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buzzwordshttp://www.barnstablebeekeepers.org
October 2018
Upcoming Meetings
7:30 pm at the West Barnstable Community Building on Route 149.
Tuesday, October 9th Anne Frey, Master Beekeeper
Anne Frey lives in the Albany area of New York. She first got bees in 1989. Like most of us, Anne was a bee-haver for 5 yrs, until she discovered the South-ern Adirondack Beekeepers Association (SABA) and became a member. She learned a lot from the other members, and worked her way up through the Club ultimately becoming invaluable to its operation.
She became an EAS Master Beekeeper 2002 and has held many offices in SABA over the years. Anne keeps 27 of her own hives and maintains 40 hives for another person. She also runs a Bee School in her community and mentors other beekeepers.
Tuesday, November 13 Dr. Jamie Ellis
Gahan Associate Professor, Honey Bee Husbandry, Ecology, and Conservation; Integrated Crop Polli-nation
Dr. Ellis is the Gahan Associate Professor of En-tomology in the Department of Entomology and Nematology at the University of Florida. At the University of Florida, Dr. Ellis has responsibilities in extension, instruction and research related to honey bees. He created the UF, South Florida and Carib-bean Bee Colleges, and the UF Master Beekeeper Program. As an instructor, Dr. Ellis supervises Ph.D. and masters students in addition to offering an online course in apiculture. Dr. Ellis and his team conduct research projects in the fields of honey bee husbandry, conservation and ecology, and integrated crop pollination. The mission of the Honey Bee Research and Extension Laboratory (HBREL) is to advance our understanding of managed honey bees and wild bees in Florida, the U.S., and globally, with a goal of improving the health and productivity of bee pollinators everywhere.
From the Board
Famous Last Words As the beekeeping season draws to a close, we decided to use Saturday to complete a few final tasks like pulling off our last honey super and treating for mites. Everything went as planned and I remarked to my husband, “That went pretty smoothly.” Fast forward 20 minutes. Just as we were about to head out the door, I peeked into the backyard and saw a huge robbing frenzy going on. When I looked at the hive, I realized we had left two honey frames next to the hive. That explained it! The hive front was covered from top to bottom with bees. Thankfully, the robbing screen was on. We put our suits back in, grabbed a sheet to throw over the hive, and headed back out to see what we could do to rectify our mistake. We shook off the honey frames we had left out and tried to get them inside, a futile effort, so we threw them in a hive box and covered them with a towel to minimize the robbing. There were bees everywhere, and we had to go around to the front door to get back inside the house. Having done all we could, we headed out as previously planned. When we returned several hours later, the situation had calmed down, though it had not totally been resolved. Eventually, the robbing subsided and at dusk, I pulled the sheet of the hive and shook the final bees of the frames. There were lots of dead bees around, and surveying the damage left me feeling like a rookie! We’ve got our fingers crossed that the hive is strong enough to re-bound from this, and chalked are chocking this up to a tough lesson learned. If at first you don’t succeed....
Maria Cashdollar
CLASSIFIED:
Honey-selling opportunity:
Highfield Hall (Falmouth) is looking for honey to sell at their Holiday Gift Gallery (https://highfieldhallandgardens.org/event/holidays-at-high-field-13/2018-11-23/). This is a fundraiser for Highfield Hall, so there is a 35% commission. If interested, contact [email protected] before Oct 10.
Winter Feeding
Lots of questions are coming in as just how best to feed our bees after we no longer can add the sugary syrup come mid- October. First, it is your decision whether your bees are hungry or short of stores or are maintaining a good weight going into the winter. Some folks prefer not to feed knowing their hive top boxes are chock full of honey or nectar for the winter. Others (like me) always feed all winter long for fear of starvation. One long cold spell where the bees will not break cluster to find more honey just an inch or so away and starve to death in a tight cluster just does not sit well with me. A few plates of sugar are an insurance policy and much cheaper than replacing a hive with a nuc or new package of bees.
So, after your hive top feeder is off or your bucket feeder, a simple 1” to 2” shim can be added on the top brood box. The mountain camp method of feeding can be used with a sheet of newspaper but what I have found is much simpler is just a few really cheap paper plates as seen above. Mound-ed with white sugar and misted to clump really cannot be much easier. It is there if the bees need it and will cause no damage if they do not consume it. Noted on the second photo is just how well the bees access the sugar by chewing through the plates and licking the plates really clean.
Until cold weather sets in, these plates should be scraped off and discarded. Do not just keep adding more plates. You will find upon scraping them off if you have small hive beetles. The bees are so very clever that they trap the beetles with propolis under the plates. Best to squish them if you are quick enough. Once frigid weather arrives, laying is acceptable but do NOT mist in the winter. There is enough moisture and condensation in the hive so the sugar will clump quite readily. And pollen substitute as a patty or powder is not needed during the winter as there is no brood being reared. Wait patiently for late February or March if you want to add this.
Claire Desilets
Wellfleet Shim
I’d like to share a device that I’ve been using for over ten years with good results. Let’s call it the Wellfleet Shim; images attached. It’s basically a 3-inch high box in place of an inner cover, which I no longer use. It has cleats inside to support a piece of 1-inch-thick insu-lating foam board; the foam prevents condensation that would drip onto the winter cluster in winter (Nov-May), but I have to remove it during the warm months because carpenter ants, and sometimes even the bees, tunnel into it. It achieves pretty much the same benefits as the new Vivaldi boards, but without loose-fill newspaper, wood shavings or whatever that absorb and might become saturat-ed with water. The shim has a notch in the bottom edge that provides an upper entrance, which never gets blocked with vegetation in summer, or snow in winter, and the bees use it extensively year-round - usually more than the bottom hive entrance. With the insula-
Check out the BCBA Facebook page for shared links, photos, and questions/answers! Join the conversation!https://www.facebook.com/groups/BarnstableCountyBeeA/
Forage
UMASS, AMHERST NEXT? HOW COOL!!
https://www.goshen.edu/news/2017/05/03/goshen-college-recognized-indianas-first-bee-campus-usa/
tion board in place, there’s still room between it and the top bars to put loose or caked sugar in winter. I don’t know if the lack of an inner cover is a factor, but it is interesting that small hive beetles have never been a problem in this apiary (I saw zero this year), and I wonder if removal of the inner cover reduces beetle hiding places.
Advantages:
Prevents overhead condensation that wets the winter cluster. Throughout the winter, the underside of the foam board is always warm and dry.
Gives good ventilation right above the cluster in all seasons.
Gives quick and easy beekeeper access to inspect and sugar-feed the bees in winter without removing wooden ware and breaking prop-olis seals.
Provides an upper entrance, which the bees seem to prefer. Some colonies construct a propolis veil in the winter to reduce the opening notch somewhat, and then remove it in March-April...they know best.
May reduce hiding places for small hive beetle.
Simple and cheap to build.
Disadvantages:
The shim violates “bee space”, so you have to be aware of nectar flows and add supers or the bees will build crazy comb in the space within the shim. Since I monitor nectar flows with my scale hive, this has never been a problem. Without scale-hive data, one could just watch for new white wax, and then super up. Throughout the year, nectar flows sufficient to stimulate the bees to draw new comb occur only over 6-8 weeks in total. If you pay attention to plant blooming, you can take action (add supers) when needed.
The insulation board has to be removed in the warm months to avoid damage by ants and bees.
John Portnoy
A Tidbit From The Farm
Most activities that occur at the club’s apiary at the Cape Cod Organic Farm are for educational reasons. It might be to try a new product, a new management technique, provide hive openings for new folks or requeen with some of our locally grafted virgins.
This May for the first time in a number of years, we installed a new club-purchased package of bees. As a rule, we have been bringing in established five-frame nucleus colonies to bolster our numbers or off set our overwinter losses. What better way to get an idea of what members were putting into their equipment but to install our own package? Nine days after installation, we had fresh eggs and we did an oxalic acid dribble. The reason for this treatment was to rid of any phoretic varroa mites (those clinging to bees) and start our hive hopefully with zero varroa mites.
By early June, we had five seams of bees, all stages of brood (and yes, we were feeding sugar syrup) but considered the queen not a pro-lific layer. A few weeks later, with new virgin queens available, we dispatched the queen adding one of our locally grafted virgins. Doing this not only gave us local genes, but it broke the brood cycle for three weeks to keep the varroa count low.
Mid July we now had nine seams of bees with all stages of brood on four frames. By mid-August, the hive needed more room but since a full ten-frame deep would be too much room, we added a honey shallow with drawn comb.
At last inspection this week, the Cape Bee inspectors gave the brood pattern a “5” with a star! This is our highest ranking for brood patterns. Solid!!
With reservation, due to low colony numbers, we added this hive to our Sentinel monitoring program. Reservation because each month we had to sacrifice 300 bees for testing. Four months of testing for varroa continues to report ZERO mites! Initially in May, the hive had a high nosema count, but following testing has shown that number drop to zero also. Currently, we are awaiting our Septem-ber report but to date the hive and all the hives in the apiary are “treatment free”. Further results might change that but come Novem-ber Oxalic Acid will be applied when all brood has emerged.
What is the point with the above few paragraphs? As we continue to graft and produce queens across the Cape from our strong overwintered hives, we would like you all to seriously consider requeening your packages with our virgin queens come the spring of 2019 and beyond. It is not that difficult. You will learn a few new beekeeping techniques and have local genes in your hives for better survival. Spring hive openings and workshops will feature helpful hints on requeening. As we creep into the colder months, do a bit of reading while we look forward to adding your name to our list.
Claire Desilets
Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken with Veggies
The easiest, most unbelievably delicious Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken With Veggies. It’s one of my favorite crock pot recipes. Succulent chicken cooked in honey, garlic, soy sauce and mixed vegetables for a complete meal.
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 3 hours
Total Time 3 hours 15 minutes
Servings 4 servings
Calories 558 kcal
Ingredients
Chicken and Vegetables• 2 pounds chicken thighs, bone-in• 1 pound baby red potatoes halved• 1 pound carrots peeled• 1 cup onions chopped• 1 pound green beans trimmed• fresh parsley chopped, for serving optional• salt and pepper to taste
Honey Garlic Sauce• 1/3 cup honey• 1 tbsp garlic minced• 1/2 cup soy sauce low sodium recommended• 1/4 cup ketchup or tomato paste• 2 tsp dried oregano
Instructions• In a small bowl, whisk together honey, garlic, soy sauce, oregano and ketchup.• In a slow cooker, add chicken thighs, potatoes, carrots and onions and finally sauce mixture on top.• Cover the slow cooker tightly and cook the “LOW” setting for 6-8 hours.• Before serving, add the green beans and cook for another 15 minutes. Meanwhile, you may wish to broil the chicken for 2-3 minutes for a crispy skin.• Remove the chicken and vegetables to serving plates.• Spoon juices from the slow cooker on top and garnish on optional parsley. Serve and enjoy!
RESOURCES
The following officers and directors are a great resource to answer questions and requests for assistance.
Officers
President Michael D. Smith [email protected]
Vice President Maria Cashdollar [email protected]
Corresponding Secretary Claire Desilets [email protected]
Recording Secretary Deborah Carmel [email protected]
Treasurer Lynn Heslinga [email protected]
Directors
Marthe Ayers [email protected] Kristina Dunkel [email protected]
John Beach [email protected] Edward Hegner [email protected]
Deborah Carmel [email protected] Mary Johnson [email protected]
Todd Cashdollar [email protected] Mary Anne Mann [email protected]
Melissa Caughey [email protected] Joseph McClure [email protected]
Kathy Clobridge [email protected] Andy Morris [email protected]
Kimberly Concra [email protected] Brian O’Donnell [email protected]
Peter B Cooper [email protected] Lisa Sheehy [email protected]
Kayleigh Cronin [email protected] Donna Tompkins [email protected]
Claire Desilets [email protected] Miguel Zamora [email protected]
Olga DiSavino [email protected]
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