Bees, Honey & Beekeeping: Updated 19th April 2013

Bee Ware brings you the...

Bee Course DVD Practical Beginner Beekeeping training on Video! Now 150 minutes of REAL Footage!

Start beekeeping now!

For reference material, we present our very own Practical Beekeeping bee book set with 2 bonus reports and a secret bonus report too!

19th April 2013!

20th April 2013

BEEKEEPING Course - 20th April 2013 Open for Registration

Our Easy Buzzing Bee Course will be on again with the next date 20th April 2013- Registration Open!

See the Bee Course section for more info...

Please send through proof of payment to ensure you secure your place and avoid disappointment. P.S. Monsterpay.com has changed their payment processign system by removing the Online E commerce MALL which means many of our purchasing links are not working at present! Email us if you have problems.

**SHOP IS OPEN 09h00 - 14h30 from Mon to Friday!**

THE SHOP IS OPEN 09h00 - 14h30 from Mon to Friday!

Queen excluders available

Honey Extractors Now available!

We are now supplying a high density plastic 20-frame honey extractor! The unit is suitable for mobile work and is a manual gear process.

We are supplying the 20-Frame Honey Extractor for R7500*

**Price increase**

Visit Honey Extractor page for more info.

Beekeeping Project Training

We have assisted new beekeeping projects to get off the ground by providing over 20 years of beekeeping experience and knowledge as well as all of the beekeeping equipment required to make a beekeeping project successful!

We now provide advisory and support services to the development of beekeeping projects as well as the setting up of new community and rural projects.

To get more information regarding these services email warrick@beeware.co.za or call 082 359 8787 in office hours!

2010 Beekeeping Goal Update - 31 DEC 2013

We have been distracted from the goal of achieving 100 bee colonies this year due to a number of other projects coming up. However, we have regularly been catching bee colonies and splitting honeybee colonies using our Honeybee Colony Splitter method found in our ebook on www.beebooks.co.za.

We should be on about 75 colonies at present despite the lack of proactive beekeeping of late.

2010 Beekeeping Goal Update - 31 Oct 2012

We have been distracted from the goal of achieving 100 bee colonies this year due to a number of other projects coming up. However, we have regularly been catching bee colonies and splitting honeybee colonies using our Honeybee Colony Splitter method found in our ebook on www.beebooks.co.za.

We should be on about 65 colonies at present despite the lack of proactive beekeeping of late.

2010 Beekeeping Goal Update - 31 Dec 2010

We officially have 40 bee colonies in our new commericial honey farming project. We will continue to split our trap box colonies until the end of January 2011. At this stage however, we will be forced to feed them.

Any new queen bees, from the next split, will only start laying end of February which leaves Summer in the 11th hour and very low sources of nectar for bees.

We will be making smaller breeding boxes for these purposes in order to multiply the process but also keep the volume of space minimal for small colonies to manage as things get cooler at night.

All these rainy days also halt production of honey as bees caont fly in rain. No gathering of nectar and pollen puts a strain the store in the hive.

Beekeeping Videos Update!

Trap Box Set Up Video

See our Trap box set up for catching trekking honeybee swarms during the Spring and Summer of 2010.

Apiary Visit Mpumalanga 10th Nov

The visit to the orchard in Mpumalanga proved to be good. We didn't harvest as much honey as expected as the November nectar flow hadn't actually started on the Macadamia orchard with the flowers having aborted due to a few days being above 40 degrees celsius

Nonetheless, we relocated 2 very heavy bee boxes off the shed roof which was a mission and a half. I took a sting to the ankle as with all of the up and down of the roof and the bakkie my legging on the right side edged up and over my hiking boots and exposed prime target for a lone defender! Damn it was a painful sting. I've had a few in my beekeeping lifetime but this one was special.

Dose up with 3 Allergex tablets once the work was complete and all was swell! Can say that again... My foot looked like the makings of "Michelin Man". It was extremely sensitive the day afterwards with throbbing while working on the apiary.

We did add supers on to brood chambers with 8-10 frames full with queen excluders. We also split 5 new colonies using our Honeybee Colony Creator method from the Mini Report.

So, where we didn't gain in honey we should gain in additional colonies. After starting off at the new sites with only 2 colonies at the beginning of the 2010 season, we have developed up to 34 thriving honeybee colonies at present.

Our target by the end of 2011 is to have 300 bee hives under management. With a decent capacity of around 40 established honeybee colonies by July 2011 we aim to split and breed queen bees on a serious note.

We will also capture about 20-30 bee colonies in general if this year is to be the average, across 4 sites. Obviously, we will be using many more sites by then which provide about 5 new colonies per site per month. We will be taking full advantage of this.

Our we would need to breed about 240 queen bee cells to reach our target of 300 colonies by this time nexrt year. At some stage we aim to offer a special Queen Rearing course in 2011.

At this stage, it is still in development while we practice the different methods and fine tune the process for you. It will consist of a number of Saturdays due to the nature of the queen rearing process being conducted over a rough period of 16 days. So keep this Queen Rearing course in mind for 2011.

We will be launching an online Beekeeping Course in Video format which you can download from anywhere. It will take a long time to download it but it will be well worth it! Estimated Launch date is 12th December 2010.

Apiary Visit Hekpoort 2nd Nov

The shop won't be open on the 2nd of November as we are heading out to our apiary in Hekpoort to harvest honey and do splitting. If you have an order for beekeeping goods, please email it through and we will service it on Wednesday!

Get ready for the next nectar flow in November!!

Apiary Visit Mpumalanga 9th & 10th Nov

The shop won't be open on the 9th & 10th of November as we are heading out to our apiary in Mpumalanga to harvest honey and do splitting. If you have an order for beekeeping goods, please email it through and we will service it on Thursday 11th November!

Jackson Hive Videos - 20th OCT

Check out our recent BEEKEEPING VIDEO while working on Jackson hive harvest while assisting Tim Jackson at his apiary. Tim designed the Jackson hive using experience of over 30 years of observation keeping bees throughout Africa...

Also some new prices have been introduced with increases we cannot keep from happening after 2 years on our bee suits and bee jackets, bee hives, blue book and queen excluders.

Wednesday 6th October.

Apiary site visit in Mpumalanga which includes a stay over. We will be taking another 10 catch boxes to the apiary site to make good on the honeybee season where colonies split naturally this time of year!

We put these 10 Swarm Catcher boxes out on Tuesday morning at 9h30 and the weather was pretty overcast. We left at 10h30 and arrived home around 15h00. By 17h30 the farmer called to find out if we have arrived safely and to tell us that bees had already moved into one of our Swarm catcher boxes!

A new Honeybee Swarm in less than 12 hours!! Believe it! Discover the secrets of becoming a Swarm Catcher now!

August 26th

Just did a bee removal around Midrand area from inside an unused electric box. The box door had come loose so the bees moved in to a beautiful mansion they now call their home!

A fairly painless bee removal followed. The trick now is to see if they stay or not. Nonetheless, I found some honey and taken a video of this. Maybe around 1Kg of honey. But more interestingly was the evidence of a queen cell being drawn out. I've taken some video of the queen cell. Hopefully it is clear.

I've also taken some video of my low tech honey harvesting technique after a bee removal. Generally there is a misconception that bee removals enjoy large quantities of honey and that's why beekeepers should be happy to do this service for free... It is not my experience that there is enough honey on average to even cover the petrol used nowadays to get to and from a bee removal site.

Check out the 2 new bee videos below:

#1 bee video is of my low tech honey extracting method .

#2 bee video is of the small packet of honey extracted from the bee removal and the small queen cell.

We are going to put a bee video section on the site soon! Watch this space...

August 17th

We recently did apiary work at 3 of our honeybee sites:

Apiary #1: Farm in Muldersdrift with small peach orchard just about to start blossoming. Loads of trees in neighbourhood. We transferred 2 wild swarms - 1 in a fruit box and the other in a tyre stack - into our beehives and gave them sugar water to get them strong for the spring nectar flow. Great opportunity to get free bees!

We placed loads of trap boxes high up on sheds and container rooves and baited the honey bee boxes.

Apiary #2: Out in Mpumalanga we visited the new apiary site there and to our delight found 3 new swarms had colonised our trap hives. We even split a bee hive swarm while we were up there. Naturally, stronger honeybee colonies will tend to prepare to split now.

Please ensure you actively inspect your beehives NOW to avoid losing part of your swarm to splitting. Rather use any queen cells to make new honey bee colonies. You can read more about this in the Honeybee Colony Creator Mini Report.

We found the queen bee while splitting the bee hive this time!

Apiary #3: A smallholding in Muldersdrift with wild flora and trees on site. Old honeybee hives not serviced and partially burnt needed serious servicing! I even found a spider with black and red colouring inside the hive with its web across a frame.

Loads of propolis on the propolis trap which is a fair sign of a strong colony. Could not find the queen bee however but tiny eggs were present which means she is about and laying.

Loads of hive beetles present on these two old bee hives which is due to the swarms being a) small in the one hive and b) the other hive has wholes everywhere...

At all of the apiary sites, we have been active in making sure the brush and debri is cut and cleared away to avoid losses due to fire. Also, it is important to keep snakes from making home under your beehive too.

Now the contract at BHP Billiton has come to an end. The shop isnow open from 10h00 until 17h00 during the week. But please ring before you come to check on availability of stock.

Check our Bee course video demo below:

May 10th - July 30th

I am currently contracted to train at BHP Billiton Metalloys in Meyerton no a major project until end of July 2010. As such postal orders or mail orders carry on as per usual however trading times are strictly by appointment during the week.

Weekend times are generally between 9am and 13h00 by arrangement as well. Please be patient with our current position as it is now very quiet in the beekeeping industry in SA and so we balance the low activity by running other projects as they arise.

Please email orders to info@beeware.co.za and we will attend to them within 24 hours. Apologies for any inconvenience caused during this time.

1st March to 24th April

I am currently contracted to work at BHP Billiton on a major project from the 1st March 2010 until the 24th April 2010. Due to this contract and the working hours involved being during the week days, I am only able to accept collections or visits over the weekend.

Please note we are certainly able to accept email orders as well as mail orders. Collections will have to be confirmed in writing. I will not be available on the phone either during the contract. So, please email me on info@ beeware.co.za for any enquiries.

We appreciate your patience and understanding with regards to any inconvenience caused.

February 1st - Shop closed until 3rd Feb

I recently visited my apiary site in Mpumalanga province and made videos -without audio- of a hive inspection. It's short and sweet but makes for a brief look into beekeeping...

Our first bee video attempt went quite well except we haven't included any audio this time round. So, hope you enjoy the basic footage...

February 1st - Shop closed until 3rd Feb

I will be going to Mpumalanga on the 1st to 3rd of February and the shop will not be open for these three days. Be sure to send me orders for beekeeping equipment via email in the meantime & I will attend to them upon my return.

I am going to do Apiary work on a site before the new season comes into proper effect and between rainy weather.

January 27th

It has been raining non stop everyday in Gauteng for like 2 weeks! This is crazy. It will have an effect on the harvesting for your bees with so much rain. They can't fly when it's raining...

Our first bee course lunch braai was almost washed out! But thankfully the weather held out for our practical beekeeping demonstration at our apiary site with 4 working bee hives. We were also fortunate enough to see the queen bee as well.

Final summer maintenance or harvest could be conducted now but then that would be the last time you internally inspect your bee hives for a few months.

Happy wintering!

December 17th

It is that time of year again when people are going on leave and waiting with anticipation for the holidays and spending time with loved ones! At Bee Ware, we will be doing exactly that! So, please note that we will be closed from the 24th Dec - 2nd Jan.

Any orders placed during this time can only be actioned after the 2nd January 2010. We wish you all the best memories over the festive season and a fantastic holiday!

May your 2010 be filled with golden opportunities and great beekeeping!

December 1st

The silly season has arrived! It is harvesting time again. If you haven't harvested from your bee hives yet this season then it's definitely time to get over to your apiary and harvest honey from your bee hives.

We've also added a currency converter to our site. For anyone ordering from other countries, I think you would agree that a currency converter makes ordering a simple process. Find out what our prices are in your own currency by using the currency converter now!

For customers looking to come to the bee supplies shop in Centurion, you can now use the Google Map Locator to pinpoint exactly where we are! Find Bee Ware now using the Google Maps link now by visiting get Bee Ware Map!

November 23rd

The next Beginner beekeeping course is taking place on the 27th FEBRUARY 2010 by Hills and Dales near Lanseria. Bookings are now open. Minimum of 6 candidates required. So bring a friend for a great day out!

We've MOVED! Our new address is 25 Glen Carlou, Bradford Str, Highveld, Centurion. Be sure you call before you come through. Best times to purchase are on weekends please...

BRAND NEW stock has arrived! We now stock plastic honeygate taps, bee brushes, wax embedders and eyelets for beekeepers! Our new stock of Bee smokers has also arrived and is ready for the Bee Season! Our main bee supplies are listed for you to purchase now.

New Prices! We have had to increase our prices due to a considerable increase in costs. After keeping prices stable for over 2 years, we are unable to sustain them. Main products effected are the bee hives and bee suits.

Or why don't you get a copy of Beekeeping in South Africa or you can get Practical Beekeeping Beginners Guide and do beekeeping self study on honey bees and how to start beekeeping.

Beeswax sheets increase in price - Now R13,50 per sheet. Demand on local beeswax is pushing prices up. If you have excess beeswax contact us. We purchase beeswax.

The Jackson Horizontal hive is now R741 and stock is available again. Now Agents for Jackson bee hives!

We launch Bee Project services which includes consulting, beekeeping project training and maintenance. We also focus on offering honey and bee product branding services for any community beekeeping projects.

May 13th

American Foulbrood scare in South African Beekeeping circles.

We are waiting to hear more about this disease and how far it may have spread from the Western Cape bee body and government. Apparently it seems as if not enough inspectors are available in order to make an efficient study of the western cape area in order to ascertain the extent of infection.

Samples of honey from beekeepers are being collected from all ends of the country in order to gauge whether the disease has indeed spread passed the Western Cape's borders.

Awaiting further feedback from esteemed beekeeping industry contacts we stress that care should be taken not to mix bee colonies unnecessarily as well as that you ensure you have a clean honey harvesting room. Bees should not have access to your honey room at any time. Ensure honey stores are properly closed and sealed tight while in transit or in storage.

We buy rendered beeswax so for more information, will you contact us on info@beeware.co.za or call 082 359 8787 !

Find out more about Beginner's Beekeeping course

Updated our Shop interface in order to use an ecommerce platform for ordering our top line goods straight from the site!

Just remember to add the delivery fee if delivery is required.

Latest Update: We have moved down the road. If you are collecting goods ordered by arrangement, then please note to do so at our new address:

Location: 25 Glen Carlou, Bradford Str, Highveld, Centurion! Be sure to make arrangements to collect before you come.

Please Note: Beeswax Foundation sheets are now R12 each. Minimum order is 10 sheets.

Beekeeping can be fun. Some people do it for leisure and free honey and others do it professionally. Either way it's still a great way to get outdoors, meet people and get closer to nature. 'Buy Beekeeping Equipment' at Shop Our Store section on the right for an idea of what we supply and more.

Beekeeping Minute # 3 - Nov

You should have harvested your honey as soon as the first rains came. If you did, that was great. It is now time again to inspect your bee hives and consider harvesting where super frames are full.

Ensure there is enough space left in the brood for the queen bee to lay eggs. Perhaps remove one brood frame during your inspection if there is a "dead" frame.

Good honey harvesting!

Beekeeping Minute # 1 - Aug!
A one minute idea you should consider now:

It is time to get your beekeeping suit, smoker, hive tool and spare supers out. Clean the beekeeping suit and smoker. Get some pine needles and horse manure as these work best for smoking bees and generally come inexpensively.

Make sure your suit is in good condition with no holes or stitching required. Make sure you also have 2 clean 25L buckets with lids for harvesting purposes.

One should have at least 2 spare supers around for you to remove and harvest frames from hives in order to create space for the new flowering season...

Good preparation makes for good harvest!

Beekeeping Minute # 2 - June!
A one minute idea you should consider now:

It is time to leave your hives alone. Perhaps a final inspection before the wintering months come into being can be conducted. Consider feeding the hives that may not have enough food to sustain themselves through the winter in the immediate vacinity of the colony. A good ratio during winter for suger to water is a 1:1 solution. For every cup of sugar you only add one cup of water.

Do not feed for longer than 2 weeks consecutively! Give the feeding a break of at least a week before feeding again. Your bees can get upset stomachs by overfeeding.

Also, bear in mind the article about using Emergency Queen rearing process to Build your Apiary size which enables a beekeeper to usetried and tested methods to create new queens and new colonies for them. You could begin this process now if you missed it in August.

New Gallery of BeeWare's Products is available! To view our main products at a glance you can go to the following link at BeeWare's Product Gallery

Brood Chamber Wax foundation sheets are in stock. These are pure beeswax sheets moulded for brood only and are full foundation sheets.

Each sheet is R13,50; min order: 10 sheets
excluding postage

Full Beekeeping Suit with attached veil incl.

Veil, ankle zips, wristbands and double zip at chest.
Best quality protective bee suit suitable for export.

from R680 (large) See bee suits page...
excl postage.

Or if you are only looking for information on keeping bees you can purchase one of our eBooks: Beekeeping - A Practical Guide is available title through the website.

We have our own handbook available as a downloadable document at a low fee due to no print costs. Available NOW for US$17.00 You can order the

Practical Beekeeping - Beginner's Guide eBook!via the net!

Mail order Bee Journals. The first issue for 2006 has been printed and distributed to all of the up-to-date SABIO members included in the membership fee. If you'd like a copy contact us and we will send them via mail order.

SABIO Registration is now up for renewal. R250 a year fee for registration as a beekeeper. You also receive the SABIO Bee Journal quarterly.

Welcome To Our Site

7th September 2007

Email orders and collections in Midrand can be arranged prior to collection. Please call before you come through as our suppliers are now closed as well.

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Our new Beekeeping eBook is now available! Order it by completing the order form and you will receive your download link via email!

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Bees in Angola - A story of mining and wild colony relocation

Warren Klein, a reptile specialist, has been catching and relocating snakes, reptiles and other small mammals from a palm site marked for clearing in Angola. He also came across wild bee colonies and volunteered to remove them.

Read more about his "Bees in Angola" story and view pics.

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Manfred Leitner - The Miner's Hat & beekeeping veil

Manfred Leitner of Southerns Beekeeping spoke at our last meeting about his design of a different type of beekeeping veil. He has used a miner's hat, stainless steel mesh and miner's light pack to enhance his beekeeping experience. Thanks to Manfred for being our speaker and we look forward to orders for those interested in trying the veil. It takes about a week to manufacture the Miner's Beekeeping Veil.

Read about Manfred's Miner's Beekeeping Veil & see some pics.

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Midrand Beekeeper's Club Launched!
On the 23rd of August some enthusiastic residents of Midrand got together and held the first beekeeper's club meeting. I opened it and welcomed those present. We had 14 people attending including Hans Blokker of SABIO.

I spoke about the pro's & con's about the Jackson Vs. Langstroth hive and opened the floor for questions & answers. We informally ended at 8:30pm however most people stayed until 10pm discussing bees & drinking coffee.

Our next meet is at Ukuvuna Permiculture, 50 Pretorius Str, Glen Austin, Midrand. It is the road just before Eskom Conference Centre. Drive over at least one speed bump and # 50 is on your left.

Beeswax Foundation sheets Now Available!
BeeWare is carrying stock of Beeswax Foundation sheets. It is time to begin increasing hive numbers by inducing queenless colonies to create emergency queens. It is recommended to provide foundation sheets in this process.

Also recommended at this time, is the removal of old brood comb - normally 2 frames a year - to be replaced by fresh wax foundation. This is a management method to ensure the queen always has sufficient laying space in the brood chamber.

Be sure to place the new foundation sheets in the middle of the brood chamber at frame 5 & 6 and move the remaining frames outwards.

Our beeswax foundation sheets are available at the shop. Each BEESWAX foundation sheet is R13,50 with a minimum order of 10 at a time.