THE MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF THE MECKLENBURG COUNTY BEEKEEPERS ASSOCIATION

Transcription

1 the honeycomb THE MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF THE MECKLENBURG COUNTY BEEKEEPERS ASSOCIATION April, 2016 President s Buzz I hope that you are all enjoying this amazing season and have spent some time with the honeybees. Spring has sprung at my house and when I turned around today everything had turned green, including my windshield. The bees have had an early start to the honey flow and it has been reported that some hives in Mecklenburg County are already collecting up to 100 pounds of honey! In terms of club activities, our Bee School 2016 has come to a close with a final written exam and fun gathering afterwards. It was a great school this year and all of the adults that took the written part of the exam, passed the exam. For you newbees, be sure to get your practical exam done soon so that you will receive your official beekeeping certification. The education continues in our monthly club meetings where, last month we had one of our members Dr. Kent Kalina speak to us about Apitherapy. Kent gave an eye opening talk about all of the healing opportunities available from within the hive. Amoung other things, I was unaware that for us to receive the benefits of pollen it needs to be broken down. As usual, the wealth of knowledge in this group is pretty fantastic. For April, we will be welcoming Greg Farris, who is one of the Apiary Inspectors for our region of North Carolina. Greg will be sharing his vast knowledge with us as it pertains to dead outs. While this may not be the most fun to discuss, any information to help diagnose how or why we lose our colonies is important to have. Be sure to come say hello to Greg on April the 21 st. Personally, the word around my house these days is SWARM! Between our own hives and outside calls I have received from others, our bee yard has become a bit ungainly. While I do have the best, most supportive beekeeping family, I think I am going to be cut off pretty soon. The number of hives has gotten a bit out of hand. So goes life as a beekeeper. In the meantime, please keep in touch, check out our facebook page and come to a meeting. We would be happy to see you and share our tales. Kris Daniels Bee School Makeup! April 6PM Mouzon United Methodist Church 3100 Selwyn Avenue Charlotte, NC (See page 3 for further details.) April s Meeting April 21st, 7PM Mouzon United Methodist Church 3100 Selwyn Avenue Charlotte, NC Diagnosing Dead outs Presented by Greg Farris. Thank you to Bill Robson for providing refreshments! Eriks Blaschka will be providing Cleanup and Teardown after the meeting. Please feel free to thank them for volunteering and to lend them a helping hand. The honeybee is much too busy to be bothered with personal reflection. - Susan Brackney, in Plan Bee the honeycomb 1 April 2016

2 In The bee yard by George McAllister The nectar flow has begun. If you have weak hives now is a good time to combine hives to make strong hives. You can also add frames of brood to boost a hive s bee population. One strong hive with 50,000 bees produces more honey than two hives containing 25,000 bees each. You want each of your hives to have as many bees as possible without swarming. Swarming is tough to manage but a hive with healthy bees and a large population will produce a lot of honey. I talked about swarming in my March article. As the nectar flow nears, remove hive entrance reducers since robbing stops. This also gives the bees a clear path in and out of the hive. You can stop feeding your bees as the nectar flow approaches. Make sure none of the sugar syrup you have been feeding your bees over the winter makes it in the frames of honey you plan to extract. Several years ago I helped a beekeeper extract his honey which ended up having a lot of sugar syrup in the cells. The only thing you could taste in the so called honey was the sugar. It had no flavor at all. He ended up feeding the mixture back to his bees in the fall. Start putting honey supers on your hives. If you are putting supers on with foundation, put one super on at time. If your comb is drawn out you can put two supers on at a time. As supers fill up with honey keep adding more. Giving your bees too many empty supers at one time may make it difficult for the bees to keep small hive beetles and wax moths in check. Photo courtesy of Midwood Hill Apiary & Kris Daniels. I also install queen excluders. Some beekeepers claim they reduce the honey yield but I have not seen this in my hives. I would keep queen excluders off my hives if I could keep the queen from laying eggs in the honey supers. I keep two deeps on my hives at all times and even with reversing the deeps the queen finds her way back in the honey supers. You definitely do not want brood in your honey frames when you extract. During the nectar flow make sure to stop all treatments that will harm your honey. I will say it again; you want to harvest honey this summer, not honey mixed with sugar syrup, brood or chemicals. Let the nectar flow begin! 2 the honeycomb April 2016

3 Gil s Honeybee Crossword Puzzle Across 2. The first thing to do after discovering a dead hive. 5. Make sure the entrance of your hive is not closed with this during the winter. 7. Pest that can cause a huge mess in a dead hive. 9. Honeybee disease that may cause a hive to die out. 10. In many cases dead outs will be discovered during this season of the year. Last month s answers provided by Kim O Shea Down 1. Can infest a box and destroy wax after a hive dies out. 3. Most common reason a hive does not winter over. 4. There may be plenty of this even though the hive died out. 6. When a hive is dead it is called a During winter you can do this to try to prevent a dead out. Send answers to ed@2219meck.com (subject line puzzle) by Wednesday, April 20th. You must be present at the meeting to win. the honeycomb 3 April 2016

4 Lessons Learned from Weighing my Hives by George McAllister For the past 3 years I have weighed four of my bee hives on a nightly basis starting at the beginning to middle of March. When I first started weighing my hives, my initial goal was to determine when the nectar flow started and ended. I define the start of the nectar flow when a hive gains weight on a consistent daily basis. Bees start collecting nectar in February and early March but not enough to compensate for the amount of honey they consume in a day. Once there is enough nectar in the environment for the bees to collect to replace the amount of honey they consume in a day, the flow has begun. Over the past three years the nectar flow has started as early as the first week of March (this year) to the first week of April. The start for the nectar flow depends on several factors; some fixed and others variable. The fixed factors include a plant s genetics, age, soil conditions and topography. These factors influence a plant s ability to produce nectar. The time of year a plant starts producing nectar is based primarily on the growing degree days (GDD) range of each plant species. That is why red maples bloom sooner than tulip poplars regardless of the environmental conditions. However the GDD range can vary by several weeks. Therefore, what is the trigger for a plant to start producing nectar within it s GDD range? It s the weather. Sunny days, with ample rainfall and warm temperatures cause plants to start producing nectar sooner. The weather this March was warmer than normal. Twenty-six days in March had temperature highs greater than the normal historical high for that day. Combined with mild nights and moderate amounts of rain, the nectar flow started sooner than most years. After I started weighing my hives not only did I learn when the nectar flow began, but I noticed some hives gained more weight than others over time. In some cases my strongest hives gained more than three times the weight of my other hives. When I compared my hives with the most weight gain to the others, I noticed several things. First, going into the nectar flow I noticed the hives I treated in the fall for varroa mites had a higher bee population than the hives I did not treat. The more bees you have in a hive, the more nectar they can gather. Treating the bees also increases their lifespan so they can spend more time gathering nectar. Second, my hives with young queens didn t swarm as much as my hives with two and three year old queens. My hives that swarmed during the nectar flow did not produce much honey. This makes sense because a swarm can take half the bees from the hive. Egg laying is also interrupted for around days until the virgin queen left behind mates and starts laying eggs. Thirdly, a large brood pattern means there will be a constant supply of bees as they emerge from their cells. A bee typically lives about five weeks in the summer and only two weeks at most do they gather nectar. A break in egg laying or a small brood pattern can bring down the number of foragers in the hive. You also want bees of all ages in your hive. The house bees are raising the next generation of bees. The house bees also take the nectar from the nectar foraging bees and place it in the cells. This means to be successful at honey production you need to start preparing your hives in the fall so they will be in the proper condition come spring to take full advantage of the nectar flow. After reading the previous paragraph you are a probably saying to yourself, preparing your hives in the fall makes sense but now it s April. What can I do now? There are several things you can do now and during the nectar flow. You will need to do some research to learn how to do the tasks I mention. Foremost, keep your hives from swarming. If your hive swarms, it is unlikely you will get much honey. Replace queens that are not laying strong brood patterns. If you lose a queen for whatever reason, replace her quickly. An interruption in egg laying hurts honey production. Maintain large populations of bees. Unfortunately when you have large bee populations, the chances of swarming goes up. The goal is to maintain a balance between bee population and propensity to swarm. This takes practice. You can combine hives or move bees and brood frames between healthy hives to build up colony population especially if a large hive looks like it may swarm. Increasing the honey production of your apiary is an ongoing challenge. As you gain experience keeping bees you will get better at reading your hives to determine what they need. If you want to see how my hives are doing, Kevin Freeman our webmaster, posts my nightly hive weights on the club s website. Have fun. -George McAllister 4 the honeycomb April 2016

5 Make-up Certified Beekeeper Written Exam by Jodie Rierson Date: Thursday, April 21 Time: 6:00 pm (Please arrive on time to allow yourself time to complete exam prior to our monthly meeting starting at 7 pm.) Location: Mouzon United Methodist Church 3100 Selwyn Ave., Charlotte NC *Enter on the Woodlawn Road side This make-up exam is for: 2016 Bee School students who had a conflict on the previous testing date and could not attend 2016 Bee School students who did not have a passing grade on the previous exam MCBA member who has significant experience in beekeeping and did not take the class but want to take the exam in an effort to become certified. (MCBA and NCSBA dues must be current.) PLEASE R.S.V.P. to meckbeeschool@gmail.com by April 18th. (so we will have enough tests for everyone.) The Test is 50 questions - multiple choice and True/False. the honeycomb 5 April 2016

6 SWARM! by Andrew Thiessen Note: I had every intention of writing about queen grafting this month. But the warm winter has lead to so many swarm calls that I thought swarms may be a timelier topic. Boy, that warm winter has lead to our bees building up very fast this spring! This rapid early build-up has caught a good many of us beekeepers off guard. And that s leading to a lot of swarms right now. How many? A LOT! I received five swarm calls on Sunday, April 3 alone. And--I kid you not--as I sat down to write this article, I just got another swarm call on this chilly morning of April 5 this is nuts! Jeff McNinch & I have teamed with Louis Giacomini of Giacomini Builders, Inc. to do bee colony cut-outs (Louis built my house eight years ago and has become a great friend of mine.). Louis right hand man, Mario, pinpoints the bees exact location with his infrared camera so we know precisely where to cut into the structure; Jeff & I remove the bees; finally, Louis cleans up after us and does the repair work. If you re going to do it, develop a team with a solid system and do it right! Remember last month I wrote that I made 20 new nuc boxes specifically to have on hand for potential surprise queen cells. Well, they re all full and I have another surprise seven queen cells to deal with from my best breeder queen who swarmed & left me on March 29 (Insert language not fit for women and children here!). To clarify, she left behind 10 capped queen cells. I used three to requeen lesser performing hives, so I have a surplus of seven capped queen cells in roller cages incubating in a hive right now. I inspected her hive on March 23 and completely missed any evidence of swarm prep, even though she laid those swarm cell eggs two days prior. Every one was in the Supersedure location in the middle of the face of a frame. Not a single one in the typical swarm location at the bottom of a frame. I heard the roar as I ate lunch, and watched them assemble at the tippy-top of a 50ft tall Hemlock tree in my backyard at Lake Lure. As I scrambled to throw together a bait hive, I watched them fly away up the mountain never to be seen again (Insert more colorful language!) As my good friend, Miguel, says, There is always a silver lining! To this he added, She left you a gift of many beautiful capped queen cells! As usual, I want to punch him in the nose for saying this because his words feel more like salt than solace when the wound is still fresh! It s been such a heavy swarm season that I don t have any more boxes to use for mating hives. And I just grafted four weeks ago. Even if I had the boxes, I don t have surplus bees & brood frames to make up seven new mating hives right now without robbing my production hives. My non-beekeeping wife asks, Why don t you just take bees from the big hives? Here s the short answer. As much as my passion lies in propagating bees, honey pays the bills. I never want to pull bees out of production hives...ever for any reason! That s what nucs are for producing bees. A good production hive makes 250lbs of honey or more per year. But only if I keep them very strong and they don t swarm. At $11 per pound retail, that s $2750 gross per production hive. I sell nucs for $180 and marked mated queens for $30ea. I d have to pull more than 15 splits or 92 mated queens from a single hive to equal the gross income from honey. I m not there yet, though I know it is possible. Closing notes Check your hives closely & often! It s possible there are young swarm cells you ll easily miss like I just did. Make sure all your neighbors have your contact info, so they can call you when your bees get away from you. If you want to protect your privacy, make sure they have my number (see swarm list on Meckbees.org). I m not kidding, I ll gladly come collect your bees! All the bees we ve seen in structures this spring have entered through gaps at ill-fitting exterior trim for exhaust ducts (i.e. kitchen range hoods, bathroom fans & dryer vents). If you re curious, you can follow along on our bee adventures on Instagram and the honeycomb 6 April 2016

7 Cooking with Honey White Seabass with Aji Chile Honey Marinade & Semilla Salsa (Reprinted from Honey.com) Ingredients 2 - pickled Peruvian aji chiles, available in Latin grocery stores 1-1/2 Tablespoons - honey Salt, to taste 3 Tablespoons - olive oil 1/2 cup - black and white sesame seeds, mixed 1 cup - peanuts and pumpkin seeds, mixed 15 - chiles de arbol, stems and seeds removed 6 - scaled seabass fillet, with skin left on 3 Tablespoons - grape seed oil Or just go out to dinner! Preparation Stem and seed the aji chilies and chop to achieve a smooth paste. In a mixing bowl combine the honey and the chile paste with salt to taste. In a hot skillet over medium heat, cook the chiles de arbol careful not to burn them. Remove the chiles with a slotted spoon into a food processor and pulse until chiles are chopped but not a powder. In the same pan, toast all the nuts and seeds for about 3 minutes, until golden. Return the chiles to the pan with the nuts and cook one more minute. Add salt to taste. On a cutting board, season the fish fillets on both sides with salt and black pepper. With the skin side down brush a generous amount of the chile honey marinade on top side. In a sautee pan heat the grape seed oil. Once the oil is hot, place the seabass with skin side down. Cook until the skin is crisp. Turn the fillet over and finish cooking for 1 minute in the oven. Place 2 tablespoons of the salsa on a small plate and top with the fish and a dollop of aji chile honey marinade. 7 the honeycomb April 2016

8 2016 MCBA OFFICERS Contact Us President: Kris Daniels Vice President: Ed Moyers Treasurer: Diana Smith Membership Secretary: Melinda Mitchell Chaplain: Don Rierson us with questions at Pictures & Article Submissions are always needed and are greatly appreciated. any submissions to: Subject: Honeycomb Webmaster: Kevin Freeman THE MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF THE MECKLENBURG COUNTY BEEKEEPERS ASSOCIATION April, 2016 MCBA Newsletter 2219 Mecklenburg Avenue Charlotte, NC PLACE STAMP HERE