Julia and I have been working really hard on the meeting committee to plan to the GBA fall conference on September 18 and 19 in Milledgeville, Georgia. We are thrilled with our speaker line-up. Michael Bush is coming as well as Dewey Caron and even Dean Stiglitz and Laurie Herboldsheimer, authors of the Complete Idiot's Guide to Beekeeping.
Below you'll find the latest issue of Spilling the Honey - the GBA newsletter that I edit with Gina Gallucci. All the details of our fall conference, the main speakers, the breakouts, the honey show, etc. can be found there.
Please plan to come - we will be glad to see you!
Showing posts with label Dean Stiglitz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dean Stiglitz. Show all posts
Monday, August 03, 2015
Thursday, April 24, 2014
Podcast from New Zealand
I feel honored and complimented that I was the subject of the blog podcast from Kiwimana in New Zealand. Gary Fawcett, owner of the company, had asked me some time back to participate and I just hadn't found the time. He and I had a fun and lovely conversation in March and he published the post today.
If you'd like to listen, here's the link.
If you'd like to listen, here's the link.
Friday, March 14, 2014
Unnecessary Feeding of Bees in the Spring and the Backyard Beekeeper
At the February meeting of the Metro Atlanta Beekeepers, at the end of the meeting the president said as an announcement: "If you aren't feeding your bees, you should. Go home and feed, feed, feed." I wasn't there for the end of the March meeting (I left a little early), but was told that again she emphasized, "Go home and FEED YOUR BEES."
At the short course in January, Jennifer Berry told the new beekeepers attending the course that at UGA they feed their bees every single day - over 500 hives. She said, "We don't have the time to check each hives for stores so we just feed constantly all year long."
The key point that she mentioned is that they don't have time to check each hive.
When I opened my hives for the first time this year, every single one of them was bringing in nectar and storing it up. They even had some newly capped honey.
Why would I feed those bees?
Feeding at the spring time has impact on the hive - sometimes it means the bees build up population when there may not be a nectar flow to support the build up. The commercial beekeeper may need to do that to assure their bees are highly populated for their pollination business or the research apiarist may need to assure that their research study can have the hives available.
But the backyard beekeeper can let the bees do what they know instinctively to do - which it is to adapt to their current environment.
What if a tremendous amount of brood laying has been stimulated artificially by feeding sugar syrup and suddenly (as we are known to do in March in Atlanta) we have a cold spell? The bees aren't able to keep that amount of brood warm and they die.
Another effect of feeding is that the bees backfill the cells available to the queen for laying and it creates the illusion that the bees don't have enough space. So they swarm when really there was room for the queen to lay, but the beekeeper confused things by providing unnecessary sugar syrup.
At this time of year, all of the push in the beehive is for the bees to put away supplies for the winter ahead (in this case the upcoming winter eight or nine months from now). We harvest the honey they are creating now in the early summer in Atlanta. That honey, if the beekeeper does spring feeding when the nectar is being stored, will be in part sugar syrup.
We criticize beekeepers in China for contaminating the honey they sell with sugar syrup, among other noxious things. How can we? Almost every beekeeper I know in Atlanta is being told to feed their bees (and thus add sugar syrup to their honey).
Dean Stiglitz has suggested that if you want to make sure you are not harvesting honey diluted with sugar syrup, then put blue food coloring in the sugar syrup you feed your bees and if your "honey" is blue, you'll know your sugar syrup is in your "honey."
The university beekeepers are not raising their bees for honey - they are researching genetics, the varroa mite, and other things of interest to the commercial beekeeper. They don't see a need to be careful about feeding.
The backyard beekeeper has the luxury of being able to look into every hive and determine, hive by hive, when feeding is or is not needed.
We are told that the bees use the sugar syrup for building wax and that the syrup won't show up in the honey that is stored "later." My bees are storing honey NOW. I would challenge our club president to put bright blue food coloring in the sugar syrup she is feeding to her bees and see if her honey is tinted blue at harvest.
I will not follow the admonition of the club president to FEED, FEED, FEED. I do not see the point when my hives are not hungry.
At the short course in January, Jennifer Berry told the new beekeepers attending the course that at UGA they feed their bees every single day - over 500 hives. She said, "We don't have the time to check each hives for stores so we just feed constantly all year long."
The key point that she mentioned is that they don't have time to check each hive.
When I opened my hives for the first time this year, every single one of them was bringing in nectar and storing it up. They even had some newly capped honey.
Why would I feed those bees?
Feeding at the spring time has impact on the hive - sometimes it means the bees build up population when there may not be a nectar flow to support the build up. The commercial beekeeper may need to do that to assure their bees are highly populated for their pollination business or the research apiarist may need to assure that their research study can have the hives available.
But the backyard beekeeper can let the bees do what they know instinctively to do - which it is to adapt to their current environment.
What if a tremendous amount of brood laying has been stimulated artificially by feeding sugar syrup and suddenly (as we are known to do in March in Atlanta) we have a cold spell? The bees aren't able to keep that amount of brood warm and they die.
Another effect of feeding is that the bees backfill the cells available to the queen for laying and it creates the illusion that the bees don't have enough space. So they swarm when really there was room for the queen to lay, but the beekeeper confused things by providing unnecessary sugar syrup.
At this time of year, all of the push in the beehive is for the bees to put away supplies for the winter ahead (in this case the upcoming winter eight or nine months from now). We harvest the honey they are creating now in the early summer in Atlanta. That honey, if the beekeeper does spring feeding when the nectar is being stored, will be in part sugar syrup.
We criticize beekeepers in China for contaminating the honey they sell with sugar syrup, among other noxious things. How can we? Almost every beekeeper I know in Atlanta is being told to feed their bees (and thus add sugar syrup to their honey).
Dean Stiglitz has suggested that if you want to make sure you are not harvesting honey diluted with sugar syrup, then put blue food coloring in the sugar syrup you feed your bees and if your "honey" is blue, you'll know your sugar syrup is in your "honey."
The university beekeepers are not raising their bees for honey - they are researching genetics, the varroa mite, and other things of interest to the commercial beekeeper. They don't see a need to be careful about feeding.
The backyard beekeeper has the luxury of being able to look into every hive and determine, hive by hive, when feeding is or is not needed.
We are told that the bees use the sugar syrup for building wax and that the syrup won't show up in the honey that is stored "later." My bees are storing honey NOW. I would challenge our club president to put bright blue food coloring in the sugar syrup she is feeding to her bees and see if her honey is tinted blue at harvest.
I will not follow the admonition of the club president to FEED, FEED, FEED. I do not see the point when my hives are not hungry.
Friday, February 14, 2014
Survivor Bees - Hallelujah
Yesterday all of my bee friends were posting on FB and other places that, as the snow/ice was melting, their bees were flying. My strong little hive in the backyard - my only remaining home hive - was silent all day long. This hive was a swarm that I retrieved near Northlake Mall in Atlanta.
The people told me that the bees had lived in a column of this condo/office complex for years. This was the first year they had observed a swarm or called a beekeeper. I figured this would be a survivor queen. Nobody had treated these girls in any way for years and that's how I like it. I didn't take any honey from them and have watched them with growing confidence in their survival over the year.
I hived this swarm in a box with a closed off screened bottom board and I have never pulled out the insert to open the screened bottom. I don't know if that is helping them make it through the winter or not, but I have hitherto breathed a sigh of relief after every time the temperature returns to the 50s F, and I see that they are flying.
We have had a very cold winter for Atlanta - a week or two of temperatures in the teens and twenties; the Snowjam at the end of January, and now an ice storm of rather scary proportions. But every time these bees have stayed the course.
Before the sun went down yesterday (it actually came out for a change), when the snow blocking the hive entrance finally melted off around 4:30 in the afternoon, I braved the ice-slick that is my concreted backyard area (a basketball court) to walk up to the entrance . I saw a couple of bees, but only a couple, and thought that these were the only remaining live bodies. So I went to bed last night with a heavy heart because my bees were silent.
Today I had a distracting day with my grandchildren. We made Valentine's cookies (two different kinds) before we went to lunch.
The people told me that the bees had lived in a column of this condo/office complex for years. This was the first year they had observed a swarm or called a beekeeper. I figured this would be a survivor queen. Nobody had treated these girls in any way for years and that's how I like it. I didn't take any honey from them and have watched them with growing confidence in their survival over the year.
I hived this swarm in a box with a closed off screened bottom board and I have never pulled out the insert to open the screened bottom. I don't know if that is helping them make it through the winter or not, but I have hitherto breathed a sigh of relief after every time the temperature returns to the 50s F, and I see that they are flying.
We have had a very cold winter for Atlanta - a week or two of temperatures in the teens and twenties; the Snowjam at the end of January, and now an ice storm of rather scary proportions. But every time these bees have stayed the course.
Before the sun went down yesterday (it actually came out for a change), when the snow blocking the hive entrance finally melted off around 4:30 in the afternoon, I braved the ice-slick that is my concreted backyard area (a basketball court) to walk up to the entrance . I saw a couple of bees, but only a couple, and thought that these were the only remaining live bodies. So I went to bed last night with a heavy heart because my bees were silent.
Today I had a distracting day with my grandchildren. We made Valentine's cookies (two different kinds) before we went to lunch.
Dylan and Lark and their beautiful cookie creations
My third grandchild, Max, who is 2 was also there, but he was more interested in playing with toys than making the cookies so he isn't in the photo.
After all the baking we went to lunch and at lunch I was telling them that I felt so sad that my bees had died. I told them that it was warm enough according to the car thermometer that the bees, if they were alive, should be flying, but I had not seen them and I was sad to see that survivor hive go.
When we returned from lunch, my granddaughter RAN to the back window and looked into the backyard. "Grandma," she yelled, "the bees ARE flying." I couldn't believe it and was moved to tears to find that this hive is still going strong.
My backyard is down in a deep area and it probably was colder than 50 back there for all of yesterday and today. When the car said 54, they probably finally had a temp by the hive just at 50 and decided to come out to go to the little bee's room (as Dean Stiglitz would say).
I AM HAPPY. What a Valentine!
So celebration isn't the meaning of this song, but it is about the difficulties of how we love - and loving the bees isn't much different in the challenges of it. I love this rendition as do so many others, so I'm embedding this video because my bees are alive today:
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Bee Emerging
Dean Stiglitz has a great video on his website of a bee in close-up, chewing her way out of her cell:
Saturday, December 08, 2012
Dean Stiglitz on Honey Bee Genetics
ApiNews this week included a link to a video by Dean Stiglitz. Dean ran the Treatment Free Bee Conference that Julia, Noah and I went to this summer. He is also the author with his wife Laurie of the Complete Idiot's Guide to Beekeeping - which is a great book (so far--I'm reading it cover to cover this winter and am not through yet.)
Dean gave a version of this talk at the conference in Massachusetts. The slides in the video that I am sharing in this post are a little off - don't know what was wrong in the YouTube video - but you can make sense of them anyway.
He obviously had a very short amount of time to give this presentation, but he did a good job of explaining how the drone's genetics work in the mating with the queen.
I thought you all might enjoy it:
Thursday, August 02, 2012
Lessons from the NE Treatment Free Beekeeping Conference
During the NE Treatment Free Beekeeping Conference (which I am now going to call the NETFB to save typing), the emphasis was on healthy bees. I learned a lot about balance in the hive, nutrition on every level, and respect for nature and evolution.
Michael Bush set the tone in his first talk about healthier bees. He discussed microorganisms in the hive. There are 30 kinds of mites, 30 kinds of insects and some 8000 microorganisms in the bee hive. When we treat we affect the hive ecology. Everything that is put in the hive as a treatment - whether "natural" or not - kills microorganisms. Dean Stiglitz and Laurie Herboldsheimer (hosts of the conference) have done a small experiment just to show the influence of oxalic acid on yeast in general. Their point is that whatever we introduce into the hive, we are affecting the ecology of the hive.
If you take the "no treatment" approach, then you are inviting the bees to experience selective pressure to evolve stronger bees who can withstand the varroa mite or whatever the next bee scourge might be. What happens with treatment is that we strengthen the mite who becomes more virulent and prolific. If we don't treat, according to Michael, the pressure is where it should be - on the pest/parasite to be in balance with its host.
So Michael advocates (and you can read what he talked about on his website - click on Four Simple Steps to Healthier Bees on the left side column)
Another interesting talk for me was by Dee Lusby. Dee and her late husband Ed raise bees in Arizona. She was a little difficult to understand - I expect one learns more from visiting her at her apiary than hearing her speak, but I learned a lot from her about Housel positioning.
She pronounces it "HOO sul" - I've been calling it "How sul" so I am mending my ways going forward. What I understood about Housel positioning is that when you put foundation, a foundation strip, or drawn comb into a hive, it's important that the inside of the cell have the "Y" at the bottom of the cell facing up on the frames from the center to the outside of the hive. In the center it switches and the "Y" should face up going toward the nearest side.
I just thought that for some reason that was better for the bees, but instead there is an explanation that again has to do with balance in the hive. If the "y" is facing up, then the bees use that upper "v" of the "Y" as a guide for the beginning of their comb. And for the honey, for example, to stay in the cell, the slant of the cell has to be downward toward the center.
If the cells are not set that way, then it confuses the bees' system and their balance in the hive. This is also why it is so important to put a frame back into a box in the same orientation in which it was originally.
Jeff and I do all of our hives this way, but only because I thought we were supposed to - now I understand why it is important.
Dee also talked about opening up the brood box in a pyramidal way by placing capped brood in the center of the box with a full frame of honey on either side of the capped brood (for insulation of the brood and for food provision). She had a complex system of numbered frames to explain this to us.
There were other good speakers - Kirk Webster talked about overwintering nucs, but I'm not going to try to cover that in this post. And Michael gave another talk on what he calls "Lazy Beekeeping" addressing issues I already talk about in this blog all the time: 8 frame mediums, foundationless frames, etc. Paul Arnold who anchors the Young Harris Institute was also there, but we missed his talk on Thursday night and on Sunday. It was fun hanging out with Paul, though, and Julia, Noah, and I ate several meals with him.
BTW, here's a picture of the Atlanta contingent with Michael Bush in front of his table of books that he was selling. We left a space in our line-up so that his books might show up in the picture, but they don't really.
So I came away resolved to try to succeed at splitting my successful colonies, to forget feeding even bee tea, and to try to emulate my natural beekeeping mentors and heroes.
Michael Bush set the tone in his first talk about healthier bees. He discussed microorganisms in the hive. There are 30 kinds of mites, 30 kinds of insects and some 8000 microorganisms in the bee hive. When we treat we affect the hive ecology. Everything that is put in the hive as a treatment - whether "natural" or not - kills microorganisms. Dean Stiglitz and Laurie Herboldsheimer (hosts of the conference) have done a small experiment just to show the influence of oxalic acid on yeast in general. Their point is that whatever we introduce into the hive, we are affecting the ecology of the hive.
If you take the "no treatment" approach, then you are inviting the bees to experience selective pressure to evolve stronger bees who can withstand the varroa mite or whatever the next bee scourge might be. What happens with treatment is that we strengthen the mite who becomes more virulent and prolific. If we don't treat, according to Michael, the pressure is where it should be - on the pest/parasite to be in balance with its host.
So Michael advocates (and you can read what he talked about on his website - click on Four Simple Steps to Healthier Bees on the left side column)
- No Treatments of any kind
- Breed local survivor queens
- Only natural food (honey and real pollen)
- Use natural comb
To the point of only feeding natural food, Michael pointed out that the Ph of sugar syrup is 6 vs. that of honey which is 3.2 A lower Ph is more acidic and all brood diseases thrive more in sugar syrup than in honey.
He has a PowerPoint on his website on natural cell size which you can also find in the left column on the linked page.
Dean Stiglitz, seen below, gave a talk on raising local queens. I own but have only leafed through his book written with Laurie: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Beekeeping, and this conference and meeting him sent me home to pore over it. He is the consummate researcher and researches other people's research. He also gave a talk at the conference on how to read a research study to know if the results are something to rely on or not.
Again, in his queen-raising talk, the emphasis was on bee health. To be a well-developed queen, the queen must be fed well. So a hive must have stored food, pollen, and young worker bees to make a good queen. He encouraged a walk-away split as one way to encourage the bees to make their own queen. The queenless side of the split will be the cell builder. If you put that half of the split in the old hive's location, then the foragers will return to it, adding to the food in the colony.
Another interesting talk for me was by Dee Lusby. Dee and her late husband Ed raise bees in Arizona. She was a little difficult to understand - I expect one learns more from visiting her at her apiary than hearing her speak, but I learned a lot from her about Housel positioning.
She pronounces it "HOO sul" - I've been calling it "How sul" so I am mending my ways going forward. What I understood about Housel positioning is that when you put foundation, a foundation strip, or drawn comb into a hive, it's important that the inside of the cell have the "Y" at the bottom of the cell facing up on the frames from the center to the outside of the hive. In the center it switches and the "Y" should face up going toward the nearest side.
I just thought that for some reason that was better for the bees, but instead there is an explanation that again has to do with balance in the hive. If the "y" is facing up, then the bees use that upper "v" of the "Y" as a guide for the beginning of their comb. And for the honey, for example, to stay in the cell, the slant of the cell has to be downward toward the center.
If the cells are not set that way, then it confuses the bees' system and their balance in the hive. This is also why it is so important to put a frame back into a box in the same orientation in which it was originally.
Jeff and I do all of our hives this way, but only because I thought we were supposed to - now I understand why it is important.
Dee also talked about opening up the brood box in a pyramidal way by placing capped brood in the center of the box with a full frame of honey on either side of the capped brood (for insulation of the brood and for food provision). She had a complex system of numbered frames to explain this to us.
There were other good speakers - Kirk Webster talked about overwintering nucs, but I'm not going to try to cover that in this post. And Michael gave another talk on what he calls "Lazy Beekeeping" addressing issues I already talk about in this blog all the time: 8 frame mediums, foundationless frames, etc. Paul Arnold who anchors the Young Harris Institute was also there, but we missed his talk on Thursday night and on Sunday. It was fun hanging out with Paul, though, and Julia, Noah, and I ate several meals with him.
BTW, here's a picture of the Atlanta contingent with Michael Bush in front of his table of books that he was selling. We left a space in our line-up so that his books might show up in the picture, but they don't really.
So I came away resolved to try to succeed at splitting my successful colonies, to forget feeding even bee tea, and to try to emulate my natural beekeeping mentors and heroes.
Friday, July 27, 2012
NE Treatment Free Bee Conference
Well, Julia, Noah, and I spent the day at the conference. We've all learned lots.
Michael Bush was the first speaker. I couldn't believe I was getting to meet him in person. He is such a nice man and as good a speaker as I had imagined.
He spoke on balance in the beehive and the value of no treatment, bee nutrition, and natural comb.
We then heard Dean Stiglitz on the value of raising your own queens and I kept feeling inspired to come home and make splits!
Sam Comfort talked about simplicity of keeping bees and was a delight as he always is.
We also heard Erik Osterlund and Kirk Webster I'll post more when I'm with my computer at home and can put up more pictures and info.
Having a great time! Wish you were here!
Michael Bush was the first speaker. I couldn't believe I was getting to meet him in person. He is such a nice man and as good a speaker as I had imagined.
He spoke on balance in the beehive and the value of no treatment, bee nutrition, and natural comb.
We then heard Dean Stiglitz on the value of raising your own queens and I kept feeling inspired to come home and make splits!
Sam Comfort talked about simplicity of keeping bees and was a delight as he always is.
We also heard Erik Osterlund and Kirk Webster I'll post more when I'm with my computer at home and can put up more pictures and info.
Having a great time! Wish you were here!
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Thursday's Almost Here!
I am beyond excited. All of you know how much I admire (and often refer to or quote) Michael Bush. Well on Thursday, Julia, Noah and I are going to Leominster, Massachusetts (home of the the manufacturer of all those food grade plastic buckets we all use at honey harvest) to the NE Treatment Free Beekeepers Conference!
And guess who will be there: Michael Bush!!! I've wanted to meet Michael Bush for seven years!
Not only will Michael Bush be there, but also Sam Comfort, whom I love and love to hear speak (I first met Sam when he and I were both speakers at the SE Organic Beekeepers Conference a couple of years ago and then I saw him again that year at EAS - he's always a trip); Dee Lusby, the queen of treatment free beekeepers; and the host of the conference: Dean Stiglitz who wrote the Complete Idiot's Guide to Beekeeping. (see below)
I plan to listen well, take lots of notes, and bask in the presence of these masters - people for whom I hold intense hero worship.
I will be completely happy if Julia takes a photo of me with Michael Bush, or better yet if someone else takes all three of us with him. Actually I am realizing there are no photos of Michael anywhere - not even on the book he wrote. He's from Nebraska - maybe he's part of an Indian tribe that believes you lose part of your soul if someone snaps your picture. So whatever it is, I'll be glad to meet him, but not press for a picture, unless it seems like the appropriate thing to do.
The conference includes a lot of hands on stuff this week, but I couldn't leave work so we are going for the main conference which starts on Friday.
And guess who will be there: Michael Bush!!! I've wanted to meet Michael Bush for seven years!
Not only will Michael Bush be there, but also Sam Comfort, whom I love and love to hear speak (I first met Sam when he and I were both speakers at the SE Organic Beekeepers Conference a couple of years ago and then I saw him again that year at EAS - he's always a trip); Dee Lusby, the queen of treatment free beekeepers; and the host of the conference: Dean Stiglitz who wrote the Complete Idiot's Guide to Beekeeping. (see below)
I plan to listen well, take lots of notes, and bask in the presence of these masters - people for whom I hold intense hero worship.
I will be completely happy if Julia takes a photo of me with Michael Bush, or better yet if someone else takes all three of us with him. Actually I am realizing there are no photos of Michael anywhere - not even on the book he wrote. He's from Nebraska - maybe he's part of an Indian tribe that believes you lose part of your soul if someone snaps your picture. So whatever it is, I'll be glad to meet him, but not press for a picture, unless it seems like the appropriate thing to do.
The conference includes a lot of hands on stuff this week, but I couldn't leave work so we are going for the main conference which starts on Friday.
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