The fun lecture I went to at Young Harris was on encaustic painting with Michael Young, a delightful beekeeper from Ireland who is frequently a speaker at Young Harris. Encaustic painting incorporates heat and wax to make paintings on photo-type paper.
It's hard to find the materials. Michael Young said he got a kit at Michael's Craft Store, but they apparently no longer carry it. Here are some retailers who carry encaustic paints.
At the end he polished the finished product with a cloth. In Ireland, he said he would use a yellow duster (?) From searching the Internet, these seem to be very soft 100% cotton cloth pieces of yellow fabric.
Below are some photos to show you what Michael did. This is a slide show so click on the photo to see the pictures larger and with captions (if I get them on the photos before you click it!)
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Friday, May 17, 2013
Thursday, May 16, 2013
When I Woke Up This Morning, Swarms were on My Mind
Late yesterday afternoon I got an email from a man asking if I wanted a swarm over near Northlake in Atlanta. The swarm was at an office complex called Northlake Commons. I didn't see the email until too late last night to reply so I called the man first thing this morning.
Yes, the bees were still there. Yes, he'd like me to come and get them.
I threw my bee gear in the car and headed over to his location (about a half block from where my daughter Valerie lives).
The swarm was on a Japanese maple in front of the office building.
I felt so lucky it was still there. I spread a sheet on the ground under the swarm branch. The tree was on a hill beside concrete steps, so I had to put the sheet down the hillside.
The swarm had originated from a hive that lives in a column on the front of the building. Even as the swarm hung on the Japanese maple, bees were continuing life in the hive in the column and I watched them fly in and out from the base while I waited for the swarm to gather in my nuc box.
The column is hollow around a metal central pole so there is room inside for the bees to live, but I expect they have to swarm every year to cope with the space limitations.
Because of the location of the swarm, I couldn't just shake it into the nuc box. I had brought a plastic file box that was the size of a banker's box, so I shook the bees into that first and then poured them into the nuc box. It took about three shakes to get them all.
Then because the queen was in the nuc box, the bees processed into the box in an orderly way over about 45 minutes.
When they got to this point, I brushed the rest of them into the box, closed up the box, gathered up the sheet and remaining bees and put all of it into my car.
When I got home, I hived them in a two medium box hive. I closed off the screened bottom board. At Young Harris, I asked Tom Seeley about the swarm we hived at Chastain that left the next day. He imagined that it might have been because they were put in a box with a screened bottom board, giving them too much light. So this box I closed off. As the summer goes on, I'll probably open it but by then the bees will have claimed this house for themselves.
Within a short period of time the bees were orienting, flying in and out, and seemed to be at home.
It's late in the nectar flow, but maybe these bees can get started and collect enough to get them through the winter.
Yes, the bees were still there. Yes, he'd like me to come and get them.
I threw my bee gear in the car and headed over to his location (about a half block from where my daughter Valerie lives).
The swarm was on a Japanese maple in front of the office building.
I felt so lucky it was still there. I spread a sheet on the ground under the swarm branch. The tree was on a hill beside concrete steps, so I had to put the sheet down the hillside.
The swarm had originated from a hive that lives in a column on the front of the building. Even as the swarm hung on the Japanese maple, bees were continuing life in the hive in the column and I watched them fly in and out from the base while I waited for the swarm to gather in my nuc box.
The column is hollow around a metal central pole so there is room inside for the bees to live, but I expect they have to swarm every year to cope with the space limitations.
Because of the location of the swarm, I couldn't just shake it into the nuc box. I had brought a plastic file box that was the size of a banker's box, so I shook the bees into that first and then poured them into the nuc box. It took about three shakes to get them all.
Then because the queen was in the nuc box, the bees processed into the box in an orderly way over about 45 minutes.
When I got home, I hived them in a two medium box hive. I closed off the screened bottom board. At Young Harris, I asked Tom Seeley about the swarm we hived at Chastain that left the next day. He imagined that it might have been because they were put in a box with a screened bottom board, giving them too much light. So this box I closed off. As the summer goes on, I'll probably open it but by then the bees will have claimed this house for themselves.
Within a short period of time the bees were orienting, flying in and out, and seemed to be at home.
It's late in the nectar flow, but maybe these bees can get started and collect enough to get them through the winter.
Martha Stewart on How to Make a Lemon Honey Pot
The National Honey Board posted this on FB today. It's Martha Stewart, so no description is needed because she will cover it all!
Click here to see Martha making a lemon honey pot and filling it with honey from her own bee hives!
Click here to see Martha making a lemon honey pot and filling it with honey from her own bee hives!
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Tom Seeley on Bees and Mites in the Forest
At Young Harris, Dr. Tom Seeley gave a fascinating talk on bees and mites in the forest.
The first part of his talk was about how he finds bee trees in the forest. He risks life and limb to find these bees with only his dog to rescue him should he fall in the woods or off of a tree! He learned how to beeline with Edgell's book, The Bee Hunter.
He built a small box for putting a bee in and giving her sugar syrup. After the bee has recognized the box as a source of food, she returns to her hive and recruits her sisters to come join her at the nectar source. When a number of bees are feeding at the box, he closes the box up and moves it along the direction of the flight path they take when they leave. Then he stops and opens the box and keeps on in this manner until he is really close to the bee tree. Then his job is to look around and find where they are flying to.
He found wild bee trees in the Arnot Forest, owned by Cornell where he works. He had found 11 colonies in 1978. In 2002 there were 8 bee trees. In 2003 he put up bait hives (this is where he climbs trees with no spotter other than his dog) to catch swarms thrown by the eight bee trees. These bait hives had low mite counts.
He began to theorize about the low mite counts - what was it due to?
The first part of his talk was about how he finds bee trees in the forest. He risks life and limb to find these bees with only his dog to rescue him should he fall in the woods or off of a tree! He learned how to beeline with Edgell's book, The Bee Hunter.
He built a small box for putting a bee in and giving her sugar syrup. After the bee has recognized the box as a source of food, she returns to her hive and recruits her sisters to come join her at the nectar source. When a number of bees are feeding at the box, he closes the box up and moves it along the direction of the flight path they take when they leave. Then he stops and opens the box and keeps on in this manner until he is really close to the bee tree. Then his job is to look around and find where they are flying to.
He found wild bee trees in the Arnot Forest, owned by Cornell where he works. He had found 11 colonies in 1978. In 2002 there were 8 bee trees. In 2003 he put up bait hives (this is where he climbs trees with no spotter other than his dog) to catch swarms thrown by the eight bee trees. These bait hives had low mite counts.
He began to theorize about the low mite counts - what was it due to?
- The bee trees were much farther apart than we typically keep hives in apiaries
- This should cut down on drifting (one way to convey diseases between hives)
- This should cut down on robbing
- Hives not contaminated by other hives might develop Varroa mites that were not virulent
With our hive boxes, close together in apiaries, we subject our bees to drifting. We also have low and large entrances, promoting more robbing. We don't allow swarming, if we can help it. More Varroa may be directly due to large brood nests and less swarming.
In trees, bees coat the inside of the hollow tree with propolis. With our smooth sided hives, there isn't a need for propolizing the walls. Propolis may protect the health of the bees in trees.
Since honey bees live differently, Seeley concluded that increasing colony spacing might reduce horizontal disease transmission. Smaller hives and smaller colonies might result in less honey and more swarming but the pay-off would be better health. If tall hives are used this will increase winter survival in cold areas. Perhaps we should leave the inside walls of our hives rough to encourage the use of propolis to coat the hive interior, promoting better colony health. Finally more drone comb (in the wild bees build 15% of their comb for the raising of drone) might result in better queen mating although might increase the Varroa.
There is more Varroa in crowded colonies because the drift of bees helps spread the mites from colonies that have fast-reproducing mites.
His take-home messages were:
As beekeepers we help the survival of the Varroa mite by:
- Sustaining susceptible bees by using miticides (stop using miticides!)
- Fostering virulent mites by having apiaries (have colonies in isolation)
- Fostering mites by preventing swarming (let colonies swarm)
There are feral bees and they are good for pollination, good for drone production, and through natural selection, resistance will arise in bees in the wild.
It was a great talk and I loved seeing photos of Seeley and his dog standing next to very tall bee trees. Wish you were there!
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Sad Bee Mother Reports on a Sad Bee Event
Today I had a special time for Mother's Day with one of my daughters getting a manicure and pedicure, something I NEVER do - it was so relaxing and a really lovely experience. But before the mani-pedi, I was rushing around checking on bees.
I checked on the bees at my house. The package installed this year was full of honey and needed a new box. I moved one of their drawn frames up into the new box and was happy about that one.
The drone layer hive was calm. They had not used the frame of brood and eggs I gave them on Thursday to make queen cells, so I believe they do have a queen, but I didn't go down deep into the box. I did give them a new box because they were also full in every box with nectar being capped.
The Patty swarm hive had not filled their most recent box, so I didn't change anything in their configuration.
I only had an hour before I needed to be ready to go with Sarah. Over the weekend, I had heard from the Stonehurst that they had dead bees all over their driveway. I had to be creative with my path to Stonehurst because with the gorgeous day in Atlanta, everyone was trying to drive to Piedmont Park and the inn is one block away from the park. But when I finally got there, the bees looked healthy but didn't need another box. I didn't see that as cause for worry because it has been so rainy - when could they have collected nectar?
So I had about fifteen minutes to stop by the Morningside garden hives on my way home. I had an extra box with me - it's a fabulous hive and was filling itself up with honey. I also had a ladder with me which is required for me now to get the seventh box off of the hive.
I got to the top of the hill where the bees are. Should be a great place for bees. There are blackberries blooming all the way down the hill and kudzu everywhere. Not to mention the organic community garden at the foot of the hill.
A terrible smell met me as I approached the hive. In front of the hive was a dinner plate size round of dead bees in a pile about 2 1/2 inches deep. Thousands of dead bees rotting in the sun. What I was smelling was dead bees.
I have corks as hive entry reducers on this hive and one of them was lying at the edge of the pile. I wanted to throw up, but what I did was cry.
This was my best hive. And here was a pile of dead bees the size of a swarm.
I got kind of paranoid and with the cork on the ground I thought someone had poisoned the bees - pulled out the cork and sprayed Raid or something into the hive.
But there were still bees flying in and out of the hive, crowding the entrance.
I didn't have time because Sarah was coming to pick me up for our Mother's Day fun, so, sad that I couldn't figure it out right then, I went home and went with Sarah for such a relaxing mani-pedi that I almost forgot about the death on the hill.
I couldn't quit thinking about the hive after I got home, so I called my friend Jerry Wallace who lives near me and is a great beekeeper. He came with me to open the hive around 7 (I figured with the foragers all home, we could see how bad the damage really was).
We took every box off all the way down to the bottom, figuring that if someone had poisoned the bees, we would be able to smell the Raid in the wood of the slatted rack. The slatted rack smelled normal, no poison residue, and I have a really good nose. Jerry nor I could smell anything. He pointed out that even if someone had sprayed a poison in the hive with the SBB and the slatted rack, the spray would have been deflected by the slats back through the SBB.
The most likely possibility, however, is that the bees have found a nectar source that has poison on it or in it. They don't know the difference and are taking it in and dying. So the hive is not out of the woods yet. I often anthropomorphize my bees, attributing wisdom and emotion to them. The fact of the matter is that they signal each other about nectar sources but aren't wise enough to notice that each bee who goes to that source comes back and dies in front of the hive. The bees may not yet stop collecting from the poison source.
Meanwhile there are at least two full boxes of honey in the hive and still thousands of bees - it's like a very strong hive after a swarm when you can hardly tell the hive swarmed because so many bees are still there.
So maybe there's hope for the future. Maybe they will switch to another nectar source. Maybe all is not lost and the Mother's Day Event may turn out better than I think.
I checked on the bees at my house. The package installed this year was full of honey and needed a new box. I moved one of their drawn frames up into the new box and was happy about that one.
The drone layer hive was calm. They had not used the frame of brood and eggs I gave them on Thursday to make queen cells, so I believe they do have a queen, but I didn't go down deep into the box. I did give them a new box because they were also full in every box with nectar being capped.
The Patty swarm hive had not filled their most recent box, so I didn't change anything in their configuration.
I only had an hour before I needed to be ready to go with Sarah. Over the weekend, I had heard from the Stonehurst that they had dead bees all over their driveway. I had to be creative with my path to Stonehurst because with the gorgeous day in Atlanta, everyone was trying to drive to Piedmont Park and the inn is one block away from the park. But when I finally got there, the bees looked healthy but didn't need another box. I didn't see that as cause for worry because it has been so rainy - when could they have collected nectar?
So I had about fifteen minutes to stop by the Morningside garden hives on my way home. I had an extra box with me - it's a fabulous hive and was filling itself up with honey. I also had a ladder with me which is required for me now to get the seventh box off of the hive.
I got to the top of the hill where the bees are. Should be a great place for bees. There are blackberries blooming all the way down the hill and kudzu everywhere. Not to mention the organic community garden at the foot of the hill.
A terrible smell met me as I approached the hive. In front of the hive was a dinner plate size round of dead bees in a pile about 2 1/2 inches deep. Thousands of dead bees rotting in the sun. What I was smelling was dead bees.
This was my best hive. And here was a pile of dead bees the size of a swarm.
I got kind of paranoid and with the cork on the ground I thought someone had poisoned the bees - pulled out the cork and sprayed Raid or something into the hive.
But there were still bees flying in and out of the hive, crowding the entrance.
I didn't have time because Sarah was coming to pick me up for our Mother's Day fun, so, sad that I couldn't figure it out right then, I went home and went with Sarah for such a relaxing mani-pedi that I almost forgot about the death on the hill.
I couldn't quit thinking about the hive after I got home, so I called my friend Jerry Wallace who lives near me and is a great beekeeper. He came with me to open the hive around 7 (I figured with the foragers all home, we could see how bad the damage really was).
We took every box off all the way down to the bottom, figuring that if someone had poisoned the bees, we would be able to smell the Raid in the wood of the slatted rack. The slatted rack smelled normal, no poison residue, and I have a really good nose. Jerry nor I could smell anything. He pointed out that even if someone had sprayed a poison in the hive with the SBB and the slatted rack, the spray would have been deflected by the slats back through the SBB.
The most likely possibility, however, is that the bees have found a nectar source that has poison on it or in it. They don't know the difference and are taking it in and dying. So the hive is not out of the woods yet. I often anthropomorphize my bees, attributing wisdom and emotion to them. The fact of the matter is that they signal each other about nectar sources but aren't wise enough to notice that each bee who goes to that source comes back and dies in front of the hive. The bees may not yet stop collecting from the poison source.
Meanwhile there are at least two full boxes of honey in the hive and still thousands of bees - it's like a very strong hive after a swarm when you can hardly tell the hive swarmed because so many bees are still there.
So maybe there's hope for the future. Maybe they will switch to another nectar source. Maybe all is not lost and the Mother's Day Event may turn out better than I think.
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Noah Macey at 16 is Youngest Master Beekeeper in the state of Georgia
HOORAY! Noah, one of the best beekeepers I know, passed his qualifications and last night was awarded his Master Beekeeper. At age 16, he is the youngest person in the state ever to be awarded Master Beekeeper.
I've known Noah since he and his mom, Julia, and I started beekeeping together at the Blue Heron in 2008 or 2009. He was just 11 or 12 and already a great beekeeper. He has now read many books, read online, gone to and paid attention to conferences, built his own top bar hive, installed and raised many bee hives. And he got his Master Beekeeper on his first try - unlike lots of people who try for it. What a great guy!
Our club did really well. There were actually 11 Master Beekeeper certifications awarded this year and at least four of them were members or former members of our bee club.
Scotti Bozeman, a former member of MABA who has moved to Alabama, achieved her Journeyman certification and won a number of awards in the honey show. There were three Journeyman certifications and two of them came from our club - the second one was Jane Lu.
Julia, my beekeeping buddy and Noah's mom, won a blue ribbon for a gorgeous honey bee drawing with beautiful calligraphy labels.
And a member of our club, Ronnie Brannon, won best in show for his amazing close-up photograph of a honey bee on a rosemary blossom.
Metro Atlanta was well-represented in all areas at Young Harris - we had many people reach levels of certification, many honey show award winners, many attendees who came just to learn, and I taught there - low tech beekeeping - which was a lot of fun for me.
I've known Noah since he and his mom, Julia, and I started beekeeping together at the Blue Heron in 2008 or 2009. He was just 11 or 12 and already a great beekeeper. He has now read many books, read online, gone to and paid attention to conferences, built his own top bar hive, installed and raised many bee hives. And he got his Master Beekeeper on his first try - unlike lots of people who try for it. What a great guy!
Our club did really well. There were actually 11 Master Beekeeper certifications awarded this year and at least four of them were members or former members of our bee club.
Scotti Bozeman, a former member of MABA who has moved to Alabama, achieved her Journeyman certification and won a number of awards in the honey show. There were three Journeyman certifications and two of them came from our club - the second one was Jane Lu.
Julia, my beekeeping buddy and Noah's mom, won a blue ribbon for a gorgeous honey bee drawing with beautiful calligraphy labels.
And a member of our club, Ronnie Brannon, won best in show for his amazing close-up photograph of a honey bee on a rosemary blossom.
Metro Atlanta was well-represented in all areas at Young Harris - we had many people reach levels of certification, many honey show award winners, many attendees who came just to learn, and I taught there - low tech beekeeping - which was a lot of fun for me.
What to Study for Journeyman in Georgia
Many apologies to the man who asked me a question at Young Harris today at the lunch break. We were leaving the cafeteria and this man came up to me and asked me a question that I failed to answer well. I thought he asked me where on my blog could he read about how to be an advanced beekeeper.
He did ask something about books he could read and I answered that the blog included a bookstore with books that I recommend. Then I said since I had gone through a lot of changes since I started, I guess he could just read the blog entries.
When we walked away, Noah said what the man was really asking was what books to study for the Journeyman exam. I feel so bad that I didn't respond to or understand what he was asking.
So if I had a chance to do it over (and if he happens to visit this blog), here's what I would study for Journeyman if I were taking it next year:
He did ask something about books he could read and I answered that the blog included a bookstore with books that I recommend. Then I said since I had gone through a lot of changes since I started, I guess he could just read the blog entries.
When we walked away, Noah said what the man was really asking was what books to study for the Journeyman exam. I feel so bad that I didn't respond to or understand what he was asking.
So if I had a chance to do it over (and if he happens to visit this blog), here's what I would study for Journeyman if I were taking it next year:
- I'd read from cover to cover Mark Winston's The Biology of the Honey Bee
- I'd read Honey Bee Democracy by Tom Seeley - not because swarm behavior is essential to the test but because in the process of explaining swarm behavior, Dr. Seeley covers a lot of the new knowledge about bees today.
- I'd read Delaplane's First Lessons in Beekeeping since it's the official text
- I'd go to EAS or another professional bee meeting this year and listen to the featured speakers rather than to what I thought would be fun to hear
- I'd learn everything I could about queens, their biology and behavior
- Even though I'd hate every minute of it, I'd learn everything I could about diseases - causes and treatments
- I'd study the bee catalogs because they always put some weird instrument or another on the practical exam
- And I'd study insects of other species than apis mellifera because I would know I'd have to identify a number of them! (and on that item you have to get 100% right)
Sorry, nice man, that I misunderstood what you were asking. Hope if you read this, that it helps.
Friday, May 10, 2013
Dave Tarpy on Good Queens
At Young Harris this morning I heard a talk by Dave Tarpy on how good queens = good colonies. A study by Dennis vonEngelsdorp found that of hive deaths over the winter, 31% of the deaths were attributed to poor queens.
Dave Tarpy is on the left, Tom Seeley on the right (weren't we lucky to hear both of them!)
Tarpy pointed out that the queen serves many more functions in the hive than simply being a good egg laying machine. When the queen is a virgin, her QMP (queen mandibular pheromone) is low but after mating her QMP is high and stays high during her lifetime. Her emission of this pheromone does many things for the hive.
Tarpy pointed out that the queen serves many more functions in the hive than simply being a good egg laying machine. When the queen is a virgin, her QMP (queen mandibular pheromone) is low but after mating her QMP is high and stays high during her lifetime. Her emission of this pheromone does many things for the hive.
- The presence of QMP in the hive suppresses laying worker tendencies
- Workers are instantly attracted to QMP and want to touch the queen and disperse the QMP throughout the hive
- QMP is a great attractor for drones - drones even have a special segment on their antennae just for smelling QMP
- QMP includes 9-ODA as well as 9-HDA. The 9-HDA is needed to encourage the clustering of a swarm when the hive swarms
- The queen also has a footprint pheromone which is emitted with each footfall. This pheromone inhibits queen cell production. The queen spreads this herself as she walks throughout the hive
- If laying worker eggs are present, QMP influences the workers to cannibalize those worker-laid eggs.
It's crucial in the life of a hive that the hive have a really good queen. In the hives we run where we let the hives requeen themselves, there is a possibility that the bees will not make a good queen. I've always heard this but never understood why until today.
If the hive is queenless and desperate for a queen, then the beekeeper gives them a frame of brood and eggs to help them make a queen. The pheromone emitted by the eggs and young larvae is helpful in making the bees react as if they have a queen. But they are still desperate for a new queen as quickly as possible.
In the general development of a queen, the bees feed the egg and larvae only royal jelly until the cell is capped. If the egg is to be a worker, then after the third day, the bees feed the larvae bee bread and other things - not just royal jelly. With their goal being to replace the queen as quickly as possible, they may very well pick an egg or larvae that is older than 3 days and start feeding it royal jelly. In the interim, it may have had a couple of days of being fed like a worker, meaning that it has a lesser quality developmental start and will be less of a great queen.
Not only that, but a queen cell made from a four or five day larvae is going to emerge in 11 or 12 days rather than 16 (as in a one day egg). The bees may pick for speed of emergence rather than quality so that they get the new queen sooner than later. The newly emerged less-than queen will then kill the other queens in their cells and you the beekeeper are stuck with a less than wonderful queen.
To prevent this Dave says to check the hive five days after installing the brood and egg frame. If you find any capped queen cell at that time, remove that cell, leaving any still uncapped queen cells which were of course started with younger larvae and thus more likely to be successful queens.
That last paragraph was worth going to the conference to learn - thanks, Dave Tarpy.
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