Beekeepers Friend

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.

I received a telephone call the other day from a new wannabe beekeeper. He asked what does it take to be a beekeeper. What a loaded question! Then Saturday, I was at a Wildlife Expo sponsored by the Florida Extension Office and the University of Florida. Several people asked basically the same question. Here is the answer as I see it.

First you need to find a bee association in your area. Attend the meetings and ask questions. Beekeepers love to talk about their girls. Yeah–yeah, I know, there are some beekeepers who would rather face a rattlesnake than to take a newbie under their wing, but as a whole, beekeepers are rather friendly and would love to teach a new beekeeper the proper way to keep bees. Side note: there is no proper way to keep bees that are better than other ways with the exception of deliberately killing them! The most proper way to keep bees is the one that you are comfortable with, and you will not know that way until you get some experience. So at this point in your journey, any way that works will do.

Then you need to get some books and read, read, read. You also need to get some catalogs from some of the bee suppliers and compare prices. At the risk of getting too detailed, there are different types of wooden ware Pine, Fur, Cyprus, etc. that will be different in price as well as quality: Premium; no knots, Commercial; some knots, and Budget; lots of knots and maybe some hole thrown in. These are some of the questions you need to ask your beekeeper friends. Another side note: a mentor is a beekeeper who has agreed to help you by explaining, showing, and helping you for a full year. I will be using this term the rest of this post.

The equipment you need to start off will be considered a basic kit. It consists of bottom board, brood box, queen excluder, 2 honey supers, inner cover, and top telescoping cover. Side note: Most of the suppliers will send 2 brood boxes in a kit. I suggest that if that is the way you want to go, then buy 2 extra honey supers. You can either make another bottom board and top board or you can go ahead and buy them too while you are at the supplier’s. You need to get another queen excluder also. You need 10 frames and foundation for each box and super. That is the wooden ware. Next is the equipment you will need.

1 Smoker; at least 1 hive tool (I recommend 2 in case you lose one. If that happens, you get the spare and order another one.); 1 veil and hat, or bee suit with veil; & 1 pair of gloves. There are quit a few other pieces of equipment you can buy, but I would recommend that you wait until later to decide if you really need any of them.

If you have any questions, then please try to get them answered by someone close to you as he or she will be able to show and tell much easier than I. However, that is not to say that I am always available to answer any and all questions that you post to this blog. If I do not know the answer, I will tell you that it will take a little time for me to research for the answer.

Now the last but very definitely the most important thing you need is the bees. There are several ways to obtain your girls. 1: You can purchase a package, 2: You can buy a Nuc (short for nucleus), 3: Catch a swarm, or 4: Buy a beekeeper’s colony that wants to get out of the business. Oops! I am not supposed to say anything negative. However, there are times that a beekeeper must sale, health reasons or he is just too old and needs to retire. I am getting near that last reason myself.

If you buy a package, then you will not, in most cases, be able to collect any honey the first year. Because your bees will be using the nectar and honey to build honeycomb on the foundation you have supplied them with. It takes approximately 10 pounds of honey to produce 1 pound of wax.

If you get a nuc, the standard is you will get three frames of brood and bees to cover with extra bees shook into the box. You will get one frame of honey. In turn, you will exchange 4 of your new frames for the ones your supplier put into your box. In the meantime, the bees are already established and all they have to do is complete the rest of the frames in the brood box (6) and the honey supers. But since they have babies in the making, they will have extra hands to help build the honeycomb and start putting up honey. You have a good chance of getting honey for you table in the latter part of the year around Fall.

A swarm will be the same as a package of bees, so you will have to wait until next year to harvest any honey.

Buying someone out is a hit and miss proposition. You have to hunt and wait until someone decides to retire. That can be a loooooong time. I only bought someone out after I was in the business for 7 years. That is defeating the purpose of becoming and beekeeper.

Until the next time, keep you veil close, your smoker lit, and your hive tool sharp.

A young beekeeper called me today and told me he had been out of the country for a while and when he got back, he found all his bees dead. Head in and tails out. They had starved. Why? was his question. The answer is simple: bees need protein and carbohydrates. Pollen is the protein and honey is the carbohydrates. Now, if either one is missing, then the bees will starve to death.

To correct this, you need to feed a pollen substitute. It can be purchased from any of the bee suppliers such as Dadant & Sons, Brushy Mountain,  and Fred Rossman Bee Supplies.

You really need to check your bees around this time as the summertime begins a dearth in some parts of the south, especially the southern LA, MS, AL, GA, and Northern part of FL.

Check with your Apiary inspector and County Extension agent. They will be able to tell you or show you how to Google the information about what plants are in bloom now and will be in the Fall.

I just realized that I had not posted since the 4th of July. I am sorry for this delay. I am trying to turn over a new leaf and post at least once a week. So far, I have not lived up to that new leaf.

Have a good day and maybe—just maybe, you will see another post soon.

Instead of telling you what I have done or what I am planning on doing, I have decided to give you some things of what not to expect!

If you want to have bees for honey or pollination or just to watch, don’t expect them to do all the work by themselves. For one thing, the bees will not stay in the hive and keep grinding out the honey. If you leave them alone and not visit the hive, the supers will not place themselves on the hive at the appropriate time. If the super is full of honey, the bees will not build more comb on the outside of the boxes. The bees will not shut down and wait for you or someone else to come along and give them more space, they will just leave and find a suitable place for themselves.

If you want more bees and you do not visit the hive to make sure they have more brood space, then the bees will not make more space on the bottom of the bottom board so the queen can lay more eggs. They will just leave and find a suitable place for themselves.

If you want the Varroa mites to kill you colony, then you must stay away and not do a thing. You cannot think the colony to do what you have come to expect of it by staying on your couch and watching TV.

If you don’t want to learn about bees or you don’t want to know what the bees need, then by all means put the American Bee Journal and the Bee Culture magazines down and don’t read any more, and you might as well not read my blog any more either. This will insure that you will lose you bees in a short time span.

Author’s note: In this time and era, you must help the bees do what they do best. You really have to help them. The way the world is setup where all the different countries have seaports, airports, etc., the pests and viruses have been spread to all the different countries, with just a very few exceptions. All the enemies of the honey bees have been brought to where the bees are and they have to have some help from you, the beekeeper, in order to survive. Ask around and see if there are any wild bees left.

Have a wonderful day Monday as that is the Day of Independence for the United State of America!

Sometimes a person can sit and plan out what needs to be done, and then do it. It works for some. Sometimes a person can sit and plan and plan and plan and that is all he does and nothing gets done. I think planning is a good thing, but if you don’t put feet to your plans, then what good is the planning?

I understand that when you plan something, it shouldn’t be black or white, nor should it be written in stone. There are circumstances that come up to change the plans of either of time or finances. Sometimes the plans are just not realistic.

There are differences in:

A. Goal setting
B. Planning
C. Scheduling

A. Goal setting should be broken down into two sections.

1) Long range goals:

10 years: Where you want to be in 10 years? How big do you want your business to be? How much money do you want to be making at that time?

How are you going to get there? Are you going to buy or build your equipment? Are you going to buy nucs or are you going to split your colonies? How fast are you gong to grow?

5 years?

3 years.?

B. Have you decided to sell bulk, wholesale, or retail? If retail, then out of home, from your vehicle, farmers’ market, or fair/festival. What sizes of containers are you going to use, 6 oz, 12 oz, pint, quart, half gallon, 1 gallon, 5 gallon buckets. are you going to sale wax retail? If so, then are you going to make candles or are you going to sale just molded wax? Is anything going to be colored? If so how are you going to color them?

2) Short range goals: 2 years;1 year; 6 months – same as above.

C. Scheduling: This is where you get a calender and actually put some goals down on paper. Contact the people that you need to in order to get your booth set up for the occasion.  Then you have to bottle the approate containers in the amount that you think you will need then add a case (12 to 24) extra. After a few times you will know more about how much you will need.

Now this is the hard part. All the money you make is not profit. You will have to take the actual receipts for the containers, fuel, drinks, and food that you use off the gross income of that occasion and what you have left is you profit. Now, instead of spending that money to take your wife or girlfriend out to dinner to celebrate, you need to put it in the bank for future expenses.

Here is the breakdown of your income:

50% is for your business expenses- replacing wooden ware, foundation, pollen patties, sugar for Winter feeding.

25% is for your vehicle expenses- fuel, oil changes, new tires, mechanical repairs.

25% is for you- to spend however you wish. This is for you and your family.

At this point, you start to treat your apiary as a business and grow as your profits allow. Please do not go into debt (mortgage you house) for your bee business. You can make money if you watch what you spend and spend only what you have to. Too many believed that they knew what they were doing and didn’t keep good books and overspent and lost not only their bees and equipment, but their homes too.

I wish you all the goodness you deserve. If you have doubts or questions, don’t hesitate to ask. The only dumb question is the one that is not asked.

Have a good day and read – read- read. Have a Safe and Happy 4th of July.

I was going to really work my 6 hives and one swarm this Spring and really start to expand my bee business and maybe get my bees to make me a little honey. “BEST LAID PLANS OF MEN AND MICE………”.

Other than completing my bee talk obligations to the different school’s kindergarten and first & second grade students, helping the 4-H with several presentations to adult classes, talking to Garden Clubs, and making it to at least two festival type settings, I was surprised when my sister from Texas called me and said that we needed to go to Springdale, AR.

My step dad has been kinda diagnosed with Dementia and my step mom with Alzheimer’s disease. I was led to believe that  we would be gone just maybe ten days or so. Well, 3 1/2 weeks later my wife and I got back in our own bed here at home.  That is an emotional, mental, and physical strain that I do not wish on anyone. We ended up having to split the stepparents, her daughter is taking care of her and my sister is taking care on him. The two cannot live together because of friction.

It is not over with yet, but for now we will let things ride. Sorry for the rendention, but I feel that you need to know why I am not doing my bee work as outlined.

The swarm that I had in my back yard, I am happy to report, is in an 8 frame brood box. I will be putting it into a 10 framer with in the next two days.  By the way, I told you I had six colonies and one swarm. Well, I was informed that the two hives that I took to Holly, FL., was destroyed by a bear. The landowner said that it was the biggest black bear he has ever seen. It would have dressed out at 500 lbs had he killed it. As it is, he is going to contact the wildlife authorities to see if they will trap it and relocate the bear somewhere else.

Now I only have four colonies and one swarm…errr…five colonies. I am still hoping that I have the other four up north of here. I haven’t seen them in 2 months.

But right now I have to deliver fliers to my part of the neighborhood announcing the neighborhood party for next weekend. See ya.

You know, sometimes there are lapses of the memory. I have one now. I am having a hard time remembering what has gone on in my life that needs to be repeated. I know that I have gone places, done things, and actually know what happened, but for the life of me, I am having a hard time telling it. In my mind’s eye, I can see things clearly, but when I try to put it in writing, it becomes fuzzy or blank.

I remember going to the State Spring meeting March 11, 12, & 13 in St. Augustine, FL., but I can only remember what went on at the college end of it. Actually, the Master Beekeepers test was the beginning and it started on Thursday, but I missed that as I was delivering a barrel of honey for a friend that day. We had planned to deliver the honey on Wednesday, but we didn’t know that the gate was closed at 2:00 that afternoon at the honey house. We were late. So, since I couldn’t take my advancement test until Fall anyway, I was elected to make the run and therefore, I didn’t get to participate in the classes.

On Friday, we had Dr. de Jounge from Brazil tell about a new computer program that he has designed to test for Africanized Honeybees. It still has some bugs to work out, but is showing great promise to supersede the program we have here in Florida that takes about 4 hours. Dr. de Jounge’s program takes about 15-20 minutes. Lets hope he works the problems out soon.

There were other programs that I was not able to attend. Jerry Hayes talked about chemicals in the hive and how to apply some of them.  Some of the time as an upperclassman in the Master Beekeepers program, I was kept busy during some of the programs answering questions and explaining the bee college curriculum. Therefore, I missed some of the other classes.

Friday evening during the dinner, I got nauseated and couldn’t eat. By Saturday morning, I had gotten over whatever it was and felt fine.  I had 2 classes all that day; Certification for administering an EppyPen injection under emergency conditions and I took the class and test for a private pesticide license. Passed the former and still waiting for the results of the latter. Wish me luck!

As a reporter, I stink, but this blog is about me and what I do, isn’t it? I did get two swarms today and split a hive and they weren’t even mine, but that is a story for another day.

Words of wisdom: Swarming time is upon us. I hope you have your extra boxes cleaned and ready to go. Keep you veil close, your smoker lit, and your hive tool sharp.

By the way, we had about 15 new Apprentice beekeepers, 8-10 new Advanced, and about 8 students that passed the Master Beekeeper level. The Master Beekeepers now have 2 years to complete their assignments before taking the final test, which I think includes standing before the board and have a oral test, to become Master Craftsman Beekeepers.

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.