Beekeepers Workshop 2004

Merrimack Valley & Middlesex County Bee Clubs

at McLoon Farms, Dunstable MA

May 1, 2004

(Link to: May 2002 Workshop)

(Web page photos and production by Ed Erny - MCBA)

Contents:

Orientation
[1] - IPM: Equipment and Techniques
[2] - Feeding and Feeders
[3] - Swarms and Swarm Catching
[4] - Nucs and Splits
[5] - Honey Supers and Extraction
Afternoon Hive Openings

Orientation began in the Barn

The day started with a "Welcome" from Rick Reault (second from left) and
an orientation by Al Horton (left).

Al explained the 5 presentations that we would all have a chance to take part in throughout the morning.
We divided into 5 groups and went to our assigned areas, rotating to the next at the sound of
AL's infamous Air Horn !

[1] - IPM: Equipment and Techniques
(Integrated Pest Management)

Alden Marshal discussed and demonstrated IPM (integrated pest management).

A large majority of pest management efforts centers around mite measurement and control.
Other pests include the hive beetle, wax moths and mice.

Alden discussed the screened bottom board and its benefits in reducing
Varoa mite populations by allowing falling mites to exit the hive bottom rather than crawl back
on a bee from a bottom board. Alden shows the underside of the screened bottom board below.

The screened bottom board below is shown as it sits beneath the lower hive body.
These boards can be bought or home made. The exact size of the screen is not critical.
Typically, as with any bottom board, it is set on supports (blocks or boards) to allow
mites to fall on the ground.

... a visiting bee investigates during the presentation.

Alden discussed the operation and use of a propane powered fogger and
how food grade mineral oil is used in it to control mites.

There are also electric powered foggers. However, reports indicate electric models are
a bit less effective because they do not provide as much heat, which
is necessary to vaporize the oil effectively.

Once the fogger is heated, oil vapors appear that look like white smoke.

To fog a hive, white oil vapors will fill the hive for a few seconds and get on the bees and the internal parts of the hive. The time depends on the size of the colony. Perhaps 2-3 seconds for a small colony and 5 seconds for a large colony. Fogging is done once a week during the summer months.

The Boardman type feeder is the least desirable for several reasons. It
encourages robbing by attracting bees near the feeder entrance and other insects from else where (wasps and ants). However, it can be used successfully on the inner cover with a surrounding deep hive body and top cover (see next picture).

Fondant (from a baking supply company) can be used to feed bees in the
spring, placed on wax paper on the top bars.

Another liquid feeding method is with a plastic bag on the top bars 80%
filled with syrup and one or two slits placed in the top surface of the bag.

Essential oils may be added to syrup, such as Honey-B-Healthy, during the fall feeding or late
winter/spring before honey supers are added.

There are several top feeder designs available. These large volume feeders are usually overkill for the 1 or 2 hive hobbyist. They come in handy when hives are remote and only visited on occasion. This one shows two sections for bees with wood floats for bees to crawl on to.

Syrup is typically made for fall feeding of more sugar and less water, that is 2 sugars to 1 water equivalent by volume. In the spring, a 1 to 1 solution is used.

[3] - Swarms and Swarm Catching

Gus Skamarycz discussed swarm catching and shows us a swarm box
that can be used with swarm lures.

(picture by Scott Sminkey)

(picture by Scott Sminkey)

For swarms that have landed, Gus uses a home made bee vacuum.

The catching box has a screen enclosed inner box that collects the bees as they are drawn in by the vacuum.

Gus passed around a queen bank which contained several queens and attendants. Queens are also shipped in this type of queen bank.

And the best smoker fuel is.....

"Long needle southern pine" according to Master Beekeeper Gus!

[4] - Nucs and Splits

Rick Reault talked about starting and caring for nucs and splits.

The small 3 frame nuc box next to Rick can be used to hold a split of a couple of frames of brood from a strong hive and can then be transferred to a larger hive body as the split gets stronger.

Nuc boxes offer hold 4 to 5 frames, this is enough to keep a hive through the warmer summer months but is not recommended for wintering over because of limited food stores and colony size.

Rick described how the nuc will develop. Using drawn out frames is an advantage to help the nucleus colony get a start.

[5] - Honey Supers and Extraction

Al Horton presented methods for adding and removing supers (as well as removing bees from supers) and caring for honey (extracting and straining).

Stacking the empty super under the filled supers when adding more storage space, promotes even filling and nectar gathering by the bees.

The queen excluder goes on top of the hive body, under the supers. A queen excluder is optional. The metal excluder are recommended because the plastic type sag and tend to more easily get cemented down with propolus.

The bee escape is inserted under the super in which the bees are to be removed. After a day or so, most bees have traveled out of the super on top of the excluder and the honey frames can then be harvested. This works better on the cooler nights of September as the bees go down searching for warmth.

An alternate method of removing bees is the bee brush, also used to remove any last bees from frames after the bee escape does it's job.

When using the bee brush, place cleared off frames in a second super and keep covered with paper or a board so bees do not go back on the frames.

Of course there is always the leaf blower to blow bees out of the super after removal from the hive. A shop vac can also be used in reverse to blow the bees out of a super. Stand the super on it's end to blow the bees out. For a shop vac, the narrow attachment tool may be necessary to increase the pressure of the air flow.

(picture by Scott Sminkey)
The double sieve can be placed directly on the bucket. It is shown here with a stand
to keep the strainer out of the honey when the bucket gets full.

A common method of straining honey is to use the double sieve. The fine mesh is typically sufficient to provide honey for general use and sale.

Lint free cheese cloth is helpful in fine filtering. Al's tip of the day is to first wet the cheese cloth before use, Wring out all the water so the cloth is damp. This allows the honey to flow through the cloth more easily.

Afternoon Hive Openings

Starting the smoker - you will notice the metal container (small garbage can) behind the smoker. This can is used for transportation of a hot and maybe smoldering smoker. Makes a lot of sense for going from one bee yard to another or putting away your smoker in a shed or garage.

Alden opens a hive and points out signs to look for this time of
year (May 1).

Frames are inspected looking for signs of eggs and brood, honey, pollen, the laying pattern and any problems like foul brood.

Below, the upper hive body removed first, separating the colony before any inspection is done.

This allows each hive body to be inspected without bees all moving to one hive body making a quality inspection difficult.

Separating the hive bodies first is very helpful when looking for the queen, as she might move from one hive body to the other avoiding the searching beekeeper if left together.

A Special note...

A special Thanks to

" Air Horn Al "

for keeping things on schedule throughout the day!
(Al's picture by Scott Sminkey - MCBA)