buzzwords - Barnstable County Beekeepers …...grass and adding rain water. From all appearances,...
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buzzwords http://www.barnstablebeekeepers.org June 2019 Upcoming Meetings 7:30 pm at the West Barnstable Community Building on Route 149. And keep those snacks and nibbles coming!! We can always use help setting up and assitance with bringing noms and noshes. Coffee is provided. Please avail yourself of it. If you would prefer just hot water to add instant coffee or for tea, please let us know at the meeting. Tuesday, June 11 Kim Skyrm, Ph. D. Our Chief state apiary inspector, Kim Skyrm-, PhD will be with us to speak on varroa, the how to’s and why nots around the state. From the Board Happy Father’s Day to all you Dads and Drones, Thinking of fathers this time of the year often brings images of cards and ties and maybe a good bottle of single malt. But when we think of bee dads our first thought might be, “Oh, right, scrape the drone comb”. So this month let’s give a shout out to our honeybee drones. Hive Openings Saturday, June 8th, 9 am – Barnstable, Brewster, Wellfleet 10 am – Falmouth All members are welcome to attend any of the locations. Please remember this is a hands-on event and protective equipment is required. We will be opening and evaluating over wintered hives. For the new folks, all stages of brood will be available and how best to evaluate a brood pattern. Tick season is upon us - so dress appropriately! Barnstable – Cape Cod Organic Farm, 3675 Route 6A Proceed to the top of the hill and bear right in front of the office buildings Head toward the big barn watching for “BEE” signs. (Lynn and Claire) Brewster – Cape Cod Museum of Natural History 869 Route 6A Park in lot across from the museum. (George Muhlebach and many, many more!) East Falmouth – Soares Nursery, 1021 Sandwich Road, Hatchville One-half mile from the intersection of Route 151 and Sandwich Road. Drive between two greenhouses and park behind, not in the customer lot. (Marte Ayers). Wellfleet – Narrowland Farms, 60 Narroland Road Take Route 6 in Wellfleet, past all the turnoffs for Wellfleet center/Harbor. Opposite Moby Dick Restaurant, tun right on Gull Road. Travel one half mile, take left onto Chris Drive, bear right at top of hill onto Mayblower Drive. About 200 meters at bottom of hill take right onto dirt/gravel road (John Portnoy)
Transcript of buzzwords - Barnstable County Beekeepers …...grass and adding rain water. From all appearances,...
buzzwordshttp://www.barnstablebeekeepers.org
June 2019
Upcoming Meetings
7:30 pm at the West Barnstable Community Building on Route 149.
And keep those snacks and nibbles coming!! We can always use help setting up and assitance with bringing noms and noshes. Coffee is provided. Please avail yourself of it. If you would prefer just hot water to add instant coffee or for tea, please let us know at the meeting.
Tuesday, June 11 Kim Skyrm, Ph. D.
Our Chief state apiary inspector, Kim Skyrm-, PhD will be with us to speak on varroa, the how to’s and why nots around the state.
From the Board
Happy Father’s Day to all you Dads and Drones,
Thinking of fathers this time of the year often brings images of cards and ties and maybe a good bottle of single malt. But when we think of bee dads our first thought might be, “Oh, right, scrape the drone comb”. So this month let’s give a shout out to our honeybee drones.
Hive Openings
Saturday, June 8th, 9 am – Barnstable, Brewster, Wellfleet 10 am – Falmouth
All members are welcome to attend any of the locations. Please remember this is a hands-on event and protective equipment is required. We will be opening and evaluating over wintered hives. For the new folks, all stages of brood will be available and how best to evaluate a brood pattern.
Tick season is upon us - so dress appropriately!
Barnstable –
Cape Cod Organic Farm, 3675 Route 6A
Proceed to the top of the hill and bear right in front of the office buildings
Head toward the big barn watching for “BEE” signs. (Lynn and Claire)
Brewster –
Cape Cod Museum of Natural History 869 Route 6A
Park in lot across from the museum.
(George Muhlebach and many, many more!)
East Falmouth –
Soares Nursery, 1021 Sandwich Road, Hatchville
One-half mile from the intersection of Route 151 and Sandwich Road. Drive between two greenhouses and park behind, not in the customer lot. (Marte Ayers).
Wellfleet –
Narrowland Farms, 60 Narroland Road
Take Route 6 in Wellfleet, past all the turnoffs for Wellfleet center/Harbor. Opposite Moby Dick Restaurant, tun right on Gull Road. Travel one half mile, take left onto Chris Drive, bear right at top of hill onto Mayblower Drive. About 200 meters at bottom of hill take right onto dirt/gravel road (John Portnoy)
Check out the BCBA Facebook page for shared links, photos, and questions/answers! Join the conversation!https://www.facebook.com/groups/BarnstableCountyBeeA/
Forage
Amazing New Technology On The Horizon Soon, you may not need to open your hive that often but just listen to an app on your cell.
In “Thoughts on Drones”, Ross Conrad writes, “… the humble drone is to the hive as the tail is to certain salamanders that can make their tails fall off when in the clutches of a predator, allowing them to scramble off to safety and regenerate a new tail over time”. He continues, “the drone should not be overlooked in its importance in helping to increase a colony’s resilience in the face of adversity since the male honey bee may not only choose to end its life in sacrifice through mating, but may potentially be sacrificed by his sisters from the beginning of his existence as well”.
In the hive, drone brood is located around the outer edges of the brood nest, insulating the worker brood against temperature fluctuations. This unfertilized brood also serves as an emergency food source and is the first to be cannibalized by workers to conserve and recycle protein. Thus, in addition to providing mates for new queens during swarm season, the colony raises drones to improve the colony’s chances of survival. When allowed to build comb naturally, without foundation embossed with worker sized cells, the colony dedicates up to 30% of its comb to drone cells, about half in the brood rearing area.
Yes, we also use brood comb to attract and remove Varroa mites. Conrad suggests that in addition to these frames we also position damaged frames, likely to be repaired with drone cells, on the outer edges of the brood nest. This not only accommodates the colony’s urge to produce eggs and larva as a buffer against times of stress but, by protecting the worker brood, also conserves the sperm stored by the queen during her mating flight.
Once the drones emerge, daily flights to the drone congregation area begin. Competition insures that only our strongest, fastest flyers mate with queens from neighboring hives. Conversely, unless we buy a mated queen, whenever we make a split, requeen or supercede, our neighbors’ drones will be our hive’s bee dads. Research has shown that while strong drones enhance our hives’ genetic diversity, those from an infected hive can spread disease to our queens and their offspring. Yet another reason we are at the mercy of our neighbors’ good beekeeping practices.
As the season draws to a close, “women and children first” is the rule and drones are evicted. Their final contribution to the colony’s survival is to leave stored resources for the worker bees as they face into winter’s approaching storms.
Yes, as Conrad tells us, “There is more to the male honey bee than we tend to give him credit for.” If you’d like to read Ross Conrad’s full article, I can send you a pdf by email. Sadly, the original is no longer available from Bee Culture or from the author. Thanks to Marte Ayres, I found this article in a past issue she left for our Bee School class.
If you would like to talk with your beekeeping neighbors about drones, mites, hives and queens, sign up for a BCBA Neighborhood Group. We’ll have the hive-locator zip-code map at the June meeting with sign-up sheets.
Mary Anne Mann
Watering the Bees
I’ve tried for years to provide my bees with water, but never got any takers. I chalked it up to stiff competition from nearby natural sources - the cedar swamp down the hill and the town reservoir a quick
zip away. Then recently I stumbled on a watering method that brings them by the dozen. Last fall I left a pile of eel grass in a bucket and forgot about it. When I went to grab a handful of the soggy stuff for mulch this spring, I surprised a bunch of bees (not to mention myself). I needed the bucket, so I re-purposed a miniature pond (previously used to raise tadpoles) by filling it with eel
The watering crewThe repurposed toad pond
grass and adding rain water. From all appearances, the bees love it, and I’m hoping the mosquito larvae won’t. Rinse the eel grass first - they’ll like it better.
Anne Richards
Mass Bee Field Day
Attached is the state newsletter for the summer and it features the annual Field Day held in Amherst at the state apiary. It is a great hands-on day long event for those wanting to gather more knowledge on the management of their hives.
Consider heading to Amherst on Saturday, June 15th!
Mass Bee
Backyard Bees
The following list of resources was provided by our enthusiastic May speaker, Mary Beers:
Resources:
The Bees in Your Backyard: A Guide to North America’s Bees By Joseph S. Wilson & Olivia J. Messinger Carril Princeton University Press, 2015
This is a wonderful introduction to North America’s over 4000 native bee species. The title page’s photos communicate at once the great diversity of our bee fauna.
American Insects: A Handbook of the Insects of America North of Mexico Second Edition by Ross H. Arnett CRC Press, 2000
Want a mind blowing experience? Check out the following website list of over 3500 of the U.S.A. Bees
https://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?guide=Apoidea_species&flags=HAS:&xml=Apoidea_species;Calliopsis https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/Plant_Strategies/index.shtml http://www.nativebeesofnewengland.com/bee-diversity.html
Mary Beers
Varroa !!!!!
Again, if you missed the earlier announcement, attached are some easy instructions for your monthly alcohol or sugar shakes to determine the varroa counts in your hives.
For those using cellphones to get through the day, search for the “Mite check” app in the app store. It is pretty easy to follow and even includes a timer!!
Claire Desilets
FOUR GOLDEN RULES OF BEEKEEPING
While searching through a bee book a few weeks ago, a note card fell out. On it was a hand written note. I am not sure of the author but it could be Tom Seeley, PhD. It is a good reminder each time we go into our hives as to what we should be looking for or considering for future management. Written were the four golden rules of beekeeping and they are:1. Nutritional management – is there plenty of stored pollen and honey or nectar
ClassifiedNothing this month, but keep an eye on this space for great opportunities for inexpensive equipment!
Ed Hegner and his son Donovan when we manned the BCBA table at the Dennis Conservation Information Fair on April 27. That was a cold one! Photo: Lisa Sheehy
2. Pest and disease surveillance – do the open larva look pearly white and capped larva smooth with no chewed open cells, no deformed wings on workers and but a few small hive beetles running around?
3. Regular requeening -what is the age of your queen in your notes? Brood pattern good with few drone cells?4. System of comb replacement -labeled or painted with queen color code so frames can be replaced every 3 to 4 years?
Claire Desilets
New Bee Grad June Duties5. FEED goal is to get all the foundation drawn out into cells.6. MONITOR – watch brood for solid capped pattern and all stages of brood7. VARROA - if not done, do a sugar shake for mite count8. MOW - keep area in front of and around the hive well mowed9. ENTRANCE - with strong hives, remove entrance reducer and add mouse guard10. BROOD BOX – when top box 80+% capped and covered with bees, add honey shallow11. QUEEN EXCLUDER = DO NOT USE WITH NEW WAX!!!!!!!!!!12. WATER -- never let your water source dry up13. FAIR - sign up for a shift at the bee building, you will really enjoy it!!
Claire Desilets
Beeing Curious
The others are a couple of snaps of my friend’s grandson, Jackson, who is five. The suit was a bit big (understatement of the year), but he had a great time and was not the least bit afraid!
Lisa Sheehy
AND FOR THOSE WITH OVERWINTERED HIVES?
Most overwintered hives have settled in nicely now that the weather has warmed a bit. With a good brood pattern and ample stores, honey shallows have been added. This does create a bit more work as each hive has drone comb that will require harvesting every 3 to 4 weeks. Good notes are a great help to stay ahead of this. When scraping this drone sink, the pupa will be skewered looking for varroa. To date the counts have been ZERO, but that cannot hold for long. If none found, an alcohol wash will be done.
With black locust soon to bloom and linden to follow, it is a perfect time to make that nucleus colony or split you have been contemplating. Queen cells and virgin queens from local stock will be available soon. Our hive openings this month will feature splitting and stay tuned for announcements regarding the availability of local queens. DO NOT MAKE THE SPLIT until you have confirmation that queens are
available.
Swarm season is in full swing so stay ahead of those bees by adding equipment ahead of the need!!
Claire Desilets
RESOURCES
The following officers and directors are a great resource to answer questions and requests for assistance.
Officers
President Michael D. Smith [email protected]
Vice President Maria Cashdollar [email protected]
Corresponding Secretary Claire Desilets [email protected]
Recording Secretary Deborah Carmel [email protected]
Treasurer Lynn Heslinga [email protected]
Directors
Marthe Ayers [email protected] Louise Hopper [email protected]
Phyllis Bayer [email protected] Mary Anne Mann [email protected]
John Beach [email protected] Andy Morris [email protected]
Todd Cashdollar [email protected] Brian O’Donnell [email protected]
Jennifer Cattin [email protected] Lisa Sheehy [email protected]
Melissa Caughey [email protected] Donna Tompkins [email protected]
Peter B Cooper [email protected] Dave Whalley [email protected]
Olga DiSavino [email protected] Miguel Zamora [email protected]
Edward Hegner [email protected]
Recipies
Easy Honey Garlic Salmon
Prep Time 10 mins Cook Time 10 mins Total Time 20 mins
Easy Honey Garlic Salmon is a throw together recipe in one pan and a perfect sweet and savoury 5-ingredient garlicky sauce with a hint of lemon!
Ingredients• 4 wild caught salmon fillets about 1/2 pound or 250 grams
each, skin off or on• Salt and pepper, to season• 1/2 teaspoon paprika (mild, sweet or smokey)• 2 tablespoons butter• 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped or minced• 4 tablespoons honey• 1 tablespoon water• 2 teaspoons soy sauce• 1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice, (plus extra to
serve)• Lemon wedges to serve
Instructions1. Arrange oven shelf to the middle of your oven. Preheat
oven to broil/grill settings on medium heat. 2. Season salmon with salt, pepper and paprika. Set aside.3. Heat the butter in a skillet or pan over medium-high heat
until melted. Add the garlic and sauté for about a minute, until fragrant. Pour in the honey, water and soy sauce; allow the flavours to heat through and combine. Add in the lemon juice; stir well to combine all of the flavours together.
4. Add the salmon steaks to the sauce in the pan; cook each fillet (skin-side down if there’s any skin) for 3-4 minutes or until golden, while basting the tops with the pan juices. Season with salt and pepper, to taste (if desired).
5. Optional -- Add the lemon wedges around the salmon (adds a stronger lemon taste).
6. Baste salmon one more time then transfer the pan to your oven to broil / grill for a further 5-6 minutes, or until the tops of the salmon are nicely charred, and the salmon is cooked to your liking.
7. To serve, drizzle with the sauce and a squeeze of lemon juice. Serve with steamed vegetables; over rice or with a salad
Easy Quick and Delicious!
Margee Leonard
