2013
2013 · December 21, 2013
What do bees actually do in winter? No, they do not hibernate. The bee colony contracts in cold temperatures to its spherical winter seat, the so-called winter cluster. The outer bees permanently generate heat by moving their flight muscles, so that inside the cluster there are always temperatures between 20°C and 30°C. When there is frost, the bees stop breeding and put themselves into an energy-saving mode.
2013 · September 23, 2013
Bees make honey and store it in the combs to use it as "fuel" during the cold season. Regardless of the outside temperature, they always maintain a temperature of at least 20°C inside the hive. Once the beekeeper has extracted the honey, he must feed the bees sugar syrup in the autumn. The same applies to youngster colonies that have not yet been able to create a sufficiently large supply of honey. The plastic cup in the frame holds 1.8 kg of sugar syrup. It also contains a few corks that...
2013 · September 22, 2013
During the swarming period the colony should preferably be inspected once a week. Each honeycomb is pulled out and checked. The garden beekeeper assesses the welfare of the bees. He verifies, for example, whether the queen is still there and whether she is diligently nesting (laying eggs), and whether there are signs that the colony wants to divide and swarm, which should be prevented if necessary.
2013 · September 03, 2013
Bees land, heavily loaded with full honey bladder and yellow pollen panties, and pass the sweet juice to their sisters, the hive bees, who then store it in the honey cells. Foreign bees try to pass through the flight hole, but are prevented by the guards from entering the hive. Young bees fly in carefully and make only small rounds at first, but soon fly longer and longer distances. There are young bees with dense fur and old worn down ones that have hardly any hair on their back. Drones are...
2013 · August 18, 2013
On 18.08.2013 it was finally time for the author to pick up "his" bee colony.
2013 · August 10, 2013
The bee colony is of the Carinthian bee race (Apis mellifera carnica), also called Carniolan bee. It is a naturally occurring breed of the Western honey bee (Apis mellifera). It is also simply called Carnica by beekeepers. It is the most widespread bee breed in Germany. A remarkable coincidence: The garden beekeeper spent a lot of time as a small child in Carinthia, the home of his grandparents. They received their honey from a beekeeper who lived on the nearby edge of the forest.
2013 · August 08, 2013
Normally you start with your first bee colony in spring. The author, however, was impatient and probably pushed a little, so that his apiarist godfather thought he could probably start beekeeping in late summer.
2013 · July 31, 2013
On 31.07. the brand-new hive, the home of the first colony of bees, is set up in full size for testing in the garden behind the house. With 4 full frames the box reaches a stately height, enough space for the bee colony to grow up to 2 brood rooms (below) and 2 honey rooms (above) next year. But the boxes are still uninhabited... the author can hardly wait for the new ones to move in :-)
2013 · June 30, 2013
The author contacted the Heilbronn Beekeepers' Association and asked for a beginners' course. However, such a course was not offered in Heilbronn this year, and in the neighbouring Weinsberg the course had long since begun. Now the author had already shown many times that he could acquire new knowledge by studying books and information from the internet in a reasonable short time. He was also advised against starting beekeeping without a course. But he followed the invitation to the Beekeeping...
2013 · June 16, 2013
The author's cousin is a doctor and her husband is an engineer. Very impressive for the author was the way the beekeeper made his decisions with the bees: Not by textbook, as the author had just read one, but more like a doctor. The beekeeper looks at his patient, talks to him, evaluates the information and impressions available to him, and then makes a decision that is influenced to a large extent by his intuition. Whether it is the right - or even the best - decision, he will usually not...