Special to Wesson News
Humans started keeping bees primarily for honey production 10,000 years ago, a tradition maintained locally by John Whitiker, who talked to the Wesson Lions Club last month about his operations.
Whitiker manages about 50 artificial hives with up to 60,000 bees, rebuilt from 35 hives during the COVID-19 pandemic. A healthy hive, he says, will produce 80 to 100 pounds of honey in a traditional ten-frame deep box which houses the bees.
Whitiker told the Club he uses four basic tools in his operations:
Artificial hives -- square or rectangular with moveable cedar, pine or cypress wooden honeycomb frames, including a floor, brood box, honey super, crown-board and roof. Hives also use queen excluders between the brood-box and honey supers to keep the queen from laying eggs in cells next to those containing honey intended for consumption. “In construction and utilization of hives, I seek to eliminate waste of wood and materials,” Whitiker said
A smoker, which generates smoke from the incomplete combustion of fuels. Although the exact mechanism is disputed, it is said smoke calms bees. Some claim it initiates a feeding response in anticipation of possible hive abandonment due to fire. Smoke may also mask alarm pheromones released by guard bees or bees that are squashed in an inspection. The ensuing confusion creates an opportunity for the beekeeper to open the hive and work without triggering a defensive reaction.
Workerwear -- pale-colored natural color cotton, different from the color of the colony's natural predators -- bears and skunks that are dark-colored. A fabric conditioner may have more impact on bees than the color of the workwear fabric, however, because bees see ultraviolet wavelengths and are attracted to scent.
A hive tool used to scrape off burr-comb from around the hive, especially on top of the frames and to separate the frames before lifting out of the hive.
“Varied plants attract bees to our property,” Whitiker said. “Among them are white clover, flowers, including wild flowers, hedge, flowering and fruit trees – peach and apple particularly. We use soap water and vinegar water solutions to ward off pests that harm plants because pesticides ingested by bees compromise their health.”
Whitiker explained that honeybee colonies include (1) a queen which lay eggs that develop into workers or drones, regulates activities and signals swarming (2) drones – the largest bees – which mate with virgin queens and (3) worker bees which clean and polish cells for new eggs, nectar and pollen, feed the queen, build combs, forage for food and water, create and store honey, guard the hive, remove debris and dead bees from the hive.
Honey, he said, starts as flower nectar collected by bees, which gets broken down into simple sugars stored inside the honeycomb. The design of the honeycomb and constant fanning of the bees' wings causes evaporation, creating sweet liquid honey. Honey's color and flavor vary based on the nectar collected by the bees.
Whitiker described a six-step honey-collection process from hives:
Calming the bees with a smoker to make them less aggressive and to obscure their communication pheromones.
Removing the frames of honey from the hive.
Uncapping the frames – scraping off the wax caps that seal the honey in cells with a sharp knife.
Extracting the honey – placing the frames in an extractor, which is a large, round tank that spins the frames at high speed and flings the honey out of the comb.
Straining the honey to remove any remaining wax and other particles.
Bottling the honey to eat.
Whitiker said this process occurs twice a year – spring and fall, and “I am careful to leave honey for bees to survive.”
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