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This bonus page is done as a gift to the BCBC by Calvin Robinson. It is an attempt to capture all the good things that there is just no room for in the regular newsletter. It is also a more casual format and allows for a little fun. Please contact Calvin at Dad3Grls@aol.com to offer photos, suggestions, tips or comments. Your assistance is appreciated and makes this bonus page a better one.
Mike Singleton really worked on the frequent flyer miles this past winter, visiting Arizona and Puerto Rico. He shared some photos from his trip to the University of Puerto Rico honeybee lab.
Mike probably felt at home with these mountains behind the beeyard here at the University bee lab.
Devrin Oskay of the University of PR bee lab in front of the lab building
Now I don't feel so badly about some of my equipment
Some pretty good ground clearance on these hives
Well, now don't we all feel so sorry for poor Mike to have to go to a place like this in the Winter. Very lush looking terrain. Also some very unusual looking bee hives.
Wild Colony of honeybees in the forest. Mike says they are quite common in the rain forest there.
Can you find the queen on this frame of Africanized bees? She is there and you CAN find her. Look closely. If you give up, scroll down and see her marked in next photo.
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See, I told you she was there!
Advanced Bee School a Success
A good number of door prizes were given away
Janet and Calvin had the pleasure of presenting the scholarship hive winners with their hives
The last tickets for the quilt were sold and it was given away
As always, Former beekeeper of the year in Georgia, Bob Binnie had a great presentation on management of bees
The audience consisted of beginners and advanced beekeepers. Everyone gained something from the course
Ola and Billy of Bizamajig show off their door prize
Edd takes another photo op with the Edd Buchanan award hive winner, Will Forster.
Everyone seemed to have a great time
There were lots of opportunities to discuss beekeeping
Chuck Norton did a presentation on queen rearing
Satchel and Ingrid did a great presentation on their experiences with top bar hives
Greg Rogers shared his expert knowledge and talked about his first season raising queens
Stuart VanMeter took orders for a special order from Brushy Mountain
All that instruction got some people ready to eat. Some club members went along with guest speakers to eat dinner afterward.
Springtime in the mountains keeps beekeepers worried
APRIL 7, 2007 at Sourwood Knoll
Photos from Calvin Robinson's cell phone camera at his home and farm, Sourwood Knoll
Winter 2007 was a little late getting here as we got the biggest snow fall at Sourwood Knoll on April 7th. Can't wait to see what SUMMER brings!
Calvin
As they say here in the mountains, "If you don't like the weather, just wait a few minutes".
Kyle Harris shared this interesting pattern of comb his bees built on the bottom of a hive top feeder. The feeder had a spacer between it and the super.
Edd Buchanan went through some dead hives to try and discover what killed them. That is always interesting and a big hit with the club members.
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Small Hive Beetle Infestation
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Though they do not show up as well in this photo, there are Varroa Mites in it also. Circled are what appear to be Mites. Mites are harder to see because they are smaller. Sometimes they are shells of dead mites and they are even harder to see.
Much debate goes on about what number of mites is too many for a hive. The interaction of mites, bees and disease brought on by the mites is not a simple relationship. Some hives appear to die from much lower numbers of mites while other hives seem to thrive. This is part of the reason we are looking at resistance and trying to propogate survivor stock.
Varroa ---->
Hive Beetle---->
In humans heavy exposure to certain introduced elements can cause cumulative effects also. Note in this photo a school teacher nearing retirement. Her eyes show the toll of many years with small children and operating within the educational system.
Note that this one represents highly productive survivor stock and we need to produce more like her.
Havn't we seen this before on the X-Files?
Glowing Red Eyes --->
Parts taken from article by Vicious Hornets Attack Honey Production
By PAUL LAUENER and MARIE-LAURE COMBES
AP 04/14/2007
PARIS (April 14) - Ambushing locals as they return home from work, Asian invaders are dismembering French natives and feeding them to their young. This horror scenario is playing out in France's beehives, where an ultra-aggressive species of Asian hornets - who likely migrated in pottery shipped from China - may be threatening French honey production.
It is believed the hornets reached France in 2004 in a shipment of cargo , according to Claire Villemant, of the Paris' Natural History Museum.
A French bonsai merchant traveled to the Yunnan province of southern China where he bought ceramic pots to use for his trees.
"He saw the hornets in that region" and the next time he saw the hornets, they were on his property in the southwestern French village of Tonneins. Since then, the hornets have been establishing themselves in France while building imposing nests.
By last summer, their numbers increased to the point of threatening honey production, said Henri Clement, president of the National Union for French Beekeeping. He said it was too early to give figures on the hornets' economic impact, but he is bracing for a tough summer.
Experts fear the hornets may spread to the warmer areas of southern Europe. It is believed these exotic pests may begin colonizing Spain as early as this summer. Even Britain could be vulnerable because the hornets could easily cross the English Channel through freight.
Mike Hood, entomology professor at Clemson University in South Carolina, warned, "If it could spread to France, it could spread to other regions of the world, so that would be a concern for the U.S."
One way beekeepers are fighting back is by changing the size of the entrances to the hives so the honey bees can get in but not the hornets.
Some people want to destroy all hornet nests in the region, including those of French and European hornets. Experts say that would be ecologically disastrous.
Hood said French beekeepers "could go back to the area the hornets came from to find natural predators." But he added, "You have to be careful with this kind of solution as what you bring back might be worse than the pest problem you already have."
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It sounds like beekeepers in the U.S. need to lobby the government to pay particular attention to imports that could bring this unwanted guest. This kind of thing could be a final straw on the back of our beekeeping camel in the US.
Calvin
Equipment Pickup and Flea Market Day
Looks like this beekeeping thing may mean trading the sedan for a wagon or pickup
The Equipment flea market moved much quicker than the auction as people descended on the trucks as they arrived and bought everything up. It was a big success, but if you wanted equipment you had to be there early.
Donation of food and labor to prepare the lunch made a successful fund raiser of the meal
Janet reminds us to buy those last minute hive raffle tickets, (Did she have to remind EDD!) Congratulations Edd, you deserved it though I am not sure you really needed it.
Who could resist purchasing a meal ticket from this crew?
Stuart VanMeter outdid himself taking orders and delivering them from Brushy Mountain with a discount. Thanks to him for his hard work
There was plenty of opportunity to discuss beekeeping with experts on hand
Carl provided expert advice and demontration on how to assemble your wooden ware
Great Idea to have a flea market and group new equipment purchase. All in all a very fun and successful day. Just one more valuable event that makes it worthwhile to be a BCBC member!
Janet Shisler did some frequent flyer miles of her own this past winter. She traveled to Arizona, where she took the time to drop in on Diana Sommataro at the bee lab. Janet took her brother with her to the bee lab and stated he was quite impressed with honeybees after that trip.
Where was Larry Sebren at the April BCBC Meeting?
Larry had a swarm call to tend to!
Looks like Larry has them in the box
Larry also recently removed this colony from a structure
Larry painted the area after removal to help discourage other colonies
They had obviously recently moved in, which made this job much easier.
Larry is always up for a bee removal project
Little wonder those bees moved in here
Larry had another swarm on May 3rd, but it was about 60 feet up. He wasn't sure if his ladder would reach it or not, so he extended it to see. Bad news is it was just a tad too short. Larry wisely left this swarm alone. He is a big guy and would have left a sizable dent in the ground when he fell had he attempted this one.
The GOOD news, is LOOK AT THE TULIP POPLAR BLOOMS!
Thanks to Larry Sebren for sharing these photos.
WAIT A MINUTE!!!! Larry went out to check on these bees on May 4th and most of them were laying on the ground. Larry says he put a hive body in front of them and they crawled in. What luck!
Eye witnesses reported seeing tire tracks ending at the tree with oil and antifreeze trailing on the ground. Donna is wondering how her car got all smashed up in the front. Larry...can you comment on any of these statements?
Larry's new hive of bees
Donna's new car
Strange how those bees just fell on the ground...strange how Donna's car was stolen and taken for a joy ride the very same night... and brought back home. Larry knows nothing!
Janet got the opportunity to have Dr. Tarpy go into her bees. He said this was a
classic sign of a good frame of eggs. The bees are all backed away from the
middle circle because it has freshly laid eggs that don't need tending yet.
Cool, eh?
Photo by Janet Shisler Dr. Tarpy holding brood frame
May 5th day with Dr. Tarpy and Don Hopkins
We had to cancel the Biltmore beeyard visit due to rain, but we did get an excellent presentation at the extension office on CCD. THANKS to Kenneth Reeves for opening up on a Saturday for us. He is a great guy.
Photos by Larry Sebren
The afternoon visit to Greg Rogers bee yard went off as scheduled even in a drizzle.
Move over Edd, from the looks of his hands, Calvin Robinson may be telling a tall tale of his own.
OK, Does anyone remember this method of beekeeping being taught in bee school?
That is some quick draw with that smoker Don
Is that little bee umbrellas I see?
Don kept looking at bees even as the rain got harder
Dr Tarpy exposes the reproductive organs of a drone
Even with the rain, interest was high to the end.
Jack Hanel shares an umbrella with his honey
"Vanna" Shisler shows the self service honey stand at the end of Greg's drive.
Greg generously showed us around his warehouse and shop. Quite an impressive sight to say the least!
Good crowd for the Barbeque banquet
That Buncombe County crew is a fun bunch of folks
It may take a week to get dried out
I sure wish we could have done the Biltmore visit
Dr Tarpy and Don Hopkins both spoke again after dinner
Carl and Joan Chesick hosted the scholarship hive distribution on May 6th
Janet is...
A. Trying to change the oil on this hive
B. Brought to her knees by the duties of president
C. Looking for love in all the wrong places
D. Getting her first look at the bottom of a bee hive
E. Worshiping the garden hive Edd won
F. Suffering from too much partying
G. The victim of Larry's idea of a funny photo
The godfather says, "you messa witha mya bees and Ia breaka ya facea".
Edd smiles as he carts off the raffle hive
Carl and I have stopped using foundation and let our bees build their own comb. There are some advantages and good reasons we do this. Ask us sometime. I don't use wire in mine, but have to be very careful until they get it finished. You need to use a thin strip of foundation or a specially designed top bar...or so we thought.
Carl left a wedge bar out of one of his frames because he had not gotten around to putting in the foundation strip. The bees beat him to it, and seemed to like the surface where the wedge bar should have been. They attached this comb just as well as with a special top bar or a starter strip
WNC Nature Center "Nectar Collector Day" June 30, 2007
Nectar Collector Day at the WNC Nature Center was a lot of fun. No one had any honey for sale, due to the spring freeze, but I did take some bees wax. I had the unique multicultural cross continental experience of meeting a rather interesting Scotsman visiting the area.
He spotted my bees wax and was delighted as he had been unable to find bees wax in the quantity he needed to wax his didgeridoo. I was a little afraid to ask. I know about the Kilts and the stuff that goes along with what a Scotsman wears (or does not wear) under the Kilt, but there is only so much a hillbilly red neck is required to know. I was fortunate enough to have expert description of a didgeridoo by our
own Buncombe County Beekeeper Chapter President, Janet Shisler.
She described it as the aboriginal Australian musical instrument that makes the (Sorry, I cant figure out how to write down how she did the sound)
"wwwwonnnoowwwwoonnnnnngg" sound. I had seen Crocodile Dundee, in my previous multicultural experiences of a hillbilly red neck, and knew what that sound was.
Then my next question is WHAT a Scotsman is doing playing a didgeridoo instead of Bag Pipes? Well, he seemed to think it is normal, so I was just happy with a good sale and a happy customer with a great sounding didgeridoo.
Next question, will the airport security people believe it is bees wax for a didgeridoo or think it is C-4 and blow it up? For the sake of the poor Scotsman's didgeridoo, lets hope they take a good sniff of the sweet smell of fresh bees wax and know what that is.
By the way, I talked to the Scotsman awhile and loved his great accent. I asked how you play a didgeridoo and he said you have to breathe out and in at the same time. I thought about that statement a second and figured no wonder they call it a didgeridoo!
I said, "it sounds like you have to sort of get into a zone while playing a didgeridoo, maybe to the point you hallucinate just a bit?" He shot back in a thick Scottish accent with a quick "you got it". You should
have been there!
By the way, I sold the first raffle tickets for the bee school fund raiser playhouse.
