A non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of beekeeping July 2014 Newsletter T he Wasatch Beekeepers association is dedicated to the continued education and promotion of beekeeping. Beekeepers offer a service to the community and nation in a time where bees are dying at a rapid place. We believe that through education, we can help other beekeepers stay current in the areas of medications, equipment, bee diseases, problems, etc. Beekeepers can find support and knowledge from one another and each others' experiences. President s Message The date of our summer BBQ is August 21st at 6:00pm. It will be in South Jordan at the Riverfront Park (Riverfront West Park 11050 South Riverfront Parkway). We will provide hamburgers and hotdogs. Please bring a side item to share or a dessert. The information will be on our website if you need more info. We are lining up items to be auctioned off. If you have anything that you would like to donate, let us know and know that all the money goes right back into the club. I have read about people feeding their bees in the month of July. You should not be feeding your bees if you have honey supers on. If you took the honey off already and you do not have any supers collecting honey then it would make sense to feed. Otherwise, pull your honey off before Labor Day and then they will still have food dealing with a lack of nectar when there is not enough out there for them to collect. We do tend to see a fall flow that starts in August so they will have work to do to prepare for the winter. Plan now for how you are going to treat for mites. There are a lot of ways to so that. A colony strength going into the winter is a low mite count. Do not treat when your honey is on unless the instructions say it is ok to treat with a honey flow on. There are new products every year to deal with the mites. Start thinking about if it is your turn to serve in the WBA presidency. I will not be running again so we will need a new president and other officers. Thanks, Bevan Weed 1
By Howland Blackiston from Beekeeping For Dummies, 2nd Edition Generally speaking, beekeepers harvest their honey at the conclusion of a substantial nectar flow and when the beehive is filled with cured and capped honey. Conditions and circumstances vary greatly across the country. First-year beekeepers are lucky if they get a small harvest of honey by late summer. That s because a new colony needs a full season to build up a large enough population to gather a surplus of honey. Take a peek under the hive cover every couple of weeks during summer. Note what kind of progress your bees are making and find out how many of the frames are filled with capped honey. When a shallow frame contains 80 percent or more of sealed, capped honey, you re welcome to remove and harvest this frame. Or, you can practice patience, leave your frames on and wait until one of the following is true: The bees have filled all the frames with capped honey. The last major nectar flow of the season is complete. Honey in open cells (not capped with wax) can be extracted if it is cured. To see if it s cured, turn the frame with the cells facing the ground. Give the frame a gentle shake. If honey leaks from the cells, it isn t cured and shouldn t be extracted. This stuff is not even honey. It s nectar that hasn t been cured. The water content is too high for it to be considered honey. Attempting to bottle the nectar results in watery syrup that is likely to ferment and spoil. You want to wait until the bees have gathered all the honey they can, so be patient. That s a virtue. However, don t leave the honey supers on the hive too long! Things tend to get busy around Labor Day. Besides spending a weekend harvesting your honey, you probably have plenty of other things to do. But don t put off what must be done. If you wait too long, one of the following two undesirable situations can occur: After the last major nectar flow and winter looms on the distant horizon, bees begin consuming the honey they ve made. If you leave supers on the hive long enough, the bees will eat much of the honey you d hoped to harvest. Or they will start moving it to open cells in the lower deep hive bodies. Either way, you have lost the honey that should have been yours. Get those supers off the hive before that happens! If you wait too long to remove your supers, the weather turns too cold to harvest your honey. In cool weather, honey can thicken or even granulate, which makes it impossible to extract from the comb. Remember that honey is easiest to harvest when it still holds the warmth of summer and can flow easily. 2
Tips on Harvesting Honey 18 Things a Beginning Beekeeper Should Know to Help Things Run Smoothly on Extracting Day The following suggestions are offered for the benefit of beekeepers with a few hives who do not have a permanent honey house. They are meant to supplement the information in books where everything seems so simple and easy. Many beekeepers, including myself, have learned some of these self-evident truths the hard way. 1. Honey is sticky. It will drip. Every doorknob, shoelace, telephone and radio button that is touched while uncapping or handling wet frames will become sticky. Walking spreads the honey around on the floor. Solution: A bucket of water to rinse hands and a dishtowel are essential in the extracting room, especially if you are married and want to stay that way. Turn on the fan and radio, and get everything else ready, before getting all sticky. The garage, basement, barn or porch are usually better places to extract than the kitchen, providing you can keep the honey clean. Watch the kids. http://ninjacowfarm.com/tag/kids/ 2. Bees in the extracting room are attracted to light. Straggler bees left in the supers will find their way into the extracting room and will tend to fly towards a window or light bulb. Solution: A small exit near the top of a window will allow them to return to their hives if they are nearby. If the hives are not nearby and you have a lot of bees in the room, hanging a few drawn frames near the top of the window with a caged queen will provide a place for them to settle and create a nice nucleus colony when you re done. A vacuum cleaner hose is an alternative. Don't extract directly under the only light bulb in the room. 3. Bees away from their hive are not inclined to sting. Bees carried into the extracting room in supers are normally extremely gentle, with no brood or queen present. However, they are very adept at stinging the finger that accidentally crushes them while picking up a frame or super. Beware. 4. Household items can serve as good alternatives to supplies found in beekeeping catalogs. A serrated bread knife makes a good uncapping knife. Use a sawing motion. No need to heat it. Change directions if it catches the wood. Some beekeepers really like using a hot-air electric paint stripper to quickly melt the cappings, but I haven t tried it. 3
Kitchen strainers, nylon paint strainers, and women s nylon stockings can serve as good honey filters. Clean ones, of course. Tupperware and Rubbermaid both make good plastic containers to hold honey and cappings. Honey is acidic, so don t use items such as aluminum and galvanized steel that will react with the honey acids. Stick with plastic, stainless steel or glass. While there is a good household substitute for most extracting equipment, there is no good substitute for a good centrifugal extractor. 5. Let the honey settle. Honey that rests for a few days after extracting will not leave tiny bubbles around the rim of a jar. Be patient. Almost all debris left in the honey after filtering will either float or sink within a few days. A spigot just off the bottom of a container will prevent both floating and sunken debris from being accidentally bottled. 6. If there is no nectar flow, bees will rob honey. If the honey in an extracting room is more appealing than local flowers, the neighborhood bees will try to feast on it and tell all their friends. Extracting is best performed in a closed screened room such as a garage, basement or barn, or outside after dark. I heard a story about a guy that brought some supers into his basement to extract the next day, but he left a window open. The next day he found that his bees had brought half the honey back to their hives. 7. Uncapping is easier with only 8 or 9 frames spaced evenly in a 10-frame super. The thicker comb means almost no scraping with the fork. After bees have drawn out the foundation the first season, return only 8 or 9 frames into each extracted super to make the next crop easier to uncap. Uncap all the way down to the wood on the top and bottom bar, regardless of how far the comb is drawn out, so the comb will be nice and even next year. 8. Propolis sticks to shoes and almost everything else. Extracting is a great time to clean propolis off the box edges and frame-rests, but if they are going to be scraped it is best to cover the floor with old cardboard, newspaper or a plastic painter s tarp so there won t be little propolis reminders of the extracting experience. Wax isn t quite as bad. 9. Butyric acid (Bee Go) really stinks. It works great, and is the best way for most hobby beekeepers to clear bees from the supers. The bees don't get as angry as brushing or blowing them, but that smelly fume board belongs behind the garage or near the fence when you're done. The chemical bottle belongs in a plastic bag inside an old coffee can or something else that won t tip over; this is stuff you do not ever want to spill. The almond-smelling Benzaldehyde smells better and works okay in cooler weather, but it still belongs outside. Bee escape boards work okay too, if you can install them the day before extracting, have enough escapes for every hive, and don t have too many holes between the boxes where the bees can enter and rob the honey. My equipment is old and leaks. 10. Extractors, uncapping tanks and other extracting equipment are best borrowed or shared. Most hobby beekeepers will only use their extracting equipment one or two days each year. The rest of the year it typically gathers dust in an attic, garage or basement. Thus it is very practical and economical for several beekeepers or a 4
beekeeping association to share equipment. The expense is avoided, and it eliminates the need for storage space. So borrow or share, and use some of that money saved to buy a few of the nice non-stick polyurethane candle molds. If you must buy, a good quality hand-crank 4 frame extractor will suit most beekeepers better than 2 or 3 frame models, since it reduces the spinning work and thus greatly shortens the extracting time. 11. Extracting honey is best accomplished with two people. One person uncapping frames while the other spins the honey. Very efficient and the conversation can be good. It s not very stressful to a relationship either, unlike hanging wallpaper. If you have clean wax from an earlier extraction, a side candle-making operation is an effective use of time since candles take time to cool. 12. Warm honey flows best. Warm honey spins out of the comb faster and more thoroughly than does cold honey in http://radicalfarmwives.com/tag/honey-extractor/ an extractor. Warm honey also strains faster through a filter. Honey at 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27 c) or higher will be extracted most easily. This is normally not a problem in the summer, but in cool weather a light bulb under a stack of supers overnight can provide a lot of heat if the escape of the heat is controlled. Don t melt the wax! 13. Extracted honey absorbs moisture from the air. Uncovered honey also catches insects, so keep the honey covered. 14. Sufficient honey containers are needed on extracting day. Enough containers need to be on hand when extracting, so it is good to learn how much capacity you ll need before extracting. In rough numbers: a) A shallow super will typically yield between 25 and 30 pounds of honey, or 2 to 2 ½ gallons. b) A medium (6 5/8 ) depth super will typically yield between 35 and 40 pounds, or 3 to 4 gallons. c) A full-depth box will typically yield between 60 and 70 pounds, or 5 to 6 gallons. (Actual yields vary due to the number of frames, how well they are extracted, age of comb and other variables.) 15. Wax cappings hold a lot of honey. Wax cappings typically hold 10% or more of a beekeeper s honey crop. Cappings should be drained of honey through screening. After draining, the cappings wax can be melted into a block. Melting is best accomplished using a solar wax melter, or by heating the cappings in an inch of water in an old pot. Feed the honey-water back to the bees. Solar wax melters really do work well use double-paned framed window glass and build around it. Alternatively, the cappings can be left outside for the bees to feed on and then thrown away. 5
16. Utensils that are used with melted wax will not be used for anything else. Melted wax leaves a waxy film on every pot, spoon, dipping cup or strainer it comes into contact with. Crock pots with an inch of water are good for melting cappings that have been drained of honey, but the pot will never be the same. Old crock pots are also nearperfect for melting wax during candle making, and they are often available at garage sales. Heat to between 150 and 180 degrees Fahrenheit; no need to boil. 17. Bad comb and rotten boxes should be replaced while extracting. Extracting provides the perfect opportunity to cull bad combs, frames and boxes that need paint or replacing. Have replacements on hand on extracting day. When short a few frames, frame feeders (also called division-board feeders; the kind that normally replace a frame or two) can be put in the empty spaces in the supers so any burr comb built there will be inside the feeder where it will actually be useful to prevent drowning when it is time to feed. 18. Let the bees clean the wet empty supers after extracting. Whether intending to return the supers to the bees or store them off the hives, the bees do a great job of drying supers after extracting. A stack of supers can be placed on a hive, over an inner cover that has a hole, and they will usually be dry the next day. Best to put them on the hives late in the day, to reduce robbing. Every beekeeper has unique conditions, and there are many good beekeepers that use different methods, so enjoy experimenting with what works best! http://outdoorplace.org/beekeeping/extracting.htm 6
Varroa Mite (Varroa jacobsoni) How to recognize Varroa mites : Varroa mites are small reddish/brown colored insects that feed off of the body fluids of adult bees as well as larvae. They are visible to the naked eye and are most easily seen on brood (especially drone brood). Another symptom of Varroa is the presence of "crawlers", bees whose wings are deformed and cannot fly (hence they crawl around). Varroa does not cause this disfigurement directly, instead they are a carrier for a virus that affects the bee while it is a larvae. How to treat against Varroa : There are several methods to treat for varroa mites; a short list follows but you should research what other beekeepers are doing in your area to treat. You must learn to apply these correctly to prevent contamination of honey, and resistance development by the mites. Apistan Strips Checkmite+ Strips Sucrocide Oxalic Acid Formic Acid Vaporized mineral oil Ascetic Acid Essential Oils How to prevent Varroa : Just as there are several ways to treat for mites, there are several ways to prevent them. In some cases, the treatment and prevention methods are the same. Screened bottom boards Powdered sugar treatments Drone brood removal Small cell foundation Queen bees with genetic behaviors to reduce mite numbers The same chemicals listed above for treatment can aid in prevention. Tracheal Mite (Acarapis woodi) How to recognize Tracheal mites : Tracheal mites live in the trachea (lungs) of the honey bee and are therefore impossible to see. However, the presence of bees that are incapable of flight, despite normal wings, may be an indication. How to treat against tracheal mites : Menthol crystals placed in hive can help significantly reduce the numbers of tracheal mites. Grease patties may also help lower the population. How to prevent tracheal mites : The same methods for treatment can be used for prevention. Maintaining strong colonies will also help keep the effects of tracheal mites to a minimum. http://www.utahcountybeekeepers.org/diseases_&_parasites.html 7
Tip here, become intimately familiar with the daily development of queens if you plan on raising some. I made a spreadsheet to keep track. Pay special attention to the time when you shouldn t touch the queen cells. All you need to do is input the date you are starting the queen making process and the spreadsheet will adjust to show you the dates upon which all the events are to happen. Download the Queen Calendar spreadsheet. Check out the rest of this interesting post that covers all things involving queens at http://parkerfarms.biz/queens.html. The Bees: Bees will be busy again this month. The colony is now at or just past its peak population. You will probably notice bees bearding up on the front entrance of the hive in the evenings. This simply is the bees way of cooling on these hot summer days. The bees are still very busy, however nectar and pollen are in shorter supply than in the previous months. They may become more flighty in search for nectar and pollen. The queen will begin laying eggs for winter bees beginning late this month. The mite population will probably be high at this time (in 2nd year colonies). Bees may be fighting at front entrance, a sure sign of robbing. The Beekeeper: Estimated time needed: 1-2 hours. Swarming was essentially over in July, but by now you can relax as it is over. Provide a supply of fresh water that is located nearby. Continue monitoring brood patterns and queen activity. 8
Keep a watchful eye for any problems in the hive: mites, weak hive, and diseases and parasites. If needed, and it probably will be, treat for mites using approved methods for when honey supers are in place. Once all honey supers have been removed several other treatment options are available. A secondary nectar flow could begin later this month as fall flowers start to bloom. Bearding may be an indication of inadequate ventilation or a lack of room in the hive. Try adding a super (there is still time to fill it up) and increasing ventilation by propping the cover up about a 1/4" or installing a screened moving inner cover. Watch for robbing activity from other bees or wasps. The end of summer is when other, stronger hives or wasps/hornets will attempt to steal honey from weaker hives. If necessary, reduce the entrance of the hive being robbed to help them defend the hive more easily. Set out wasp and yellow jacket traps (July, August, and September). Late August is when the queen starts laying eggs which will be the winter bees. Ensure a strong winter colony by checking the honey stores starting at the end of this month; there should be plenty of honey in the brood boxes. Remember that a strong hive going into winter increases the chances for winter survival. Now is the time to ensure that your bees will have enough room to last the summer, but not too much or they won t fill the supers before final harvest time. Follow the rule of 7/10: if 7 of the 10 frames are fully capped, add another super if it s early in the month. However if it is late in the month, don t add supers; this will force the bees to start back filling the upper brood box with winter supplies. This will approximately coincide with the beginning of a second (but smaller) nectar flow which will help supply pollen and nectar for winter stores. Fall blooming plants such as aster, golden rod, sunflowers and others will enable the bees to cap off their winter reserves. utahpests.usu.edu/files/uploads/bees/bee-calendar.pdf You know you're a beekeeper when... You eagerly await the phone call from the post office asking you to please come pick up your bees. You check out all the honey labels and prices at the supermarket. You are keenly aware of the first and last freezes of each winter. You welcome a rainy weekend if it will stimulate nectar production. You don't mind driving home with a few honey bees inside your vehicle. Your family and friends know exactly what they're going to get for Christmas. The school principal calls to ask that you never again let your child take a drone tied with a thread to school for show and tell. You never stop marveling at these wonderful creatures. http://outdoorplace.org/beekeeping/youknow.htm 9