Bee-si-ness

Happy Mothers Day!

2008-05-10T20:04:00.001-05:00

Awwwwww

2008-05-01T09:20:00.003-05:00

Aint it cute!

Where is everything going?

2007-11-14T08:34:00.000-06:00

Disappearing........

Time..... is the one thing that seems to be going away very quickly so here is a rundown of some interesting things that happened this year in Entomology.
Varroa Mite's as the worst threat to bees..... At the AHPA's 2007 convention in Phoenix, AZ most of the scientist speaking there had done a lot of research on Honey Bee Genetics. I used to try to wrap my brain around Gene research and found it uninteresting until I started listening to Honey Bee Genetics. At the time of the convention the biggest single threat to Honey Bees in the United States was unanimously the "Varroa Mite". Scientists were spending a lot of time and energy in researching and studying the affects of the Varroa Mite on Honey Bees and have come a long way. Between Honey Bee Genetics and cross breeding lines of bees that would resist them it is alot to keep up with - SMR is now VSH do you know your ABC's?
CCD the biggest threat to Honey Bees........ Known as the Disappearing Bee Disease. In March I attended the Department of Ag's hearing on Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) in Washington DC. There was some very interesting testimony that brought out some interesting theories. Click on the link below to read the transcripts of that hearing, very interesting........

Review the Colony Collapse Disorder in Honey Bee Colonies Across the United States - Public Hearing Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture Serial No. 110-07 March 29, 2007

60 Minutes did a good piece on the Honey Bee and CCD. Click Here to see.
Honey...... In Oklahoma it has been rather warm since the first freeze and our bees have started eating part of their honey stores. We are hoping the Farmers Almanac is wrong and this won't be another warm winter.....we'll see.
Beekeepers....... October 27th the Oklahoma State Beekeepers Association presented the 25th Albert Lincoln Beekeeper of the Year award to Harry McQuown the President of Frontier Country Beekeepers Association located in Guthrie, OK. Mr. McQuown is a 3rd generation beekeeper. Multi generation beekeepers are disappearing and we really need to work our best to get younger people involved in this fascinating hobby/career! We have focused on not letting the Honey Bee disappear but what about the beekeeper?

Coming up is the AHPA's 2008 Convention in Sacramento, CA. With everything going on in the world of Honey Bees don't let this one pass you by!

Are you bundled up for winter?

2006-12-05T19:20:00.000-06:00

One day it's summer, then.......
WOW! I can't believe it is already December! We've been trying to get our bees ready for the winter. We put some pollen supplement on some of our hives. We got hit with some snow and we were shocked! It has been quite awhile since we have had any measurable snow in Oklahoma. We've got the Honey House heated and cleaned and it looks kinda quiet, resting and waiting for Spring. We have all of our hives fed and ready for winter, hopefully it will be cold enough that the bees won't have to be fed in December like last year. It was so warm last year during the winter that our bees ate all winter long and never stopped!

Oklahoma State Beekeepers Association

2006-10-29T13:21:00.000-06:00

CONGRATULATIONS!!! Euvonne and Carl Harrison are the 2006 Oklahoma State Beekeepers Association Albert Lincoln Beekeeper of the Year Award recipients! On Saturday, October 21st Mr. and Mrs. Harrision were surprised with this years award and were very very deserving. Mr. and Mrs. Harrison are joined by 23 previous winners of the award.
Albert Lincoln Beekeeper of the Year Award Winners

NUMBER	BEEKEEPER	ADDITIONAL INFORMATION	YEAR
1st	Albert E. Lincoln / Tulsa	One of the Founders of NEOBA in 1956: Member of NorthEast Oklahoma Beekeepers Association	1982
2nd	Glen Gibson / Minco	Executive Secretary of AHPA / President of OSBA 1946: Member of Central Oklahoma Beekeepers Association	1983
3rd	Raymond Lone / Grove	President of Green Country Beekeepers Association	1984
4th	ML Lashbrook / Stonewall	Organized East Central Beekeepers Association / Served as President or Vice President many years	1985
5th	Earnie Knight / Miami	Four State Beekeepers Association	1986
6th	Dorothy Brister Bragg / Caddo	Southeast Oklahoma Beekeepers Association	1987
7th	Dr. Joseph Neiberding / Miami	Four State Beekeepers Association	1988
8th	Chuddie Smith / Guthrie	President Frontier Country Beekeepers Association	1989
9th	Jim Grayson / Owasso	He dedicated this award to the late Hugh Price: NorthEast Oklahoma Beekeepers Association	1990
10th	Novak Bullard / Durant	Southeast Oklahoma Beekeepers Association	1991
11th	Clyde Garroutte * / Guthrie	He passed away 1 week before the meeting and the award was presented to his widow by Chuddie Smith: Frontier Country Beekeepers Association	1992
12th	MJ Bragg / Boswell	Southeast Oklahoma Beekeepers Association	1993
13th	Doug Bemo / Muskogee	Indian Nation Beekeepers Association	1994
14th	Harold St. Clair / Owasso	NorthEast Oklahoma Beekeepers Association	1995
15th	Raymond & Thelma Erwin *	NorthWest Oklahoma Beekeepers Association	1996
16th	George Richtmeyer / Noble	Central Oklahoma Beekeepers Association	1998
17th	Wilbur Severn / Chester	NorthWest Oklahoma Beekeepers Association	1999
18th	W. (Bill) McLaughlin	NorthWest Oklahoma Beekeepers Association	2000
19th	Phil Lindell / Enid	NorthWest Oklahoma Beekeepers Association	2001
20th	Everett Taylor / Orlando	Frontier Country Beekeepers Association	2002
21st	Jerry Logan / Guthrie	Vice President of OSBA: Frontier Country Beekeepers Association	2003
22nd	JB Shepherd / Waynoka	NorthWest Oklahoma Beekeepers Association	2004
23rd	Alan Larson / Bixby	NorthEast Oklahoma Beekeepers Association	2005
24th	Euvonne and Carl Harrison / Tulsa	NorthEast Oklahoma Beekeepers Association	2006

Do you know where your bees are?

2006-08-01T20:41:00.000-05:00

We recently went to Canada and thru North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska we saw several fields of Canola and Yellow Clover. It made me want to turn around, go home, load up my bees and take them NORTH! Here in Oklahoma we have had a couple of droughts, one early in the year and one now in the middle.

We robbed honey from the played out Canola around the first week of July and knew we had to return to move those hives to another crop. We returned 2 weeks later only to find 2 supers of honey on each hive. We drove 3 miles all the way around the hives and saw nothing but DIRT! We are curious to know what dirt honey tastes like!

While in Canada we also caught some awesome fish! I caught this one but couldn't hold it up so my husband is holding it for me, no really, that's what happened!!

No Child-bee Left Behind!

2006-05-16T16:23:00.000-05:00

We received a call from some homeowners who told us they had a tree fall over in their backyard. When they went to look it over they noticed bees flying around. After a closer look they saw a lot of bees "gathered" on the bottom of the tree.

After we cleared away some of the surrounding brush the hive was more apparent.

There was another thing apparent too, can you tell what it is? The two white sacks hanging to the left of the hive are left over wax moth residue from a previous hive. We are thinking that the current hive we are dealing with has been there around two years. After completing the process we determined there had previously been a hive in the log as long ago as four years.

My husband chose a place, opposite the end with the bees, to start cutting the log into sections. While he cut Tony smoked the hive of bees to keep them calm. We were shockingly surprised that the bees were very very gentle. The entire time we were there cutting, working, tearing down the hive they never once buzzed our veils or hit us, and none of us got stung! Amazing!

While cutting the log we work our way closer to the hive. After making a partial cut we watched to see if any bees exit the cut opening. If bees start exiting the cut opening move back down the log away from the bees and make your final cut.

After cutting the log in half we moved it out so we could work with it. Then we cut about 1/3 of the top of the log on two sides so we could open it up.

Once we opened the log we could then see how large the hive was. Also, by seeing what old brittle comb and existing good comb there was, helped us determine how long this particular hive had inhabitted the log.

Now the fun begins. Tom had to determine which side was the top of the comb because the bees built the comb while the tree was standing upright. While he was cutting sections of the comb, Tony was putting rubber bands on empty frames. Tom put the comb in the frames and moved the rubber bands so the comb would stay in place. Tom then would lay the frames on top of the bees in the log and they would just climb on board.
We wound up with two deep boxes, the bottom box full and running over and the top box about 1/2 full. We taped it up and got it ready to move. And as the title of this blog says, Tom made sure there was no baby bee left behind.

Queen Bee Manufacturing?

2006-04-23T17:19:00.000-05:00

Yesterday my husband grafted some eggs into some wax cups that he made. The method he uses is the Doolittle Method.

Here are a couple of pictures of the started cells on the bars after we took them out of the starter hive 24 hours after placing them there.

And after brushing off the nurse bees.

Swarms

2006-04-14T21:18:00.000-05:00

Can you believe it? We got our first swarm call March 14th. That is the earliest call we have ever received to come collect a swarm. Here are a few of the swarms we collected last year. We had over 200 calls for swarms in 2005. Wonder what this year has in store?
Sometimes those swarms are way up high and we use a telescoping pole with a bucket on the end to get them.

Honey Honey Honey

2006-04-14T17:30:00.000-05:00

Here's a picture of one of our nuc yards. Man we are working working working our bees. May 1st the honey flow starts and we are completing last minute preparations to get the most out of this season. We have been putting supers on our bees on Canola fields already. We also have been making splits, 70 so far and we have re-queened about 25 others. Here is a picture of the queens in the cages they travel in when mailed to us. They come with 50 - 100 individual cages in a larger cardboard box with screen on both ends. We have received 250 Italian queens so far this year some for us and some for other beekeepers. As of this morning I no longer have queen bees in my kitchen buzzing away and waiting to be put in a hive to start laying eggs. One of our Canola farmers has stopped by several times when we were working the bees, just to ask a million questions about the bees and what is going on with them. We also had a farmer call us to move the bees so they could spray his Canola. Our hives are about 100 yards from the edge of his Canola so we told him as long as they spray early morning before the sun is fully up, or later at night at dusk, they would be okay. Well the crop duster actually did what the state of Oklahoma requires. He told the farmer that he would not spray until the bees were moved. The Oklahoma state laws prohibit anyone using certain chemicals from doing so if there are bees in the area that could be killed. Needless to say we went and moved them about a quarter of a mile one evening and then moved them back the next. It is a lot of work but it is good to know that people will follow the rules and not intentionally kill bees with pesticides.
Just the other day we were contacted by a beekeeper friend who was helping a widow of a beekeeper sell their equipment. We bought a lot of boxes, tops, bottoms, sugar, and other stuff from her and hauled it home. The reason I am mentioning it is because we found an easier way to haul and unload large amounts of stuff. I would suggest if you have a lot of equipment to haul, shrink wrap it on pallets. With a forklift or a tractor with forks one person can unload a 25 foot trailer in a much shorter period of time. I agree it takes longer to load and wrap but we believe it is worth it when you get to your destination and can quickly unload.

What do your hives look like?

2006-03-22T21:50:00.000-06:00

We have been working and feeding our hives all winter it seems like. Some of our hives have done well and others just couldn't make it; much like everyone across the US. We barrel feed and it makes it alot easier, with the way my husband set up his truck to fill barrels it takes 35 seconds to fill a barrel, he has to hold on tight or does fire hose ring a bell. We have some strong hives that have good brood patterns as you can tell in some of these pictures. Click on the picture to make it larger. Can you see the uncapped brood, larvae and eggs all in different stages. We are trying to make splits and get ready for 200 new Italian Queens we have coming but the weather doesn't want to cooperate. It is suppose to snow tonight, March 22, it is officially Spring, I wish someone would inform mother nature!

Swarms in January

2006-02-22T18:25:00.000-06:00

When we went to Houston to AHPA we went to Randy Verhoek's farm and he showed us a hive of bees that swarmed into the branches of a tree in his backyard. Here are a couple of pictures. What is really weird is thinking of swarms in January. In Oklahoma we never have swarms at that time because it is so cold unlike Houston, TX. We also played on the beach and did a little fishing, and Tom had fun feeding the sea gulls on the Ferry we took across Galveston Bay.

American Honey Producers Association Convention

2006-02-05T13:25:00.000-06:00

Well, the first week of January we went to Houston, Texas to the American Honey Producers Association Convention. There were lots of speakers who informed us of new treatments and research as well as new products to help everyone be better beekeepers as well as being more productive at harvesting your honey. I suggest that you visit their website and try to go next year the meeting will be in Pheonix, AZ. One thing I did learn was what a Forklift Rodeo is. I forgot to mention that we met lots of beekeepers from all over the US and had fun! Mr. Randy Verhoek hosted the Rode and some Good Food. Take a look:
We had so much fun watching people 'ride' the livestock 'Swinger Super Bee Forklifts' that D & L Apiaries brought. There was a showdown and some spills but lots of fun. Also, Mr. Randy Verhoek provided a place for some good food to be consumed by all!

Those Bees Just Bundle Up For The Winter

2005-12-18T21:58:00.000-06:00

Well Honeybees cluster in the middle of the hive and use their wings to fan the hive to keep it warm. Hive stays between 80 and 120 degrees all winter long. The cluster moves along the frames and the bees eat the honey stored in the cells. Before they buckle down for winter they kill all the Drone bees (Male bees) and kick them out the front of the hive. Drones are only needed to mate with the queen during spring and only if they supersede or lose their queen. That is an interesting concept! By the time spring arrives they have hatchet out new Drones that eat honey and wait for a queen to mate. This is a picture of a swarm we collected in Shawnee back in May. This is similar to what the cluster looks like in the hive.

What do you know about bees and cold weather?

2005-12-05T22:11:00.000-06:00

You don't know how many people have asked me how we keep our bees warm in the winter. We use screen bottom boards on our hives so the whole bottom of the hive is basically open. We do not close the hives for winter, even though we are here in Oklahoma where it can get very cold. So, how cold do you think it gets in the hive over the winter? What do you think bees do in the winter? I'm interested to know just how much you guys know about this aspect of bees. Let me know........

A Natural Observation Hive

2005-12-04T20:15:00.000-06:00

Wow! This weekend went fast. I have some more photos that are pretty interesting. Back in August a beekeeper friend of my husbands called him and asked him to help remove a hive of bees from an older house a gentleman was restoring. When my husband told me about it I thought it was interesting and wanted to take some pictures. When we got there was when I found out that the hive of bees was inside a window. The window had been boarded up on the outside. There was enough of a crack in the plywood that a hive of bees had moved into the window and set up home. An educated beekeepers guess would say that the bees had been there at least one and maybe two years. They had built a lot of honeycomb and there were a lot of bees. The way my husband’s friend figured was the best way to remove it was to remove the entire window. I have about 50 pictures of the whole process but here are a few. They wound up cutting all around the window and lifting it out of the wall. They then loaded it into the back of a pickup and took it to my husbands friends house. He is using it as an observation hive because it has glass on one side so you can see the bees and their routines. He added a way for the bees to get in and out to gather pollen, nectar and anything else needed by the bees.

OU Lady Sooner's Rule!

2005-12-01T01:09:00.000-06:00

Well, things are starting to settle down for the night and I have to admit even though today was busy it was a very fun day.  My husband and I returned earlier from the Oklahoma University Women’s Basketball game against TCU.  The Paris twins are all they were hyped up to be and even more.  Courtney is 6’4” tall and a strong presence in the paint.  Her sister Ashley is 6’3” and the two of them seem to think as one person when they are both on the floor at the same time.  I must say I am impressed and that isn’t easy to do.  I have been watching and coaching and refereeing basketball for years and love the game whether it be elementary, high school, college or pro; whether men’s or women’s.  Coach Sherri Coale is an excellent coach and has developed the team’s natural abilities to an even higher level.  The Lady Sooner’s record is now 7-1 and they are ranked #19 in the nation after starting with a #25 pre-season ranking.  We love going to the games and are looking forward to the next one.  We have been season ticket holders for several years now and will be for years to come.

Since this was established mainly to talk about bee’s I guess I better find something to say.  In March the Oklahoma State Beekeepers Association will be holding their Spring Meeting in Tulsa this year.  NEOBA (NorthEast Oklahoma Beekeepers Association) will be hosting the meeting for the State and we want to invite everyone who is interested in anyway in bees to become a member of OSBA and a local bee club.  You can find a local bee club that might be close to you by going to www.okbees.org.  All of the State recognized bee clubs are listed under the Affiliated Clubs link.  You can find other interesting information and information on members who remove swarms and provide bees for pollination for farmer’s crops.

Well it is pretty late and I am getting tired.  Tomorrow is another day and I need some sleep before it gets here.

Okanola - Oklahoma's new Canola crop!

2005-11-22T21:50:00.000-06:00

Okanola is a new genetically altered Canola so that it can stand Oklahoma's hot weather. Okanola is a very good crop for Bees. Bees can gather large amounts of Pollen and Nectar from Canola.

Spring Made Bees Restless

2005-11-22T21:17:00.000-06:00

This spring we gathered numerous Swarms. Swarms can gather anywhere. Look at the cluster of these bees. The Queen Bee is in the center of the cluster and the workers...are keeping her warm and safe until they find another home for her to continue laying eggs.

Let's get buzzin'

2005-04-08T13:37:00.000-05:00

This is a new thing I've decided to start. I am a beekeeper. My husband and I have between 200 and 300 beehives. Did you know that 83% of all of the food you eat have come in contact with bees before it got to you. Bees pollinate food as well as produce that natural sugar called Honey. If you would be interested in bee discussions let me know.