Life is full of surprises just like what Forrest Gump always say "Life is like a box of chocolate you'll never know what you'll gonna get" and this colony of "Apis Cerana" a local honeybee surprise me today inside our well in our vacant lot, it was already an established colony of bees. Apis Cerana is smaller than the one I am keeping which is the "Apis Mellifera" or the European honeybee, Apis Cerana is the important pollinating agents for coconut palms. These are less aggressive than any wild bees and also less swarming behavior and can be easily used for beekeeping, so I decided to transfer them to a nucbox as we saw the colony, I smoke them gently with a smoker and put the box ready to catch them and as the hive fall into the box they became aggressive so I quickly put the top cover of the box and set it aside at the top of the well so they could enter at the entrance of the box I was sure that the queen was inside and when the queen was inside they could easily scent the pheromone of their queen I set it aside until 5pm and when most of the bees were in the box I already transfer the box to a new location where it would stay and will reorient themselves as they forage in the morning. I got stung 3 times but was still happy and excited as well to keep a local honeybee and I discovered new thing The sting of Apis Mellifera was much painful compare to the Apis Cerana. I haven't decided yet what type of box hive would I use for the Apis Cerana what I had in mind since Apis Cerana was smaller I'll make a box smaller than the box I'm using in keeping the Apis Mellifera, hope I could decide soon. I saw a documentary where a beekeeper said that bees choose their keeper and I guess with what happened today I'm starting to believe it.
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"Local raw honey is the best honey" was a quote that I've always heard in beekeeping industry. Buying local honey supports the beekeeping industry, an integral part of agriculture currently facing lots of challenges. It’s best to buy locally grown, organic, raw honey because the honey was produced by the bees in or near the environment you live, consuming foods from the area you live is beneficial as they contain the immune stimulating properties needed for your body to adapt to its environment. Fresh, raw honey will also be tastier, and more potent. When you buy from local beekepers you help your local economy. Imagine the bee pollinating the flowers of the plants and trees in your environment, we might take for granted those little bees but they are beneficial for the flowers to pollinate and we depend on them in order for us to eat those vegetables and fruits, 90% of the world food comes from 100 crop species 71 are pollinated by bees. Bees in the yard of a local beekeeper visit flowers within an 8 kilometer radius around where the hive is, they are intricately connected to the environment and benefit your local ecosystem. I always recommend those who are inquiring honey to find the nearest beekeeper in their area, for those beekeepers are the one who are taking care of the bees who are pollinating the flowers of the plants and trees in his/her area. Supporting the local independent beekeepers and helping them to stay in business is good for them and for the economy. here's a map of my apiary in Lapu-Lapu City: Bee bearding is a phenomenon wherein older bees cluster outside of the front hive during hot weather, when they do that it looks like the hive has a beard, it is usually mistaken by others as a sign of swarming but it has something to do with the ventilation of the hive when the weather was hot. This behavior coincides with the onset of the hot humid days and nights, the relative humidity is high in the Philippines, a high amount of moisture or vapor in the air makes hot temperatures feel hotter. Bearding begins when the summer temperatures reach 38°C (100°F) or more. Bearding has something to do with the temperature inside the hive, space available, and the population (crowding) of the hive. A hive with plenty of ventilation will probably have less bees gathering on the front of it. The average temperature in the beehive is between 32-35°C (90-95°F). Honeybees have the ability to regulate the temperature of their nest throughout the year.If it is cold, bees raise the temperature within the hive by huddling together to keep warm and vibrating their wing muscles to generate heat. If it is hot, they lower it by fanning their wings to circulate air through the hive. If it is really hot, they collect water for evaporation cooling.Droplets of water are placed inside the hive, then the bees stand in a line facing the hive entrance fanning their wings creating air currents that evaporate the water, thus cooling the hive. Whenever the bees does the fanning at the entrance, there are many inside the hive doing similar fanning to control the hive temperature. I am a woodworker as well as a beekeeper, as a woodworker we used a gadget to know and control the moisture of the wood, bees also control the moisture inside the hive an example of which was the honey, when the moisture of the honey was high it is still uncapped but when it reach the right moisture content the bees seal the honeycomb, sealed comb is a sign that the honey on a honeycomb is ready for harvest and won't easily ferment. We had our second harvest from this honeyflow season last April and we gathered at least 30Liters of honey, one of the process during honey extraction was uncapping of the sealed honey comb, our method was so simple, bees use wax for their honeycombs and also sealed it with it, we always prepare these things that we need: Metal Pitcher full of water, at least 2 pieces of knives, electric heater and a plastic basin. The method is so simple first heat the water in the pitcher using electric heater up to its boiling point and put the knives in it and when the knives were heated use a knife to uncap the sealed honeycomb it is easy to uncapped it when the knife was hot because it melts the wax, uncapped it in a basin so those honey that flows will not be wasted,. those were the simple method that we are using in uncapping the sealed honey comb. Rainy days are almost here and it is a sign that honeyflow season is at its end for this year, well we need to prepare for the dearth season, enjoy the taste of honey until the end of 2014's honeyflow. Beekeeping is LOVE! It's summer and flowers are blooming one thing in the mind of a beekeeper it is honey flow season. It was April 15, 2014, Tuesday, the day we set to harvest at least 16 frames in the hive full of honey it was morning when we get the frames from the hive, I was accompanied by my dad and my high school buddy who was a partner of mine in beekeeping to get the frames, I was stung 6 times during that day but all the pain I felt due to the sting were relieved, thanking God for the bees, and the bees who gave us honey. Allan Defensor which we owe alot for sharing his knowledge about beekeeping helped us in unsealing the capped honeycomb, Paul who was a chef at Tinderbox were also there to witness how to extract honey as well as a friend of my mother along with his daughter, who was the first to buy a liter of honey. After we extracted the honey we put all the honey to a container and transferred it to the bottles and sealed it, my sister Nina helped me in filling the bottles and sealing it and I put a label on the bottle and there goes my product, after all the work was done comes our dinner we spent the night eating an imported Norwegian pink salmon brought by Paul and cooked a local dish called "LARANG". A big thanks to Vergara family for letting us borrow the Honey Extractor. "Beekeeping is LOVE". I've been to Ayala Activity Center, Cebu yesterday to attend a free seminar about modular aquaponics and beekeeping, I've met some personalities who is into organic agriculture and who were bee keepers too, Rico Omoyon was the speaker about bee keeping, he is into organic cosmetics and some products that involve the product of bee keeping, he is a businessman and a beekeper most of the bees he keep were the local bees, particularly apis cerana and the stingless bees (Trigona Spp.). There were products that were displayed during the seminar, Culinary Herb Plants in which I've bought some herbs particularly mint and rosemary, there were honey and honey wines of Mr. Eddie Bohol, products from Milea mostly cosmetics, soaps and organic beauty products, bee propolis, bee pollen, and some organic juices. It was a fine day to spend with my dad and my sister as we attended the seminar, and also a learning experience and the people we have met were amazing. SOAP is an advocacy group that promotes organic agriculture. The free seminar was a collaboration of SOAP with ATI, BAR, AMAS & BAFPS, in which it tackles the topic in Modular Aquaponics and Beekeeping in learning to grow your own food in an urban setting, with limited time and space and understanding the importance of our natural pollinators, the Bees the speakers during the seminar were Martin de Leon who discussed about the Aquaponics and Rico Pietro Omoyon who discussed about the beekeeping. Honey flow season is here and I'm getting ready for the honey bottles and containers and of course the label. So here's the design of the label of the honey bottle I'm planning to put in the bottle.
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Dilan's Apiary
Address: Kagudoy Road, Basak, Lapu-Lapu City Archives
June 2022
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