Oh that queen can be so challenging to find sometime. Today, I’m going to give you a few tips to help you find your queen. Before we get into today’s lesson let me say hello from Long Lane Honey Bee Farms. It is so nice working with the finest customers. We enjoy learning about your family and why you are interested in beekeeping. We have such a great relationship with our customers. We look forward to meeting you too, if you are just now getting to know us better. We are David and Sheri Burns, and we operate Long Lane Honey Bee Farms in central Illinois. We are located about 35 miles east of Champaign, Illinois where the University of Illinois is located. We manufacture beekeeping equipment and sell all things related to beekeeping such as smokers, suits, hive tools, protective hats and veils, gloves, queen excluders, feeders, and we even sell packages of bees, nucs (a nucleus hive) and queens that we raised here on our bee farm (apiary).
In addition to all of this we also specialize in premier beekeeping classes. We are both passionate advocates for helping teach and guide people into the wonderful hobby of beekeeping. When you take one of our beekeeping classes, you can rest assured that you are being taught by a competent EAS certified master beekeeper, one of only 130 in the world. A master beekeeper does not just have book knowledge or has passed rigorous tests,  but must have years of experience as a serious beekeeper in some aspect of apiary management such as a very dedicated hobbyist, working as a commercial beekeeper or as an apiary inspector. A certified master beekeeper must have an equivalent of a college level course in beekeeping and be well read in apicultural literature. Come join master beekeeper David Burns for either his Beginning Classes, Advance Classes or Queen Rearing Classes. Click here to read more information on our classes.  We have three Basic classes coming up Feb 23rd, March 9th, and March 23rd, 2013.(The February 9th class is full). We have people from other states take our classes. You can fly in to Indianapolis International Airport (1 1/2 hours from us) or Chicago ( 2 1/2 hours from us). Why not come and hang out with David and Sheri for the day.
Or come spend the week learning about bees at our 5 day Beekeeping Institute, June 17-21, 2013. We’ve built a new Beekeeping Education Center. For more information on our week long Beekeeping Institute, click here

LESSON 130: HOW TO FIND YOUR QUEEN

So many new beekeepers find it almost impossible to find their queen, especially if she is not marked with a color of paint. Here's some helpful pointers. 1. Choose the right frame. Queens are laying machines so she will be on a comb which has open cells which she can lay in. You'll seldom find a queen on a full frame of honey or pollen and rarely on a frame of sealed brood. When you start seeing eggs in cells, your queen will be close by. 2. Watch for a circle of bees around your queen, called a retinue. These are the bees that are carrying for the queen. Sometimes you'll find the queen moving without a retinue, so you may not see this circle of bees every time. 3. Visible comb around the queen. On very crowded frames of bees, often the queen will leave a small opening behind her. In this picture, there is almost 2 cells visible behind the queen. It takes a few seconds for the bees to fill in behind her, so you might be able to see an opening on the comb and find the queen ahead of it. 4. The queen has distinct unique characteristics: a. Longer than a worker bee. b. More slender than drones. c. Her thorax is more prominently visible than workers. (Compare in photo) d. Her wings do not extend to the end of her abdomen like that of a worker. e. Her legs will appear more "spidery" or longer as she is laying eggs.

To watch a video of us finding a queen, picking her up, marking her and placing her in a queen cage with attendants,CLICK HERE and look at the last video on the page. We work hard to encourage more people to become new beekeepers, and we want to thank our customers who share us with others. You can also forward these lessons to others, or send them a link to our website: www.honeybeesonline.com We appreciate it so much! One of the ways we can share with you on a daily basis is through our Facebook page. Last week on our Facebook page we posted a picture of a strange looking comb. Everyone took a guess and then we posted what it actually was. This is a lot of fun. Sometimes we talk about our family, sometimes about bees, honey recipes and much more. And our Facebook page is a great way for us to keep in touch with our customers and friends. Click here to like us on our Facebook page today. If you happen to be the 100th like you will receive a gift certificate. TIP OF THE DAY: Be aware that if you wrap your hive too tightly, you may actually increase excessive condensation inside the hive. This excess moisture could be very bad for your bees. An upper vent is very helpful to our colonies as it provides a way to reduce upper condensation in the hive. Our Winter-Bee-Kinds provide this upper ventilation. WINTER-BEE-KIND: In the event that your weak hive goes into winter, but runs out of food, we suggest you use one of our WINTER-BEE-KIND boards that feeds the bees, provides insulation of the top to reduce moisture and allows trapped moisture to escape through the top. Order our Winter-BEE-Kind board by clicking here. You can put them on quickly even during the middle of the winter. LONG LANE HONEY BEE FARMS PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT! OUR ROYAL HIVE KIT and our TRAVELER’S SPECIAL KIT! Feel free to contact us at: Long Lane Honey Bee Farms
14556 N 1020 East Road
Fairmount, IL 61841
(217) 427-2678 Thanks for joining us for another beekeeping lesson. We appreciate your business and interest in Long Lane Honey Bee Farms. Please visit our online beekeeping store and lessons at: www.honeybeesonline.com Please let others know about these lessons and our business. We appreciate you spreading the word! Your donations help us continue our work and research on the honey bee, such as our recent development of our Winter-Bee-Kind. These lessons are free and will provide you with as much if not more information than you would find in a $30 book. So consider making a $30 donation so that we might continue these lessons, CLICK HERE TO DONATE $30 or go to: http://www.honeybeesonline.com/servlet/Detail?no=144 Thank you in advance. David and Sheri Burns Long Lane Honey Bee Farms 217-427-2678 Website: www.honeybeesonline.com


























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Hello from Long Lane Honey Bee Farms. Happy New Years! 2012 was a wonderful year, and we’d like to especially say a big thank you to all of our customers and supporters!
Sheri and I have spent so  much time gearing up for a fantastic 2013 beekeeping year. Right now, we have snow on the ground, the trees look dead, the hives are clustered and quiet. Even though it is winter, spring is coming. I cannot believe the number of packages for pickup we have sold already. It is staggering! So, do not put it off another day. Maybe you cannot really decided if you want to keep bees this year or wait. Why wait?   So many people wait and decide in April or May when all the bees are sold out and equipment is scarce.
Before today’s lesson, I’d like to ask a favor. There are two important ways that you can help us promote beekeeping and our beekeeping business. First, like us on Facebook, and encourage others to like us. Our Facebook page has good, up to date beekeeping information, recipes, tips, gift certificates and much more. We are up to 1,119 likes. Help us watch those numbers soar. Click on the Facebook image or go to: http://www.facebook.com/longlanehoney Every 100th like receives a gift certificate. THANK YOU IN ADVANCE!
The second way you can help us is to place a link on your website or your association or club’s website back to our main website: http://www.honeybeesonline.com
We have recently made some great additions to our website such as: Recipes, Frequently Asked Beekeeping Questions,  Beekeeping Trivia, How Bees Make Honey and some of my own personal opinions raw and unfiltered. So have your web master link back to our website for great beekeeping information. We appreciate it!
It’s not too late to add our Winter-Bee-Kind candy board to help your bees this winter. It has sugar, pollen, honey-b-healthy, insulation to reduce upper condensation in the hive and an upper vent. You can add it to your hive in less that 15 seconds even in cold weather. Why not give your bees the added edge for winter survival!
Click here or go to: http://www.honeybeesonline.com/servlet/Detail?no=145
We are David and Sheri Burns and if this is your first time to meet us, let us just say…well, we are passionate about beekeeping. We are so excited about the surge of new people becoming beekeepers. We have been giving out the clarion call for years that in order to save the honey bees, we need more beekeepers.
Not only do we long to see more people become beekeepers, but we do everything we can to make it easy to become a beekeeper. We are a special beekeeping one stop shop. At many places you can only buy bees, or you can only buy equipment and you may not always receive the most up to date beekeeping advice. Here at Long Lane Honey Bee Farms, we provide the bees, queens, beekeeping equipment and have a certified master beekeeper to guide our customers to a successful experience keeping bees. Also, when comparing prices remember all of our hives are assembled and painted with 3 coats of paint with wooden frames. Bees wax coated foundation is included as well. We also offer beekeeping classes, beekeeping videos, beekeeping podcast and more.
An additional way we help beekeepers is by writing timely and up to date beekeeping lessons. Today’s lesson addresses the question, “Why did my bees die?”  A few months back I was invited to speak to Missouri beekeepers and my assignment was to help take them to the next level. I love this approach because there are so many basic classes, but hardly no additional Advance classes to take the beekeeper further.  Over these last few months I have been refining that presentation and adding to it and now I want to present to you this lesson. You’ll want to pass this one on to your fellow beekeepers who have trouble keeping hives alive.
Before I begin, let me invite you to our beekeeping courses coming up in February. We still have openings for you. Our Feb. 9th basic beekeeping class has sold out. However, we still have registrations available at our next class: 
Saturday February 23, 2013 Basic Beekeeping We have many more classes coming up throughout the year, but check out these two beginner courses at our location here in Illinois at our new Beekeeping Educational Center. Also, we have several new hive kits with and without bees. These are great ways to add more hives to your apiary (a place where bees are kept) or you may be starting out as a new beekeeping in 2013. Let me quickly show you our 2013 products before our lesson today. Click on the images below for more information or to place an order.
Click on any image above for complete ordering information. We take all the headache out of becoming a beekeeper. One click and you have bees and a hive ordered. Don’t waste time trying to figure out if it comes with frames and matching up the right pieces. We make it simple and enjoyable like it should be.

LESSON 128: Why Did My Bees Die?

Most of us enter beekeeping believing that we will show the rest of the world how to keep bees and never lose a colony. Our intention is to be the perfect beekeeper, keeping great records, making more frequent hive inspections, generally speaking being an above average beekeeper. Then, when we lose our first colony we are almost offended that bees would die under our watch. Or we start keeping bees loving our new bees like a new pet. A love affair begins and our bees seem to love us and appreciate the privilege to live on our property. Likewise we are fascinated by this awesome creature and we are enamored by their sheer majesty.
Occasionally, there is never a problem. The hive flourishes, produces honey, survives winter, requires little management and we brag of our beekeeping skill and style. All is well. I wish that I could promise such great success with every hive, but bees are considered livestock. Anyone who has ever kept animals know the unpredictable finally happens. Our new dog runs out into the street. Our talking parrot flies out an opened door, a cow gets sick or our horse gets some sort of equine encephalitis from a mosquito and dies. Bees face the same sort of challenges.
Why did my bees die? When a colony dies, it’s almost impossible to identify the cause of death. I’ve had people ship me bees in a shoe box and ask me to tell them what killed their bees. A bee is not a single organism, the hive is. Therefore, we have to evaluate the entire colony to determine the cause of death. Even then there are so many variables that the cause of death is often inconclusive. Was it starvation? Queenlessness? Did they swarm in late summer and took too long to finally raise a good queen, so the population of bees was not large enough to overwinter? These types of problems can be prevented. But what about something that can’t be seen, like tracheal mites, or viruses spread by varroa mites. These are the invisible, silent killer of colonies. My experience in working with thousands of beekeepers a year is that most colonies die due to inadequate beekeeping practices. In other words, pilot error or avoidable mistakes. Don’t misunderstand, today our bees do face more challenges than 40 years ago.
Since the late 1980s, the beekeeping scene has changed significantly. In the late 80s and early 90s the varroa mite made its way into America and hit the bees hard. There was a great falling away from beekeeping. Very little was known about the mite and how to keep bees alive that had mites. Hobbyist dropped out. Prior to the mites, we would put bees in a hive, keep an eye out for American Foul Brood and wait until fall and take off a crop of honey. Beekeeping was simpler. Now beekeeping is still almost that simple, only now we must be a much smarter, educated and trained beekeeper because there is more to keep an eye on.
Then, around 2006, CCD changed the beekeeping scene again. Large operations were hit with what is now called Colony Collapse Disorder. In large operations, bees just disappeared. Crazy speculations were tossed around like green Martians were stealing the bees or cell phones were confusing the bees ability to get back home. Now we suspect it is a combination of stresses, poor nutrition, environmental factors, and pests and diseases. However, with CCD there was a silver lining, a redeeming quality…interest in saving the bees surged!  Everyone started rolling up their sleeves to save the bees. More people became new beekeepers as a way to offset the declining bee population. And it’s working! About this same time an interest in local food and a more self-sustainable life gained full traction. Some call it the green movement, agrarian living or eating more local food known as locavore. Prior to this time, beekeeping was the weird cousin of Agriculture.  But now, beekeeping has become the rich uncle and everyone wants written into the will. What I mean is, beekeeping is now seen as an essential part of life that we cannot deny. Bees pollinate our crops. In fact, bees pollinate the foods that we now want to eat more of such as fruits and vegetables. With processed sugar getting a bad rap, more and more people are moving over to nature’s natural sweetener, honey. Also, more people are looking for ways to add additional income by working from home or on the farm. Now selling honey seems more attractive than ever before as honey now brings an easy $6 a pound. If a hive produces 70 pounds of honey, that’s $420 a hive.  It seems that no matter what challenges are thrown at honey bees, they survive and so do the courageous beekeepers who are fascinated by this awesome creature, the honey bee. Prior to theses increased challenges, beekeeping was waning. Now there is an increase interest in beekeeping, more new beekeepers and more funding for research. Prior to today’s beekeeping interest there was less media attention and certainly less educational opportunities for beekeepers. Now, with a renewed interest in bees, beekeeping classes abound and the honey bee has earned rock star status. Beekeeping is now an important part of our view of nature, even our own survival. Sounds so picturesque, right? We still need more beekeepers to help restore the honey bee population. It is getting slightly better, but the bees are not out of intensive care just yet.  So today’s beekeeper can no longer throw bees in a box and everything will turn out perfectly. The modern beekeeper is a totally different keeper of bees. I call today’s beekeeper a triage beekeeper.  The word triage is a French word that means to separate, sift or select. It’s a word used in hospitals because ER doctors and nurses select which patient needs the most immediate attention. Triage is the order and priority of emergency treatment. This is our focus in our Advance Beekeeping Classes.
For those of you who are thinking about becoming a beekeeper, stay with me. We need you to help keep more bees. The bees need your expertise. Bees need you to assess colonies, and to help them overcome their new adversaries, new pests and diseases. Our obsession to live in a weed-free and bug-free world is probably what is hurting our bees the most. Without weeds, our bees cannot obtain the variety of nectar and pollen they need. We take pride in our weed free yards. We keep our ditches mowed and fence rows cleared. We monocrop two or three crops that will bring in the most money.  My clarion call is for more beekeepers to become better trained beekeepers that are more able to provide triage on some hives when needed.
Today’s successful beekeeper must learn to be a triage beekeeper. Some beginning beekeeping classes only focus on how to keep bees as if it was still 1962, giving the basics on how to start but not how to do daily triage. If every commercial pilot was allowed to fly with the same knowledge most beekeepers start keeping bees, the number of plane crashes would be staggering. Therefore, the answer is for every beekeeper to increase their knowledge base and skill sets when it comes to the honey bee. Every time we do our hive inspections we must assesses our hives and determine which ones need immediate attention.  As soon as we open a lid, we must be focused on smashing small hive beetles. We should have proven practices in place to assess our mite population in each hive and what actions if any are needed. Every new beekeeper must be equipped with four non-chemical, IPM methods to deal with varroa mites. We must be able to identify deformed wing virus, American and European foul brood and to evaluate the queen. How well is she laying and how healthy are her daughters. New beekeepers must learn how to conduct a brood viability test. Beekeeping is on the rise. The ranks of beekeeping is expanding. Research is working. Most of us who produce queens are working hard to raise local queens from hives that survive year after year without antibiotics, and other chemicals. Isn’t that really what we want? Not a hive that depends on antibiotics and miticides, but a colony that has their own ability to overcome the challenges of today. As bees make this transition, we must do our part. On our website, I’ve listed what most bees die from and the most common beekeeping errors and mistakes that kills bees. Visit this page often: Just go to: http://www.honeybeesonline.com/healthybees.html or click here. Thanks for joining us today! Long Lane Honey Bee Farms (honeybeesonline.com)
14556 N 1020 E Rd
Fairmount, IL 61841
We are located in East Central Illinois Visit us online at: www.honeybeesonline.com or call us at 217-427-2678














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Hi, we are David & Sheri Burns from Long Lane Honey Bee Farms in central Illinois. We love keeping bees. Thanks for visiting our blog and we hope you’ll read what we have to say today about how to become a beekeeper.

I never really know who will be reading our beekeeping lessons. You might be an experienced beekeeper, having kept bees for years. Or you may have only kept bees for a year or two. Maybe you are like so many others who are interested in keeping bees in the spring of 2011. We try to write our articles to reach each group each time. So today, I want to walk you through the process of how to keep bees. Those of you who are already keeping bees will still learn something, I’ll throw in some goodies for you, too.

Before we start today’s lesson, let me tell you what we’ve been doing here at Long Lane Honey Bee Farms. In addition to producing our own beekeeping podcast, I am now hosting a nationwide beekeeping podcast called “Save The Bees.” This podcast has existed for several years through the Wild Life Pro Network and I just recently became the new host. What’s so fun about this podcast is that it’s recorded LIVE on the internet. You can actually call in to the live recording and ask me questions or just shoot the breeze about bees. It’s low-key, home spun fun. So call in to make the show more interesting! You can call in with any question you’d like to ask about bees. These broadcasts are recorded live each third Thursday of the month. Our next one is coming up tonight September 16 at 7pm Central Time. I will be talking about equipment used in beekeeping, specifically about specialized equipment, like queen castles, slatted bottom racks, cloake boards, nucs, smokers, hive tools and more!



Sheri and I have had such a wonderful summer! The weather has been beautiful now that we’re getting into the Fall. Summer has been all about queen rearing. We’re still sending out as many queens as we can produce each week. We have had a wonderful year for raising queens, and our queens have been mating fast and completely, resulting in our usual bounty of outstanding queens. I have a particular breeding technique that has stayed consistent over the last few year to produce a very nice queen that we called the Illinois Pioneer Queen. In his book, “50 Years Among The Bees,” C.C. Miller wrote, “The queen being the very soul of the colony, I hardly consider any pains too great that will give better queens.”

In addition to raising queens, summer and early fall is always a time for us to prepare for the next bee season. We’ve stayed busy repairing, replacing and improving equipment and processes for the upcoming year. When the bee season is in full operation, there is no spare time to make these repairs and improvements. We have about another 45 days left to have everything in place for another exciting 2011 honey bee season and we are excited. Already beekeepers are scrambling to purchase their packages and nucs in advance.

That’s why I want to share in this lesson how to get started in beekeeping. It continues to be our passion to help encourage more and more people to start keeping bees. We believe with more practical information we can help others take the step to keep bees.

A friend of mine visited the island of Palawan in the Philippines where he took a turn off the beaten path on a rented motorbike and journeyed through rivers and between mountains to arrive at a unique bee farm. My friend Aaron Bergman tells the rest of the story.






“Finally we found the bee farm. The "bee farm" is a demonstration facility sponsored by the Palawan city government for the education of local beekeepers.





It's on the bottom side of a mountain on a dirt path. As you see in the pictures, they have 6 hives. They have a small extractor, informational posters, and sell some local honey there. There were 3 friendly ladies happy to show us around when we arrived.





Luckily almost all Filipinos can speak English so communication was no problem. They told me that there are currently 44 local beekeepers, most with only one or two colonies. They purchase queens from Kona Queen in Hawaii as well as Australia. Some of the beekeepers are keeping Apis Cerana. There is also Apis Dorsata, but they told me that they are too aggressive to be managed. They are using Apistan for mite control and it's still working for them. They told me they have a problem with bee-eating birds.

One of the pictures is a poster showing all the local beekeepers, their locations on the map, and at the top is a picture of the mayor of Puerto Princesa, Edward Hagedorn. They told me their honey crop mainly comes from local wildflowers. They didn't have any honey from the Italian bees available, but I bought a jar of Apis Cerana honey and a jar of Apis Dorsata honey. Each jar was 80 pesos, less than 2 USD.” Thanks Aaron!!

In our lesson today, we’ll look at why it is so important to have more people start keeping bees. Hopefully, this lesson can be printed off and handed out in clubs to encourage others to become beekeepers. Or you could forward this lesson to someone you know who might be on the fence about becoming a beekeeper.

How To Become A Beekeeper
by David Burns, EAS Certified Master Beekeeper
I cannot think of any outdoor activity more enjoyable than observing and enjoying the majestic and industrious honey bee. I further cannot believe that everyone isn’t keeping bees. Those who have joined the honorable ranks of being a beekeeper do so for many different reasons. Some keep bees so they can harvest their own home grown honey.

Others keep bees to pollinate their fruit trees, crops and gardens. Many keep bees because they have heard of the decline in honey bee colonies and want to do their part in keeping our honey bees alive and well. There are many other reasons, but deep down all beekeepers enjoy keeping bees because it is simply enjoyable!

A common thread among our customers who are becoming beekeepers for the very first time is that they now have time and a place to keep bees. Many say their dad or grandpa kept a few hives and they were always intrigued with bees and would like to try it for themselves.

If you’ve ever considered keeping honey bees, good for you. It is so important that we understand the essential and significant role honey bees play in our world. Honey bees pollinate 1/3 of all the food we eat. Apples, almonds, melons and even the crops that cattle eat to produce our beef and milk all tie into the pollination of the honey bee. And this is just scratching the surface.

We are here to help you take the step to becoming a beekeeper!  I’m a EAS certified master beekeeper and when you buy your equipment and bees from us, I’ll give you my personal cell phone number so you can call me anytime you have a question about your bees.

Just about anyone can keep bees, from the young to the old, from the University entomologist to the stay at home mom. Even the white house has a hive.

Yes, you can be a beekeeper. All you need is a beehive, some protective clothing, a few tools and some bees. You don’t have to know everything about bees to get started. After all, most colonies are pretty forgiving, and experience continues to be the best teacher.

Let me give you a few recommendations in the checklist below so you can become a successful beekeeper in the spring of 2011:

1)  LEARN ABOUT BEEKEEPING through online lessons such as the ones you see on our site, or take a class. Beekeeping classes are springing up all over the country. We offer classes almost monthly here at our apiary.

2) DECIDE HOW MANY HIVES you want to start out with. Of course you can start with only one if you have a tight budget. However, most everyone would recommend starting with 2-3 hives. Why?  If you only start with one, and it dies or flies away, then you do not have any bees. But with two or more hives you can always equalize your hives by sharing frames of brood or bees.

If you lose a queen or a whole hive, you can make a second hive called a split, or you can even move a frame of eggs over from the strong hive into a queenless hive and let them raise their own queen. You will also be able to harvest more products from the hive such as honey, pollen, royal jelly, propolis and wax. Once you put on your suit and light your smoker, it really doesn’t take much longer to inspect multiple hives.

3) PURCHASE YOUR BEES AND EQUIPMENT at the right time of the year. You should purchase your equipment between September through February. You can purchase your hives later than February, but you might find a longer wait time as this is the busy season for production. Purchase your protective clothing and tools at this time as well.



Purchase your bees between November and March. You can try to see if packages of bees are left after March, and it is possible, but we completely sold out last year on March 1st. If you live close enough, you can pick up your bees at our honey bee farm, but if not we’ll be happy to ship the bees to you either through USPS or UPS.




OLD EQUIPMENT VS. NEW EQUIPMENT
Many people try to save a few bucks and climb up in someone’s old barn loft to resurrect some old beekeeping equipment. This can work, but the risk of disease could cause you to lose your colony. Some diseases can live and remain dormant in old boxes for nearly 80 years.

We would love to be your bee equipment supplier. Your purchases from us will help us continue our beekeeping research, provide these free online lessons and pay our bills. Thank you in advance. We carry a full line of beekeeping supplies and we manufacture our own hives including 5-frame, 8-frame and 10-frame equipment.

DO NOT WAIT UNTIL APRIL OR MAY TO MAKE YOUR PURCHASES. It could be too late. Every year so many people call in May and June once it’s too late. So follow the time table above.



4) CHOOSE YOUR LOCATION to place your hives. Depending on where you live you may want to see if there are restrictions to keeping hives. This is usually only the case if you live in a town or city. However, most city ordinances allow for beekeeping, but you might check first.

If you find that you cannot keep bees where you live, remember there many places in the country where people would be more than glad for you to keep your bees on their property. Just remember not to place your bees too far from where you live or the long distance commute could keep you from enjoying your bees as often as you’d like.

Hives do well in partial shade, but because of various pests such as small hive beetle, ants and mice, it helps to keep hives in complete sun. However, when this is not possible, some shade is fine.

FACE WHICH DIRECTION? Hives can actually face any direction. Generally, facing them East or Southeast allows for early morning sunlight to get the hive out working early. Another consideration is the bees’ flight path. When you’re placing your hive, consider what might be in the hive’s flight path as they leave the hive. Do not place them near your clothes line or next to a walkway. They will stain your clothes and bump into people if they are too close to common walkways.

5) WHAT ABOUT YOUR NEIGHBOURS? There are several steps you can take so that your bees are liked by your neighbors. If your neighbors are close, keep plenty of water around for your bees to prevent them from looking for water in your neighbor’s kiddy pool. Bird baths make great bee waterers. If your neighbors are real close, you might consider giving them a jar of honey each year so they can see first hand how sweet bees are.
Try not to work your bees when your neighbors are having an outing or outdoor party. Always maintain a gentle line of bees.

6) JOIN A LOCAL BEE CLUB AND STATE ORGANIZATION.  Most areas have state associations that are made up of smaller beekeeping clubs throughout the state. These are great opportunities to learn, build up your beekeeping confidence and meet other beekeepers. I realize that many beekeepers are very independent or are so busy we don’t have time to join a club. But recently a local park district called a pest control company to kill a large hive in a tree. The hive was full of honey, so once the colony was dead and full of poison, nearby hives quickly robbed the poisoned honey and took it back to local beekeepers’ hives, killing those hives as a result. Our club quickly became involved by educating how bad this was, and how beekeepers are more than willing to remove hives. And our club was instrumental in helping one beekeeper receive compensation for his dead hives from the pest control company.

Our state association (Illinois) recently lobbied and had bottling honey removed from the oversight of the public health department. Now beekeepers are free to bottle and sell their own honey without the same restrictions imposed upon restaurants. This was hard work and took the “muscle” of a state association of beekeepers to get the attention of politicians.



7) PROTECTIVE CLOTHING & TOOLS. There are basically three levels of protective clothing: A complete suit with a built in hood which covers every part of your body, a jacket with a built in hood which protects you from the waist up, and a hat and veil that merely protects your face and head. Rarely do I have to wear a suit. Mostly I’ve learned to work my bees with a hat and veil, and sometimes no protective clothing at all. I have a complete lesson on how to work bees to avoid stings. CHECK OUT LESSON 21

If you are really worried about being stung, start with a complete suit and gloves. As you build your confidence you can slowly reduce the amount of protective clothing until you finally are wearing a hat and veil and no gloves.
What about gloves? I respect those who have to wear gloves. But, I believe if you keep the right tempered bees, which you should, you should develop your skills to the point where you do not wear gloves. I do not wear gloves and enjoy working my bees with my hands. My bees seem to respect that and I kill less bees.






 
 TOOLS. Two tools are needed to keep bees. A hive tool and a smoker. Do not get caught up in specially designed smokers and hive tools. An inexpensive smoker works just as well, and usually just as long as an expensive one.

Smoker fuel can be anything you have handy that produces non-toxic cool smoke, such as clean cotton rags, burlap, some types of twine, pine needles, dry grass cuttings, mulch, tree bark and cardboard. All of these fuels burn differently, so find the one that you prefer. I have a complete lesson on using your smoker correctly. Click Here

There are various types of hive tools but the traditional hive tool will be all you really need. I prefer using a stainless steel hive tool because if you drop it in the grass and can’t find it until next spring, it will still look the same. A regular steel hive tool will rust quickly, even if painted. Stainless steel hive tools are hard to find, but we sell them. Click here

Like any hobby there is a ton of various gadgets to buy and some are fun and enjoyable and helpful. But your basic tools are the smoker and hive tool.

These are some of the basics you need to know to start keeping bees in 6 or 7 months. So now is the time to begin learning, purchasing your equipment and bees and deciding on your location. Maybe you are looking for something to occupy your time through the winter. Now you can study beekeeping and be prepared when spring arrives. Maybe you need a hobby, something to keep your mind alert or maybe you would benefit from joining a group of people and interacting more with others. Beekeeping is just right.

Finally, Sheri and I are here to help you start keeping bees. We are both beekeepers and are available to answer your questions and personally mentor you when you purchase your bees and beekeeping equipment from us.
Thanks for joining us today, and here’s our contact information:
PHONE: 217-427-2678
EMAIL: david@honeybeesonline.com
WEBSITE: http://www.honeybeesonline.com/

Our mailing address:
Long Lane Honey Bee Farms
14556 N 1020 E. Rd
Fairmount, IL 61841
Until next time, remember to Bee-Have yourself!

David & Sheri Burns

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As you prepare to keep bees, several tools will make it much easier. Of course, you could do without the tools and probably get by, but these tools have become the best friend to the beekeeper.

Let me start by sharing what I feel is ABSOLUTELY essential, and then I'll talk about extras that just make the job easier.

ESSENTIAL TOOLS & EQUIPMENT:

1) Hive Tool
2) Smoker
3) Hat & Veil

THE HIVE TOOL

When I first started keeping bees I really didn't understand what the big deal was regarding the hive tool. Beekeepers talked about it like a carpenter talks about a hammer or tape measure. Now, nearly a decade and a half later, my hive tool is my best friend in the apiary.

By the way, APIARY is a fancy word for where you keep your bees. It is pronounced like: a-pea-airy. Our actual business is called Long Lane Apiary, but since many people aren't familiar with what an apiary is, we go by Long Lane Honey Bee Farms. Back to the hive tool.

A hive tool is between 9-10 inches long. I prefer the 9" hive tool. The 10" tool just seems too long and clumsy for me. It looks at first like a small carpenter's pry bar. But, it is a hive tool. You will not find them at the local hardware store or at the local home supply center. You may think you don't need one or that another shop tool will work, but take my advice, get a hive tool! One of my workers preferred to use a screw driver until I realized he was tearing up the hives. You'd better get two or three hive tools if you are like me, and lose them so quickly.

Here's what the hive tool looks like:


The shinny end is mostly used for separating the hive bodies and supers. Bees gather propolis and use it as glue to keep their boxes tightly together. When inspecting your hive, you will need to use this hive tool to separate stuck-together pieces.

The hooked end of the hive tool is used mostly for scraping off the propolis. It is important to scrap off as much excess propolis as you can to prevent build up and to keep a cleaner hive.
Notice the small hole in the hive tool. This is for pulling out nails if needed. Of course, you'll find many more helpful uses for your hive tool, but these are everyday uses.

Next, THE SMOKER


I would not want to keep bees without a smoker. Some brag that they don't smoke their bees, but, to me, this is not practical. Okay, first, why blow smoke in a hive? We do it to calm the bees. The idea is that smoke causes the bees to gorge themselves on honey, which makes them less likely and almost unable to sting. For one, they are busy eating, and they become so full, they are unable to bend and sting. It really does work! Trust me, this is not a tool you'll want to be without.

We'll cover how to enter a hive in a future lesson, but for now, let me give a brief explanation on how to smoke your hive. Use pine needles, burlap or corn cobs as fuel for your smoker. Of course, you can use other items such as wood pellets, large saw dust, dried grass or mulch too. Make sure that whatever you burn has not been treated with chemicals as this could kill your bees. When approaching your hive to open it, blow a couple of puffs of smoke into the front opening and wait at least 3 minutes. Then, remove the top cover and gently blow a few puffs of smoke into the entrance hole on the inner cover. As you begin removing the inner cover, blow a few puffs of smoke under the inner cover and between the frames as you lift off the inner cover. It is a good idea to wait a few minutes after blowing smoke into the hive as this gives the bees time to eat and relax.

Smokers are hot! They are metal, and lots of beekeepers have a perfect impression of a smoker bottom melted into their truck bed liners. I have one! I use an army ammo can now to put my smoker in when I am finished using it. It prevents fires, and prevents me from burning up something like my truck.

When lighting your smoker, do not pack it full, then try to light it. Load it lightly, and add fuel as it starts burning good. Be careful that the flame coming out of the opened smoker does not burn your hand or burn a nice size hole in your protective gear (experience speaking here)!!

Also, do not squeeze the smoker billow hard when smoking your hive. Gentle!! If you squeeze too hard, you may send fire into your hive. This is not good for the bees, and could set your entire hive on fire. Smoke only please!

Smoke does not hurt the bees. And you'll get good enough to know how much to use after a few tries. The smoker is good too, in case you get stung, you should blow smoke around the area of the sting. Bees are attracted to the scent of a stinger as a target, so by smoking the sting area, you neutralize this scent. Don't waste your money on expensive smokers! You're only blowing smoke!! A $30 smoker is all you need and works well.

HAT & VEIL
Okay, I admit, I have worked my bees without a hat or veil. And I also admit I have been stung on the face too. That's one place I don't like to get stung. And you could lose your sight if stung in the eye ball. And, if you get stung on the lip, you will look like Donald Duck for 2 days! Wear a hat and veil at all times.

Hats are usually plastic and are modeled after the popular pith hat. I like real pith hats from Vietnam, so I use real ones. They are a few bucks more than a cheap plastic one, but it is just my preference. Here at LONG LANE HONEY BEE FARMS we offer both plastic and real pith hats. Here's a picture of what we sell in our start up kits.





I wear my pith hat all day. When I'm not working bees, I remove the veil. The pith hat is a great sun blocker. Here I am after working my hives, cooling off in the front swing with my pith hat on.

Both the plastic and real pith hats provide total protection from the bees, not to mention they keep ticks out of your hair if your hives are beneath some trees. (Hives should be placed in direct sunlight at all times!)

An occasional stray bee can sneak in beneath your veil. I wear my veil without tying it off, so I do find a bee inside with me maybe twice a year. What do you do then? First, you do not panic. She is not in there to kill you. She wandered in by accident. I advise those who help me to never take off their veil in the field. The first instinct is to rip off the hat and veil to get the bee out. However, that sudden movement with a now exposed face and head in the middle of an apiary is not a good combination. Here's what I do. I face the sun, tilt my head back. She will move toward the sun on my inside veil, and I simply squeeze her between my fingers. The veil is flexible enough that I usually squeeze from the outside, but you can always slip your hand under your veil inside and squeeze her.

OTHER NONE ESSENTIAL TOOLS

Spray bottle, frame puller, frame holders, gloves, boots, etc. I don't like to wear gloves. I get stung more with gloves than without, because a bee will innocently climb up into my glove and I'll not know it and pinch her enough to get stung. Without gloves, I can better feel the bee and know where they are so as not to pinch one. If I do wear gloves, I use a very thin leather glove. I prefer pig skin gloves. A stinger can get through, but it does provide a lot of protection.

Again, the plan is to work your bees in such a way as to never get stung. I'll cover that in a future lesson too.

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