Bee School - Part 2

Topic: Intro to Beekeeping

Presenter: Robin Mountain

Robin is a second generation beekeeper from South Africa whose family had over 4,000 hives who shared the following tidbits of information:

• There are 47 different varieties of African bees; Killer bees are not African bees but a cross between European and African bees.
• A Nuc is a nucleus bee hive that is made up of a laying queen, attendants, and 4 frames of brood and honey.
• Put your hives on a stand of cinder blocks to keep skunks from messing with your hive.
• Skunks are the worst preditors of bees.
• Using a screen bottom board lets the mites fall through and helps protect your hive in a non-chemical passive way.
• During the wintertime, put grass around 3 sides of your bottom board to stop the wind from blowing up into the hive.
• Start beekeeping with two hives so you can monitor how well they perform with each other.
• Have two hive tools with you when you get into the hives.
• When starting a new hive with a queen, use a nail to poke a small hole through the candy on the queen cage.