HoneyComb 1 July 2015 MeckBee HoneyComb The monthly newsletter of the Mecklenburg County Beekeeper’s Association July 2015 Upcoming Events: July 16th: Monthly meeting at Muzon UMC. August 22: National Honeybee Day Honey Harvest Fable Competition The Little Red Hen fable would fit right in to our honey harvest process: “Who will help me carry these supers” asked the Little Red BeeKeeper. “Not me” answered Waxey Moth, “but I need two fresh quarts.” The best honey-adaptation of the fable received before the August MeckBee HoneyComb will get published to universal acclaim and will win a FABULOUS PRIZE! Submit your entry to [email protected]. Solstice Party recap: More than 70 MeckBees attended the annual picnic at Greg & Margie Clement’s house on Lake Norman. Mike & Sylvia Kelley provided world- class barbecue, side dishes and drinks while MeckBees brought too many delicious deserts. Thanks to Greg and Margie for hosting the picnic and showing off their new and soon-to-be newest granddaughters. President’s Buzz by Gerry Mack Last week after dusk Libby and I were carrying a new hive down a twisty slippery dark trail around to the back side of a customer’s house. My phone rang and eventually went quiet as I had no hands uninvolved in beehive and beekeeper safety. Later on I played the message: This is Trooper [name redacted] from the North Carolina Highway Patrol Charlotte Division… OK, I figured it was yet another shady solicitation and was ready to push erase except, wait a minute, those telemarketers don’t actually use real firemen, police or troopers. Better listen to more. …I’ve got a flatbed and trailer pulled over here on I-77 at Woodlawn with hundreds of bee houses that we need to do something with. Do something with? Find them a hundred new apiaries? Pick up scattered shards of woodenware and corral ten million free bees? Rescue a sugar tanker from Apis attack? Better call back quickly. The bee truck was stopped for having inadequate marker lights. Neither driver had the necessary commercial licenses. They were headed from Florida to pollination in Ohio and all boxes and bees were safely strapped and netted. By the time I called back they had found a properly-licensed local driver and were fixing their lights. The Trooper was concerned about protecting the bees if they would still be on the side of the road at dawn. He got my number off the website. What if it was a bee spill? What could MeckBees do to help? I probably would have called everyone on the MeckBee swarm list would that be enough? I think that we could start a Mecklenburg County honey bee emergency response from the swarm list. Does anyone have any other ideas or want to be on the list?
Transcript
HoneyComb 1 July 2015
MeckBee HoneyCombThe monthly newsletter of the Mecklenburg County Beekeeper’s Association
July 2015
Upcoming Events: July 16th: Monthly meeting at Muzon UMC. August 22: National Honeybee Day
Honey Harvest Fable Competition The Little Red Hen fable would fit right in to our honey harvest process:
“Who will help me carry these supers” asked the Little Red BeeKeeper. “Not me” answered Waxey Moth, “but I need two fresh quarts.”
The best honey-adaptation of the fable received before the August MeckBee HoneyComb will get published to universal acclaim and will win a FABULOUS PRIZE! Submit your entry to [email protected].
Solstice Party recap: More than 70 MeckBees attended the annual picnic at Greg & Margie Clement’s house on Lake Norman. Mike & Sylvia Kelley provided world-class barbecue, side dishes and drinks while MeckBees brought too many delicious deserts. Thanks to Greg and Margie for hosting the picnic and showing off their new and soon-to-be newest granddaughters.
President’s Buzz by Gerry Mack Last week after dusk Libby and I were carrying a new hive down a twisty slippery dark trail around to the back side of a customer’s house. My phone rang and eventually went quiet as I had no hands uninvolved in beehive and beekeeper safety.
Later on I played the message:
This is Trooper [name redacted] from the North Carolina Highway Patrol Charlotte Division…
OK, I figured it was yet another shady solicitation and was ready to push erase except, wait a minute, those telemarketers don’t actually use real firemen, police or troopers. Better listen to more.
…I’ve got a flatbed and trailer pulled over here on I-77 at Woodlawn with hundreds of bee houses that we need to do something with.
Do something with? Find them a hundred new apiaries? Pick up scattered shards of woodenware and corral ten million free bees? Rescue a sugar tanker from Apis attack? Better call back quickly.
The bee truck was stopped for having inadequate marker lights. Neither driver had the necessary commercial licenses. They were headed from Florida to pollination in Ohio and all boxes and bees were safely strapped and netted. By the time I called back they had found a properly-licensed local driver and were fixing their lights.
The Trooper was concerned about protecting the bees if they would still be on the side of the road at dawn. He got my number off the website. What if it was a bee spill? What could MeckBees do to help? I probably would have called everyone on the MeckBee swarm list would that be enough?
I think that we could start a Mecklenburg County honey bee emergency response from the swarm list. Does anyone have any other ideas or want to be on the list?
HoneyComb 2 July 2015
We have the following equipment available to club members for extracting honey: * 9 Frame extractor (manual) * Uncapping tank * 5 gallon bottling bucket * Electric and non-electric uncapping knife * Uncapping roller * Capping scratcher
The charge is $5 per day to rent the equipment with 2 day minimum.
To reserve the equipment: Go to the club’s website www.meckbees.org If you have any questions contact George McAllister at 704-579-1169
Known to the locals in Maine as “Burt the Bee Man,” Burt Shavitz started his business as a hippie beekeeper, selling quart jars of honey from the back of his van.
He began expanding his business into a wider market, starting with candles, in 1983 with the help of his then partner, Roxanne Quimby. They eventually began selling the now famous peppermint lip balm, which remains the line’s number one selling item. Burt’s face is the recognizable mascot on many of the company’s items.
Read more about Burt’s life: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/07/business/burt-shavitz-scruffy-face-of-burts-bees-dies-at-80.html?_r=0
It’s Harvest Time! Founder of Burt’s Bees, Burt Shavitz dies at age 80
June Meeting Follow Up by Kim O’Shea I wanted to follow-up with the enthusiastic Meck Bee Members who were asking terrific questions- a woman asked about the lifespan of Neonicitinoids in plants/soil and a gentlemen asked about neem oil, etc. So, I am sure that the below links would be VERY interesting and informative to all the MeckBees. The links are those that I used for the presentation, but could only barely scratch the surface on this topic.
1. Posted online in August 2014, this is a comprehensive and detailed paper on all aspects of Neonicitinoids. Very interesting, a good primary source listing for several studies carried out in the USA and Europe. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4284396/
2. This 2-page summary (2012) is great for highlighting the effects of neonics on other pollinators and their studies are still ongoing. http://www.xerces.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/NeonicsSummary_XercesSociety.pdf
3. This link is all about Organic approved treatments- these too have varying toxicity levels for Pollinators. Neem is mentioned here, among others. A great reference for those seeking alternatives.... http://www.xerces.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/xerces-organic-approved-pesticides-factsheet.pdf
4. Since there were several people in the Meck Bee crowd asking questions that were handled well in this booklet, I would suggest that reiteration that EVERYONE should read the below link in full, bring any questions to a meeting and have a great, robust discussion about the items outlined there. http://www.foe.org/system/storage/877/60/a/3130/Gardeners_beware_report_8-13-13_final_updated.pdf
I’m a farmer’s market girl, and I’m always thrilled when the local peaches start to come in. Nothing beats those warm, juicy, never been chilled peaches. But how to keep them for enjoyment later in the season? Well, I usually peel, slice, and freeze some for later use in smoothies, but I also love to can them and save my freezer space. Here is a delicious recipe that has worked well for later use in pies, cobblers, or as an ice cream topper.
Directions: 1. Wash, peel and pit peaches. Leave peaches in
halves or cut into slices, if desired. Treat fruit to prevent browning.
2. Combine sugar, water and honey. Cook until sugar dissolves. Add peaches in syrup one layer at a time and cook for 3 minutes.
3. Pack hot peaches into hot jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Add 1/2 tsp allspice, 1/4 tsp cloves and 1 stick cinnamon to each jar.
4. Ladle hot syrup over peaches leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Wipe rim. Center hot lid on jar. Apply band and adjust until fit is fingertip tight.
5. Process filled jars in a boiling water canner for 25 minutes, adjusting for altitude. Remove jars and cool. Check lids for seal after 24 hours. Lid should not flex up and down when center is pressed.
National Honey Bee Day August 22, 2015 will be the 6th annual National Honey Bee Day. The 2015 National Honey Bee Day theme is "Ban Ignorance, not Honey Bees.” The National Honey Bee Day program started with a simple concept. Bring together beekeepers, bee associations, as well as other interested groups to connect with the communities to advance beekeeping. By working together and harnessing the efforts that so many already accomplish, and using a united effort one day a year, the rewards and message is magnified many times over. We encourage bee associations, individuals, and other groups to get involved. The program is free and open to all. Check out www.nationalhoneybeeday.com for more information, news, events, how to get involved, bumper stickers, pins, T-shirts, labels and a history of the event.
Local Honey Report No rain in May meant that not much honey harvested in June and caused some grumpy beekeepers. Even though June was also dry the bees seem to have found enough nectar to fill a good number of boxes for a July harvest. It’s still a below-average year but not as bad as things looked earlier. Anyone get different results?
Latest Hive Scale Program Apiara Hive Technologies based in Portland, Maine received a grant from Maine Technology Institute to fund a hive weighing project in North Carolina. If you are interested in participating, the cost is $150 for the equipment to weigh two of your hives. Your hives must be 50 -75 feet from your house so the hive can communicate with your computer via wifi. Apiara will accept up to 50 beekeepers in North Carolina for the project. Once the project is over, you get to keep the hive weighing equipment. Here is the link to their site for more information. http://www.apiara.com/ncproject/
Is it spelled honey bee or honeybee? “Regardless of dictionaries, we have in entomology a rule for insect common names that can be followed. It says: If the insect is what the name implies, write the two words separately; otherwise run them together. Thus we have such names as house fly, blow fly, and robber fly contrasted with dragonfly, caddicefly, and butterfly, because the latter are not flies, just as an antlion is not a lion and a silverfish is not a fish. The honey bee is an insect and is preeminently a bee; 'honeybee' is equivalent to 'Johnsmith'.” Honey bee it is! From Anatomy of the Honey Bee by Robert E. Snodgrass
Bee Informed!6 July 2015 BOONE—Tracking the health of honeybees across the U.S. is the work of a multi-university team, including a computer scientist at Appalachian State University.
The Bee Informed Partnership, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is comprised of scientists from eight universities, including the University of Maryland, Oregon State University, the University of Tennessee and Appalachian. The partnership members are also beekeepers.
View larger image Photo by Todd Bush courtesy of Hive Tracks Their goal in the $5 million project, now in its final year, has been to track hive loss and document beekeepers’ best practices as a way to mitigate losses.
“We have been collecting a lot of data. The next step is determining what it all means,” said Dr. James Wilkes, chairman of Appalachian’s Department of Computer Science and a beekeeper himself.
More than 6,000 beekeepers from across the U.S. participated in the partnership’s recent survey. Wilkes and his team of four undergraduate students from Appalachian and a computer programmer from the University of Tennessee were responsible for building the database infrastructure for the project enabling beekeepers to submit their information, and the scientists to generate reports based on the data collected.
Beekeepers provided information about the number of bees they keep, how many they lost each year, what their management practices are and techniques they use to manage their bees, among other information.
The information is important for both the backyard as well as commercial beekeepers, according to Wilkes. “The information is collected with the idea that the epidemiologists can look at the data and come up with correlations between particular practices and hive loss,” he said.
For instance, the data collected since the project began indicate that beekeepers who treat their bees for the varroa mite experience fewer losses than beekeepers who don’t treat for the parasite.
Beekeepers in North Carolina who responded to the survey reported that they lost 41.5 percent of their honey bee hives in 2014-15. Nationwide, the number of hives lost was 42.1 percent. Beekeepers in five states reported losses between 60 and 63 percent.
Healthy honey bees aren’t only important for honey production, they are vital to the success of commercial farms where pollination is needed for crop production of vegetables and fruit and nut trees.
“Bees are part of the food system and food security. If they are not able to have hives for pollination at the level needed by the farmers, there will be problems up the food chain,” Wilkes said.
When the USDA grant ends next year, members of the Bee Informed Partnership plan to continue their research.
“We want the grant work to continue,” Wilkes said. “Our goal has been to build a sustainable business model. We have formed a nonprofit organization to carry on this work after the original grant ends in May 2016. Our vision of the program is to identify the best management practices in the current climate of beekeeping. If enough people change a few things, we could reduce the overall loss.”
To learn about Bee Informed Partnership’s latest report, visit http://beeinformed.org.
HoneyComb 6 July 2015
July in the Bee Yardby George McAllister The nectar flow has ended and it’s time to extract honey. The weather was not the best for nectar production this year so many beekeepers are not expecting much honey. Plants do not produce much nectar when it is hot and dry. If the heat continues, this summer will probably go down as one of the hottest summers in history.
The end of the nectar flow is a significant time for the bees. Instead of gaining weight, bee hives start losing weight as bees consume more honey than they can produce. Luckily for us, bees will produce more honey than they need to survive the winter. In this region most beekeepers will leave one super of honey for bees wintering in a single brood box. If your bees are in two brood boxes, a super of honey is typically not needed. Weak and newly formed colonies will need additional food.
If you have the room in your yard, after you extract let your bees help with clean up. Place all the equipment, wet supers, uncappings and anything else with honey on it in the yard for the bees to clean up. Position everything as far away from your hives as possible to discourage bees from robbing the honey out of your hives. You will attract hundreds of bees so make sure to place the items away from people too. It usually takes a full day for the bees to remove all the honey.
You can also place the wet supers back on the hives for the bees to clean out. To entice the bees to move the honey into the brood box place an inner cover with a hole in the center between the wet supers and the brood box. You want to give the bees the impression the wet supers are not part of the hive.
Once your honey supers have been cleaned out by the bees you will need to store them in a manner to keep out wax moths. One method is to stack your hives outside where they can get plenty of light and air. Place wooden boards between each super for spacing to let in light and air. A space of 1.5 inches between supers is enough. Keep the supers off the ground and place a hive top on top of the stack to keep rain from getting inside. Another method is to use paradichlorobenzene crystals positioned inside a sealed stack of supers. Do not use moth balls. You can purchase the crystals from any bee supply company under the name Para-Moth.
Because robbing is an issue when the nectar flow stops, this is a good time to put hive reducers on your hives.
You may want to consider replacing your queens especially if they have been through two or more nectar flows. Some beekeepers replace queens annually. Dr. David Tarpy of NC State found queens that have not experienced a nectar flow are less to swarm in the spring compared to queens one year or older.
As always watch your varroa mite and hive beetle infestation.
HoneyComb 7 July 2015
Mecklenburg Count Beekeepers Association Membership Renewal PLEASE PRINT CLEARLY
Name* : ________________________________________________ Address*: ______________________________________________ ______________________________________________ City*: ________________________ State*: _____ Zip*: ________ County: __________________ Phone: ________________________ Email*: _________________________________________________ Send Newsletter via: Email (thanks!) Paper Number of Hives: _____ How long have you kept bees? ______ (yrs) Would you like to get move involved with the Club? Yes No
Today’s Date ______________ Membership Year : 2015
County Association $5 I am a New Renewing Member State Association $15 I am a New Renewing Member
TOTAL PAYMENT:($20 total for County and State Association dues) *
*
* This information (name, mailing address & email address) will be provided to all members of the Mecklenburg Beekeepers (and to members only – no one else will receive this information from us). If you DO NOT want this information released to the membership, please opt out by initialing here. _________
HoneyComb 8 July 2015
A Note from the Editor
Please email me with recipes, questions, pictures, article submissions, and anything else you’d like to share with the club in the monthly newsletter.
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