ENVS 2210 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Beekeeping, Honey Flow, Beeswax
19 Apr 2019
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Document Summary
Simply bee keeping is providing honey bees a hive, that allows then to rear and brood and store honey. Swarming is discouraged, and the bees natural instinct to gather and store food is encouraged. We have not domesticated the honey bee but have used genetic selection to produce stocks which are easier to manage, make more honey and have greater tolerance. Beekeeping is often defined as applied bee biology, it is learning the biology of bees and then using this to improve their harvest or production. Successful beekeeping is characterized as anticipation, not reaction. Bee population grows rapidly sfter a seasonal low point, as it exands there is a strong impulse for the population to naturally divide by swarming. Strong colonies will store food reserves during a period called nectar flow, After peak population, it will decrease and new season starts. Humans hunted bee colonies 9-10 thousand years ago.
