Beekeepers Friend

There seems to be some confusion about the date for the Chautauqua in Feb. The correct date is the 21st. That will be the 3rd Saturday in February, 2009. It will be held at Northview High School in Bratt, FL on Florida State Road 4 about 8 miles west of US 29 out of Century, FL. Registration will commence at 0700 and the Chautauqua will officially start at 0800. We will have two tracs running concurrently for beginning beekeeping and experienced beekeeping.

So far, we have confirmed Dr. Lilia De Guzman, David Westervelt, Laurence and Larry Cutts, Doug Corbin, & Elmore Herman instructing classes in both tracs. Please make plans to attend as there will be lots of information passed to us during the classes.

We will have open hive demonstrations, prizes, and lots of visiting time. Also if you have any equipment that you no longer need, bring it and you can trade, sale, or give it away as well as have the opportunity to see if there is something you might like to have from someone else.

Fred Rossman of Rossman Apiaries will be bringing supplies and asks that you order now so he can bring your supplies with him at no shipping costs. That will save us some money.

Don’t forget February 21, 2009, North Escambia Bee Association Chautauqua. See you there.

Chautauqua is the Creek Seminole word for rendezvous, which is meeting under truce for trade or exchanging information. Time for Pow Wow and peace talks.

We have added another definition. Rendezvous to exchange ideas and goods and to help new beekeepers by giving them direction and answer questions at the same time as giving information on bee related subjects, such as, new developments from the scientific sector, new ways to apply Best Management Practices (BMP) and Integrated Pest Management (IPM).

North Escambia Bee Association is sponsoring a Bee Chautauqua at the Northview High School in Bratt, FL. February 21, 2009. Registration will commence at 7:00am and the Chautauqua will begin at 8:00am. Fees: $30 Couples; $25 Singles; $12.50 Students ages 12-18; $Free Children 11 yrs old and younger. Please preregister by January 20, 2009 so we can get a count of meals we need. Registration fees are the same at the door, but those participants will run the risk of not getting any food.

Mrs. Lila De Guzman and David Westervelt are two of the speakers confirmed. There will be a tract for beginners as well as experienced. We are planning a Honey Judging show for honey, beeswax candles, photos of anything dealing with Honeybees and the apiary, cooking with honey, sewing, and gadgets (old or homemade) for the honeybee industry.

Snacks, drinks, door prizes, vendors, and lots of fun.

More information is at www.beekeepersfriend.com or you can email me for further information. For person to person, you can call Peaches at 850-456-6218 and leave name, phone number (2 times), and say Chautauqua (Sha ‘ta kwa) and someone will contact you as soon as possible.

I am happy to say that the seven nucs have living, working, and happy queens. I did not check the full hives of bees, but I am confident that they all took too. I will check them soon.

My wife said that since she was off on Veteran’s Day, she would go with me to feed Fumigillin-B to the bees. We did all but one colony. That one is in a lady’s garden and I must say that it is one of the best colonies that I have. I did not requeen that particular colony. It is a survivor  and I want to leave it to its own devices to see if it will survive one more time. It has been in the garden for 3 years now and I haven’t done anything but pull honey from it and capture three swarms in one year.

All the colonies are looking good except one. It was given to me just to get it out of a back yard. I took it to an apiary and upon looking  inside, I found it was cross combed. I tried to take a picture, but it was dark comb and I couldn’t get a good picture.

I put a super of honey on that hive so the bees could move up next spring and then I could switch boxes. Then I will be able to cut the comb out and check for any problem that the bees might have had. It seemed to be a weak colony when I received it, but when we fed the medication mixed in sugar syrup, the bees were all over the honey super and appeared to be pretty strong.

Just in case you are wondering, Fumigillin-B is for Nosema, a gastrointestinal disorder. Sort of like diarrhea. The time to use it is in the late Fall and/or early Spring. Medicating in the fall is preventive and in the Spring is after the fact and you are trying to get rid of the disease after the bees get it.

The bees are in the Winter time now so be sure to check the weight of the hives for honey and also check to be sure they have enough pollen to last until February.

I told you what took place at the Fall bee convention, but I didn’t say anything about the business part. Since I was there, some of my readers asked me to report on that. I am not much of a secretary or a writer, but I will try to walk through and drop some information.

The meeting was called to order on Thursday night after the informal cookout by President Laurence Cutts. We elected new officers. The new officers are: Reno Plenge – President; Rodger Twitchell – Vice-President; Bert Kelly – Treasurer. Malcolm Sanford was reappointed Executive Secretary.

Laurence Cutts presided over the meeting and passed the gavel to Reno Plenge at the end of the meeting.

Bert Kelly, Treasurer, reported that with all the honey monies from the three apiaries, monies taken in for this meeting, and the cost of this convention, as well as the money brought forward from the last meeting, the final figure in our coffers is $19,826 .

The report on the Florida Standard of Honey was given by Nancy Gentry who authored the written request. It has gone through all the hoops and is waiting for Charlie Bronson’s signature. It should be completed by the end of this year.

We tabled the committee’s report on the resolutions for bottling and selling honey by small sideliner beekeepers. The reason was that the Honey Standard was before the Florida State Legislation and was almost accepted when they got wind of the resolutions and thought we were trying to slip something by them so they stopped work on the Honey Standard. We feel that after the Honey Standard is approved, then we can continue with the resolutions. That is the only reason we did not ask for a report at this time. The next mid-year meeting in 2009, we will continue to work on the resolutions and present them to the legislators.

We are looking for someone to take charge of a state apiary to be located in North/Northwest Florida. That would give us apiaries from top to bottom of the state.

The board of Managers was called together right after the general meeting, Reno Plenge officiating. Nancy Gentry was asked to be the liaison officer between FSBA and the Florida Legislation concerning all Honey Bee matters. She accepted.

We need one member from each of the Associations in the state to help on the Board of Managers. It would help us to make better informed decisions for the State Association and ultimately the local associations.

There are two new associations located in: Calhoun County (Blountstown), Hardy County (Bowling Green), and maybe Tallahassee will be starting one soon.

This year I (Peaches) was selected to be on the Auditing Committee. My first time. There were three of us and we all checked and rechecked the financial statements and checkbook. All was in order for another year.

As I said before, you should come to the state meeting, you will learn something or at least meet new and old friends.

I was asked to help man the honey booth at the fair this year. It was a fun time. We had two observation bee hives that we switched every day. We used the observation hive to explain what the bees were doing. The parents got as much enjoyment as the kids did while watching the bees move around inside. There was a marked queen and it was enjoyable to see the expressions on the peoples’ faces when they found the queens. We talked about the similarities and differences between the African and domestic bees. The people wanted to know the difference between the honey we were letting them taste. Why did they taste different?, and just what the bees did for the economy.

There was an interest from about 10 individuals to maybe start some colonies in the spring. Maybe we will get some new beekeepers.

I was asked to give some bee talks, in the late spring, to several groups and home schoolers.

This is just some of the reasons I like to work the honey booth at the fair.

Last year, there were 50 new Apprentices graduated for the first Bee College. There were an additional 60 or so new beekeepers for the college. Thinking that there would be even more for the next college, the powers that be decided to start another section of the college to relieve the congestion by having a fall coarse and we had approximately 20-25 more students take the apprentice tests. Then we had about 60 additional people attend the workshop portion.

The subjects covered were: Bad News – Beekeepers keep losing apiary sites due to Urbanization; Good News – State Agencies and Water Management opens more land for apiary sites; Advances in non pesticide control for honeybees; Florida’s role in food safety for honey packing; Africanized bees in the bee yard and how to cope; Pest control operators and their role in protecting the public from the Africanized bees; Pollination from the growers viewpoint; Florida research for the Florida beekeeper, just to name a few.

We also had a day in the bee yard at Dadant’s bee supply house in High Springs just 20 miles north of Gainesville, FL. That is where we split up for the various classes so the classes would not be too big. There were classes on Candle Making and Beauty Products; Wooden ware and how to put it together and How to Make Frames and Foundation to Last; Queen Rearing and Introducing Queens into Colonies; Fall and Winter management;  Identifying Pests and Diseases.

There were smaller groups of two’s or three’s talking one on one with the experienced beekeepers. It was a very well planned segment of the workshop. Lots and lots of information was given and received.

Jerry and Joanne Latner opened the supply house for sales on the spot for the participants. There were bargains to be had that day.

If you get a chance to go to a workshop, either local or state, then you really could have some fun and learn a thing or two.

Now is the time to check your honey and pollen weight of your hives. You may need to start feeding.

The North Escambia Bee Association (NEBA) meets in Molino, Florida at Fran’s Country Grill on the last Monday of each month. We are planning a Beekeeper’s Chautauqua (workshop) for February 21, 2009 at the Northview High School in Bratt, FL.

We are planning to have two tracts so the new beekeepers will have beginning classes and the experienced beekeepers will have advanced information. There is no absolute law that will keep a person from attending which ever tract he wants.

We are planning to have a Honey judging show also. It will consist of honey, comb honey, black jar honey, beeswax candles, photos of bee related subjects, needlepoint, homemade gadgets for the bee yard or honey equipment, and maybe cooking with honey.

We are still in the process of planning. Be thinking of what you might enter in the show. I do know that the judging will take place while everyone is attending classes so will not lose valuable class time during the judging.

More information will be forth coming and will be posted here. Don’t forget that you can ask questions in the comment section of this post. Just click on the comment button at the top of the posts.

Be wise, read – read – read.

After I had split the colonies by taking some frames from the parent colonies and installing them into some nucs, I went back and put the new queens in the hives and nucs. I found the rest of the old queens and sob-sob, I killed them so I could replace them.

I put 2-3 frames of open and sealed brood along with pollen into the nucs and placed a frame of honey and an frame of foundation in the nuc so the bees will have something to do. I will feed sugar water or corn syrup to the nucs when I get back from the Florida State summer meeting. When splitting hives, one needs to feed them because of their small numbers in the nucs. I also moved the nucs with the bees to another apiary so the bees would not fly back to the parent colonies. I will leave them in their new location for about one month and then I can take them back to the original apiaries without worrying about the bee leaving the nucs. They kind of forgot where the old hive was and will not abandon the nucs.

Now if they survive the winter, then I can place them in a regular hive body and they will continue to grow and make honey. That is one way to make increases. That is the main goal.

Now I am ready to clean boxes and frames. Putting foundation in and painting the boxes will be next. Swarming season will be here before you know.

I told you that I had received my queens in good shape. What I haven’t told you is that Murphy’s Law struck again! I was going to go to the bee yards the next day or two and remove the old queens and maybe pull honey at the same time. Didn’t happen. I got a call from a home owner about some honey bees on his house and he wanted them gone. When I got all my equipment ready and loaded in the Ram, I promptly went over there and found that the honey bees were, little yellow jackets. After spending about 30 minutes explaining the difference between the two, I returned home. About two hours were spent on this adventure. Now it was getting too close to lunch, so I chilled for awhile and then had lunch. I over ate and decided to sit for a few minutes and watch the weather channel. I wanted to know if the weatherman would say that it would cloud up and rain or something to keep me home and put off finding and caging old queens. I still don’t know what the weather was to be like according to the TV. I had gone to sleep and woke up just before my wife got home from work at 4:30 pm.

Then I just had to talk to her and then the news came on and by the time it was over, I had wasted all day. Then my wonderful sweet wife reminded my that I had to get ready to give a talk to a school room full of prekindergarten and kindergarten kids in two days. I had to find my placards for show and tell, get the observation hive cleaned up and reloaded with some active bees, again for show and tell. I managed to drag the preparation out over two days just in time to get a good night sleep for the presentation the next day.

By this time, one of the beekeepers said that he needed some more queens. I ended up selling him the 18 queens I had left after selling the original 7. Now I could rest and get some stuff done.

As it was one thing after another came up and I couldn’t get anything done anyway. I still haven’t cleaned my honey house and all the equipment in there. I haven’t gotten around cutting the weeds growing in my back yard. (They are now over my head. I may have to get the chainsaw working again.)

Later I had a beekeeper call me and asked when I was going to order some more queen. I said soon and he said that he needed two more pretty quick. Well, I relented and ordered 25 more. I got them on Saturday and today is Monday. I know that if I pull honey, I can let the supers sit for two to three days before I have to extract. Any longer and the Small Hive beetles will hatch and the larva starts to move in honey. I figured that if I had honey to extract then that would entice me to clean up quickly.

This morning, Monday, I drove an hour from home to my furthermost apiary in the north part of the county. I got to the land owners place and was about half way from the gate to the apiary on a narrow pathway (little road) and found that the path was blocked by a bush hog and a pile of debris.  When the land owner and I discussed me putting bees there, it was understood that I would always have access to my bees 24/7. I must think again if I want to keep bees there or move.

I went to the next apiary expecting to get a brood box and two supers of honey (the queen had died earlier and there were no eggs to make another one). The bees should have filled all the comb with honey before they died. Well maybe they did, but I delayed getting back to them and this morning, I found the yellow jackets busily working the hive. Very little honey was left and the wax moths (Greater Wax Moth) had efficiently webbed up the frames. I broke the boxes apart and stood them up on end so the wind and sun could get in and maybe dry up the larva. I will go back later and add those boxes to the pile I have ready to clean and repaint.

I went to the next apiary and found that the bees didn’t have any extra honey for me even though there are two cotton fields very close by. Only one colony made an extra super of honey and I had to give that to a colony that didn’t have even their own super filled. I leave the first super of honey on the hive. They work for it and they earned it. Any honey in the supers above the first super is mine. So far only one colony made a super of cotton honey over and above the first super. And I had to give that to another colony. Still batting 1000 for no honey.

The last apiary only had two colonies in it and one of them was dead. I have only eight more colonies to check in three apiaries. I just might not have to clean my honey house as fast as I thought. If not, then I have to get my wife to start reminding me to clean the honey house just after I get the back yard cleaned up enough to find the stacks of bee boxes back there, somewhere, that I need to clean before Spring.

Sorry, I chased rabbits down paths that took us away from the reason for this post. The queens. I still have to go back to find the old queens. I am of two thoughts on this subject. Should I seek and destroy the old queen, or should I search and rescue to a queen cage to save them until I see if the new queens are accepted? If I keep the old queens, then I need to put seven workers in the queen cage with her and plug the end with a marshmallow for food. I will have to give them water every day. Or here is another thought. Actually this is a proven technique. I could make a nuc split and put 3 frames mixed with eggs, larva, capped brood, pollen, and honey along with enough bees to cover them in a nuc box, add a full frame of honey and an empty frame with foundation (or drawn comb), and don’t forget the old queen. Then I should number the nuc with the same number of the hive they came out of, so that if the bees do not accept the new queen, I can reinstall the nuc back into the parent hive and still have a queen right hive.

I didn’t intend for this post to be an educational post, but it is. I also did not intend for this to be a lingthy post, but it is.

HAVE A NICE DAY!

I ordered 25 more queen bees today. They should be here by this weekend and I will try once more to requeen my colonies. I had to purchase 25 to get a price break. $2.00 a head will be worth the extra queens. I only need 14. I will try to sell the ones I don’t need and try to get some of my money back.  I have two beekeepers who will take six of them. That will leave only five. Maybe I will find a buyer for them.

Just to recap, the reason to requeen in the Fall is because a young queen will lay longer into the Fall and Winter than an older queen. The older queen will start shutting down massive egg laying to a trickle in November for the winter. The young queen will not be as apt to shut down until into December because she is not that experienced and will continue to lay lots of eggs until the workers stop feeding her as much. When that happens, the queen will not be able to produce an abundance of eggs. In the Spring, they will start feeding her more food and that will trigger her egg production.

I really wanted to be able to pull honey before I requeened, but things have a habit of coming up at a most inopportune time. So I will just have to manhandle the honey supers to work the bees. I will just have to requeen and go back to pull honey at a later time. Maybe this is a good thing. I may have to share the honey, that I was going to extract, with some of the colonies that do not have enough of their own honey to winter well.

I also have two meetings, that I have not committed to yet, that I have to get honey bottled to sell and get my observation hive cleaned up so I may show and tell. That is a great crowd getter. The more people that stops to look at the bees and listen to the bee talk, the more possible sales of honey.

I’ll let you know how the re queening and the preparations for the  festivities goes as soon as I can.

You still need to be cleaning your equipment, putting new foundation in your frames and painting the boxes. All this is in preparation of the spring swarms and splitting. If it gets done now, you will not have to rush rush rush to get a box ready when you need it.

Until the next time, keep your hive tool sharp, your smoker cleaned and ready, and read books, magazines, and surf the web for bee information.