The good new is that the advancements in the knowledge and art of beekeeping have taken on some tremendous strides within the past 5 years. Many farmers including our company are small enough that we can make cognitive decisions that will effect how we develop in the future. We run approx. 600 hives and are beginning to use essential oils and provide apiaries surrounded by large varieties of natural melliferous plants. Keep in mind that beekeeping is not about saving the bee population. It is an art form that manipulates the natural ability of the bee which produces 30 lb of honey in the wild to 100 lb or more in a box. The techniques and secrets of this delicate art form can make most any other hobby look simple in comparison. It requires a continued interest in the study of Entomology, Botany, health and nutrition, and even Chemistry. It tests ones level of dedication and responsibility. Likewise it helps to develop these attributes along with a love and respect for all things living.

The new age of beekeeping MUST go hand in hand with these fields as well as cultivate a close relationship with the health benefits of Apicultural (Bee) products such as Honey, pollen, Propollis, Bees Wax, larva, and Royal Jelly. Many revolutionary breakthroughs on this topic have been published only within the past few years. See research studies published by Dr Ron Fessenden, MD. MPH
, Mike McInnes, MRPS)

I myself am a queen breeder this topic reaches by far the most technical and delicate aspects of beekeeping and has become a very joyful and rewarding pursuit.

I fully support the reinstatement of the beekeeping merit badge and would like to suggest a few of the requirements. These are based off of sound reason and understanding in the modern world of appiculture.

1. Study a hive of bees. Remove comb. Find queen/ queens. Analyze the brood, hive population, presence of honey and pollen. Use your figures to determine that the hive is healthy and the queen in strong.

A strong queen should have 3-7 frames of solid brood sections. A strong population of bees should be between 30 -60 thousand bees and weigh aprox. 15-20 lbs.

2. Show the differences between drones, workers, eggs, larva, and pupae at different stages. Tell the differences among honey, wax, pollen, propollis, and royal jelly. Tell how bees make honey. Tell where wax comes from. Explain the parts played in the life of the hive by the queen, the drones and the workers including a few of the many tasks that bees are required to do (There are more than 20).

Drones are large fat bees with large connecting eyes they live only to eat and mate. Once they mate they die. In the fall they are deported from the hive. Healthy queens live 3-5 years and lay 800-1500 eggs per day. If she begins to fail the hive will begin to make a new queen. Once a new queen hatches she leaves the hive to mate. After which she never leaves the hive again accept to swarm. A hive will most often house only one queen. Worker bees work themselves to death in about 5 weeks during the summer but will last several months while confined in the winter. Bees do most of the work which include: Wax cleaning, cell polishing, wax collecting & comb building, larva feeding and royal jelly production, queen and drone feeding, temp control, water scavenging and humidity control, in hive guarding, entrance and vicinity guarding, Honey production and processing, Nectar scavenging, Pollen scavenging, propollis scavenging, scouting and dancing, and when necessary self sacrifice to intruders or old age.

3. Hive a swarm or divide at least one colony. Explain how a hive is made.

A hive can regenerate and be divided over and over thus giving the organism an indefinite life expectancy. Ensuring the survival of a new hive requires a break off of at least 2 lb of bees with a healthy mated queen. It can be done with ¼ lb of bees and a queen cell but this is not easy. When a swarm of bees are spotted in a tree, one can guess that the parent hive grew too large in number and the old queen left with a following. A swarm can also represent subsequent swarms and may contain one or more virgin queens. Swarms do not wait around and must be captured quickly. In order for a queen to feel at home and not leave again, a box with drawn comb and feed must be used to hive the swarm.

4. Prepare a frame with foundation. Fill supers with frames. Remove filled frames or supers from the hive. Extract honey from frames.

Raw honey is very rare on the market and is often sought after for higher prices. Regulations and preference usually means further processing takes place before honey is marketed in stores. Processed honey may involve but is not limited to the following ; Heating, Micro filtering, blending with other sweeteners or flavors, diluting to regulatory moisture content, controlled crystallization, & dehydrating into crystalline powder. Only 45% of honey consumed in the US is grown locally the rest is imported. Most honey is refined and consumed indirectly thru commercial products. The average citizen consumes less than 2 lb of honey and more than 50 lb of sugar each year.

5. Write in not more than 200 words how and why the honeybee is used in pollinating farm crops. Include a list of daily foods that are dependant on beekeepers.

Contracts securing pollinating rights for beekeepers provide payment in exchange for the presence of their beehives on or near agricultural farms. Pollinating seasons for various crops usually only last a few weeks in which the presence of bees improve harvest yields from only a few hundred pounds to several hundred thousand pounds of crop. These crops make up over 80% of the food we eat.

6. Identify some of the diseases that are most common to bees

American and European Foulbrood of which the American is far more devastating. Also varroa mites, Tracheal mites, wax moth, hive beetle, and dysentery are among the most common threats to bees. And new strands of an Indian virus are what scientist believe may be the main thread linking the 2006 pandemic of CCD.

7. Identify a few techniques beekeepers use to manipulate a bee’s natural behavior.

(Supers maximize honey productions, queen excluders localize brood chambers, Smoke calms the bees, queen breeders can yield over 100 queens from a hive in a few weeks, they can also manipulate the production of Royal Jelly which is usually produced in minuscule amounts etc)

The beekeeping merit badge should not focus on Commercial beekeeping but rather on the art and respect of beekeeping.