If you know the contact person could send them the message and get on their email list for field days and our secretary sends out notes on the discussion for those that could not make it, so if they are like this you could still get some local advice. could also meet some other beekeepers close to you.
Here is what our secretary sends out as minutes covering a meeting
President Chris chaired the meeting.
The 22 Attendees briefly introduced themselves to the group.
First time visitors Bruce, Doug, James, Michael, Henri and Julius were added to the E mail notification list.
Thirty 50/50s were sold with Deloras the winner.
The scrumptious pot luck was enjoyed by all.
Keith Rae presented a very timely and informative Video:
“Why Bees are Disappearing” by Marla Spivak of U of Min. (Available on Youtube)
Keith next gave a presentation “Listen to Your Bees - Anticipate their Needs”
Observe your bees:
Rev. Langstroth is remembered as an “Observer” of bees. He observed the “Bee Space” is about 3/8 of an inch; a lesser space will be filled in or bridged with wax while if there is a larger space the cell depth will be extended and/or bridged.
He also “observed” that a movable frame could be made to make use of this fact. The result was the “Hoffman” frame used today.
Another useful observation is a given area of brood will result in twice the area of bees. I.e. one frame of brood will result in two frames of worker bees. This enables a prediction of the amount of workers available later.
Observe the age of brood. This can be predicted by the color of the brood cappings. The cappings become progressively darker with age.
Bees do not voluntarily produce wax unless it is needed. Workers from 10 to 16 days old usually produce wax which is produced from their wax glands. The wax is manipulated by other workers as needed.
Adequate honey storage room is needed during honey production.
A small amount of nectar is placed in various honey cells depending on the moisture content. Many extra cells are required to “dry down” the honey to approx. 17.5%. Workers will not cap the cells until this level is reached.
When this level is reached, workers will often move the honey to other cells.
Observe extra wax build up on frames and covers etc; this could be an indication of lack of space for curing/drying the honey.
It is desirable to have multiple pollen and nectar sources.
Observe the amount of pollen being collected. This is a good indication of the amount of brood present. If very little pollen is coming in, further checking may be needed to find the reason. When plenty of pollen is being collected, brood is present.
Be cautious when feeding sugar syrup. Use only “cane” sugar and not beet derived sugar which likely contains GMO residue.
Bees will not draw out foundation without a nectar flow or some other source Feeding sugar syrup is a practical way to get foundation drawn out. Avoid over feeding syrup into a honey flow which could result in syrup derived honey rather than nectar honey
Observe the “hum” coming from the hive. It is a good indicator of queen presence. A brief hum when opening a hive followed by return to calm is normal. When a higher pitch hum continues and workers are agitated, there is likely a queen problem.
Keith briefly described various hive size options to overcome handling very heavy honey supers. These include 8 frame supers with regular depth frames, dadant supers with 5, 8 or 10 frames, as well as nucs and top bar hives. While they generally work well and may be easier to handle, off size supers have disadvantages. The greater the number of hives, the greater the nuisance of having incompatible hive sizes. Also some brood space is lost and the additional barriers can impact brood space and development.
Observe the size of the cluster. The amount of frames with brood is usually two frames less than the cluster size.
Keith had various books available to loan.
Next meeting will be February 17. Membership renewals and elections are planned.
