Apiculture (0+1)

Othet Equipment

Other Equipment

Nucleus hive: Small bee hive for keeping 4-6 frames. These are used for mating of queens and division of colonies (Fig. 6.3).
Observation hive: Small hive with glass sides so as to observe movements and behaviour of bees (Fig. 6.4).



Comb foundation mill: Used to print natural cell size of desired comb foundation sheet for A. mellifera and A. cerana (Fig. 6.5).
Bee veil: Used for preventing bee stings on face and neck (Fig. 6.6).



Smoker: Used to calm down the bees while opening the hive (Fig. 6.7a).
Uncapping knife: Large sized knife used to uncap the frames before honey extraction (Fig. 6.7b).
Hive tool: An iron strip used for opening of hive and its cleaning (Fig. 6.7c).
Queen cell protector: A spring like structure for protecting queen cells (Fig. 6.7d).
Queen cage: Used to introduce a queen to new colony and also to transport the queen. (Fig. 6.7e).
Bee brush: To brush the bees from frames (Fig. 6.7f).



Figure 6.7 a) Smoker, b) Uncapping Knife, c) Hive Tool, d) Queen Cell Protector, e) Queen Cage, f) Bee Brush

Feeders: Different types of feeders are used for feeding sugar syrup to the bee colonies. (Fig. 6.8). These can be (i) slow feeder (friction top pail feeders) in which holes are made in the lid and the feeder is placed inverted inside the hive (ii) fast feeder (division board feeder) which is of the size of a regular frame and the trough contains a wooden float inside the cavity.
Swarm basket: Basket to catch bee swarm (Fig 6.9).



Queen excluder: Perforated zinc sheets or round wires (Fig. 6.10) assembled in such a way that workers can pass through them and queen cannot (perforation size is 4.20mm for A. mellifera whereas worker thorax size varies from 3.33 to 3.50mm). It is used during honey flow season to restrict queen to brood chamber and thereby preventing egg laying in the super. It is also used in maintaining multiple queen system in a colony.



Honey extractor: It is a machine to centrifuge out the honey from uncapped frames (Fig. 6.11).15. Wax melter: Double walled chamber for melting of bees wax for making comb foundation sheets (Fig. 6.12).



Wax melter: Double walled chamber for melting of bees wax for making comb foundation sheets (Fig. 6.12).



Pollen trap: For trapping corbicular pollen of returning bee foragers: (Fig. 6.13). For A. mellifera pollen trapping screen has holes of 4.7 to 5mm. and for A. cerana 3.5 to 3.7mm.



Bee escape: To provide one way passage to bees (Fig. 6.14)



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