Beekeepers Friend

The FFA teacher/adviser, Perry, called me last month to go up to Northview High School in the northern part of the county to show the FFA students how to decap and extract honey. I do this every year (six or seven years now), but usually one or two months earlier. He said that he hoped to have around 6 supers of honey, but as it turned out, he only had 3 partially capped supers. I said that I could bring some honey supers (6) that I had not gotten around to pulling and that would last all day for the students. I was kinda disappointed myself. I only had four supers.

The students usually do all the work with me guiding them along. I had 2 classes that were brand new and no one knew me. So I had to start at the beginning explaining the importance of pollination over honey. As well as explaining that the honeybees put up more honey than they can use. That is why we can collect some of their honey for ourselves.

The equipment they have at the school is a electric decapping knife, scratcher, decapping bin, and  an electric six frame extractor. Since there was not a wax melter this year, and no place to set the hot knife, we used only the scratcher to decap with. Don’t laugh. I had 50 hives with 100 supers and a two frame extractor that I had to turn by hand before I got wise and purchased a 20 frame electric extractor.

Sorry, didn’t mean to chase rabbits. Anyway, after showing the student how to work the scratcher and he or she decapped the frame, he or she had to place it into the extractor. This is not a very efficient way to work, but it gives all the students a go at the process. Over the years, I have guided 10-15 students into keeping a hive for their own use. Maybe some will actually grow bigger and join the ranks of what we call the sideliner beekeepers. We are trying to get away from the terms hobby and sideliner beekeepers and call them small backyard beekeepers.

The honey the FFA has is light amber and very attractive as well as tasting good. Mine on the other hand is very dark, thick, and has a strong taste. I have some customers that think if the honey is not black as the ace of spades, then it is not honey.  I am thinking that for the  customers that really don’t want something they cannot see through, I will pour up and label the honey as a specialty honey that is hard to come by and up the price in the specialty range. They will then buy because it is a special honey.

The reason it is a specialty honey is that the bees have kept it long enough to really dry it out and it is a thicker honey than normal. The reason the bees kept it so long is that I just didn’t get to pull it in a timely manner. You understand that the honey will get darker as it ages. And also the more you heat it, the darker it becomes.

All in all, the frames lasted all day and all the classes had their turn decapping, extracting,  and tasting the honey. They got about 2 1/2 gallons of honey from their bees, while I ended up with about seven gallons from mine. The reason was that the FFA supers has 10 frames in each box and I only have 9 and all mine were completely full. The less frames in a super, the more honey the bees store because of the deeper cells.

I have gone to 9 frame supers but I still have 10 frame brood boxes. There are pros and cons for each of the frame counts. The bees have to have the same depth cells for the brood and if you take one of the frames out of the brood box then the bees will pull the combs out further for the honey. Between the honey parts of the frame the bee will have a 3/8″ bee space, but the brood will have a 5/8″ or wider space and it really tears them up.

You see, if the space is smaller than 3/8″, the bees will fill it in. If the space is greater than 5/8″, the bees will try to put more comb in that space. But with babies there, putting in more comb wax will hamper the babies being born. It make a hard decision for the bees and I try to help them not to have to change their ways.

That is enough for now. At this time, your bees should have one super of honey with one empty super on top so they can put up more nectar that is presenting itself from now till they cannot fly because of the cold temperature. Be sure to check the weight of the hives periodically to make sure they have enough honey. Also have some sugar on hand so you can feed sugar syrup if you need to. Now is a good time to clean boxes, paint, build frames, wax frames (plastic), or put new foundation in the wooden frames. Don’t forget to read. Until next time have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

I was asked what kind of books should a person read if he or she was interested in knowing more about bees. The answer is not as simple as one would think. There are many many books written on the subject. I think that I should try to break it down by categories.

A novice beekeeper and those who just want to know should start out with The Magic School Bus Inside a Beehive. Believe it or not, this is a very educational book that children and adults can learn from. The next book, Honey Bees & Beekeeping. A Year in the Apiary, by Dr.  Keith Delaplane is an excellent book for the beginner beekeeper. It also has a video (sold separately) that goes along with the book to actually show how to… . How to Keep Bees and Sell Honey, by Walter T. Kelley, is an excellent book for the beginner. These will get you started on the road to knowledge.

The next books are more for advanced beekeepers. Honey Bee Pests, Predators, and Diseases, Third Edition, by Roger Morse and Kim Flottum tells about the pests such as Varroa and Trachea Mites. Predators would be skunks, raccoons, and even bears that feasts on the honey and brood. Mr. Morse and Mr. Flottum has gathered this information from 40 or so beekeepers,  bee inspector, and scientists from across the Northern hemisphere. I purposely left out the diseases  so you would have something to read that I didn’t tell you about.

Honey Bee Biology and Beekeeping was written by Dr. Dewey M. Caron and is a must read for the simplicity of beekeeping. Two more books are companion books in as much as they compliment each other, but each could stand alone in its on merit. They are the: ABC-XYZ OF BEE CULTURE, 41st Edition, by A. I. Root, and The HIVE and the HONEYBEE, first written by L. L. Langstroth, and are considered the bibles of the bee world.

There are two magazines that is a must for up- to-date information. Bee Culture and The American Bee Journal. These are monthly published and well worth the money or you may opt for the electronic version to be sent to your computer..

All these books can be purchased from the bee supply stores of your choice. Even if you decide not to keep bees, you will want to continue reading about them so you can inform you family and friends about the bees and the wonderful things they do and give us. Pollination + Honey = Food.

Happy reading and have a wonderful Halloween and Thanksgiving. Then get ready for Christmas!

I am in a quandary! Here I am telling you what is needed to be done in a timely manner and I am guilty of putting off what really needs to be completed. You should have been finished with your honey pulling and extracting by now. The honey should be either in your bottling tank, or holding bucket, or settling tank, if you don’t already have it in your shipping barrels.

I only have three hives and one observation hive and am caretaker of tow other observation hives. Out of all this, I have 5 supers of honey  to extract. Should have done this about, at the latest, October 14th. If I had not procrastinated, I would have had an empty super on each of the three hives and the bees could have been putting on Goldenrod honey for Winter to go along with the one full Illinois super of honey I originally planned to leave. This would have insured that I would not have to feed the bees in the late Winter and early Spring.

This is one of those time that “do as I say and not what I do” comes into play. Remember that at the beginning I said that this website is to tell you what I do in my apiary and not what the book says. Common sense tells us that to keep the bees healthy and to keep the beekeeper from getting jammed up, one should do the things necessary as they come up and spread the work around over a longer period of time. After all you only have a certain amount of time to work because you need to rest, eat, sleep, read, plan, study, and have time to go to the different bee meetings that we all need to attend.

Have a good day and enjoy your little friends.

Friday and Saturday were my work evenings. I worked the Escarosa honey booth with a young lady about 7 or 8 years of age. She is a very knowledgeable young beekeeper. After watching her find the queen in record time and explaining about the bees to the visitors of the booth, I decided I could concentrate on talking about the differences of honey by way of taste and color, the uses of honey for medical purposes, and the reason that different honeys cost’s vary.

Zoie’s dad and mom was working the booth with us. I was there as the most experienced beekeeper, but you wouldn’t have known that as the two adults had as much knowledge about the bees as I. The only thing that I really have on them is experience and probably more of the scientific information than they do. There were so very few questions directed to me by the other beekeepers that I almost got bored, but not quite.

All in all I had fun both days. The Fair will be continuing of until Sunday 31st. If you have time and the want to, please come to the Pensacola State Fair and visit the honey booth. We will be glad to jaw with you about honey and honeybees.

I am having problems with my email and I really didn’t know that I had developed a dependency on it. I am having withdrawals and anxieties because of it. My son in Argentina will be working on it from his end of the world.

Also the Pensacola State Fair is going on for the next 9 days and I have been recruited to work with a young beekeeper at the honey booth. I assume that I am to show him the ropes, but I have a feeling that he knows as much or more about the bees than I do.  It will be fun finding out anyway.

I still have not found my camera. I really want to take some pictures to show on this website. Sorry for the inconvenience, but you will be the first to know after my wife when I do find it. <]:-)

Have a good weekend.

I had a beekeeper to call me and wanted me to post some of his beekeeping equipment for sale. He has had some medical issues that have slowed him down from keeping a lot of bees. Then some one rear ended him and made him retire for good.

He has some new, barely used, and  used equipment. You can get in touch with him directly or through me at this post. His name and phone:

Richard Nodhturft, The Beekeeper

850-458-9110

Email: beekeeper2u@hotmail.com

He lives here in Pensacola, FL.  I am just trying to help a friend out.

Until next time—-

I had a beekeeper call me the other day to ask if he could bring two observation hives over to my house. He said that I was the only one in the area whose bees could still find food. At least I was the only one that could keep an observation hive profitable.

He gave me some pollen substitute patties with instructions how to feed the bees in their observation habitats. I am now the caretaker for 3 observation hives.

I had 3 hives in my back yard apiary and one got slimmed by Small Hive Beetle larvae. Now I have something else to clean up.

I am getting ready for a give a bee class to an adult group in a week and then the Pensacola State Fair will be Oct. 21-31. I am volunteering with my wife for about 5-7 six hour shifts.

I got up this morning and was going to mow the grass around the bees in the back yard and before I could get started, the rains began kinda stopping that thought. So now, I can start planning a bee class in Alabama for a sister bee association.

Always something to do. When you are retired, you need to keep busy so you can live longer. Better stop and post this so I can get to work. Until next time start cleaning boxes, frames, building extras and read, read, read.

Why not sell honey? You spent money to buy the equipment, supplies, and bees. They make more honey than they can use, so why not? That is the first hurdle that new beekeepers needs to cross. If they can get past that, then they can concentrate of expanding their operation or at least get equipment that will make working the bees a little easier. There is nothing in the books that says you cannot sell your honey to the general public. If you need help in understanding the sales portion of your small business, then talk to some of the beekeepers in your association, or you can get on the beekeepers forum, http://groups.yahoo.com/ and ask questions. You will be surprised at the number of people that will answer you. (You can even ask me by going to comments at the top area of this post just under the title.)

Another consideration is price. You say, “But I cannot charge that much! People will think I am trying to rip them off.” Stop and think for a minute. Besides the time you will spend with your bees, think of the gas you use, wear and tear on your equipment, medicating, feeding, and maybe moving the bees to another location because of the lack of nectar and/or pollen. Then you have to  pull supers, transport to the extracting house, unload, all of which precedes, decapping, extracting, straining, buying the bottles then filling them, labels, and don’t forget, cleaning your equipment again after extracting, and bottling. All this takes about $.90 to $1.00 a pound to produce. You have to charge enough to at least get your money back. I personally start about $6.00 a pound  and as I sell more pounds in a container, the less I charge all the way to. $1.67 for 60 pounds (5 gal). Besides, if you charge too small of a price, then people will wonder what is wrong with your honey and back way off and you will not make a sale anyway. A majority of the people shop by price. You know the old adage, “You get what you pay for”. If it is cheap then it may be a cheep product. If more costly, then it has to be of a better quality.

But where can I sell my honey? That is strictly up to you. I sell from my vehicles, home, some fairs, school fairs, when I give a bee talk to some of the adult classes , example; Garden Clubs and Adult Education classes. I have business cards that I have printed on my computer and have a supply of them with me at all times and when I mention that I am a beekeeper, or I have some honey bees, or I catch swarms of honey bees, then I am most likely to be asked how they can get in touch with me.

There are a number of ways that you can set up to sell honey and I hope that you try some of them. It is really rewarding to say, “I built that honey house with my honey money.” I personally have not yet, but I know several beekeepers that have. I can see why they would be proud.

If you have any questions, then contact some of your beekeeper friends or me. Have a great day!

Wife is babysitting with a young man today. who had an accident with the lawnmower and messed up two fingers. Now I am alone and nothing to do. Should I clean the pickup up and see if I can find my camera so I can start putting pictures on my blog? Maybe I could clean the kitchen up and surprise my sweetheart. I could clean up the honey bottling kitchen or just clean off the front porch. Hey! I could write a post even. Surprise-surprise-surprise, I did.

Have a great day.

I have had a couple of beekeepers volunteer to come to my house to help me do some yard work/cleaning so I can get my all but one of my colonies into one location. Since I only have four colonies and one observation hive colony, I thought that I could combine all but one colony in one spot. The one that I did not move is at a lady’s back yard garden. I just add supers and take honey from it. I wish all my colonies were as good.

We had to use weedeaters to cut the grass and weeds in both yards. My lawnmower needs a new carburetor and one of the young beekeepers only has a riding lawnmower and no way to to haul it. We had to tear down the canopy that I have had for 5-6 years because the rains came and kinda stretched it out and then the weight poked a hole through it. When it popped, the frame bent out of shape and crumpled to the ground.

We went to the north part of the county and picked up two colonies and 2 deadout hives. Now I have the two colonies in my back yard and a swarm that I got in an 8 frame hive sitting back there with them, however, that one may have dwindled down to nothing. It needed a super 3 weeks ago and I drug my feet and didn’t get one on. Now, I may have just killed it. I will have to take some time later and just go through it and see. Ahh the joys of beekeeping. You can do it at your own speed and time as long as you don’t procrastinate and wait too long! I’ll let you know how everything worked out at a later date.

Here in Northwest Florida panhandle, the Goldenrod is blooming The fall honey flow has begun. Any and all honey from this time on should be left on the bees for their winter food supply. Now is a good time to take inventory and start ordering the replacement equipment and fall queens if you are going to make fall splits. Now is a good time to start repairing stands, building new frames, replacing foundation, getting your wax melted and in bars, blocks, or chunks for the various things you are going to do with it.

Check you subscriptions’ dates so you will not let them lapse. Clean out your smokers and check the bellows for holes and cracks. Replace as needed. Gather up and sharpen all your hive tools. Check you veils to be sure they don’t have any holes in them. Note: You should wash your bee suits on a regular basis to clean the bee venom off. Dry venom can still cause anaphylactic shock if a person is allergic to honeybee stings by just brushing up against a bee suit.

I gotta go now. Remember–Read, Read, Read, and go to bee meetings. You can go to more than just the one you belong to.