Beekeeping
Beekeeping is one of the oldest forms of food production. Some of the earliest evidence of beekeeping is from rock paintings, dating to around 13,000BC. It was particularly well developed in Egypt and was discussed by the Roman writers Virgil, Gaius Julius Hyginus, Varro, and Columella. Aspects of the lives of bees and beekeeping are discussed at length by Aristotle. A pioneering beekeeping popularizer in the 19th Century US was Amos Root. John Harbison, originally from Pennsylvania, successfully brought bee keeping to the US west coast in the 1860s, in an area now known as Harbison Canyon, California, and greatly expanded the market for honey throughout the country.
Beekeeping was traditionally practiced for the bees' honey harvest, although nowadays crop pollination service can often provide a greater part of a commercial beekeeper's income. Other hive products are pollen, royal jelly, and propolis, which are also used for nutritional and medicinal purposes, and beeswax, which is used in candle making, cosmetics, wood polish, and for modelling. The modern use of hive products has changed little since ancient times.
Nature and nurture.
All beehives used in the industry today are made of wooden boxes with removable frames of comb. Beekeepers have standardized their equipment so that parts will be interchangeable within an apiary and from one commercial operation to another. To be successful in commercial beekeeping, beekeepers must locate in those areas where nectar-producing plants abound. The best-known honey in the United States is clover honey. Alfalfa and oranges are also good nectar-producing plants and are major sources of honey. Bees collect nectar from hundreds of kinds of flowers, and thus there are a great variety of honey flavors. Thousands of colonies of honeybees are rented each year by growers of crops needing cross pollination. As the plants come into bloom, the beekeeper moves the bees, usually at night when all the bees are in the hive, and places them in groups in groves, orchards, and fields. While beekeepers make most of their living producing honey, the real importance of their bees in the agricultural economy is as cross pollinators. Without cross pollination the abundance and variety of food and flowers would not exist. Commercial beekeepers feel they need to own 500 to 2000 colonies to make a living, depending on how they market their honey. Some beekeepers sell their honey on the wholesale market only, while others pack their honey themselves and devote a great deal of time to sales. Beekeeping Stuff on Amazon
Apple Blossom Photographic Poster Print by Wolf Yoder, 10x7.5
Amazon Price: $7.50 (as of 10/07/2008)
Apple Blossom Photographic Poster Print by Wolf Yoder, 14x10.5
Amazon Price: $13.50 (as of 10/07/2008)
Apple Blossom Photographic Poster Print by Wolf Yoder, 20x15
Amazon Price: $19.50 (as of 10/07/2008)
An Introduction to Keeping Bees
Amazon Price: (as of 10/07/2008)
An Introduction to Keeping Bees
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Have you been stung?
Remove the stinger with all haste, in whatever manner is most convenient. If you see a little black dot in the wound, part of the stinger is still present. I like scraping across the skin with a credit card to try to remove the stinger.Apply a solution of one part meat tenderizer to 4 parts water. Papain, the enzyme in meat tenderizer, breaks down the protein in bee venom responsible for the pain and itching. Don't leave this on for more than 30 minutes, or it can irritate the skin. If this isn't available, you might try an antiperspirant. Aluminum chlorohydrate reduces the effect of bee venom, but to a lesser extent.
Apply cold. Use ice or cool water for 10 to 30 minutes after the sting. This blunts the body's allergic response.
An antihistamine such as Benadryl, taken by mouth, can give some added relief, and help prevent the reaction from spreading.
A shake lotion such as calamine can be helpful. A paste made of baking soda and water can have a similar effect.
Topical hydrocortisone can also provide some symptomatic relief.
Give acetaminophen or ibuprofen for systemic pain relief.
After a bee sting, different children will have different reactions:
Bee stings cause immediate, painful red bumps.
In most cases, the pain has largely disappeared within 2 hours, although swelling may not be apparent until the next day.
Large local reactions, larger than 3 inches in diameter, will often persist for up to a week. A physician should be consulted if the reaction continues to spread.
Systemic reactions such as hives, redness, or swelling elsewhere on the body, vomiting, dizziness, hoarseness, thickened speech, or difficulty breathing, should receive prompt medical care from a physician. Also, be sure to see a doctor if there were 10 or more stings, or if one of the stings was inside the nose or mouth, since swelling can interfere with breathing.
A child who has had a systemic reaction to a bee sting (which I can personally relate to) should follow special precautions set forth by his or her pediatrician. This will include carrying injectable epinephrine (which I do).
Although systemic reactions occur in about 3% of children who are stung, and anaphylactic shock can follow as many as 0.8% of bee stings, thankfully only 50 people in the United States are killed by bee stings each year, and only 1 to 2 of these are children.
New Guestbook
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wendysoucie
my husband is a beekeeper and will appreciate the resources you pulled together. I am building him a lens Luscious Laurent Honey - look for it in the future. Posted August 25, 2008 |
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TheInfamous7
Fantastic Lens Subject!! :-) I wish id thought of it 1st haha x Posted August 16, 2008 |
