API of the Month
Mathieu DOMECQ
Editor of the API of the month and the Blog
A new year for beekeeping! On behalf of the entire API from SÜDZUCKER team, we wish you success, a dash of new things, may joy brighten your days and may your bees be watered with nectar… And especially after a very complicated year! Many of you have been following us (thank you for that!) and we’ll be continuing to support you for the fifth year already!
This month we’ll be looking at how to buy your first swarm. Then you’ll see what our bees’ antennae are really for?
Did you know? Bees can pick up electric fields of up to 450 volts! (source : Futura-sciences.com).
Tasks of the month
Bees still need us, especially for food. At the start of the new year, keep an eye on the reserves in your colonies. With just two months to go before the start of the new season, it would be a shame to lose them to starvation. Here’s a summary of beekeeping tasks:
– Monitor candy resources: after placing a loaf of Apifonda® at the end of autumn, it is generally necessary to give a second loaf during the winter. As a reminder, this candy will be placed just above the cluster of bees. If you weigh your hives each month, you’ll see that they lose between 500g and 1Kg of their weight per month! During January and February, this decline will accelerate.
– Order new swarms: if you lost colonies in the autumn or have decided to expand your apiary, consider ordering your swarms from a beekeeper-breeder near you.
– Cleaning the apiary: maintaining your apiary, clearing undergrowth around the hives, repainting hives and checking the stability of roofs are all winter activities for beekeepers. At the workshop, you can get to work cleaning empty hives and supers by blowing a torch inside them to eliminate the development of contagious spores.
Honey flowers of the month: Hazel and Winter Heather
Buying your first bee swarm
Winter is a good time to prepare for the beekeeping season. It generally starts in mid-March or early April, depending on the region.
Buying a swarm of bees takes some planning. So get in touch with a swarm breeder near you to reserve your colony.
It’s unlikely that a swarm will come into the hive on its own between now and spring. Personally, I’ve only experienced this twice in my 10 years in the business. And if it does work, you don’t know the genetics (and health status), or the aggressiveness, or the age of the queen… So don’t take any chances if you’re new to beekeeping. Go for a reared swarm.
Which breed of bee should I choose? Depending on your location, one breed will be more common in your area. Choose the same breed as the beekeepers around you.
In France, there are two main breeds of bee: the black bee and the Buckfast bee. Some will opt for one more than the other. There will always be advantages and disadvantages depending on the strain. On my farm, I work with the Buckfast bee. What I like about this bee is its gentleness. It’s not very aggressive, rather productive and organised in the hive, and it’s also said to swarm less than other bees. However, it is a greedy bee (like me 😊)! So you don’t want to run out of reserves in the hive. In the event of bad weather over a long period, you’ll need to be vigilant about deficiencies by providing more syrup or candy.
It’s true that black bees consume less food and are more resistant to diseases such as Varroa. However, when starting out, beware of its combativeness in the event of malevolence when you are handling it in the hive.
Whatever breed you choose for your future bees, the price of a 4-frame swarm is around 130 to 150 euros. You can also find larger swarms, with 6 frames, at around 200 euros. These will develop more quickly and produce honey more quickly.
Protect the health of local bees and avoid importing colonies from too far away!
What are our bees’ antennae used for?
It’s astonishing! You wouldn’t believe the abilities bees have thanks to their antennae! First of all, they are there to guide them by smell, taste and touch: to smell an area of flowers to be foraged; to detect a parasite in the hive; to make sure the honey has the right sugar content… but that’s not all…
Their antennae respond to other senses such as hearing, carbon dioxide content, the intensity of electronic fields, etc., as well as managing temperature, humidity and the speed of their flight. In short, these simple antennae are capable of great feats!
The bee has two antennae attached to the top of its head. They are in constant motion thanks to four muscles that ensure their rotation. As we have just seen, the antennae serve as a support for smell, taste, touch, hearing and the perception of electric fields.
Smell:
Each antenna is made up of thousands of odour-sensitive receptors. Bees use their antennae to orient themselves towards a source of odour by comparing the olfactory information coming from their antennae. A distinction is made between odours associated with flowers and those emitted by the queen. Other odours are also detected, such as that of a smoker, provoking aggression from the workers who have detected the danger or the beekeeper’s approach.
Taste:
Bees use their antennae to detect the four basic tastes: sweet, salty, sour and bitter. However, perception differs between humans and bees. The bees’ front legs have the same sensors as the antennae for perceiving taste.
Touch:
Thanks to the hairs on its antennae, the bee ‘feels’ the object, for example to recognise the size of the combs (between the male and female cells). This set of receptors can be found all over the bee’s body.
Hearing:
This is an extremely well-developed sense! The bee perceives vibrations transmitted by the support. A queen bee, for example, will detect the songs of a young queen ready to hatch from her cell.
Our bees are truly fascinating!
As usual, share your photos with us: we’ll be posting them on our website from the social networks with the hashtag: #apifonda #apiinvert!
See you next month on your API blog with your faithful partner, Les Ruchers De Mathieu!
LES RUCHERS DE MATHIEU
Miellerie & Magasin d’Apiculture
Photos ©lesruchersdemathieu
