MDBA ANNUAL BBQ - Mt. Diablo Beekeepers Association

The Diablo Bee
M O U N T
D I A B L O
B E E K E E P E R S
A S S O C I A T I O N
O C T O B E R
INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
Bee Haven
2
Bay Area Over 3
Wintering
American
Winter Bees
56
Events calendar
78
Classifieds
9
Bee Q&A
10
MDBA ANNUAL BBQ
October is the last meeting of
the year and it will be celebrated with our annual BBQ.
The meeting will commence
at 6:30 pm on October 14,
2010. This event is open to
MDBA members and members of their immediate family.
The MDBA will provide BBQ.
Please bring a side to share.
Assignments have been made
alphabetically. You may also
wish to bring a bottle of
wine, beer, soda, or whatever
you prefer, to enhance your
meal and share with your
tablemates. It’s desirable that
all salads, side dishes and
desserts be on the tables by
1 ,
2 0 1 0
During the meeting there will
be a SUPER RAFFLE that is
member donated. Please bring
unwrapped quality items for
donation. The donation items
need to be given to Bob Kelley
before the beginning of the
meeting.
G&M Honey will be in the parking lot before and after the
meeting to help you stock up on
bee supplies and gifts!
6:30pm.
Help setting up is welcome.
Please arrive around 5:30 to
help with table-setting, deco-
Member Side Dish
Assignments
Alpha by Surname
A-G VEGGIE/
POTATO/PASTA
The BBQ is a great way to end
the MDBA 2010 year and celebrate with friends and members. We are excited to see you
there!
H-R DESSERT
S-Z SALAD
YOU MUST RSVP IF YOU PLAN
ON ATTENDING THE BBQ to
lkail@juno.com no later than
October 8, 2010.
rating, and generally getting
the party going.
Bee Supplies at October Meeting
G&M Honey has agreed to be
in the parking lot from 5pm6:30 and for 30 minutes after
the October BBQ to help you
stock up on over winteringsupplies and Christmas gifts.
G&M has bought Pro-Sweet
Liquid Feed in bulk and will
have some available at the
meeting for purchase. Containers for the syrup can be
purchased with the syrup or
you may bring your own containers to take your syrup
home in. They will have all
major styles of feeders, entry
reducers, inner covers, tiedowns and follower boards.
Large quantities of any bee
supplies should be preordered since supplies on
hand will be limited.
G&M Honey has expanded
their inventory for the holidays to include items for all
of your gift giving needs. They
have 6 oz bears, personalizeable holiday gift tags, bee
related jewelry and knives
that any bee enthusiast
would be proud to own.
Orders may be placed at
www.GandMHoney.com or by
calling Mike or George at
925-808-1919.
Orders will be available before or
after the MDBA BBQ.
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2
Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven
A couple of
our members were
able to attend the
grand opening of the
Haagen
Dazs Honey
Bee Haven and came back
with fun pictures to share!
Here to Help
The MDBA newsletter was created to keep the members of the MDBA up
to date on current beekeeping events and help the members be successful
in all avenues of their life and beekeeping.
In order to accomplish these goals the newsletter needs your input, articles, questions and announcments. We would be interested in bee related
articles authored by you or articles from other sources that you found interesting and would like to share. If you have suggestions for future articles
please email us at mdbanew@gmail.com.
In order to help all of our members succeed we offer classifieds space for
non bee related products that are member produced. We like to “buy local” and bee self sufficient. Please let us know if you have a product that
will benefit the MDBA community! Email us so we can all help each other
out! mdbanews@gmail.com
THE
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Over Wintering In The Bay Area
3
Whether this is your first winter with your girls or
you are a seasoned keeper, over-wintering is
something not to be taken lightly. I know, I know,
you are thinking this is California what winter
could you need to prepare for. Do not be deceived by our “mild” winters, over winter loss is
still a concern. With CCD still on the radar, preparing for the long dearth of pollen and nectar is crucial to your bees.
There are some things that you, as the steward of
your bees, need to take responsibility for. If you
are robbing them then you need to ensure that
they are left with sufficient stores to keep them
alive over the winter. Sufficient food storage does
not mean honey alone. Pollen stores may be the
most over looked aspect of over wintering! Pollen
is for brood. As winter ends your bees will need
pollen in order to increase the colony population.
Pollen for collection is not generally available as
the winter ends. When your bees have pollen
stores in the hive they will be able to start repopulating earlier. Open your hive and notice the
pollen is stored from where the brood ends to
where the honey starts. If the pollen stores are
insufficient consider feeding a pollen substitute
like Pro-Len Patties to help.
Honey is the most often discussed element of the
overwintering issues. But how much honey does
each colony need? That depends on the size of
the colony, and how cold the winter gets. Generally in the Bay Area 25-30 lbs is sufficient. If your
colony does not have the stores they need consider feeding them liquid syrup early. Feeding during
the winter is less effective than summer/fall feeding because in the winter the bees are reluctant
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to leave their warm winter cluster to retrieve the syrup. If your colony needs syrup, starting it before the
bees cluster is key.
What feeder is best? That is a matter of preference.
Entry feeders are the least expensive and simplest
of the feeders. They sit in the entry of the hive
and are basically an upside-down jar on a
stand. Entry feeders are simple to use and
easy to refill however they have a low capacity and can become targets of the creatures of
the night.
The next step up in feeders are the frame feeders.
They vary in size and capacity but all essentially work the same. They take the place of one
or two frames in the hive. The frame feeders
that work the best are those that have a top
and a ladder system. This prevents the bees
from drowning in the syrup.
The cream of the feeder world crop is the Hive Top
style feeder. This feeder sets on top of your hive
and holds anywhere from 2-4 gallons of syrup.
When checking and filling this feeder the colony is
minimally disturbed and it holds large amounts of
syrup but hive top feeders are costly and bulky
when storing.
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Over Wintering In The Bay Area
4
There are a few other things to consider. Wind
and moisture make bees cold. Protect your
bees by cutting down on both. Wrapping a hive
in felt is an arduous process. There are alternatives for us: follower boards, wind breaks, BeeMax style hives, and cultivating plants that offer
protection for the hive.
Follower boards are solid frames that take
the place in the hive of the two outer
most frames in the hive. They do not
have foundation or wax. The purpose of
these boards is to offer insulation to
the hive and better enable the bees to
keep warm.
Wind breaks are a great way to keep the cold
wind off of the hive. Less wind on the hive
means better
thermal regulation in the hive.
Bee-Max hives
are thick sturdy
hives composed
of hardened foam. This foam has great insulation value.
Plants that you can cultivate near the hive allow
for year round benefits of shade, pollen,
and nectar in the summer, and dampen the
wind in the winter.
Consider using tie down straps. In the winter
wind can take the lid right off a hive exposing the bees and killing them. They are also
useful year round in keeping large animals
out of the hive.
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Protect your hive from mice, raccoons, and skunks,
and other animals. Foraging animals can aggressively attack hives. They can be deterred with
liquid pepper sauce at the entrance to the hive.
The animal gets this pepper spray on their paws
and than licks it. The bad experience is a great
deterrent.
Don’t forget to remove your queen excluder. The
cluster of bees will start low and move up through
the hive throughout the winter as they eat through
their food stores. Remember the top is the bottom
during the winter. If your bees are at the top of the
hive they are at the bottom of their food supply.
Over-wintering your bees is not an exact science.
We all do what we think is best. No matter how
you prepare your bees for the winter, keep in mind
that they are in your care. They are depending on
your help to make it through a long winter. Winterizing your bees is your responsibility. Proper care of
your bees is the difference between being beekeeper and being bee-haver.
Cheers and happy winterizing!
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Winter Beehives
5
Bee genetics - inside the dark bee
No beekeeper can look at a colony of bees and actually
see wintering genetics. We can look at a colony of bees
and see the effects of wintering genetics, but the genetic mechanism is tucked away in the dark insides of
the individual bee and the queen mother. A colony
may look and perform great during warm months but
be disappointingly bad at surviving the Winter. There
By James E. Tew Bee Culture Magazine October 2009
many good beehive manipulations that you can implement
to help a colony survive the Winter season.
Some management components of a successful wintering
program
When to start wintering preparations?
Most of us should start preparing our colonies for Winter
in the late Summer and throughout the Fall season. Those
of you in warm climates may be able to make changes
throughout Winter, but your bees will be using more stores
and energy flying on nectarless days. Other than simply
putting on supers or deeps of honey, there is little most of
us can do to help our wintering colony once the season is
truly cold, so plan and implement early.
The apiary location
is no way to look at a new, caged queen and predict
her genetic wintering characteristics.
A few years ago, during Winter months, I posed by
my 'best' colony for a photo to be used in a farm
publication. I had no idea that my best colony was
already just a breath away from being dead. By
Spring, my previous year’s best colony was a winter-kill – from my best to dead in just a few
months. I never knew why.
Other than to expect some colonies to Winter well
while others survive poorly or even die, there is nothing you can do about this frustration. Wintering bee
genetics is part of the 'best guess' management procedure.
Many attributes of a good beeyard location are known. I
will only discuss one attribute here – availability. Most of
us keep our bees wherever we can; not necessarily where
we should. We use what is available to us. Clearly, some
yard sites are better than others and little can be done to
change that, but a good, wind-protected yard is certainly a
benefit to successful wintering. Establish Winter-friendly
beeyards.
Some beekeepers go to extra measures to modify a yard
location to make it better suited for beekeeping. If no natural wind breaks are present, protection from the wind can
be improvised with snow fencing or even open-sheds.
There is a group of specialized commercial beekeepers who
completely take over the wintering process by wintering
indoors in climate-controlled conditions. These pioneers
are laying the technical foundation for what may become a
more typical wintering procedure for all of us in future
years. Presently, it is prohibitively expensive for most of us.
If any of you are routinely indoor wintering small numbers
of colonies, I would enjoy communicating with you.
It’s time
Queen management
For the past two months in Bee Culture, I have reviewed the history and biology of wintering bee colonies. It’s time to implement something; but what? For
the past 150 years, we have tried nearly everything.
Yet, no single wintering procedure has risen to the top
of the Winter management list. Warm climates, cold
climates, mild Winters, severe Winters, Nosema, good
queens, packed colonies, bad honey, wind breaks,
frost pockets, ventilated hives, entrance reducers, food
stores . . . the number of variables is staggering. Even
so, some fundamental points shine through. Good
luck and good genetics are starting places, but these
points are vague and foggy. But thankfully, there are
'The queen' as a Winter management category, reads so
simply to be so challenging. I suppose it would be fair and
honest to say that you should have a good queen in the
colony all year long – not just Winter. But in recent years,
that has become a challenge. Some commercial beekeepers
now have to requeen every six months, some even more
often. I don’t know what’s up with this queen problem. The
traditional advice has always been to go into Winter with a
young queen. Presently that may be easier said than done.
Even so, you must try. Go into Winter with a good
queen.
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PAGE
6
Cluster position
During mid to late Fall, rearrange the brood boxes so the
cluster is on the bottom board. The instinctual tendency of the bees is to move upward
as the season progresses. In a natural setting, a wintering colony of bees would move
up on its honey stores as Winter passed and
be high in the nest at the arrival of Spring.
As they developed a brood nest and brought
in new Spring nectar, they would fill the high
brood nest with new nectar and push subsequent brood nests downward to a lower position. In this seasonal way, as the colony
needs to, it moves up and down the combs.
You, the beekeeper, short-circuit that process by moving the brood nest down in the
Fall rather than waiting for the bees to do it next Spring/
Summer1. Go into winter with the cluster in the bottom deep.
Food stores
No wintering colony has ever been harmed by having too
much honey for Winter. If you have any doubts about how
much honey to take, leave more on the colony. Successful
feeding is tricky to accomplish; therefore, it is far easier to
leave extra honey on the colony than to feed the colony
supplemental feed. If you have light colonies, give supplemental feeding a try, but be realistic about the hungry
colony’s prognosis. Abundant food stores are not the only
factor of good Winter management. In recent years, I have
taken significant honey crops from dead colonies. How
weird is that? Abundant stores are important, but abundant stores alone won’t guarantee successful wintering.
Even so, provide the wintering colony with abundant
food stores.
Runt Colonies
Having some number of weak colonies simply cannot be
avoided. Combine weak colonies together in an attempt
to make a winterable colony. Alternatively, combine weak
colonies with any other colony. You should kill the queen
from the weak colony. She’s not worth reusing. Even in
warm climates, trying to Winter a weak colony is usually
beehive busy-work. Spend your time on the ones that
have a chance at surviving.
Hive Equipment
Housing the colony in two deeps with a reduced lower
entrance but supplemented with an upper entrance is the
traditional way to shelter a bee colony in Winter months.
As I discussed in Part I, we have historically tried many
different Winter options. None work perfectly every time.
Insulating and wrapping, as management recommendations, have come and gone many times. I feel that the
concept of beehive insulation needs a serious revisit. Old
data from old studies using old types of insulation materials in old ways is just that – old. Yet, from this old information, we continue to make modern-day recommendations that pooh-pooh Winter wrapping. Under proper conditions, I propose that a colony could benefit from yearround insulation procedures. And not just colony sides,
THE
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but the top and bottom surfaces, too. But due to
poorly adapted wintering genetics, even insulated
hives will still sometimes house colonies that inexplicably die during Winter months. But overall, I posit
that more insulated colonies are better suited for
winter survival. But until I have new recommendations for you, Winter in two deeps with a reduced
entrance.
Wintering hive ventilation
In both cool and cold climates, provide for upper
ventilation. Condensation accumulates at the top
and upper insides of the hive. Providing a small ¼'
crack beneath the inner cover and even the outer
cover will be enough to let the wet air out.
So what about screened bottom boards? Though I
don’t particularly dislike them, I don’t routinely use
ventilated bottom boards. I have found them to be
too lightly built to be used on colonies that are
moved to pollination sites. I can’t tell that serious
harm is done if the bottom stays open during the
Winter, but if I can remember to do it, I insert the
metal closure sometime in the late Fall.
There is possibly a conflict at this point. Maybe it is
because our artificial beehives are not natural honey
bee cavities. Oddly, the bees go to extremes to
propolize the hive insides during Spring/Summer
months which mean that the tight hive then holds
excessive Winter moisture. We must break the propolis seal as Winter approaches. That doesn’t feel right
to me. Should not the bees know what they are doing? Like Winter colony packing, Winter colony ventilation bears more review. For now, break the upper
propolis seal and ventilate the top of the wintering colony. I wonder if a wintering hive is better
served by a screened bottom board for ventilation
more than Varroa mite control?
This is not the last wintering word
Wintering beehives is not and has never been a sure
thing. Not surprisingly, this short article series will
not be the last word on wintering. Sooner or later, all
beekeepers acquire amazing stories of Winter successes and failures – such as tiny clusters wintering
well while large clusters fail. The same pressure is on
feral honey bees living in tree trunks. Some make it
while others don’t. The continual biological miracle is
that any colony survives any Winter. As beekeepers,
we nurture wintering colonies and clean up dead
ones next Spring. Good luck with your guessing.
Dr. James E. Tew, State Specialist, Beekeeping, The
Ohio State University, Wooster, OH 44691,
330.263.3684, Tew.1@osu.edu; http://
beelab.osu.edu/
PAGE
Buzz about Bees
On September 16, Google beekeepers harvested the honey
from four colonies which they
had set up on their Sacramento
campus in
June of this
year. According to Googles
official blog
the Googlers extracted over 405 lbs of honey.
Marc Rasic, the Executive Chef at Google and brain
child of the project, blogged about their beekeeping. He wrote, “If Google’s a beehive, then I’m what
you might call a forager. I work on the culinary team
and we strive to serve food that’s produced locally
and grown in a sustainable manner. But we wanted
to take the effort to the next level. So, with help
from the Marin Bee Company, we’ve installed four
hives of bees to help us be as self-sufficient as possible.
The four hives—collectively known as the Hiveplex,
of course—are each painted in one of Google’s colors. We’ve placed them close to large areas of wild
flowers on our campus, far enough away that anyone who isn’t fond of bees can easily avoid them,
but close enough that anyone who wants to can
walk over and watch them at work. Many Googlers have signed up to
contribute to beekeeping and honey extraction efforts, and, come the
harvest in the fall, we’ll round the season off with a
series of cooking classes and candle-making sessions
for all those who have signed up to help.” Google is
also working hard to raise awareness of CCD.
Pictures courtesy of the google “hiveplex” website.
Beekeepers’ Calendar
October
November
December
The bees are preparing for winter. Add any necessary insulation
or windbreaks and remove or
check the medication. Store your
equipment.
Not much to do this month. The
bees are clustering together on
colder days. A good time for you
to take a vacation as well. Also a
good time to think of all the terrific honey-related gifts you
could prepare for Christmas gifs:
Bottle some of your honey in
decorative containers and tie
with a festive ribbon, make candles with your beeswax
There is not much to do this
month for the bees. Read a good
book and. Consider ordering
some goodies to include with
those Christmas gifts to friends
and family. Enjoy the holidays!
7
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Coming Events
MDBA Events
Other Events:
Next Meeting:
October 14, 2010
6:30 Heather Farm.
To submit events, email us.
Got something to say?
Do you have an idea for an article? Do you have an article you
would like to share? Send an
email to:
mdbanews@gmail.com
8
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Classifieds
G&M Honey
UNWANTED CAPPINGS?
Full line of apiary supplies.
Do you have unwanted cappings?
I will melt and clean them for the
beeswax.
Lois Kail, lkail@juno.com,
(925) 356-2602
Over wintering supplies are in!
Hive bodies, frames, queen excluders, hive tools, clothing, smokers, and more…
Need a spinner? Bee vac?
The MDBA has one available
for members to rent.
We buy used gear.
For more info call:
Mike 925-808-1919
Lois (925) 356-2602
www.gandmhoney.com
Missing Books
We are still missing books
from the MDBA library.
Please return any books
you may have borrowed.
To add to the classified section
please send an email to
mdbanews@gmail.
com
Can the person who was
discussing tablecloths
with Lois Kail at the last
meeting please contact
her again?
lkail@juno.com,
(925) 356-2602
9
Mt. Diablo Beekeepers Association (MDBA) is dedicated to educating communities about honeybees and
the historic art of beekeeping.
Mount Diablo Beekeepers
Association
2010 Board Members
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President - Rick Kautch
The MDBA is one of the largest bee associations in the
United States with members from around the world.
The MDBA meets at 7:30 PM on the second Thursday
of every month, except November and December, at
Heather Farm Garden Center in Walnut Creek, California.
First Vice President - Bob Kelly
Secretary - Lois Kail
Each month, the MDBA presents a different speaker
Treasurer - Jay Todesco
on a variety of topics and has an open forum for peo-
VP, Community Education - Judy Casale
ple to exchange ideas and helpful tips.
VP, Member Education - Sylvia Goemmel
VP, Membership - Jan Spieth
VP, Newsletter - Gabrielle Harrel
www.diablobees.org
Beekeeping Q & A
Ask your questions here.
A: In my experience most cities have
Q: I became interested in becoming a
backyard beekeeper in early August.
One of the first things I did was join
MDBA. I decided where I want to put
one brood box with one or two honey boxes on top. I planted privacy
plants that bees will like to prevent
the neighbors from seeing me in my
outfit and the hive. I’ve planted other plants that bees will like. Anyway,
the bottom line to this is I live in
Danville and I went to ask the Town
of Danville about this. Mr. Code Enforcement said apiaries are only permitted in agricultural areas and not
residential areas.
I wanted to know what you have to say
about this?
written laws concerning beekeeping.
With a little internet digging you can
find those ordinances and share them
with the appropriate people. This is
what I found on Danville:
Danville, CA Municipal Code:
http://www.amlegal.com/nxt/gateway.dll/California/
danville_ca/danvillecaliforniamunicipalcode?
f=templates$fn=default.htm$3.0$vid=amlegal:danville_ca
Section 32-36.5 A and 32-37.5 A
Don’t get discouraged, beekeeping is
worth the effort.
Answers to your questions about
bees, beekeeping, and anything
related to them!