Chapter 1 · Quiz

Chapter 1 Quiz: Welcome to Bees

15 questions from lessons 1–5. Answer from memory first, then check the lesson if you're unsure. This quiz is for your own practice; nothing is graded.

Lesson 1: What Keeping Bees Involves

  1. Why does beekeeping take more learning today than it did before the 1980s?
  2. Name the three things Mississippi State says a first-year beekeeper should get done before the bees arrive.
  3. What's the trade-off between buying assembled equipment and buying kits?

Lesson 2: Stings: What's Normal and What's an Emergency

  1. You're stung on the finger and your hand swells up to the wrist. Is that an allergic reaction?
  2. Name two signs that a sting is an emergency.
  3. Why shouldn't you pull a stinger out with tweezers?

Lesson 3: Bees and Neighbors, Including in Town

  1. What does a flyway barrier do?
  2. Your bees keep visiting the neighbor's pool. What's the fix?
  3. Name three places bee rules can come from.

Lesson 4: Bee Laws: Registration, Inspection, Moving Bees

  1. Why do states regulate moving used beekeeping equipment?
  2. Who should you contact about apiary rules and inspections in your state?
  3. (Georgia) Can a Georgia city ban beekeeping? Can it set zoning rules for hives?

Lesson 5: From Bee Trees to the Modern Hive: A Short History

  1. What problem did early hives have that the movable-frame hive solved?
  2. What is bee space, and roughly how wide is it?
  3. Are honey bees native to North America?

Answers

Show answers

Printed in the next issue, or check them now if you've finished.

  1. Since the 1980s, pests such as varroa mites, tracheal mites and small hive beetles have become common, and beekeepers need to know how to manage them.
  2. Buy protective gear; get, assemble and weatherproof the hive equipment; learn the basics of bee biology and beekeeping.
  3. Assembled equipment is more convenient but costs more; kits are cheaper but you put them together yourself.
  4. Not by itself. Large swelling around the sting is a normal reaction and can last a few days.
  5. Any two of: swelling of the mouth or throat, trouble breathing, trouble swallowing, fainting or shock.
  6. Squeezing the venom sac pushes more venom into the skin; scrape it out sideways instead.
  7. It makes bees fly up and over it, so their flight path passes above people's heads.
  8. Give the bees their own reliable water source near the hives, such as a tub with floats.
  9. State law, city or county codes, and a homeowners' or property owners' association.
  10. Used equipment and comb can carry bee diseases and pests from one place to another.
  11. Your state department of agriculture (its apiary program).
  12. No, a city can't prohibit keeping bees in hives; yes, it can still use its zoning power, such as setting distances or minimum lot sizes.
  13. Bees attached their combs to the hive walls, so the comb had to be cut out to get honey, and the colony couldn't be inspected.
  14. The open gap of about 3/8 inch that bees leave between combs so they can move and work.
  15. No; European settlers brought them in the 1600s.

★ = a topic on the Georgia Certified Beekeeper exam list.

◀ Lesson 5Lesson 6 ▶