VOL 23 #_6_

July Report 

ALERT, ALERT  This to remind you of our meeting date change. 
Because of July 4th we moved our meeting to July 12, 6:45 PM.  Please don’t show up on the 3rd.   We had 66 present for our last meeting.  The next week probably 12 of us went to Paris for the Summer Clinic.  Be sure to read Jim Lathem’s column labeled  “SUMMER CLINIC”  for a very accurate report.

I a sorry you couldn’t make that meeting.  It is not often TBA has this type of information in your backyard.   Our host Randy Johnson has a very clean operation and I am sue you would have enjoyed seeing a   first class operation. 

Several of us finally got to extract on June 21, amounts of honey varied from area to area, but everybody’s is late,  I am 6 weeks behind when I extracted last year.  This makes 3 years in a row of crazy weather.  Hope springs eternally, so better luck next year.  Local price is still holding up, even increased some due to the price of fuel.

death by starvation.  Remember we need

My friend Vi is making a club scrap book.  She is not too happy with it because I am so far, the only one in it.  She would like to put your bee pictures and one of your labels in the book.  PLEASE HELP.  Bring your pictures and labels to Vi.  Thanks

Andy has a review of our first  Q&A session at the last meeting. Please bring your questions to the next meeting.

 Q&A MEETING REVIEW

                by

   Andrew Bellefeuille

 I want to take a moment to thank all those who attended the first Q&A meeting last month.  We had a good turn out and the questions were excellent.  I hope my answers were helpful and didn’t leave more questions than they addressed. I also hope everyone remembers that if you ask ten beekeepers a question you may get eleven different answers.  My answers are what has worked for me and may need to be adapted to your own situation and preferences.  Every time I go into my hives or remove a colony from somewhere I realize how little I know about the honeybee. 

For example, last week I went into a hive that I had given up on and was planning on shaking out and taking back to the honey house to store. I had looked and looked for the queen but couldn’t find her or see any eggs, All the bees were very agitated so I assumed (there’s that word) that the hive was dying and they were unhappy because they were queenless. I continued on and made a note to combine that hive with another. However, last night I opened up the same hive grumbling about the high priced queen that didn’t take, and in the bottom box was a beautiful brood pattern filling three frames.  Oh, the difference a few days makes.  Perhaps  I should be the one asking the questions!  Whenever I have a bee problem that unique.  If I am having this issue someone else must have run into this before.”  

I urge everyone to speak up and share your experiences especially if you have run into something you don’t understand.  If the club cannot help, I would be surprised.   I want to thank Royce Pelham for his help in fielding questions because his years of beekeeping experience dwarf my own limited exposure by decades.   I encourage others to attend future Q&A sessions and bring your questions because  the only dumb question is  the one you don’t ask. 

DUES

We are dropping

Members next

Month if you haven’t

PAID

Well folks, can ya believe it ?  This year is half over already! Time sure flies when you're getting old eh.   It is definitely wax melting time again, and if you have one of those solar wax melters, it wont take long to make nice blocks out of all the old cappings etc.  I hope to be finally pulling my supers this week and getting some of the fruits of my labor. It is always so cool to me when the first bit of honey starts to flow out of the extractor into the bucket. You taste the fresh sweetness and smile.  Now if you have pulled your supers or intend to in the future, we must be sure to check for stores of honey in the brood department, cause now is the dry times till the golden rods and other fall foliage come in September and October  So be ready to feed sugar water and maybe some protein packs cause if don’t they will surely die a slow painful to be the good stewards over the Lords creation.  We  also must be sure that we take care of ourselves also, especially in this good ol Texas  Heat.  Most of the checking of the hives lately has been done in the   morning  or in the evening.

But since I use the "bee quick", which is the good smelling stuff, they say it works best in the hot afternoon sun.  So when out there is always plenty of drinking water and  do not try to work more than twenty minutes  before taking a break and cooling back down.  AC in the truck parked under a shade tree sure does work wonders.   Some have different ways of telling when you are  pushing it, and if I can feel my heart pounding  it is a sure sign that it is time to shut er down!  Its not really that hard as of now because there are only ten hives to deal with right now, and some of them are start up hives. Thanks to Andrew for being a good VP and filling in at my absence.   And of course thanks to all you wonderful people who participate and bring your goodies so faithfully month after month. Looking forward to seeing all your smiling faces this 10th of July! Till then may His grace keep you all. 

Joe  Moench.

Texas Beekeepers Association Report

Jim Lathem

Karen Anderson, Gloria Harmon, and I shared gas cost to attend TBA Meeting in Paris.  We visited about beekeeping and cut cost.

Before lunch we visited Dadant where we picked up supplies and visited with friends.  It was most helpful to see something before you bought it 

We had a delicious barbecue dinner with all the trimmings at Johnson Honey Processing.  The atmosphere was more like a family reunion.

After lunch we were divided into 4 groups that rotated through 4 stations.   An optional station was a tour of Johnson Honey Processing Facility.

Used Equipment Acquisition, Blake Shook.  As a general rule, used equipment is not worth the effort to salvage especially frames.  He burns used frames and evaluates the remainder to determine if worth effort to salvage.  Blake recommends Tractor Supply Company (TSC) oil based barn paint for all wooden ware except frames.  Some commercial beekeepers first soak their wooden ware in a mixture of paint thinner and copper napthenate and then apply 2 coats of paint 1 week later.

Hive Inspection, John Talbert.  Approach hive from the side.  Examine entrance.   Lots of guard bees – future field bees.   Bees carrying pollen – raising brood.   Bees fanning – evaporating nectar.   Orientation flight between 2 to 4 p.m.  Robbing anytime during day -- bees try get in any crack and entrance.  Before open cover, 2 puffs smoke at entrance then 2 puffs smoke under lid.   He uses 9 frames pushed together in brood chamber Remove 2nd frame. Look at side of 3^rd frame for queen then examine frame in hand for queen and quality  and quantity of honey   and pollen.  If do not find queen, sit frame outside hive.  Repeat for remaining frames but return frame to brood box.  Do all exams over hive.  Check for foulbrood, laying workers, etc.  If find drone brood in worker cells, bad queen.  After examining two frames, decide colony strength.  Supersede -- queen cells being worked in center of frame.  Swarm prep – queen cells along bottom of frame.  If cell capped and on bottom of frame, most likely hive has already swarmed. 

Queen Introduction, Eddie Priest.  Take a frame of sealed brood to your vehicle with windows up.  Release queen from queen cage onto frame.  Place push in cage over queen.  Push cage in ¼ inch.   Return frame to hive body containing nurse bees above double screen.  DO NOT return frame to full colony.  Check 3 days later to observe action of workers.  Attacking queen, wait three more days.  Workers feeding queen.  Remove cage. Masking hive odor helps control robbing and when combine hives.   Fill spray bottle with 1-1 sugar syrup and add 2 to 3 drops of essential oil – spearmint (best), peppermint, or wintergreen.  Spraying bees and hive surfaces is better than using newspaper since it removes chemical odor from all surfaces.

Honey Extraction, Dadant Branch Manager.  Stiff blade putty knife with 3 edges sharpened is very useful to pry frames apart, scrape frame, and uncap comb.  Warm honey to 120 to 140 degree F before extract.  Honey will not ferment if moisture < 18% to 18.5%.  Use reflectometer to measure moisture content. Honey heated to 150 to 160 degrees F will kill yeast but will hurt honey flavor.  Can dry honey by heating honey to 160 to 170 degrees F using a pan containing copper coil with hot water circulating and then instantly drop on thin layer of stainless steel to cool.  It is a function of both time and temperature.  age.