Monthly Beekeeping Tasks: August

Monthly Beekeeping Tasks: August

 Thanks to our friends at Hivetool.com for the following which is specific to TN

Beekeeping Calendar of Management Practices : August - All tasks for the month

• Check brood nest for diseases.
• Check for swarm cells in mountain areas.
• Remove surplus honey leaving some space in supers for late summer and fall flow.
• Colonies will need 40-60 pounds of honey for overwintering.
• Extract supers of honey removed from colonies.
• Return extracted supers to colony for cleaning just before dark to prevent robbing by colonies.
• Remove cleaned supers from colony and store under paradichlorobenzene fumigation to prevent wax moth damage.
• Requeen all colonies every year that you double crop. All colonies that you do not move with honey flows should be requeened every two years.
• Before placing new caged queen in the colony, remove the old queen and all queen cells. Check the brood chamber and make sure you have two or more frames of sealed brood in the colony. Place the caged queen over the frames of brood.
• Recheck the requeened colonies in 10 days for a laying queen. If eggs are present, do not disturb the colony.
• Order your queens marked for easy location and identification.

 Wonder How to?

 Requeening a Colony - Remember, there are a variety of opinions about how often to requeen, the best time of the year to do so, etc.  There are some handy tips in how to make requeening successful and easy below.  

1. Requeen a honey bee colony every year for better performance and production. The serviceable life of 99 percent of the queens is exhausted by the end of her second year in the colony. Requeening every other year is the least desirable practice. When the aged queen fails during the stress of the spring buildup, the colony organization becomes disrupted and the colony is nonproductive.
2. Order queens from a reputable breeder with a good line of bee stock. Place your orders well in advance so the breeder may raise the number of queens you need and mail them to you on the date you request delivery.
3. August is a good month to requeen a colony. When queens are introduced in August and not accepted by a colony, there is time to reorder and introduce the second queen to the colony.
4. When you are inspecting colonies in July or August, locate the queen and confine her to the lower brood chamber with a queen excluder over this chamber. When your queens arrive, you will have reduced the time required to find the queen in the colony.
5. When the caged queens arrive, remove the paper over the screen and place two or three drops of clean water on the screen away from the candy. Place the queen cages in a cool dark room until you are ready to introduce the queens into the colonies.
6. When you are ready to introduce the queens into the colonies, prepare the cages for introduction into the colonies. Remove the paper wrapping and stamps from the cages.
7. Remove the cork from the end of the cage to expose the candy which seals the queen in the cage. Place the queen cage in the shade near the hive into which the new caged queen will be introduced.
8. Open the hive and locate the queen. She is usually on a frame with young brood and eggs.
9. Remove the queen from the hive. Introduce the new caged queen into the hive by placing the cage screened side down on top of frames of brood.
10. Feed the colony a one to one sugar syrup to which two to three drops of vanilla extract has been added.
11. Check the queen cage in three days for release of the queen. Make a hole through the candy if she has not been released with a nail or toothpick. Do not look for the queen if she has been released for 10 days 

Minutes of July Club Meeting

July 9, 2011

Twenty members arrived at the Ashland City Library to find Paul and Joyce Carter waiting with coffee they had made, and a delicious array of homemade cookies, apples, and other goodies provided by our members.

We began by welcoming two new members: Jackie Measley from Chapmansboro, already being mentored by Johnny Bell, and Carol Hippensteel, who is being introduced to beekeeping by her friend and neighbor, Lara Jarrell.

The Cheatham County Fair dates of August 22-27 were announced and a sign-up sheet circulated to determine whether the club could provide enough volunteers to manage a booth. Happily, nearly every slot was filled so we’ll look forward to this opportunity for informal education on the marvels of honeybees and the serious challenges they face. This year we will be able to sell honey and wax products at our booth – details to be worked out at next meeting. Lara offered to provide small samples of her beeswax soap to those who visit our booth. We will try to locate a judge so members can display their honey and wax products and those who wish to do so may compete for ribbons.

A decision was made to have our December meeting and annual Christmas party at the newly rebuilt Riverview Restaurant in Ashland City on December 10 at 1:00 PM. Please mark your calendars and plan to join us.

The major question of the day was, “Is the flow over?” Many thought it was and have been extracting, but Greg Allen’s bees are “busy as bees” on his sourwood trees. Yes, there are some sourwoods in our area! Greg brought in a branch to allow us to study its blossoms. He has also taken photos and a video of his bees hard at work on the sourwood, which will continue to bloom for some time. Unfortunately, in the absence of our Computer Expert Kevin Eggers, we were unable to view these pictures. We look forward to seeing them at our next meeting.

Discussion followed on extraction, the major apiary activity for July. Paul Carter brought his “Bee-Go” and a fume board to explain the quickest way to remove bees from the frames we want to rob. One member mentioned that there is a better smelling, mint flavored chemical available for this task. A slower but gentler method of using a bee escape (a one-way door) was also suggested.

Members were reminded to return their wet supers to the hive as soon as possible after extracting to avoid small hive beetle and wax moth damage and also to provide space in case weather conditions should allow for additional honey flow. But do it in the evening, to prevent robbing.

Paul Carter announced that he and Joyce would be hosting an Extracting Party at their home next Saturday, July 16. Please call them (746-5398) if you plan to attend.

Bee stings were mentioned – an opportunity to urge members to always carry an epi-pen to the beeyard. Our nurse Lara reminded us that once we have administered the epi-pen, we need to be careful to hold it firmly against our thigh because the pen will want to pop out and the medicine will be lost.

Ordinary bee stings can be treated with ice (to counter swelling) or, as suggested by Keaton Penick, a drop of honey (!!) which he has also found helpful on tick bites and poison ivy rashes.

Beetle Blasters ($1) will still be available at our meetings while supplies last.

Watch your email for a monthly list of beekeeping chores provided for us by Vice-President Linda Nutt. Thank you, Linda.

Our next meeting at the Ashland City Library will be held on Saturday, August 13 at 9:30 AM.

Monthly Beekeeping Tasks: July

Monthly Beekeeping Tasks: July

 Thanks to our friends at Hivetool.com for the following which is specific to TN

Beekeeping Calendar of Management Practices : July - All tasks for the month

• Have your bees on their new location by the first week of July.
• Extract the honey you removed in June to have the supers available for the fall  honey flow.
• Return extracted supers to the colonies just before dark to prevent robbing.
• Pack honey in a quality attractive package - all new glassware and lids with a label.
• Continue to check for swarms in mountain areas; combine swarms issuing after July 15 with weak colonies.

ALSO - Remember the bees need attention in this hot weather.

Shade and Water for Honey Bee Colonies

•  Locate colonies in areas with morning sun and afternoon shade.
• The colonies will need a good source of clean water within one-fourth of a mile from the hive. In hot weather, bees in strong colonies may need a gallon of water a day. Water is used to cool the interior of the hive.
• A container of water with a landing area enables the bees to take up water without getting wet. Wood blocks, cork blocks, rocks, gravel or burlap cloth can be used in the container to provide a stand for the watering bees.
  

Wonder How to?

 

Rendering Your Beeswax  - This is one way of rendering your wax - the internet has many reports of different ways to approach this task

• Beeswax is a valuable product of the beekeeping industry. A strong colony of honey bees will use about 13 pounds of honey per year for the production of beeswax.
• Cappings, bits of comb scraped from the frames, and old combs which are unfit for further use in the hive are the sources of beeswax. The best grade of light yellow wax is obtained from the cappings and should be processed separately from the other wax. Twenty pounds of beeswax from cappings can be rendered from every ton of honey extracted.
• Frames of honey should be uncapped over a drain board. The weight of the cappings is 50 percent or more honey. The drained cappings are ready to melt and pour into a mold. Break the pieces of comb or cappings into small pieces and soak these in warm water for a day to remove pollen and propolis. Drain the soaked pieces and place these in a weighted burlap bag. Submerge the bag in a tank of water and bring the water to a slow boil. Agitate the bag with a stick to cause the wax to float to the surface. Do not boil the water vigorously or for too long. Remove the bag, cool the water and remove the wax cake when it solidifies. Drain the wax thoroughly and store the cake.
• Beeswax cakes for competition in the fair should be made from well-drained cappings of new white comb. The wax cappings should be melted in a water bath container over an electric heater. The melted wax should be strained through fine cloth to remove foreign material. When the wax begins to solidify on the surface, pour the wax into a mold. This reduces the cracks in the finished cake. The mold should be clean, dry and aluminum, nickel, tin or stainless steel. The mold should be carefully filled with a ladle and allowed to solidify completely before removing the cake. The bottom should be scraped to remove sediment.
• Propolis lowers the melting point of beeswax and causes the beeswax to be sticky.
• The beeswax can be traded in for new foundation. The market value fluctuates.

Save the Date -- Cheatham County Fair

Dates: August 22, 2011 - August 27, 2011

Location: Cheatham County Fairgrounds
870 Fairgrounds Rd. -- Ashland City, TN

Cheatham County Phone Number: (615) 477-1092

Event Hours: Gates open at 5pm ( Mon through Fri ) & 2pm ( Sat )
Admission: $10.00 admission ( includes rides and spectator events )
Parking: $3.00

Carnival: Myers International Midway
open at 6pm ( Mon through Fri ) & 5pm ( Sat)