May 2017

President’s Buzzby Ed Moyers

Spring’s in full swing. Things seem to blooming a little earlier than usual, but a few days of cooler weather here and there seem to have slowed things down to the point that the actual bloom cycle is approximating the “typi-cal” bloom cycle that we would expect. The nectar flow has been good. For the past month, I’ve been adding a super every week to my strongest hive. Others, not so strong, because they are recovering from swarming, have been producing honey, but not nearly at the rate that I would hope for. And then there are the hives I fully expected to produce honey this year that aren’t. With one exception, all have failed because they swarmed, and sometimes swarmed more than once. That has resulted in a lot of lost honey production, which will result in significantly lower honey sales than we had hoped for.

So, when Mel Disselkoen started his seminar, last month, with the words, “I don’t allow my hives to swarm”, my ears perked up. I thought I had signed up for a queen rearing seminar, but it turned out to be much more. Mel’s system for queen rearing is really a system for overall hive manage-ment that addresses management of swarming and varroa mites.

May’s Meeting

May 18, 7 PMMouzon United Methodist

Church3100 Selwyn Avenue

Charlotte, NC

The speaker for this month is Martin Pruitt, who will be

talking about “Mead Making”

Refreshments will be provided by Bill Robson

Hope to see you there!

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He accomplishes this by challenging commonly accepted attitudes towards beekeeping and honey bees. During class, he noted that even though we know better, we still tend to treat the queen as though she is royalty, showing special deference to her. For many of us, that means we are reluctant to dispatch a queen, especially one that young and a good performer. And yet, Mel creates not one, but two new queens for a hive during the course of a year. Doing so circumvents tendencies to swarm during the year, and interrupts the brood cycle, not just once, but twice.

President’s Buzz cont’d

Of course, I have not tried his techniques, yet, but I intend to, starting this summer. I intend to use his approach over the next couple of years to see if it achieves these goals: -Produce healthy queens and colonies -Eliminate swarming -Increase honey production -Reduce, and hopefully eliminate, chemical treatment for varroa mite control

If you missed the seminar, but would like to learn more, I suggest you visit his website: www.mdasplitter.com. His presentation largely followed the structure of his book. So, if you purchase a copy of his book, you will get the majority of the information he shared in the seminar.

The Power of VolunteersMeckBees is a 100% volunteer operated organization. No one is paid for what they do, and many folks willingly give dozens (and some even hundreds) of hours of their time to make MeckBees successful.

This was so obvious with the OTS Queen Rearing Seminar. While Andrew Thiessen must be given huge credit for contacting Mel, organizing the seminar, obtaining the space and making his own beeyard available for the hands-on portion of the seminar, there were many others who were involved. Included were folks like Kevin Freeman, who put together the website registration page and kept track of the registrations; Don Rierson, who handled the money; and George McAllister, who set up the AV equipment. But the best was what I saw, when I arrived an hour early to provide the AV equipment, and help set up, and found Andrew working with nearly a dozen Meck Bees, whom he had personally recruited, to help set up the facility. (Many of whom later cleaned it up, and put everything away). Even though these folks had all paid to attend the seminar, every one of them was willing to generously devote their time and energy to make the seminar a success. To each of you who helped, I want to say, “Thank you for your enthusiasm and welcoming spirit!”

The seminar was a great success, with 55 people in attendance! A number of folks were from outside Mecklenburg County. More than one of those out-of-town folks made a point of coming up to me after the seminar to thank us—MCBA—for hosting the seminar. They acknowledged that with us being a large group, we could do this better than most of their organizations, and encouraged us to consider doing these types of seminars again.

We are indeed a large local club. In fact, based on the number of members, we’re the largest local bee club in North Carolina. I hope we are able to rally together again as folks who care about bees and beekeeping, host more seminars that will help advance our beekeeping abilities, and open them up to beekeepers throughout our region. If you want to be more involved, please let me—or another club leader—know. The more folks who help, the more we can do for you and the community.

-Ed

2 May 2017

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3 May 2017

Herb’s HoneyCharlotte, NC

herbsbees@att.net

We recommend raw local honey from a local producer if available! If not, Herb’s Honey would like to provide you with all of your local honey needs. Our local honey is the best of 7 counties including Mecklenburg.

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CMC Monroe 600 Hospital Dr. Monroe, NC 28112“inside gift shop”

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4May 2017

Mel Disselkoen: What I learnedby Andrew Thiessen

First, for those of you who attended Mel Disselkoen’s OTS Queen Rearing Seminar, wasn’t it great! For those of you who chose to skip it, boy, did you miss out!!! I hope you get to attend the next event we put together.

I learned so many things from Mel Disselkoen! First, I learned that his OTS Queen Rearing System, would be more aptly named OTS Queen Rearing and Bee Management System. Mel covered sooo much more than simply queen rearing. His system presents a counter-culture way of thinking about keeping bees. During the day with Disselkoen I heard him ask, “Why do you do that?” over and over. More than anything, he asked us all to think deeply about the choices we make concerning our bees and look at our choices from “360 degrees” before deciding what action to take.

For instance, he asked us to think about why folks keep treating bees when after more than 25 years of treatment practices, Americans are experiencing higher loss rates every year. Clearly, that is a broken system which is largely fueled by fear-based marketing. How else would the chemical companies convince so many beekeepers to keep buying products that the numbers suggest are not only ineffective, but continue to become less effective every year???

Mel has very strong feelings about not allowing bees to swarm. He’s completely baffled by beekeepers who would work so hard to raise their colonies, keep them alive all season & through the winter, only to allow themto fly away in the spring. Disselkoen said he absolutely does not allow swarming. Ever. Period. He taught us all that we can take control of our hives and direct our bees to do what we want & need them to do, not react to & lament their decisions.

I have to tell you, his insight was eye-opening and made me change the way I keep my bees. I’ve already increased three hives that showed signs of over-crowding into nine…including the hive on which he demonstrated his “notching” technique. Before his seminar I would have lost these hives to swarming. And this is the basis of Mel’s system. His main idea is that we should never fret over winter losses because we can easily out-produce winter losses through simply splitting hives that want to swarm. Once you learn how easy it is to produce new hives through his OTS system, you’ll very quickly have more bees than you’ll ever lose over even the worst winter!

I, like many beekeepers am a “Numbers Guy.” So, here are my own numbers from attending our Mel Disselkoen seminar. Class tuition: $20, book: $70, three nucs created valued at $150ea, six single deep hives created valued at $325ea. Spent: $90; Gross Gain: $2,400; Net Gain: $2,310.

5May 2017

What I Learned cont’d

“Now wait a minute!” you may say. What about the three hives I started with? Certainly, they had value that I didn’t include. Sure. One could argue that double deep hives are valued at ~$500ea, and I sacrificed that. EXCEPT, those three hives had advanced swarm cells in them, one even had capped queen cells. They would have swarmed and shrunk to single deep hives…if I was lucky. But, I’ll be generous and give you the full value of them at double deeps. Totalspent (both directly & indirectly): $1,590; Gross gain: $2,400. Net gain: $810.

Any way you slice it, I gained at least $800 by implementing the education I gleaned by attending our MeckBees Mel Disselkoen event! I hope this gives everyone food for thought, and convinces you all to attend the next event we host.

OTS Notes and a Funny Springby Andrew Thiessen

OTS NotesMel Disselkoen’s whole system timing is based on his location in Michigan. Of course, our own timing here in Charlotte is different—on a few different levels. Mel basically does two rounds of queen rearing: May 1 and July 1. But, in my own experience with his system, neither of those dates are perfect for us.

The main thing is to look for the key signs your hive is ready to start rearing queens: 1) Adult drones; and 2) At least six frames of brood, regardless of what time of year it may be. Here in Charlotte, NC our winters vary wildly from year to year. I've started my first round of queen rearing as early as late-January and as late as mid-April, depending on how cold or warm the winter has been. This year my hives were ready the first week of March, though I didn't start queen rearing until March 25...because I wasn't ready as early as they were!

It's really a floating date here due to our inconsistent winters. The key is to be hands-on with your bees and monitor to see how they're progressing as they come out of winter and plan accordingly. Also, note that you don’t have to start the second your bees show they’re ready. That’s just the earliest you can start. Once they’re ready, you can rear queens any time you are ready.

6 May 2017

7 May 2017

A Funny Spring cont’d

Mel starts the minute his bees are ready because as he said, he does not tolerate swarming. Ever. Period. The only way to 100% prevent swarming is to watch your bees like a hawk and split them the instant they start building up. And then stay on top of them throughout the season, splitting them the second you see signs they’re building back up.

Know that you’ll do this at the expense of a honey crop, unless you re-combine at the right time. That works perfectly for Mel because he has no desire to fool around with honey. He sells bees for a living, nothoney! If you want honey, you’ll have to experiment with when to combine your splits back together to make a huge “Honey Bomb” hive. (I’ve done this and it’s a lot of fun!)

Finally, Mel also talks about making July 1 starts to control Varroa mites, which is difficult here in Charlotte because that's the beginning of our nectar dearth. My experience is that bees are very reluctant to make new queens when there is no natural food available...even with supplemental feeding. Again, you’ll have to play around with that to see how it works for you.

Funny SpringThis year has been a funny spring so far. Like I said above, I saw bees building up and swarming the first week of March. At that time, I was getting daily swarm and structural removal calls…some days 3-4 calls! That lasted about 2 weeks. Now they’ve been in a “holding pattern” for a little while. In the past three weeks, I’ve only had four swarm calls.

I made mating nucs with virgin queens on April 6 (March 25 grafting date). Hives were going like gang busters right up until about that point. I had a 90% success rate with that first round of queen mating, and transferred the bees from 4-frame mating hives into 8-frame single deeps on April 24.

I went through those hives and marked queens yesterday (May 4), expecting to add a second deep to each hive. Only about 30% of those hives are building up any at all. My notes show 40% “need bees” with bees covering only 2-3 frames, even though they have laying queens. I’ll give them each a frame of capped brood covered with nurse bees today to boost them. I’m very curious to see how they build up from there.

Checking my bees at Lake Lure, NC on Tuesday, May 2 I was surprised to see they’re chock-full of bees. I’m talking all hives ranged from 15-19 frames of brood and they’re boiling over with bees! I split three hives in half up there that had capped queen cells on April 11, and they’re all back to full of bees—even the halves with newly mated queens! But there isn’t any honey coming in on any of the hives. Could be up there they’re just a little behind our nectar flow here in Charlotte. But it could be this funny spring!

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What’s Blooming in May: Clover by Matt Burgoon

Common Name: Dutch White Clover, Red Clover, White Sweet Clover Botanical Name: Trifolium repens, Trifolium pratense, Melilotus alba Plant Type: Perennial herb Typical Bloom Period: March-July Nectar Usefulness: highPollen Usefulness: medium

For many folks, the first time eating a plant found in the wildis an important memory. It may be the flowers of a redbud or a twig of sassafras. I remember distinctly the first time I pulled out a tiny bunch of flowers from a Trifolium pratense and sipped the back. That moment of sweetness began a habitof seeking out red clover blooms and of exploring our wild flora by taste.

In a largely urbanized county like Mecklenburg, a plant which can fit in the “space between” sidewalks, streets, curbs, and even individual paving stones is likely to be successful, as is a plant which keeps its foliage below the height of a mower yet can raise up an flower head to attract a pollinator and go to seed in the time between mowings. Enter two clovers: Trifolium repens, “Dutch white clover”, and T. pratense, “red clover” which have flourished in even our most inhospitable patches. Also bloom-ing in May, though at heights reaching eight feet, consider Melilotus alba, “white sweet clover.” These are mem-bers of the taxonomic family Fabaceae, the legumes. Redbuds and vetches are also legumes, as is kudzu.

T. repens reproduces vegetatively by sending roots down from creeping stems called “stolons”, and also produces sexually by sending up flowers. The globose – think of a globe – heads of flowers form indeterminately, which means that the outermost flowers bloom first and new flowers develop from the center. Sometimes you might see a head of clover with fresh white blooms in the center and some browning petals drooping along the outside. The latter have been pollinated. A patch of bright white heads without much brown indicates a want of pollination.Clovers are mostly self-incompatible, which means that they need our bees to spread pollen from plant to plant.

The individual flowers on a head of clover have a long tube-like petal structure, called the corolla, with nectar at the bottom and the reproductive parts sticking up through the middle. Since the 1960s, studies have documented correlation between corolla depth of flowers and proboscis (tongue) length of pollinators. Generally, pollinators prefer flowers with nectar tubes that roughly match their tongue length. Various studies cite mechanical efficien-cy, advantage among pollinators competing for forage and also among flowers competing for pollination. Our honey bees have tongues which can reach into a corolla to a depth of about 7mm (9/32 in). They are just right to reach the nectar of Trifolium repens and Melilotus alba but not quite long enough to reach the nectar of a typical T. pratense. This is why you will often see honey bees working Dutch white clover, while you will see a bumble bee such as Bombus vagans working red clover. A carpenter bee, Xylocopa violacea, bypasses the limitation of a shorter tongue by biting through the corolla of a red clover to reach the nectar, a process called “nectar robbing.”

May 2017

Dutch white clover (Trifolium repens) featuring the EasternTailed Blue (Cupido comyntas) by Kim O’Shea

2017 MCBA OFFICERS

President: Ed Moyers (meckbeespres@gmail.com)

Vice President: Andrew Thiessen (meckbeevp@gmail.com)

Treasurer: Don Rierson (meckbeetreas@gmail.com)

Membership Secretary: Jodie Rierson (meckbeesec@gmail.com)

Chaplain: Don RiersonWebmaster: Kevin Freeman (meckbees@gmail.com)

Rachel.E.G.Woodhouse@gmail.com

9 May 2017

What’s Blooming cont’d

Children, and children-at-heart, sometimes commit “nectar robbing” by removing the entire corolla and sipping the nectar out backwards.Honey from the clovers is very light in color and flavor. Pollen pellets are greenish-brown. In Mecklenburg, we can look for clover to bloom from the beginning of March until the end of July, making it a very valuable forage source.

Online resources for further reading:

On bumblebees and their tongues: http://www.bumblebee.org

The following are rich sources of native plant information:

Flowers of the South, native and exotic. by Wilhelmina F Greene; H L Blomquist Publisher: Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, 2011, ©1953.

Manual of the vascular flora of the Carolinas. by Albert E Radford; Harry E Ahles; C Ritchie Bell Publisher: Chapel Hill, N.C. Univ. of North Carolina Press 1976, 1976

Information about nectar and pollen values are from:

Garden Plants for Honey Bees by Peter Lindtner; Publisher: Kalamazzoo : Wicwas Press, 2014.

In the Beeyardby David Segrest

May is the hardest month. There is nothing harder than going out on a beautiful day to watch your bees and just keeping your hands in your pockets. Leave the girls alone and just let them do their job. Every foray into the hive by the busy-body beekeeper messes thing up and the ladies have to spend their energy keeping house instead of making honey.

The foregoing statement assumes that the beekeeper wants honey. Some people would rather have bees. In that case this is the time to make splits or notch for queens or even graft for queens. All of these things require a strong colony and a nectar flow or the perception thereof.

Of course if you have several colonies you may want to do both. Leave a few colonies alone for production and mess around with the others to make more colonies. Some of us will go to the born and bred class on the 20th to learn grafting. Grafting requires a swarm box. This has nothing to do with swarming, it is just the name for it. My swarm box consist of 2 nucleus boxes. The bottom box has screened sides and a permanent bottom. The top box is normal but it has hooks to attach it securely to the bottom box. The swarm box should be populated about 24 hours before grafting so the bees have plenty of time to realize they are really and truly queenless. The box is populated by shaking the young bees off of several brood frames from other colonies. They need lots of food and pollen substitute regardless of what the environment is providing. The grafted cups will go into the top box in a special frame. They should be examined after 24 hours to make sure the bees have put some wax on them. If there is wax the bees are going to nurse the new queen candidates. At this point the top nucleus box with the queen frame is placed on a very strong colony with a special adapter board and a queen excluder. Continue to feed heavily. Once the cells are capped they need to be moved to “apartments” in queen castles or an incubator. Some people put little cages around them so the queen is trapped when she emerges. The first queen out may well kill the rest of the queens if she has access to them.

This is a very sketchy overview of queen rearing. If you really want to do the grafting thing take the born and bred class. Before that read GM Doolittle,s book “Scientific Queen Rearing” and/or Dr. Lawrence Connor”s “Queen Rearing Essentials”

You may prefer to enjoy keeping your hands in your pockets.

10 May 2017

May 201711

NPR's Bees (Moderate, Middle Of The Road Bees) Up And Left

A swarm of potential stingers were unleashed on Washington, D.C. this week. This is not a political statement.A swarm of bees from one of the two hives atop NPR headquarters buzzed over the streets as they followed their queen out of their hive to some new location, which is unknown at this time. Queen bees apparently get restless and strike out on their own, like teenagers, followed by a swarm.

Jonathan Durant, the building's director of facilities management, alerted NPR staff not to leave the building on the side of the street where the bees flapped and droned. So of course, a small swarm of reporters, editors and produc-ers rushed out into that street to look for the bees. People don't get into the news business to avoid getting stung. No bee stings were reported. This will no doubt discourage some of NPR's critics, and even some people in the build-ing...

For the complete story, written by Scott Simon of NPR, visit:

http://www.npr.org/2017/05/06/527089542/nprs-bees-moderate-middle-of-the-road-bees-up-and-left

May 2017

Mecklenburg County Beekeepers Association 2017 Dues Form

(Please print clearly)

Today's Date____________________ Please circle one: County Association $5 I am: New Renewing N/A State Association $15 I am: New Renewing N/A Total Paid: ______ **If renewing, Member ID #_________________ *First Name:____________________________________*Last name:____________________________________________ *Address:_________________________________________________________________________________________________ *City:_____________________________________________*State:____________*Zip code:_________________________ Phone:__________________________ *Email:_________________________________________________________________ County of residence:___________________ Send Newsletter via: ______ Email (thanks!)______Paper How long have you kept bees?___________(yrs) Number of hives__________ Would you like to become more involved with the Club? Yes / No *This information (name, mailing address, email address) will be provided to all members of the Mecklenburg Beekeepers (and to members ONLY- no one else will receive this information from us). If you DO NOT want this information shared, please opt out by initialing here. _____________ Questions for State Membership only: Circle one: I want to receive the NCSBA quarterly Bee Buzz newsletter by: Email Postal mail Don't want it I want to receive notices of bee-related EDUCATIONAL opportunities by email: Yes No I want to receive bee/beekeeping related SOLICITATION emails: Yes No The "Yellow Book" membership directory is mailed to active members annually as a printed copy. It is not available electronically. If you DO NOT want to receive a hard copy of the Yellow Book, please initial here_________ Make check payable to MCBA and mail completed form to: Jodie Rierson MCBA Secretary 7032 Chapparall Lane Charlotte, NC 28215

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