Beekeepers Friend

When a person has a swarm in his yard whether in a tree, bush, on side of house, or even in a wall, there are some things he doesn’t want to do.

Don’t

1) Don’t spray with gasoline, bug spray, soapy water, and then call the beekeeper to come get them. That just makes the bees either mad or wastes the beekeepers time to come out to dead bees. Mad bees are very hard to corral and will sting anything that moves. Or it will make the beekeeper mad to come all that way to find out the bees were killed and he spent time and gas for no bees.

2) Don’t try to smoke the bees by building a fire. That will make the bees either move or will make them hostile.

3) Don’t throw objects at the bees for that will make them mad enough to sting anything that moves and you could kill the queen and that would essentially kill the colony as the queen is the only egg layer and the bees cannot make another queen without eggs to turn into larvae.

Do’s

1) Do call a beekeeper or emergency authorities.

2) Do warn others about the bee and stay away from them.

3) Do keep young children in a secure area so they won’t get stung.

Some beekeepers ask to be paid for their time to come and hive your swarm. So be prepared to ask if there is a fee before proceeding. Most beekeepers will extract for just the bees. Nearly all of the beekeepers will remove bees for free if there is someone in the home that is allergic to the bee venom.

Most of the time the bees can be removed in a very short time, but in the case of bees in a wall or in the floor (trailer houses), could take several days to several weeks as in a tree not to be cut down.

While I was at the Heritage Festivall, a lady asked about chunk honey in a jar. I didn’t have any on hand. I did take her name and phone number with the order.  Note: Chunk honey is putting a neatly cut piece of honeycomb in a jar and pouring honey around it.  Comb honey is a piece of honeycomb either in a package or wrapped up by itself.

The reason I don’t take chunk honey to any of the festivals is if I don’t sell it all, I run the risk of it granulating and when I reliquefy it, the wax will melt and I lose the chunk setup.

Now to the tip: I did take a notebook with me to take orders and to write notes to myself. However, when I needed it, the notebook was in the camper and I wrote the order for the chunk honey on a piece of scrap paper. In the shuffle of breaking down and packing the honey stand, that piece of scrap paper got lost. I now have an order I cannot fill because the lady is 60 miles from me and I have no address nor telephone number with which to contact her. Make a habit of keeping a notebook handy and protecting it so this will not happen to you. Conduct your operation like a business in town. Without a business code, you will get sloppy and your reputation will start to slip. And that will start to circulate and you will soon be shunned and your business will fall. Remember, your word and work is your bond!

There are three honeys that I want to talk about. Wildflower, Gallberry, and Tupelo. The reason is I get the question quite frequently, “How do you know what is what?”

The answer is simply that I help the bees decide what nectar to collect. Each hive will work on one nectar source at a time. In the Spring, there is a smörgåsbord of flowers blooming. The pollen that is in the honey is from a variety of plants. Since I do not know which hive is collecting which nectar, the only thing I can do is collect the honey, extract it, and pour it into a barrel. The mixture of honey is then called  Wildflower.

Gallberry is a bush in the Holly family that grows in a wide area here in the Southeastern U. S. It blooms around the 1st of April to the latter part of May. I take the hives to the Gallberry patch and place empty honey supers on them. As the bees orientate on their new surrounding, the first flower they find will be the Gallberry. That is the nectar they will collect. Just about the time the flow begins to wane I gather the supers of honey and take them back to the honey house and mark them as Gallberry. I then move the colonies to another location and put empty supers back on the hives.

Since Tupelo blooms about the same time as Gallberry, I have to have a separate group of hives for that honey flow. I then do the same for the Tupelo hives as I did for the Gallberry hives. Side note: The Tupelo is a tree that grows in the Apalachicola Swamp area here in Florida. It is mostly confined to this area and the unique property of this honey is that it does not granulate. There is  another honey tree that is in the same family of the Tupelo called Black Gum, and has a similar taste and smell.  However, Black Gum honey will granulate very rapidly.  I have been told that it will  granulate in the settling tank and will gum up the pipes if it is not emptied into barrels within a few hours.  I don’t have first hand knowledge of this though.

When I extract, I only work with one type and clean the extractor and pipes before I start extracting any other type honey. This will insure that I do not mix the different types of honey. If there is any question as to what honey is in a bucket, I will put it in with the Wildflower. One cannot sell honey as a certain type of honey if he cannot tell the difference by the taste, looks, or smell.

I was reminded that not everyone knows what Food For America is, so here is the scoop.

Food For America is a program to educate young grade school students about what the farmers do for our food supplies. The students are bussed to an area, usually a school building, and are escorted to various rooms and/or areas set up by knowledgeable high school students or adults versed in the various aspects of farming, ranching, or production of our food industry. My part is explaining about pollination of foods for humans and animals by the use of bees and other pollinators. (Believe it or not – bats are a part of this group.)

We usually have about 10-15 minutes to explain our craft or vocation. Examples are:

Bees and certain insects or animals pollinate flowers to produce fruit or more plants for human and animal consumption. Bats pollinate certain cacti so the farmers or production plants can make jelly and marmalade from some of the flowers or body of the cactus. Bees pollinate, say alfalfa, so the cows can eat it to produce milk, and hamburgers. Bees also pollinate fruit of all kinds, vegetables, and make honey.

Milk can make cheese, butter, and buttermilk. The students have a hands on project to actually shake cream to make their own butter to take home.

Livestock, such as steers, goats, pigs, rabbits, birds, and fish, are explained as to how we can eat products and meat from them.

This is just one way we can get the information to the young ones who have never seen where their food comes from. My own brother and sisters did not know that milk came from cows. They thought the milk only came from the store and only in wax cartons.

There are several other means that is in use for the same reasons. Country Days, Farmer Days, Country Fairs, County Fairs, and State Fairs are some of these ways.

I personally have participated in three Food for America, two Country Days (going to my third in a week) and 4 State Fairs, and visited as a beekeeper speaker to about nine classrooms of Prekindergarten, kindergarten, Girl Scouts, campfire girls, and Cub Scouts. I also have been to several home school assembles.

Well, my wife and I went to the Heritage Festival at Krul Lake in Munson. We rented a 30′ motor home from Cruise America on Friday, then loaded our camping supplies and went to Krul Lake that afternoon. We got there about dusk and had to hurry to get it set up and hook up to the utilities before it got too dark. We still had to have the flashlight to finish though. Then before we could settle down, there was the bed to make, hand held radios to plug in, and read the operator’s manual just to get the refrigerator to work. But when every thing was set up, we could sit at the table and drink some soft drinks and plan what we were going to do in the morning to get set up for the fest.

We went to bed about 2300 hrs Fri. and got up about 0600 Sat. The camp served the participants breakfast, so I enjoyed some visiting with old friends. The ones that participate every year. Some of them get the same campsite every year. I have been there from the beginning and haven’t had the same campsite twice yet.

After breakfast, my wife and I set up the display. The head honcho came by and was very upset that I did not bring my observation hive. There was a reason. My hives are so weak that not one could have spared a single frame of brood. I am thinking that Colony Collapse Disease (CCD) has set in. I don’t know for a fact that that is the reason. Anyway, my darling spouse said that the man was upset because I couldn’t show and tell. I was just a vendor at that time and this was supposed to be a crafts show with selling privileges. I will get an observation hive next year if it kills all my colonies!

I was going to take my teaching posters with me and have them set up so I could at least talk about my bees with some props, but a fellow beekeeper borrowed them to go to a school and have a class with some kindergartners. When it rains, it pours. Oh! well! I got a lot of talking done anyway.

We took 3 types of honey for the people to taste. Then they could decide if they wanted to buy and what kind. We had Wildflower, Gallberry, and Tupelo honey. The 2 sizes of containers we had were 12 oz. bears and pints of each kind. There wasn’t honey to fill the 1 lb bees or quarts. I only had a few inquires about quarts. I did field some questions about comb honey. I explained that the reason we didn’t preload comb honey was if we didn’t sell it all, we run the risk of having the honey crystallize and when I reliquify it, the comb wax would melt and we would lose it. I did, however, have a notepad and pen to take orders. One lady left her name and number.

There were 2,300 people in attendance on Saturday. After closing Sunday, the park reported that with the rangers and volunteers (excluding the participants), there were a little over 4,000 people there that weekend. That was more than in the past 3 years.

There were crafts there that I didn’t get to see but I was told that some of them included: grinding corn for cornmeal at the gristmill, beeswax figurines, corn shucks dolls, basket weaving, weaving cane bottom chairs, an old mule drawn freight wagon, animal hide tanning, cooking in cast iron pots (Dutch oven style and over campfires), spit cooking, and squeezing juice out of sugar cane and making cane syrup. There was a man there making some 4 string Dulcimer musical instruments. He also made some X boomerangs for the kids. Then there was a log sawing exhibition, handmade ceder shingles the old fashion way with a pull knife, and some old oxen yokes and paraphernalia. These were just some of the exhibits. There were several singing groups there for entertainment so everyone had something they enjoyed. I made money and didn’t have to bring much of my honey back. That was a blessing. Now I am getting ready for a elementary school class of my own on the 31st. It is Country Day and is something like the Food for America. The classes will be shuttled through each of the different areas of farming expeditions and then assemble in the main auditorium for the finale. Then I will leave from there to go to Winter Haven, Fl for the State Beekeepers Annual Conference.

The Munson Heritage Festival is to be held on October 13th and 14th. That is a Saturday and Sunday event. I have 3 weeks in which to get ready. I have to clean jars and bottle 3 kinds of honey in 4 sizes. I have Wildflower, Gallberry, and Tupelo honey, and 12 oz. bears, 1 lb. bees, 1 1/2 lbs. pint jars, and 3 lbs. quart jars. I will also need my 10′ x10′ canopy and tables with tablecloths.

I usually take an observation hive with me so the visitors can see what makes the honey that they love to eat. When selling your honey at a festival, you need to be able to show and tell, and the observation hive is all of that. Try to mark the queen in a bright color so the people can easily find her.

The canopy (tent) and the tables need to be set up so the display is pleasing and appealing to the eye. It also needs to blend in with the season fairly well. Such as Fall, Thanksgiving, and pumpkins. Use the colors – red, orange, and brown. This setup is because of the October date.

Christmas colors would be red, green, blue, and white with decorations of Christmas themes, ie: small Christmas tree, ornaments, flashing lights, and maybe a present or two under the tree. The idea is to really get into the spirit of the times by blending in with the season.

The tablecloths need to be long enough on the sides and ends so that you can store extra cartons of honey under them and not be seen from the customers’ side. The cash box needs to be placed behind the table within easy reach of the workers but far enough back that the customers cannot reach it.

Chairs for the workers and maybe a visitor or two are essential. There will be times that you will not have anyone at your booth and you should sit when you can. Sometimes you are on your feet for several hours at a time just talking and when you get a chance, you need to sit.

Now that I have said all of that, I will bid you adieu so I can get to work rounding up all my festival equipment and get to bottling.

The Florida State Beekeepers Association will have its annual workshop and business meeting November 1-3 in Winter Haven, Florida. The state meeting usually has some very good speakers that talk on a level that a country fellow can understand. There will be an awards banquet as well as a beginners class. This will be the first time I have had a chance to attend a beginner’s class on state level.

There will be information on the Africanized Honey Bee and Colony Collapse Disorder. There will be a report on the funds that the state and US government are giving to the bee labs and entomology depts. to research the CCD.

It will be very informative and I am sure you will be entertained to the point of maybe wanting to come back next year. Like all meetings, you will be able to rub shoulders with all kinds of different beekeepers. In addition to all this, I will be going to meet some new friends. I hope to see you there.

The one caste I have not talked about is the drones. They are the only ones that can go from hive to hive without worrying about being stung to death. They are just like children, everyone puts up with them.

There are over 2,000 drones per hive. They do nothing for themselves except walk and fly. They even have to be fed by the worker bees. They don’t have to clean house, forage, cook, baby the baby bees, guard the hive, or work in the climate control group. The only thing the drones are good for is, to pop one in your mouth when doing a demonstration just to get a reaction from the crowd. Drones do not have stingers, therefore, they can not under any circumstance, sting. The ooohs and aaahs are what makes this endeavor all worthwhile.

Well, there is one other thing the drones are good for. That is to congregate in a drone area and wait for the virgin queens to show up and race to be the first to catch one and mate with her. Of course, when a drone does mate with the queen, she keeps all his goodies and he fall off and dies. Then she will join the race again and mate with another drone. She may mate with up to about 12 drones before she goes back to her hive.

Now, about the drones that are unlucky/lucky??!! to mate. They are allowed to stay in the hive(s) of their choice until winter. At this time the female workers decide that there will be no more virgin queens until spring, so the drones are dead weight and they do not want to feed them through winter, therefore, the drones are forced out of the hive and are blocked from all the other hives. The only thing for them to do now is to starve to death. That is why I do not want to be a drone in a bee hive.

The workshop was held Saturday, September 15, 2007. There were between 80-100 people there. I did not get an accurate count for the people were moving around and in and out the doors. In attendance were quite a few novices and young beekeepers. Most of these are young people. Dr. Jamie Ellis and his wife, Amanda, spoke on African Bees and Pests and Diseases of the hive respectively. Mr. David Westervelt spoke on Honey Bee Nutrition. Mr. Roger Elliott gave a short but informative talk about the 4 H Club and goals concerning honeybees and the young people. Mr. Elmore Herman, president of the Florida State Beekeepers Association, talked about the FSBA and the benefits of the organization and the local bee associations.

We had demonstrations covering the building and maintenance of the wood boxes and frames and some different equipment ie. homemade bee vacuum, solar wax melter, honey strainer, and different jigs for cutting hand holds for the supers and brood boxes, and for putting foundation in the frames.

After lunch, we had field demonstrations in the inspections of hives, swarm management of artificially swarming by splitting the hive and making nucleus (nucs) out of the split.

Throughout the day at different intervals, we had drawings for door prizes.

At the end of the day, there was a question and answer period featuring all the speakers and the workshop committee chairman, Chet Beyers.

I was really impressed with the program and attendance.

Sometime between the cooks and guard bees, the middle aged bees are called upon to make wax to repair cells and to build new cells. The older bees cannot make wax anymore and the newly hatched bees are not mature enough. I would guess that 2 to 4 days are spent at this job then it is on to the front door to become the climate control operators. Some of the operators will stand at one side of the doorway and face out fanning their wings to push cool air into the hive while some of the operators will face into the hive forcing hot air out of the door. This causes a circulating effect sort of like a central air conditioning system. If it gets too dry in the hive, then the house bees will distribute water throughout the hive and circulate air across the water to humidify the hive.

The next 3 days are spent as guards. Their job is to inspect all bees to make sure they belong to this hive. If for some reason a bee comes in bringing nectar, pollen, or water, the guards will let them in. However, if a bee comes in and has no food and does not smell like the rest of the hive, then she will be forcibly removed. If she puts up a fight then the guards will sting her to death. That goes for insects too! They are real protective of their hive. The only bee that can go from hive to hive is the drone. He is welcome to any hive he chooses to enter. That is until winter. That is when the guards blocks the drones entrance. At the same time the house bees kick the drones out that are still in the hive. This is to keep them from eating the winter stores. The drones will starve to death.