This enabled people to attend the MASS Bee meeting on Sat.    The hive opening was followed by a pot luck lunch and a swim in the pool.  We  checked on an older hive as well as a package from this year.

Both hives were doing well, [...]]]> The Sat. workshop was rescheduled and was on Sunday June 26th in East Freetown.  

  This enabled people to attend the MASS Bee meeting on Sat.    The hive opening was followed by a pot luck lunch and a swim in the pool.  We  checked on an older hive as well as a package from this year.

Both hives were doing well, the older hive had swarmed and a new queen was in charge.    The former queen had left a lot of  capped brood and the hive will be expanding rapidly.  The new package was also very active – a lot of brood and bees.   Both had had supers added in the last week, and will need more.  There wasn’t a lot of pollen stored, so we added a pollen pattty on each later.  With all of the new brood a lot of pollen is needed.

We did show people what sweet pepperbush looks like and this will be a big nectar source in the next few weeks.

Everett did his usual fine job and everyone learned quite a bit.

Other things on the agenda include – how to make creamed honey, making chunk honey, and having very nice looking honey jars to sell or give away. 

I will also bring a simple solar [...]]]> Last indoor meeting of this winter.   We had a very good workshop on Sunday at Jeani’s.  We can review it at the meeting. 

Other things on the agenda include – how to make creamed honey, making chunk honey, and having very nice looking honey jars to sell or give away. 

I will also bring a simple solar wax melter made from scrap parts.    

Don’t miss the  next workshop in late June.   Bring the family.

Please join us for our first hands-on workshop of the season! See how experienced beekeepers handle hives.

Ther best time to do this in New England is the last half of May.

Here is a recap on how to [...]]]> Everett Z gave a talk on this at the April meeting – a lot of the ideas came from Ray M.   The written version was copied from the RI beekeepers website – per Everett’s suggestion.

Ther best time to do this in New England is the last half of May.

Here is a recap on how to make walk-away splits, but first, let’s review why one would want to make splits in the first place.

• • Expansion, you can make splits to expand your apiary for free! They are perhaps more reliable than packages and they are certainly cheaper!
• • Loss replacement. We can split larger colonies to replace lost colonies.
• • Queen replacement. Splits are a great way to raise local queens and have them on reserve for replacements.
• • Colony boost. You can use a split to boost an existing weak colony.• Swarm loss boost. Similarly, you can combine a split with a colony that has swarmed to bring it back up to strength. The best time of the year to make a split is from about the middle of May through June. Experienced beekeepers can start earlier and as late as July. I prefer to make my splits on Memorial Day weekend. This is the best time of the year because of the availability of pollen, nectar ,nurse bees and drones, all of which are essential to raising the best queens. The key to a walk-away split is to populate the nuc with nurse bees which some call baby bees. These bees are responsible for making and feeding the queen cells royal jelly, but also, they have never been outside the hive and therefore they do not have the urge to fly home to the parent colony. They simply wouldn’t know where it is. Pick a strong colony. The parent colony must have at least six to eight frames of brood. You cannot split a package or weak colony.

Equipment

        • Nuc box that accepts the same frame size as the brood box in the parent colony. The nuc box can be the classic 5-frame nuc or you can use any size including a 10-frame hive. All of the spaces will need to be filled with frames to prevent them from building free-hanging comb.

• Queen excluder that fits the parent colony

• • Spare empty hive body that matches the size of the parent colony
• • Bee brush
• • The usual complement of tools including hive tool, smoker and bee veil
• • A place to put your nuc, which can be in the same yard. If you plan on using this nuc as a permanent colony make a stand that fits the final equipment and choose the final resting place.

Method

1. Set up the equipment

2. Open the hive and begin selecting frames from the brood chamber

· Frame of nectar/honey

· Frame of capped brood

· Two frames of open brood

· Frame of eggs (critical)

3. Look for the queen. If you spot her put that frame back into the colony and select another one or wait for her to move off the frame.

4. Brush off the bees and put the frames into your spare hive body.

5. Replace the frames in the parent with new ones

6. Put on the queen excluder and put the hive body with nuc frames over it. Close up the hive. Nurse bees will move up to take care of the brood.

7. About an hour later you can move the frames into your nuc.

8. Feed the nuc and close the entrance to smallest opening. The nuc will raise a queen from the frame of eggs. Wait 21 days and inspect to see if you have a laying queen.

This will be demonstrated at the workshop at Jeani’s House in May.

http://sz0047.wc.mail.comcast.net/service/home/~/VarroaMites_155.pdf?auth=co&loc=en_US&id=139420&part=2

February 2010

President’s Message:

  Spring has arrived.   After a weekend with 7” of rain here, the sun returned and it was about 70 degrees.  The ice in the cranberry bog ponds has gone out and the bees are flying.

We had a chance to look in our hives [...]]]>

Early Pollen

February 2010

President’s Message:

 
Spring has arrived.   After a weekend with 7” of rain here, the sun returned and it was about 70 degrees.  The ice in the cranberry bog ponds has gone out and the bees are flying.

We had a chance to look in our hives and see what the girls have been doing.  The queens are laying and the bees will be building up for the spring rush.  Saw a bee loaded with bright yellow pollen doing a waggle dance.   The cells had pollen, honey, and eggs.  We did have pollen patties on for the last week.  Fondant has been on for a while, and we did put a pint of sugar syrup in Ziplocs on the hives to get them started slowly.   We don’t want them to go too fast in case we have another cold spell.

Wayne Andrews will be the speaker for the March 23rd meeting, another joint talk for both the regular members and the bee school.  Wayne will talk about diseases – among other things.   He is very knowledgeable about some of the latest thinking on the subject.  The joint meeting will give us another chance to get to know each other.  Bee school is about over for the year, but the meetings and the workshops mean that the learning can continue. 

We have some workshops scheduled, the first will be at Bristol Aggie the day the packages are delivered (April 11).  Everett will demonstrate how to install a package in a hive.  The next one will be in May at Jeani’s house to look at new hives a month after installation, and she will host a potluck that afternoon.  I will have one here in Freetown on June 26th that will look at a new hive and a few older ones.  After looking at the bees, there will also be a family pot luck and pool party (for us, not the bees).    I really encourage everyone to attend the workshops; just watching how an experienced beekeeper handles bees is worthwhile.

We just heard the sad news that Pam Crowell has passed away.  She was a friend and member, as well as an officer of the club.  She will be missed.

Fred

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If you move or change any contact information, please tell us. This is especially true of e-mail addresses.  A quick note will save many emails from the internet postmaster.

ITEMS FOR SALE

• Beehavin’ Apiary packages (that is Everett Zurlinden’s company) will be $69 each. All queens are marked; they are all Italian. Pickup dates are 4/10 and 4/24. Pickup location is at the Bristol Agricultural School in Dighton, MA. Beehavin’ also has nucs for sale for $100; pickup is in North Smithfield, RI only. They will be available in May. Queens are marked! Please call 401-885-5127, 800-431-6747 or go to www.beehavin.com to order online.

• Please see the website, www.bristolbee.com, for lists of other sellers and items for sale.

      If anyone has anything bee related that they would like to advertise in this newsletter, please email me at bluidshay@aol.com 

UNLESS OTHERWISE ANNOUNCED, ALL GENERAL MEETINGS ARE HELD ON THE 4^TH TUESDAY OF THE MONTH AT THE BRISTOL COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SCHOOL AND BEGIN AT 7 PM.

PLEASE WEAR YOUR NAME TAG TO THE MEETING TO HELP OUR NEWER MEMBERS LEARN WHO YOU ARE. IF YOU HAVE MISPLACED YOURS, PLEASE SEE JEANI WARISH FOR A REPLACEMENT.

BrCBA Yearly Calendar 2010

Mentor Program

Bristol County Beekeepers Association has members who are willing to answer questions you may have about something you come across in your hive or to discuss beekeeping techniques. Take advantage of their experience and willingness to help make your beekeeping experience better.   Email mentor at bristolbee.com

FYI…FYI…FYI

When renewing/or beginning a subscription to Bee Culture magazine, don’t forget to mention that you belong to Bristol County Beekeeper’s Association. Members get a 20% discount off subscription prices! Thanks to Joe Tardif for the heads up!

We have a variety of articles, photographs, beekeeping timelines, items for sale, meeting minutes, and other useful information on our website. Check us out at www.Bristolbee.com.

Beekeeper’s Calendar for MARCH

•  You MUST inspect your hives if you haven’t already.  Feed dry granulated sugar if they are light.  You can also feed syrup at this time if the weather is warm enough.
• Your queen has started to lay eggs.  Make sure there is enough food to feed the growing brood!
• Clear dead bees from the entrance.  Make sure the entrance is clear of dead bees.
• Check dead-outs.
• Verify your equipment is in working order; repair or order replacements.

MINUTES TO GENERAL MEETING

FEBRUARY 23, 2010

• Meeting began at 7:05 PM.
• Bee School is going well. We have over twenty five new memberships.
• Our new members joined our regular monthly meeting this evening for refreshments and to hear our speaker Roger Robitaille
• Fred encouraged members to attend the Massachusetts Beekeepers’ Association 2010 Spring Meeting on Saturday, March 27, 2010 at 9:00AM; Registration starts at 8:30AM.  The event will be held at Coolidge Hall at the Topsfield Fairgrounds, Topsfield, MA.  Speakers include:
  • Nick Calderone, PhD, Cornell University, speaking on American Foulbrood, and Varroa Mites.
  • Phillip Starks, PhD, Tufts University, discussing Honeybee immunities and Disease defenses.
  • Dave Meldrum, from Essex County, speaking on the topic: Celebrating the 200^th birthday of Lorenzo Langstroth.
• SECRETARY’S REPORT: The Secretary’s report was accepted as written in the January newsletter.
• TREASURERS REPORT:  The Treasurer’s report was read and accepted.
• Members are reminded that one of the main goals of the club is education.  Your ideas and proposals for Bee School and educational opportunities for both children and adults are welcomed and encouraged.
• A general question and answer session followed which covered topics including re-arranging hive bodies, use of pollen patties, early spring blooming plants and pollen sources. Use of pesticides was also discussed.  It is thought that Mite Away Strips are not registered for use in Massachusetts. Wayne Andrews offered to check on active ingredients. Consider if you want to use it. Some suggest queens don’t live as long when this pesticide issued. 
• Massachusetts is very restrictive on pesticides.
• Cutler Chicken Supply Company is now selling bee related supplies.
• If you catch a swarm it may sometime be best to combine the swarm with a weak hive rather than trying to start a new (weak) hive in June.
• GUEST SPEAKER: “Bee School” students joined us at 7:55PM for refreshments followed by an informative and light hearted talk by Roger Robitaille who shared his experience and adventures handling bees and removing bees from buildings.
• DUES REMINDER:  Dues were due in January. If you have not yet renewed your membership, kindly do so as soon as possible. The renewal form is available on our website.
• Meeting adjourned at 9:00 PM.

 “There are certain pursuits which, if not wholly poetic and true, do at least suggest a nobler and finer relation to nature than we know.  The keeping of bees, for instance.”    –Henry David Thoreau