Queen of the Sun (What are the Bees Telling Us?) -- A MUST See!

Check this film out at http://www.belcourt.org/events?id=75757

Very important to beekeepers and to people who need to eat to survive.

We are fortunate to have a showing of this important film here in Nashville at the Belcourt Theater.

Opens Friday June 5 and will run for only a short time.

People will be asking you about it.

Monthly Beekeeping Tasks: June

 Thanks to our friends at Hivetool.com for the following which is specific to TN

Beekeeping Calendar of Management Practices : June - All tasks for the month

• Combine all swarms issuing after June 1 with weak colonies. Continue to check for swarm cells every seven days.
• Continue to add supers of drawn comb as needed until the honey flow ends.
• Remove the capped honey after June 15.
• Uncapped honey can be removed two weeks after the honey flow ends.
• Prepare to move your bees to the mountain or to lima bean, soybean and cotton-growing areas for the summer honey flow if you want maximum production.
• Store all supers of honey in a warm, 90 F, dust-free, screened room.
• Extract the honey supers within four days after removing from colony or store in a freezer.

Wonder How to?

Removing Surplus Honey [Remember, there are several ways to get bees to leave the frames for extraction - if you're wondering how else this can be done, ask an experienced member of the club]

• The bees will fill the combs and cap the honey when they have cured it to 20 percent or less water. Some of the frames of honey may not be capped until several days after the nectar flow has stopped.
• The frames and supers of honey that are capped can be removed from the colony. The frames and supers of uncapped honey can be removed after two weeks of warm dry weather or three weeks of humid or wet weather.
• Honey must be processed and packed within three to four days after removal from the hive to prevent wax moth damage or honey can be stored at 10 F for long periods of time. Be prepared to process the honey when you remove the super from the hive.
• Open the colony and inspect the supers of honey. Frames of capped and uncapped honey can be exchanged between supers.
• The super of honey will be occupied by many bees. The excessive use of smoke to drive the bees out of the super may taint the flavor of the honey.
• Place an outer cover turned bottom side up with the empty super in the cover near the colony. An inner cover with a bee escape, a flat piece of plywood or an outer cover is needed to cover the super as you place the frames of honey that are free of bees into the super.
• Remove a frame of honey from the super of honey removed from the colony. Hold the frame by the ends of the top bar in front of the colony a short distance above the entrance. One or two short, strong shakes will dislodge all the bees. Immediately place the frame into the empty super and cover the super to prevent the bees from returning to the frame. Shake the bees from the remaining frames and load the super, keeping it completely covered except to enter the frames of honey. This method can be used very effectively with a small number of colonies.
• Place a outer board in direct sun and let it warm for 15 minutes. Then moisten the felt liner of the fume board with a repellent such as Bee Go and place the fume board on top of the supers to be removed. The Bee Go will drive the bees out of the super within 15 minutes. Avoid excessive amounts of Bee Go. Do not wet the felt liner to the dripping point.
• A queen may expand the brood nest up into the honey supers. Check all supers of honey to be removed for brood. Locate the queen and return her to the brood nest below. Exchange frames with brood for frames of capped honey consolidating all of the brood into one super. Place the super with brood on top of the brood chamber below the queen excluder. Honey stored in brood frames is food for the bees and should not be packed for human consumption.

  
Moving a Colony

• A honey bee colony can be moved to a new location. You may need to change the hive location in your yard or move the colony to another distant bee yard.
• A colony can be moved a short distance to relocate it near the original location. When a colony is moved more than two miles from its location, the field age bees will reorient to the new hive location within a few days.
• Remove the surplus supers of honey down to the brood chamber and one empty super before moving a hive.
• Staple all the outside parts of a beehive with the hive staples. Drive the staples in at the four corners fastening each part to the part above and below. This can be done during the day in preparation for moving in the evening after dark.
• Remove the inner cover and nail a screened cooling board over the top to close and ventilate the top of the hive. A cooling board is a plywood panel the size of an inner cover with a large screened window.
• Construct a frame with 1 ½ inch by one-half inch pieces of wood that will fit between the bottom board cleats, against the front of the hive body to cover the entrance. The bottom of the frame is made with a three-fourths inch piece to cover without blocking the entrance. The frame is covered with screen wire. The screened frame encloses a screened porch on the front of the hive. Air will circulate through the entrance and out the top to keep the bees cool in transit.
• The bees will return to the hive at dusk or a little later. Have everything in place except the entrance screen. Attach the entrance screen with a nail through the two end bars and load the colony for moving to a new location.
• Place the colony on a base at the new location. Smoke the entrance and remove the screen. Place the inner and outer cover on the hive. The cooling board can be removed when you inspect the bees.

Monthly Beekeeping Tasks: May

 Thanks to our friends at Hivetool.com for the following which is specific to TN 

Beekeeping Calendar of Management Practices : May - All tasks for month

• It is time to add another super when the super on a colony is one-half to two-thirds filled (six to seven frames).
• Raise the partially filled super and place the empty super on top of the brood chamber. Place the partially filled super on top of the empty super.
• Supers of cut comb honey foundation should be added on top of the honey super which is on top of the brood chamber to reduce the amount of pollen in the cut comb honey.
• Continue to check for swarm cells every seven days. Remove all swarm cells from the colony.
• Keep empty storage space in the supers on all colonies until the honey flow has ended.
• Remove and extract capped supers from your colonies if you need additional supers.

 

 Wonder How To?

 
Supering a Colony

• Prepare supers with clean frames and walls and foundation in the frames. These supers will be needed in April, May and June when the colony produces surplus honey.
• The black locust trees, clover and yellow poplar trees will begin to bloom in late April. The bees will need storage room for the surplus nectar about one week after the plants begin to bloom.
• Open the colony for inspection and add one or two supers as you close the colony.
• A super that has been used for winter feed will frequently have brood reared in the combs turning them dark. This super can be used by the bees to store another super of honey to feed back to the colony next winter. This super will be on top of the brood chamber and the bees will begin to fill it first. When this super is one-half to three-fourths full of nectar, remove it from the colony. Place one or two supers on top
  of the brood chamber and place the partially filled feed back super on top of these supers. Close thecolony. 
• Adding supers one or two at a time will give the bees the space needed to store surplus nectar to be cured into honey. Keep at least one super ahead of the bees during a good nectar flow.

Hiving a Swarm

• Prepare a swarm kit before the swarming season begins. A complete 1½ story hive will hold a large swarm. You will need a bottom board, a hive body complete with 10 frames of comb or foundation, a super with 10 frames of comb or foundation, an inner cover, an outer cover and a boardman entrance feeder or a top feeder. A sheet or a piece of plywood ground cover and a pruning tool or saw will complete your basic swarming kit. Staple the hive parts together with hive staples for moving after the swarm enters the hive.
• A swarm clustered on a low hanging branch near the ground is usually easy to hive. Place a sheet of cloth, paper or plywood on the ground under the swarm. Place the hive on the ground cover with the entrance toward the swarm. Shake the swarm off the limb onto the ground cover in front of the hive.
• The bees will begin to move into the hive. Within a few minutes, after the queen enters the hive, worker bees will begin to expose their glands and fan to mark the hive. The release of the pheromone marks the new home of the colony. Bees from the swarm flying in the area will be attracted to the new home by the pheromones released by the fanning workers.
• Move the hived swarm to the location you have prepared. Begin feeding the bees a mixture of two to one sugar syrup within two to three days after the swarm is hived.

 
 

Minutes from May 14, 2011 meeting

The Cheatham County Beekeepers club met at 9:30 AM on Saturday, May 14th at the Ashland City Public Library.  Mr. Paul Carter, a member, was the special speaker sharing information about SWARMS - what causes honeybees to swarm and how to catch a swarm.

A packet of information gathered from different sources about swarms was distributed to all present.  The information within the packet addressed causes - the why's of swarming, what happens within a swarm when honeybees swarm, preventing swarming, and how to catch a swarm.  Tips that emerged from the group's discussion included:

Before a hive swarms

• Reverse brood chambers in February to give the queen more room to grow into and lay more eggs.  The queen will be laying eggs in December and January most years (weather permitting)
• Add supers in March of each year to reduce overcrowding during brood build-up.
• If the bees are bringing in pollen - they're also gathering nectar.  Check your hives early.
• Make sure your queen is strong and laying well.  Some recommend replacing queens every 2 years; for the hobbyist (as opposed to the commercial beekeeper with hundreds or thousands of hives) a strong queen that is older than 2 years old might be worth consideration.  It's questionable if hives with strong queens swarm as often as those with weak or failing queens.
• When honeybees swarm, in a primary swarm, the bees decide to move first then the newly hatched queen catches up to the swarm and joins it. Then the swarm moves to another location - they scout for a permanent 'new' home that they select- and they move one last time to their new home.  You as the beekeeper might decide that you want them in a different 'permanent' home.  Read on for how to make that happen.
• Not all bees leave when a swarm occurs - a large number of bees remain in the hive usually.
• The beekeeper can often catch swarms on-the-fly by setting up a 'swarm box' from existing woodenware. This can be done along with your existing hives or somewhere else you think a swarm might land.   Set up the box with 1 frame of brood, 1 frame of honey

Once you've caught a swarm somewhere - what next?

• Put them into a woodenware box.  Add a frame of brood and a frame of honey.  Flat wax frames can be added to the box, swarming bees produce large quantites of wax to draw comb.  As they are drawing comb, feel free to move the frames around within the woodenware to ensure that all the comb is drawn (they draw from center outward - it's OK to take outer frames and put them closer to the center).  
• Spray the bees with sugar water (1:1 sugar to water).  This will calm them.
• The queen will be evident in a few days; she'll be small since she's yet to be mated.  She'll mate in flight with multiple drones.  A rule of thumb is to expect 10 days to elapse from when the queen hatches to when she begin laying.
• Check in 7 days for eggs.  If no brood in 3 weeks, the queen needs to be replaced.
• Leave the swarm in that location for 10 days or more before moving the hive to another location.  Then move slowly to the 'other' location.
  
• Wear your BEE SUIT when working with swarms; after 3 days, they have used all the stored honey in their 'honey stomachs' and begin to get aggressive and will sting.  If a bee stings when their honey stomach is full, they 'dump' their honey when stinging.

 Other options - swarms
  

• A swarm can be added to an existing weak hive.  Use the newspaper/hive joining method [1 sheet between the two hive bodies; the bees will eat it away and become a single hive in the process].
• Check out YouTube for more tips.  Try 'single Georgia beekeeper's' entries for example.

OTHER BUSINESS

1. Queens are available from Flint River Queens - Bill Mullins is the contact at 256-682-4372.  He is located in Meridianville, AL and can ship or offer pick-up.
2. Banana oil in beetle blasters causes aggressive behavior?  Lisa H reported such behavior after adding banana xxx to her beetle blasters.  After the blasters with the banana xxx were removed, the happy mood of her honey bees returned.  No one else in the group expressed the same reaction.
3. Suggestions / ideas about Cheatham County Beekeepers web site - Wondering out loud about use and usefulness of the website was another topic.  The membership is diverse in interest and familiarity with the blog.  Suggestions included 1) add a month x month listing of what needs to be done withe the hives, 2) heads up via email and web site when formic acid can be used (temperature sensitivity issues) or other issues that are time sensitive and offer guidance, 3) can categorize all posts on a month by month basis to make it easy to find what is being looked for, 4) maximize the calendar more, and 5) need a lesson in how to subscribe to the blog posts so they will automatically be emailed to subscribers.  [Kevin will give a lesson at next months's meeting].  Brief discussion also centered on if the name of the group makes it hard to find on the web.  Discussion to continue next month.
4. Bill Mullins from Flint River Queens is offering on-site 'How to Raise Queens' workshops - Are we interested?  There is a fee for his time and will also include costs for overnight accommodations, food, and travel costs.  Further discussion to continue next month.
5. Repayment of Paul Carter for copying costs approved - Without objection, reimbursement was made from petty cash.

With no further business, we look forward to Roger and Diana Senechal's return next month so we can hear about what they learned at Bee School in Georgia.

LMNutt

Back to School

I am sorry to be missing the May Bee Club meeting, but my wife and I will be busy bees at the University of Georgia Beekeeping Institute on May 12-14 in Young Harris, Georgia.

The Institute offers instruction in different levels of competence in beekeeping all the way from Novice to Master Beekeeper.

The web site is http://www.ent.uga.edu/bees/young-harris/index.html

I'll share everything I've learned after I come back, at the June Bee Club meeting. Maybe some of you will want to enroll next year. I intend to attend next year, too.

Thanks to Linda Nutt for chairing the meeting once again, and to Paul Carter who will be speaking on "Swarm Prevention and Swarm Catching" this Saturday at our meeting.

Sounds like a good program; hope you can be there.