Beekeepers Friend

The North Escambia Bee Association Chautauqua was held on February 20, 2010 and was a success!! We had, at my count, 80 people. Over half were new beekeepers attending for the first time. I think there would have been more if the road signs had have been put out. I had places for 12 signs, but only about 6 actually were set out. Oh, well. “Best laid plans of Mice and Men ……”.

It was held at the Northview High School in Bratt, FL.  The FFA were gracious enough to let us use their facilities and the school’s Principal, Mrs. Gayle Weaver, has always been supportive of our association. I personally do volunteer work with the FFA’ s bees and students. Not to toot my own horn, but last year, the FFA brought me in as an Honorary Member of the FFA Alumni for my work with the students.

We had Dr. Lilia de Guzman, Head Small Hive Beetle Researcher at the USDA Bee Lab, Baton Rouge, LA., speak on her work. She spoke on Russian Bees telling of their good and bad points. Good far outweighed the bad.

David Westervelt, Environmental Specialist I, Apiary Research, Bureau of Plant and Apiary inspection, Division of Plant Industry at Gainesville, FL., gave a talk on “Getting ready for the Spring Honey Flow.”

He also gave a rundown on how the Lab checks for Africanized bees, I made that one. He told how they dissected a number of bees and measured numerous points under the microscope to determine the size of the bees, wings, and hind legs. if small then they are African. or appear to be Africanized. If larger, then they should be European. Takes around four hours to 8 hours to make this determination.

Virginia Webb and her husband, Carl, from Northeast GA. came and showed their beeswax exhibit, And Virginia showed how she made wax figurines from molded wax and answered lot of questions about how to melt, clean, and use wax.

Laurence Cutts, retired, assistant Apiary inspector for the state of Florida, and past president of the FSBA was there to answer questions about bees, honey, pollination, and apiary in general.

Dan Mullins, Extension Agent, Santa Rosa County, gave a PowerPoint presentation on Honey Plants of North Florida. It was well received by the attendees.

Mr. Dexton Spears, Pesticide Compliance Officer for North Florida, gave a talk on the importance of following the label. Rule of Thumb, THE LABEL IS THE LAW.

Doug Corbin, FL. State Apiary Inspector for Northwest FL., gave a PowerPoint presentation on Diseases and Pests of the hive. As always, Doug was very informative and also fielded lots of questions.

Our NEBA President, Wayne Miller, gave a hands on demonstration on the proper way to put boxes and frames together. He had many new beekeepers in both of his classes.

And last but not least our Vice-president, Ron Harper, was the Master of Ceremony and did a very wonderful job of keeping the Chautauqua on schedule. Without him, the meeting would have faltered and probably would not have gone as smooth as it did. Thank you, Ron, and all the committee for your hard work in making this the best year ever.

This is my way to clip & mark queens. Before finding my queen, I get my marker ready. This year it is Blue. I have a marking pin that I got from the bee supplier, Dadant & Sons, Rossman, Brushy Mountain, Walter T. Kelley, etc. Or you can buy them from Office Depot, Office Max, or most office supply companies.

There are a number of queen catchers and holders on the market, but I am not going to go into that here. I use my fingers (no gloves) and pick up the queen either by her body or wings. Since I am right handed, I pick her up with my right thumb and index finger and place her on the middle finger of my left hand. She will automatically grab the finger and hold on tight.

With my left index finger and thumb, I hold her at the thorax so I don’t squash her abdomen, or take a chance on hurting her in the eyes or antennea.  With a small pair of scissors, I clip her hind wing about 1/4 to 1/2 way from the end making sure that her leg is not caught in the wing. If she loses a leg, then the bees could decide that she is no good and supersede her.

The next thing is to mark her on the back of the thorax on the big ball. I dab just enough paint on her to make a circle as big as the ball spot or maybe just a little smaller. I try not to get too much on her as the paint will close up one of her breathing holes if it runs down that far.

Now there are other ways to mark the queen using glue and spots, but these are used by beekeepers and researchers for identifying marks for breeding and research purposes. I am doing neither so I just paint her with a circle of paint.

I blow on the paint to dry it so I can gently place her back on the frame and put it back in the hive. She should be fine and the bees will continue to care of her as always.

I said that this would be lengthy, but I cut it down some of you wouldn’t get sleepy or lose interest.

Picking up the queen can be quite traumatic if you are just starting out. Practice on some drones first to get the hang of it. After you get confident, then move on to the queen. Picking up workers are the same way but now you have a reason to be careful!.

If you have any questions, you can make a comment to this post, or you can talk to a beekeeper and get him/her to show you how to pick up, clip, and mark your queen.

At this time, your bees should be making babies getting ready for the Spring honey flow. I hope you are ready. Bye bye for now.

Do you know the reason for marking your queen  and/or clipping one of her wings? Do you think that mutilating the queen is a sign of Satanism?

You are not mutilating the queen to practice for later using larger animals. You are only branding them, not for identification, but to know when one has been superseded. And if a hive has swarmed, you can reach the cluster easiler, because the queen cannot fly very high or very far at a time.

Especially in an area where there are undesirable bees, you can look at the queen in the colony to see if she is marked. If so, then all is well. But if she is not, then you know that the bees have superseded your old queen and you can either mark the new queen with the color of the current year or replace her with one you know is of good stock. That is your choice.

In Florida, with the African Honey Bee (AFB) in established residence, it is recommended that you replace the unmarked queen once a year with one you know came from a good stock. I personally do not requeen each year. If I have a marked queen, then I know she is the one I placed there. The color tells me how old she is and that she has not been replaced.

The international color code is: Years ending in - 1 & 6 - White; 2 & 7 Yellow; 3 & 8 Red; 4 & 9 Green; 5 & 0 Blue. This way you know what year you marked her (or had her marked). You then know how old she is. What I really do,  instead of killing the old queen when I replace her, is to move her into a nuc box with one or two frames of brood, both sealed and unsealed, with enough bees to cover. I have just made a nuc. I will move this nuc to another yard and keep the queen as a spare in case one of the new bought queens do not take. Then I still have a queen to put back in the colony.

The size of the apiary will dictate how many nucs I will keep for spares.  I can use these nucs to help a weak colony or if I don’t need to do that, then I have the makings for a new full colony when it expands to the second story nuc box. On a side note, I can remember when I had too many bees and no one to give them to, I would load the hive up in the middle of the day while 1/2 to 3/4 of the field force was out forging and move to another apiary. That would thin the bees out and I wouldn’t have to worry about a swarm. This way I would lose only about 1/4 to 1/3 of the colony instead of 1/2 +. Those were the good ole days.

Next post I will tell you how to mark and clip the queens. It will get quite lengthy in explanation. The actual execution, tho, is very simple.

Until then read your bee books and magazines and finish up the last minute chores for the Spring flow. Check the bees for pollen and honey stores as now they will be using the majority of their food in the building of babies. Remember to keep your veil close, your smoker lit, and your hive tool sharp.

I am getting ready to start the splitting process that I talked about two posts ago. My thoughts are to put two 5 frame nuc boxes side by side on top of the brood boxes so the bees can build comb. I am going to take one of them off when the comb is nearly complete and let the queen lay eggs in the nuc that is left, then later pull it off keeping the queen in the nuc and taking both nucs to another yard and double stacking so the bees will grow strong enough to place in a 10 frame hive. If all goes well, then I will have 10 colonies from the five colonies in that apiary.

Explanation time. When I ordered the nuc boxes from Rossman Apiaries, in Moultrie, GA., I had them to shave about 1/2″ off the end pieces so there would be no open space on the out side of the nuc boxes. Five wooden frames will just set in real snug. I have gone to the plastic frames and there is a little space in the nuc box so I don’t have to pry too much to get the frames out.

Now back to the narrative:

I really do not want to disturb the one colony that is still sitting by itself in the lady’s garden. It has been there for 5 years now and all I have to do to it is… super and pull honey. I have not had to do anything to it but make sure the bees have plenty of room to put nectar.

I will have to actually go into it this year just to change the brood box. It is still good, but I think a new paint job is in order.

This post is  what I am going to do. The next post, hopefully, will be what I did do. If I do not procrastinate again, then you will able to know just what I did and how.

Until then, keep you veil close, your smoker lit, and your hive tool sharp.

Monday, my friend Doug, and I met at the Santa Rosa Extension office in Milton to talk about bees with an adult continuing education ladies group. We had a power point presentation and told of the bees coming to America in the 1600’s. Told about the pollination, honey, and the products that can be made from the products in the hive.

We lined up about eight jars and had the ladies taste the different kinds of honey from other places, including Alaska, Texas  and Mexico, as well as local. We then let the ladies compare the taste of the honey that we bought  from one of the local stores.  They were amazed at the different tastes and had lots of questions. We explained some of the medical uses of the products and bee venom apitherapy. There were even more questions.

We had lunch and made some salad dressing using vinegar and honey. It went over very well. Maybe some of them will be interested in trying their hand at cooking with honey. Could be another market for us.

At the end of the meeting, one of the ladies gave Doug and me a handmade Monster Rag Doll. That was great! This is just one of the perks of taking the information to the public. You should try it sometime.

Until next time….Keep you veil close, your smoker lit, and your hive tool sharp

I did attend the National Bee conference that was held in Orlando this January. There was just too much going on that I really don’t know where to start.

Several speakers were there that I knew or at least know of. Some I met and some I did not get the pleasure. A lot of the classes were being presented at the same time and I had to make a decision of which ones I would attend.

Kim Flottum, Dr. Larry Conner, Dr. Keith Delaplane, Dr. James (Jim) Tew, Dr. Thomas (Tom) Renderer, Dr. Malcolm Sanford Dr. Lilia de Guzman, Jerry Hayes, and Davids Barnes & Westervelt  were some of the speakers. I, Ernest (Peaches) Peach, also had a small speaking part for a 30 minute presentation. There were numerous other speakers there that I did not know, but were just as important.

Several countries were represented from among the 600 - 800 attendees . Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Chile,  Venezuela, Trinidad, and Tobago. France, Germany, and the United Kingdom also had representatives attending. There were more, but I cannot remember. This was a national bee meeting that turned into an international gathering. I personally met people from each of these countries mentioned.

I met the now, past National Honey Queen and Princess, and I shook hands with and hugged all six State Honey Queens that were in the lineup for the new National Queen and Princess.  All in all, you that did not get to attend, missed a great meeting.

The Canadian, US, and Mexican National Organizations met at the same time and joined us in the festivities. There were 20+ vendors from the US and Mexico with all kinds of new products, equipment, and at least 4 different kinds of beetle traps.  I wish I had taken pictures of the vending area alone. It was very interesting.

Next year the ABF will be meeting in Galveston, TX. I’ll give an update as we get closer to the meeting date. I also heard that the World Apiamondia will be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina in September of 2011.

Looks like I wrote another book. You should by now have your wooden-ware ready for the new season. Keep your veil close, your smoker lit, and your hive tool sharp.

Thanksgiving and Christmas are over and I just sent my wife to Texas to visit her mother for two weeks. My middle son and his family, who are staying with us, just left to go up to the New England area to preach at one of his sponsoring churches, and maybe several other churches. I am all alone for at least one week. Now I can just do what I want to do. No, that is not right. I will do what I have to do to get ready to go to Orlando, FL in 1o days to the American Bee Federation convention. I have been asked to introduce a short documentary on film and tell a little about the producer.

Brynmore Williams was born on the island of Barbados. At an early age, he wanted to make documentary films. But first, he achieved a degree in Biology. He has made several documentaries and is the Senior Multimedia Producer at GlobalPost which is part of Global News in Boston, Massachusetts.

Bees in the Key of A is a short 8 minute film about how beekeepers are in love with their bees. The sounds of happy colonies and the pleasure that the bees give to them.

Now you ask me what does this have to do with bees in my apiary? Answer, Nothing except how I spend some of my time. I do get credit for attending a national bee meeting and also get credit for being sort of a speaker at a national level for the Bee College. You don’t have to do any of this if you don’t want to, unless you are getting a grade in school. I do speak in front of audiences, just not on this great of scale.

Now that I am home alone, I am getting my schedule ready so I can work my bees, such as, getting equipment gathered up to slop feed my bees that I have transported to one apiary. I have two barrels of peppermint candy that I have mixed water in with to let the bees get some winter feed. I have to put a screen on the top to keep the possums out. I had 3 possums drown two years ago and I don’t want a repeat.

My beekeeper friend, that I rely on heavily, and I are going to work my bees and then his to make sure all is well. Kinda like getting ready for Spring.

Right now, here in NW Florida, the temperature is in the low 40s and I would like the weather to be in the 50s before I go out to clean some more boxes and build frames and foundation. I am hoping that when I get back from Orlando in about three weeks, it will be a little warmer. I have plans to split some or all of my colonies this Spring. I have only 7 colonies and if I can, I want to have 14 before the swarming season begins.

Right now, you should be reading books, magazines, and watching training videos. If you do work your bees at this time, please keep your veil close, your smoker lit, and hive tool sharp.

First off, I forgot to wish my readers HAPPY NEW YEAR! I wish you all have a wonderful and prosperous year with your bees. Remember, you cannot go back and correct what is done and past. However, from this point on you can improve on your time, beekeeping practices, and attitude. So that leads up to the reason for this post.

I have lost all but six colonies. I cannot change that, but I can improve on the numbers by feeding my bees that I have now and getting them through the Winter. I am making plans to strengthen them to the point that I can split in March and April. I am not looking for a honey crop this year. If I do have any it will be a plus.

I have 1 hive at one place that the bees have ample stored honey and pollen. I really don’t have to do anything to that one as it has survived for 5 years with me doing nothing but pulling honey and thinning the congestion down so they wont swarm. Even at that, they grow so fast that I have had 3 swarms year before last within a 3 month period.

The other 5 hives are in an apiary that I am feeding Peppermint candy, slop method. Let me explain.

Instead of feeding each colony  separately, I have two barrels of candy that I put up several years ago, but had forgotten about. During the course of time, the rains came and puddled the lids and finally Mother Nature let the rust take place. The lids developed holes so the rain could get inside. Water and candy will mix and since I was negligent, the candy water has  fermented. A side note here. Fermentation does strange things to humans when they consume enough. The same thing happens to the bees. This is really not a good thing.

However, my thought is that the bees will only get out when it is warmer than 50 degrees. So as long as the temperature stays lower than that, the bees will eat what they have inside. In the Spring, Bee Spring - January, February,and March, the bees will be consuming more and more stored honey so they can raise babies (larvae) for the Spring honey flow. They, on a warm day, will go to the candy syrup to collect, to them, nectar so they can continue to raise babies and make caps for the nursery cells. By all rights, they will be too busy to collect very much to put up for honey.

About February 15th, I will be putting on supers that have just foundation. The bees will have to start making wax for new comb. I will close off the barrels with new lids forcing the bees to start using the little candy syrup that they did store up. They will have used up most or all of the syrup by the time the honey flow starts. The wax will have negligible peppermint in it as the production of new wax will have processed the peppermint out of their systems. Even if the peppermint is in the wax, it will remain in the first super that stays with the hive. I always leave the first super on the hive for the bees. All supers above the first super are mine to do with what I want.

By the time the bees use up the majority of the stored syrup, the honey flow will have commenced. The forgers will have started collecting pollen and nectar from the flowers and will not taint the honey for sale. This is the same principal we use for the corn syrup that we use for Winter feed. When the house bees get the first super about half drawn out, I will then put on one or two more supers of drawn out combs so they can start putting up nectar without having to build a lot of comb. This will help them store more nectar for honey production.

At this time I need to explain something else. If you don’t have last years wax comb, then naturally you will have to put on foundation. Remember, it take about 8-9 lbs of honey to make 1 lb of wax. So I am not expecting too much honey for me this year.

I am also going to split as soon as I can so I can start expanding my colonies. I will either divide my existing colonies into two per colony, or I will work the bees as quick as I can to make splits from the splits as soon as they have 4-5 frames of brood in each hive. Right now I have to concentrate on my next two posts that I have started and not finished. See ya soon.

Just when I thought everything was working out just right, I had a bombshell dropped on me. I had made plans with the school where the Bee Chautauqua was to be held. Now only 2 months away and several speakers have confirmed the date, I find out that the school had placed the time a week ahead of the scheduled day. Now I have to get in touch with all the speakers to see if they can attend a week earlier than was planned.

I also have to get with the vendors to  see if they can also change their plans. Then, I have to go through all the fliers and schedules changing the dates. And as if that is not enough, I have to tell my association and listen to one person telling me that I screwed up and that I should be replaced as the chairman of the planning committee. That I can handle, I just don’t know if I can live with the personal embarrassment.

Now that I have vented on you, my readers, I need to start getting all my paper ducks in a row.  See you later.

I have recently received information that explains the weight issue on less frames/more honey. You can go to my post that touched on this subject and go to the comment section,  so you can follow a little better.

A shallow honey super weighs about 25.30 lbs.

A medium (Illinois) honey super weighs about 30-50 lbs.

A deep honey super weighs approximately 75-100 lbs.

A deep brood super weighs approximately 60-80lbs with bees, brood, and honey.

Now all this is using a 10 frame set up. If you use 9 frames you can count on adding 10 lbs. to the  shallow, 15-20 lbs to the medium, and 20 to 40 lbs or more to the deep. If you use 8 frames in a 10 frame box then double the extra weight

You need to find out for yourself what the weight is by weighing your honey supers before you extract and after you extract to find the average honey weight is per super. Now I cannot tell you the exact weight of the boxes because of the different wood material used to construct them. Don’t forget the  weight difference between nails, screws, and staples. Frames also are made from different wood material. All this has a bearing on the weight of the full honey supers.

For my own use, I just use the 40#, 60#, and 100# figures as examples when I talk to other beekeepers. This is a side note. I use 10 frames in a brood box and 9 frames in my honey supers which are medium (Illinois) supers. I do not use deep honey supers because I cannot lift them by myself. I have to take 5 frames out and use a nuc to transport them to the truck then go back and get the super and the other 5 honey frames. This is the reason I am thinking of going to all Illinois boxes for the complete hive. All of the equipment will then be interchangeable. I am also thinking of going back to the 10 frame honey supers because of the lesser weight.

I have not ruled out using undersized boxes either. By undersized, I mean cut the width down to fit only 8 frames in a box. That will be even lighter and easier to life and carry by hand. Some women and older men have gone this way already and are really enjoying collecting honey and saving their backs.

There are websites already out there that explains the different sizes and frame configurations if you want to research them. I didn’t intend for this blog to be a training site. I started out just telling what I was doing in my bee business. I have found out that the two are inseparable. So please bear with me.

I hope this help some of you out there that really wants to know.