She has a lifespan of 2 – 4 years during which her maximum egg laying potential
is observed
 She lays eggs ranging from 1500 – 3000 per day
 She controls the colony by producing pheromones (hormones)
 She laid both fertilized and unfertilized eggs
 She produces pheromones that suppress growth of other queens
 Queen is fed on royal selly by nurse bees
 She is a little larger than the worker bees but not as bulky as the drone
 She has a curved sting which she uses only for the purpose of fighting or
destroying rival queens
 When she is 5 days old the queen takes flight to mate with drones up in the sky
 She mates with 8-60 drones after which she remains fertilizes for life
  A few days after mating she starts to lay eggs
 The queen is fed on the royal jelly for all her life time
 With the exception of a mating flight the queen leaves the hire only when
accompanying the swarm
 She communicates with other bees through pheromones
2. Drones
 These are the male bees whose function is to mate the queen been only once in a
life time
 They mate the queen outside the hive by escorting to drone congregation areas i.e.
between hills or valleys
 The drones are shorter, thicker and bulkier than the queen
 They have no sting
 They only mate the queen during the bridal trip and lock their lives in the act of
copulating and die instantly
 Drones have a life span of 3 months
 During times of drought drones are killed or expelled from the hives by workers
and left to die
3. Workers
 They are all the females that develops from unfertilized eggs
 They grow from small cells
 They are the smallest and developed females
 They constitute the great mass of the population
 They possess the whole ruling power of the colony and regulate the economy
 They carry a sting which they utilize for depending the colony
 They have pollen baskets on their legs which collects pollen when they visit a
blossom
 They have a very organized division of labour
 They are fed with nectar and pollen and work is divided according to the age
 Clean the hive
 Feed young larvae
 Collect nectar and pollen
  Produce wax from their wax glands located on their abdomen
 Make honey comb cells (geometrically perfect hexagonal).
 Guard and protect their colony from intruders
Work division of worker bees
(i) 1 – 3 days – cleaners
(ii) 3 – 10 days – nurse bees, feeding the queen
(iii) 10 – 16 days – builders, creating cells
(iv) 16 – 20 days – receive and load pollen nectar from ……..........
(v) 20– 30 days – guard around the hive entrance
(vi) Next 6 – 7 weeks – act as forager collect water, pollen, water etc.
Workers have a sting on the abdomen, which is used for defense
Importance of bees
1. Income generation through sell of bee products e.g. honey, bee wax, pollen, royal jelly,
bee venom
2. It helps in pollination of native trees, shrubs, agriculture al and horticultural plants
3. It is used to monitor environmental pollution i.e. bees will keep off in polluted fields or
water
4. Medicinal value – bee products e.g. honey, royal jelly is of great value in medicine in
their natural state
5. Tool for research – bees are useful for education purposes and other useful research to
mankind
6. It promotes conservation of forest through agro-forestry
7. It is completely sustainable
8. It helps in formation of social groups and organizations
It is gender neutral such that both men and women participate

Migratory bee keeping

 Migratory bee keeping is a system of beekeeping whereby the farmer moves his bee hives
from one location to another.
  Reasons
 To obtain a specific type of honey
 To offer pollination services
 In search of forage when there is a shortage
Management of bees
 The following are factors to consider when locating an apiary
 Locate a way from homestead
 Avoid watering sources
 Should be away from reads and other public utility places
 Provide shade for the hives
 There must be foraging sources within 3km radius
(i) Queen rearing
Bees usually rear queens in 3 ways
i) When there is accidental loss of queen i.e.
When the bee keeper accidentally kills queen during inspection or harvesting
– normally the other bees (workers) modify egg cell to a queen cell by feeding
it on royal jelly
ii) Supersedure replacement of a failing queen
If she is sick, wounded, not mated by enough drones
Workers will form a supersedure cell and the new queen will destroy the weak
queen
ii) Reproductive swarming
It happens when these bees multiply in large numbers in the colony and
decides to divide itself (Swarming)

Hive inspection and honey harvesting

 Hives should be inspected regularly
  It helps in detecting incidences of disease and pest outbreak/reproductive efficiency of
the queen replacement of the bars and checking if honey is ready for harvesting
 When bars are ready for harvesting bee keeper should get all equipment’s ready and this
include
i) White gown covering the whole body
ii) Veil used to cover the face region
iii) Boots to protect the legs
iv) Gloves for hand, protection should be from materials that do not allow stain to pass
through
v) Bee Smoker is used to generate smoke which when directed to bees makes them suck
much honey reducing their ability to sting. When smoke is puffed on bees it helps to
subdue them and hence they become docile facilitating ease of carrying out the
intended operation.
vi) Hive tool – Knife like iron bar for separating top bars, can also be used for scrapping
propolis from bars or for cutting honey combs if ready for harvest. The sharpened side
can be used for scrapping of excess propolis from inside the hive or top bars.
vii) Bucket (containers for collecting ready honey)
viii) Catcher box is a small box with four top bars, the top of which is covered with a
bee tight wire mesh, used for trapping swarms which are transported into a Kenya
Top Bar hive. Also used for making divisions and for transporting bees
ix) Bee brush – Is made of sisal fibres and is used to sweep off the bees from the
combs to allow better sight.
X) Queen Excluder is a framed wire mesh with small holes, small enough to allow
only the workers to pass through and the queen being larger is unable to pass through
to the other side. Restricts the queen to the brood area so that the workers can store
more honey in the comb cells during honey flow season and to prevent the colony
from swarming since the bees will not leave the hive without the queen.

Process of dividing a bee colony

  A new hive is first prepared by cleaning and rubbing it with some bee wax or propolis so
that it smells familiar with the bees
 It is then placed next to the overcrowded hive.
 Combs with queen cells are removed from the colony to be divided and are broken
except the biggest capped two
 Two queen cells are needed just in case one is damaged.
 The combs with two queen cells are transferred into the new hive
 One or two combs with lot of sealed brood and a little unsealed brood are also
transferred into the new hive
 Combs with bees are also transferred into the new hive. When transferring bees, care
should be taken not to transfer the old queen into the new hive. It should be left in the
old hive.
 Brood combs should be put in the middle of the honey comb’s
 The bees in the new hive becomes new colony and they will look after the queen cell
and a new queen will hatch. The first queen to hatch will destroy the other queen cell
 The new hive is transferred at least 2km from the old site in the evening where there is
darkness
 The bees in the new hive needs to be fed artificially because they may not know where
to go for food in their new place
 If a new queen or brood is seen after 4 weeks, this means that the new colony is
established
 Observation of bees collecting pollen after two weeks, also indicate that a new queen has
emerged in the new hive.

Process of harvesting honey

 Harvester should be in the bee’s suit veil, overall, gloves, gumboots etc.
 Smoke the hive with enough fuel 2 – 3 puffs
 Approach the hive from behind
 Puff 2 – 3 smokes at the entrance
 Remove the lid
 Puff on top of the hive and hit the top bar to taste which bars has honey
  Brick the top bars as you continue pulling
 Lift the top bar one at a time
 Of the comb has honey reads for reads for harvesting brush it into the container
Other apiary management practices
 Stocking the hive using bee catcher
 Empty hives can be used to trap or bring in bees
 Reduce factors that will lead bees abscond away or migrate from the hive e.g. noise
predators’ disease
Storage of honey
 Stores supers away from chemicals like herbicides pesticides
 Keep store clean and free from dust
 Supers should be wrapped in plastic ganie sacks
Conditions under which honey bees may be fed
 New colonies
 This is necessary to allow the swarm to establish itself
 It is done for 2-3weeks at the rate of two litres of syrup per week
 Dearth conditions
 Dearth is the season when not much nectar is being collected due to bad weather and
poor forage.
 It is done to prevent absconding or migrating or death by starvation
 Feed at the rate of two litres of syrup per week until the conditions improve.

 Stimulative feeding
 This is done to induce the build up of a large number of field bees in preparation for
the nectar flow.
 Done 1.5-2 months before the honey flow to stimulate brood rearing in time for
blooming
 Feed approximately two litres of syrup per week for at least six weeks before
commencement of the honey flow period. It is advisable to check how quickly it is
being taken.
Management practices aimed at maximizing yield from beekeeping
 Keep the honey bees in an area with many nectar and pollen producing trees
 Keep honey bees in a well-drained area, where there is no water logging
 Make sure that the water is available from a stream, water taps or provided in a clean
container
 In dry areas, provide adequate shade to shelter them from too much heat
 In forested areas, clear the apiary to avoid pests and too much cold
 For sake of safety of people especially small children and animals on the farm, the hives
should be kept some distance from the houses and farm structures. However, they should
not be kept too far away that they can be stolen easily. It is also good practice to plant a
hedge three metres high all-round the apiary.

Absconding and swamming in bees

Abscording is phenomenal where bee colony leaves the hive completely this is attributed to
various factors or can be as a result of:
Causes of Absconding
i) Lack of food
Bees migrate to other areas where there is nectar, pollen and water
ii) Presence of predators or pests
Predators like wax, moth, safari ant, honey badger and mangoes bees to migrate
iii) Environmental conditions
Excessive heat or cold temperature may cause bees to move
iv) Poor harvesting methods
Methods that disturb bees e.g. burning cause bees to move
v) Bad odour/smells
Bad smell, smoke etc. make bees uncomfortable
vi) Bush fires
They destroy the environment and disturb the bees
vii) Natural phenomenal
The bees’ colony can decide to migrate to another environment

Swarming
 Meaning
 It is one of the nature’s ways of dividing the bee colony in order to create a new colony
 Swarming is responsible for propagating bee species and is responsible for presence of
bees on earth today
 Honey bees usually swarm after flowering season
 Swarming is uneconomical to the bee keeper since part of the colony is lost
 A swarm consists of a queen, a large number of workers and a few drones
Causes of swarming in bees
1. Congestion in the bee hive
Bee cluster around the corner of the beehive or at the entrance
Queen cells are prepared in readiness for swarming
2. Improper ventilation in the hive
Overcrowding in the hive creates excessive heat for bees at the entrance bees start
fanning in order to lower the temperature by creating air currents towards the inside
3. Lack of food
Lack of nectar, pollen and water leads to starvation
4. Failing queen
Supersecture of the queen is nature’s ways of replacing a failing queen
Worker bees take matters into their own hands and construct queen cells as an attempt to
replace their failing mother

5. Supersedure impulse
The emergency of a new queen from the swarm cells makes the failing queen in leave the
colony with the older bees to start a new colony
6. Hereditary
Certain bee strains particularly on the tropics have an inherent tendency to swarm
7. Effects of season
During the honey flow period, most of comb cells are filled with honey thus reucing the
space in the hive
Signs of swarming
  Building of swarm cells along the edges of the combs
 Clustering of bees at the entrance of the hive
 Presence of many drone cells and drones
 Increased aggression-bees become more defensive and sting a lot
 Rocking movement of bees
 Bees produce a hissing sound
Control
 Making division-This reduces the population of bee colony thus creating more space in
the hive
 Destroy swarm cells so as to stop the emerging new queen
 Switching positions of weak colonies with stronger ones so that the weaker colonies can
receive the field bees from the stronger colonies
 De-queening and re-queening. This involves introduction of queen with a less swarming
tendency
Ways of preventing swarming in honey bees
1. Providing adequate brood and preventing overcrowding in a hive
 When bees overcrowd in a colony and they have no space to operate, the swarming
behavior begins and the colony is later naturally split into two or three times. This is
relieved by adding empty suppers in the brood chamber to create more space for bees
2. Colony equalization
 When colonies show signs of overcrowding, the brood and food frames can be removed
from the strong colonies and placed in week colonies (colonies that are not
overcrowded)
 The removed brood and food frames can be replaced with drawn combs to provide
“empty combs” in which the queen can lay eggs.
 Colony congestion can also be relieved by splitting the colony into two or three new
colonies

3. Re-queening a colony
 Re-queening a colony can minimize swarming tendencies because young queens produce
more pheromones thus inhibiting swarming preparation by worker bees.
 4. Clipping the wings of the queen
 Swarming tendencies are minimized by clipping the wings of the queen. It is usually the
old queen that leaves the colony with the swarm and so clipping the wings will keep her
from leaving the hive.
Types of queen cells
1. Swarm cells
 They are usually ten or more in a hive
 Build when colony want to swarm
 Found at the bottom of the frame]
2. Supersedure cells
 Usually few in the hive and are built during the loss of failing queen
 Found on the sides of the broad comb
 Usually larger than swarm cells
How bees communicate
Bees communicate in two ways
1. Pheromones and Dances
1. Pheromones
 There are chemical odours released by the queen and workers to communicate certain
occurrences i.e. in times
 of intrusion to hive
 When queen intends to induce swarming as well as foot print and recruitment
pheromones for guiding bees back to their specific hives
 Queen pheromones help in inhibition of queen rearing, attract swarm clustering
suppression of worker egg laying
 Attracting drones during mating flight, workers orientation and colony recognition
 The workers also produce pheromones which help in orientation of hive or colony
2. Dances
The scout bees indicate the distance of a food source by the nature of their dances e.g.
Round dances – indicate nearby food sources
 Round-dance

Wag dances – indicate far away food source

Wag tail dance

Types of beehives
A beehive is a house for the bees
1. Kenya top bar hive (KTBH)
 Highly used in East Africa region
Its main advantage is it allows for inspection of honey as farmers can access each bar
independently

Advantages of Kenya top bar hive (KTBH)

1. The top bar can be removed for inspection of the combs and replaced
2. Honey combs can be removed without disturbing the brood
3. Honey is of high quality as it is harvested without brood combs
4. More wax is harvested as combs are not returned to the hive
 5. The hive is easy to construct and repair
6. The hive is cheap to build and does not require expensive equipment to attract honey
7. A queen excluder can be used in the center of the hive to separate honey from the brood.
It further increases the quality of the honey
2. Long stroth
 It is the modern hive made of two compartments.
 The (super boxes) where bees stores honey
 The (broader chamber box) w here bees lay eggs and workers store pollen
 It has an excluder that separates the honey
3. Traditional log hive
This log hives has poor management, low quality of honey and do not allow easy
inspection and harvesting
Hive patterns
a) Single hive patterns
Hives are placed or hanged individually in an a apiary
b) Line patterns
c) Zig zag patterns
d) T-patterns
e) Cross pattern
PEST OF BEES
1. Honey badgers
This predators feed on honey and is controlled by construction of goal posts
2. Hive beetles
They damage the combs and are controlled by regular hive inspection and removal
3. Bee pirate/wasp
They are honey robbers
4. Wax moth
They are worms like larvae; they feed on nectar (Adult) but the larvae feeds on combs
and can invade bee colonies hence destroying the combs
5. Army ants and termites
Catch bees for food during the night and destroys the colony
 6. Bee louse
They sack blood of the bee
7. Bee eater
A bird that eats bees from the entrance
Disease of bees
1. Nosema
 Caused by a sing le celled nosema, it is spore forming and attacks only the adult
bees
2. Foul brood disease
 The kill bees in large numbers
 Caused by bacteria
 Controlled by antibiotics
 Sterilization of the equipment’s
3. Varroal varroasis
 Caused by a mite called varroa jacobsoni
4. Braula
 Pest fly that feeds on royal jelly found on the queen and it weakens the queen controlled
by use of tobacco smoke