[Chemguy]

In order to support my bee habit, I teach. Both give me great pleasure, with occasional doses of frustration, but overall I enjoy both activities.

On the teaching side, I may have an opportunity to design and present a course aimed at college freshmen. I get to choose the topic, and to present the topic from a variety of perspectives; literature, society, mathematics, physical sciences, art.... I've chosen bees as the topic.

As I think about what to teach, it occurs to me that there are lots of 'rules of thumb' out there that relate to beekeeping, like 1 pound of honey = 2,000,000 trips to flowers or 5 lb of honey are needed to prepare 1 lb. of wax. I'd like to gather some of these tidbits, and thought that I would ask here if you have some favorites that you have found useful and/or interesting. I figure that they'll be useful to a wider audience here on the site, too.

I am not looking for any specific type of rule of thumb, or conversion. Anything involving brood, food, woodenware, pesticides or anything else that comes to mind is appreciated. No example is too simple, none too complex. Thanks!

Pete

 

[Ravenzero]

When making 1:1 Sugar syrup for feeding, "A Pints A Pound the world around!"

 

[BeePappy]

"a swarm in May is worth a load of hay; a swarm in June is worth a silver spoon; but a swarm in July is not worth a fly"

 

[Bees In Miami]

Chemguy: I taught a class last week at a major Culinary School...I started with this...
http://www.benefits-of-honey.com/honey-bee-facts.html

I brought a hive with frames so they could see what makes up the inside of a hive, a drawn frame from a honey extraction, my suit, smoker, etc so it could be an interactive kind of thing. "Africanized" bees were a major topic of discussion, though in your area it may not be a concern. HTH. Have fun!

 

[homesteader824]

A couple I can think of that may fit your question. Regarding baking, you can substitute honey for sugar in a recipe in equal measure, then reduce the amount of liquid added by the volume of honey. For example, if a recipe calls for 2 tbs. sugar and 1 1/2 cups milk, you use 2 tbs. honey, and reduce the amount of milk added by the same 2 tablespoons. It works in my bread machine recipe.

When comparing deeps, mediums, 8- and 10-frame equipment, four 8-frame medium supers have the same surface area as two 10-frame deeps.

Bees fly at 50F, and you can open a hive and look in at 60F. I'm sure everyone has different numbers to plug into this one--I saw my bees flying 200 feet from the nearest hive one day at 44F.

And the one told to every new beekeeper: don't expect honey the first year. Everyone has an answer for this one, I'm sure.

 

[Michael Bush]

>"a swarm in May is worth a load of hay; a swarm in June is worth a silver spoon; but a swarm in July is not worth a fly"

A swarm in the hive is worth two in the bush...

 

[Millenia]

A full frame of bees equals about 2000 bees.

BTW, here's an interesting diagram on counting bees: http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/beesest.html

 

[Marcin]

I'm interested in finding out how the "x pounds of honey to make lb. of nectar" came about. First off, is it honey, or is it nectar? And then we've all heard " 5, 6, 7, 8 lbs of nectar/honey to produce wax" theory, but does anyone know of any studies/research done on this?

 

[Michael Bush]

>we've all heard " 5, 6, 7, 8 lbs of nectar/honey to produce wax" theory, but does anyone know of any studies/research done on this?

Huber was using confined bees and repeated the experiments several times. I don't know of any other research that was entirely confined bees and it's hard to say that confinement didn't change the results in some way.

"A pound (453 grams) of white sugar, reduced to syrup, and clarified with the white of an egg, produced 10 gros 52 grains (1.5 ounces or 42 grams) of beeswax darker than that which bees extract from honey. An equal weight of dark brown sugar yielded 22 gros (3 ounces or 84 grams) of very white wax; a similar amount was obtained from maple sugar.

"We repeated these experiments seven times in succession, with the same bees and we always obtained wax in nearly the same proportions as above. It therefore appears demonstrated that sugar and the saccharine part of honey enable the bees that feed upon it to produce wax, a property entirely denied to the fecundating dust."--Francis Huber, New Observations on Bees

This would be 10 2/3 pounds of white sugar per pound of wax and 5 1/3 pounds of brown sugar or maple sugar per pound of wax. This might indicate that there was some nutrient in the brown sugar and maple sugar that helped with wax production. Hard to say what nutrient it could be small quantities of amino acids (certainly not large quantities).

All of Hubers experiments on wax production were done with confined bees who had absolutely no pollen available and often were confined for a long period of time. The continued to make wax. That does not prove that they would not have been more productive in wax making with more pollen, but they did make it without. If they were stealing it from their bodies, I would expect them to have run out of that supply and production to fall off over time.

From Beeswax Production, Harvesting, Processing and Products, Coggshall and Morse pg 35

"Their degree of efficiency in wax production, that is how many pounds of honey or sugar syrup are required to produce one pound of wax, is not clear. It is difficult to demonstrate this experimentally because so many variables exist. The experiment most frequently cited is that by Whitcomb (1946). He fed four colonies a thin, dark, strong honey that he called unmarketable. The only fault that might be found with the test was that the bees had free flight, which was probably necessary so they could void fecal matter; it was stated that no honey flow was in progress. The production of a pound of beeswax required a mean of 8.4 pounds of honey (range 6.66 to 8.80). Whitcomb found a tendency for wax production to become more efficient as time progressed. This also emphasizes that a project intended to determine the ratio of sugar to wax, or one designed to produce wax from a cheap source of sugar, requires time for wax glands to develop and perhaps for bees to fall into the routine of both wax secretion and comb production."

I think there are a few other studies referenced in "Honeybees and Wax" by H. Randall Hepburn.

 

[Colobee]

I used to present to much younger students, but one well received concept was the "Rule of Three's"

(All in a "normal" hive, exceptions, of course! That's when you know they are thinking...)

3 kinds of bees in a hive - Queen, worker, drone...
3 weeks from egg to worker.
3 stages of development - egg, larva, pupa.
1 egg for every 2 larvae, & 3 pupae.
3 stages of worker life - developing (3 weeks), house bee - 3 weeks, forager - up to 3 weeks.
3 weeks from egg to laying queen ( I know..., but kids like a general answer)
Three products - honey, wax, propolis ( I know - queens, bees, pollen, royal jelly, etc).

others that evade me at the moment (probably at least 3 )

 

[sqkcrk]

rules of thumb? adages? facts?

Here one, whatever you want to call it. "The bees don't read the same books you and I do, Mark." OSU/ATI Professor Dr. Jim Tew circa 1984-5

"To make a bee
it takes things three,
pollen, water, and honey.
One cell each."

Author unknown.

 

[rweakley]

>we've all heard " 5, 6, 7, 8 lbs of nectar/honey to produce wax" theory, but does anyone know of any studies/research done on this?

Huber was using confined bees and repeated the experiments several times. I don't know of any other research that was entirely confined bees and it's hard to say that confinement didn't change the results in some way.

"A pound (453 grams) of white sugar, reduced to syrup, and clarified with the white of an egg, produced 10 gros 52 grains (1.5 ounces or 42 grams) of beeswax darker than that which bees extract from honey. An equal weight of dark brown sugar yielded 22 gros (3 ounces or 84 grams) of very white wax; a similar amount was obtained from maple sugar.

"We repeated these experiments seven times in succession, with the same bees and we always obtained wax in nearly the same proportions as above. It therefore appears demonstrated that sugar and the saccharine part of honey enable the bees that feed upon it to produce wax, a property entirely denied to the fecundating dust."--Francis Huber, New Observations on Bees

This would be 10 2/3 pounds of white sugar per pound of wax and 5 1/3 pounds of brown sugar or maple sugar per pound of wax. This might indicate that there was some nutrient in the brown sugar and maple sugar that helped with wax production. Hard to say what nutrient it could be small quantities of amino acids (certainly not large quantities).

All of Hubers experiments on wax production were done with confined bees who had absolutely no pollen available and often were confined for a long period of time. The continued to make wax. That does not prove that they would not have been more productive in wax making with more pollen, but they did make it without. If they were stealing it from their bodies, I would expect them to have run out of that supply and production to fall off over time.

From Beeswax Production, Harvesting, Processing and Products, Coggshall and Morse pg 35

"Their degree of efficiency in wax production, that is how many pounds of honey or sugar syrup are required to produce one pound of wax, is not clear. It is difficult to demonstrate this experimentally because so many variables exist. The experiment most frequently cited is that by Whitcomb (1946). He fed four colonies a thin, dark, strong honey that he called unmarketable. The only fault that might be found with the test was that the bees had free flight, which was probably necessary so they could void fecal matter; it was stated that no honey flow was in progress. The production of a pound of beeswax required a mean of 8.4 pounds of honey (range 6.66 to 8.80). Whitcomb found a tendency for wax production to become more efficient as time progressed. This also emphasizes that a project intended to determine the ratio of sugar to wax, or one designed to produce wax from a cheap source of sugar, requires time for wax glands to develop and perhaps for bees to fall into the routine of both wax secretion and comb production."

I think there are a few other studies referenced in "Honeybees and Wax" by H. Randall Hepburn.

Michael you have more experience with the bees than I do, but my opinion is that wax production in bees is somewhat similar to say hair growing or nail growing in humans. Bees of a certain age make wax. I don't think it's a huge additional burden to the hive from the stand point of how much those bees are eating. WAx doesn't come out of thin air, but if they are eating and are the correct age they are making wax. Surely if there is more coming in they will make more wax, but I don't think it's a simple X amount of honey = Y amount of wax. I think a better way of looking at it (especially for my area with short honey flow) is that comb production costs the bees TIME. If they are building comb, they aren't out gathering nectar, and don't have a place to spread it out to dry it. Feel free to add your thoughts to this.

 

[Mbeck]

"They might they might not. You never can tell with bees"- Winnie the Pooh

 

[Michael Bush]

>1 egg for every 2 larvae, & 3 pupae.

Explanation?

>Michael you have more experience with the bees than I do, but my opinion is that wax production in bees is somewhat similar to say hair growing or nail growing in humans. Bees of a certain age make wax.

Bees of any age can do any job including make wax. Young bees are much more efficient at it.

>I don't think it's a huge additional burden to the hive from the stand point of how much those bees are eating.

I tend to agree. If they don't need wax you see a lot of scales on the bottom board.

>WAx doesn't come out of thin air, but if they are eating and are the correct age they are making wax.

True to some extent, yes. But when they are focused on building comb they make a lot more.

>Surely if there is more coming in they will make more wax, but I don't think it's a simple X amount of honey = Y amount of wax.

Agreed.

>I think a better way of looking at it (especially for my area with short honey flow) is that comb production costs the bees TIME.

To me that is the most important issue as far as honey production.

 

[Acebird]

For every beekeeper there are 10 or 12 teachers.

 

[snl]

There is more sourwood honey sold than ever harvested!

 

[snl]

There is more sourwood honey sold than is ever harvested!

 

[snl]

oops, double posted...

 

[sqkcrk]

Beekeeping Answers Math: Q=A X B + 1A
Where in Q = Any Beekeeping Question, A = one answer, B = # of beekeepers who answer.

 

[snl]

Oops, double posted........sorry...