The 2018 honey season is coming to an end, and the 2019 season is about to start with the arrival (production) of the Fat Bees. The Fat Bees will start out like any other worker bees, but they will be fed huge amounts of protein (pollen) to alter their physiology to survive the long winter dearth. Although nectar will still be brought into the hives as long as it's available, the bees will be focusing more on pollen. So why aren't the bees in the goldenrod? I have acres of goldenrod surrounding me and I have yet to see a honey bee on a blossom. There's many bumble bees (big ones, little ones), wasps and butterflies busily gathering nectar and pollen, but no honey bees. Maybe they found a field of asters that they find more attractive? My honey crop this season is dismal, as is everyone's that I've been in contact with, except for that one exception. Member Jack Bremer said he's doing fine, again. Ask Jack what he attributes his ongoing success to and you'll probably hear "location, location, location". Hmmm. Even a sideliner I contacted in the Waupaca area said he's way down. I'm thinking there's magic involved. So why is there so little honey this year?
Right now most of my hives are very strong with wall-to-wall bees, but several are not so strong. Those weaker colonies already have entrance reducers in to help the bees deflect any attacks by yellow jackets. I'll be monitoring my hives for visiting yellow jackets and will add entrance reducers when I see them gaining entry. Because yellow jackets can mimic the scent of a colony, they can often gain entry and go in to check things out. If they detect weakness in a colony, they'll return with their sisters and can destroy a colony in a day. Beware! After the honey supers are off it will be time to feed our bees 2:1 syrup and pollen (or pollen substitute) patties. Here in the north, our colonies require 80 - 90 lbs. of honey to overwinter. I personally leave all the honey that's in the deeps, and feed syrup until the bees stop taking it. But this is also dependent on the hives' winter configuration. (2) deeps or (3) mediums? With a super? A double high nuc? We'll talk about winter preparations, hive configurations, ventilation, etc., at our meeting on September 15. Feeding bees syrup is not necessarily a bad thing since it's "cleaner" than nectar when it comes to pesticides and fungicides. It does lack vitamin and mineral content though, so I add mineral salt to the syrup. I have no idea if it helps them or not, but it makes me feel good. Depending on how many colonies you're feeding, and winter emergency sugar needs, sugar can become a significant cost. Thanks to member Cindy Sheske we were once again able to stock up on free sugar, with a minimal donation to the ECWBA. Fred had a 55 gallon drum of it at the August 18 meeting, and those who were interested, and had their own containers, took what they wanted. We talked, again, about the importance of Varroa control and member Jack Rademacher shared a story. He had treated his colonies with oxalic acid vapor and then checked the sticky boards for mite drop over several days. Zero mite drop, and a happy beekeeper! While working his hives in that time frame, he cut off a chunk of burr comb that had drone cells. Normally, Jack, like most of us, just toss the comb out and leave it at that. But Jack had some free time and decided to take a look. With a toothpick, Jack pulled out around 60 drone larvae and counted 12 mites. A 20% infestation rate with that sample. Jack said he'll be using formic acid this week when the temperature is right. It's a good reminder to us all to not trust a zero mite sample no matter what method we use. All of our colonies have mites, period. The best we can do is keep the levels low so our bees remain healthy. Rhiannon mentioned seeing a lot of drones coming into her hive around 4 o'clock. That gave us the opportunity to discuss how drones work. They typically leave the hive around 10 or 11 o'clock and congregate in Drone Congregation Areas (DCAs) and wait for a virgin queen to pass by and then give chase. The fastest drones (from 1 - 24) will mate with the queen in mid-air, and then fall to the ground, dead. Those that don't mate return to the hive around 4 - 5 o'clock, leaving open the question, which were the lucky ones? Alex and Andi (sp?) from Ripon College attended the meeting to share their plans for sustainable living with us, and asked for guidance in the world of beekeeping. Member Buzz offered to provide beekeeping training at the college, with other members volunteering to help. Member Rick Schneider of Capitol Bee Supply was in attendance and offered to assist with their needs as well. The ECWBA is being well represented in this endeavor. (They probably should've been cautioned about asking 2 beekeepers about beekeeping and getting 3 answers. They'll find out.) We discussed whether to continue on with outreach Events, and the consensus was to continue but to limit the scope of the Events so that they are well covered by ECWBA members. So instead of committing to a four-day Event with little to no coverage during part of the Event, to commit to maybe two days with full coverage. We can also discuss the Event prior to committing, and find out how many members are willing to donate time to it. This will be an ongoing discussion. Patti proposed the idea of purchasing a small utility trailer to store our equipment (tables, displays, demo hive, tools, etc.) so that it's all in one place, and not necessarily on her front porch. This proposal has merit, but there is a cost involved. This was tabled and will be discussed further at a future meeting. I brought up that the bees at the club hives are doing well, but the costs of maintenance need to be addressed. Fred and I have each donated (5) drawn deep frames to replace plastic frames that the bees had been ignoring, but there's still several more untouched plastic frames in the deeps. Both hives have supers with all plastic frames, but a few are partially drawn out. I have also donated (2) FormicPro treatments and have ApiGuard for a September treatment, and both Pam and I have donated syrup. Going forward, there needs to be a budget in place to maintain these colonies, and we will discuss this at our September meeting. No one at the August 18 meeting expressed an interest in scheduling an extraction party at the Meadery, but Pam had told me that Sundays are the best days to extract so as not to interfere with Shane's operation. It will now be up to Pam to pick a Sunday for an extraction party, and those who want to participate are welcome to do so. A flyer will be sent out when a date is scheduled. Fred forwarded a beekeeping class schedule that is being offered for free by Tim Wilbanks of Heritage Bees, and I have attached the information in a Word document. I have also attached Patti's August 18 Meeting Notes. Our next meeting is September 15 at the Caestecker Library in Green Lake starting at 9:30 a.m. We'll discuss winter preparations along with the items noted above, and anything else that anyone would like to discuss. If you have stories from the apiary to share, bring them along. Tucker (our Shichon) and I just got back from a walk to the apiary. I didn't have my gear on so I didn't check for pollen coming in, but it was much quieter in the hives than it has been the past month or so. Just a low hum of wings and the scent of honey. Much nicer than a roar of wings and the scent of steam. Gerard
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ECWBA NewsletterSince 2009 Archives
March 2019
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