Paying it forward...

Since moving to New Hampshire we've experienced a lot of new things, one of which is growing roses. The folks who owned this house before us grew lovely red and reddish pink roses aplenty and now we do. I know little to nothing about growing roses but always game to learn new things, I was sad to find that Japanese Beetles like my roses even more than I do. I set out to get rid of them and my first thought was one of those bag traps.

Some of the chemicals lure are used to lure bees to traps used by bee researchers - thank goodness I did my research first. In this quest to learn more about all these essential oils and bee versus beetle lures, I reached out to a mentor of mine.

I LOVE having mentors. I was a very high maintenance newbee - I was always asking questions and visiting with ideas. That behavior slowed down a lot until this past year. I'm back asking a whole new level of question.

And I am on the other end of mentoring now. There are some newbees who need a mentor and I know a speck more than they do so I've been in hives, answering questions, and demonstrating techniques.

My mentees are the BEST!! They ask great questions, are willing to try new things, and don't mind me saying when I don't know the answer. We've dealt with queenlessness, honey extraction, and wood versus plastic issues.

I will ALWAY need my mentors - being a beekeeper means saying curious, learning new things, and being willing to try something new. Having other experienced beekeepers to talk out ideas with is a great resource.

And I love my new role too. It is my honor and privilege to be that mentor back to new beekeepers.

It's that time of year...

If you are a beekeeper, it is time to record bee losses at beeinformed.org. This is a quick survey about the number, location, and state of the hives you had in the fall and still have now. This survey is not a true scientific survey but gives a us a good picture of the state of the health of our bee populations in the US. At their website, you can see the results of previous year's surveys.

Bee porn, slutty queens and vegetarianism...

We had three speakers at the fall Massachusetts Bee Meeting - a queen breeder, a researcher who studies queen quality among other things, and Harvard profession who studies public health.

What a great day! One of the speakers was late so we heard both talks by the Joe Latshaw (http://www.latshawapiaries.com/). While he produces queens for commercial beekeepers and works on a scale that is way beyond my wildest dreams, he explained to us - hobbyist beekeepers - how to use what he's learned and some of his techniques to become our own queen breeders on a small scale. What I took away from Joe's talks is that I need to think about the sustainability of my own apiary and I now have the tools (ok at least the directions) to select and rear my own queens to make that happen. Joe also stressed keeping records. This resonated with the scientist in me!

Our second speaker was Alex Lu from Harvard. He titled his talk "Putting your health in your hands" and was a great talk. I can see how much of what he spoke about being applicable to my hives - preventative care is way less expensive and more sustainable than treatment. I love the reminder to eat vegetarian before 6pm - save the world and your body by consuming less meat which contains high levels of chemicals and antibiotics.

The final speaker was David Tarpy from North Carolina State University. He explained why we need genetic diversity in our bee yards and that slutty queens are better. On average, honey bee queens mate with a dozen drones - but some will mate with that many in one day and still go out the next day for more! He showed us a great video of a queen on her nuptial or mating flight. Wow - bee sex is brutal and a one shot deal for the drone! Aside the idea that more is better for the queen, I learned a great deal about the reproductive health of honeybee queens. They are pretty amazing girls!

Bee meetings are great for socializing with other beekeepers too. I got to sit with two of the other beekeepers in Millbury - always a good time!

Joy!

My wonderful sweetheart and I donned our bee suits and checked on Joy's girls Sunday. We have been concerned that our strongest hive going into winter just didn't have that many bees flying in and out. So we checked on them.

They are doing fine. We opened the hive and found that the cluster of bees are hanging out on the sunny side of the hive - no surprise - and cover about 5 1/2 frames. That is just peachy for this time of year. Whew! and Whew again!

We decided that now is not the time to clean out the hive because it really is a bit chilly. The bees keep the hive a balmy 92' to keep the baby larvae at the right temperature for proper bee development. If we left the hive open too long, they might get chilly. We did move some frames of honey closer to the cluster so the bees didn't have to work so hard.

Then I couldn't get all the frames back in! {blush} I worked to cram that last frame in and finally gave up. Until I can clean the box properly, it ain't goin' back in. It is an empty frame, the bees ate all the honey out of it anyway.

I am helping with Beekeeper School. I've taken it two times and now it is my turn to give back. I helped with registrations and we had over 100 walk in registrants. In total we have over 160 registrations - with many of them families. The room is packed!

I was put in charge of tee shirts too. I love my shirt from last year but it is a bit dark. People have to get kinda close to see what is on it and I'd rather keep my personal space... well personal. So I am going with only light colors. Interviewing printers has been a hoot so far. One more to go and then I will decide. I am amazed where ever I go, I find people who love the bees. Makes me smile.

Bees and beer

The Worcester County Beekeepers Association held their Feb. meeting last week and decided on what they call a chefs supper. I call it a pot luck!

And while many folks felt that this was not the best pot luck, there was very little left over at the end!

The program was how to make wine and beer. I was particularly interested in learning how to make wine. The wine maker, Peter West, is also a beekeeper and farmer. Dave Richardson, pictured below, is a fairly new beekeeper and knows a tremendous amount about beer making.

Both making wine and beer are complex processes. We had the opportunity to taste the wares of both wine maker and brewer. Mr. West had a vast array of wines from his own orchard. It takes a boatload of fruit to make wine.

As always, I learn the most from talking with other beekeepers. While most everyone has been listening to their hives or cracking the top to check on their bees, I have not. There really isn't anything I am going to *do* to or for the bees right now, so opening the hive is just for me. I just cannot justify harassing the bees just to satisfy my curiosity. Nonetheless, I am going to try hard to find a way to hear my bees without bugging them. My favorite husband has a car tool that acts like stethoscope. Looks like I might be raiding the garage for a new beekeeping tool!

I cornered the man who won the most awards for honey this year, Peter Niemi. Poor man - must have thought I was stalking him! He was kind and generous with his knowledge and gave me some tips on honey exibiting next year: bottle early, store in a warm spot, and keep the honey out of the sunlight.

At the end of a lovely evening spent with wonderful folks, I took home one new piece of knowledge: I don't think wine or beer making will be in my future.

Thanksgiving

Saturday our whole family went to the Worcester County Beekeeper Association's Thanksgiving Banquet. This was downright horrible year for most of us beekeepers and for most everyone in agriculture. Nevertheless, we were challenged to find something to be thankful for. Here's my list...

1. My bees! - They are so beautiful and connect to my soul in ways that few others have. I am going into the winter in such a better place than last year. Even though I had a small honey and wax harvest, the bees are plentiful.
2. Being a beekeeper - I am so grateful for the opportunity to learn more and in some way help these beautiful girls.
3. Other beekeepers - I am ever so lucky to have the mentoring and fellowship of the wonderful beekeepers in this area. I have learned so much and feel supported in this adventure.
4. My kids - When faced with the challenge of finding something to be grateful for, both my kiddos immediately came up with a long list! They were grateful for the garden full of produce. They saw the glass as half full - what a beautiful way to look at the year.
5. My sweetheart - It was for him that I started keeping bees, but he's really risen to the challenge and adventure of it all. He created a screened bottom board out of his stash of wood in the garage to bring something to the Thanksgiving raffle. He does the same for me - building what I need for the bees.

So what are you thankful for...

A gross of beekeepers

Along with 143 other beekeepers, I spent the only nice day for weeks hanging out with someone else's bees! I went to the Massachusetts Beekeepers Association Annual Field Day. This was held in Deerfield at UMass Ag Center.

One of the things I wanted to learn about was using fewer chemicals in my hives. The most common chemicals found in a hive are those added by beekeepers. Delicately balancing the use of chemicals and reducing the mites, beetles, and harmful critters is critical to the survival of bees and us.

Ed K, from Norfolk County, pictured here uses a great method for helping his bees get rid of mites. He shakes powdered sugar in his hives. Yep, the same old stuff you dust on your cookies, we dusted on bees. It takes about 15 second and doesn't require the removal of honey from the hive.

The treatments I used last year are soft,gentle and even in CA are considered organic. Nonetheless, they take three weeks and I have to remove the honey. Sheesh - this was soo much easier. (Yes I glossed over the other three steps in the process, but they are a bit esoteric for non-beekeepers.)
One beekeeper brought a drone comb frame. This was amazing to see because they were emerging in waves!

What really made my day was the final talk I went to taught by Rick Reault. He was the source of Red, our beautiful queen. After watching him -and I was so enthralled I forgot to take pix!- I realized that he is the kind of beekeeper I want to become. He was so in love with the bees, he was calm, he moved so gracefully, and he was incredibly knowledgeable.

Rick explained the three clues that a hive is getting ready to swarm - and I'd only known about one before! He also had an intuitive, simple way to tell the age of larvae. During the workshop, he marked the queen and it was so simple! I thought the only way to do that was to catch the queen in a special grabber that looks remarkably like a hair clip. Not Rick - he just held the queen still for three seconds and touched her with the marker.

Wow.

Bee Whisperer

The bee inspector just left and all is nearly right in the world again. I am not longer concerned with revolution in the blue hives.

Hope's hive, who had built out supercedure cells (normally associated with a coup), have taken them down. Her girls are mighty busy - I gave them some unbuilt out frames to work on. They are too busy for revolution right now.

Trey's hive, our newest addition is looking great! I saw her eggs. The eggs are about this big: - . Not the easiest to see on a cloudy day, but see them we did.

Red, who over wintered her girls is still mooping along. Her laying pattern is great, but small. She is unable to produce more bees because there just aren't enough other bees to take care of them. Let's hope that one of the other hives ramps up quickly and we can move some babies and nurse bees to Red's hive. Call it emigration.

It was a three queen day.