Minds Weapon

raising mason bees, raising bees at home, raising queen bees, raising honey bees, raising honey bees for beginners, raising bees in the city, locally made honey near me, locally produced honey, bee honey production, commercial production of honey,

About bees and honey

The history of mankind’s harvesting and use of honey produced by bees goes back more than 6,000 years, as honey was known as food and treatment for wounds at the same time, and due to the importance of bees and the honey that they produce, man began to think about raising bees in hives he makes himself, which makes the process of harvesting honey more easy and convenient.

How to raise bees

You can start keeping bees by buying the Kingdom of bees ready set up in a cell containing frames inside honey tablets, and in the case of availability of cell origin can buy packages of bees with the queen of beekeepers another and put them in this cell, and in both cases , be sure to free the bees Diseases, and the start of beekeeping may be through catching a swarm of them and placing them in the hive, and the kingdom of bees can be moved with its discs from a cave or tree to the hive . Some of the most important things that must be taken into account when starting to raise bees:

Choose the right time: It is best to start beekeeping in the spring with the blooming flowers, and the availability of nectar and pollen .

Building bee housing: beehives and prefab tires can be purchased, and hives similar to the prefab can be built in terms of size and spacing between frames.

Choosing the right place: you should put the cells of bees in a place where a variety of plants available to be able to get the needs of nectar and pollen, and must place contains a source of water, note that bees need only small amounts of water, but prefers water scented instead Of fresh water, and therefore it is recommended to provide a small pool of muddy water that contains some herbs. The following are the other specifications that must be taken into account when choosing a place to place the beehives:

The site should be well protected from winds and not exposed to floods.
The site should be far from high-tension power lines.
Mow long grass around the site, to prevent insects such as ants from reaching the hive

Reducing the phenomenon of the loss of bees from the hive: This phenomenon abounds in cells that are placed in the form of straight rows, which attracts the bees to the front and back rows that are more visible to them compared to the rows in the middle, and thus some bees may enter other rows outside their hive. Which leads to the absence of some cells of bees searching for food , which in turn affects the ability of bees to produce honey, and this phenomenon may also contribute to the transmission of diseases between cells, and it can be prevented by arranging the cells in an irregular way or in the form of a horseshoe, And setting different landmarks to distinguish cells from each other, or drawing different symbols at the entrance to each cell.

Dealing with bees: The beekeeper must use the necessary tools when dealing with the hive to protect it from bees, and from these equipment; A protective suit, a headdress consisting of a net hat, gloves, rubber boots, and a smoker used to soothe the bees.

How to produce honey

It should be noted that nectar is the primary component of honey , and bees collect the nectar from the flowers by sucking it through the hose, then storing it in their own stomach for this, as the flowers produce the nectar that is considered a sugary liquid to attract insects to them with the aim of pollinating them, and each bee can carry a quantity of up to 40 milligrams. And when the bees return to the hive, they give the nectar they have collected to the worker bees, so the workers gradually begin to convert it into honey, by evaporating most of the water in it, as the percentage of water in the nectar reaches 70%, while it only reaches about 20% in honey And the bees get rid of the excess water by swallowing and vomiting the nectar several times, and during this process the bees secrete special enzymes that can retain the nectar content of sugar and aromatic plant oils, and bees also care to ventilate the cells full of honey tablets by moving their wings.

The final product of honey is characterized by a thick and sticky texture, and a very sweet taste, as it contains many types of sugars such as sucrose, and the flavor and color of honey may vary according to the types of flowers from which the bees brought the nectar, for example honey made from orange blossoms takes a taste and smell somewhat close Of oranges, and after reaching the final product of honey, it is ready for bees to use, as it is one of the basic foods for them, or for storage inside the hive thanks to its anti-bacterial properties, and then it becomes food for bees in the winter season.

How to harvest and process honey

Honey can be harvested and then treated by following the following steps:

Wear protective clothing, including overalls, a hood, boots, and gloves. Ignite the smoker.
Gently open the hive, and choose the tablets that are about two-thirds filled with honey, taking into account avoiding the tablets that contain a brood inside.
Lift the disc, and blow the smoke straight to both sides. Use the brush to return the bees to the hive.
Extracting the honeycombs, taking into account leaving at least 8 of them as food for the bees .
Use a hot knife to remove the cap from the honeycomb.
Put the honeycomb on a strainer or a cloth installed over a plastic container, so that the side from which the cover was removed is facing down, and let the honey drip into the container through the cloth, leaving the wax on top, and you can also press the honeycomb using a spoon to separate the honey from it.
Repeat the filtering process to make sure that the honey is free of wax.
Keeping honey in clean, dry containers, taking care to close them tightly, so that the honey is ready for use or storage in a cool place.