Recent Posts

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Bee News / Challengers for beekeeping in the Midwest
« Last post by Bakersdozen on November 13, 2024, 11:56:21 am »
https://nebraskapublicmedia.org/en/news/news-articles/for-some-midwest-beekeepers-trying-to-keep-honeybees-alive-has-proven-devastating/?fbclid=IwY2xjawGhtsRleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHeZbCYumug
Unfortunately, a beekeeping friend was in the news. He and this group do a honey harvest.
Robert raises lots of queens and collects many, many swarms. He will probably replace those colonies with swarms and splits.
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General Beekeeping / Re: Sugar Bricks, or Cakes For Winter Feeding
« Last post by Bakersdozen on November 13, 2024, 10:54:40 am »
Dr. Peck was talking about Digestion and Nutrition when he said they did not need acid in their diet. He said that honey bees already have the required chemistry in their guts and didn't need added acidity. Today I found two different recipes on Betterbee's website. One with apple cider vinegar + citric acid powder and then the recipe Dr. Peck was referring to, 1 Tablespoon of water : 1 pound of sugar. So perhaps the addition of acid was misleading on Dr. Peck's part. More likely I misunderstood what he was saying.
Are you familiar with Clarence Collison? His recipe for sugar bricks:
25# granulated sugar
1 Qt. Apple Cider Vinegar
3 T. HoneyBee Healthy or Pro Health
3 T. Citric Acid
This recipe is used by many of our beekeepers in this area without problem.
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General Beekeeping / Re: Sugar Bricks, or Cakes For Winter Feeding
« Last post by PappyRick on November 13, 2024, 09:04:17 am »
Hey Baker,  what was the reason Dr. Peck advised against acid, like apple cider vinegar?  The recipe I use includes 1 1/2 Tbsps of apple cider vinegar.  I've been using that recipe for several years and it seems to improve my hive survivability through the winter very well.  If the apple cider vinegar has detrimental effects, I haven't seen them, but don't want to either.

Thanks.
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General Beekeeping / Re: Sugar Bricks, or Cakes For Winter Feeding
« Last post by Bakersdozen on November 11, 2024, 01:53:43 pm »
I thought I would refresh this thread as it is about that time of the year.
I recently heard Dr. David Peck, from Betterbee, talk about sugar bricks for supplemental winter feeding. He said that Betterbee recommends 1 Tablespoon of water to 1 pound of dry sugar. The sugar can be beet or cane.  He strongly urged beekeepers from adding an acid whether it is citric acid or apple cider vinegar. He did say you could add HoneyBHealthy or Lemongrass oil to attract the bees with a scent.
Here is a link to a video about making sugar bricks by Betterbee.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ac06LAW3yw
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Welcome / Re: G'day
« Last post by The15thMember on November 10, 2024, 03:06:14 pm »
Welcome, Lollygag!  We are a strange, but hopefully welcoming bunch!  :thumbsup:
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Any and Every Thing / Re: Bit of history
« Last post by The15thMember on November 10, 2024, 03:02:58 pm »
Okay, that's incredible.
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Any and Every Thing / Bit of history
« Last post by Bakersdozen on November 10, 2024, 12:43:44 pm »
When driving I-70, in the Flint Hills, I always look for the large cannon sitting on top of a hill overlooking Fort Riley. We take this route to get to our state beekeeping meeting or when traveling west to Colorado. I always assumed it was left from WWII. I got curious and searched online and the cannon has an interesting history. There is a walking path up to it and it sets in a small park called Freedom Park.  It's name is Atomic Cannon and a remnant from the Cold War. It had a range of 20 miles and was designed to fire a nuclear war head with the destructive power similar to what was dropped on Hiroshima. I'm glad we didn't have to use it! There are more spread around the US. Twenty were sent to Western Europe and South Korea.  They were all retired in the early 1960's. Now we know!

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General Beekeeping / Good time at the State Beekeeping conference
« Last post by Bakersdozen on November 10, 2024, 12:12:15 pm »
I really enjoyed hearing Dr. David Peck, from Betterbee, speak at our fall conference. Dr. Peck studied under Tom Seeley at Cornell. He spoke on the benefits of overwintering with double nucs, honeybee digestion and nutrition, and collective intelligence and honey bee dance language. He also sat in on a round table discussion with questions from the audience. Dr. Peck is very easy to listen to and easy to understand.

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Welcome / Re: G'day
« Last post by Bakersdozen on November 10, 2024, 11:34:12 am »
Welcome Lollygag!
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Welcome / Re: G'day
« Last post by iddee on November 07, 2024, 03:40:13 am »
Welcome. Hope you enjoy it here, and maybe even pick up a tip or two.
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