Text Transcript with Description of Visuals
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| [Music] Welcome to the second module of ABEJAS. | ABEJAS Logo in front of beekeeper driving fork lift carrying honey bee colonies Title: Module 2.1 Beekeeper equipment and tools |
| This module will cover equipment, tools, and safety while beekeeping and teach you how to recognize nutritional needs and assess queen status during colony assessment. | Beekeeper in an apiary talking to camera |
| Let’s start with the equipment and tools you will use while beekeeping. [Music] | Lit smoker on a trailer bed |
| Many commercial beekeeping operations use standardized Langstroth box sizes, such as eight frame, or ten frame deeps, mediums, or shallow boxes. | Honey bee colonies sitting in an apiary. Text on screen: Langstroth hives with standardized box sizes Beekeeper puffing smoke onto bees in a colony. Text on screen: This box is a 10 frame deep with 8 frames and a feeder in place of 2 frames |
| This standardization simplifies hive management and equipment compatibility across different operations. | Beekeeper using hive tool to separate frames inside a hive box, then taking out frame and inspecting bees. Text on screen: Medium and deep boxes |
| There are different size hive boxes depending on their purpose. Deep boxes are a little over nine inches tall and are used to provide ample space for brood rearing. | Beekeeper taking lid off colony, then overhead view of beekeeper working in multiple boxes and moving frames from box to box. Text on screen: Deep boxes provide plenty of space for brood rearing |
| Medium boxes are a little over six inches tall and are often used as supers for honey storage or brood boxes in some regions. | Beekeeper carrying two more shallow boxes over to another hive. Text on screen: Medium boxes are often used as honey supers |
| Shallow boxes are a little over five inches tall and are less common than the other two sizes. Shallows are primarily used for honey supers. | Beekeeper taking a frame out of a box while another beekeeper puffs smoke onto bees. Zooms into a frame full of capped honey. |
| All boxes will have frames that are compatible with the depth of the box. | Beekeeper holds two frames side by size. Text on screen: A frame from a deep box (left) and from a medium box (right) |
| Shallow or medium boxes are easier to handle and extract honey from, and this can reduce a beekeepers’ physical strain. | Two beekeepers lifting hive boxes off of colony |
| It’s important to wear protective gear such as a beekeeping suit, veil, and gloves while working in a honey bee hive. | Beekeeper putting on a full body suit and veil Two beekeepers putting on gloves Text on screen: Veil and gloves Two people standing on grass wearing closed toes boots |
| The tool you will use in everyday hive inspections is called a hive tool. | Two beekeepers standing side by side holding a silver and yellow hive tool, then transitions to a container holding smoker, a suit, pair of gloves, and hive tool Text on screen: Hive tool |
| ve tools are essential to prying open hive boxes, to break propolis seals, separating and lifting frames, and scraping comb from the frames or hive bodies. | Beekeeper using hive tool to separate frames inside a hive box |
| Frequently cleaning your hive tool is important to minimize spreading diseases to other apiaries and facilities. | Beekeeper using one hive tool to scrape debris off another hive tool |
| Sharpening your hive tool will help you easily remove excess wax and propolis when working in hives. | Beekeeper scraping comb off of hive lid |
| Another tool you’ll commonly use is a smoker. A smoker consists of a metal chamber where fuel such as woodchips, burlap, or pine needles is burned. | Beekeeper puffing smoke onto bees in a colony. Text on screen: Smoker |
| The bellows allows you to gently puff smoke over the bees. The smoke helps keep the bees calm and reduces the likelihood of being stung. | Beekeeper opening smoker and takes out old burlap from inside smoker Lit smoker on a trailer bed Pile of pine needles on trailer bed Beekeeper puffing air into smoker through the bellow |
| The smoke temporarily masks the alarm pheromones that would normally signal danger or defensive behaviors. | Beekeeper puffing smoke onto bees in a colony Beekeeper putting a small roll of burlap that is on fire into smoker |
| Beekeepers use various types of feeders to provide supplemental food to honey bee colonies. | Beekeeper lifting feeder out of hive box. Text on screen: Feeders |
| The types of feeders used are specific to each operation, but may include top feeders where sugar water is provided above the hive frames, | Honey bee colonies with small rectangular feeders on top of lids. Text on screen: These top feeders are made from metal cans |
| or in-hive feeders that are placed inside the hive and take the place of 1 or 2 frames in the hive. | Sugar syrup being poured into in-hive feeder with a hose, then beekeeper holding two in-hive feeders side by side. Text on screen: In-hive feeders |
| Lastly, another important tool you may use is record keeping. | Man holding clipboard. Text on screen: Record keeping |
| This can be through paper logs, notebooks, writing on hive boxes, or digital platforms. How each operation keeps records may vary, but overall record keeping is incredibly important to tracking colony health, queen status, strength, production and management activities such as miticide treatments. | Hive lids with writing Person holding phone and navigating an app Person holding clip board and writing notes on paper |
| Now that you know more about the equipment involved in beekeeping, we will talk more about safety next. | Beekeeper in an apiary talking to camera ABEJAS logo, list of two upcoming videos, and @wsubeeprogram YouTube Logo appears |
| [Music] | Drone footage of hives placed in a circle and beekeepers working in hives Overlay of WSU Bee Program, Washington State University, Wonderstone Films, United States Department of Agriculture, Project Apis m, Miller Honey Farms, and University of Minnesota Extension logos appear Scrolling list of people involved in development of videos appears |
| If you’ve enjoyed this video, please subscribe to the channel and leave us a comment below to let us know what additional topics you would like us to cover in future videos. | A beekeeper closing a clapperboard that says “WSU ABEJAS English” Beekeeper in an apiary talking to camera |