Honey Run Apiaries-A Beekeeper’s Blog

I have periodically given talks and even classes last year on raising your own queens. Inevitably someone will come up and ask questions and seek advice beginning with ‘I don’t want to compete with you, but I’d like to know how you do x’.  My response is always the same, ‘Please compete with me.  Raise a few queens for yourself, then for your neighbor, and sell as many as you care to produce. The industry needs it.’  It may be just the view I see, but the demand seems to only increase each year with few new producers entering the market, large or small.  In fact two large companies with a combined production of 75,000 queens retired this year according to Kim Flottum.   At the same time the number of hobbyist does seem to be growing.

I’ve also heard plenty of complaints about supercedure, queen size and other problems from those who have purchased mass produced queens.  I’m not saying all mass produced queens are bad, nor are all operations at fault.  I just hear the complaints and know the pressure of getting queens out on time, disease, stress, financial concerns, and residue from mite treatments can affect the queens in a real operation.   Many beekeepers want a queen at the lowest price possible, and they want it now.  Quality and cheap just don’t play well together . But this is a topic for another post.

So there is a good market out there, and there are beekeepers not happy with the queens they are getting.  They are looking for quality queens, the kind YOU can raise in small number at home.  It really isn’t that difficult to do, even on a very small scale. So I’d encourage you, if you have even the slightest interest, and even if you only intend to raise queens for yourself, to take advantage of the queen rearing classes given though the Ohio State Beekeepers Association or your own local or state association.

[I'm happy to see both the American Bee Journal and Bee Culture have several articles on queen rearing and breeding in the latest issues (March 2008).  Of particular interest to the beekeeper who hopes to make profit at it one day is Larry Connor's article 'Raising and Managing Your Own Queens and Drones' in ABJ where he outlines a plan to start a small scale operation, and 'Small-scale Queen Rearing' by Roy Hendrickson that is a practical article on a small Ohio operation.']

The report from California is that the almond bloom is late, at least 2 and maybe 3 or more weeks late.  The main almond variety is only just starting to bloom and later varieties have yet to start.  In most years the bloom would have ending by now and beekeepers would be starting to move bees out of the orchards the first week of March.   This could cause a delay of  queen and package bee production for operations that also do pollination.  This is not limited to just California beekeepers, but also may affect many other beekeepers across the southern states because many of the 1.2 million bee hives needed for almond pollination are moved into California.

Does this mean that our package bees will be delayed?  I can’t answer that yet.  It may very well delay the earliest queens and packages,  but there is still is more than a month to go before the earliest packages could be available here in Ohio.

The local association’s meeting was canceled tonight due to snow.  This gave me a little bit of time to work on the honey stick machine that’s been left sitting for awhile while I caught up on other things.  I was able to finish and test the final 4 to 8 decoder previously built on a prototype board.  For testing I connected to the DC driver board simply to have a display of the output on the LEDs.  I was a bit worried at first because it didn’t work at all, but then I found some insulation had melted allowing two wires to come into contact with each other.  After fixing that issue the circuit worked perfectly while running it though some 20,000 on/off cycles.

One thing I learned building this circuit was how slow and tedious it can be building these circuits on prototype PCBs.  The boards have no circuit traces and every wire needs carefully positioned and soldered by hand.  Should I get to the point where I can produce even a small number of machines, I’ll definitely be looking to design a printed circuit board.  Fortunately that’s almost as easy as desktop publishing now with software like PBC123 that lets you design and order custom circuit boards in small numbers.

I Spent some time this evening making pollen patties.  I now have around 110 ready and waiting in the freezer to go on the hives the next warm spell we have.  Hopefully that will be in just another week or two in time to get the bees moving shortly before the maple trees start blooming.  When trying to raise early queens in northern climates as I am, early drone production is often the limiting factor and feeding pollen (protein) helps get them started.  It’s not the only limiting factor, but it’s one of the few the beekeeper can do anything about.  It also increases the size of the hives earlier to one can afford to make all the splits necessary for mating nucs.  With luck I’ll be running around 200 this year.

Another sure sign spring is coming: emails and calls daily from other beekeepers wanting to order queens.  The earliest queens have been booked for some time now and recent orders are starting to book the summer and late season queens.  It seems like the demand is as high as ever, and the supply seems to be diminishing.  So if you need to order queens, get your orders in now if you can regardless of who you are ordering them from.

Snow was still on the ground today with temperatures only reaching 35F.  It was sunny and calm so some bees took the chance to make cleansing flights in spite of the temperature.  Some unfortunately didn’t make it back to the hive and died in the snow.  The sight of dead bees in the snow around the hive and on the landing board can be worrying to the new beekeeper.  They aren’t suppose to be flying when its near or below freezing, right?

In truth they will take short cleansing flights on calm sunny days even when it’s cold.  It was common to find discolored spots in the snow and a dead bee here and there when I returned from work on a calm sunny day.  Overall it’s a good sign, no bees and it means your hives are dead or missing.  A few dead in the snow means they are alive and functioning normally.  After all, with 10-20,000 bees in a hive over the winter, quite a few will die of natural causes every day.  Normally they will try to leave the hive or will be dragged out once dead (and sometimes even when not quite dead). 

Pictured below is my new bee yard.  Actually it’s not so new anymore and this post is a bit out of order as this picture was taken last April.  I was approached this spring by my wifes insurance agent for her business about placing some bees on his property.  It’s a beautiful location on a high (20-30′) bank above a river well outside of the floodplain with large groves of locust and catalpa within eyesight, as well as alfalfa fields planted by local farmers.  It will be interesting to compare how well these hives do, and their honey as the forage available here is considerably different than that available near my other apiaries.

Simply because it was easier, I started this yard completely with package bees and drawn foundation (and honey from deadouts).  They were installed this past Saturday as previously mentioned.   It also proved a good yard to test the effect of queen excluders on honey production, but more about that later…

Note: This class has been canceled because they did not get enough early registrations.  They are tentatively rescheduling it as an evening meeting in May.

On Saturday, April 19th, 2008.  The Auglaize County Extension office will be hosting a bee class.  Topics will include Spring Management; Disease & Pest Management; Pollen, Propolis, Wax and Other Hive Products; Queen Biology Management; Bee Hive Manipulation; Getting Yards & Bees; and more.

Speakers will include Dr. James E. Tew who is always a very interesting speaker, Mr. Tom Piper, Sherry Ferrell, Donald Steinke and Tim Arheit (me!)

Location: Auglaize County Administration Building; 209 South Blackhoof Street, Wapakoneta, Ohio 45895
When: 8:30AM – 3:30PM
Cost: $25 per person ($6 for students 17 and under)

For more information contact: Mr. John Smith, Auglaize County Extention Educator @ 419-738-2219

I’m sure most people receiving email from companies, sooner or later receive one with a legal disclaimer or warning on the end of dire legal consequences if you use or even look at the email in the wrong way.  They go something like the following (names have been changed):

Attention: This e-mail message, including any attachment(s) (collectively the "e-mail"), has been sent by ACME Drinking Water and Porta-John Recycling Co. and may contain PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION.  If you are not the intended recipient, then please (i) do not read this e-mail, (ii) do not forward, print, copy or otherwise disseminate this e-mail, (iii) notify us of the error by a reply to this e-mail and (iv) delete this e-mail from your computer.  Thank you.

This has to be one of the most worthless legal statements ever written.  The first problem is that this statement  is almost always found at the end of the email, and is sure to be read only after reading the contents of the email (i).  Nearly anything I do to the email will break (ii), deleting it will copy it to the deleted folder (iv), replying (iii) will copy it to the sent folder, not to mention the multiple copies made since I check email from multiple computers and the copy that remains on the server and in the ISP’s backups.  And let us not forget the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, it requires that email be backed up in public companies.  I’m also not sure if one could legally be bound to such a statement without agreeing to it first or a method of opting out before breaching the statement is available (as is often done with software licenses).

Of course, none of the statement is valid unless ‘you are not the intended recipient’.  Of course, since the email came to my inbox, and is stamped at the top with my email address, the only logical conclusion is that it was intended for me.  Other than the address, I can’t possibly guess what the actual intent of the sender was.  Even if the email says ‘Dear Anne’ at the top (obviously not me), the sender may be forwarding a message they thought I may be interested in.  How could I guess the ‘intent’ was anything other than for me to receive the email?

Personally I find every email I receive with such a statement rather humorous and I’m really tempted to forward every one I receive to the media (after all, as the intended recipient I can use it as I see fit).  But if you do business with any company that uses such a statement thinking it gives them any security or expectation of privacy, I would be worried.

Thinking about trying beekeeping this year?  Many organizations have already held beginning beekeeping classes this year, but it’s not to late to start. 

If you are really serious about starting this year you need to get your bees on order because they will be likely sold out if you wait until the weather gets good in April or May  (This will be sooner in southern states and later in the northernmost states and Canada).  Some package bee distributors will have a few extra on order, but those will get snatched up quick as the delivery date approaches.  Here in Ohio package bees typically arrive starting early April and Nucs (with Ohio Queens) can be available as soon as early May if the weather cooperates.  This means you’ll need to act in the next several weeks to reserve a package as orders get finalized with the producers in mid March. 

Even though you’ll need to order your bees very soon, you’ll still have some time to obtain any equipment you may need.  There also still are some beekeeping classes and meetings being held by local associations or you may find another beekeeper in your area to help you.  Some classes may be after your bees arrive, so be sure to study up enough to know what to do when they do arrive.  Many distributors of package bees would be happy to answer your questions on how to install and tend to them for the first few weeks.

Note: While I do sell both package bees and nucs, I highly recommend you buy them from someone close enough that you can pick them up.  This may mean a drive of several hours depending on your location, but the bees will be in far better shape than they would be if they were shipped though the mail.

When the USDA gets involved of course.  The USDA has mandated that raw almonds grown in the US be pasteurized.  So by the common persons definition raw almonds aren’t.  At least they aren’t if they are grown in the US, the rule doesn’t apply to imported almonds.

Not to be outdone, Ohio is now considering making it illegal to label milk ‘rBHG free‘ or ‘artifical growth hormone-free’ using the argument that such labeling implies that the other stuff is bad and would be unfairly discriminating against those products originating from cows that aren’t enhanced (Lets ignore for a minute that the stuff is banned in Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and All 25 European Union countries.  I’m sure those countries just banned it for completely unjustified reasons – right, thats it).  So what is next?  Any other labeling that may imply another product isn’t as good?  ‘low-fat’, ‘sugar-free’, ‘cholesterol free’, ‘GMO free’, etc.  All imply the product in question is better (and the product without the label is therefore inferior).  It’s a very short step from banning ‘hormone-free’ to banning these and others like ‘local’ or  ‘raw’ which many customers look for in the honey they buy.  

So much for truth in advertising.   (We need to apply these rules to political candidates and their ads.  You can say anything you want as long as it in no way implies that you are better in any way than anyone else.)