From the Queen's Courtby Melanie Kirby A•Bee•Cs By
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ISSUE 72: AUGUST 2016 From the Queen's Court by Melanie Kirby 2 A•Bee•Cs by Dennis Brown 5 X•Y•Zs by Phill Remick 6 Bee Science: ABRC Proceedings, Part 1 10 Beekeeping 'Round the Globe: Was Conference 18 Diverse Pollinators: Bees in your Backyard 20 Apitherapy Association of America Conference & Memoriam 21 Meet the Beekeeper: Tara Chapman 23 Bee Thinking About: Organic Honey by Elizabeth Grossman 25 Upcoming Events 35 From the Queen’s Court by Melanie Kirby “Summer Time…and the livin’ is bee-zy…”….time to wind up for fall and winter preparation while also enjoying the glowing and slowing long summer days. Speaking of long summer days, my travels this summer took me to the exotic universe of Morocco—which, surprisingly enough, is quite similar to New Mexico (my home state) with desert in the south, mountains in the north and a mélange (mix) of cultures and traditions. Editor Melanie Kirby I had the great pleasure of traveling with two new beekeepers, Rachid [email protected] El Khazerri of Houston, Texas (a native Moroccan who has been living Design & Layout in the US for the past 25 years), and Tara Chapman (a Texan who keeps Jon Weaver, Johnny4Eyes.com bees in Austin). We left the last week of July and boarded a plan to Website & Ecommerce Minneapolis then to Paris then to Rabat, Morocco. Upon arrival in KelleyBees.com Rabat at 11pm, we were ushered by Rachid’s brother Brahim, to his family’s flat in the city of Sale, across the river Bou Regreg from Address Rabat. Brahim’s lovely family, Amina (his wife) and his two adolescent 807 W. Main St. children, Cena and Simo, welcomed us with a feast of dates, milk, P.O. Box 240 almonds, pastries and hot mint tea (which I learned, is the national Clarkson, KY 42726 all-day drink of Moroccans). Phone 270-242-2012 It will be my pleasure to share the adventures we had on this trip 800-233-2899 visiting beekeepers and queen producers in various parts of the country…but for this issue of the newsletter, I’ll focus on introducing © 2016 Kelley Beekeeping Tara Chapman, who is featured in our Meet the Beekeeper segment. All rights reserved. She is an urban beekeeper who has made a niche for herself as an urban bee enthusiast with mad skills for marketing her micro-apiary honey comb, conducting apiary tours and classes for aspiring urban beekeepers in her area. She will be joining our list of contributors to share urban beekeeping information- from how to find bee yards, to CALL FOR PHOTOS working with restaurants and public schools. Want to see your bee-related photo on the cover of this In next month’s issue, I will feature the beekeepers I met as I share newsletter? Send photos to the wonders of Moroccan beekeeping with all you avid readers! Mr. [email protected] El Khazerri and his family did a wonderful job in organizing our trip. Kelley Beekeeping • Issue 72: August 2016 2 Queen’s Court cont'd Each day was planned with apiary visits and site seeing, and of course, all around the fabulous sumptuous feasts of sweet and savory delicacies of their multi-cultural landscape. I’ve never taken time off in the summer from my farm duties so this was a first and well worth it. I hope to return and to work with some of the beekeepers and the universities there to help develop a species conservation program for Bab el-Mrisa Gate, Sale, Morocco their unique strains of honeybees; which include Apis Mellifera Mellifera (the local black bee, also present in Spain, France and the Iberian Peninsula), Apis Mellifera Sahariensis , Apis Mellifera Linnaeus (from Libya), and Buckfast lines. The bees were all so gentle, something that I had not anticipated being that it is northern Africa. But, unlike the Apis Mellifera Scutellata (Africanized bees) from South Africa, this northern territory hosts a myriad of bee species that are able to tolerate extreme heat while remaining gentle and productive. But I’ll save more of that for next month’s issue. What I want to share this issue is that it is time to prepare for fall and winter! Some parts of the U.S.A. are experiencing menacing floods while others are bracing through drought. The diversity of our expansive country is hard to wrap one’s noggin around; but all the more interesting as we learn what our neighbors are dealing with and how we can learn from others to adapt and be proactive in our hive management plans. Kelley Beekeeping has beaucoup (lots!) of tools and services to help you along. Whether you are needing a new extractor to harvest all that golden and amber sweetness, or needing overwintering wraps and fall supplements, Kelley Beekepping has what you need when you need it. You can view their full catalog online and even make purchases online by visiting www.kelleybees.com. As the cover shares, Kelley Beekeeping will be holding their Grand Ribbon Cutting for their new facility this September 23, 2016! Mark your calendars and come share the joy! A new building signifies that Kelley Beekeeping is investing in the here and now, AND the future. By anticipating the needs of their patrons—you and your bees—they are prepared to assist you in your beekeeping journey. And we all wish you a very long and enlightening journey with your bees! Melanie Kirby has been keeping bees professionally for over 20 Whistle while you work, years. She specializes in longevity-based queen breeding and serves as an international consultant on sustainable beekeeping Melanie concepts and practices. She was recently appointed to the American Honeybee Germplasm Repository Program board, which is a new national committee dedicated to preserving and sharing honeybee stock. She can be reached at [email protected] Kelley Beekeeping • Issue 72: August 2016 3 Bee Natural Canvas Jacket 100 % Natural Cotton Canvas Jacket with hooded veil. Features include : Upper Left chest pocket w/velcro closure, Lower right utility pocket. Premium YKK Brass zippers, Elastic around the wrists, and waist, and thumb strap. Size small to 3X $57.95 Size 4X-5X $63.95 Bee Natural Canvas Pants 100 % Natural Cotton Canvas Pants. Features include 2 large pockets with brass zipper closure, 2 hive tool pockets, brass zipper closure at Sturdy Non Shrink ankles, and elastic waist and ankles. Size small (30-34 waist), medium (34-38 waist)and large (40-44 waist) $21.95 1-800-233-2899 www.kelleybees.com If you have a question you would like to share, email it to [email protected] A•Bee•Cs Beginning Beekeeping by Dennis Brown Hi Dennis, Thanks for always being available to help us new-bees. I checked my weak hive Sunday and I don’t know what’s going on. It appears they are not drawing out new combs on the foundation. All the sugar syrup is going into any available cell in the brood nest in a random pattern, not just in the honey arch. There is plenty of capped brood and I see some grubs too. I found the queen on a honey frame just walking around aimlessly. I know she’s laying but I wonder if she’s run out of brood cells. Does it make sense to put a fully drawn frame from my big hive into the middle of the brood nest to give her some more space? Why wouldn’t they draw out new frames? There is plenty of pollen coming in and I’m still feeding this hive. Everything else looks normal. Cindy P I’m definitely thinking of splitting my big hive. I re-read your chapter on splits (Beekeeping: A Personal Journey.) and I think I’d like to have at least one more hive before spring. While I’m pulling out frames for the splits, should I use any of them to help the weak hive? I remember you said something about rotating them out. Hello Cindy, Are there any cells filled with sugar water between the brood cells? How many frames of bees are there in the hive? Do you see any eggs in any of the cells? How many boxes does the hive consist of? Response: It's a standard ten frame brood box with four nuc frames. At least two new frames were drawn out but that's where they stopped. Two more might have the tops drawn out but only on one side. So there are six frames of bees and some leftovers. Sugar water is in every available free cell, including in the brood cells. I can't see eggs but plenty of grubs and lots of capped brood. Cindy, it appears that your original nuc came with a bad queen. If it were me, I would order one queen, make your split on the strong hive then get rid of the weak hives queen. (Destroy any queen cells that may be present.) Then I would combine (unite) the weak hive between the two splits using the newspaper method. This is assuming that there are no diseases in any of the hives. You will still have only two hives, but they should be able to get strong before winter gets here. (July now) You will have two strong hives going into the spring. Make splits again next year to increase hive numbers. I hope this helps. Enjoy your bees! Dennis Brown is the author of “Beekeeping: A Personal Journey” and “Beekeeping: Questions and Answers." Dennis Brown Contact Dennis at www.lonestarfarms.net.