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[Gilberdyke John]

ive been told to make a 3slide powerpoint on beekeeping but I don't know anything about it! can anyone give me some points to include in it??

You might like to spend ten minutes looking at honey bee lifecycle on youtube. TBH 3 slides of powerpoint to explain beekeeping isn't going to yield anything worthwhile. :-(

 

[psafloyd]

thanks for that I really appreciate you using your time to help me. The Low investment activity bit meant that it doesn't cost much to do.

Ah, well, that may be the case if you are a) able to make your own kit and b) if compromising by using plywood rather than cedar, don't mind humping the heavier boxes around.

 

[psafloyd]

I never copy my homework directly from the internet. I usually write notes on what I find and reword it. I also use my school library for homework but there wasn't any bee keeping books in there to use. im kind of offended psafloyd that you assume I copy my homework straight from the internet!

I didn't assume –*I asked you outright. I know many other kids at school who do pretty much cut and paste and I think it wrong.

I commend your industry and keep it up. As I said, i was very impressed you came here for advice. Not sure I'd have done the same at your age. Whatever that is.

 

[psafloyd]

The Internet is the primary way to research many topics these days. The fact that Confused Bee can log in here and have access to many beeks is a fantastic development. A decade or two ago the average student would have no other options than to track down the single out of date library book. Now that the 'net provides far more information is a good thing and we shouldn't suggest research by engaging bee keepers on a forum like this is a lesser form of research or some kind of cheating.

CLV101 you make two very wrong assumptions. The first is that libraries only afford students access to books that are out of date. Then as now, that is not the case.

Secondly, just because there is more information available, it doesn't make it right. Just look at these pages for confirmation of that. All information needs to be interrogated and I feared it might not be.

However, I had and have since commended Confused Bee for using her initiative to come here and ask the questions. Very well done.

 

[psafloyd]

Thicken your skin up a bit ... you're on a pretty grown up (well some of us are) site here and you will find that some people can be quite direct. Just go with the flow, you might find that comments from real beekeepers - even if they may be a little abrupt - are quite helpful. Credit to you for finding us ...

 

[psafloyd]

thanks pargyle

::

 

[psafloyd]

Another option for your three slides might be "a year in the life of a bee hive".

You could start in the spring as the queen starts to lay eggs and explain the difference between workers, drones and the queen.
Then talk about swarming.
Finally talk about how the bees make and store honey and what the bee colony does over the winter.

Good idea. Unless this is human geography, in which case the bee is somewhat incidental to the pursuit.

 

[BeeJayBee]

The Low investment activity bit meant that it doesn't cost much to do.

Look up some beekeeping suppliers - the biggest one is Th0rnes, then there's Ma1semore and also Southdown bee farms. Once you've got a hive it needs frames for the bees to live on, and several thousand bees.

Somebody on here paid almost £250 for a nucleus colony - five frames, which will take a while to grow to fill a full brood box. Can get them cheaper, but not many newcomers look further than the 'biggest' suppliers. Swarms are cheap, but this year are in quite short supply. A queen can cost anything from about £25 to several hundreds (from a breeder that can produce the individual bee's pedigree - look up Danish Buckfast Queens)

If honey is taken off it needs to be got out of the comb - people share extractors and sometimes honey warmers, but there are new jars, lids and labels to buy.

If honey has been taken the bees will need feeding, so they have enough food to last the winter - quite a few pounds of sugar per colony. (look up 'winter feeding')

Then there's clothing, other bits and pieces of equipment, spare hives, more stuff and eventually a new shed to keep it all in!

Some people do make their own hives - they're lucky to have the skills, and the tools. The cheapest is possibly a top bar hive, but if I wanted one I'd have to get somebody to make it for me because I can't saw wood in a straight line!

I suppose, though, that beekeeping might be a cheaper hobby than photography.

Once you start reading round the subject you'll find it's huge - and I think you're going to be really pushed to limit your presentation to only 3 slides. Take a look at the index on Dave Cushman's site http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/textlinks.html for an idea of how much there is to know - and he, sadly, hadn't finished his site when he died.

Good luck.

Please let us know how you get on.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Low investment activity bit meant that it doesn't cost much to do.

hardly costs anything - ask the wife

Maybe you could just concentrate on one aspect of bees - the Americans' unique method of intensive be farming and their problem of 'sudden colony collapse disorder'
Or problems British bees face - the last two seasons' abysmal weather and it's effect on overwintering colonies.
Varroa destructor and its adverse effect on bees is a powerpoint presentation in itself.
Or maybe something completely different - the role of honeybees in assisting developing countries help themselves - look up 'bees abroad' and 'bees for development' for two different approaches to this.
An interesting project may be that now being undertaken by Jenny Hawkins of the Cardiff University School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences in conjunction with the National Botanical Garden of Wales on the antibacterial properties of honey (a nice little three slides worth) there was an article in the June edition of 'Beecraft'.

 

[Bucks_Boy]

With only 3 slides, I agree you probably want to keep to one aspect.
If the audience have little knowledge and attention span why not just stick with the main questions all beekeepers get asked all the time.

1. Why keep bees ? ---- honey, wax, propolis, polination, interest, being the main items -
2. How do you start ? ---- Join association, take beginners classes, buy/build a hive, find somewhere to put it, get clothing , buy bees/collect a swarm.
3. Can you make much money ....... some research of Thornes catalogue and some basic average yield per hive will soon identify the variables -- surfing the posts on here will also give plenty of insight into the kinds of economies of scale needed

and if they let you sneek a "one bullet point" slide in for a forth .

4. Do you get stung ? YES ( but it is always the beekeepers fault !)

 

[MattC]

Phew.

3 slides for beekeeping...

I would focus on honey bee biology and how humans (beekeepers) subvert it for their own ends. The role of the queen, the altruism and celibacy of the workers, the colony as a superorganism etc. This is the really fascinating stuff, and it's our understanding of this biology that underpins modern beekeeping.

Whatever you do, don't get too bogged down in the details.

Good luck on getting it down to 3 slides, and well done for coming on here and asking.

When's the deadline? Let us know how you got on.

 

[Confused Bee]

When's the deadline? Let us know how you got on.

the deadline is Tuesday I think but since I have other work due before that its been pushed down in the pile! ill let everyone on here know how I went on since if it wasn't for all the information ive been given I might have been getting wrong Information from websites I cant rely on.

 

[psafloyd]

the deadline is Tuesday I think but since I have other work due before that its been pushed down in the pile! ill let everyone on here know how I went on since if it wasn't for all the information ive been given I might have been getting wrong Information from websites I cant rely on.

But not this one. Let us know how you got on. Good luck!

 

[Confused Bee]

thanks

the presentation was a success. thanks to everyone's help. I really appreciate it!!