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4 BOTHWELL BEEKEEPERS OUR AIMS: To maximise pollination of fruit and vegetables To protect honeybees To promote beekeeping To raise awareness of the importance of bees

5 Tautz: The Buzz About Bees Bees are our smallest domestic animal and the third most valuable in Europe

6 Honey bees Are our smallest domestic animal and the third most valuable in Europe They serve mankind foremost as pollinators of crop plants We keep them in artificial homes and harvest the honey, pollen, propolis, royal jelly and bee venom

7 Crown board (inside) Honey Super Honey Super Queen excluder Brood box National Hive Entrance Mesh varroa floor

8 BEES OF YESTER YEAR Woman gathering honey approx. 13,000 BC. Painting found in the Cave of the Spider near Valencia Spain,

9 Cylindrical hives like the ones in the picture above from the tomb of Pabasa (7th century BCE) were made of clay and stacked on top of each other. They are still used today. 9

10 Next year s honey harvest starts NOW! Healthy bee colonies Disease and parasite free Well fed Well housed

11 Healthy bee colonies Well fed Ambrosia Syrup 600ml : 1 kg granulated sugar Fondant

12 Healthy bees free from parasites, Varroa Destructor - a vector for disease IPM Integrated Pest Management

13 BOTHWELL BEEKEEPERS APIARY MANAGEMENT PLAN 2015 Integrated Pest Management Swarm Control Hive / Apiary Management Resources/ Events Dec 14 Visit midday 16 th December Decide whether to move hives to check for frost pockets further up the bank Jan 15 Oxalic acid treatment Prepare ground to move hives up the bank? AddiKonal slabs, tethers, Move on very cold day. Ratchet straps Feb Plant gorse Purchase queen rearing and Make up frames other Mar Monitor mite drop throughout the year RESOURCES REQUIRED: 1. Ekes 2. 2 full hives with double brood boxes and double supers, + straps 3. Blow torch 4. Frames Fumigate spare equipment using acekc acid Bailey comb exchange (one brood box per hive) 3 Feed if required Monitor for Queen cells 5. FoundaKon worker plus drone 6. Honey and wax processing equipment 7. New Queens from splits, swarm or purchased 8. ObservaKon hive equipment Frames, foundakon 4, 5 Ekes 1 SBA Wax training day Apr Apivar Install spare hive Intro session for new recruits May French Beekeepers Exchange Demaree Raise queens Community Drone brood removal Garden Open Day 8 Jun Swarm control as Increase number of colonies 2, 8 Royal Highland Show required Jul Buy Apivar Basic Beemaster tests Aug Harvest honey HONEY!!!! and WAX 6 Sep Apivar Feed Ambroia Community Garden Open Day 8 Oct Prepare hives for winter Nov Create Plan for 2016 Dec Heb hives, feed fondant

14 Healthy bees Brood diseases and other diseases Potential new enemies Asian Hornet Small Hive Beetle

15 Hives ready for winter: in good condition mouse guards woodpeckers trees

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17 Brood frame in Spring Pollen Sealed honey stores Sealed brood

18 Swarming The birth of a new colony Virgin queen stays at home with young, house bees. Mother queen leaves with older, foraging bees.

19 Swarming A new colony is born

20 The worker bee

21 Queen lays eggs for the whole of her life Drone attempts to mate for the whole of his life. Workers change jobs depending on their age. Cell cleaning and capping Tending brood and the queen Comb building, cleaning, food handling Outside tasks Cell cleaning Capping brood Tending brood Attending queen Comb building Cleaning debris Packing pollen Receiving nectar Ventilating Guarding First forage Newly emerged 1-3 days Able to produce food 3-10 days Able to produce wax days Able to fly and to navigate days

22 Bees bring four things home: 1. Pollen 2. Water 3. Propolis 4. Nectar

23 Abdomen digestion, forage tank, construction and defence Nectar crop

24 Nectar The fuel source Produced by plants to attract pollinators Carried in the bee s honey crop Preserved as honey

25 Honey What s in honey? Water from the soil and the atmosphere Sugars made during photosynthesis from water and carbon dioxide Amino acids, proteins and enzymes, vitamins and volatile oils made in plant cells Wax, pollen and yeasts, hopefully no antibiotics or residues from treatments and hive cleansers added by the beekeeper.

26 Nectar

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28 The Waggle Dance of the honey bee

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31 Honey Liquid white, gold, amber, copper, bronze

32 Extracting the honey Crown board (inside) Honey Super Honey Super Queen excluder Brood box Entrance Mesh varroa floor

33 Extracting the honey Clearing the bees:

34 Extracting the honey The extraction room Supers in Uncapping tray Strainer Wax collection HYGIENE - THE SPACE AND YOU! Extractor Filtering: Metal - coarse and medium Nylon - fine 300 micron Supers out

35 Extracting the honey

36 Bottling the honey HYGIENE - THE SPACE AND YOU! Choose one size of jar - always use new jars. Do not recycle. Wash each one in the dishwasher to sterilise Fill and weigh Choose white or gold lids Use tamper-proof labels can be pre-printed Add Batch number using a black permanent marker pen Label with your own label Keep a record of your honey: date of bottling, type, batch number See BBKA Selling Honey Advice

37 Country of Origin Type of honey Best before: Produce of Scotland BOTHWELL HONEY A taste of Bothwell flowers produced by Bothwell bees in a single Bothwell apiary for you to enjoy S.Cran 30 Blantyre Road Bothwell G71 8PJ 454g 1lb Best Before 31 August 2018 HONEY IS UNSUITABLE FOR BABIES UNDER 12 MONTHS Producer Metric weight Health advice (optional)

38 Honey Record Batch Lot number Honey type ExtracEon date Number + wt. of jars Best before Filled by Point of sale 1 n/a Clear honey 21 Aug x 227g End 2016 SF, AC, BCG Clear honey 23 Aug x 227g End 2016 TH, AC BCG

39 Presentation Honey Comb honey Chunk honey Regional honey

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43 Show it off!

44 Thank the bees... they re amazing!

45 . and enjoy your bees!