Keeping bees

The queen

The only fully fertile female. She mates in flight early in life, stores the sperm, and can lay well over a thousand eggs a day in spring. Her scent (queen pheromone) holds the colony together.

Workers

Sterile females that do every job in turn as they age: cleaning cells, nursing larvae, building comb, guarding, then foraging. A summer worker lives about six weeks; winter bees live for months.

Drones

Males with no sting, raised in larger cells. Their only job is to mate with queens from other colonies. Workers push them out in autumn.

Egg to adult

Protection

A veil is the minimum. Most beginners add a jacket or full suit and gloves. Light, smooth fabric: bees react to dark, fuzzy things that look like a bear or a skunk.

Smoker

Burns pine needles, burlap or wood shavings to make cool white smoke. Smoke masks the bees' alarm scent and keeps the colony calm while you work.

Hive tool

A flat steel bar for prying apart boxes and frames that bees glue together with propolis.

Also useful

Bee brush, frame grip, a feeder, a notebook or app for inspection notes, and a spray bottle of sugar water for package installs.

Top-bar hive

One long horizontal box with bars across the top; bees hang comb from each bar with no frames. Easy on the back and cheap to build, but comb is fragile and honey is harvested by crushing comb, not extracting.

Warré hive

A vertical stack of small boxes with top bars, designed by the French priest Émile Warré. New boxes go on the bottom, the way a wild colony builds downward. Less handling, slower inspections.

Eggs

Tiny white grains standing upright in the bottom of cells. Eggs mean a queen was laying in the last three days, even if you never see her.

Brood pattern

Healthy capped worker brood is a solid slab of tan cappings with few gaps. A spotty, shot-gun pattern can mean a failing queen, inbreeding or disease.

Queen cells

Peanut-shaped cells hanging down. Many along the bottom edges usually mean swarm plans; one or two on the face of a frame often mean the bees are replacing (superseding) their queen.

Stores and space

Capped honey, uncapped nectar and colorful pollen. Is there room to lay and store? A packed colony needs another box.

Pests and signs

Small hive beetles running from the light, mites on bees, wax moth webbing, sunken or greasy cappings, bad smells.

Write it down

Date, weather, queen seen or eggs seen, frames of brood, stores, temper, what you added or took. Patterns show over weeks.

Spring syrup (1:1)

One part white table sugar to one part water by weight or volume. Thin syrup imitates nectar and spurs comb building and brood.

Fall syrup (2:1)

Two parts sugar to one part water. Thick syrup is stored like honey for winter. In the north feed before nights turn cold.

Pollen patties

Protein for brood rearing in a dearth. In Florida give small pieces the bees will finish in days: leftover patties breed small hive beetles.

Never

Do not feed honey from the store or from another beekeeper: it can carry American foulbrood spores. Avoid brown sugar and molasses, which can upset bees' guts.

Alcohol wash

Scoop about half a cup of bees (roughly 300) from a brood frame, making sure the queen is not among them. Shake them in rubbing alcohol for a minute, then count the mites that fall out and divide by 3 for mites per 100 bees. Accurate, but it kills the sample.

Sugar roll

The same half cup of bees in a jar with a mesh lid and two spoonfuls of powdered sugar. Roll, wait a minute, then shake the sugar and mites out onto a white plate and count. The bees go back to the hive.

When to act

Many guides treat when counts reach about 2 to 3 mites per 100 bees, and sooner in late summer, when the colony is raising its long-lived winter bees.

Small hive beetle (a Florida problem)

Aethina tumida came from Africa and was first found in Florida in 1998. Warm, sandy soil suits it. Larvae tunnel through comb and make honey ferment and run. Keep colonies strong, do not give more space than they can guard, use oil traps between frames, put hives in sun, extract honey within a day or two of pulling it, and never leave frames lying about.

Wax moth

Moth larvae chew through comb and leave silk webbing, mostly in weak colonies and in stored comb. Strong colonies defend themselves. Freeze frames for 48 hours before storing them in light and air. Never use mothballs in comb.

American foulbrood (reportable)

A bacterial disease (Paenibacillus larvae) whose spores last for decades. Signs: spotty brood, sunken, greasy or pierced cappings, a sour smell, and dead larvae that pull out in a brown rope on a matchstick. In Florida, report suspected AFB to the FDACS apiary inspector. Infected colonies and equipment are usually burned. Antibiotics now require a veterinarian.

Around the house

Candles, wood and leather polish, waxed cloth food wraps, lip balm and hand salve.

Crafts and art

Crayons, encaustic painting, batik dye resist, and lost-wax casting for metal.

Back to the bees

Clean wax is pressed into new foundation sheets for frames.

Bees in a yard

Hives on land that is not agricultural (a house lot, for example) come under a Beekeeper Compliance Agreement, with limits on colonies per lot size, a flyway barrier and a water source. City and homeowner association rules can also apply.

Selling honey

Small producers can sell honey under Florida's cottage food law, with a proper label. Only pure honey may be sold as honey.

Help nearby

Manatee County has a UF/IFAS Extension office and local beekeeping clubs that run classes and mentor beginners.

A normal sting

Sharp pain, a red bump and swelling near the sting that can last a day or two. Scrape or flick the stinger out quickly: speed matters more than method. Then wash, cool and, if needed, take an antihistamine.

Fewer stings

Move slowly, use smoke, wear a veil and light clothes, and work in good weather. A sting releases alarm scent (it smells a little like bananas) that tells other bees to sting the same spot: smoke the area and step back.

An emergency

Call 911 at once for hives or swelling away from the sting, a swollen face or throat, trouble breathing, dizziness, or vomiting. These are signs of anaphylaxis. Use an epinephrine auto-injector if one has been prescribed.

Before you start

People with a known sting allergy should talk with a doctor first; allergists offer venom immunotherapy. Keep a phone at the apiary, tell someone when you are working bees, and never work alone with children nearby.