Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
The beekeeper's tasks outlined above are a summary of what you must be able to
accomplish if you become a beekeeper. This is not difficult: it is enjoyable and, at the
end of the day, seeing everything work out well is immensely satisfying.
But to do all this, the beekeeper needs certain items of equipment, knowledge and a
plan, and that is just the beginning. Once you start in beekeeping, you will never stop
learning.
This topic will now show you exactly what you need to get started, what you need to
know to keep bees successfully, and it will provide you with the plan.
This chapter has discussed the following points:
The colony or beehive should contain a queen bee, worker bees and
drone bees.
The queen bee mates on the wing with up to 20 or more drone bees
(the more the better) from a wide radius in order to maintain genetic
diversity. She stores the sperm and uses it to fertilize eggs. She can lay
up to 2,000 eggs a day. She is fed and groomed by worker bees and, in
this way, spreads pheromones around the colony. She has a sting which
she uses only to fight rival queens. After mating she won't fly again
unless part of a swarm - which we look at in Chapter 6. There is usually
only one queen in the hive. All fertilized eggs result in bees that have the
potential to be a queen.
The worker bee is an incomplete female who is unable to mate. She
carries out all the other tasks inside and outside the hive, such as
cleaning, caring for and feeding brood, foraging for food and colony
defence. She has a sting and will use it in defence of the colony. The
