New BeeKeepers local group

Last evening about 15-20 beekeepers met in Eastern Manatee County to discuss the formation of a new local chapter of the Florida State Beekeepers Association. Bethany and Patrick hosted the evening with wonderful drinks and desserts. Thanks!

We started with a round of introductions to get to know one another. The group varied from hobbyist beekeepers with just one hive to several commercial beekeepers with up to 1100 hives. The group represented a broad area from Sarasota and Manatee Counties from as far South as Nokomis, Siesta Key to areas around Palmetto and NW Bradenton. We hope to encourage more beekeepers and have others join us from Hardee and DeSoto Counties.

Two members of the State Beekeepers Association were on hand to describe how other local chapters operate and discuss startup procedures. We decided to meet again next month and move forward to getting our local chapter setup. Tasks for next meeting may include: selecting a club name, getting temporary officers in place, setting the dues amount for our local chapter and planning for speakers and educational opportunities.

This was a great time and a wonderful way to meet other local beekeepers and socialize. I look forward to an active local chapter and hope others will consider joining us.

What to do with the BeesWax?

October 3, 2008

So now I have these (2) 5-gallon buckets of honey. Each is just the raw unprocess honey right out of the extractor. The honey is mixed with bits of wax and a few bee parts. All of this "extra" floats to the top. Today I used a slotted spoon and lifted off most of this extra staff, leaving the honey behind in the buckets. I placed the wax/honey mix in a colander, lined with a piece of cheesecloth and placed the colander on top of a large pot. I set the honey/wax mitures out in the sun to warm and the honey drained out into the pot. I was able to get about 1 more quart of honey from this process. The remaining wax I placed back in the pot and added water and put this on the stove and heated it. This should not be heated to boiling, but as I am always multi-tasking, I returned to the kitchen and it had already begun to boil. I quickly removed the pot from the stove and set it aside to cool. The result was a thin disk of wax floating on the top of the water. I removed this and placed it in a plastic ziplock for later use. What's next candlemaking?

A photo of the resulting wax is posted.

The Bounty of the Honey Harvest

Tuesday September 30, 2008

I worked with Bethany this evening after work to extract honey from 3 supers (30 frames) using a 4-frame hand crank extractor. Thanks to Michelle and Mark for loaning me the extractor. This would not have been possible with an extractor.

We got setup and quickly got into a routine working to remove the frames 4 at a time from the supers and placing them in a bucket. From the bucket we took each frame and held it in a de-capping tub and scraped the capping loose with a fork, exposing the honey. The frames were placed into the extractor 4 at a time. We would then crank the extractor and spin the frames allowing the honey through centrifical force to drain out of the cells in the frames and into the base of the extractor. After about 8 frames, we opened the valve on the extractor and drained the honey into our storage containers. It took us about 2 hours to complete the task and we ended up with about 11 gallons of honey weighing about 132 pounds. What a fun and rewarding evening. I loaded the now empty supers back into my trunk and I will return these to the hive very soon. We are coming into the Brasilian Pepper bloom and I want to get these supers back into the hives so the bees can begin to fill them up again!

Bethany and I hope to help start a local chapter of the Florida State Beekeepers Association. We have scheduled a first meeting for October 23rd and will have official from this organization on hand to help us get things setup. We hope to get other hobbyist and local beekeepers together on a regular basis to share information, socialize and learn from one another. More details to follow ...

Pulling Supers for Honey Harvest

Monday September 29, 2008

I used my lunch hour to complete today's task.  I am able to drive out to the farm, complete several tasks and return to work in my allotted hour for lunch.  Today my task was to remove 3 supers (2 from hive #1 and 1 from hive #2) and to trim the brasilian pepper bush ... yes I did remember to bring a hand saw.

In the first hive I removed the cover and found as expected that most of the bees had vacated the supers through the bee escape.  I carried the super over and place it in my trunk.  I estimate the super weighed between 60 and 70 lbs. each.  I carried the 2nd super to my trunk and returned to replace the hive cover on this first hive.  The bees seemed little disturbed and I quickly moved to hive #2.  I had prepared my smoker and gently smoked the entrance to the second hive before removing the cover.  This top super had quite a bit of bees and activity.  I smoked the top of this super to get the bees to move farther down into the hive and out of this top super.  I then remove this super and shook it to dislodge more of the remaining bees.  I placed this super in my trunk (now full of supers)  ... 3 is all my small car's trunk will hold ... 

I returned and replace the cover on the 2nd hive.  I then proceded to trim the bush and allow a clear view of the southeastern horizon at the hive entrance.  This will allow early morning sun to hit the hive entrance and hopefully encourage the bees to begin their day a bit earlier than when the entrance was quite shaded.  I removed my bee suit and returned equipment to my car.

It was a nice sight to see that the board covers and dripping with honey from my last visit was now "clean" and showed no signs of ever having any honey on it.  The bees had recovered all of this honey are returned it to the hive ... such efficient work they do!

How onto the next phase in my journey as a beekeeper ... honey extraction.  I will be working with my mentor tomorrow evening to extract the honey from the 3 supers and 30 frames contained in them using a 4-frame hand crank extractor.  With a trunk load of honey, I returned to work ...

Preparations for a honey harvest

Saturday September 27, 2008

It was a bright day with mostly clear skies and slightly drier with less humidity than we've had for some time now.  It is obvious from the changes in the amount of daylight that we are entering another season.  I had several tasks planned for this visit:  painting over the old registration numbers on the hives; stenciling my registration numbers to replace the old ones; trimming and weeding around the hives; rearranging the supers in preparation for harvesting some honey and doing a general inspection on the healthy and activity in the hives.

I worked outside the hives first removing the old numbers and using my stencil to paint on the new ones.  The weeds had grow up quite abundantly around the hives over the summer months, and I pulled quite a bit of grass and other plant material from around the base of the hives and from in front of the hive entrances.  I noticed that a clump of brasilian pepper bushes had grown quite tall and wide near hive #1 and was shading the entrance to this hive.  I made a note to remember my saw and trim and cut this plant on my next visit.  After this initial work around the hives, I prepared my smoker and began to get into the hives.

Hive #1 had 4 supers.  I removed each one and inspected each for activity and how many of the frames were drawn and filled.  I had set out 2 boards and placed the supers on these as I removed them from the hive, setting the 2 I would eventually take on one board and the other 2 supers on the other.  2 of the supers had 7 plastic and 3 wood frames in each.  The plastic frames do not seem to be the bees favorite, because these were the frames that were not completely drawn with comb and/or filled with honey.  After stacking the supers, I removed the queen excluder and examined the hive body frames.  I did not notice any mites, although I think they are just too small for my eyes to see ... at least through a veil.  The brood pattern looked good with an active queen and lots of capped brood, eggs and developing larva.  I did not see any small hive beetles (SHB).  I also did not find the queen in this hive although it was evident that she was there and busy rearing young bees.  I worked now to reassemble the hive, replacing the queen excluder and stack the supers back onto the hive body, ordering them so that the 2 fullest supers would be on top and placing a bee escape between the lower 2 and upper to supers.  This would allow the bees in the supers to be later removed to escape and leave those supers relatively empty of bees on my return in 2 days.  I did rearrange several frames among the supers prior to restacking them, moving 2 plastic frames from one super to another and replacing them with 2 wooden frames.  This made 1 super with 5 plastic and 5 wooden frames and the other with 9 plastic and 1 wooden frame.  While swapping frames and reinserting them into the supers, some of the really full frames were difficult to place back in.  In doing so a couple of the frames had the cappings scraped off and honey oosed out and puddle down on the wooden board that I had stacked them on.  I will leave the board with the honey and hope that the bees will gather this excess and return it to its proper place in the hive.  I hope in the near future to replace all of the plastic frames with wooden one.  Also the 2 of the older super boxes are beginning to show signs of wood rot along the edges.  I will eventually order new super boxes and replace these.  This completed my work on the first hive.

Hive #2 had 2 regular supers, 1 Ross Round super and 2 hive bodies.  I began by removing the supers and queen excluder.  By this time in the day I was quite exhausted and decided to make just a brief and spot inspection of the top hive body.  I had place this 2nd hive body on the hive only a couple of month back and I wanted to see how the colony had works to fill it.  The outside frames were almost completed full of honey stores and no brood.  I pulled and examined an inner frame again looking a brood pattern and signs of stress, mites, deformed wings, SHB, etc.  I was also going to look for the queen ... this has so far been a challenge for me to scan a frames filled with moving bees and to identify the slightly larger queen bee.  To my surprise, I notice her of the first middle frame and watched her for a while.  Each time I turned the frame she would scurry around to the bottom side.  I was worried about replacing the frame in the hive body and the possibility that she would get squashed as I slid the frame back into place.  I waited until she moves up into the middle of the frame and then gently slid the frame back into place.  Satified that this colony was also doing quite well, I replaced the queen excluder and began to reassemble the hive.  I placed one of the supers that was only about half drawn with comb on top of the hive, and then the Ross Round super.  It was about half drawn and filled with 4 of the 8 frames completed.  I placed the remaining super, completely drawn out with comb and filled with honey on the top and replace the cover.  I will also remove this top super from this hive on my return visit in two days.

I was now quite tired, down at least 2 quarts of liquid that had been released as sweat into my drenched clothing and with a bit of a headache.  I had acquired only about 4 stings and all in the same area on the top of my hand.  My cotton gloves just don't seem to to the job protecting my hands.  Note to self:  purchase canvas or leather gloves on next order.  Its not that I really mind the stings, but its the swelling and pain the next day that is the most irritating.

Overall it was a very successful outing and I was now in a position to return in 2 days to remove the supers and prepare then to extract and harvest the honey.  Each visit I seem to learn a bit more about my hives and have a better idea of what to expect.  I also this time was better prepared with a list of tasks and the equipment organized and ready to go as I needed it.

Making more room ...

Wednesday August 6, 2008

I made a quick trip out to the hives today on my lunch hour ... I was able to drive out to the Farm, 10 miles east of work, put on the bee suit, crank up the smoker, and install 3 supers on the hives and then get back to work ... One hive now has 1 hive body and 4 regular supers. The other has 2 hive bodies, 2 regular supers and 1 ross round super. 4 of the supers are full of honey. The next project will be to get use of an extractor and take off some of this excess honey for my use. It has been rainy most of the week, but today was hot with blue skies. The bee of both hives were mostly agreeable ... a few flying kamakazis, but overall pretty tame. Until next time ... bee well!

Its Time for some Honey!

I had the opportunity to get out to my hives briefly on the last two days of July. The purpose of my visits were to prepare and get off the Ross Rounds Super which I believed would be near near full with honey and capped. On the 30th I worked the southern of 2 hives (one hive body and 4 supers). I removed the telescoping cover and the inner cover. Below this was a regular-sized super and below that my Ross Rounds super. After much prying with my hive tool to loosen and separate the supers, I switched positions of these 2 supers, placing the regular super on top of the other 2 regular supers. I placed the bee excluder/inner cover on next and then the Ross Round super at the top and replaced the telescoping cover. I hoped that after 24 hours most of the bees would have vacated the Ross Rounds super, so I could remove it from the hive. During this visit I did see one hive beetle surrying along the top of the inner cover and a few very small ants along the super edges.

I returned to the hive on the 31st and successfully removed the Ross Rounds super. It still had a few bees remaining, but not as many as the day before. I placed the super in the shade and allowed most of the remaining bees to escape.

In the evening my daugther and I processed the super. 6 of 8 frames were full and capped. The remaining 2 frames were close to complete, but not capped with a small amount of comb still needing drawn out on one side of a couple of rounds. I left these 2 frames alone and will return them with the other 6 frames empty and with new foundation. In all we were able to get 24 - 1/2 lbs rounds of comb honey. It was quite excited to take our first honey and the efforts of my bees is greatly appreciated. Its been a long time and since childhood that I had comb honey. Sweet and delicious!

Summer Time - 11 July 2008

It has been about 6 weeks since I've been back to check in on the G-Farm bees.  This was a Friday afternoon visit with my mentor ... I felt a little reassured this time being with her after my last encounter ... It was quite hot outside and a bit humid ... thunderstorms off in the distance.

I was happy to get the smoker going and have it last until we had finished the 2nd hive this time ... I think I may finally be getting the hang of this.  The bees in the 1st hive were active after opening the cover, but not agressive ... we worked quickly but with a sense of calm and the bees seemed to handle our intruding just fine.  The top 3 supers were quite heavy and looked to be almost completed filled and capped.  The one with 2 plastic frames had a little not finished, but the other 2 (one new and one older) were full as was almost the whole Ross Rounds super ... we estimated about 50 lbs on 2 supers with the other at about 70 lbs. and the Ross Round perhaps 30 lbs.  quite a nice supply with about 200 lbs total on this hive.  I hope to remove the 70 lb. super and extract honey from those frames and take the 32 rounds of comb honey on the next visit.  We did not notice any signs of mites, hive beetles or wax moths ... the bees looks healthy and we did a visual from the top of the Brood chamber and the frames looked active and quite full of brood and larvae.  Replaced everything, but changed the over of the supers putting the Ross Rounds one from the top.  On to the 2nd hive.

Here the new super was quite full and the 2nd brood box was also full of drawn comb, lots of bees and plenty of activity.  We pulled 2 frames in the top brood chamber and saw larvae, eggs and the activity of a healthy Queen.  Since we were not looking for the Queen we did not disturb the bottom hive box and reassembled the hive.

I was quite excited about the progress of the bees in almost completing the Ross Rounds and having populated the 2nd hive so well with most of a full super full of honey.

Next month we will finally get to take off the excess honey and enjoy the sweetness of our labor.  It was a good visit.  After getting out of our bee suits, we roamed the row of eggplant and picked a few select fruits to enjoy as an eggplant parmesan dish over the weekend.

I look forward to the August visit.

3rd Visit - 24 May 2008

My third visit to Geraldson's Farm to check up on the bees was a bit different from the first two visits.  This time I was the expert ... or so I thought.  I was taking my niece this time, and she had never been around bees.  To ensure I good visit, I decided to make sure she was well protected and I gave her my bee suit and veil, and my gloves.  I was wearing a long sleeved shirt and I have a spare veil to protect my head and face, but no additional pair of gloves.  This was OK as I am not afraid of getting stung, I just don't enjoy it.

We worked the first hives and removed the cover and lifted off the 3 supers and the newly installed Ross Rounds super.  I had added the 3rd of the 3 regular sized supers and the Ross Rounds super on the last visit.  These two were only starting to have the comb drawn out on and some honey deposited in the completed cells.

I removed the Queen excluder and was getting ready to show my niece the frames in the Brood chamber.  I smoked the hive again as I pull out the first frame hoping to show off the brood, eggs, larvae and hard work of the Queen.  All of a sudden I heard a change in the sound of the bees in the hive ... they were pissed!  As I was holding this first frame, the bees decided collectively it seems to start stinging me.  Since I didn't have gloves on this was an easy task for them.  One sting, then another and another ... I gently set this frame down on the down and we moved away ... but by this time I had over 2 dozen stings on my forearms and hands.

We moved quite a distance from the hives and I ask my niece to give me the gloves that she was wearing.  My suit was rather large on her and she was able to just pull the sleeves down over her hands to protect herself.  We returned to the hive.  I was planning to sugar the bees, but after thisI was in no mood to do anything but give this hive closed up.  I put the one frame that I had removed back into place and decided to go ahead and powder sugar the bees anyway.  We placed the supers and cover back in place and then moved onto the 2nd hive.

I wasn't feeling so well by then ... my hands were starting to swell and the stings combined with all of the heat was making me feel quite light-headed and squeasy ... we removed the cover on the this hive and the one newly installed super and just did a visual check to see how the bees were doing in added comb to the 2nd brood chamber that I had added to the hive during the last visit.  Both new boxes had the comb being drawn and the beginnings of pollen and honey stores, but with most of the labor left still to be done.

We closed up this hive and quickly got out of our bee protection and found some shade to rest and rehydrate.  We also took some time whilest we were at the farm to do a little last harvest U-pick gathering potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, squah and leeks.

I was a visit I won't soon forget ... my hands and forearms were swollen for about 3 days to twice their normal size with a aching and bruised feeling.  I will choose to work with gloves from now on and leave the bare handed work to inspectors and others with more tolerance for stings than I.

My niece survived this experience without any stings and enjoyed getting a chance to be a part of this exciting hobby.

Apis Outing 29-APR-08

Our 2nd Apis visit at Geraldson's Farm, it was a partly cloudy day with breezy conditions. The white sweet clover (Melilotus albus) had grown up around the hives since we visited last month. An adjacent field was also in bloom with this flowering plant providing pollen and nectar for our foraging bees.

Our goal today was to inspect the hives in general for signs of mites, wax moths, small hive beetles (SHB) and to locate and verify that the queen in each hive is without marking or clipped wings. We also planned to add 2 additional supers and 1 additional brood chamber.

Inspection of the first hive when well. Only a couple of mites were seen as we inspected the hive. This hive has 3 supers, most were completely drawn out with comb and full of honey. As soon as we are able to get use of an extractor, we will process some of this honey for our use.
We were able to locate the queen and verified that it was not marked or clipped. We reassembled the hive, replacing a plastic queen excluder with a new metal queen excluder. Also we added a Ross Rounds super directly above the brood chamber and below the existing 3 supers. We replaced the existing top with a telescoping cover. (See slideshow pictures)

The 2nd hive is the one that was quite aggressive during our last visit. After smoking this hive, we pulled the top cover and inspected the brood frames for signs of pests, but we failed again to locate the queen. The bees temperment was much more mellow today. This hive had consisted of only the brood chamber. It was quite full and healthy with plenty of capped brood, recently laid eggs, developing larvae and pollen stores. After inspection, we added a 2nd brood chamber, replaced the existing wood/metal queen excluder with a new metal queen excluder and added 1 additional medium super.

Our next visit we hope to mark and clip our queens and perhaps take some excess honey.
My challenge during this visit was to keep the smoker going and avoid stings to my hands through my gloves. I wasn't very successful at either.

As always, special thanks to my mentor and support person for assisting me in this wonderful adventure.

It was a beautiful day on the farm. I was able to share a taste of some comb honey with Adam, the Geraldson's Farm on-site manager. I look forward to my next visit.

Entering their social world ...

I was gifted two Eurpoean honey bee (EHB) hives back before Christmas 2007 from a local Master Gardener who moved North without his bees. The hives are located at a community farm in Manatee County, Florida. Up until this point my only interaction with bees was purchasing honey at the local farmers market and my memory of watching my great uncle work his bees on the family farm as a child. I was reluctant to venture out to the hives on my own and because of this, its been 4 months since the previous owner and state bee inspector have been out to observe the hives and check on them.

Earlier this month I attended a Bee College put on by the University of Florida, hoping to gain enough knowledge and courage to make my first site visit and check on the health of the hives. Last month I purchased the minimum equipment ( suit, hat, veil, smoker, and hive tool ) to safely start my beekeeping adventure.

On Tuesday 3/25/08 my beekeeping mentor/friend and I went out to check out the hives.
Here's what I remember of our visit ...

It was a sunny, but cool, breezy day. I tried several times to get the smoker lit ... kept going out ... practice makes perfect ... and after several tries I had the smoker puffing thick cool smoke.

The 1st hive consists of a brood chamber and 3 supers. The top super had all wooden frames and only a minimal amount of comb drawn with a liitle honey. We noticed only 1 small hive beetle and a couple of mites during our inpsection of this hive. We also notice holes in the comb in 2? places where this might have been moth damage??

The 2nd super had 10 mixed wooden and plastic frames. The spacing was off and the bees had drawn out comb parallel to the fames. Getting these frames out was a bit harder, as we had to break the comb built up between the frames. This hive had most of the comb drawn and much more honey.

The 3rd super also had 10 mixed fames types. This super had fully drawn comb and was quite full of honey.

The brood chamber had a plastic queen excluder on top. Upon lifting it, we noticed a few carpenter ants and their eggs in the top corner. We checked each frame and observed eggs, larvae, both worker and drone cells. I was able to find and identify the queen on one of the last frames we checked. This hive was quite calm and we had to smoke it only slightly. The hive itself was set with the open more south than east and near a brazilian pepper tree. On a future visit I should re-orient the hive to catch the early morning sun and move it slightly by several feet to avoid shading from the pepper tree.

The 2nd hive consisted of only a brood chamber. This hive was surrounded my overgrown weeds around the hive which we removed. The hive was quite heavily populated and became agitated and more aggressive than the 1st hive. This hive had 10 frames with one or two plastic frames. We saw no eggs, but a good number of brood cells and and drones. Also we saw a queen cell that was open from the bottom, suggesting a new queen?? We were not able to locate a queen during our inspection. We noticed no small hive beetles and only 2 mites. We re-located this hive several feet away and repositioned the hive opening more to the East. This hive also had a couple of holes in the foundation. Not sure why?

Plans and tasks for next visit include ...

• Purchase super & brood wooden frames, super & brood foundations, 2 metal queen excluders.
• Add 2nd brood chamber and 1 super to 2nd hive
• What else?

We also found a nuc box with 5 old moth ridden frames inside. I took the nuc home to clean up and salvage what I could from the frames. I'll re-use the frames and get new foundation.

Overall it was an exciting and good first visit to my hives. We met the farm manager and spoke with them about having the bees on the property.

Thanks to Bethany ... you are a great mentor ... and I appreciate your help!

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