Memphis Area Beekeepers Association http://memphisbeekeepers.com/

P. O. Box 38028 Germantown TN 38183 /////// Meeting Location: 7777 Walnut Grove Rd. | Memphis, TN 38120 July 10, 2017 at 7pm – MABA July 2017 Meeting – Bob Russell//Red Belly Bee Farm

JULY The nectar flow has or will be coming to an end. Your bees will be search for nectar as best they can. They are beginning to prepare for the winter and get as much stored up as possible. As the beekeeper, you will be harvesting soon. some may want to test and treat for mites this month. Not a great idea if you have honey

supers on as you don’t want to contaminate your supers with any chemicals. It would be best to first harvest your honey then treat for

mites either chemically or with powdered sugar. If you are finding that the bees are not storing honey in your upper supers, you may be

honey bound. Move the middle frames of honey UP to the next super replacing the lower ones with empty frames to encourage them to

move up and fill more supers.

What’s Happening Inside The Hive? The bees are much less active. The honey flow often ends, and the beekeeper will notice that stings are

more frequent! This is because the foragers have less to do, and consequently spend more time at home guarding the hive. Swarming is still

possible, but much less likely. Bees are now searching for water to cool their hive, and will fly for miles to find it if necessary. They place

small drops of water in the cells and use their wings to fan the air over the cells.

Beekeeper Chores: Many beekeepers harvest the honey in July. Take the frames in which the honey cells are capped. If the weather has been

rainy, the bees may not have been able to remove enough moisture to ripen it yet. In this case, many of the honey cells may still be uncapped.

Leave the honey frames on the hives through a hot, dry period, and check again. Water availability can be a concern. If water (a stream, pond,

or other clean water) is not within a half mile, provide a source. This can be a slowly dripping faucet or large container of water with pieces

of wood floating in it. Look for varroa, especially in your strongest hives. Hives with the most bees have the most drone brood, the favorite

spot for these mites. Uncap at least a dozen capped drone cells, remove the pupae, and examine them carefully. If you have varroa in these

cells, remove the honey harvest as soon as possible and treat with Apistan or Checkmite. If you do not find varroa, repeat this examination in

the following weeks.

Sticky boards placed on the bottom boards are more accurate indicators than drone brood checks. If over 15 mites per day are falling to the

sticky boards, they are reaching dangerous levels. Hives can be successfully requeened in July and August. However, it is harder to find the

old queen in a hive packed with bees in midsummer, compared with the much smaller hive population in April. It is a good idea to feed the

bees to encourage acceptance of the new queen, if requeening is done when the bees are not on a honey flow. Observations and Ideas Scout

the area near the hives to see where your bees are finding water. They may be a nuisance to neighbors if your bees have fallen into swimming

pools. Some beekeepers plant crops in the spring to supplement their honey production in July and August. Buckwheat, vitex and sunflower

are plants that can provide nectar in mid-summer. At KSU we have found that buckwheat is a relatively drought-resistant nectar source. Taken from: http://www.ksbabeekeeping.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/beecalendar.pdf

It is honey extracting time and the club has extractors to loan ask at the meeting. Using a Honey Extractor to Harvest Honey A honey extractor producing the liquid gold from the honey bee is one of the greatest joys of beekeeping. Working your bees to produce this unique food product is definitely rewarding. So how do you use the extractor to harvest your honey? The two frame honey extractor we used in harvesting honey this year belongs to our beekeeping association. If your extractor doesn't have a stand, you will need to figure out a way to stabilize it during the extraction process. I have my Dad's old Black & Decker Workmate. It made the perfect stand for the extractor. Once you have an extractor, get your honey frames from your hive. This is one time you will open your hive that you shouldn't smoke your bees much. Smoking taints the flavor of your honey. [You will probably have a greater urge to smoke your bees during this visit, because they generally aren't happy when you are robbing their hive.] There are several methods to getting the bees off the frames of honey so you can take them to your honey processing area without bees. [This is one of the few times when you as a beekeeper will want to be separated from your bees!] After gleaning all your frames of honey, it's time to head to the processing area to get the honey out of your frames. Hopefully you have a capping knife to melt/cut off the caps from your frames. You can use a regular knife for this, but care must be taken, even with a heated capping knife not to tear the wax from the foundation. After the caps are removed the frames are placed in the extractor where they are spun out. The extractor we used was a two frame hand operated honey extractor. Spin the frames until the honey is extracted from one side, about 75 - 100 cranks at a pretty high speed. Take care with wired wax foundation to be sure you don't cause the foundation to come apart. After 5 or 6 frames we had to open the honey gate at the bottom to begin draining off honey into the waiting bucket with the filter screen tied off on the top. After all the frames had been extracted and the honey extractor drained, the cappings were added to the filter in the top of the bucket so the honey on them to be recovered. Let your honey rest in the bucket for 24 hours so bubbles can rise to the top. In the meantime prepare your jars & labels to receive your liquid gold for personal consumption and to sale.

Tips on Harvesting Honey 18 Things a Beginning Beekeeper Should Know to Help Things Run Smoothly on Extracting Day

The following suggestions are offered for the benefit of beekeepers with a few hives who do not have a permanent honey house. They are

meant to supplement the information in books where everything seems so simple and easy. Many beekeepers, including myself, have learned

some of these self-evident truths the hard way.

Honey is sticky. It will drip. Every doorknob, shoelace, telephone and radio button that is touched while uncapping or handling wet frames

will become sticky. Walking spreads the honey around on the floor.

Solution: A bucket of water to rinse hands and a dishtowel are essential in the extracting room, especially if you are married and want to stay

that way. Turn on the fan and radio, and get everything else ready, before getting all sticky. The garage, basement, barn or porch are usually

better places to extract than the kitchen, providing you can keep the honey clean. Watch the kids.

Bees in the extracting room are attracted to light. Straggler bees left in the supers will find their way into the extracting room and will tend to

fly towards a window or light bulb. Solution: A small exit near the top of a window will allow them to return to their hives if they are

nearby. If the hives are not nearby and you have a lot of bees in the room, hanging a few drawn frames near the top of the window with a

caged queen will provide a place for them to settle and create a nice nucleus colony when you’re done. A vacuum cleaner hose is an

alternative. Don't extract directly under the only light bulb in the room.

Bees away from their hive are not inclined to sting. Bees carried into the extracting room in supers are normally extremely gentle, with no

brood or queen present. However, they are very adept at stinging the finger that accidentally crushes them while picking up a frame or super.

Beware. Household items can serve as good alternatives to supplies found in beekeeping catalogs.

A serrated bread knife makes a good uncapping knife. Use a sawing motion. No need to heat it. Change directions if it catches the wood.

Some beekeepers really like using a hot-air electric paint stripper to quickly melt the cappings, but I haven’t tried it. Kitchen strainers, nylon

paint strainers, and women’s nylon stockings can serve as good honey filters. Clean ones, of course. Tupperware and Rubbermaid both

make good plastic containers to hold honey and cappings. Honey is acidic, so don’t use items such as aluminum and galvanized steel that

will react with the honey acids. Stick with plastic, stainless steel or glass.

While there is a good household substitute for most extracting equipment, there is no good substitute for a good centrifugal extractor. Let the

honey settle. Honey that rests for a few days after extracting will not leave tiny bubbles around the rim of a jar. Be patient. Almost all

debris left in the honey after filtering will either float or sink within a few days. A spigot just off the bottom of a container will prevent both

floating and sunken debris from being accidentally bottled. If there is no nectar flow, bees will rob honey. If the honey in an extracting room

is more appealing than local flowers, the neighborhood bees will try to feast on it and tell all their friends.

Extracting is best performed in a closed screened room such as a garage, basement or barn, or outside after dark. I heard a story about a guy

that brought some supers into his basement to extract the next day, but he left a window open. The next day he found that his bees had

brought half the honey back to their hives.

Uncapping is easier with only 8 or 9 frames spaced evenly in a 10-frame super. The thicker comb means almost no scraping with the fork.

After bees have drawn out the foundation the first season, return only 8 or 9 frames into each extracted super to make the next crop easier to

uncap. Uncap all the way down to the wood on the top and bottom bar, regardless of how far the comb in drawn out, so the comb will be nice

and even next year.

Propolis sticks to shoes and almost everything else. Extracting is a great time to clean propolis off the box edges and frame-rests, but if they

are going to be scraped it is best to cover the floor with old cardboard, newspaper or a plastic painter’s tarp so there won’t be little propolis

reminders of the extracting experience. Wax isn’t quite as bad.

Butyric acid (Bee Go) really stinks. It works great, and is the best way for most hobby beekeepers to clear bees from the supers. The bees

don't get as angry as brushing or blowing them, but that smelly fume board belongs behind the garage or near the fence when you're done.

The chemical bottle belongs in a plastic bag inside an old coffee can or something else that won’t tip over; this is stuff you do not ever want

to spill. The almond-smelling Benzaldehyde smells better and works okay in cooler weather, but it still belongs outside. Bee escape boards

work okay too, if you can install them the day before extracting, have enough escapes for every hive, and don’t have too many holes between

the boxes where the bees can enter and rob the honey. My equipment is old and leaks.

Extractors, uncapping tanks and other extracting equipment are best borrowed or shared. Most hobby beekeepers will only use their

extracting equipment one or two days each year. The rest of the year it typically gathers dust in an attic, garage or basement. Thus it is very

practical and economical for several beekeepers or a beekeeping association to share equipment. The expense is avoided, and it eliminates

the need for storage space. So borrow or share, and use some of that money saved to buy a few of the nice non-stick polyurethane candle

molds. If you must buy, a good quality hand-crank 4 frame extractor will suit most beekeepers better than 2 or 3 frame models, since it

reduces the spinning work and thus greatly shortens the extracting time.

Extracting honey is best accomplished with two people. One person uncapping frames while the other spins the honey. Very efficient and

the conversation can be good. It’s not very stressful to a relationship either, unlike hanging wallpaper. If you have clean wax from an earlier

extraction, a side candle-making operation is an effective use of time since candles take time to cool. Warm honey flows best. Warm honey

spins out of the comb faster and more thoroughly than does cold honey in an extractor. Warm honey also strains faster through a filter.

Honey at 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27 c) or higher will be extracted most easily. This is normally not a problem in the summer, but in cool

weather a light bulb under a stack of supers overnight can provide a lot of heat if the escape of the heat is controlled. Don’t melt the wax!

Extracted honey absorbs moisture from the air. Uncovered honey also catches insects, so keep the honey covered. Sufficient honey

containers are needed on extracting day. Enough containers need to be on hand when extracting, so it is good to learn how much capacity

you’ll need before extracting. In rough numbers:

a. A shallow super will typically yield between 25 and 30 pounds of honey, or 2 to 2 ½ gallons.

b. A medium (6 5/8”) depth super will typically yield between 35 and 40 pounds, or 3 to 4 gallons.

c. A full-depth box will typically yield between 60 and 70 pounds, or 5 to 6 gallons.

Actual yields vary due to the number of frames, how well they are extracted, age of comb and other variables.

Wax cappings hold a lot of honey. Wax cappings typically hold 10% or more of a beekeeper’s honey crop. Cappings should be drained of

honey through screening. After draining, the cappings wax can be melted into a block. Melting is best accomplished using a solar wax

melter, or by heating the cappings in an inch of water in an old pot. Feed the honey-water back to the bees.

Solar wax melters really do work well – use double-paned framed window glass and build around it. Alternatively, the cappings can be left

outside for the bees to feed on and then thrown away

Utensils that are used with melted wax will not be used for anything else. Melted wax leaves a waxy film on every pot, spoon, dipping cup or

strainer it comes into contact with. Crock pots with an inch of water are good for melting cappings that have been drained of honey, but the

pot will never be the same. Old crock pots are also near-perfect for melting wax during candle making, and they are often available at garage

sales. Heat to between 150 and 180 degrees Fahrenheit; no need to boil.

Bad comb and rotten boxes should be replaced while extracting. Extracting provides the perfect opportunity to cull bad combs, frames and

boxes that need paint or replacing. Have replacements on hand on extracting day. When short a few frames, frame feeders (also called

division-board feeders; the kind that normally replace a frame or two) can be put in the empty spaces in the supers so any burr comb built

there will be inside the feeder where it will actually be useful to prevent drowning when it is time to feed.

Let the bees clean the “wet” empty supers after extracting. Whether intending to return the supers to the bees or store them off the hives, the

bees do a great job of drying supers after extracting. A stack of supers can be placed on a hive, over an inner cover that has a hole, and they

will usually be dry the next day. Best to put them on the hives late in the day, to reduce robbing. Every beekeeper has unique conditions, and

there are many good beekeepers that use different methods, so enjoy experimenting with what works best!

From the National Honey Report – Vol. XXXVII - # 6 Page 5 June 23, 2017 TENNESSEE: The majority of beekeepers in Tennessee have been reporting that they are producing more honey this year than for the past

4 years. Black locust, tulip poplar, clover, privit and other wild flowers bloomed quickly this spring. Some areas have seen too much rain and severe storms that decreased their nectar flow. MISSISSIPPI: The bees are reported to be in great shape for summer and are out and about collecting to build up more honey for pulling

later. Popcorn honey is being pulled now and the clover is blossoming well for later sales and a good harvest is expected. Prices remain steady about the same as last year, running about $1.70 lb. ARKANSAS: No report issued. HOW TO KNOW WHEN TO HARVEST HONEY FROM YOUR BEEHIVE By Howland Blackiston Generally speaking, beekeepers harvest their honey at the conclusion of a substantial nectar flow and when the beehive is fil led with cured and capped honey. Conditions and circumstances vary greatly across the country. First-year beekeepers are lucky if they get a small harvest of honey by late summer. That’s because a new colony needs a full season to build up a large enough population to gather a surplus of honey. When a shallow frame contains 80 percent or more of sealed, capped honey, you’re welcome to remove and harvest this frame. Or, you can practice patience, leave your frames on and wait until one of the following is true:

The bees have filled all the frames with capped honey.

The last major nectar flow of the season is complete. You want to wait until the bees have gathered all the honey they can, so be patient. That’s a virtue. However, don’t leave the honey supers on the hive too long! Things tend to get busy around Labor Day. Besides spending a weekend harvesting your honey, you probably have plenty of other things to do. But don’t put off what must be done. If you wait too long, one of the following two undesirable situations can occur:

After the last major nectar flow and winter looms on the distant horizon, bees begin consuming the honey they’ve made. If you leave supers on the hive long enough, the bees will eat much of the honey you’d hoped to harvest. Or they will start moving it to open cells in the lower deep hive bodies. Either way, you have lost the honey that should have been yours. Get those supers off the hive before that happens!

If you wait too long to remove your supers, the weather turns too cold to harvest your honey. In cool weather, honey can thicken or even granulate, which makes it impossible to extract from the comb. Remember that honey is easiest to harvest when it still holds the warmth of summer and can flow easily.

http://www.dummies.com/home-garden/hobby-farming/beekeeping/how-to-know-when-to-harvest-honey-from-your-beehive/

Honey in open cells (not capped with wax) can be extracted if it is cured. To see if it’s cured, turn the frame with the cells facing the ground. Give the frame a gentle shake. If honey leaks from the cells, it isn’t cured and shouldn’t be extracted. This stuff is not even honey. It’s nectar that hasn’t been cured. The water content is too high for it to be considered honey. Attempting to bottle the nectar results in watery syrup that is likely to ferment and spoil.

Scientists Say Agriculture Is Good for Honey Bees Research Finds Positive Correlation Between Bee Health and Presence of Agriculture 5/2/2017

Ginger Rowsey, gtrice@tennessee.edu

JACKSON, Tenn. – While recent media reports have condemned a commonly used agricultural pesticide as

detrimental to honey bee health, scientists with the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture have found

that the overall health of honey bee hives actually improves in the presence of agricultural production.

The study, “Agricultural Landscape and Pesticide Effects on Honey Bee Biological Traits,” which was published in

a recent issue of the Journal of Economic Entomology, evaluated the impacts of row-crop agriculture, including

the traditional use of pesticides, on honey bee health. Results indicated that hive health was positively

correlated to the presence of agriculture. According to the study, colonies in a non-agricultural area struggled to

find adequate food resources and produced fewer offspring.

“We’re not saying that pesticides are not a factor in honeybee health. There were a few events during the

season where insecticide applications caused the death of some foraging bees,” says Mohamed Alburaki, lead

author and post-doctoral fellow with the University of Tennessee Department of Entomology and Plant

Pathology (EPP). “However, our study suggests that the benefits of better nutrition sources and nectar yields

found in agricultural areas outweigh the risks of exposure to agricultural pesticides.”

According to the study, hives located in areas with high to moderate agricultural vegetation grew faster and

larger than those in low or non-agricultural areas. Researchers suggest the greater population sizes enabled

better colony thermoregulation in these hives, as well.

Meanwhile, bees located in a non-agricultural environment were challenged to find food. Although fewer

pesticide contaminants were reported in these areas, the landscape did not provide sustainable forage. In fact,

during the observations, two colonies in the non-agricultural areas collapsed due to starvation.

Disruptions and fluctuations in brood rearing were also more notable in a non-agricultural environment.

Interestingly, brood production was highest in the location that exhibited a more evenly distributed mix of

agricultural production, forests and urban activity. “One possible explanation for this finding could be the

elevated urban activity in this location,” says Alburaki. “Ornamental plantings around homes or businesses, or

backyard gardens are examples of urban activity that increase the diversity of pollen in an area. Greater pollen

diversity has been credited with enhancing colony development.”

Researchers also evaluated trapped pollen from each colony for pesticide residues. Low concentrations of

fungicides, herbicides and insecticides were identified, but at levels well below the lethal dose for honey bees.

Imidacloprid was the only neonicotinoid detected, also at sub-lethal levels. Agricultural pesticides, particularly

neonicotinoids, are considered by some to be a key factor in declining honeybee populations. The UTIA study

found that higher exposure to pesticides in agricultural environments did not result in measurable impacts on

colony productivity.

“We train agricultural producers on careful selection and conscientious application of pesticides to reduce bee

exposure,” says Scott Stewart, Integrated Pest Management Specialist with UT Extension, “but it’s becoming

more clear that the influences of varroa mite and food availability are more important factors in honey bee

health than agricultural pesticides.”

This study was supported in part by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service Pest

Management Program. Through its mission of research, teaching and extension, the University of Tennessee

Institute of Agriculture touches lives and provides Real. Life. Solutions. ag.tennessee.edu. Contacts: Mohamed Alburaki, post-doctoral research associate, UT Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, 731-425-4718, malburak@utk.edu

Ginger Rowsey, UTIA Marketing and Communications, 731-425-4768, gtrice@tennessee.edu https://ag.tennessee.edu/news/Pages/NR-2017-05-AgGoodForBees.aspx

This is an excellent site for New Beekeepers

From ScientificBeekeeping.com Beekeeping Through the Eyes of a Biologist, Randy Oliver First Year Beekeeping Updated 27 June 2017. Beekeeping in a Nutshell ----- I’ve attempted to distill 50 year’s of beekeeping experience into a short

set of instructions for starting out with bees in the Sierra Foothills. This page provides some quick step-by-step notes for your

first year of beekeeping, written specifically for those starting with a nucleus hive or package bees purchased from me, but

generally applicable. Since the vast majority of colony failures are due to lack of varroa management, I’ve covered this subject

more extensively.

Starting Out First, educate yourself! A honey bee colony is a living animal that deserves to be cared for properly. You are

beginning beekeeping at a time in which honey bees are struggling to stay alive–beekeeping is more difficult than it was prior to

the parasitic varroa mite (which invaded around 1990). Although honey bees are essentially wild animals living in a box

provided by their “keeper,” bees are in the midst of an evolutionary struggle due to the introduction of varroa (which

completely changed colony stress and virus dynamics), as well as that of Nosema ceranae (an opportunistic parasite that can

cripple a stressed colony). In addition, the bee population now faces the additional novel stressors of persistent European

foulbrood, loss of forage in many areas, the effects of climate change (shorter winters), and pesticide exposure.

http://scientificbeekeeping.com/first-year-care-for-your-nuc/

For a good, standard, no nonsense summary of good beekeeping practices, see

http://www.beesource.com/resources/usda/productive-management-of-honey-bee-colonies/

See you at the meeting and ask about the process for borrowing an extractor.

Remember to save some honey in a jar for our FALL HONEY SHOW! This is where we compete for MONEY and

the Awards for the beautiful honey displayed. Save that HONEY and a frame of beautifully capped honey or make a

recipe with honey, the more entries in the show the larger the prize. Expect more information soon.

Think about Volunteering to teach and sell honey at the upcoming festivals in September and October.