What's The Buzz

Nelson County December 2018

Nelson County Beekeepers

What’s The Buzz

Volume 4, Issue 11

Meeting

December 20, 2018 @ 6:30 pm NOMINATIONS FOR OFFICERS – Elections for All positions. Let's step up and serve. We want the club to survive and grow as it has for the past 8 years.

Ernie Sharp – Marketing and Selling your honey.

Keeping bees alive through the winter.

Questions and answers to follow.

Officers President-Steve Hutchins Vice President-Ricky Humphrey

POT – LUCK TURKEY DINNER Pot luck will be served. Ricky Humphrey will be cooking his famous Turkey. Please be sure and bring sides and desserts to share.

Secretary-Bennie Hite Treasurer & Editor-Susan Zhunga

Pot Luck Dinner –This treat that we share each meeting has been hosted by Pat Swartz for many Newsletter Publisher– years. She sets it up and she cleans it up. This is Georganne Collins a lot of work for one person. Starting in January, each person will be responsible for setting up their dish, and assisting in cleaning the kitchen Inside this issue: before we all leave. We want to continue with this tradition, but we need your help.

Meeting Minutes 2 Hospitality-Monthly Volunteer

Items For Sale

3

Which is the best type of bee for a beginner?

4

Save the Date

6

Thank You In Advance Steve Hutchins President

Robbie Smith County Extension Agent for Horticulture

Page 2 MEETING MINUTES November 15th, 2018 Meeting Steering Committee Meeting Attending: Gene Englert, Benny Hite, Ricky Humphrey, Steve Hutchins, Henry Wilkerson, Susan Zhunga Discussed: Nominations for the next year offices are opened now.

Ernie Sharp has agreed to be the speaker at our next meeting.

Planning on having an intermediate bee school next March 23rd where maybe a food truck of some sort will be available for the people.

Bee Meeting: Again Nominations for offices are open and some officers would appreciate other members stepping up and taking these positions.

Intermediate bee school will held March23rd 2019. Admission is free and a food truck will be available for lunch. The meeting was then turned over to our president Steve Hutchins where it was open to round table discussion. There were 48 people in attendance and Kevin Hodge and Donny Higdon won the door prize Benny Joe Hite Secretary

Page 3 Beekeeping Items For Sale Mike Vittitow has 10 – 10 frame boxes ( unassembled) brand new for sale.

If interested please contact Mike on Facebook or see him at the December 20th Meeting.

Test kits for American Foul Brood (AFB) and European Foul Brood (EFB) are available for purchase from Extension Office for $14.00 each. Please call me (Susan 507-8789) for availability.

If any member has beekeeping items for sale, list them in the newsletter and/or bring them to the meeting. We can do some bartering after the regular meeting is over. Good time to save some money on necessary items. Be sure and bring items in good clean condition. Make sure they are priced and have your name.

We will set up special tables for your items.

Mike Johnson – Will make wooden ware to order. Boxes, frames and wax dipping. Contact Mike for information and pricing @ 502249-2007.

The Club - has NCB T - Shirts Prices are: $8.00 for children $10.00 for Adults and $12.00 for Adults 2x & 3x.

2019 ANNUAL DUES ARE NOW DUE

Page 4 Which is the best type of bee for a beginner?

The best information usually comes from other beekeepers. Talk to those in your local and state beekeeping associations. Gentle behavior is very important for beginners. It is also essential if your hives are near your neighbors. As you gain experience, you may become more interested in honey production, mite resistance, or overwintering ability. All of these traits have some genetic basis, so they are determined partly by the breed of queen you have. When you chose your bees it is good to know that stock sold in this country is rarely "pure". For example, bees advertised as “Italian� are probably not the same as what arrived from Italy many years ago. The only way to maintain a pure line of bees is to instrumentally inseminate all of the queens with semen from drones of a known source. Bee breeders cannot do this on a large scale. Instead, the common practice is to let the queens fly to mate naturally in an area where the breeder keeps an overwhelming majority of bees with the desired genes. In this way the breeder "floods" the drone congregation areas with drones from the desired colonies. This is a very acceptable practice. It nearly always results in high quality, mated queens for sale to beekeepers. The main factor in choosing a source of bees should be whether it has the traits important to you.

How many hives?

Most beginners will be happy to start with one hive. But I suggest that you get a few more soon. With several hives (or colonies), certain remedial activities are possible. For example, in spring or summer, a weak hive can be strengthened with a frame of brood from a stronger hive. By early fall, a hive too weak to be ready for winter can be united with another hive. If one hive dies, you can easily create a new hive by making a divide from

Page 5 another hive. Three or four hives are not much more work than one hive if they are in the same apiary. Once you get out to your bees, put your veil on and light your smoker, it's easy to manage another two or three hives. The time it takes to extract honey from several hives is only slightly more than the time to extract from one hive, considering all of the preparation and clean up.

But, on average, four hives will produce four times as much honey as one hive. Your honey production will be more efficient.

Perhaps most important, you will learn more quickly about bees if you have several hives. Each hive grows and behaves a little differently. You can experiment with different techniques, queens or types of equipment if you have at least several hives.

Reducing the hive entrance The bees do well at warming themselves in their winter cluster.

But a tightly sealed hive around them is essential. Hive bodies with holes should be patched or replaced before winter begins.

In November, constrict the entrance by attaching an entrance reducer. This is a strip of wood which covers most of the opening. If you have chosen a hive location that is sheltered from the direct wind, your bees will benefit especially in winter and spring. Most entrance reducers are constructed to exclude mice also. If yours is not, staple 4-mesh screen across the hive entrance. Remember to remove the reducer when spring comes!

Typically this will be in March depending on how quickly the hive population increases. The bees will eventually need the whole entrance to come and go. Also, as the spring temperatures rise and bee activity increases, the colony will need an open entrance for good hive ventilation.

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Page 6 ITEMS AVAILABLE FOR MEMEBERS ONLY

Test kits for American Foul Brood (AFB) and European Foul Brood (EFB) are available for purchase from Extension Office for $14.00 each. Please call Susan 507-8789 for availability.

ATTENTION ATTENTION

There are 2 extractors complete with all that you need to extract honey. It comes with a refractometer to test you honey. $10.00 for usage, with a 2 day maximum.

March 23, 2019 Intermediate Beekeeping School.

FREE FREE FREE. All are welcome. Please reserve a seat, we have a limited amount of space.

All members are encouraged to join us on Facebook. Ask questions, show your progress, and share your pictures. “Nelson County Beekeepers”. We would love to hear from you.

Page 7

(Continued from page 5)

ABSCONDING Bees are particular about where they live. If the hive is too small, too hot in summer, in a windy location, or frequently bothered by pests, the bees may take off for a better spot. In this case, all of the adult bees leave at once in a swarm. It looks like swarming, except that new queens are not reared and no bees are left behind. You may need to do a little detective work to decide whether the hive died or absconded. If it died, some evidence could be left there -signs of disease, mites or starvation. If your bees have absconded, determine what aspects of the hive conditions were undesirable, and fix them before re-establishing the hive.

Source: https://entomology.ca.uky.edu/files/efpdf4/ ksubeekeeping.pdf

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Bardstown KY 40004

317 S Third St

Nelson County