Someone at the meeting had a large quantity of pollen patties and protein supplement to sale.

Transcription

1 Northern Colorado Beekeepers Association Meeting Berthoud Community Center Berthoud, Colorado March 14, 2012 NCBA President Nelson Martin opened the meeting at 6:35 p.m., with 97 people in attendance. The guest speakers for the evening were Miles McGaughey and Tom Theobold; Miles and Tom talked about making Splits and Nucs. Ronda Koski gave a recap of what took place at the February meeting. John Green gave an updated treasurer s report and an update on the NCBA website. Carolina Nyarady gave an update on the wooden ware order. NCBA President Pro-Tem Greg Bowdish gave an update on the bee package order. Bee package order limit has been increased to pound packages. The expected arrival and delivery date is April 19. Details will be available in April. Someone at the meeting had a large quantity of pollen patties and protein supplement to sale. Ronda thanked Geri Wolf, Terry Jones, and Scott and Susan Haskins for providing the refreshments for the evening. Tom Theobold has been a beekeeper for 37 years. Tom was the last Colorado Bee Inspector; currently the state of Colorado has no official bee inspector. Tom is very concerned about the pesticides that are currently being used in the United States of America; the wide-spread use of neonicotinoid insecticides clothianidin, imidacloprid, and thiamethoxam appears to be have a very detrimental effect on honey bees and numerous other species of bees and wasps. In spite of the evidence that these insecticides are negatively impacting bee and wasp species populations, the U.S. EPA still allows these products to be manufactured, sold, and used in the United States of America. In Tom s opinion, the U.S. EPA is notorious for allowing products on the market without sufficient research, especially research as to how these products affect honey bees. There is currently a petition that urges the U.S. EPA to suspend the sale and use of the neonicotinoid insecticides.

2 Very little difference between Splits and Nucs. Timing is the main difference. Splitting honey bee colonies. Tom does splits and double queening. Double queening allows two queens to exist in the hive at the same time. Double queening results in more honey 260 pound surplus honey potential. However double queening is very labor intensive; this method requires lots of moving of hive body boxes. Colonies that has several boxes of brood (8+ frames of brood) in Mid-April or Mid-May are candidates for splitting. Do splits when you see the dandelions blooming; April end of May. To make a 2-Frame S plit. 1. Find the queen; put the frame that she is on in an empty hive body. 2. Select a frame of sealed capped brood; most of the bees associated with this frame will be fielders. 3. Select a frame with open brood; most of the bees attending the brood will be nurse bees (6-7 week old pupae). 4. You should have about 10,000 12,000 bees in your 2-frame split. 5. Return the queen to the original hive. Tom suggested putting a new queen in each 2-frame split. Leave queen-less for 1 day so that the colony will recognize that they are queen-less, and begin to rear a new queen. DO NOT leaves the splits queen-less for more than 1 day; longer than 1 day will lead to problems. Colonies need to be large enough so that new brood does not chill in the fall. Older fielders tend to move back to the old hive. To help minimize this, spray a vanilla solution (1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract in water (amount?). Spray into the new hive; this will mask the odors of the original hive. Look for your queens and handle them often.

3 Double Queening. 1.5 million colonies currently in California almond fields. Commercial beekeepers regularly split colonies but this can result in reduced pollination. So just before peak nectar flow, they combine 2 colonies keeping the 2 queens together. Double screens and inner covers need to be placed between the 2 boxes containing the queens. When placing the boxes on a hive, turn the direction of the entrance holes so the fielders enter into their box with their queen. The queens will coexist for a while before one will kill off the other; usually it is the younger queen that will survive. Must have the two colonies combined by the time of the major honey flow that occurs at the time of the second cutting of alfalfa. By the end of July, the top hive body will be full of brood. Still time for the production of fielders. Double queening is very labor intensive! Commercial beekeepers do not double queen due to the labor involved. Tracy Bellehumeur announced that Growing Gardens in Boulder would be hosting a beginning beekeeping classes; she had brochures for anyone interesting in registering for the classes. Beth Conrey talked about the Cottage Industry Bill (Senate Bill ) it was finally PASSED! The signing will be in Denver on March 15, An allergy statements will be required to be attached to each jar. Any one planning to package honey and honey products are required to attend food safety training classes Unfortunately, CSU Extension will not be offering food safety training classes until August. Beth wants Colorado Proud to make hanging tags with the allergy information statement printed on them so that these can be recycled (after a customer has purchased the honey item). Beth Conrey also talked about Pollinator Week June This event is co-sponsored by Beauty Beyond Belief flower seed company (located in Boulder). Saturday, June 23, 2012 there will be booths set up at garden centers and nurseries to help get the word out to the public about the importance of pollinators and the importance in protecting these valuable creatures. She asked NCBA members to volunteer to help with a booth at one of the participating garden centers and nurseries. Miles McGaughey began his presentation about swarms by stating that he went out of his way to avoid the last Colorado Bee Inspector which happened to be Tom Theobold! Miles is a comb honey

4 producer; this method creates prime conditions for swarming! Miles clips one of the wings of the queen to prevent swarming. A split is basically a man-made swarm! Colonies will make swarm cells (queen cells located at the bottom of a frame). Need to locate the queen. There are pros and cons to marking queens. Look for frames where there is a lot of activity. The queen will not be on frames with capped brood; look for frames with open brood cells. Pull two frames together, then open these apart, like you would open a book; look for the queen. Observe behavior of worker bees look for a group of attendants that circle around the queen. Queens smell different than workers; some beekeepers are able to smell where the queen is located in a hive! Look in hives on a regular basis When to split? In the late summer. To make a nuc, select two frames with open brood cells. Place the nuc box on top of a nearby hive body. Separate the hive bodies with a screen. Miles uses follower boards to divide a hive body into two-three compartments. Follower boards can be purchased from a company called Better Bee. Overwinter Nucs. Stack nucs on top of 2 boxes of brood in September. Thermal regulation within the hive depends on the size of the cluster; a healthy colony will form a cluster the size of a soccer ball. Put pollen patties in the hive in the Fall; this will help to prevent the bees from collecting corn pollen, most corn grown in Colorado is treated with insecticides and other pesticides that harm honey bees. Boulder County Beekeepers Association is starting a local queen rearing program. IF a beekeeper is feeding now (in mid-march) this could lead to swarming later this Spring!

5 Miles does his splits in the Fall, this way he can utilize summer swarms or colonies obtained from hive removals. Most beekeepers have been trained to start new hives in the Spring of the year. But making splits in the Fall of the year can be easier on the bees. Unite weak colonies in the Fall to make a split. From an agricultural standpoint, look at where the honey (MONEY) is! Honey production is dependent on drawn comb this requires lots of worker bees and lots of time. Spotty or shot gun pattern on frames of brood indicates that something is WRONG in the hive. Most hive problems in Colorado are due to high populations of Varroa Mite and /or pesticide residues that are brought back to the hive. Miles manages Varroa Mite populations by sprinkling the bees in the hive with confectioner s sugar. Systemic pesticides move throughout the entire treated plant, these chemical get into the pollen and nectar. Miles lost 90% of his hives one year due to nearby application(s) of pesticides. If your hive dies in the Spring, but there are frames of honey, put those frames in the freezer to kill off most of the BAD stuff. Collect pollen from hive throughout the year; keep this in the freezer; then use to feed bees in the Winter and early Spring. Make a Happy Meal for bees by boiling sugar water to the hard crack stage and then adding pollen; put this mixture on an inner cover that has been turn upside down; allow the mixture to harden on the inside of the inner cover. After hardening, place inside the hive. Strains of honey bees for Front Range beekeepers. Italians and Carniolans have proven to perform well here in this part of the country. Miles prefers Carniolans, but likes the look of Italian queens (yellow-brown with distinct dark bands across the abdomen). Martin Nelson adjourned the meeting at 8:45 p.m.