!! !! !Vol 4 Iss 9 THE HONEYBEE TIMES...cal symptoms of bee diseases and pests and their life cycle...
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GREATER CLEVELAND BEEKEEPERS ASSOCIATION Vol 4 Iss 9 1 THE HONEYBEE TIMES HOW’S THIS FOR BEARDING? A few questions to ask: What’s in the feeder? Better not be syrup for you never feed your bees when the supers are on! But water ....not a bad idea - nice way to keep them out of your neighbors yard when for- aging for water. With this many bees, and wow that’s a lot of bees, why didn’t they just add another honey super? What questions might you have? Bring them to the next weeks meeting.
Transcript of !! !! !Vol 4 Iss 9 THE HONEYBEE TIMES...cal symptoms of bee diseases and pests and their life cycle...
! ! GREATER CLEVELAND BEEKEEPERS ASSOCIATION!! ! Vol 4 Iss 9
1
T H E H O N E Y B E E T I M E SHOW’S THIS FOR BEARDING?
A few questions to ask:! What’s in the feeder? Better not be syrup for you never feed your bees when the supers are on! But water....not a bad idea - nice way to keep them out of your neighbors yard when for-aging for water.! With this many bees, and wow that’s a lot of bees, why didn’t they just add another honey super? What questions might you have? Bring them to the next weeks meeting.
! ! GREATER CLEVELAND BEEKEEPERS ASSOCIATION!! ! Vol 4 Iss 9
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Septembers Meeting - 7 pm on September 11th at the Nature Center
Bring your concerns and questions about beekeeping and ask them to the panel of long time beekeepers:
Walt Jorgensen, Bonnie Pierson and Kurt Ward. They’ve been keeping bees longer than any of us have known about this wonderful hobby!
Honey Extracting and Urban Beekeeping Ah the smell of honey all through out the house! And the bees hovering around the windows that you’ve forgotten to shut before you began extracting!
It’s a wonderful experience but after it’s all done, how do you clean the empty supers?
Some leave them out in the yard for the bees to finish emptying. Often times that causes such a frenzy of bees that if a neighbor were to look over into your yard they would immediately be-come concerned. not knowing what’s happening.
As an Urban Beekeeper who lives in close proximity to your neighbors, being considerate while caring for your bees becomes a top priority. While leaving your supers out for the bees to clean as well as the extractor may be effective it does cause a frenzy. For the untrained eye it can be quiet alarming!
If you have multiple hives, it could stimulate a “robbing” frenzy - where they seek out even more food stores within the weaker hives.
Another option would be to simply place the honey supers back to where they came, quietly closing up the hive and letting each hive do their job of cleaning the supers and storing the food closer to the brood for winter prep. Leave them on only for a few days then remove them for winter storage.
Don’t be surprised if you don’t see a peep out of your hive while they are busy cleaning the honey supers, after all.....you’ve given them one heck of a party to finish off !
Clean supers, quiet happy bees!
! ! GREATER CLEVELAND BEEKEEPERS ASSOCIATION!! ! Vol 4 Iss 9
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Nosema is both the name of a condition and the organism which causes it. In the U.S. we have two species, Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae.
~Both species are a unicellular fungus which resides in the gut of the bee~The parasite has a polar tube that penetrates cells of the bee~Injects the necessary elements for reproduction into the cell. ~Inside the cell of the bee’s gut, Nosema reproduces by forming spores~Spores are passed within the bee’s waste~Nosema apis is most problematic in the winter and spring~Bees will begin to expel waste in the hive and on the outside~Brown spotting on the outside of the hive will appear~Nosema ceranae can affect a hive at any time of the year~Can cause rapid colony decline~No Symptoms will be present
In brief, Nosema is bee diarrhea so bad that they can no longer take in the nutrients they need to survive. We go to the hospital when we are this sick, they just die and spread the disease through their waste to other hive members. Fall feeding is the time to consider protection against this fungus.
Dr. Marla Spivak, Apiculture and Social Insect Professor at UMN, promotes a 4-Step Program to keep bees healthy. These four steps include: 1) Knowledge - know the clini-cal symptoms of bee diseases and pests and their life cycle as they relate to honey bees, 2) Prevention - how can YOU, the beekeeper, take control in areas where you can thwart pest and disease transmission (i.e., replace combs, locate colonies in remote areas, feed bees well in times of dearth), 3) Prevention - what can BEES themselves do on their own to limit pest and disease transmission (use bees selected for resistant traits), and 4) Con-trol - use chemical controls only as a last resort.
Nosema ceranae-a cold weather disease, evidenced by the symptom of dysentery a cold weather disease, evi-denced by the symptom of dysentery. An infection by N.apis is generally with-out symptoms—the older bees simply “disappear.”
! ! GREATER CLEVELAND BEEKEEPERS ASSOCIATION!! ! Vol 4 Iss 9
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GCBA SCHEDULEAugust - Wednesday 08/14/20127:00 pm - Fall Feeding and strengthening your hive for winter. Best Practices in preparing your colony for the upcoming winter challenges. 7:30 – 8:30 – Julia Fine will present her research at Penn State University
September - Wednesday 09/11/20137:00 pm – Marketing your hive products followed by Apiculture Panel Discussion and Open Q & A. Wal-ter Jorgenson, Kurt Ward and Bonnie Pierson will lead the Apiculture Panel Discussion
October - Wednesday 10/9/20137:00 pm - Current Honey bee Research and Best Practices – Reed Johnson, PhD - The Ohio State Uni-versity (OARDC Wooster)
November - Wednesday 11/13/20137:00 pm – The November meeting will include a presentation on making “MEAD”. 2014 Officer Candi-dacy and Nominations open to the membership.
December - Wednesday 12/12/20127:00 pm - Annual Potluck & Elections
Preventative treatment for Nosema is your choice. There is quite a bit of debate out there as to the necessity and also the techniques on treatment for nosema - in feeders, trenching them, etc.
Products such as: Nozevit, Medivet (Fumagilan) and Vita Green are out there. As a bee-keeper you must do your research on the products and decide for yourself and your bees if this is something that matches your beekeeping style. But fall feeding is the time to do it if you choose to do it. Now is the time to research and make up your mind!
Personally I feel nutrition is the answer to all of our pollinators problems. If we make sure that our bees have enough food within their hives BEFORE we take our fall har-vest, if when we feed we feed nutritionally by adding supplements such as Honey B Healthy, Pro-Health, Optima etc. (there are many others) and if we ask our neighbors to limit their use of pesticides until after our bees have gone to bed...then maybe...one small yard at a time we can provide them a safer environment in which to thrive.Bee well,Barbara Krecic
Meet your new newsletter editor and welcome him~ GEORGE SCHERMAGeorge and his Queen Bee Ann live in Westlake and have been raising bees for a little over a year. They are empty-hivers with two adult daughters. George is in technical sales and Ann is a dental hygienist. George is looking forward to being the editor because he's always surf-ing the web and being a newbee, he says he seems to find interesting stuff he thinks other will enjoy. When asked what he hopes to get out of his new editorial job, he said, "Feed-back" (Be careful what you wish for!) If you have feedback or suggestions for future issues, George can be reached at [email protected]
