2015-09 Buzz News

September 2015

Nelson County Beekeepers

What’s The Buzz

Volume 1, Issue 5

September

Officers President-Doug Brink Vice PresidentSecretary-Helen Fenske Treasurer-Susan Zhunga

Robbie Smith County Extension Agent for Horticulture Inside this issue: General Meeting Minutes

2

Fall Flow Wild Flowers &

3

Nancy’s Lip Balm Recipe

3

Oxalic Acid: Effective & Easy on Bees, But . . .

4

Smoker Maintenance

8

Honey-Quinoa Breakfast Bake

6

Meeting Notice

6

Bee School

7

What’s Happening Inside The Hive?

Brood rearing begins to taper off and drone brood has disappeared. Often, a second honey flow comes in September. Goldenrod and aster bloom at this time. With a good location and good weather conditions, the beekeeper can make a significant crop. Have an empty super on the hive to take advantage of this possibility. Your experience from previous years will tell you whether bees can make a late season crop in your area.

Beekeeper Chores Put those mite treatments on! Hot September weather may keep you from putting the Apicure gel packs (for varroa) or menthol (for tracheal mites) on.

Wait until daytime temperatures are regularly below 85o. Beekeepers often face a September dilemma.

If they put their Apistan on in early September, they will not be able to harvest the honey made in that time. If they wait until late September, the varroa mites may be out of control and the hive lost. The best approach is to monitor your varroa numbers through late summer. That information will allow you to make an informed decision. The last weeks of warm weather are the time to assess which hives are ready for winter. There is still time to feed syrup to those without sufficient stored honey and to unite the weakest hives with stronger hives.

Observations and Ideas Late summer and early fall is yellow jacket season.

These wasps are often confused with honey bees by non-beekeepers. If your neighbors have yellow jackets disrupting their picnics, they may blame you.

(Continued on page 2)

Page 2 (Continued from page 1)

General Meeting Minutes August 20, 2015 Show them the differences : yellow jackets have less hair than the fuzzy bees, are slightly smaller, live underground, and are interested in many foods like meat that bees don’t care for. Yellow jacket nests die when winter comes. Only the queens survive, hibernate through the winter, and start new nests alone in spring. http://www.nkybeekeeper s.com/uploads/beecalend ar.pdf

Doug Brink has NCB TShirts ($11) and Hooded Sweatshirts ($23) for sale.

Janet Brown is selling NCB Hats and Visors for $10.00. The club gets $2.00 from each sales.

Larry Marks is selling the Marks' Frames for $12.00 for a set of three frames. Comes with instructions.

The meeting was called to order by President Doug Brink.

There were 31 members and one guest (Fillmore Corey) present. Blessing was shared by Henry Wilkerson prior to our potluck dinner.

Announcements: 

Susan Zhunga – Treasury Balance $382.68



Susan Zhunga – Mentor Program – Took had a field trip, inspecting four hives and doing a split.



She encouraged more to join the group either as Mentor or Mentee.



Gene Englert – Kentucky State Fair – Tuesday 8/25 39:00 PM More volunteers are needed.



April Donathan – Arts & Crafts Fair - We have been approved to participate in this event 10/10 and 10/11.

More volunteers are needed for this great fundraising and awareness opportunity.



Robbie Smith – Beginner Bee School to be held 11/20/2015



Intermediate Bee School – Tentative dates in 2016 of 3/2, 3/9 and 3/16.



Henry Wilkerson – Christmas Parade - December 3, 2015 6:00 PM We won 2nd place in 2014.

Our guest speaker for the evening was Tavia Cathcart, Executive Director at Creasey Mahan Nature Preserve.

“Honeybees and pollinators and how flowers flirt.”

The September meeting will be an open meeting with general beekeeping discussion.

Submitted by Helen Fenske, Secretary

Page 3 Fall Flow Wild Flowers & Cultivated Blooms Ready for the Fall flow. Lots of wild flowers in bloom right now. I've seen the bees on most of these but not all.

Perhaps some members have seen more action on the blooms listed or others blooms not on the list below:

them and right now they need them to build up fall honey and winter stores.

For bees, their forage or food supply consists of nectar and pollen from blooming plants within flight range. The forage sources  Ironweed - Nectar from for honey bees are an July to October important consideration for  Bonset (Joe-Pye Weed) - beekeepers. In order to determine where to locate Nectar & Pollen from hives for maximum honey August to September production and brood one  Goldenrod – Nectar & must consider the offPollen from September to season. If there are no October honey flows the bees may have to be fed.  Smartweed – Nectar from September to October As a rule of thumb the foraging area around a  Ragweed – Pollen from beehive extends for two September to November miles, although bees have been observed foraging  Aster – Nectar & Pollen twice and three times this from August to October distance from the hive.  Borage – Nectar & Pollen Experiments have shown from June to Frost that beehives within 4 miles of a food source will gain  Marigold – Pollen from weight, but beyond that the June to September energy expended is greater  Thistle – Nectar from July than that gained during the foraging flight. Foraging at to September extreme distances wears out  Melons/Pumpkins – the wings of individual bees, Pollen from June to reduces the life expectancy October of foraging bees and therefore the efficiency of Some of these plants are the colony. The minimum invasive and considered an annoyance. But the bees love temperature for active

honeybee foraging is approximately 55 °F . Full foraging activity is not achieved until the temperature rises to 66 °F. Info from Wikipedia.

Nancy's Lip Balm 1 cup grated beeswax 14 ounces coconut oil 5 tablespoons honey 5 tablespoons pure vanilla extract Heat the wax in a saucepan over low heat to 150oF. In a separate saucepan, heat the oil to the same temperature. When both are heated to the proper temperature, add the coconut oil to the beeswax, remove the pan from the heat, and stir steadily until well blended.

The add the honey and the vanilla extract and continue to stir until well blended.

Pour into tubes or tubs, allow to cool overnight, and them cap the containers and store at room temperature, out of direct sunlight.

Info from the book Plan/bee by Susan Brackney.

Page 4 OXALIC ACID: EFFECTIVE & EASY ON BEES, BUT . . . http://www.beeculture.com/ oxalic-acid-effective-easy-onbees-but/ What is Oxalic acid? It’s an organic acid found just about everywhere in the environment including in plants and vegetables. It is bitter to the taste and irritating to the eyes, mouth and skin. It is a natural plant defense against herbivores.

It is also found in honey.

Since it is not fat soluble (a lipid), it doesn’t build up in wax comb. Back in 1957, it was registered as a pesticide (disinfectant/ sanitizer), but, by 1994, the renewal of the product registration was cancelled.

There are risks involved if you plan to use oxalic acid.

Given its caustic effect on the eyes, skin and respiratory system, it’s labeled with the highest degree of toxicity, “Category 1.” So, as with all pesticides, caution must be taken when handling it.

How can oxalic be applied?

Oxalic can be applied several ways: drip (trickle), vaporization and spraying. It can be used on existing colonies, packages or swarms. The two most popular are the trickle and vaporization method. The trickle or solution method is

taking the acid and mixing it with a warm 1:1 sugar-towater solution. Next, the solution is drawn into a syringe and 5 ml is trickled (scientific term for “dribbly drop”) down the seam between each frame and directly onto the bees; the maximum dose is 50 ml per colony (5mls per seam). It doesn’t matter whether it is a nuc or a hive with a single or multiple brood chamber, but reduction in dosage for smaller colonies obviously.

The vaporizer method is only to be used on colonies outdoors. And, what ever you do, do not inhale the vapor! Basically, you use a vaporizer which is a metal wand with a plate at one end and a cord which connects to a battery at the other end. One gram of oxalic acid is placed on the metal plate. The plate is then slid into the entrance of the colony. The entrance opening and any other cracks and crevices are then sealed with the vaporizer in place to avoid the gas from escaping. Once connected to a battery, the heat from the plate causes the oxalic crystals to melt and turn into a gas (sublime). The vapor will permeate the hive.

When it contacts the mites,

it kills them. Each vaporizer is different.

Some take only a few minutes to activate the acid, while others take a little longer. Since you don’t have to open the colony in order to treat, this seems to be the easier of the two methods to implement, especially on cold, rainy days.

You can also spray (mist) packages or swarms. Over the last few years, we’ve followed this protocol to ensure that we’re starting our research projects with mite-free bees. Once the packages arrived, we placed them in a cool, dark location in the lab for 24 hours to cluster the bees.

Several hours prior to applying the oxalic solution, we spray the bees with a 1:1 sugar solution to fill their honey stomachs and reduce ingestion of the upcoming oxalic treatment. Next, we mix the oxalic acid in a 1:1 sugar water solution and evenly apply the solution to the bees.

Why use oxalic? It works. It has been used for years in Europe. According to numerous studies, it’s 9099% effective at killing the mites with minimal

Page 5 damage to the bees and brood.

Does trickle or vaporization work better? A recent study at Sussex University examined the effectiveness of different doses and application methods on mite and bee mortality. The experiment involved 110 hives. The results showed sublimation (vaporization) was far better at reducing mite populations and showed no increase in bee mortality.

Is Oxalic perfect? No; it only works on phoretic mites, i.e., those mites crawling around on the frames or adult bees.

The mites breeding under the cappings of the brood cells are unaffected by oxalic administrations, as well as most other miticide products. Therefore, applications are most effective when no brood is present. At beekeeping meetings, when chatting about this product to others, I’ve heard folks say that they are applying oxalic once-aweek for three weeks during the Summer months. This isn’t really advisable since it’s not very effective and can be detrimental to the bees. But there may be a way to still treat during the Summer months.

Smoker Maintenance http://www.extension.org/ pages/25566/smokermaintenance#.Ve70MRFVhBd At some point your smoker will start to give off only a little smoke even though the fire is going well and you pump like crazy. If you do maintenance a couple times a year you will prevent this from happening.

If it is already happening, do the maintenance to repair it.

First clean the inside of the smoker by scraping with a hive tool or screwdriver. By scraping around the lid you will make it open and close easier. Pay special attention to the hole where the smoke comes out.

You do not have to get it perfect but remove the majority of the soot and carbon. Removing the crud from the can makes it easier to get the grate out in the next step.

Remove the grate from the bottom of the smoker. I find it easiest to use a long needle nose pliers. Put one

nose into each of 2 holes close to the edge and pull.

You can also bend a wire or rod to fit in a hole near the edge and pull it up.

Sometimes the grate will be all plugged like this one. You will need to scrape it with a hive tool.

Be sure you clean inside the holes. You can use the corner of the hive tool for this or a screwdriver of the proper size.You may find debris and/or soot in the can under the grate.

Scrape this and dump it out.

Often the air tube becomes plugged. I have tried many tools to clean this without removing the bellow. None are satisfactory, so remove the bellows. To do this remove the four nuts holding the smoker to the bellows. If they are rusty use some penetrating oil. Do not turn too hard on rusted nuts or you will strip the screws and then not be able to get them off. Separate the smoker from the (Continued on page 7)

Page 6 Honey-Quinoa Breakfast Bake Non-stick cooking spray 1 cup - quinoa , (uncooked) 1 tablespoon - cinnamon 2 cups - mixed frozen berries ½ cup - coarsely chopped nuts 2 - organic eggs 2 cups - 1% organic milk ¼ cup - honey

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray an 8-by-8-inch baking dish with non-stick spray. In a small bowl, stir together uncooked quinoa with cinnamon, making sure it is coated completely.

Pour quinoa over bottom of prepared dish. Scatter the berries and nuts on top of quinoa, making sure to spread evenly. In a small bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Add the milk and honey and whisk together. Pour egg mixture on top of quinoa and fruit. Bake 1 hour or until the breakfast bake only has a small amount of liquid remaining. Serve warm. http://www.honey.com/recipes/detail/6/honey-breakfast-bake

September 17th @ 6:30 p.m.

M e e t i n g

POT-LUCK-SUPPER Bring what you want to share.

The agenda for this meeting is Questions and Answers. Are you having problems?

Need advice? This is the time to bring it up. Want to share your successes, we want to here about it.

The season is coming to an end. Time to think about a game plan for next year. Are you about to get bees for the first time, or are you thinking about expanding your existing bee yard? What can we do to protect existing bees for the coming winter?

These are just a few of the areas you might want to cover. Think about it, and bring us your issue.

Page 7 UP COMING BEEKEEPERS SCHOOLS There are two beekeeping schools being planned for our area.

The first will be the TriCounty Beekeeping Essentials School to be held on November 21st at the ECTC campus in Springfield KY. More details will follow in the next newsletter edition.

This will serve as a save the date announcement.

Keep in mind this school will be more geared toward beginners.

The second school will be designed for more advanced beekeeping and will be held in March of 2016 at the Nelson County Extension Office.

The dates will be March 2nd, 9th, and 16th beginning at 6:30 PM and the discussions will cover a variety of advanced topics.

I would like to give a big thanks to everyone who was able to help our club out by volunteering to work at the State Fair Honey Booth. Susan Zhunga, Pat Swartz, Steve Hutchins, David & April Donathan, Bob Deegan, Bud Cummins, all did a superb job educating people about honeybees, answering questions, helping youngsters roll candles and sell a little honey. Ray Tucker (President-elect of KSBA) was on hand to oversee things and I think he was pretty impressed with how well everything went and how we all worked together.

Overall we really enjoyed ourselves and we look forward to helping next year.

Nelson County Beekeepers were also well represented in the honey competition. Ernie Sharp took 1st place in the 1 lb light amber category, I took 2nd place in the 1 lb light amber category and Darrell Hester took 2nd place in the 1 lb amber category.

Hopefully this recognition will entice more of us to compete next year. Maybe you could save some of your fall honey to put into next years competition.

There is also a category "Black Jar", were the honey is judged on taste alone.

Gene Englert.

(Continued from page 5)

bellows and clean the tube. Notice how clean this tube is.

Check the bellows for leaks. To do this hold your finger over the air outlet hole and squeeze the bellows.

Some air will leak but large leaks need to be fixed. Duct tape works as temporary fix but replacement with new one is best.

Replace the grate being careful to place a leg on either side of the inlet tube. Replace the bellows and tighten the 4 nuts. Putting a little oil on the threads makes the job easier next time. https:// www.extension.org/ mediawiki/files/a/a3/ Smoker_4.jpg (picture)

RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED

Nelson County 317 S Third Street Bardstown, KY 40004

University of Kentucky

Cooperative Extension Service

«AddressBlock»