Cheatham County Beekeepers
May 11, 2013 Agenda
9:30 AM
Ashland City Library
We had 14 in attendance: Joyce Carter, Paul Carter, Herb Nelson, Carrie Nelson, David Hanson, Jeanne Shaw (sp), Junior Morrow, Jeff Moore, Johnie Bell, Becky Harris, Carol Cothern, Ben Smith, Gene Brown, Rita Franklin
Jeff called the meeting to order. Robin had to work. Roger and Diane were at the beekeeping institute.
Paul brought in a piece of equipment that he had never seen before. The conscience was that it was a home made queen cage. It looked like a cap that goes in the end of black plastic pipe with a piece of screen glued to it and a couple of holes drilled in the back of it.
Hive placement: Jeff likes morning sun, afternoon shade. Paul likes direct morning sun, the bees go to work earlier
Paul explained that honey dew is a sap that the bees love o feed on.
Jeff brought in a Tulip Poplar branch that was flowering. It is blooming a couple of weeks late this year.
Hive beetles was discussed, salt the ground around the hives, DE, beetle traps, bottom trays with vegetable oil, lime or DE. Be careful of the oil as if it gets on the bees it can kill them.
Cinnamon can be used for ants. Just sprinkle ground cinnamon around the hive stand. If they are already in the hive place some on the top of the inner cover.
The scent of Bananas is the same as the bees alarm pheromone the bees will eat you up.
Jeff told of the science project that his daughter did on the alarm pheromones.
It was suggested that maybe we could do something like that for the fair.
What kind of bees do you have? Jeff has been waiting for someone else to try the hygienic bees to see how they really do. Johnny has a black bee that he got from a cutout last year that produce lots of honey.
There is a guy in Nashville that is selling bees that guarantees you will have no hive beetles. He will give you your money back if you get hive beetles.
If you let the bees clean the honey out your extracted frames you have a better chance of not having any wax moths.
It was discussed how to install a nuc, place the 5 frames in the middle of the box, wait about putting the next hive body on till they built out a couple of the frames. As they build in the upper box, transfer frames down to fill the lower box. The bees like to build right up the center.
Paul got a bad nuc from Kelleys, no queen, no brood, and only about 2lbs of bees.
He called them and they sent him a queen, he is going to call them back because he is not happy about the number of bees.
Ken Connors of Wingold, KY was selling nucs for $95. Need to remember this for next year.
When installing a package, if you have other hives that you can pull a frame of brood from, place a frame of brood in with the package it is more likely to stay.
Lemon balm rubbed around the inside of the hive body will help with keeping them to stay. Johnie uses peach tree rubbed inside the hive. He has one tree that swarms seem to gravity to
Top honey producing flower is clover. #2 producer is tulip poplar, which blooms for about 2-4 weeks.
Swarming, bees hanging out on the front of the hive doesn’t necessarily mean they are about to swarm, it could be they are just hot.
If you are needing to move a hive and they are hanging out on the front, take a hose and mist the air above the hive. They will think it is raining and go inside.
Swarm capture: If you see a swarm leave the hive do not gather them immediately, wait about 30 minutes. The queen doesn’t leave the hive right away, she leaves about 30 minutes later. If the bees keep going back to the mother hive it means the queen hasn’t slimmed down yet. They might do this for several days. The best thing to get a swarm in, is a nuc box.
Young Virgin queens: are hard to find, they are fast. Seasoned queens will usually go about their business, making them easier to see.
Laying worker bee: as soon as you put a new queen in the hive, if there are is a laying worker present it will kill the new queen. If you suspect that you have a laying worker, take the hive about 150 feet from its current location and shake out all the bees and place the hive back in the former location. The worker bees will fly back to the hive leaving the laying worker behind. Another method is to put it on top of a strong hive for a couple of weeks by either placing newspaper between them or a double screen.
Frame spacing: 9 or 10 frames, except of paul the consciences is 10 frames in the brood box, and 9 in the honey supers. To get a full super of honey you have to rotate the outside frames to the inner spot to get a full super of honey.
Adding supers: some add above the current super, some below and some go out at the beginning and add all they will for the year.
Michael Bush now does 11 frames in the brood chamber by shaving the top bar, Kelley’s is now producing a frame that 11 will fit in a 10 frame box.
Pesticide kill: If you walk up to the hive and see a large pile of bees in front it is probably pesticide kill.
Over Wintering: 2 deeps vs. 1 deep. The more bees you have over wintering the stronger the hive is in the spring thus the more honey produced. Up north they wrap the hives with tar paper to help keep them warm.
New Hive: When you have a new hive how long do you leave the entrance reducer in? If that is the only hive you have you could go ahead and open it up. It you have other hives in the area you might have to keep it reduced all year. It is easier for the hive to defend themselves against intruder if it is a small area.
Mouse reducer: On the cheap, use metal packing straps that have the holes.
Use a piece of a queen excluder over the entrance to keep the queen from leaving the hive.
Queen excluder use: some use, some don’t.
Winter Ventilation: Drill a holes near the top of the top super and put a piece of screen over it to provide air flow
Paul asked if anyone had heard about a swarm of hive beetles. No one had.
Becky brought in information about up coming conferences being held by Tennessee Beekeepers Association and Heartland Agricultural Society
The 12th annual Heartland Agricultural Society conference will be held July 11th, 12th and 13th, in Cookeville, TN at Tennessee Tech University.
Featured speakers will be Jennifer Berry, Phil Craft, Debra Delaneu, Kim Flottum, Jim Garrison, Jeff Harris, Jerry Hayes, Zach Huang, Greg Hunt, Wyatt Mangum, Tony Prettyman, Julian Rangel-Posada, John Skinner, Jim Tew and John Timmons.
For more information go to www.heartlandbees.com
The 2013 Fall Conference for the Tennessee Beekeepers Association will be September 27 & 28th at the Hyder-Burkes Agricultural Pavillion in Cookeville.
The “Opening Main Speaker“ will be Dr. Clarence Collision, retired State Apiarist of Mississippi.
Additional speakers include
Frank Drummond of the University of Maine.
Another confirmed speaker, Jerry Hayes, writer for Beesource magazine, "The Classroom"
Sue Dickhaus: Products of the hive
Jim Garrison: Candle making
Dr. Fred Hossler: Anatomy of honeybees 3D
Richard Underhill: Owner of Peace Bee Farm in Proctor, Arkansas
Dennis Barry: Swarm removal from structures
Jerry Freeman: Queen cell punch
For additional information go to http://www.tnbeekeepers.org/2013-tba-conference/
