The following article lists some simple, informative tips that will help you have a better experience with Beekeeping.

In order to get honey from your beehive you have to be able to extract the honey from the honey comb. In order to do this you have to have to have a honey extractor. There are manufactured honey extractors available on the market, they typically cost approximately $200 to $300, the average cost of starting a new hive of honey bees. If there is a group of beekeepers in an area they will sometimes pool their money together to purchase a honey extractor that they share. If you are not in a large beekeeping environment and do not want to spend a few hundred dollars on a manufactured honey extractor you might want to make your own.

The materials you will need to build a honey extractor include; a metal rod that is at least one meter long and is thickly threaded, two bicycle wheel rims, two pieces of wood, one meter of 2-3mm fencing wire, a large metal drum, ten bolts for the metal rod, four 400mm sections of 8mm threaded rod, a self centering bearing, six coach screws, and one pillow block bearing. When choosing a large metal drum for your homemade honey extractor make sure that is was never used to store potentially toxic materials. The tools you will need for constructing your honey extractor include; an electric drill, a welding machine (and preferably some welding experience), a socket set, and a hack saw.

The first thing your going to do is remove the end of the drum that does not have two pouring holes, the newly opened end will be the top of your honey extractor. Use the coach screws to attach one of the pieces of wood across the bottom of the drum. Once the wood is in place use coach screws to secure the pillow block. After inserting the threaded rod through the center of the first bicycle rim, securely bolt the rim to the rod approximately ten centimeters from the end of the rod. At the opposite end of the rod you will want to thread a but for the other wheel, the second wheel will rest on this nut. When both of the wheel rims are in place you will want to drill holes in four spots around each wheel, when this task is complete you use the 8mm rods to lock the wheel rims together. Use two nuts onto the rod. Make sure that two cm of rod protrude.

When this is complete you are going to cut a slit that is10mm deep and 3mm wide into the end of the rod. After this thread the lock the nuts together at the end of the rod. After you think the nuts are in place use the welding machine to permanently lock them into place. Fasten the wire to the the spokes of the bottom wheel rim, approximately 5-8cm from the rim. You have now successfully made the basket of your honey extractor.

If you find yourself confused by what you’ve read to this point, don’t despair. Everything should be crystal clear by the time you finish.

Take your newly crafted extractor basket and place it into the drum, settling it on the pillow bearing. Now you’re going to want to bolt a second piece of wood to the sides of the drum and the self centering bearing.

After drilling a screwdriver bit into the chuck, place the chuck into the slit into the slot in the top of the threaded rod.

Detailed instructions and photos about making a homemade honey extractor can be found at www.scienceinafrica.co.za/2005/september/honeyextractor.htm

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

The California almond industry is attracting the interest of beekeepers all over the country. The almond orchard’s demands for honey bees is so strong that many beekeepers in Florida have actually defaulted on their contracts with local watermelon producers to bring their bees to the west coast where they lease their hives and bees to the almond growers.

Almonds were first found growing a long way from California’s sunny landscape. The first almonds were found in China and central Asia. Franciscan Padres first brought almonds to California in the middle of the 1700′s, before the American revolution. Sadly Padres efforts were unsuccessful. It wasn’t until the early 1900′s that almond lovers discovered that California’s Central Valley had perfect growing conditions for genetically improved almond orchards. Nearly a half million Californian acres are devoted to growing almonds. It is estimated that there are six thousand almond growers in the state.

Today, California is the only place in North America where almonds are successfully grown for commercial use. The reason that California is so successful for almond producers is the climate. Almond trees love hot summers and cool winters. Almonds don’t like sub-zero temperatures. Because almond trees are not self-pollinating they require the use of bees in order to produce almonds. Every February, when the almond trees are in bloom, beekeepers set up hives in the orchard so that the growers can enjoy a lucrative harvest. The inability to self-pollinate force almond producers to plant multiple variety’s of almond trees.

Once you begin to move beyond basic background information, you begin to realize that there’s more to Beekeeping than you may have first thought.

Almonds are harvested when the split in the shell widens enough for the nut to dry. This typically happens between the middle of August and early October.When the hull is completely open its time for the almond harvest to begin.

When its time to harvest the almond crops, orchard owners have the orchards swept so that they are completely free of debris. Once the orchards are debris free, the mechanical tree shakers are brought in . The mechanical tree shakers gently shake the trees. The almonds fall from the trees. The almonds are left on the ground to finish drying. When the almonds are dry they are swept into rows where they are gathered by a machine and deposited in the huller.

Nutritionally almonds have a lot going for them. There are only seven grams of fat in one ounce (a single serving of almonds is one ounce). Almonds do not have sodium and cholesterol free. Almonds are an excellent way to get magnesium and vitamin E. Almonds are also a source of Riboflavin, Phosphorus and copper.

Seventy-five percent of California’s almond crop is exported.

Hopefully the sections above have contributed to your understanding of Beekeeping. Share your new understanding about Beekeeping with others. They’ll thank you for it.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

Training to be a beekeeper is a time consuming skill that many take seriously because you have to share a passion for something that was once declared a simple hobby to which has joined the billion-dollar food market. The beekeeping industry has come a long way from it being a simple hobby to where it’s going on tables across the world. Many beekeepers that have not been brought up in a family that practiced this are going to have to really learn fast from an experienced beekeeper that has had years of experience from knowing the biology and study of bees and what to expect when they turn out a good product of honey. What many people aren’t aware of is and this may sound kind of gross, but honey is actually regurgitated food because bees not only make honey, but they eat it as food during the winter months since there are no flowers around when it’s cold so it’s a way for them to sustain food through the cold months.

It’s amazing that bees have mastered the art of survival during the winter months. Beekeepers also have to keep in mind that certain times of the year there may not be any honey production since bees are most active during the warm months so that’s why many of them are actually farmers since they have to have a way to make a living when it gets cold. This is an expensive hobby and it may look cheap because you can make a box put some slides in them and allow the bees to come there, but the thing is that you have to know where to put the boxes for the bees to build their hives in.

It seems like new information is discovered about something every day. And the topic of Beekeeping is no exception. Keep reading to get more fresh news about Beekeeping.

You have to train yourself to be knowledgeable in the area of entomology because you have to know what insects will be compatible around bees because some insects will feed on bees, yellow jackets, hornets, and wasps which are primarily mites and are one of the most annoying insects because they’re so relatively tiny that you need a microscope to see them up close. Science plays a huge part in a beekeeper’s training and gaining experience since most people aren’t savvy to science and the elements of it which is important and necessary because you have to have some idea of how to manage bees and what to do to keep their habitat healthy and to keep pests from overtaking the hives and killing the bees. There are a lot of steps involving the proper education and training of a beekeeper and what you’re looking for is someone who is serious and dedicated to a way of life that’s been a tradition in some families for generations.

Many people learn through the ranks of great grandparents, grandparents, and parents and it’s just a family tradition and way of life that’s taught to children. It wasn’t even about making money it was actually just one other chore on the farm, but in the years it slowly progressed into a farm staple that was being sold like it was produce, meat and dairy, but it’s still a profitable market anyway you look at it and it’s one of the sweetest things in the world.

Sometimes it’s tough to sort out all the details related to this subject, but I’m positive you’ll have no trouble making sense of the information presented above.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, proud owner of this top ranked web hosting reseller site: GVO

Do you ever feel like you know just enough about Beekeeping to be dangerous? Let’s see if we can fill in some of the gaps with the latest info from Beekeeping experts.

Large beekeepers can not turn a profit if they limit their market to their local community. Beekeepers who have several colonies must be able to sell their product at larger grocery stores and supermarkets if they want to remain financially solvent.

In order for beekeepers to sell their honey to a larger market their packaging must meet certain USDA standards.

The first thing beekeepers have to decide is what kind of container they want to use to hold their honey. The standard size of containers used to sell honey are measured in pounds. The typical amount of honey offered to the customers can be as small an amount as a half pound or as large as five pounds of honey. Some stores perfect to sell honey that is measured in gallons, these stores offer their customers the option of purchasing a container of honey as small as a half pint or as large as one gallon. If, as a beekeeper, you are attracted to novelty containers you can choose from a variety of fun containers such as skeps, bears, and plastic squeeze bottles.

The more authentic information about Beekeeping you know, the more likely people are to consider you a Beekeeping expert. Read on for even more Beekeeping facts that you can share.

Once you have settled on the perfect bottle for your honey you have to design an equally perfect label. Before you start designing a label for your honey check with your state government, most states have several laws and requirements about how labels appear on products. Make sure that the word honey is written in bold letters across the label. The word should stand out and really catch the casual shopper’s eye. Most graphic designers recommend that the honey should run parallel with the container’s base. Do not authorize a label if the design does not incorporate your name (or your farm’s name) and your address. If you use a packing or distribution company their name and address must also be included on the label. The final thing that needs to be clearly printed on the label is the net weight of the honey. If the honey you are marketing weighs between one to four pounds then the weight has to be written in both pounds and ounces. The print size used to show the net weight is not random, the font size is determined by the size and shape of the container.

If you are a beekeeper who harvests your honey more then once a season you might be able to write what flavor of honey you are selling. You might have honey that is flavored with clover, alfalfa, or apple blossoms.

Labels that have words such as unfiltered, natural, raw, and areanic refer to honey that has not been processed.

Beekeepers who have USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) grades printed on the label have passed a set of USDA grade standards. Honey that has a USDA grade of A has passed the exacting government standards. Honey that has a USDA grade of D has passed only a bare minimum of standards. The USDA grades honey based on the amount of moisture in the honey, clarity, flavor quality, and defects.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, proud owner of this top ranked web hosting reseller site: GVO

This interesting article addresses some of the key issues regarding Beekeeping. A careful reading of this material could make a big difference in how you think about Beekeeping.

Many areas in the world are producers of honey and beeswax for medicinal and food purposes. You’ll find a lot of beekeeping in the United States, Asia, Africa, and some parts of Europe. Since beekeeping had originated in Europe and had been modernized in the United States, the way it’s done is different and the way it’s taught is different as well. Yet this is a very interesting way to see how different cultures train someone to do beekeeping as a way of life and part of the culture. The cool thing is that honey is used for mostly food in so many cultures that use it in religious and celebratory occasions when preparing certain concoctions or meals and honey is used to sweeten it. Americans are usually in the business of beekeeping to produce honey for the supermarket and for shipment overseas to markets and countries that don’t have beekeeping businesses that is advanced enough to mass produce the necessary amount to ship overseas to stores owned and operated in the United States like Whole Foods Market when they carry specific brands.

Most countries overseas don’t have the system the way the United States does to mass produce a single product like honey since we managed to harvest effectively so we can produce enough to meet the needs of the market until the season to produce starts again in the spring since bees are inactive during the winter months and start again in late March early April when the mating season for bees is fresh and flowers are in abundance for them to feed and pollinate on. The U.S. alone turns out the majority of the honey that’s used when they provide to supermarkets owned by American based companies to their stores and restaurants overseas.

You may not consider everything you just read to be crucial information about Beekeeping. But don’t be surprised if you find yourself recalling and using this very information in the next few days.

Beekeepers could be observing hives every 7 to 8 days generally making it the ideal time on the weekend to pass time. Hives don’t need a lot of maintaining just an hour a day between the peak season around May to September. A good season can produce for a keeper 60-100 pounds of honey and depending on how much the buyer charges by the pound that’s what you go by to what you’ll make for every harvest you get.

The most common annoyance to beekeepers during their harvesting and maintenance of the hives are bumblebees these are the big ugly black and yellow bees that are seen going through the flowers honey bees have already visited and these bees live underground so they can be an annoyance to beekeepers when they swarm from the ground up. Many beekeepers will move their hives around which is called migratory which is one of the secrets to increase honey production and giving bees a fresh supply of flowers to pollinate and feed from so they can produce different variations and batches of honey.

Each batch produced can differ with each pollination or when hives are rotated and bees go to different flowers so that’s why sometimes honey may have distinct taste since it’s the type of flowers available to them at the time of migration.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

After the beekeeper collects the honey it’s processed immediately after harvesting because it crystallizes when it’s allowed to sit. It has to be heated up between 150-170 degrees because it carries the bacterium that causes botulism, which can be dangerous since this is the very bacterium that causes food poisoning. Honey is actually sweeter than table sugar, but the problem with table sugar is that it’s bleached white since actual unprocessed raw sugar is brown. Honey is pasteurized to kill off the bacteria like botulism to make it safe to eat and to put in food.

Honey actually doesn’t have that golden color it’s actually white and pasty looking before it’s cooked down to the point that it caramelizes. Honey also serves a purpose in medicine and in many vitamin supplements since raw unprocessed honey carries a high level of antioxidants and enzymes and aids in digestion and other health properties.

If your Beekeeping facts are out-of-date, how will that affect your actions and decisions? Make certain you don’t let important Beekeeping information slip by you.

What is great about honey is that it’s slowly taking the place of corn syrup being used in a lot of the food that we eat today because it’s been linked to cause diabetes because people eat it in such an increased amount. Honey is being used because it’s produced naturally since corn syrup is mechanically processed. Honey is also being used in beer and other beverage like teas and is readily becoming a hugely useful product that puts a lot of beekeepers back in the spotlight to produce high quality honey. For the past 2700 years according to history honey was used in medicine to provide topical relief for rashes and skin irritation like the condition called MRSA (pronounced mersa-a type of resistant staph infection). Honey is also good for mixing it with a little lemon to treat laryngitis and was used to treat contagious conjunctivitis (pink eye).

There are 7 different ways honey can be processed the most common are comb honey that’s heated and treated through pasteurization and then you got the raw honey which is the base for pasteurized honey you see mostly in the stores today. Parents are advised to be careful in giving infant honey products because of the acid levels and potential exposure to the botulism bacteria. That’s why it is wise to eat honey that’s been pasteurized since you don’t know what kind of exposure the bees who produced the honey has been around so it’s better to eat honey that’s been pasteurized or produced by an organic farmer that does raw honey because that’s probably the safest kind of honey you can eat that isn’t going to expose you to harmful bacteria.

Many beekeepers are trying to take the honey they produce to the organic level because they don’t believe in producing a product using harmful pesticides and chemicals. If anything organic is your best bet because these farmers only produce a product on land that’s not treated with chemicals. Organic farming also have standards they adhere to in terms of what the market expects of the product and beekeepers are usually about the natural way of things especially when it comes to the honey they produce.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

Marketing honey in today’s market is going to pose a bit of a challenge since you have so many commercial level sellers doing this with the resources to promote and market the product since not all places will purchase and carry your product. This is why many small businesses who do this sell to lower end stores and mom and pop places because when they get people buying that’s how many of them end up in large scale stores like Whole Foods Market and other stores that carry name brand organic food. Part of the marketing strategy is to be able to utilize the internet as well since people can open up online stores to sell their products, but you also have to have an effective system in place to pack and ship items all over the world because you will have customers who will be buying your product as far away as England or even Japan.

Your business should reflect handling online orders or you can sub-contract a company to pack and ship your items and take the guesswork out of your hands so you’re not stuck having to deal with lost or misdirected packages.

Think about what you’ve read so far. Does it reinforce what you already know about Beekeeping? Or was there something completely new? What about the remaining paragraphs?

Starting at the bottom for marketing helps you to learn little things that will make your business successful and can thrive in years to come when you know what it takes to make it work. Promotion isn’t a skill placed on auto-pilot you have to spend time working it every single day because a business doesn’t run itself it takes a good deal of persistence and effort to make it work and to make it where you want it to be. It’s easier for people who have prior experience in running a business to be able to effectively carry out a sure-fire way to market a single product and still gain revenue. It’s just that when you market products you have to know what is actually the demand for that particular product in question.

Selling honey is always a product that people will buy and is in demand, but it’s the companies that make it are the ones who are having to deal with a lot of competition since many small end businesses are extending themselves to the outside world and relying on larger companies to do the larger scale selling. Websites are effective because this is how many co-ops are formed because many food production companies try to find cost effective ways to produce a product through sub-contracting farms and contractors to handle the mass production of honey making and making products out of beeswax.

This is why so many small businesses are reaching out to bigger companies, but it’s helpful to give small businesses the tools needed to increase their exposure for business and even clients with farmers and suppliers. Beekeeping is more than just a hobby it’s a full time job and business. It may look difficult because it requires you to be in all kinds of weather wearing a puncture and sting proof body suit with a face net just to put that sweetener you use for your biscuits and toast in the morning or that cup of hot chamomile tea, remember the beekeepers who endured that to make it possible to have that sticky sweet indulgence you put in your food and drinks.

You can’t predict when knowing something extra about Beekeeping will come in handy. If you learned anything new about Beekeeping in this article, you should file the article where you can find it again.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

The country is full of apple orchards. Apple orchards are where the apples you buy in the supermarket come from. Applesauce is made out of apples grown in orchards. People who drink apple juice and apple cider enjoy the produce provided by the hardworking orchard owners. Without apple orchards there would be no apple pies. The world would be a sadder place without apple orchards.

In the springtime people drive past apple orchards and see tidy row after tidy row of apple trees, their spreading boughs fragrant with the scent of delicate apple blossoms. In the summer they can drive past the same orchard and see the same trees, leaves shining in the sunshine. In the fall those same trees are laden with apples, crunchy and full of juice. In the winter, the spreading limbs of the apple trees spread wide and are blanketed with a layer of glittering snow. When they stop to admire the artistic trees they notice that unlike other types of agriculture endeavors the only time they see anyone working amongst the trees is when the trees are heavy with fruit and the farmers are picking the apples. It doesn’t take very long for the passer bys to start thinking about how easy it would be to own an orchard. When the opportunity to purchase an apple orchard comes along, these people can hardly walk away from the opportunity.

The reality is that there is a lot more to owning an apple orchard then picking apples and pulling in money.

Most of this information comes straight from the Beekeeping pros. Careful reading to the end virtually guarantees that you’ll know what they know.

The casual passerby thinks that owning an apple orchard won’t be much work, the reality is that a great deal of backbreaking labor goes into maintaining the orchard. The trees have to be pruned. The trees have to be sprayed to protect them from being ravished by insects. In addition to caring for the trees there is a lot of general maintenance chores that have to be taken care of. There is also the task of removing the old, unproductive trees and replacing them with young trees.

The next thing to consider when purchasing an apple orchard is the size of the orchard. According to the experts an apple orchard has to be at least ten acres large in order to break even. That’s just breaking even. In theory a larger orchard means a larger profit margin for the orchard owner, but a larger orchard also means that the owner will have to buy more insecticide, rotate more trees, hire more employees, and spend more money on the equipment needed to maintain the orchard and harvest the apple crop.

Perhaps the biggest error newcomers to the apple orchard business make in the spring time when the apple trees are in bloom. In order for the trees to bear fruit the flowers have to be pollinated. Although the wind can help pollinate the flowers, honey bees are better. Many new orchard owners think that there are enough bees in the wild to pollinate the acres of apple trees. These owners are making an assumption that could harm their yearly yield. Experienced owners know that to ensure they get a profitable harvest they need to work with local beekeepers. They lease the hives and the honey bees from the beekeepers. The hive owners set up the hives in the orchards. The extra bees assist in the pollination.

Don’t limit yourself by refusing to learn the details about Beekeeping. The more you know, the easier it will be to focus on what’s important.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

When most people think of Beekeeping, what comes to mind is usually basic information that’s not particularly interesting or beneficial. But there’s a lot more to Beekeeping than just the basics.

Beekeeping is one of the oldest forms of food production dating back as far back as 13,000 BC. The history dates back to ancient Egypt where it was modernized for that time until around the 1860s when the first system of beekeeping was brought to the United States by a 19th Century native Pennsylvanian named John Harbison. According to history beekeeping was practiced for the harvesting of honey, which is the mainstay of a beekeepers financial sustenance. Other items that are harvested from honey are royal jelly and propolis, which were derived for the use of medicinal purposes. The use of beehive products has changed little since ancient times.

Many different kinds of bees were brought over from places in Europe and even as far as New Zealand. Before the 80s rolled around beekeeping was in fact a hobby and not a means to make a living that was primarily done by farmers or relatives of a farmer who lived in a rural community where you could set up a bee farm and maintained it from time honored traditions passed down through the generations.

Those of you not familiar with the latest on Beekeeping now have at least a basic understanding. But there’s more to come.

In the Asian culture beekeeping was done to produce honey and beeswax (which was used in candle making and other products), but when an American scientist named L.L. Langstroth took beekeeping to the scientific level in 1851 had innovated the bee space and the removable hive frame. It wasn’t until 1857 that it was discovered that bees could be manipulated into building a straight frame hive by providing them with some wax for a foundation. Bees would proceed to use the wax foundation to build a honeycomb the octagon shaped holes that was used to store larvae and later honey once the bees had developed and hatched. Over the next few years’ different techniques had been developed to continue modernizing beekeeping, but the most practical invention wasn’t until 1873, which was the smoker, which was a helpful safety device for many beekeepers. Beekeeping is an art form, which takes a lot of time and practice to master because a skilled beekeeper will learn everything there is to know about beekeeping. Essentially you will be schooled into this way of life so that everything about beekeeping is like second nature to you so you basically eat, sleep, and breathe the art form of beekeeping.

Beekeepers have a term called Apiculturists because that’s what the Department of Agriculture calls them when they’re categorized for what they do. Beekeepers are just small offshoots of the agriculture world since it’s pretty much a world of their own with the fact that what they do began as a hobby had slowly transformed into a way of life for people to earn a living at. Beekeepers that are knowledgeable in biology and entomology can prove to be valuable to the beekeeping market for those who are trying to improve even innovate and create their own unique system of beekeeping which can be passed down to up and coming beekeepers who want to learn how to do successful beekeeping.

This article’s coverage of the information is as complete as it can be today. But you should always leave open the possibility that future research could uncover new facts.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his new GVO affiliate site: GVO

The only way to keep up with the latest about Beekeeping is to constantly stay on the lookout for new information. If you read everything you find about Beekeeping, it won’t take long for you to become an influential authority.

When beekeepers go to work they have essential tools needed to keep themselves safe because having a couple hundred beestings can be fatal. This is why it’s important that beekeepers practice and exercise safety. First and foremost beekeepers wear protective suits that are supposed to be puncture and sting proof because there are cases where the bees will swarm and have covered beekeepers from head to toe. They wear a mesh screen face protector to protect their face from the bees when they’re flying around. They also use a smoker to calm the bees down.

Something about smoking them causes them to be docile and to stay where they are. This is to allow the beekeeper to collect honey or to check the hives to make sure they’re where they should be in the honey production process. Beekeepers normally keep their hives in a secluded wooded area so that bees can come and go and not pose a threat to anyone coming and going. Beekeepers also have a crowbar like tool to scrape the honey since it can be tough to remove.

So far, we’ve uncovered some interesting facts about Beekeeping. You may decide that the following information is even more interesting.

Beekeepers have such a lengthy access to the internet that there are hundreds maybe thousands of different companies that provide supplies to beekeepers like comb cutters, grafting tool (used in prying the layers of honey comb apart scraping honey off the comb), cages to capture the Queen, and different types of hive settings that can be from flat, elevated to upright where they slide out. Other items companies such as this also sell containers the honey is packed in the most popular item is the bear bottle since honey is a staple food for grizzly, brown, and black bears primarily the ones that inhabit much of Northern California and up and down the pacific coast through Alaska. Beekeepers also have to watch for things like pests that feed on bees and using certain kinds of feeds to keep them healthy since bees are a constant threat by mites and various kinds of pests that feed on them. Beekeepers also have to purchase stuff to treat hives for things like moths and flies that feed on the honeycomb and flies can carry diseases since they feed on animal manure and compost material.

The suits beekeepers wear are fairly inexpensive no more than $50 so it makes it easier for beekeepers to maintain an effective hold on their supplies cost wise so it’s not taking a bite out of the budget for them. The hard thing is that their biggest expense is keeping their hives pest free. It’s difficult because the hives are located in high pest areas and in secluded wooded areas that make them prone to birds and other pests. This is the riskiest part of beekeeping is the expense keepers have to go through to maintain healthy hives. Beekeepers have to apply scientific knowledge for them to make what they do work well and to also last them the entire season when they harvest honey and beeswax.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his new GVO affiliate site: GVO