Study the various Beekeeping equipments

To study the various Beekeeping equipments.

    The ultimate aim of beekeeping is to get more and more honey and bees wax is pure form. In India, old methods were commonly used by old apiculturist was very crude, cruel and of unplanned type. But due to the establishment training programmes and research of central Bee Research and Training Institute at Pune, modern methods of beekeeping are well acquiented to the people. The modern methods/equipments are described here.

•Modern methods or Frame Hive method:-

•Bee Box :- The Langstroth (10 -frame hive) and Newton frame hieves are used in India, for keeping bee colonies in apiary. It is composed of the following Parts : stand, floor, board, brood box, hive-frames, queen excluder, supers and covers.

1)Stand :- It is any, four legged structure(stand), 6-9 inches high, with dimensions to support the floor- board; on which the whole hive is constructed. The stands are adjusted to make slope for the hive, which drain off rain water. The main purpose of stand is to support the box and to prevent entry of ants and other insects.

2)Bottom Board :- It is situated above the stand and forms the proper base for the hive having 2 gates in front position. It can be constructed either by taking a piece of wood 22" long, 16'/4" brood and 7/8" thick or by joining two wooden boards together, nailing them in position with "wooden rods". Along each end of the longer side is nailed a "wooden rod" 22" long.

3)Brood Chamber :- The bottom board carries the brood chamber which is the most important part of bee hive. Brood chamber is a rectangular box with out top and bottom. It is prepared of thick wood of 7/8" thick. Brood chamber is 20" from outside and 18 1/4" from inside in length. It's breadth is 16 1/2"on the outside and 14 1/2 "on the inside and its height is x 9 1/2". It is provided with 10-frames.

4)Standard Langstroth Frame :- Each wooden frame composed of a top bar, two side bars and a bottom bar. There are two types of frames : 

a)Hoffman type b)Staple type

a)Hoffman type - (self-spacing frame) :-

i)The top bar - is 19" long, 1" wide and 7/8" thick. The ends of top bar extend beyond to rest on the rabbet scooped on the long sides of brood box and under surface is grooved for fixing the edge of comb foundation sheet.

ii)Side bar - It is 9 - 1/8" long and made from 3/8" thick wood. Each is cut out from the middle portion at either end to accomodate the top and bottom bars respectively. There are four holes in each side bar for wiring the frame.

b)Staple spacing frame :-

i)Top bar - Top bar is 19" long, 1" wide & 7/8" thick. It has a groove as like Hoffman top bar. It is covered with metal spacing devices on both end opposite faces.

ii)Side bar - Each is made of 3/8" thick wood. iii)Bottom bar - It is 16-718" long, 1" wide & 3/8" thick.

5)Super :- The supers are like brood box without cover and the base. It is placed over queen excluder.

6)Inner cover :- A wooden board to cover up the brood chamber or the super and it is 20" long,

16 1/4" broad and 3/8" thick wood.

7)Top Cover :- It is meant for protecting the colony from rains. It is fitted with zinc sheet.

There are two types of top cover :-

i)Sloping and ii)Flat top cover.

8)Queen Excluder :- It is necessary to separate, the brood chamber from the supers where honey is stored. This is made with the help of a zinc or wire guaze frame. The queen stay within the brood box and spare the super of the eggs and brood.

9)Comb Foundation Sheet :- In nature, worker bees build new combs from bees wax secreted by wax gland and make parallel combs which are attached to the ceiling of the cavity or box.

      The central Bee Research Institute, Pune manufactures, a comb-foundation sheets artificially. Each frame is held in a vertical position by two wires, a sheet of wax striking a hexagonal cell impression.

10)Honey Extractor :- It is a machine with which honey is separated in its purest form from the honey comb. It is made from the metal or tin material. Centrifugal force is applied to this device the pure honey is came out without any damage to the comb.

11)Uncapping knife :- When all the combs are filled with honey, they are sealed by capping with the wax. so, before such capped combs are placed in the honey extractor, the wax sealing has to be removed with the help of an uncapping knife heated by steam before use.

•Other Equipments Needed for Beekeeping :- 

i)Smoker :- It is used to give smoke gently (not blast; it infuriates them) to the bees for easy handling. It consists of a tin can provided with a spout for directing the smoke from the smouldering material inside it with the help of a bellows.

ii)Hive tool :- It is a flat piece of steel sharpened at one end for inserting between hive boxes to separate them and the other end bent to separate the frames. It is also used to scrape off the bee glue and pieces of comb from various parts of the hive.

iii)Overall :- It is a protective garment worn over the clothes so that the bees cannot get under them to sting. Strong, cheap white drill could be used to make it.

iv)Bee veil :- It is made of frames covered on the four sides with small mesh wire gauge, black light material, silk, cotton and top and bottom with thick cloth. Bee veil is worn over the face of the Person handling bees, for the Protection against Stings.

v)Bee brush :- A bee brush is employed to brush off the bees from a honey comb, before it is taken away for extraction.

vi)D.B (division board) feeder :- The division board feeder is a wooden through of the regular langstroth frame dimension with its shoulders to hang in the hive boxes just like any other frame. It is used for feeding sugar syrup bees. If the bees are to abscond due to heat, shortage of water and honey. Extra feeding is also mostly used in dearth period.

•Queen cages :- Now-a-days different types of cages are in use by beekeepers, viz. the Miller queen introducing cage, these cages are useful for introducing queen to the queenless colony. So that the bees become acquainted with the fact that she is indeed a queen. 

•Queen Cell protector :- 

Which helps to protect queen bee from various predators.

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