Beekeepers Friend

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.

I never did find where the bees were coming from. By the time it stopped raining, it got cold and the bees are not flying. So I will just have to wait until a warm day comes back and try again.

My grandson and I finally went to the apiary to get the bees off the trailer. I put some pine straw in the doorways so the bees wouldn’t get mad enough to come out and sting us while we cleaned up. We moved the hives off the trailer and set them on 8″ x 10″ concrete blocks. Then we pickup up all the equipment that was not being used. You know- bottom boards, deadout boxes, top boards, screens, trash, etc. Just the things that makes an apiary look like a junk yard. By the time the equipment was cleaned up and loaded, the trailer looked like it would not hold any more, and besides I only had three straps with me.  We went home and had lunch with the family.

I now have only 6 colonies of bees. Five up at the winter feeding apiary and one in a garden where there is something to gather all year round. This is the best colony of all my past and present colonies. I am going to try to raise queens from this one colony to see if the queen has some traits that might be beneficial to the rest of the colonies.

After lunch, I remembered that I had not taken the pine straw out of the openings and that the bees would really be fit to be tied if they stayed cooped up for the two to four days that I was not planning on being back. I hopped into the truck and, still pulling the loaded trailer, I shagged back to the north end of the county and released the bees. Yup, they were mad! I really didn’t stay around too long. I left and seeing I still had some time before the Board of Managers conference call, I went to a close by apiary and picked all the equipment up there. Now I only have one apiary left to clean up for the winter.

I got home just one hour before the conference call and I even got to eat supper before I dialed up. That was a really good day’s work!

Stay warm and read play on the internet and research some of the bee questions you may have.  Have a great day. Talk to you later.

Sunday afternoon was spent letting my son and Daughter-in-law pack for him to go to Africa for two weeks. My grandson and I just chilled and stayed out of their way. We should have gone to check on the colony in a lady’s garden, but we didn’t. Too much going on here and we didn’t want to miss anything.

We did, however wait until his dad and mom left for the New Orleans International Airport this morning. Then we went to the north end of the county where the trailer was left with the two hives of bees still on it. It was sunny and very pretty when we left the house about 10:00 this morning. By the time we got to the road leading to the apiary, it started to rain hard enough that the bees would be very upset if we tried to move them off the trailer. We decided that this is not a good time to fool with the bees. We will have to wait until around Thursday or Friday. Maybe even Saturday.

Since it is raining, I will just have to study for my Master Beekeeper test that will be given next November. I have plenty to do to get ready for that. Review all the information gained the last two years, read suggested books, read information on the web (probably printing some of it to hard copy so I can take it with me and study away from the computer), and researching information on my Major. There are seven subjects and I need to pick one. Haven’t decided which one yet. One of them depends on me getting accepted to go to a Third world area to help them learn better working skills in raising bees. If I get to do that, then I will have completed about 3 items on the list. That would get me through the major course and all I would have to do would be my Public Service points, 10 to be exact.

In the meantime, I need to do some planning on the dimensions of the screened bottom boards and new top boards and possibly some top screens for moving bees long distance. I am also wanting to try single sized boxes for the complete hive. I have to do some figuring as to how best to change over. I will start with one or two hives until I am comfortable with that before I go all the way with all my colonies and future ones.

I am also just 3 months away from the Bee Chautauqua (workshop) and there are several things that still needs to be done before we are ready.

So I’ll get back with you later to let you know how I am faring, both in the bee yard and the Chautauqua.

I haven’t had the time to try to find where the bees were living. You know, Thanksgiving and visiting with friends. Today, I took my grandson, age 11, to my friend’s house to pickup two barrels of Peppermint Candy that I bought three years ago. I had forgotten that I even had them. When we started to load the candy, Murphy and his law struck again. The forklift started acting up. The forks would not tip up. Then the forklift died and we had to jump it off not once, but twice.

I took a deep breath and said to myself, “Self, if this is the way the day will go, then I might as well go home”. Well as it was, my wife said that we were taking the grandkids to see the Poarch Indian Pow Wow and Tribal dancers, and that she would meet me at the apiary with the granddaughter, age 5. Again I took a deep breath and told my friend that we had to load the barrels.

Nothing more adverse happened. We loaded the barrels and went to the apiary where the landowner was to off load us. To make a long story short, we had to readjust his back-loader (tractor) so it would raise the barrel high enough to pull it off the end of the trailer. Then found the boom was not long enough to reach the second barrel. But it was decided that he could come in from the side of the trailer, pick the barrel up and I could drive out from under it since I have side rails on the trailer. That worked.

My wife and granddaughter met us and we parked the Ram and trailer. We did all that we were supposed to do and on the way home, picked up the truck and trailer and went to a pizza place to eat. This morning, I discovered that the barrel chain and hooks were missing. Probably because I had left them on the trailer instead of putting them in the bed of the truck, they apparently bounced out on the way home. Now I have to make another set or replace them since they were borrowed.

As the peppermint candy is to be used for winter food, I and my grandson went, today, to pick up four colonies to take to the winter apiary. When we got to the farther-est apiary with three colonies, I was unhappy to learn that two had become dead-outs. We loaded the empty boxes and all the paraphernalia then loaded the one colony.

WE went to the next apiary and picked up all the empty nucs and one colony. That was the total to take to the feeding ground. I have three colonies already there. Now my grand total is 5 in that apiary and I have only one more to check on. That one has been in the same location, a garden, for over 3 years and is my most successful colony of all. I haven’t checked it yet. I am almost afraid to. I will run by there tomorrow afternoon after church and see if I can count on it to keep my moral up.

I don’t foresee any problems this next year. With these six hives, I will do some splits in the Spring. And coupled with the swarms I should be getting around the same time, I should be able to continue to grow on the way back to my former strength of around 100 hives (over 2-3 years).  Wish me luck.

I will be getting some screened bottom boards built for the new colonies along with new top boards. My grandson said that he will help me clean boxes and frames so I can be ready to expand when the time comes. By-the-way, I told you this grandson is only 11 years old and he is going on 21. He has been a great help. If I could just get some of my beekeepers that I am mentoring to work as hard.

At this time, you should have already consigned your colonies to the Winter mode. No need for the veil and smoker, but you always need your hive tool handy and sharp for cleaning and whittling. Until later—

I was sitting on the front porch this afternoon taking a break. As I was thinking of the projects I need to put on my To Do list, I noticed some bees landing on some Spanish Needle in my flowerbed. They were apparently gathering pollen, as their pollen baskets on their hind legs were quite full of the yellow substance. Now I lost all the bees in my back yard during the early Spring and I wondered just where they were coming from.

As I was watching them, my friend called to talk about my loading a barrel of sugar and a barrel of peppermint candy that I had bought 3 years ago. I had forgotten that I had stored them at his honey house. He needed the room so I told him we would load them Friday morning and I would take them to one of my apiaries in the northern part of the county where I was moving all eight of my hives for Winter. As we were talking, I told him about the bees on the Spanish Needle.

I couldn’t see where they were going because they were flying down low and in the shade. He suggested that I catch some of them with some sugar water as bait. putting them in a jar. Sprinkle some powdered sugar on the bees to make them look like white ghosts. Then let one or two out at a time and follow until I lose them. Let a couple more go and follow them, repeating the process until I either found the colony or I run out of  yard.

I will get that started in the morning and  around noon and see where that takes me. It could be that the bees might have swarmed, since we have had swarms as late as the middle of October, and landed in one of the supers I have stacked in the back yard to be cleaned. I might have a colony of bees that I didn’t know of.

Let me tell you, keeping bees is the most interesting and enjoyable occupation I have ever had next to driving an 18 wheeler across this US of A of ours. There is always something that will surprise you when you least expect it.

I have one more screened bottom board that I can use if I do find the colony close. I have several honey supers that I can use to start another hive with and this would be a good time to see if it is feasible to use only medium supers for a complete hive. This is the beginning of an experiment. Remember, I said that experiments are what makes a good beekeeper. And just maybe, I will find that all I have to do is cut my deeps down to 6 5/8″ and that would solve my box problems. Then I just buy some more medium frames and I will be set for the spring honey flow.

Well, it is in the morning here where I live, so I really should get in bed. My wife is cooking 2 turkeys for lunch today. We are feeding about 25-30 hungry bodies and I may have to help by going to the convenient store for something else that she ran out of. So Good Night yawl. Talk to you in the next few days. Enjoy Thanksgiving and relax with a good bee book or a be magazine.

I have said Read, read, and read some more. Well—-I followed my suggestion and have been reading (following links via the web) about a beekeeper in Southeastern Nebraska who uses top entrances only. I think I want to try that here. Not for the same reasons that he does like: keeping the snow out of the entrances of the hives and not having to mow the grass. Here in Florida, it doesn’t snow and if we don’t mow the grass, the hives would be completely invisible and we could lose some of them.

I am going to try just to see if the bees will continue on and develop well. Keeping the skunks, opossums, and small vermin out is a plus. With this kind of setup, along with only one size box, the queen excluder will be completely eliminated from my BMP (Best Management Practice).

One size box means that I will be using only medium supers. No more two or three sizes in my apiaries. Using only one size will eliminate having to take different size boxes to the field. This also means that only one size frames will be used.

Now let me explain in depth. If you use a deep brood box and you need to take a frame of brood out to thin the brood area, you need to have another deep box, either brood box or nuc, to put the frame of brood into. But if you are using only one size box then you can put the frame of brood into any box you have on hand. If you need some more brood area, all you need to do is add another box to the brood area of the stack and the queen will go up and lay some more eggs.

She will probably lay eggs in the honey supers, and when you are getting ready to pull honey, all you have to do is combine all the brood in one super and take the honey frames that have no brood and combine with the honey supers you are taking and all is well. No more wishing you had brought a deep with you. According to the Nebraska beekeeper, Michael Bush, this is the beginning of a lazy beekeeping system that is better for you and the bees. I can see where it will help me. I have been doing the normal beekeeping system ever since I started keeping bees. Now 12 years later, I am beginning to think outside of the box.

Another plus is the honey super is now all the same weight. No more trying to lift 100 + pounds (deep super). All will be approximately 40-60 lbs. Easier on the back and don’t have to keep boxes separated in the honey house. Just grab any box and put your empty honey frame in them and get ready to take back to the apiary. Another plus, when moving bees, supers, or combination, all your stacks will be the same height and you can strap them down more easily. Nice!!

Well, that is enough brainwork for now. Take care of your homework during the day and read, study, and plan for your next project. Stay warm and HAPPY THANKSGIVING  every one.