Did You Know ? A Queen bee can lay up to 2,500 eggs per day !

All worker bees are female and have a normal lifespan of 45 days ! Male bees are called "Drones" and their only role is to mate with the Queen of another hive ! A typical honeybee colony has 50,000 to 80,000 bees ! 1 Queen (reproductive female) 300 Drones (reproductive males) 25,000 older Worker Bees, foragers (nonreproductive females) 25,000 young Worker Bees, in hive (nonreproductive females) 20,000 capped Larvae 9,000 Larvae requiring food 6,000 Eggs A fully fertile Queen Bee lives 4 - 7 years compared to approximately 45 days for a worker bee ! The Queen Bee's diet consists exclusively of royal jelly which is produced by young worker bees.

About Apitherapy What is Apitherapy ? Apitherapy is the use of honeybee produced substances for health and healing. Honeybees produce honey, pollen, propolis, royal jelly, and beeswax, all of which are used by people for nutrition, immune system support, treatment of a variety of ailments, skin care, and healing of open wounds. Even bee venom is used to treat many chronic conditions.

-2Honeybee Produced Substances Used for Apitherapy Bee Pollen Bee Pollen is the male reproductive material of plants used by bees to feed their larvae. Pollen is the honeybee's exclusive source of protein, containing all the essential amino acids that people require. People use bee pollen as a multi-vitamin, energy booster, and/or to build up their resistance to air-borne (hay fever type) allergens. Propolis Propolis is a combination of beeswax, honey, and tree resins mixed with bee-produced enzymes, used to protect the bee hive from bacteria, fungus, and viruses. Propolis has natural anti-bacterial, anti-viral, antifungal, anti-oxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties. People use propolis as a remedy for colds & influenza, and to boost the immune system. The antibacterial and anti-fungal properties of propolis make it an ideal topical ingredient for treating various skin conditions. Royal Jelly Royal Jelly is an enzyme enriched food, produced by young worker bees and fed to a queen bee for her entire life. People use royal jelly as a multi-vitamin, an immune system booster to promote longevity, and for mental clarity. Honey Honey is plant nectar, converted to simple sugars, dehydrated, and used for energy and winter food. People use honey as a natural sweetener, as a sore throat remedy, cough suppressant, and for healing wounds. See About Honey to learn more. Bee Venom Bee Venom is produced by worker female bees to defend themselves and their colony. People use bee venom to treat over 40 illnesses, including warts, arthritis and multiple sclerosis. Learn more about Bee Venom Therapy. Beeswax Beeswax is produced by worker female bees for building the honeycomb structure that is used for brood rearing and storing of honey & pollen. People use beeswax for a number of items including candles, cosmetics, and furniture polishes. See About Beeswax and Candles to learn more. Health and Nutrition Bee Nutraceutical products are pure and natural honeybee products used as dietary supplements to promote good health. The products produced by the honeybee are Royal Jelly, Pollen, Propolis, and Honey. These products may be taken separately in their native form or mixed into blends to provide the right balance in an easy to take mixture.

-3Natural Body Care Honey, beeswax, and propolis are used as healing and pampering agents in a number of body care products including soap, lip balm, cremes, salves and lotions. Honey in Wound Care Honey has been used in treating open wounds for centuries. Until the development of antibiotics in the mid 1900s, honey was the primary treatment for wounds on the battlefield. For the next 50 years, the use of honey in wound care, especially in western countries, lost favour. However, in the past 20 years there has been renewed interest in using honey, driven in large part by the concern of the rapid development of antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria. There has been a large number of peer reviewed scientific studies that have shown the efficacy of using honey, particularly manuka honey, in the treatment of severe chronic wounds such as diabetic foot ulcers. Honey can be used to treat open wounds, burns, and skin ulcers. Results from studies have shown that honey used on open wounds has the following results:

Inflamation, swelling and pain are quickly reduced Unpleasant odours cease Wound dressings can be changed painlessly with no damage to re-growing tissue Minimal scarring occurs

Honey has been shown to prevent the growth of wound bacteria and to protect the wound from getting infected. Honey also provides a moist, nutrient rich environment that actually assists the natural healing process of the body. Anti-Microbial Properties of Honey Unlike antibiotics that have a single mode of action against bacteria, honey has multiple modes of action that attack bacteria in different ways:

Anti-Microbial Properties of Honey MODE Osmotic Effect Acidity DESCRIPTION Honey is over 80% sugar and leaves few water molecules available for micro-organisms. The pH level for honey is between 3.2 and 4.5, which is inhospitable for most wound bacteria that can tolerate a minimum pH level of approximately 4.0 to 4.5. Honey contains glucose oxidase, an enzyme which facilitates a reaction that produces a slow release of hydrogen peroxide. The low levels of hydrogen peroxide produced are sufficient to kill bacteria without damaging tissue.

Hydrogen Peroxide

-4-

Phytochemical Factors

Some honey contains other plant chemicals with anti-microbial properties. These are not available in all types of honey. The best known, and most widely researched honey with phytochemical antimicrobial properties, is manuka honey.

Honey has been shown to be effective against species of bacteria most commonly involved in wound infection. This includes several studies showing honey being effective against "super bugs" such as Methicillin-resistant-Staphylococcus aureus (MSRA) and Vancomycin-resistant-Enterococci (VRE).

Not All Honeys are Equal ! All honey have anti-microbial properties. However, the anti-microbial activity can range up to 100 times, ie one honey may be up to 100 times more effective than another honey. Different honeys also have differing anti-microbial activities against various strains of wound bacteria. Manuka Honey Manuka honey is produced from nectar from the manuka bush (Leptospermum scoparium), a member of the tea tree family, native to New Zealand. Manuka honey is known for its highly active antibacterial properties, far beyond those of normal honeys. The special antibacterial properties of manuka honey, also referred to as the Unique Manuka Factor (UMF), are due to phytochemicals in the manuka nectar. The UMF activity of manuka honey is highly stable compared to the hydrogen peroxide antibacterial mode, which deteriorates with high temperatures and over the span of 6-12 months. Dr. Peter Molan, and his team from the University of Waikato in New Zealand, are responsible for much of the modern day research on honey used for wound care. Manuka honey is clearly the honey of choice in modern honey wound care dressings. It is recommended that only medical grade honey is used in the care of open wounds, as the honey has been sterilized to ensure that it contains no active pathogens. Manuka honey is also widely used to assist in the treatment of gastrointestinal problems, such as peptic ulcers. The belief is that the UMF antibacterial activity of the manuka honey works against harmful bacteria in the digestive tract. Anecdotal evidence appears to support this theory but peer reviewed scientific evidence is still lacking. Bee Venom Therapy Bee Venom Therapy (BVT) is the use of bee venom to treat human and animal disorders using a live bee or bee venom injection. BVT is used to treat people, horses, dogs, and cats. Over 40 different illnesses are treated with BVT including arthritis and multiple sclerosis. BVT practitioners need to be careful because bee venom is histamine (poison) and it may cause a person to have an allergic reaction, which may vary from slight reddening of the skin to a life threatening situation with difficulty breathing.

-5Before a person starts with a BVT treatment schedule, he/she should conduct thorough research, consult a physician, and have an EpiPen nearby. BVT is not for everyone. It is sometimes difficult to obtain bees and a treatment is painful. The old fashioned method of applying a bee sting caused the bee to die. New methods consist of stinging through a stainless steel micro mesh, which allows the venom to enter the skin but prevents the stinger barb from attaching. Thus, the bee is not harmed and her venom regenerates within one or two days. About Beekeeping What is Beekeeping ? Beekeeping (apiculture) is the practice of managing honeybee colonies to attain desired objectives. The most common primary objectives for managing colonies are to: 1. Ensure large, healthy adult honeybee populations to coincide with major nectar flows; 2. To use these strong honeybee colonies to best execute the beekeeping management plan to:
Maximize the collection of nectar (ie. to maximize honey production); and/or Provide pollination services for local food crops.

Some beekeepers have other objectives for their honeybee colonies such as:

Raising honeybee livestock for sale to other beekeepers; Producing other honeybee substances, including bee pollen, propolis, and royal jelly.

Planning is Key In order to attain the desired results, be it honey production, pollination services, or other goals, the beekeeper needs a plan. The fundamental elements that drive the plan are: 1. Knowledge of local nectar flows. This knowledge is critical in that it tells the beekeeper which crops provide nectar and pollen for the honeybees, when the nectar flows occur, where the crops are located, and how prolific they are. This also provides timing for moving honeybee colonies into and out of fields for pollinating various food crops for growers. This knowledge not only gives the timing for maximizing the strength of colonies to take advantage of nectar flows, but also identifies times when there will be a shortage of food for the bees. 2. Knowledge of honeybee biology. The beekeeper must understand the natural instincts of the honeybee in order to facilitate an environment to enhance the productivity of the colony. Honeybees are social insects and thus the beekeeper must manage honeybee colonies as opposed

-6to managing at the individual bee level. To do this, the beekeeper must have a good knowledge of the honeybee life cycle, seasonal cycles of the honeybee colony, the roles of of the different types of bees, and honeybee diseases. Since most of the beekeeper's objectives revolve around honeybees collecting nectar, knowledge of the food requirements of the colony, and how the bees collect and process food, is critical. 3. Beekeeping techniques to manipulate the colony. There are a number of basic beekeeping techniques that are used to ensure good colony health, and to maximize colony strength at the desired times. Management techniques do vary somewhat, and are fined tuned to the conditions in particular regions. 4. Deciding on the goals and how to best use the colonies. Given the local nectar flows, pollination opportunities, and the price of honey, the beekeeper must make a plan as to how to best manage the colonies to achieve the desired objectives. Beekeeping Tools and Equipment Basic Hive Equipment Modern honeybee colonies are designed to mimic the dimensions and environment of a bees nest built naturally by wild (feral) honeybees, with the added ability to remove individual frames of honeycomb for inspection and manipulation. The dimensions of the removable frames are similar in dimension to honeycomb built in the wild. One notable feature is that the space between each frame, known as the "bee space", is approx 8 mm. This space is sufficient for the bees to move around but not big enough so that the bees will build additional honeycomb in the space, thus facilitating easy removal of the frames. A standard bee hive consists of:

One bottom board One or two brood chambers (each containing 9 or 10 removable frames) One queen excluder (to prevent the queen from moving from the brood chamber to the honey supers) One or more honey supers (boxes each containing 9 or 10 removable frames) One inner cover One telescoping hive cover

Beekeeper's Tools The essential tools required by a beekeeper to manipulate honeybee colonies are:

Smoker Hive tool Bee veil

-7-

Some beekeepers additionally may use a full bee suit with gloves, and a bee brush. Basic Colony Examination Beekeepers check their colonies approximately once every 10 days from spring until fall to ensure the colonies have good nutrition, strong health, and enough space. The best time to check the hive is on a warm sunny day with little wind to prevent chilling the brood and to take advantage of having most of the field bees away from the hive. The primary things that a beekeeper is looking for when doing a hive inspection are: 1. Are there fresh eggs present? This signifies that a queen is present, even if she is not seen during the inspection. 2. Is the brood pattern good? A spotty appearance to the brood pattern may indicate a poorly performing queen or disease issues. 3. Does the colony have enough honey and pollen? If there is not enough food stores, and there is little external food present, the colony may need supplemental feeding. 4. Are there any signs of disease? If so, appropriate disease treatment protocols may need to be initiated. 5. Is there enough space? If the colony is strong and there is an abundant food source, a lack of space will cause the colony to swarm. The Beekeeper's Calendar In February and March beekeepers are checking to ensure that the bees have enough food and are strong and healthy. If a colony becomes weak, it is combined with a strong one. If a colony becomes too strong, it may be divided in half by the beekeeper, thus creating two colonies. Poor queen bees may be replaced with new ones, and beekeeping equipment is removed from colonies that did not survive the winter. In the world today, this unfortunately occurs 35% of the time. During April and May, beekeepers are checking to ensure that the bees have enough room to expand the colony. If the bees outgrow their physical space, they will swarm. During swarming, a little over half of the population of bees leaves the hive to start another colony. If this happens, the beekeeper will lose the years honey crop from the colony that swarms. In June and July, the majority of honey and pollen for the year is gathered. During this critical time, the beekeeper might need to visit the hives every day. Full boxes of honey are removed for extracting, and empty boxes returned to the hives for refilling. Pollen traps are emptied into freezers for storage, and no one gets a day off. By August and September, the last of the honey crop is gathered and the bees are prepped for winter. Beekeepers ensure that brood is redistributed to make all colonies of equal strength. Colonies are fed if needed, and weak colonies are combined to make strong ones. In colder climates, all of the colonies are wrapped in an insulated blanket by October. To Become a Beekeeper There is a vast knowledge base on beekeeping, including many excellent books and periodicals. Although the basic biology of the honeybee is constant, there are many variables such as weather, genetics, disease

-8profiles, local crops and climate that combine to make beekeeping a complex problem. There are a number of different methods or variants to managing honeybee colonies. Beekeepers also tend to be a independent lot and experiment with their own methods. Did you know ? If you ask 3 beekeepers a question, you will get at least 4 different answers ! The recommended way to become a beekeeper is to read a number of books on the subject, and then to take a course from a beekeeping instructor that is familiar with your local area. Learn about our beekeeping courses. About Honeybees What is a honeybee? Honeybees are flying insects, and close relatives of wasps and ants. They are found on every continent on earth, except for Antarctica. Bees of all varieties live on nectar and pollen. Without bees, pollination would be difficult and time consuming - it is estimated that one-third of the human food supply depends on insect pollination. Bees have a long, straw-like tongue called a probiscus that allows them to drink the nectar from deep within blossoms. Bees are also equipped with two wings, two antennae, and three segmented body parts (the head, the thorax, and the abdomen). Honeybees are social insects that live in colonies. The hive population consists of a single queen, a few hundred drones, and thousands of worker bees. The honeybees we know and love here at Honeybee Centre forage for nectar and pollen from flowering plants. They use the nectar collected to create our favourite sweet treat - honey! When carrying the nectar back to the hive, their bodies break down the complex sucrose of the nectar into two simple sugars, fructose and glucose. Tucking it neatly into a honeycomb cell, the bees will then beat their wings furiously over top of this syrupy sweet liquid to fan out the moisture and thicken the substance. When it is complete, the bees will cap that cell with beeswax, sealing the perfected honey for consumption later on. For more information about honey, check out our About Honey page. Worker Bees Worker bees are the most familiar-looking member of the honeybee hive, as they make up about 99% of each colony's population. Worker bees are all female, and they do almost everything for the hive. From birth to her death 45 days later, the worker bee is given different tasks to do during different stages of her life. Worker bees are responsible for everything from feeding the larvae (the baby bees), to tending to the queen, to cleaning the

-9hive, to collecting food, to guarding the colony, to building honeycomb. The stinger of the worker bee is barbed, so when she is forced to defend herself or the hive, her stinger will become stuck in the skin of her victim. She is unable to pull it out, and dies when she inevitably tears herself away from the stuck stinger, leaving it behind with the venom sack still pumping venom into her victim. Consequently, honeybees are very gentle - they don't want to die any more than you want to be stung. Be nice to them, and they'll be nice to you. Drone Bees Male bees are called drones. Their job is to mate with queens from other hives. If they do get the opportunity to mate, they die immediately afterwards. If they do not mate, they can live up to 90 days (that's twice as long as a worker bee!) You can identify drones in the hive by their big round bodies and large eyes. Drones are incapable of stinging.

Queen Bees There is one queen bee per hive - she is the mom of all the other bees. She is the only fertile member of the colony, and lays about 1,500 eggs a day during spring and summer. Queen bees are distinguished from the other members of the hive by their long abdomens and small wings. Soon after birth, queen bees will go out and have a wild weeked, where they mate with 15 or more drones over a three day period before retiring to the hive to lay eggs. The queen will not leave the hive again unless the colony swarms (looking for a new home). When the colony needs a new queen bee, they simply choose a healthy larva, hatched from an egg of the current queen, and feed it royal jelly, a special, super-nutrious food. Royal jelly, produced in the heads of young nurse bees (worker bees whose job it is to care for the larvae), helps this larva grow into a queen. Queens can lay about 1,500 eggs per day and can live from 4 to 7 years, that's up to 57 times longer than a worker bee - it's no wonder humans love adding royal jelly to their diets, too! Life in the Hive Contrary to popular belief, honeybees do not build an external structure that contains their hive. They love to live in hollow spaces, whether that means a hollow tree, an empty fallen log, or in a traditional manmade bee hive. They do, however, build the inside of their hive. Honeybees make their own special wax (beeswax), which they use to create perfect little hexagons inside their home. These little cubbyholes are called cells, and in them, the bees store everything from eggs, to pollen, to honey. For more information about beeswax, check out the About Beeswax page.

- 10 To seal their hive and to protect against diseases, the bees make a substance called propolis. Propolis is a combination of beeswax, honey, and tree resins, and is anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, and anti-viral. It disinfects and protects their hive. It is also very sticky, and honeybees love to use it to seal up any cracks or holes they may encounter on a housekeeping mission. For more information about propolis, check out the About Apitherapy page. With such a large population all working together, some great communication skills are needed. Bees do their talking in two ways - by scent and by dancing. When a honeybee is warning her sisters about an intruder, or if all the ladies in the hive are particularly happy, honeybees have the ability to release a special hormonal scent called pheromones. The bees can detect these scents and interpret their message. A happy bee pheromone smells suspiciously like lemons, and a warning-smell has a banana-like scent. When a forager bee needs to alert her sisters as to where a nectar source is, dancing comes in handy. She does special turns and wiggles to show where she found the food - essentially drawing a map. Come check out our observation hive and watch for dancing bees! About Pollination What is Pollination ? Pollination is the process of transferring the male part of the plant (pollen) to the female part of the plant (Pistil), which completes fertilization, thus enabling the plant to produce fruit or vegetables. Pollination may be abiotic, where pollination occurs without the involvement of other organisms, or biotic, where other organisms called pollinators transport the pollen grains from the anther to the pistil. About 80% of all plant pollination is biotic. Many plants require cross-pollination, where pollen is delivered from the flower of one plant to the flower of another plant. Cross-pollination helps at least 30 percent of the worlds food crops and 90 percent of our wild plants to thrive.

- 11 Who are the Pollinators ? Pollinators are animals, usually insects, but may also be birds, mammals, or reptiles. The transport of pollen is usually the result of their activities, such as visiting plants for feeding. Plants attract their preferred pollinators through brightly coloured petals, scent, and nectar & pollen which provide a source of food. Up until about one hundred years ago, there were enough wild bees and other insects in the world to pollinate virtually all of the food crops being planted. Today, however, because of intensive agricultural practices, and a sharp decline in the number of wild bees due to the use of chemicals, pollution, and destruction of insect habitat, there simply are not nearly enough wild insect pollinators to effectively pollinate our crops. As a result, the business of honeybee pollination services has developed throughout many parts of the world, where a beekeeper can rent a colony of honeybees to a farmer for the bloom season, which is typically 4 weeks long. Its estimated that there are about 2.4 million colonies in the U.S. today, twothirds of which are used for pollinating crops. More than one million colonies are used each year in California just to pollinate the states almond crop! Honeybees Pollinate Major Food Crops Of the worlds 115 most important food crops, 87 require pollination to produce fruits, nuts and seeds. They account for a third of the $3 trillion worth of agricultural produce sold each year. These crops provide 35% of the calories we consume yearly and most of the vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. Seven of the nine crops that provide at least half the vitamin C to the human diet depend on insect pollination. They include oranges, cabbages, peppers, tomatoes, melons, tangerines and watermelons. Five major fruit crops (apple, almond, avocado, blueberry and cranberry) are reliant on insect pollination. In North America, approximately 1.5 million beehives are rented out to many different food crops. In the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, honeybees are used to pollinate apples, blueberries, currants, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, kiwi, cranberries, pumpkin, zucchini, and squash. Did you know ? Honeybees pollinate one third of the food we eat ! Economic Benefit of Honeybee Pollination A 2000 Cornell University study concluded that the direct value of honeybee pollination to U.S. agriculture was more than $14.6 billion. Current estimates are close to $20 billion. The almond crop in California alone is worth $2.3 billion annually. The economic value of pollination worldwide may be as

- 12 high as $90 billion. The economic value of honeybee pollination to food crops in Canada has been estimated at over $2 billion a year. The economic benefit to the grower is far greater than it is to the beekeeper. In a blueberry crop, for example, the fruit yield can increase by as much as 50% from honeybee pollination. If a grower with mature plants rents 6 colonies per acre at a total cost of $450, they can expect as much as $5,000 in additional fruit. About Beeswax & Candles What is Beeswax ? Honeybees are the only creatures that make their own home construction materials. When they need to create a place to raise their young or to store food, worker female bees make honeycomb. Beeswax is a tough wax formed from a mixture of several compounds including: hydrocarbons, monoesters, diesters, triesters, hydroxy monoesters, hydroxy polyesters, acid esters, acid polyesters, free acids, free alcohols, and other unidentified substances (ok . . . let's just say it's wax). How Bees Make Beeswax Honeybees ingest honey to make beeswax. It takes approximately 7 kg of honey to produce 1 kg of wax. Once honey is ingested, the bees hang inside the colony for 24 hours while their bodies convert the honey into wax. The wax is secreted out of eight glands on the underside of the bee's abdomen. When the wax leaves the bee's body and comes in contact with the air, it causes the wax to solidify into dinner-plate shaped flakes. The bees then grab these wax plates with their legs, bring them up to their mandibles, and chew them to soften the wax. Then they carefully mold the wax into the perfect honeycomb structure. History of Beeswax When beekeepers used to extract honey, they would use cheesecloth the press the honey out of the beeswax honeycomb. Left with all this extra wax, they would then use their uneventful winter months to create candles out of this versatile material. How Beeswax Cleans the Air Burning beeswax produces negative ions that circulate in the room and attract pollutants, in much the same way that a magnet attracts iron fillings. Dust, odours, moulds, bacteria, viruses, and other toxins are captured and neutralized. Beeswax actually cleans your air. However, you still have to vacuum your house. Beeswax versus Paraffin (Reprinted from an article written by Bill Reno, entomologist & writer based in Toronto)

- 13 As described above, burning beeswax produces negative ions that circulate in the room and attract pollutants, thus actually cleaning the air. You can burn beeswax in an unventilated room without fear of pollution. In fact, many people report that burning a candle in the bedroom for 30 minutes or so before falling asleep produces a more restful sleep. Paraffin, on the other hand, is a petroleum waste product, made from the sludge left over from the gasoline and petrochemical refining process. Paraffin produces no negative ions and so adds to the pollutants in your home. People with respiratory problems should not use paraffin candles, nor should people who do not want to develop such problems. Burning paraffin produces toxic combustion by-products, many of which are known to be carcinogens. Breathing the fumes from burning paraffin candles is essentially the same as breathing the exhaust fumes from a diesel engine. Caring for & Burning Beeswax Candles Beeswax candles burn just as long, if not longer, than paraffin candles. They are brighter and cleanerburning.

Never leave a burning candle unattended. Burn on a flat surface. Consider placing on a candle plate in case of drips. If the candle starts to get "dusty" looking, that is simply the honey in the beeswax coming to the surface. Simply polish with a damp cloth to keep your candle looking bright and new.

Uses for Beeswax Beeswax isn't just used to make candles! Buy yourself a big ol' chunk of the wonderful stuff and use it to...

Make cosmetics Make soap Wax surfboards Polish furniture Lubricate zippers Wax your mustache Make a work of art

. . . and more!

Home The Honey Bee Center About Us Events Our Products Bee World Testimonials Contact Us Phone 1-877-975-2337