This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these messages) ‹The template Manual is being considered for merging.›
|
Honey bee starvation is a problem for bees and beekeepers. Starvation may be caused by unfavorable weather, disease, long distance transportation or depleting food reserve. Over-harvesting of honey (and the lack of supplemental feeding) is the foremost cause for scarcity as bees are not left with enough of a honey store, though weather, disease, and disturbance can also cause problems. Backyard beekeepers face more colony losses in the winter than in the summer, but for commercial beekeepers there is not much variation in loss by season. Starvation may be avoided by effective monitoring of hives and disease prevention measures. Starvation can amplify the toxic effect of pesticides bees are exposed to. [1]
Backyard beekeepers produce 40% of all honey worldwide. Beehive management issues resulting in colony losses are a major concern for backyard beekeepers. According to a 2014–15 national survey, backyard beekeepers lost 52% and commercial beekeepers lost 32% of colonies. Backyard beekeepers face more colony losses in the winter than in the summer, but for commercial beekeepers there is not much variation in loss by season. [2] Roughly 22% of backyard beekeepers have identified starvation as one of the main causes for colony losses. [3] Honey bee starvation is an especially challenging problem for beginning beekeepers. Starvation may be caused by unfavorable weather, disease, long distance transportation or depleting food reserve. Starvation may be avoided by effective monitoring of hives and disease prevention measures.
Over-harvesting of honey (and the lack of supplemental feeding) is the foremost cause for scarcity. Bees are not left with enough of a honey store. [4] Weather changes and extremes, available food reserve and presence of brood are factors that influence the speed at which food store depletes. It could just take a day or two of food scarcity to kill an entire hive.
In the winter, honeybees cluster around the queen and brood to keep them warm. [5] It is believed that an outer layer of bees called mantle bees keep the cluster packed and warm. Also an inner layer of worker bees move around and shiver to produce warmth. [6] Even if food is available in a far corner of the hive or in another frame, it may be too cold for the bees to leave the cluster to reach the food. [7] This leads to starvation and death.
Early spring can be misleading in terms of knowing honey level in hive. A couple of cold nights in spring can prevent the bees from foraging and beekeepers may not realise if the bees have been able to store enough to get through those days. [5] Throughout spring, colonies are likely to become densely populated.
In summer, a huge amount of honey is necessary for the big population of bees. Rainy days can wash out nectar and pollen from flowers and hungry bees may run out of food.
In the fall, sudden drops in temperature are the major reasons for starvation.
Diseases like Nosema ceranae impact the digestive tract of the bees. This could lead to starvation even in the presence of food sources. [8]
Millions of bees are transported each year to California and other parts of the USA to pollinate crops such as almonds. [9] Bee hives are transported cross-country in trucks nonstop or with little break. [10] Bees are severely stressed from confinement, heat, weather changes and sudden change in their daily tasks. While on the road for two to three days, it is difficult for the truck driver or the beekeeper to check on the temperature and food level in the hives. Proper nutrition of the bees is affected and there is high risk of bees starving to death on the road trip. One study points to impaired food gland development in migratory bees resulting in improper feeding of brood. [11] North Carolina State University news states that providing bees access to huge amount of food while on road may ease stress due to transportation. [12]
Migratory bees are usually released in a very large farm for a few weeks to pollinate a single crop. Long term diet of one type of nectar makes the bee vulnerable to diseases. Recent studies have shown that the lifespan of migratory bees are less than that of stationary bees. [13]
While harvesting honey, it is essential to leave enough of a store of honey for times when bees are not able to forage. It might still become necessary to feed bees. During feeding, it is important to follow recommendations about what to feed, how to feed and how often. [14]
Bees can be fed water and sugar syrup in summer and fall. In the winter, syrup would freeze. Therefore, dry sugar is preferred. [15] Harvested honey made by the bees can also be fed back. It is important to make sure honey comes from disease-free bees, although in practice, this is impossible, as every beehive carries some disease. [16]
It is also essential to look at how starved the bees are. If the bees are dying, thin sugar syrup should be directly sprinkled on the bees as they will not be able to fly or process hard candy. In about an hour, this should help save their lives. Further, they can be fed syrup and candy using feeders.
Hive needs to be ventilated in winter time. [17] Hives may need to be closed to prevent food robbery from outside foragers. [18]
While there are generic weight recommendations available, frequency and amount of food to feed vary for each hive. Depending on the weather conditions, configuration and population in hive, a beekeeper needs to decide how much to feed and when to feed. [19] It is best to seek recommendations from experienced beekeepers in the locality.[ citation needed ]
It is crucial to monitor food reserve in the hive, temperature and hive activity especially in harsh weather conditions.
Manual inspection is the most common method to date. It is a tedious process for beekeepers and intrusive for bees. It is necessary to monitor regularly to identify any issues with feeding and food bank. [20] [21]
Information is available from beekeeper associations and social media networks. Mobile apps like Bee Safe! [22] can predict and alert how much to feed and when to feed based on weather conditions and hive feed cycles.
Electronic monitoring systems can be an effective tool for the beekeeper to ensure bees do not starve. [23] These monitors gather data about a hive such as temperature, vibrations etc. The downside of existing electronic monitors is the high cost and need for processing vast amounts of data. Reasonable pricing and improvisations to get an alert based on the hive configurations are necessary before backyard keepers can use these monitors efficiently to know when to feed.
A beehive is an enclosed structure where some honey bee species of the subgenus Apis live and raise their young. Though the word beehive is used to describe the nest of any bee colony, scientific and professional literature distinguishes nest from hive. Nest is used to discuss colonies that house themselves in natural or artificial cavities or are hanging and exposed. The term hive is used to describe an artificial/man-made structure to house a honey bee nest. Several species of Apis live in colonies. But for honey production, the western honey bee and the eastern honey bee are the main species kept in hives.
A beekeeper is a person who keeps honey bees, a profession known as beekeeping.
Beekeeping is the maintenance of bee colonies, commonly in artificial beehives. Honey bees in the genus Apis are the most commonly kept species but other honey producing bees such as Melipona stingless bees are also kept. Beekeepers keep bees to collect honey and other products of the hive: beeswax, propolis, bee pollen, and royal jelly. Other sources of beekeeping income include pollination of crops, raising queens, and production of package bees for sale. Bee hives are kept in an apiary or "bee yard".
An apiary is a location where beehives of honey bees are kept. Apiaries come in many sizes and can be rural or urban depending on the honey production operation. Furthermore, an apiary may refer to a hobbyist's hives or those used for commercial or educational usage. It can also be a wall-less, roofed structure, similar to a gazebo which houses hives, or an enclosed structure with an opening that directs the flight path of the bees.
In beekeeping, bee brood or brood refers to the eggs, larvae and pupae of honeybees. The brood of Western honey bees develops within a bee hive. In man-made, removable frame hives, such as Langstroth hives, each frame which is mainly occupied by brood is called a brood frame. Brood frames usually have some pollen and nectar or honey in the upper corners of the frame. The rest of the brood frame cells may be empty or occupied by brood in various developmental stages. During the brood raising season, the bees may reuse the cells from which brood has emerged for additional brood or convert it to honey or pollen storage. Bees show remarkable flexibility in adapting cells to a use best suited for the hive's survival.
A queen bee is typically an adult, mated female (gyne) that lives in a colony or hive of honey bees. With fully developed reproductive organs, the queen is usually the mother of most, if not all, of the bees in the beehive. Queens are developed from larvae selected by worker bees and specially fed in order to become sexually mature. There is normally only one adult, mated queen in a hive, in which case the bees will usually follow and fiercely protect her.
A top-bar hive is a single-story frameless beehive in which the comb hangs from removable bars. The bars form a continuous roof over the comb, whereas the frames in most current hives allow space for bees to move up or down between boxes. Hives that have frames or that use honey chambers in summer but which use management principles similar to those of regular top-bar hives are sometimes also referred to as top-bar hives. Top-bar hives are rectangular in shape and are typically more than twice as wide as multi-story framed hives commonly found in English-speaking countries. Top-bar hives usually include one box only, and allow for beekeeping methods that interfere very little with the colony. While conventional advice often recommends inspecting each colony each week during the warmer months, heavy work when full supers have to be lifted, some beekeepers fully inspect top-bar hives only once a year, and only one comb needs to be lifted at a time.
In beekeeping, a Langstroth hive is any vertically modular beehive that has the key features of vertically hung frames, a bottom board with entrance for the bees, boxes containing frames for brood and honey and an inner cover and top cap to provide weather protection. In a Langstroth hive, the bees build honeycomb into frames, which can be moved with ease. The frames are designed to prevent bees from attaching honeycombs where they would either connect adjacent frames, or connect frames to the walls of the hive. The movable frames allow the beekeeper to manage the bees in a way which was formerly impossible.
Swarming is a honey bee colony's natural means of reproduction. In the process of swarming, a single colony splits into two or more distinct colonies.
A nuc, or nucleus colony, is a small honey bee colony created from larger colonies, packages, or captured swarms. A nuc hive is centered on a queen bee, the nucleus of the honey bee colony.
Aethina tumida,commonly known as small hive beetle (SHB), is a beekeeping pest. It is native to sub-Saharan Africa, but has spread to many other regions, including North America, Australia, and the Philippines.
A feeder is a vessel or contraption used by beekeepers to feed pollen or honey to honey bees from a honey bee colony.
The western honey bee or European honey bee is the most common of the 7–12 species of honey bees worldwide. The genus name Apis is Latin for 'bee', and mellifera is the Latin for 'honey-bearing' or 'honey-carrying', referring to the species' production of honey.
Commercial Beekeeping in the United States dates back to the 1860s.
Beekeeping in New Zealand is reported to have commenced in 1839 with the importing of two skep hives by Mary Bumby, a missionary. It has since become an established industry as well a hobby activity.
Colony collapse disorder (CCD) is an abnormal phenomenon that occurs when the majority of worker bees in a honey bee colony disappear, leaving behind a queen, plenty of food, and a few nurse bees to care for the remaining immature bees. While such disappearances have occurred sporadically throughout the history of apiculture, and have been known by various names, the syndrome was renamed colony collapse disorder in early 2007 in conjunction with a drastic rise in reports of disappearances of western honey bee colonies in North America. Beekeepers in most European countries had observed a similar phenomenon since 1998, especially in Southern and Western Europe; the Northern Ireland Assembly received reports of a decline greater than 50%. The phenomenon became more global when it affected some Asian and African countries as well. From 1990 to 2021, the United Nation’s FAO calculated that the worldwide number of honeybee colonies increased 47%, reaching 102 million.
Beekeeping in the United Kingdom is the maintenance of bee colonies by humans within the United Kingdom. It is a significant commercial activity that provides those involved with honey, beeswax, royal jelly, queen bees, propolis, flower pollen and bee pollen. Honeybees also provide pollination services to orchards and a variety of seed crops.
Urban beekeeping is the practice of keeping bee colonies (hives) in towns and cities. It is also referred to as hobby beekeeping or backyard beekeeping. Bees from city apiaries are said to be "healthier and more productive than their country cousins". As pollinators, bees also provide environmental and economic benefits to cities. They are essential in the growth of crops and flowers.
Flow Hive is a brand of beehive with a unique honey frame, which allows honey extraction without opening the beehive. During extraction, bees are visibly disturbed less than by other methods.