Building for Bees

Over the course of the last week I have worked on some small scale projects with a couple of farmers at and around the house in which I have been living. The hitch is that I can't actually work the bees with the farmers because of my potential allergic reaction. Entonces, what I have found to be very effective is working with a visiting beekeeping volunteer. I am very lucky to have fellow volunteer Lara close by and together we built a smoker with one family and a Batea (hive for africanized "killer" bees) with another.

In these two pictures I am working with Don Kicho (Key-show) to attatch the rubber that will become the bellows. The smoker was made out of an old moto tire tube, some extra wood, a little bit of tin roofing, some thick gauge fencing wire, two strips of cow hide, and an old dehydrated milk can. It was a great project to do and a great way to spend the afternoon with a family.

This is the Batea, right away the differences between this and the tradition Langstroth hive are apparent. This hive is not meant to have another box (alsa) on top of it, for this reason there is no space between the bars that will eventually have the honey comb attached to it. It is very important that the box is as sealed as possible with the exception of the entry so that the bees always know how to orient themselves and to combat other bugs that molest the hive. There are twenty bars and after about one year of maintenace a healthy hive could produce and much as ten or twelve liters of honey with this box.