Aiken Beekeepers Association

The Education Hub For Practical Beekeeping
Home     Buy Sell or Trede     Info     Mentoring Prog.     The Buzz     Bee Photos     The News Room     Contact Us     Web Links     Bee vidio links      

Welcome to Aiken beekeepers.org,
 the official website of the
Aiken Beekeepers Association!

We have striven to make your experience with us as informative and pleasant as possible. Please take advantage of the helpful links embedded within each page to easily navigate this website.

ABA promotes, encourages, and fosters good beekeeping practices, enhancement in the knowledge base of novice, intermediate and expert beekeepers, production of honey bee products, and public education concerning all aspects of beekeeping. Any person interested in honey bees, beekeeping and/or honey bee products is welcome to visit us for a meeting, and encouraged to become a member.

          The Education Hub
     For Practical Beekeeping

This site was last updated on 05/16/09




             CCD
   Latest info on Honey Bee Colony Collapse Disorder
download a PDF copy click here
**********************************

Next
Association Meeting


Sep. 28 2010
Meeting is the 4th Tuesday the month

Topic:

Speaker:



The Buzz
To download the back issues of the ABA newsletter  click here
(Click on newsletter image)


******************************************************************************************************                

 

 **********************************************************************************************************



 New web page for beekeepers who would like to buy, sell or trade bees , honey or beekeeping  equipment.

 If you would like to post your an ad regarding honeybee stuff please send the information to aikenbeekeeper@gmail.com . There is no charge for the ad. Click here to display that page



______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

From: >


Aiken Beekeepers

Association Newsletter

The Buzz

The Education Hub for Practical Beekeeping

http://aikenbeekeepers.org August and September 2010

==============================================

Meetings will be the fourth Tuesday of the month at 7:00pm

In the Aiken County Agriculture Building at 1555 Richland Ave. Aiken, SC please join us!

==============================================



                                                                                                               President David McNeely a10ac_boy@gmail.com

                 803-266-4627 c-803-640-4628

                                                                                                               Vice President Jim Irons jcirons@gforcecable.com

                           803-593-4068 c-803-335-8727

                                                                                                                Treasurer Karen McNeely beecipe@earthlink.net

803-266-4627

                                                                                                                Secretary Deborah Sasser dsasser3@comcast.net

                                                                                                                       706-855-5240

                                                                                                                Webmaster Jon Hill aikenbeekeeper@gmail.com

                                                                                                                                                               803-648-6957

                                      ==============================================






                                                           Presidents Bees-ness Buzz from the Hive David McNeely


Well the honey flow is in and I hope everyone had a good flow and lots of honey. I know I was sold out in a week and still have people asking if I have honey. Remember to get your hives ready for the fall flow. We’ve been having some good rain lately, which is good for the bees, but if you have a dry spell, remember your ladies need water. So have some for them to have access to.

I have had some tell me that they have lost hives to wax moths. I have lost one also. As we know a strong hive will control the wax moths. There are ways to help control for wax moths. One is not to use a top entrance, when a cold snap happens and the bees go down, this allows the moths to enter and lay eggs. Another is to ensure you have a proper fitting top cover. If lose, this provides an entrance for the moths. Prevention is our first line of defense. There are other things that can be done. If anyone has any questions, please ask.

For the first year beekeepers, remember you can still call the mentor for advice. You will still need to get the bees through this year and into next.



================================================================


Beekeeping Chores

August and September:

First and foremost check food stores in each of your hives. Early honey stores may be quickly exhausted, therefore colony inspections are crucial. One day your colony may be the strongest and the next week wiped out due to starvation. If your bees need food now feed with 2:1 sugar syrup solution. However, if they have enough stores but will need supplemental feeding before winter arrives, wait to feed until the end of September with a 2:1 sugar syrup solution. You don’t want to stimulate the queen to begin excessive egg-laying with winter just around the corner. Remember, single hive bodied colonies will need 35 -40 pounds of honey to last the winter.

Another task to undertake at this time is to monitor your colonies’ Varroa mite levels. Not only has your bee population grown over the spring and summer months, but your pest population may have grown along with it.

If your colony has more than 60 mites on a sticky board inserted for 24 hours, it is time to treat. Remember …. Always rotate your treatments. If you used CheckMite last time, treat with Apistan this time. You also have a third option available, Api Life Var This product uses essential oils as its active ingredient and has shown significant success.


Resolve any queen problems you have. Weak or old queens result in small non-viable colonies which rarely survive the winter. If colonies are weak, combine with other weak colonies or add to existing strong ones.


==========================================================================================================================

Honey Lemon Fruit Dressing


Use over fresh fruit


Ingredient

¼ cup grated lemon zest

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons raw honey

¾ cup plain yogurt

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1/8 teaspoon almond extract

¼ teaspoon salt


Directions Yields: ¾ cup


In small bowl, whisk together lemon zest, lemon juice and honey. Add remaining ingredients and whisk until well combined. Drizzle over fresh fruit.




Using Essential Oils for Honey Bee Mite Control

West Virginia University Extensive Service

Research has shown several essential oils can either kill, or adversely affect varroa mites.


Essential Oils have Two Modes of Action:

  1. Toxicity by direct contact:

When varroa mites contact essential oils such as wintergreen, patchouli, tea tree oil rosemary, peppermint or spearmint mixed into oil or grease, they are killed on contact… usually within a few minutes.


  1. Impaired reproduction via feeding syrups containing essential oils:

When varroa mites feed on larvae that contain oils, their reproduction is interrupted. If the oil is strong enough, the females are unable to lay eggs. If the oils are in lower concentration, eggs are laid, but development of immature mites is delayed; young mites do not reach maturity before the bees emerge from the cell; consequently, the immature mites die.


Involvement of Essential Oils in Impaired Reproduction of Varroa Mites: Syrup containing the essential oil is fed at the hive entrance or in the brood nest. Many bees

feed on the syrup and pass the essential oils around by trophalaxis (adult bees sharing their food reserves). The syrup and essential oil is ingested by nurse bees and enter the communal food in the crop and passes into the milk glands. When the nurse bees feed larvae, the essential oils are in the bee milk and communal food and are ingested by the larvae. Thus, when female varroa mites feed on treated larvae or larval food at the bottom of the cell, they ingest the essential oils which adversely affect their reproduction. The probable mechanism is interference with enzymes in the complex gestation (especially in the production of nutrients and new proteins) of the oocyte and embryo-larva of the varroa mite.


Feeding of sugar syrup with essential oil at the entrance, or in the brood nest, places the essential oils into the food chain and prevents oviposition by female mites or retards the development of immature mites in capped larval/pupal cells.

  1. Syrup: 25 drops of wintergreen or spearmint is added to one pint of honey (or two cups sugar) in a quart jar; hot water is added to fill jar. We found that more of the essential oil goes into solution in honey than in sugar syrup; there may be a natural emulsifier in honey that helps essential oils to stay in solution. When making sugar syrup, we found that we must add the oil to the granulated sugar then add the very warm water (not too hot or else the oil will evaporate). Feed the bees as much as they will take. We have had good results with wintergreen, spearmint, rosemary and peppermint oils. We plan to conduct experiments this fall and winter combining the essential oils with fumadil in syrup to see if the treatments are compatible.

Problem: oils mix poorly with water; we have had some reports of a few bees being killed when they feed on the last dregs of the syrup.


  1. Grease patties: are made with four cups of granulated sugar, two cups of vegetable shortening (Crisco) and one of the following: 21cc of wintergreen, tea tree oil, or patchouli oil or 11.5 cc of each of any two oils. This rate is ¼ oz. of essential oils per pound of sugar and grease. Mix thoroughly (wear gloves or use a mixer or large spoon, as wintergreen oil in such concentrations may be toxic to the skin)

Several beekeepers have stated that they used powdered or confectioner’s sugar in place of granular sugar, or even replaced sugar with honey; some have also added canola oil to the patties to make them softer and easier to apply with an ice cream scoop. The bees take these softer patties more rapidly and, if made with honey, the essential oils may enter into the food chain of the bee larvae and thus impair development of the varroa mites.

Be certain that the grease patties you make or buy contain plenty of grease or vegetable oil. It is the free oil or grease that appears to suffocate tracheal mites and probably also, varroa mites. We believe that this physical suffocating function is enhanced or synergized by the essential oils.


I am very interested in trying essential oils on Sasserfrass Hill and hope this information will be helpful to all. If you would like to read the entire article please go to: http/www.wvu.edu/~agexten/ipm/insects/pollinat/varroa/varroa2.htm


This informative article was submitted by Candace Zukas. Thank you Candace!



Mr. Charlie Says….. August - September 2010


With the temperature reaching three digits it is hard to think about fall being just around the corner. Autumn and fall chores will be here before we know it.


I am battling the small hive beetles. I kill from 10 to 40 per day in each hive. All I can say is thank goodness it was the small hive beetle that came into Charleston in 1996 and not the large hive beetle, or our beekeeping would be even more precarious. Thank goodness for the plastic Mr. Charlie has been putting on the top of his hives for the last ten years. Without it I don’t think I would have any hives left. I get some satisfaction from smashing those nasty little pests. I love to see the bees pick the beetles up and take them out of the hive as soon as they are squished and she can get a grip on them.


Mr. Charlie and I continue to pull queen cells every ten days.… Now, that is a hot job! I can see why many people say it was much too hard and much too hot to dress out in bee suit, gloves and veil. With the humidity and the heat I sometimes wonder if we will live to tell the story. But, you must continue to pull queen cells or your bees will swarm.


The Country Girls”, as I call our fourteen new colonies, are much too aggressive, even for Mr. Charlie, to work without dressing out. We had to smoke these bees just to feed them in the spring. These were the most aggressive bees Mr. Charlie has ever had to deal with. I was ready to re-queen back in the spring after a few bees followed me back to the truck, a good 200 yards and flew into my face as soon as I took off my veil…. I thought we must have had a few African bees in the packages!!! I like my bees on the gentle easy going side.


We are going to try a new approach to re-queening this season. Mr. Charlie is going to purchase queens that are five or six days away from hatching. This will be the first time he has re-queened with pupating queens. We are both interested and excited to see the outcome. The queens we have been getting from Wilbank’s Apiaries are artificially inseminated. We lost many queens this spring and we were wondering if allowing the queens to mate themselves may be a better way to go. Mr. Charlie also purchased an incubator to keep the queens safe and in a controlled environment, so he can take his time going through each hive without rushing. We hope this will give the new queens time to mate and build up for the fall honey flow and be strong going into the winter.


Mr. Charlie says… We learn wisdom from failure as well as from success. We often discover what will work, by finding out what will not work; and he who has never made a mistake has never made a discovery.


If anyone is interested in getting queen cells let Mr. Charlie know and he will be happy to add to his order.


We are anxious to see what the fall season brings.

Deborah Sasser


================================================================


One more meeting in our area you may want to check out:


August 2 – 6th Eastern Apicultural Society Annual Conference in

Boone, NC. For more details: www.easternapiculture.org



======================================================


Bee Culture Announces 2011 Calendar Theme


Show me your Bee yard” is the theme for the 2011 Bee Culture Calendar.

The yearly project generates more than a 1000 entries from all over the globe. The winning entrants will have their photos published in the 2011 Calendar.


==========================================================






Please send any comments or suggestions for the website to:

Jon Hill - Webmaster aikenbeekeeper@gmail.com


=============================================================


If you would like to help with articles, photos, fun facts, etc. for the newsletter. You can e-mail your contribution to Deborah Sasser

dsasser3@comcast.net


============================================================



What’s a bee’s favorite flower?


bee- gonias!


==============================================================


We had a first at Sasserfrass Hill Bee Farms this week. We had about seventy homeschooled kids come to learn about the bees and how important they are to our environment. Mr. Charlie and I talked to the kids for about twenty minutes and they were attentive and curious to learn. It was a great experience and we have had several more groups expressing interest in visiting also. We hope we sparked their interest and will have several future beekeepers for our efforts.


=====================================================




Please come chat with fellow beekeepers at our next meeting,

August 24, 2010 at 7pm

There is always something to learn as we share our knowledge.

I look forward to seeing everyone at our next meeting.


Deborah Sasser – Secretary – Aiken Beekeepers Association





Try to stay Cool !

P



======================================================



==========================================================






Please send any comments or suggestions for the website to:

Jon Hill - Webmaster aikenbeekeeper@gmail.com



=============================================================



If you would like to help with articles, photos, fun facts, etc. for the newsletter. You can e-mail your contribution to Deborah Sasser

dsasser3@comcast.net



============================================================

What is the hives favorite Beatles song?

Let it Bee.


================================================================


The Association promotes and encourages good beekeeping practices,

enhancement in the knowledge base of novice, intermediate and expert

beekeepers, production of honey bee products, and public education concerning the honey bee and honey.

Any person who has an interest in honey bees and beekeeping is

encouraged to become a member of ABA. Membership is open to anyone;

novice or expert, hobbyist or commercial beekeeper,

and you are encouraged to join us.


=====================================================





Have A Happy Summer !

 


an


Colony collapse disorder still buzzing in beekeepers' minds

 

March 08, 2010

By Robert Rodriguez/The Fresno Bee

FRESNO — A mysterious problem that causes bee colonies to decline is once again taking its toll on California's beekeepers.

The problem known as colony collapse disorder is characterized by a sudden drop in a bee colony's population and the inexplicable absence of dead bees.

The disorder has no known cure and appears to be cyclical. After several mild years, it has resurfaced with a vengeance, said Eric Mussen, apiculturist with the University of California at Davis.

"It never went away, but this year a substantial number of beekeepers got walloped again," said Mussen, the state's leading bee expert. "And worse than they had been hit before."

Although Mussen said it is too early to tell exactly how many bees have been lost, a bee industry official said losses in the state vary from 30 percent to 80 percent.

"This is the worst I've seen it," said Harold Dirks, the Sutter County bee inspector, whose own beekeeping operation has shrunk from about 500 to 350 colonies.

Roger Everett, a Tulare County beekeeper and president of the California State Beekeepers Association, lost 50 percent of his nearly 6,000 bee colonies.

"And I consider myself lucky," Everett said. "We thought the worst was over, but for whatever reason, it has reared its ugly head again. It is kind of scary."

The source of colony collapse disorder has remained elusive. In the Mid-Valley, beekeepers like Dirks and Valeri Severson, owner of Strachan Apiaries Inc. in Tierra Buena, pointed to numerous possible factors — from undiscovered pathogens to known ones like Varroa mites to the loss of pollen-producing plants to development and pesticide spraying.

"It all plays together into a Catch-22," said Severson, whose 9,400-colony stock is about 600 fewer than normal. "All these variables have their impact, just like with native species."

Fortunately for Everett and other beekeepers, the healthy bee colonies that remain are busy pollinating thousands of almond acres.

Each year, about 1 million bee colonies are needed to pollinate the state's more than 650,000 acres of almonds. About 500,000 colonies are from California; the remainder come from out of state.

And while almond growers have reported some shortages of bees, industry officials said it appears that most growers will have enough bees to pollinate their trees.

"In the areas that I have looked at, the bees are flying strong," said Dave Baker, director of member relations at Sacramento-based Blue Diamond Growers.

Baker said it is too soon to say if the decline in bee colonies will have any effect on yield.

At this stage of bloom development, growers are also concerned about the potential for freezing temperatures and continued rain.

Growers already have had to apply fungicides to combat moisture-caused problems such as bloom rot.

"There some growers who are applying their third spray, when normally this time of year they may only make two," said David Doll, a U.C. Cooperative Extension farm adviser in Merced.

Appeal-Democrat reporter Howard Yune contributed to this story.

This article from appeal-democrat.com

  http://www.appeal-democrat.com/news/fresno-92540-beekeepers-minds.html








   




 










 

=============================================================


 

=============================================================