B2—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 2,1983
BY BETH HEMMINGER
Staff Correspondent
Forget about the birds, Jim
Small of Shippensburg is in
terested in the bees.
Jim’s interest in honey bees
began five years ago when his son
in-law started several hives in his
yard. Jim, a nature lover of sorts,
found the bees so fascinating that
hefiad to start his own bee project.
However, according to Jim, you
simply don’t get some bees and put
them in a hive and it’s done. The
five year veteran explained you
first have to learn the basics and
build a lot of equipment before you
can start beekeeping.
Some of the basic equipment for
a beginning beekeeper is the hives,
frames, smoker, hive tools, veil,
gloves and feeder.
Building equipment is the
beekeepers' past time in the winter
months, said Jim. He builds all the
outer boxes of the hives. Then, Jim
orders the precut inside frames
and puts them together.
But, Jim’s work isn’t quite as
simple as it sounds. After he nails
the frames together, a beeswax
foundation is wired into the frame.
The beeswax has to be placed in
the frames in a straight and secure
fashion which helps the bees
construct a sound comb.
However, Jim said the real fun
begins in the spring and summer
when the colony begins its busy
activities. Once the alfalfa, asters,
buckwheat, clover, cotton,
goidenrod, holly, locust (to name a
few of the bee-attracting flowers),
Jim works with his wax melter where he melts the bees
honeycombs into blocks of wax. Beeswax is used to make high
quality candles.
VSComestpoA
c i/ctfis
Hobby keeps Jim Busy as a Bee
start blooming the bees are really
busy buzzing. And Jim added,
• Hopefully the honey supply is
growing.”
Jun explained the honey making
process step by step, saying that
the bees can’t make honey without
nectar from the flowers. This
nectar is in reality the raw honey
and the bees’ mam source ot food.
The bees collect the nectar and
gather pollen, another essential
ingredient to the bees’ life. The
worker bees collect these two
substances at the same time. The
nectar is collected in the mouth
and the pollen is gathered in small
particles on the fund legs.
Once inside the hive with their
catch, the bees evaporate the
water from the nectar, changing
the nectar into honey. Then, the
bees seal the honey into the cells of
the honeycomb. The bees also
store the pollen in the cells of the
honeycomb. It is commonly known
as 'beesbread.’
According to Jim, during the
collecting season, the worker bees
do something 'quite fascinating”.
When a bee finds an area
populated with nectar-filled
flowers, trees and shrubs, it
quickly will return to the hive and
do the 'bees dance.’ In our society,
this dance would probably
resemble 'rock and roll.’ With this
dance of shaking, twirling, and
wiggling, the bees tell the colony
exactly where the good collecting
ground is.
Jim said he has been fortunate
Jim shows us a close look
at the brood frame as he
searches for the queen bee.
There is only one queen bee
in each hive.
enough to see this dance and that it
is quite amazing.
The bees store the honey, ac
cording to Jim, tor their winter
food supply. However, Jim said
when there are several thousand
bees in a hive, they can store quite
a large amount ot honey. The
surplus is what Jim can claim.
Last year, Jim worked tour hives
and collected 250 pounds ot honey.
The pollen or beesbread - the
food tor the unhatched bees is
also consumed by humans. Jun
and his tamily eat it trequently.
“We like the taste, and pollen
provides substantial nutrients to
the body,” Jun said. He noted that
pollen is sold in health tood stores
and athletes are great consumers
Jim is veiled and is taking a close look at a very busy hive.
He gently picks up a brood frame crawling with active worker
bees.
ot the bee product. The pollen
provides their bodies with
essential nutrients and energy.
However, the bees are the
largest consumers ot the pollen.
They consume about 100 pounds ot
pollen a year.
During the honey-collecting
season, the queen bee is only busy
doing one thing: laying eggs. The
queen bee can lay up to 1,000 eggs a
day. The eggs are stored in the
honeycomb in what is called the
brood chamber. Honey is also
stored in the corners ot the brood
chambers.
Jim explained that the worker
bees which are undeveloped
females only live tor six weeks.
Therefore, while workers die,
young bees hatch and are ready to
take their place in the colony.
During the peak lune-of collecting
in the spring, about 60,000 bees can
be living in the hive at one tune.
With the worker bees live the
male bees or drones. Their only
purpose in the colony is fertilizing*
the queens’ eggs. Compared to the
several thousand worker bees,
there are only a tew hundred
drones in each hive.
Jun remarked, "Bees must have
been the inventors ot women’s
liberation.” Jim laughed, ex
plaining his remark: after the
collecting season is over in the tali,
the workers remove the drones
from the hive. "1 have seen the
workers bodily take the drones
from the hive, tly them away and
drop them,” Jim said, adding that
the workers also remove any
worker bee who doesn’t work
during the collecting season.
"They keep a clean home. ’'
Jun said that each day he learns
more about beekeeping and bees.
"Bees can be contemptible or they
can be nice,” he said. And occa
sionally he even gets stung.
Kecently, Jmi’s enthusiasm has
captured the interest ot several
local children, and he has started a
4-H Bee Club. The club has nme.i
members, and Jim has beenvj
teaching them the basics of
beekeeping. Several ot the
members this year have bought
their bees and now have one or two
hives. Jun said that beginners
, usually buy a package of two to
three pounds ot bees with a queen
tram certified bee suppliers.
Beekeepers can also start new
hives by capturing a live swarm.
Jun said he would like to teach the
4-H members how to capture a
. swarrn, but has had little luck in
finding one.
Eventually, Jun would like to
turn his fascinating hubby into a
business by selling the honey,
honeycomb and beeswax. This
year he is working towards his
goal. He expanded his hives and
now has a total ot 15. He said he
isn’t looking tor a large supply of
honey this year, but next year, "1
should be as busy as a bee|j
collecting the surplus honey. ” i
Jun remarked, "The wonderful
(Turn to Page B 4)