Nansemond Beekeepers Association. Suffolk, Virginia

Transcription

1 Nansemond Buzzline Volume 1 Issue 6 Nansemond Beekeepers Association Suffolk, Virginia Meetings are held the 2nd Tuesday of each month, from 6:30 PM to 9 PM, in the Fellowship Hall of Oakland Christian Church, 5641 Godwin Blvd, Suffolk, VA From the President ED SCHWEIGER May 2014 Spring is finally here. The season that we are always waiting for, that which brings us our first honey flow. As we heard at last month s meeting the tulip poplars will be blooming on April 25 th and the nectar flow should last until June 1 st. Now will be the test to see if all of preparations of getting the supers ready over winter and hives ready earlier this spring will pay off, with a bountiful honey yield from the nectar flow. Just looking at the trees these past few weeks would validate that this past winter has not set them back. Patience will tell use if that is the case. We haven t gotten any calls yet for swarms, but an inspection of the hives and conversation within the club would suggest that the bees are preparing to swarm, if they haven t done so already. These early indicators of swarm cells should mean that the swarm calls will be coming in soon. Last month s meeting was another good one. The program that Sean did regarding splits was excellent and relevant, and the discussion regarding improvements to the by-laws was stimulating. It is always challenging for any essentially volunteer society to maintain the inertia to continue to grow while adhering to covenants that it sets out. The conversation was frank and poignant but had to be said. The NBA must be able to function in a timely manner. This requires that those committed to the promotion of the causes for the betterment of beekeeping within our area, to come out and participate for the benefit of all. A deeper read of Robert s Rules, as well as reviewing what our sister organizations use to govern the Quorum requirements suggests that a more relaxed approach is more appropriate. The board will present a more realistic expectation at the next general membership meeting. After an exhaustive effort on the part of the nomination committee they have come back with the recommendation that the incumbent members of the board be nominated for re-election, unopposed. To validate the selections, it is imperative that there be a quorum present at the May meeting for the election of the Board of Directors. All members are encouraged to attend and cast their vote. While I appreciate the confidence that the membership has indicated in the current board, it is not finalized until after the official vote. This is your club; it is important that your voice is heard. The most exciting part about the April meeting was the culmination of the silent auction for the artfully painted hive bodies. More than one member present commented that they were amazed how the art work came out. They truly are works of art. Though they started out as utilitarian wooden chambers for the housing of our beloved honey bees, the artistic transformation by those that participated in this event is evident; elsewhere in this newsletter is an article detailing everything. John has come up with a program for the May meeting that will appeal to everyone. It will be stark discussion of the merits of the various types of honey bee hives that are currently in vogue. From the Langstroth to the top bar. Come prepared to hear that conversation and to defend your preference. This program will not be for the faint of heart. UPCOMING NBA MEETING MAY 13TH NBA MEETING JUNE 10TH VSBA SPRING CONFERENCE JUNE 13&14 LYNCHBURG NBA PICNIC JULY 12TH

2 THE BEE'S LIFE IS LIKE A MAGIC WELL: THE MORE YOU DRAW FROM IT, THE MORE IT FILLS WITH WATER KARL VON FRISCH Nansemond Buzzline Your Hives at this time May The Bees. Now the activity really starts hopping. The nectar and pollen should begin to come into the hive thick and fast. The queen will be reaching her greatest rate of egg laying. The hive should be bursting with activity. The Beekeeper. Spring mite treatments should be completed, and removed prior to adding any honey supers. Add a queen excluder, and place honey supers on top of the top deep. Watch out for swarming. Inspect the hive weekly. What s what in the Hive. Queen Bee There is only one queen per hive. The queen is the only bee with fully developed ovaries. A queen bee can live for 3-5 years. The queen mates only once with several male (drone) bees, and will remain fertile for life. She lays up to 2000 Fun Bee Facts June The Bees. Unswarmed colonies will be boiling with bees. The queen's rate of egg laying may drop a bit this month. The honey flow might still be happening this month. Harvest honey crop Replace wet supers on hives for the bees to clean up place one empty super body (with no frames) between wet supers and hive. eggs per day. Fertilized eggs become female (worker bees) and unfertilized eggs become male (drone bees). When she dies or becomes unproductive, the other bees will "make" a new queen by selecting a young larva and feeding it a diet of "royal The Beekeeper. Inspect the hive weekly to make certain the hive is healthy and the queen is present. Add honey supers as needed. Keep up swarm inspections. Attend bee club meetings and workshops. jelly". For queen bees, it takes 16 days from egg to emerge. Page 2 Honeybees are not aggressive by nature, and will not sting unless protecting their hive from an intruder or are unduly provoked. Honeybees represent a highly organized society, with various bees having very specific roles during their lifetime: e.g., nurses, guards, grocers, housekeepers, construction workers, royal attendants, undertakers, foragers, etc. The practice of honey collection and beekeeping dates back to the stoneage, as evidenced by cave paintings. The honeybee hive is perennial. Although quite inactive during the winter, the honeybee survives the win- ter months by clustering for warmth. By self-regulating the internal temperature of the cluster, the bees maintain 93 degrees Fahrenheit in the center of the winter cluster (regardless of the outside temperature). Honeybees are not native to the USA. They are European in origin, and were brought to North America by the early settlers.

3 Volume 1 Issue 6 Upcoming Details May 13 TOPIC: Hive Designs: Langstroth and Beyond Learn about different approaches to building hives. See what's out there other than the standard designs available in the bee catalogs. June 10th Monthly Meeting July 12th NBA Picnic at Rose and Curtis Nichols House 1PM till whenever VSBA 2014 Spring Conference When: June 13-14, 2014 Where: Brookville High, Lynchburg, Va Hosted by: Piedmont Beekeepers Assn. This year s spring meeting, hosted by the Piedmont Beekeepers Association, will be held at the Brookville High School in Lynchburg, VA (we are pleased to meet where the school mascots are The Brookville Bees). Speakers: Jaime Ellis, Associate Professor of Ento-mology at University of Florida Steve Repasky, EAS Master Beekeeper Dick Rogers from the Bayer Bee Care Center Registration opens on Friday, June 13, at 12 noon and the meeting program begins at 1 p.m. Registration will re-open on Saturday morning at 8:00 a.m. Be prompt, as the meeting program will begin at 8:45 a.m. The program will include From the Virginia State presentations from the three speakers, a business meeting with elections, a report from the State Apiarist, a legislative report and an update on the Master Beekeeper Program. Workshops will be available on Saturday afternoon This year you have two ways to register for the VSBA spring meeting: mail-in or online. Mail-In: find the registration form for traditional mail-in registration on the VSBA website. Prices for current members are discounted from prices for expired members and nonmembers. A check must be included with your registration form for the mail-in method (sorry, a check is the ONLY option for mail-in registrations). Payment for early registration must be postmarked by May 22, Late registration by mail must be post-marked by June 6, OR Online Registration: An online registration option, through Brown Paper Tickets, will also be available to CURRENT VSBA MEMBERS only. Prices are the same as for mailin registrations but the late registration cut-off date is a little different. You may pay through Brown Paper Tickets using a credit card (sorry, no PayPal or debit cards). Early online registration will be available from April 30 through May 22, Late online registration will cut off June 9, Access online registration at If you are not sure if your VSBA membership is current, check with your local club Treasurer, or with me. You may text, phone, or me: Barbara Ruslander, or Ruslander.barbara@yahoo.com Page 3

4 Nansemond Buzzline Swarms Victor Thornton and David Mitchell are NBA s Swarm Coordinators. The Swarm list is into effect. Club Members have signed up on the list and a lottery was held as to the order of the swarm calls. You can put your name on the list by contacting Victor Thornton. Victor Thornton said he can be reached at the following phone numbers or Keep in mind swarms do not hang around all day. By the time the Coordinator gets the call about a swarm no one knows how long it has been there. Beekeepers need to respond in a timely manner. Have your equipment ready to go get a swarm. NBA NUC List/ AND NUC Makers If you feel angry, whistle. Anger agitates while whistling melts a bee's temper. - Sue Monk Kidd At the Club Meeting John Brown announced that we are in need of some NUC makers to help fill the Clubs orders for NUCs. If you are considering making Nucs to help the club members, please let John Brown know. Also Mr Brown had available a sketch on how to turn a sheet of plywood into 3 NUC boxes. Hopefully in the future he will do more on this. Signups were taken for those wishing to be on the NUC list to get a NUC this year. A list was also made of those making NUCs so he would know who to contact. If you missed the meeting you can still sign up to receive a NUC or sign up that you intend on making NUCs to sell. Please contact John Brown at brownjr43343@charter.net or Remember that when you receive a call that your NUC is ready you need to work out to go get your NUC in a timely manner. Have your equipment ready NOW so you will be ready. By Laws Committee Page 4 The triennial review of the Bylaws is underway. At the April NBA meeting, Gary Gosdzinski reported the Bylaws committee had their initial meeting. Most of the changes recommended so far were grammar, format or procedural in accordance with Robert's Rules of Order. This resulted in a lot of discussion by the membership. The main point of contention was that approval of items required a quorum of 51% of total voting membership under Robert's Rules of Order. This has resulted in delays in the past. The members present recommended following Robert's Rules of Order for everything except voting quorums. Since the average meeting has 30% - 45% of total voting members present there were multiple recommendations (33% of total membership/allow items to be voted on at consecutive meetings/allow voting). This will be discussed at the next Executive Committee meeting and will definitely be discussed at the 13 May meeting. Be sure to attend and voice your opinion. If there are any changes to the bylaws that members would like to see instituted bring them to the attention of Duane Eby, David Mitchell or Gary Gosdzinski. Submitted by: Gary Gosdzinski

5 Volume 1 Issue 6 Art League Project Auction was held at the April Meeting The roaring success of the enterprise that we under took with the wonderful Smithfield Art s League came to fruition at the April meeting of the Nansemond Beekeeper s Association. As everyone entered the meeting hall of the Oakland Cristian Church that night for our meeting, they encountered a beautiful display art and bee hives. The most frequent comment that was heard, was that, I never expected to see anything quite as amazing as that When the members became aware that the bidding was open the interest was ramped up, so that during the break after the program all of the hive bodies had bids, some hive bodies had multiple bids. The net result is that it was zero cost to the NBA. See the treasurer s report for the final tally. Additionally, the NBA split the proceeds, beyond the expenses, with the NBA PICNIC JULY 12 NBA will be holding it s annual picnic on July 12th at the home of Rose and Curtis Nichols. The picnic will start at 1pm and each family is asked to bring a Nominating Committee It was announced to the Club at the April meeting that the Nominating Committee would accept the nominations for Club Officers from the floor and they would run against the current Club Officers. Smithfield Art s League. The most important thing for the club to take away from this is that we have enlightened the awareness of those in the art community and beyond about our beloved honey bee. In the past few weeks I have had several artists from the Hampton, Newport News area have me explain what a hive body is. That is a benefit that will be reaped for many years to come. As a result of this first event, the greater Arts community in the Hampton Roads area, has had its interest peeked. The discussion has already started about bringing the next Hive Body Painting event to a larger audience. Those conversations are still in their infancy, but early indications are that the interest is there. The exposure that it will bring to beekeeping to the general public will side dish or dessert. We will have hamburgers and hot dogs. The Nichols address is 1080 Old Somerton Rd Suffolk VA No floor nominations were made. Nominations were deemed closed. Leaving the current slate of Officers as our only running candidates for the positions. be priceless. There will be more to follow as the details are worked out and the Board of Directors decide on how to act on them. I want to thank the out pouring of participation on the part of the members of the members of the NBA that participated in this endeavor. Those voting to venture into this unknown territory, to those that participated in assembling the hive bodies and then prime them (some member even went so far as applying some of the art work) to those who participated in the bidding process and left the meeting as an owner of unique work of art and the knowledge that their contribution benefited the club. Everyone deserves a round of applause. Respectfully submitted by: Jane Schweiger Bring your lawn chairs and come and have a good time of fellowship with fellow beekeepers. Club Members need to consider stepping up to the plate and help the Club for next elections as the Office (as per our By Laws) can only be held for 2 terms. I LIKE PULLING ON A BAGGY BEE SUIT, FORGETTING MYSELF AND GETTING AS CLOSE TO THE BEES' LIVES AS THEY WILL LET ME, REMEMBERING IN THE PROCESS THAT THERE IS MORE TO LIFE THAN THE MERELY HUMAN. SUE HUBBELL Page 5

6 BEES ARE HARD -WIRED TO LAY THEM DOWN, BUT HOW DOES AN INSECT KNOW ENOUGH GEOMETRY TO LAY DOWN A PRECISE HEXAGON? PETER WATTS Page 6 Nansemond Buzzline Sometimes, what can you do? A few weeks ago I got a call, excited to see the caller ID, I knew exactly what this call was going to be about. The voice on the other end of the line said, Are you ready to get a swarm? Without hesitation I said Certainly, where do I need to go? After getting the details of the address, and a brief description, I was happily on my way. I knew exactly where this street was, and knew it wouldn t be hard to find. Upon arriving at the appointed address I could see a small (football sized) cluster of bees, about 18 inches off the ground in a small Azalea bush. Boy, I am thinking to myself. This has to be the easiest swarm ever! I get my bee bucket out of the car and do not see the homeowner so I head over towards the bush to investigate a minute before ringing the doorbell again. Upon walking closer to the swarm, there is a strong foul odor. The homeowner comes out, and I go to introduce myself and I barely get the words out and I am told to go take care of it. So I go over, the odor is getting worse, but anyway I put the bucket under the swarm, tap the branch, it was like a rock hitting the bottom of the bucket. I look down and lying on the ground all around the bush are about 400 dead bees. Then it hit me what the odor was! I look at the homeowner and say Did you spray these bees? He tells me No, my neighbors have been spraying them with all sorts of stuff I asked Why would you call for bee removal if you were drowning them in chemicals? and the reply made it more apparent to me that we need more educating done on the honeybee. Well, we tried hitting them with poles but they just kept flying, so it was spray some, then hit the crap out of it, and spray some more. Needless to say, I was at a loss of words. Didn t know whether to laugh at the thought of the neighborhood coming together to think they could have batting practice with bees and how silly that was, or to be furious for the fact of killing the bees. When I glanced at the swarm, it has bee moving around all on the outside of the ball. When I tapped it in the bucket, the whole center of the ball was dead, stuck together, and was the rock sound in the bucket. The bees that they managed to not spray or hit was clustering on the outside of this matted dead ball of bees. Quite sad, as a beekeeper I was. Mad that someone would do this. Then on the ride back home I had time to think about this. The general public doesn t know what to do, so a quick first thought is to grab a chemical of some sort. So then it was down to just laughing at the story and thinking about how crazy it must have looked. As Beekeepers, I think we need to make it a mission of ours to make sure we tell everyone we can about bees. Maybe the Don t spray flyers that have been hung up in some stores and such, We need to make some efforts to span them in neighborhoods, Homeowners Associations, Civic Leagues, Parking Lot car windshields, etc.. We all get upset when we hear about the spraying of bees, and we need to do something about it. The people getting these swarms are uneducated in the way of bees and need to know what to do.

7 Volume 1 Issue 6 Sean Kenny Presentation on Splitting Hives Sean Kenny made a great presentation to the club at the April Meeting. His presentation included 3 different kinds of splits, why to do each kind of split and how to do each kind. Thank you goes out to Sean for teaching the club how to make our own hives! Club Membership Renewal It is starting to be that time of year again. The annual Club Membership dues! Each year in June the Club has it s Membership Renewal. NBA Membership is $10 a year and Virginia State Membership is $10 a year. If you belong to another club and have paid your State dues all that is required is your Annual $10 Dues for NBA. These dues are 1 per family, not individually. ABOVE ALL, SEND THE BEES LOVE. EVERY LITTLE THING WANTS TO BE LOVED. SUE MONK KIDD Looking Ahead Take a look at some of the events upcoming for the club. Consider volunteering to help. May17th= Scout CubORee at Lone Star Lakes 8am-5pm Aug13-16 Franklin Southampton Fair (Educational in the 4-H area) Aug 30th=Nansemond POW WOW (Educational and able to sell) Sept11-14 Isle of Wight Fair (Educational in the 4-H tent) Sept 20= Suffolk Farmers Market (Educational and able to sell) Oct 4= Suffolk Farmers Market (Educational and able to sell) Oct 9-12 = Peanut Fest (Educational in the Gardeners Tent) Nov 1= Oakland Church Bazaar (Able to sell) Nov 4-6? Farm Days (Educational for Elementary Students) Most of these are educational. If we are able to sell any products at certain places then we will limit the number of sellers to ensure it is fair. If you know of any events that the club can be at please let Jena Brown know. Or if you are able to help at some of the listed events let Jena Brown know. brownjr43343@charter.net or Page 7

8 Protect, Preserve and Educate Visitors welcome - 6:30 PM on 2 nd Tuesday of each month. Oakland Christian Church 5641 Godwin Blvd., Suffolk, VA nansemondbeepresident@gmail.com Smokey Pork French Fries with Buckwheat Honey BBQ Ketchup NEEDED INGREDIENTS: Honey BBQ Ketchup 1 cup - water ½ cup - tomato paste ½ cup - Buckwheat honey 1 tablespoon - brown sugar ¼ cup - apple cider vinegar 2 oz - molasses 1 teaspoon - garlic powder 1 teaspoon - onion powder ¼ teaspoon - cayenne pepper salt and pepper, to taste Fries 1 - pork shoulder, (you can substitute pre-made pulled pork of choice for easier preparation) salt and pepper, to taste ½ cup - Buckwheat honey 1 oz - liquid smoke 1 cup - apple cider 3 oz - Dijon mustard 2 cups - water 2 cups - flavorful pork or chicken stock ½ cup - yellow cornmeal ½ cup - white cornmeal (grits) 2 oz - butter, unsalted 1 tablespoon - fresh parsley, chopped 1 lb. - all-purpose flour 2 qts. - peanut oil, for frying Directions Honey BBQ Ketchup: Place a 2-quart saucepot on medium heat and add the water, tomato paste, honey, sugar, cider vinegar and molasses. Bring to a boil and cook slowly for about 10 minutes. Season the sauce by adding the garlic and onion powder, cayenne, salt and pepper. Reduce sauce slowly until desired thickness. Strain, cover and cool in the refrigerator until ready to use. Smokey Pork Fries: In a medium size stainless steel bowl, season the shoulder piece with salt and pepper. Add the honey, liquid smoke, cider and mustard and coat the pork all over. Place in a zip lock bag and marinate for about 2 hours. When pork is ready, place it in a small roasting pan with the marinade, add the water and slowly roast in a pre-heated 275-degree oven for 1½ hours, or until the pork is tender. Let it rest on a table for 30 minutes then start to pull the shoulder into shred-like pieces. In a 2-quart saucepot, add the stock and pulled pork shoulder and bring to a boil. With a wire whisk, slowly add both types of cornmeal, butter and parsley to the pot and stir until it is all mixed nicely together. When all the water is evaporated, pour the mixture onto a small 10 x10 sheet pan and smooth the top to about a height of ¼. Chill mixture for about 2 hours. Take pan out and turn it over onto a cutting board. Trim all 4 sides and cut into ¼ strips, then into 3 strips. Dredge about 10 fries in the flour and deep fry in the peanut oil at 360 degrees until the fries are nice and crispy. Remove fries from oil and season with some sea salt. Place hot fries in a fry cup and serve with a side of the Buckwheat honey BBQ ketchup.