Volume 10, Issue 7 norfolkbee.org June 2011 Dear Club members, blh We had our last meeting on Saturday June 18 th for the season. What a great day. The sun spirits gave us perfect weather, which complimented the food, people, our presentation, and door prizes and raffles. What a great day it was. Thank you to all who made it possible. Many hands made for light work, especially in the clean up department. I hope that everyone got to take a look inside at the observation hive. It is doing quite well. I also want to thank Everett for giving a talk on the issues at hand for most of us as beekeepers. He always makes it so easy and understandable. Thank you Everett. This spring has had its challenges as beekeepers. We have a lot of swarms, queen less hives, and weather to deal with. I want to commend those out there that have been diligent in helping fellow beekeepers. Without their support it would be difficult to know what to do. I also want to commend our forum moderators as well as our facebook page. Both have been invaluable to a lot of fellow beekeepers. Keep up the good work everyone. I hope that everyone enjoys the summer and we have bountiful harvest this year. See you all at the September meeting. Regards, Tony Lulek Next Club Meeting In this Issue Club News 2-3 Media Buzz 4 Kids Corner 5 Recipes 6 Meeting Notes 7 September 5, 2011 400 Main Street Walpole, MA 7:30PM Welcome New Members Thomas Akin - West Roxbury Steve Cecil - Dedham Will Cote - Natick Lisa & Bill Cullity - Pembroke Robert & Sean Hickey - Brockton Leslie Nelken - Needham Ann & Gregory Rein - Hanson John Franks - Hopkinton Jeanne O'Rourke - Weymouth Jonatham Martinez - Sherborn
Board Members NCBA Forum We also encourage everyone to use the forum. We have a staff of beekeepers monitoring the forum on a daily basis. This is also a good source of information for new bee students. Ed Szymanski our forum master is available for issues and questions about the forum. President Tony Lulek Vice President Peter Tullock tlulek@gallery223.com pjtrestoration@hotmail.com Recording Secretary Paul LaShoto p_lashoto@yahoo.com Corresponding Secretary Owen Ackerman Owen1803@aol.com NCBA is on Facebook Check us out on FaceBook. Join us at http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=43 171368357 Or search for Norfolk County Beekeepers Association. We have 90 members and growing! Treasurer Fran Key Members at large Kathy Gasbarro Avery Osgood Dave Shaner Librarian Eric Studer arenakey@hotmail.com gasbarro8@yahoo.com avery_osgood@hotmail.com dashaner123@aol.com studer8er@yahoo.com
Events NCBA Board meetings All our board meetings are the 3rd Monday of the month. They are held at the Woodside Montessori School, 350 Village Street, Millis, MA at 7 pm. All members are welcome to attend and are encouraged to get involved. With a club this size, our success depends upon members being involved in service to the club. EAS- Eastern Apiculture Society Coming to Warwick RI July 25 th to the 29 th. We are fortunate to have the president of the EAS as a club member. We are also fortunate to have the conference so close to home this year. It is in July and will be at Warwick, RI. You must become a member of EAS to register and attend the conference. All information is on their web site: www.easri.com Bee School Continuing Education We will be having two classes this summer. July 9 th and August 14 th. Both classes will be held at the Stony Brook Wildlife Sanctuary. All classes are free and all beekeepers are welcome. Please contact Tony Lulek or Pete Tullock if you have any questions. Non-profit Status and By Laws With our new status as a non-profit organization, some changes will need to take place. We will need to adopt a new set of by laws. Your board of directors will be working on this over the summer. We will have the new bylaws ready for club review sometime in early August. Once we do this, we will need to put the new bylaws to the club as a whole for vote in September or October. Please stay tuned for any updates
How to Build a Swarm Trap Purchase a 5-frame nuc hive from any of the reputable beekeeping equipment companies. Along with the hive, purchase a vial of Nasonov pheromone or use the recipe below to make your own pheromone and an entrance reducer for the hive. Remove a frame with existing honey comb from an active bee hive. Ensure that there is no brood comb with baby bees in the frame and remove all of the adult bees from the frame. Open the nuc hive and remove the center frame and swap it with the frame with the honey comb. Open the vial of Nasonov pheromone and drop some into the hive. Be careful not to get the pheromone on your hands as this can transfer the scent to other areas, making the trap less effective. The pheromone lasts up to one year. Close the hive lid and position the entrance reducer to create an entrance at the bottom of the hive that is about 2 inches across. Scout bees looking for a new home appreciate smaller entrances they can easily defend. Place the nuc hive securely in a tree or other high place around 10 to 12 feet off the ground. Check the trap regularly for any activity to see if it is inhabited. If so, wait until evening when the bees are all in the trap. Then, plug the entrance with a rag and remove the trap. Move the frames within the nuc to a new empty hive the following day. Honeybee pheromones are chemicals that honeybees secrete to influence the behavior of other honeybees. These pheromones help the honeybees recognize the queen or potential mates, and can trigger a swarming instinct in the bees. Because of this, beekeepers use the queen bee pheromone to attract honeybees to a swarm box. You can purchase honeybee pheromones or you can make your own with citral, geroniol and lemon oil that will resemble the smell of a natural queen bee pheromone. These three substances are essential oils from three different types of plants. You can purchase them at some health food stores or craft stores. Mix 2 teaspoons of citral with 1 teaspoon of geroniol until they are fully combined. Add one drop of lemon oil to the mixture and stir until it is fully combined. Stuff a vial with cotton balls until the vial is completely full. Drop four to five drops of the mixture into the vial with an eyedropper. Put the vial near the entrance of a honeybee swarm box
Grilled Chicken Sandwich with Honey Orange Mustard 2 med.-size peaches, sliced 4 spears fresh pineapple 4 lg. slices country bread, 1/2 inch thick 1 tbsp. canola oil 8 oz. skinless, boneless chicken breasts 1/2 tsp. grated orange rind 1 1/2 tbsp. honey mustard Lightly brush the peaches, pineapple and bread on both sides with a little of the oil. Wash chicken and dry; brush lightly on both sides with remaining oil. Prepare and heat grill. Grill chicken 10 minutes total, turning once. Grill pineapple and peaches. Mix orange rind with mustard. Brush on bread. Top with chicken, peaches and pineapple. Apple and Honey Iced Tea 3 cups water, boiling 4 tea bags 1/3 cup honey 3 cups apple juice Honey-Peach Cake with Sugared Pistachios Recipe 3 firm-ripe peaches, pitted and sliced 1/4 cup honey 1 Tbsp lemon juice 2 Tbsp confectioners sugar 1 cup nonfat Greek yogurt 1/2 cup heavy cream 1 store-bought 8-in. angel food cake Sugared Pistachios (recipe follows) Toss peach slices, honey and lemon juice in a medium bowl. Let stand at least 15 minutes. Mix confectioners sugar and yogurt in another medium bowl until well combined. In a small bowl, beat cream until stiff peaks form; fold into yogurt mixture, cover and refrigerate. Invert cake onto serving plate. Cut horizontally into 2 equal layers; remove top layer. Spoon half the juice and peaches over the bottom layer, and then spread with half the yogurt cream. Top with cake layer, cut side down, then remaining juice and peaches. Sprinkle with some sugared pistachios. Serve with remaining yogurt cream and sugared pistachios. Sugared Pistachios: Heat oven to 350ºF. Line a rimmed baking sheet with nonstick foil. Slightly whisk an egg white in a small cup. Transfer 1 Tbsp to a medium bowl; whisk until frothy (discard remaining egg white). Add 1 cup coarsely chopped pistachios, 3 Tbsp sugar and 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon; toss to combine. Spread on lined baking sheet. Bake 8 minutes or until dry and toasted. Cool; break apart. Steep tea bags in hot water for 5 minutes. Strain out tea bags, and stir in honey and juice. Mix until honey is dissolved. Chill and serve over ice. Serves 6-8
June 6, 2011 NCBA Meeting The June 2011 meeting of the Norfolk County Beekeepers Association opened at 7:40 pm with 83 members present. Members were encouraged to sit by town to meet their beekeeping neighbors. 1. Eastern Apiculture Society. One last reminder: the EAS annual conference will be held in Rhode Island this July. You must be an EAS member to attend the conference. 2. Summer Outing. NCBA s summer outing will be held June 18 at Stony Brook Nature Center in Norfolk. All members and their families are invited. If any member has not received an e-vite, please contact Tony Lulek. 3. Group discussions. The meeting broke into six areas for discussion: Aggressive hives Tony Lulek, moderator Laying workers Pete Tullock, moderator Honey bound hives Owen Ackerman, moderator Pests and pest control Dave Shaner, moderator Queen issues Ed Szymanski, moderator Swarms and supercedure Paul LaShoto, moderator. Discussions were limited to 15-20 minutes so members could attend multiple groups during the meeting. 4. Door Prizes. Winners of the evening s door prizes were Mahesh Patel (solar melter), Fran Key and Dan Rukas (certificates for queens) Following the table raffle the meeting adjourned at 9:30 pm.