From LISTSERV@CNSIBM.ALBANY.EDU Mon Jun 30 09:23:49 1997 Date: Mon, 30 Jun 1997 09:14:59 -0400 From: "L-Soft list server at University at Albany (1.8c)" To: Adam Finkelstein Subject: File: "BEE-L LOG9705C" ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 15 May 1997 00:15:30 -0400 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Ted Wout Subject: Marking your own Queens MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 I've been told that you can mark your own queens with liquid paper. I'm wondering if the fumes from liquid paper would harm or effect the queen o= r bees in any way. Has anyone tried this? Also, I believe the color this year is yellow. Is that correct? I think= you can get liquid paper in all sorts of colors now. Does anyone out the= re know the specific color for this year and what the other colors are? = What's the formula for determining the current color? I have some queens that a few of my hives have produced on their own. I'= d like to mark them for my own convenience. Any opinions on this? Ted Wout Red Oak, TX ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 14 May 1997 22:17:19 -0500 Reply-To: BEE-L@cnsibm.albany.edu Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology Comments: Authenticated sender is From: Excerpts from BEE-L Organization: BestOfBee@systronix.net Subject: Re: send apinet MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Date sent: Wed, 14 May 1997 19:32:23 +0100 Send reply to: Discussion of Bee Biology From: J.M.Goodman@CSL.MAFF.GOV.UK Subject: Apinet To: BEE-L@CNSIBM.ALBANY.EDU API-NET INTERNATIONAL EXTENSION NETWORK Welcome to the Apinet! This dedicated international network has been created to encourage productive and healthy beekeeping by facilitating links between extension workers and others who advise, educate and train present and future beekeepers. We hope to enable multi-lingual communication on the Apinet - you may use your own language whenever you wish! Honey bees are an essential component of the agricultural environment. As beneficial insects, they are vital for the pollination of many crops, as well as producing honey and other bee products for human use. Apinet aims to reduce threats to beekeeping caused by the spread of Varroa and other pathogens. Where significant losses of bees have occurred, many experienced beekeepers have stopped keeping bees. Not enough new beekeepers, especially young people, are being recruited and trained to help or replace those beekeepers who find themselves unable to adapt or cope with new management techniques. Apinet was initiated by John Goodman of the CSL National Bee Unit and Europea. It is continuing to develop with the help of other like minded organisations and individuals throughout Europe. With your help, it will evolve into a world wide network with the potential, via the internet, to benefit extension workers and the beekeepers they serve in countries all over the world. If you are interested in Beekeeper Education and Extension, why not use the API-NET to network with colleagues in other parts of the world, making new contacts, exchanging information and finding out how they are helping beekeepers, farmers and others who depend upon the work of honey bees, to face new challenges. The CSL National Bee Unit is part of a UK research agency, the Central Science Laboratory, which works in the area of bee disease control and research and provides an extension service for beekeepers. EUROPEA is the European Agricultural Education Association, an EU wide organisation serving the agricultural education and training sector. It enables teachers, students, extension workers and others to collaborate nationally and internationally. Although there are Europea associates in all EU member states, we still do not have beekeeping extension contacts in some countries. We are also looking for links outside of Europe. If you are interested in joining the net or helping to establish a network in your Country, please contact John Goodman in GB. If you know of others who may be interested in the API-NET, especially in other countries ... please send them this information, thank you. HAPPY CHRISTMAS & NEW YEAR! John Goodman Tel/Fax: +44-1833-690561 (j.m.goodman@csl.maff.gov.uk) Glebe House, Newgate, UK BARNARD CASTLE, Co Durham DL12 8NW Bee-Net: web.inter.nl.net/hcc/Hug.Bee (Case Sensitive) hug.bee@beenet.iwg.nl Europea: www.agro.stoas.nl/aoc/grdelta/europea mbe@grdeltacd.agro.nl CSL National Bee Unit, Sand Hutton, UK YORK YO4 1LZ m.bew@csl.gov.uk Tel/Fax: +44-1904-462000/462111 (ref: apinetd) BEE (Beekeeping Education and Extension) API-NET Central Science Laboratory National Bee Unit Tel/Fax: +44-1833-690561 (24hrs) Glebe House, Newgate, Mobile: 0374-775163 BARNARD CASTLE, UK Email: j.m.goodman@csl.maff.gov.uk Co. Durham DL12 8NW Ref: letapic 22nd December, 1996 Dear Colleague, API-NET BEE (Beekeeping Education and Extension) NETWORK NEWS This letter is to bring you up to date with Apinet news. Following Europea meetings in Italy and Ireland, I can now report that both the CSL National Bee Unit and EUROPEA are very interested in helping to establish the Apinet. During the Irish meeting guidelines were laid down for the effective operation of such thematic networks within Europea. However, we still do not have named bee extension workers in some countries. We have been offered further valuable help with internet access in Holland, this time via the Bee-Net website. In addition, over 100 potential networkers will have been mailed directly of whom about half have already indicated an interest. Enclosed is the most recent information sheet (which you might like to pass on to others who may be interested) together with a copy of an EFB Questionnaire (this is also on the www - responses and comments will be most welcome). I should also be most grateful if you would let me have an Email address where I may contact you. This will enable us to keep in touch much more easily in the future. I will also then be able to circulate Email addresses to all the networkers. Information will still continue to be available on the internet at: http://www.agro.stoas.nl/aoc/grdelta/europea and http://web.inter.nl.net/hcc/Hug.Bee. If you have access to a website for Apinet news, please let me know in order that I may pass on the details. The Netherlands will host the next Europea Assembly, probably in late May 1997. They have invited Apinet members to meet at the same time. Since Holland is very accessible to many of you, this would be an excellent chance to meet fellow networkers, appoint national coordinators and plan future activities.. When I have more information on the venue etc I shall contact you again. In the meantime, you may wish to make a note in your diary. Perhaps, you would let me know if you would be interested in such a meeting. Europea generally meets about twice per year, usually in the country which holds the EU Presidency. However, we can be more flexible should you wish and hold meetings elsewhere. Thank you for your continuing interest and support. Please dont forget to let me have an Email address. I look forward to further developments in the New Year, in the meantime, may I take this opportunity to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and Good Beekeeping in 1997! Yours sincerely, (John Goodman) International Coordinator, Apinet PS I shall be travelling via Malaysia to visit New Zealand in the Spring (Mar-Apr). If you have any beekeeper contacts en route - please let me know. I shall pass on details of Apinet during my visit! BEE-NET: web.inter.nl.net/hcc/Hug.Bee EUROPEA: www.agro.stoas.nl/aoc/grdelta/europea CSL National Bee Unit, Sand Hutton, YORK YO4 1LZ United Kingdom Tel/Fax: +44-1904-462000/462111 APINET BEE (Beekeeping Education and Extension) NEWS As I mentioned in the last APINET NEWS, the next Europea General Assembly is at the end of May in the Netherlands. This will be combined with an Apinet Meeting to which you are invited. Brief details of the programme are outlined below. The Europea (European Agricultural Education Association) General Assembly is held every six months and is usually hosted by the Member State which holds the EU Presidency. During this gathering there will be a chance to discuss Apinet business. Additionally, there will be plenty of opportunities for informal discussion outside the main programme. Since Holland is very accessible to many of us, this would be an excellent chance to meet fellow networkers, review progress to date and plan the way forward. Please send me any proposals for future activities which you wish to discuss. MAASTRICHT, THE NETHERLANDS 29-31 MAY 1997 EUROPEA GENERAL ASSEMBLY 28MAY ETA MAASTRICHT (also Poster Sessions which may include Apinet Information) 29MAY SEMINAR (EU Agriculture/Policy/Subsidies) & WORKSHOPS (Agric/Educ & the Euro) 30MAY WORKSHOPS (Agric/Educ & the Euro) & THEMATIC NETWORKS SESSION (Apinet) 31MAY TOUR OF LIMBURG PROVINCE (Agriculture & Culture) CLOSING DINNER 01JUN ETD MAASTRICHT (Cost of lodging: fnl 600.00) Apply to: Madelon de Beus (Europea) mdebeus@euronet.nl Tel: +31 73 656 7967 Fax: +31 73 656 9765 Copy to: John Goodman (Apinet) j.m.goodman@csl.gov.uk & @csl.maff.gov.uk Tel/Fax: +44 1833 690561 [PS I am having some difficulties with email, you may need to send messages to both of my addresses!] THEMATIC NETWORKS - APINET MEETING AT THE EUROPEA GENERAL ASSEMBLY Apinet Website - Membership Details * EU Honey Proposals & R&D Funding State Support (Beekeeping Extension) EFB Questionnaire & KBV in Europe Varroa Treatments (Essential Oils) Key National Contacts (Beekeeping) * For the benefit of Apinet members, I am looking into the possibility of additional website pages where key membership information can be published in order to help existing networkers to make contact with others who have mutual interests. Present proposals are detailed below. Profiles: networker/organisation profiles in any language with a summary in a second language (500 words in 1st language + 100 words in 2nd language). Education: networker education provision eg lecture programmes, specialist publications etc (200 words, one language only); to include distance learning initiatives etc Extension: extension programmes provided for trainers, beekeepers and related trade (200 words, one language only); including training of trainers Research: general areas of interest (research and development) of Apinet members (200 words, one language only). Initiatives:+ collaborative initiatives (inter- and trans-national) which are already underway (200 words, one language only); including those open to further participants Proposals: new proposals for collaborative ventures in which participation is sought eg seminars (200 words, one language only); meetings etc covering any areas of common interest + Such an initiative might be a regular extension carousel (eg training of + trainers), where participants would have the opportunity to visit other + members countries on a rotating basis to find out more about their + activities. There could be a special theme, with the opportunity to visit + beekeeping enterprises, extension initiatives and research and development + establishments etc. Each participating country would take it in turn to + organise/host the event. ****************************************************************************** ********************************* *** NB Do I have an Email address where I may contact you? This will speed up communication in future. *** ****************************************************************************** ********************************* CSL National Bee Unit, Sand Hutton, YORK YO4 1LZ United Kingdom Tel/Fax: +44-1904-462000/462111 John Goodman, Glebe House, Newgate, BARNARD CASTLE, Co Durham DL12 8NW United Kingdom APINET: http:// web.inter.nl.net/hcc/beenet/apinet.htm hug.bee@net.hcc.nl [new address!] EUROPEA: www.agro.stoas.nl/aoc/grdelta/europea mdebeus@euronet.nl [new address!] --- NB:1.Send replies to the author or BEE-L@CNSIBM.ALBANY.EDU - not this list 2.To unsubscribe, email HoneyBee@systronix.net saying leave BestOfBee ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 14 May 1997 20:40:53 -0800 Reply-To: beeman@Alaska.NET Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Tom & Carol Elliott Organization: Home Subject: Re: Marking your own Queens MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Ted Wout wrote: > > I've been told that you can mark your own queens with liquid paper. I'm > wondering if the fumes from liquid paper would harm or effect the queen or > bees in any way. Has anyone tried this? I've used Liquid Paper. It works okay, but the workers chew it off to some degree. I prefer quick drying model paint. Mark the queen, hold her for a few seconds to let it dry and release. - - - - - - - - - - - - "Test everything. Hold on to the good." (1 Thessalonians 5:21) Tom Elliott Eagle River, Alaska U.S.A. beeman@alaska.net ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 15 May 1997 19:16:26 +0900 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: j h & e mcadam Subject: Re: Bee book for southern Australia Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Trevor Weatherhead wrote: >Try Gordon or Alan Redpath at:- > >Redpath's Bee Supplies >193 Como Parade East >Parkdale vic 3195 > >Phone 03 95875950 >Fax 03 95875960 > >Their father had written an excellent book on beekeeping and coming from >Victoria should suit your region. They were arranging to have it updated and >reprinted. Check with them to see if this has been done. As a beekeeper in South Australia, I have both the Redpath book "A guide to keeping bees in Australia" and Fred Bailey's book "Beekeeping in Australia for pleasure and profit". Both provide a basic guide although the Redpath book leans heavily towards a guide to migrating hives. Fred Bailey provided me with all the information I needed until I graduated to ABC and XYZ, which I think is too detailed for a beginner - you need to know what you are looking at in a hive before you understand the explanation. Betty McAdam HOG BAY APIARY Penneshaw, Kangaroo Island j.h. & e. mcadam Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: j h & e mcadam Subject: Re: "free" bees Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Greg and Melinda Holley wrote: >I have the chance to attempt getting two feral hives. One is in an old wood >sided house. There are several holes where the bees are going in and out. I >thought about trying to stop up all the holes ,but one and use a screen >funnel and hive. Is this possible on an older house or am I just wasting my >time? The ABC and XYZ describes this method in detail - it seems practicable but long-winded. You would have to supply a queen to the transfer hive that you want the bees to go to so I doubt that you are gaining anything - the genetic structure of the hive will be changed and it would be far easier to just start off a nucleus with a purchased queen if you are aiming to increase hive numbers. > >The second one is a colony in a dead tree that is low to the ground. Should >I just cut the tree and bring it home and then get the bees or should I use >a different method? If you can bring the hive intact to a place where you can place a brood super above it, the bees will transfer themselves. Otherwise it is necessary to cut out the brood combs, tie them into frames (I use string), and leave a hive box in the identical position for the bees to settle down before moving. Messy but can be done. Betty McAdam HOG BAY APIARY Penneshaw, Kangaroo Island j.h. & e. mcadam Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Barry Davies Organization: Davies Apiaries / Barry & Freda Subject: Re: Buckfast Queens MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Excerpts from BEE-L wrote: > > > A number of inquiries leads me to clarify some claims concerning the > > Buckfast Queens. Buckfast is a registered trademark of Dart Abbey > > Enterprises and in Canada we have 5 Authorized Users and queens from them > > are the only ones that are Buckfast, bred and selected as Brother Adam > > intended. > > Barry, > > I'm wondering what you charge for breeder queens? > It would be best to contact one of the breeders direct. The queens selected for breeders have first undergone the selection criteria as per a Buckfast Breeder plus the quick test for HTM and hygenic behavior. > Also how important is it to maintain purity in the line in a honey > producing outfit using Buckfast stock? > Line purity gives one the ability to repeat success year after year for quailty queens > ie. Are the various hybrids of Buckfast and miscellaneous strains likely > to be superior or inferior - or no different from the rest of the crosses > that might already be taking place in that same outfit? > F1 crosses are likely to be good but subsequence generation will be unknown. > Allen -- ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 15 May 1997 07:24:32 -0700 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Barry Davies Organization: Davies Apiaries / Barry & Freda Subject: Re: Buckfast Queens MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit MIDNITEBEE wrote: > > http://www.cybertours.com/~midnitebee/ > > Greetings! > I am told that buckfast queens are sold-out. When are we able to obtain the > queens? > > > > > Subject: Buckfast Queens > > > > Hi All > >Please contact the names given. I think their are probably still a limited amount of queens available for 1997 > > > > Names and Addresses of the 5 Authorized Users are as follows; > > > > Barry Davies Rick Neilson > > RR#1 Seeleys Bay RR#1 Stratton > > ON. Can. KOH 2NO ON. Can. POW 1NO > > Ph. 613 387 3171 Ph.807 487 2387 > > > > Paul Montoux Don Amirault > > RR#1 Hagersville 10682 Highway 201 > > ON. Can. NOA 1HO Meadowvalle RR#6 > > Ph.905 768 5530 Kingston, NS. Can. BOP 1RO > > > > University Of Guelph > > Guelph ON. Can. N1G 2W1 > > ( They do not sell queens to the trade) > > > > -- > > -- ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 15 May 1997 08:12:38 -0500 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Abbas Edun Subject: Re: kamakazee Bees Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" At 05:33 PM 5/12/97 -0400, you wrote: >One of my hives has turned nasty. There will always be a couple of suicidal >meniac >bees that will follow you around tryng to sting you. No good for >grandchildren playing >in the garden or wife weeding. >Wife has issued ultimatum: "Do something!" >The honey flow is on, what can I do at this point? >Reply to jjimker@aol.com Hi there, Try using a couple of flags in front of the entrance. Get a couple of pieces of old colored cloth, tie them on a couple of sticks & put them in the ground in front of the hive. This is the method used by Aebi. He wrote a book about bees. Sincerely, Abbas ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 15 May 1997 07:36:14 +0000 Reply-To: barry@birkey.com Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Barry Birkey Organization: BIRKEY.COM Subject: Re: Marking your own Queens MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Ted Wout wrote: > > I've been told that you can mark your own queens with liquid paper. I'm > wondering if the fumes from liquid paper would harm or effect the queen or > bees in any way. Has anyone tried this? > > Also, I believe the color this year is yellow. Is that correct? I think > you can get liquid paper in all sorts of colors now. Does anyone out there > know the specific color for this year and what the other colors are? > What's the formula for determining the current color? Hello Ted - I have marked all my queens this year to help me keep track of the original one in each hive. I used paint specifically for this but most quick drying paints will work. The color is yellow this year. Year ending in: 0 or 5 Blue 1 or 6 White 2 or 7 Yellow 3 or 8 Red 4 or 9 Green I always spray my queens with sugar water just before I release her to help mask the smell of the paint. -Barry (I think I'm in another zone, it's snowing right now!) -- Barry Birkey West Chicago, Illinois USA barry@birkey.com http://www.birkey.com ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 15 May 1997 09:44:55 EDT Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: "Frederick L. Hollen" Subject: Re: Prevention of ants In-Reply-To: <19970513.111011.3542.0.awneedham@juno.com>; from "Albert W Needham" at May 14, 97 11:09 am Hello, I acquired several hives from the family of a deceased beekeeper. He had made hive stands out of concrete reinforcing rod (3/4 inch dia). H had set the base of each leg into a short section of PVC pipe, and filled it partly with concrete, so as to form a cup around the leg and an enlarged base. He would then fill the cup with water or oil to keep the ants out of the hive. I have not put anything in these bases myself, but it seems to be a good idea if one wants to go to the trouble of building such elaborate hive stands. Regards, Fred (in Virginia) ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 15 May 1997 07:59:41 -0600 Reply-To: allend@internode.net Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology Comments: Authenticated sender is From: Allen Dick Organization: The Beekeepers Subject: ooops &apinet MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Apologies to the list. I have to remember not to send messages from my Best of Bee maintenance account, since the return line is set to BEE-L. I did this a couple of times yesterday and things accidentally went to BEE-L that shouldn't. Included in that was the apinet post -- which came from BEE-L in the fiorstb place. Since it was pretty long and somewhat stale dated, I had not sent it to Best of Bee, but offered it to subscribers via a file request. In testing the file request function, I forgot about that dratted return line and presto! the file went to BEE-L again. I also sent a privatre email from that account and of course the private reply went to the list. Sorry... Tired from splitting and reversing I guess. Allen ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 15 May 1997 10:20:04 EDT Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Aaron Morris Subject: Queen marking colors MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT This year's color for queen marking is indeed yellow. The color scheme is: White for years ending in 1 and 6, Yellow for years ending in 2 and 7, Red for years ending in 3 and 8, Green for years ending in 4 and 9 and Blue for years ending in 5 and 0. There are two mnemonics to help in remembering this: "When You Requeen Get the Best!" or "What!? You Raise Green Bees!?" Personally I like the green bees, but I always try to get the best! Aaron Morris - thinking it's time to grow my own! ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 15 May 1997 11:23:01 EDT Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Robert E Neely Subject: Re: bee-l Hang in there Billy-bee, Some of our deeds go before, others follow after. What we do today with our bees, hanging on, finding new ways to preserve them and help them to be more productive. Not to mention the service to manking with pollination. In later years, some may wonder what would have happened to our food supply if the beekeepers had not hung with it. Bob Neely Goose Creek, SC USA neely-bee@juno.com On Sat, 10 May 1997 20:22:46 -0400 bartlett writes: > Seems like everybody wants to be positive!! Well beekeeping is >hard. Can be hot and heavy at times. I know of beekeepers who quit >because they made too much mess extracting honey and their wives said >never again in my kitchen. Since most of us are hobbiests, we expect >alittle something for our hard earned laber. When you keep losing >your >bees due to mites and whatever else you can become discouraged. > We had over 100 members in our club at one time and now maybe 35 >with 8 to 10 attending meetings. Young people today have so much to >choose from including this computer stuff that I love. With the media >attention that bees get when there is a serious stinging event or some >of the shows I have seen on TV it's no wonder people are afraid of the >bees. > And the bee stings still hurt! How many people want to be >subjected to bee stings? Even most beekeepers dress up with so much >stuff on that they look like they are from outer space. (all bee sting >aren't bad) A large portion of our population are afraid of bees. > So, for you big guys who are making a living off of beekeeping, >my >hat is off to you, you earned it! For all you sideliners who are >enthalled and facinated with these little creatures, it really is a >wonderful hobby. > (If it just wouldn't keep costing me money and >time to keep them going) > Billy bee > ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 15 May 1997 11:23:00 EDT Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Robert E Neely Subject: Re: beginning bee book & when do I put on my first honey super? Dear Florence & Mark, It sounds as if you are off to a good start. I would suggest that you consider putting three supers on as brood chambers. This would give you enough storage for the winter. (It sounds like a good idea to use supers for brood to protect your back.) Be sure to consider obtaining a queen-excluder to go above the top brood chamber. This will keep you from having brood or eggs up in your honey. My first hive was given to me when I was fifteen years old (In 1946) and I appreciated the help of others at that time. The agriculture extension service has some material available. They may have information about a hobby group or organization in your area. I am sure that they would be happy to offer suggestions and help. We are always looking for interested young people to "Carry-on". Feel free to contact me at any time. Bob Neely Goose Creek, SC neely-bee@juno.com PS: Did you know that JUNO is a free E-Mail service that is available to all? REN On Fri, 9 May 1997 08:28:28 -0500 "FLORENCE COOPER, RN" writes: >My 11 year old son and I are very new to beekeeping. He got a hive on >his >birthday (April 16). An experienced beekeeper helped us check the >hive a week >ago and everything looks good--the queen is laying, lots of brood, >honey, >pollen, etc. He told us to put on the second brood chamber in about a >week >(today) if the weather had been warm and sunny--which it has, so we >will do >that today. When should we check to see about putting on the honey >super (we >are using shallow frames as Mark is a kid and I have back trouble)? >We live in >the deep south (Jackson, MS) and have hot, hot summers. How soon >should I >check? I don't want to upset the bees. However, Mark is REALLY >interested in >checking out the bees. He had a really hard time waiting 2 1/2 weeks >to check >them the first time!!! > >We also need the name of a good beekeeping book for beginning >beekeepers. >Suggestions are eagerly awaited!! > >I would also like suggestions for good "bee" plants for my garden. I >am an >avid gardener, who became a beekeeper by default (but I am really >loving it--I >sort of feel like a farmer!) > >This list has been really helpful to me. > >Florence and Mark Cooper, New Beekeepers!! > ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 15 May 1997 10:34:45 -0500 Reply-To: tvf@umich.edu Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: "Theodore V. Fischer" Organization: University of Michigan Medical School Subject: Re: bee inspection MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit bartlett wrote: > > Had the Maryland state bee inspector here today. (southern maryland) > We inspected bees at several locations. We did ether rolls on some and > drone brood check on others and both on some. Apistan strips had been > used on all of my hives early this spring. NO VARROA MITES!!!! In Michigan, unfortunately, there is no longer any funding to support state bee inspections, so it's everyone for oneself now. However, in going through all my yards in seven different locations, I have yet to see a varroa mite this spring!! I basically pull out drone brood (the easiest ones to get to are those exposed between brood chambers), and in looking over hundreds of them I didn't see a mite. Every spring for some years now there have always been mites, usually at least one per cell and often many more. I haven't seen much on the list about currnet mite populations until this post. What are others seeing this year? Ted Fischer Dexter, Michigan USA ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 15 May 1997 11:24:59 -0500 Reply-To: tvf@umich.edu Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: "Theodore V. Fischer" Organization: University of Michigan Medical School Subject: Re: Prevention of ants MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Greg Hankins wrote: > How big a problem *are* ants? Aside from being counter-cosmetic, what kind > of damage are they likely to do to my bees or their products? I have one yard in which medium sized black and red ants are invading every hive. The bees retreat within the hive to avoid them and are gradually dwindling. I reduced the hive openings as small as possible (and blocked up all other cracks with duct tape) to try to discourage ants from entering the hive or using the opening used by bees. Masses of ants collect on the bottom boards and carry away pollen balls, granulated honey, dead bees, etc. I have not seen them actually attack bees in the hive but I do see them do this on the landing board and in the grass in front of the hive. They grab the bee's legs and the bee is defenseless against something that small. That is the worst case. The other ant problem I have quite often is with carpenter ants. They are large black ones which tunnel into the brood chamber and super wood, eventually rendering it too fragile to support an internal load. They nest in huge numbers on top of the inner cover, but whenever they are present the bees stop up the inner cover hole with propolis to keep them out of the hive. When I open the cover, however, this seal is broken and a living torrent of ants floods over and down the hive surface and also into the hole in the inner cover. I hate ants. Ted Fischer Dexter, Michigan USA ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 15 May 1997 14:20:21 EDT Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Robert E Neely Subject: Re: swarm vacuum I saw one in use by Dr. Jim Tew, Ohio State I believe. This was a video. He used a shipping box that packaged bees comes in. The type that screen wire has on both sides, wooden top with a hole in for removal. This displaces three frames in a deep brood. This was placed in a box that appeared to be a cut down deep brood chamber. There was a hole cut in the side facing the screen wire, to this was attached the suction hose from the "Shop Vac" There was a little space between the side and the screen to prevent the bees from being sucked tight against the screen. Next to this opening, approx. three inches was another hole about three inches in diameter. This had a flap attached with a bolt and a wingnut. This could be used to adjust the air flow to keep from sucking the bees too fast and hard. The lid of the box had an adapter for the hose to pick up the bees with. It was mounted right over the hole in the top of the shipping box. When the bees had been retrieved, you need to quickly open the box, place cover over hole in shipping box, remove it from the larger box, then spray bees with light sugar syrup to calm them down. The uses for this unit are only limited by your imagination. (Attach a twenty foot piece of schedule 40 PVC pipe and retrieve a swarm from up in a tree.) With a small generator it can be used where there is no power. I am doing this from memory so hope it doesn't confuse the issue. Good Luck! Bob Neely Goose Creek, SC USA neely-bee@juno.com On Sun, 11 May 1997 08:04:08 -0400 Cesar Flores writes: >I have decided to build my own bee vacuum instead of buying one! I am >perforating a 5 gal bucket with many small holes in the bottom, then >inserting it into another bucket. A bee collection hose leads into the >lid, a >vacuum hose from the bottom bucket creates suction to draw the swarm >into the >perforated bucket. Vacuum pressure generated by a reversed leaf >blower. >Comments? > ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 15 May 1997 13:31:09 CST6CDT Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: "Rodney L. Holloway" Organization: Ag. and Environmental Safety Subject: Re: (Fwd) Re: Buckfast Queens The following is a reply from Weaver Apiaries. > >B Weaver Apiaries, Inc. > Rt. 1, Box 256 > Navasota, TX 77868 > 409-825-7312 > > Will have Buckfast queens available up to October. > > ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 15 May 1997 16:01:13 -0300 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: "Liliana M. Gallez" Subject: Re: pfund color grader Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Pfund color grader manufacturer Here it is: Koehler Instrument Company, INC. 1595 Sycamore Avenue Bohemia, NY 11716 USA FAX: (516) 589-3815 Tel: (516) 589-3800 In october 1993 it costed, F.O.B. Bohemia, N.Y.: U$S 1181.00 I hope this will be usefull. Liliana At 16:40 13/05/97 +0200, you wrote: >I'm looking for the manufacturer's address of the Pfund color grader. If >someone could send me it, i would be grateful. > >Thanks in advance. > St=E9phane CAUHAPE, Quality department > BERNARD MICHAUD S.A - Juran=E7on - France > > ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 15 May 1997 14:48:53 -0600 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Charles Hatton Subject: Queen Exluders-Are they any good? Comments: To: "neely-bee@juno.com" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Dear Bob Neely, Thanks for all your info on Bee-L. I always look forward to reading = anything you have to say. I read a letter you sent to an 11 year old = young man that is just starting his first hive. My three daughters (11, = 10, and 8 years old) and I just started our first hive in April. I also = bought one for a high school senior down the street. This has been a = great thing in all of our lives. To that 11 year old young man, you said that he should use a queen = excluder. I was told by the store where I spent $600 for my two = unassembled hives, that a queen excluder will stop the other bees from = doing much up there. The lady at the shop said it really is a bee = excluder. I don't know what to do. Please advise.=20 A second problem I'm having is that of the two hives we built and bought = bees for, one of them has a personality of a mean wet cat and the other = is more like a friendly kitten. Why is this? I was thinking that if I = didn't do anything to the mean hive for six weeks, all the mean bees = would have been replaced by new young bees and the temperament might be = better. Is this true? Thanks again for all you add to Bee-L. Charles in Salt Lake City Charles@Apeleon.net ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 15 May 1997 18:03:03 -0400 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Ted Fischer Subject: Re: Queen Exluders-Are they any good? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Charles Hatton wrote: > To that 11 year old young man, you said that he should use a queen excluder. I was told by the store where I spent $600 for my two unassembled hives, that a queen excluder will stop the other bees from doing much up there. The lady at the shop said it really is a bee excluder. I don't know what to do. Please advise. > There is a lot said that is just plain rubbish, and this surely falls in that category. I have raised bees with and without queen excluders, and can assure you that the bees certainly have no problem at all getting through the excluder. I use them because I cannot tolerate brood in the honey supers. There is often no brood there because the queen doesn't like to past honey filled comb, but it does happen often enough to be a problem to me. Therefore I always use the excluder and harvest up to 175 lbs. honey per colony. Ted Fischer Dexter, Michigan USA ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 15 May 1997 18:25:55 -0400 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Ian Watson Subject: Re: bee inspection Comments: To: tvf@umich.edu MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit ---------- > From: Theodore V. Fischer > To: BEE-L@CNSIBM.ALBANY.EDU > Subject: Re: bee inspection > Date: Thursday, May 15, 1997 11:34 AM > In Michigan, unfortunately, there is no longer any funding to support > state bee inspections, so it's everyone for oneself now. However, in > going through all my yards in seven different locations, I have yet to > see a varroa mite this spring!! I basically pull out drone brood (the > easiest ones to get to are those exposed between brood chambers), and > in looking over hundreds of them I didn't see a mite. Every spring > for some years now there have always been mites, usually at least one > per cell and often many more. I haven't seen much on the list about > currnet mite populations until this post. What are others seeing this > year? > While going through my hives yesterday, I found quite a lot of drone brood on the bottoms of the frames, so I removed them with my hive tool. Upon opening a number of them, I only found one mite, but I'm sure it wasn't a proper survey. But it still looks good. I had left the Apistan strips in all winter and just removed them. Also, to those out there with whom I write to outside of the list, I have a new email address because I changed internet providers. I can't seem to make my old email account automatically forward everything here, so I hope I don't miss any mail. On the plus side, I now run Internet Explorer, which means I can now see all of the wonderful Beekeeping Pages out there...:) Cheers, Ian realtor@niagara.com (formerly iwatson@freenet.npiec.on.ca) ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 15 May 1997 22:58:41 +0200 Reply-To: jtemp@xs4all.nl Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Jan Tempelman Organization: Home Subject: Am. plants names? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-2 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Who can help my with some Am. plants names? I needs the Am. names ( on the xxxx ) of the plants in http://www.xs4all.nl/~jtemp/sugar.html -- Jan Tempelman / Ineke Drabbe | EMAIL:jtemp@xs4all.nl Sterremos 16 3069 AS Rotterdam, The Netherlands Tel/Fax (SOMETIMES) XX 31 (0)10-4569412 homepage webside: http://www.xs4all.nl/~jtemp/index2.html with some pages in english on solitary bees. NEW PAGES ON THE FIGHT ON THE VARROA MITES. http://www.xs4all.nl/~jtemp/dronemethod.html ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 15 May 1997 19:10:17 -0500 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Conrad Sigona Subject: Re: Am. plants names? Comments: To: Jan Tempelman In-Reply-To: <337B78FF.72FA@xs4all.nl> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII > I needs the Am. names ( on the xxxx ) of the plants in > http://www.xs4all.nl/~jtemp/sugar.html Here's a few Salvia Sage Solidago Goldenrod (but I don't know about the virgaura variety) Trifolio repens White Clover Melilotus officialis Yellow Sweet Clover Lythrum salicaria Purple Loosestrife Fagopyrum esculentum judging from your Dutch, it's probably buckwheat Conrad Sigona conrad@ntcnet.com ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 15 May 1997 20:09:05 -0600 Reply-To: allend@internode.net Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology Comments: Authenticated sender is From: Allen Dick Organization: The Beekeepers Subject: Re: bee inspection In-Reply-To: <337B2D15.723F@umich.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT > However, in going through all my yards in seven different locations, I > have yet to see a varroa mite this spring!! I basically pull out drone > brood (the easiest ones to get to are those exposed between brood > chambers), and in looking over hundreds of them I didn't see a mite. > Every spring for some years now there have always been mites, usually at > least one per cell and often many more. I haven't seen much on the list > about currnet mite populations until this post. What are others seeing > this year? I'm curious: To those reporting no mites, what treatments are being used? Is anyone *not* using Apistan, and finding no mites in hives that had them previously? Allen ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 15 May 1997 23:36:51 +0000 Reply-To: barry@birkey.com Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Barry Birkey Organization: BIRKEY.COM Subject: Re: bee inspection MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Allen Dick wrote: > > > However, in going through all my yards in seven different locations, I > > have yet to see a varroa mite this spring!! I basically pull out drone > > brood (the easiest ones to get to are those exposed between brood > > chambers), and in looking over hundreds of them I didn't see a mite. > > Every spring for some years now there have always been mites, usually at > > least one per cell and often many more. I haven't seen much on the list > > about currnet mite populations until this post. What are others seeing > > this year? > > I'm curious: To those reporting no mites, what treatments are being used? > > Is anyone *not* using Apistan, and finding no mites in hives that had them > previously? > > Allen Allen - I used Apistan for the required time starting Sept. 1 last fall and won't use it again till this coming Sept. I find no mites this time of year and haven't in the past till about the first of Aug. -Barry -- Barry Birkey West Chicago, Illinois USA barry@birkey.com http://www.birkey.com ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 07:55:36 +0200 Reply-To: beeman@kuai.se Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: P-O Gustafsson Subject: Styrofoam Hives MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > > A while back some discussion began on plastic equipment,but did not > go very far. > > It seems there would be a demand for such a product,it is successful in > Europe.I use Kelly's plastic outer and inner covers,as well as their > plastic bottom boards,and I really like them.I would be interested in > obtaining brood boxes and supers of the same material. > I'm not sure there is the same material that we have in Europe. Our hives are made from high density styrofoam, so they will insulate the bees in winter without any extra wrapping. The whole hive is made from it, and only the frames are made from wood. Styrofoam will not warp or change with time, we have commersial beekeepers that's been using them for 20+ years, and those hives will last another 20. They are a little bit sensitive to rough handeling for example when it comes to breaking boxes apart, but with suitable tools it's not a big problem. I'm not using an inner cover during summer, just the lid. In vinter it's convenient to have a thin 0,20 mm vinyl plastic under the lid. That makes it possible to check the bees without disturbing them. There will also be less burr comb made under the feeder and easier to remove it after autumn feeding. Just fold back a part of the plastic where the bees can walk up into the feeder. A draw back is the high price. But when you start calculating what the price for extra winter wrapping including labor costs will end up to after 20 years I belive the price isn't that high any more. I'm using a compromise, bottom, lid, and 2 or 3 boxes on each hive from styrofoam, and the honey supers made from wood. That way I have good insulation during winter/spring and cheaper boxes for honey storage during summer. Another advantage is that it's easier to repair a styrofoam hive part compared to wood. Any broken parts can be glued together again, and holes repaired with putty. When theese hives don't hold any moisture in the material, and don't vary in weight due to moisture content, it's easy to judge the amount of feed in the hives just by lifting them. The hive itself is only a few kg, and it's really easy to get a feeling for how much is left in it. I have some pictures on my homepage if someone is interested and want to have a look. -- Regards P-O Gustafsson, Sweden beeman@kuai.se http://www.kuai.se/~beeman/ ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 10:05:54 GMT Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Steve Pearce Organization: Dept of Biochemistry Subject: Re: queen excluders Hi Charles I have used excluders and no excluders, and find that the queen does not like to lay eggs in honey supers which have already been drawn very deep by the use of wide frame spacing in a previous years super. So this is what I do... If I have foundation, I use an excluder and narrow frame spacing, once drawn and filled with honey, I extract it and then put it back with wide frame spacing, they then draw it out into big fat combs of honey. These can then be put back on without much fear of the queen wanting to lay eggs in them. I also find excluders essential where I am trying to get comb honey, as any brood wrecks this, as even when honey is stored in the cell which has once had brood, the pupa cases still remain...yuk! On thepoint of mean bees, My bees are all raised by myself, and therefore have questionable parentage, with the feral/wild bees mixing with various commercial strains people bring in. This leads to bees of many differrent "personalities" with bees of the same strength, age etc being very differrent. Some are so docile, you could look at them in your underwear, whereas along the line, some others are really quite nasty. This has advantages however, as you can choose which ones to put in your garden, and those to put in other peoples gardens! The temperament is down to many things, but mastly the genetic make-up, and the young bees will eventually grow into old stingers, so a colony has it's basic personality , and can only change by requeening with a gentle strain, and will not change by the bees growing up(unless it is requeened) Anyway, hope this helps. If you want hints on requeening aggressive colonies, then get back to me as there was considerable discussion last year on this, and I have some old mails somewhere. (This is all probably far to fiddly for the commercial guys) Take care Steve ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 15 May 1997 06:34:43 -0600 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Judy Spradley Subject: BEES:how to treat beestings? Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I am a newbie beekeeper looking for info on treating beestings. I understand the part about scraping the stinger out. My question is how do you cope with/treat the swelling/itching that goes on for 3 or 4 days after the fact? The itching is AWFUL. I tried an over the counter antihistamine last time and that helped some. Is there any topical ointment that is effective? My bee books don't address the subject. (must be some macho beekeeper thing). Judy, A Displaced Texan in PA IRON ACRES: Where the water is red & the grass is green! ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 07:43:07 -0400 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Frank & Phronsie Humphrey Subject: Re: queen excluders MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit ---------- > From: Steve Pearce > To: BEE-L@CNSIBM.ALBANY.EDU > Subject: Re: queen excluders > Date: Friday, May 16, 1997 6:05 AM > > Hi Charles > > I have used excluders and no excluders, and find that the queen does not like to lay eggs in honey > supers which have already been drawn very deep by the use of wide frame spacing in a previous years > Steve Hi all I use single brood chambers and must use Queen excluders. I have tried using deep combs but the queen simply lays drone eggs in them and the bees happily raise them. I get 3 or 4 supers of honey off single brood chamber colonies in a very short season so I don't believe anyone can convince me that excluders are bad. Frank & Phronsie Humphrey beekeepr@cdc.net ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 09:14:46 -0500 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: "James C. King" Subject: Introducing Virgin Queens Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I just rasised some queen cells that I could not introduce to nucs as ripe cells because of rain. The cells emerged in protectors in my incubator. The following day I introduced them directly to two frames nucs above division boards. Acceptance appears poor. I would appreciate any advice on introducing virgin queens. thanks. Jim King, Riegelsville, PA ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 08:39:43 -0600 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Eric Abell Subject: Re: Apologies Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" At 08:46 AM 13/05/97 -0400, you wrote: >Please excuse the misdirested seach request that preceded this message. > >BTW, I find the ability to search the BEE-L database very very valuable. >Much thanks to whomever is responsible for this service. > >Greg > >______________________________________________________________ >Greg Hankins Montgomery Herald >ghankins@ac.net Troy, North Carolina >Voice: (910)576-6051 Fax: (910)576-1050 > How do I go about searching this database? Eric Eric Abell Gibbons, Alberta Canada T0A 1N0 Ph/fax (403) 998 3143 eabell@compusmart.ab.ca ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 11:00:45 -0500 Reply-To: Conrad Sigona Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Conrad Sigona Subject: Re: BEES:how to treat beestings? In-Reply-To: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII > I am a newbie beekeeper looking for info on treating beestings. I > understand the part about scraping the stinger out. My question is how do > you cope with/treat the swelling/itching that goes on for 3 or 4 days after > the fact? The itching is AWFUL. I tried an over the counter antihistamine > last time and that helped some. Is there any topical ointment that is > effective? My bee books don't address the subject. (must be some macho > beekeeper thing). You swell the most with your first few stings. Thereafter, it gets much better, eventually to the point where you don't even notice being stung (not because you've died, however). Conrad Sigona conrad@ntcnet.com ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 15:21:53 GMT Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Steve Pearce Organization: Dept of Biochemistry Subject: Excluders Hi all I use single brood chambers and must use Queen excluders. I have tried using deep combs but the queen simply lays drone eggs in them and the bees happily raise them. I get 3 or 4 supers of honey off single brood chamber colonies in a very short season so I don't believe anyone can convince me that excluders are bad. Frank & Phronsie Humphrey beekeepr@cdc.net Dear Humphreys et. al, ON the subject of excluders...contd... By deep I didn't mean deep as in long deep frames, I meant deep as in thick, ie. the space between the frames is thick and the cells are therefore deep. In my experience the queen doesn't lay in these. I agree however that exluders are a must if you use narrow spacing throughout or do not allow the super combs to become significantly thick. Another thing I find, which must apply to everyone is that not having to buy excluders saves me A, quite a lot of money, and B,the hassle of fiddling about with them. That for me is two good reasons not to bother with them. Anyway, stick to what works for you!! All the best Steve ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 08:39:45 -0700 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: "Paul Cronshaw, D.C." Subject: The ideal Swarm Pickup Box In-Reply-To: <199705160403.VAA29328@beach.silcom.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I picked up swarm #18 in a back yard today, about the size of a volleyball, clustered 10 ft up in a magnolia tree. For those of you who are into removing those large clusters of bees......you know the ones that are the size of basketballs and larger :)... I highly recommend using a copy paper box as a temporary hive. Keep a couple on hand in your vehicle during the swarming season. Cut a small opening at the bottom of the box to create an entrance for the bees. These boxes are perfect size to put a 9 5/8 frame diagonally, and the top is just like a telescoping hive cover. Not to mention that it is light and easy to transport up and down a ladder. I suggest having a few bungie cords on hand to wrap the box onto a branch to keep it from falling. Come back at night when all the bees are inside clustering around the frame. Tape up the entrance and then transport back to you apiary. Lift off the top and you will note that the bees have started making comb on the frame. Put the frame with clustered bees into a hive box and then turn the box upside down and hit the bottom to dislodge the bees from the copy box into their new permanent home. To get those really high swarms, put a frame of uncapped brood into the copy box and hoist it up to the bees. OR I like the idea that was mentioned on this list about getting a long pole with a bee vac. Picking up swarms is a great way to increase your apiary numbers and provides a much needed community service. And I don't charge for swarm gathering either. I consider it a community service. The PR is fantastic!! Paul Cronshaw, D.C. Cyberchiro and Hobbyist Beekeeper Santa Barbara, CA USA ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 18:09:40 +0000 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology Comments: Authenticated sender is From: Joe Hemmens Subject: Searching the Bee-l listserv MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Hi, In response to a request for information on how to search the Bee-l archives... I seem to remember that somewhere (maybe Allen D can help here) it is possible to search Bee-l archives on a Web page. However the following may help and can be used for any listserv with the search components installed provided that they are modified accordingly. The following examples are for searching the Bee-l listserv, the address is - LISTSERV@CNSIBM.ALBANY.EDU The following examples should be placed in the message body, the subject header may be left blank. Don't send searches to 'the list' (BEE-L@CNSIBM.ALBANY.EDU)! Listservs are picky about the language that you use to talk to them, so I suggest that if you are interested in searching the Bee-l archives you keep this message and then copy and paste as appropriate. The following examples will return the individual posts in one file. If you wish to see the subject headers of the posts before obtaining them individually then omit the last line in each example and refer to the last example for retrieving individual posts. I find that I get a response from the Bee-l listserv very quickly - usually within a few seconds, but this will depend on your ISP. I recommend trying the listserv search facilities because the archives have a goldmine of useful beekeeping information and many questions have already been answered. Joe SEARCHING FOR MESSAGES THAT CONTAIN A SPECIFIC WORD Example -------------------------------------------------------- //SEARCH JOB ECHO=YES DATABASE SEARCH DD=RULES CPULIM=10:000 OUTLIM=6000 //Rules DD * SEARCH VARROA IN BEE-L INDEX PRINT ------------------------------------------------------------------- USING DATES Example -------------------------------------------------------- //SEARCH JOB ECHO=YES DATABASE SEARCH DD=RULES CPULIM=10:000 OUTLIM=6000 //Rules DD * SEARCH VARROA IN BEE-L SINCE 01-AUG-96 INDEX PRINT ------------------------------------------------------------------- The following date/time examples are valid- FROM 14 july TO oct 87. SINCE 86 UNTIL 23-JUN-87 SINCE today 11:30 SEARCHING BY SENDER In order to retrieve messages by sender it is necessary to be accurate when specifying the name. The best way to do this is to send a single line message to LISTSERV@CNSIBM.ALBANY.EDU containing the line REVIEW BEE-L. This will return a list of the names and addresses of all the list subscribers (apart from those who wish to remain anon.). I have found that using the address from the left margin as far as the '@' sign will do the trick. Make sure to use the SaMe CaSe. So it might be 'john.major', or if Tony Blair has a CompuServ address then '106123.1234' for example. Example -------------------------------------------------------- //SEARCH JOB ECHO=YES DATABASE SEARCH DD=RULES CPULIM=10:000 OUTLIM=6000 //Rules DD * SEARCH * IN BEE-L WHERE SENDER CONTAINS (john.major) INDEX PRINT ------------------------------------------------------------------- BUT if you write a complex search that exceeds the length of one line it must be split up in such a way to let the Listserv know that the next line is a continuation of the previous. The way to do this is to finish the line with a space and a hyphen and start the new line with a space. Example -------------------------------------------------------- //SEARCH JOB ECHO=YES DATABASE SEARCH DD=RULES CPULIM=10:000 OUTLIM=6000 //Rules DD * SEARCH VARROA IN BEE-L - WHERE SENDER CONTAINS (john.major) - SINCE 01-AUG-1996 INDEX PRINT ------------------------------------------------------------------- SEARCHING FOR MESSAGES THAT CONTAIN PARTICULAR WORDS IN THE SUBJECT Example -------------------------------------------------------- //SEARCH JOB ECHO=YES DATABASE SEARCH DD=RULES CPULIM=10:000 OUTLIM=6000 //Rules DD * SEARCH * IN BEE-L - WHERE SUBJECT CONTAINS 'VARROA' - SINCE 01-OCT-91 INDEX PRINT ------------------------------------------------------------------- RETRIEVING INDIVIDUAL POSTS Example -------------------------------------------------------- //SEARCH JOB ECHO=YES DATABASE SEARCH DD=RULES CPULIM=10:000 OUTLIM=6000 //Rules DD * SEARCH * IN BEE-L PRINT xxxx, xxxx, xxxx ------------------------------------------------------------------- ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 13:20:39 -0400 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: David Verville Subject: Re: The ideal Swarm Pickup Box MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Paul Cronshaw, D.C. wrote: > > I picked up swarm #18 in a back yard today, about the size of a volleyball, > clustered 10 ft up in a magnolia tree. > > For those of you who are into removing those large clusters of > bees......you know the ones that are the size of basketballs and larger > :)... I highly recommend using a copy paper box as a temporary hive. I highly recommend that you try the "MDM Splitter" as advertised in the current Bee Culture magazine. They fold flat and don't take up much room. You can put one together in about 3 minutes using duct tape. I keep a few behind the truck's seat just in case I get a swarm call. I reuse them every year making splits and starting nucs. They are great and not that expensive. Dave Verville ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 20:29:39 +0000 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology Comments: Authenticated sender is From: Christian Maier-Ramnfs Subject: mystic queen infertility MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT I have a special problem with 4 of my 30 hives. All my queens had startet to lay eggs in the early spring (end of feb.). Than after i moved all of my hives to another place (in middle of march) it seemed that i lost 4 queens; there was no eggs in the hives and som time later there slip drones out of the worker cells and there was also more than one egg/cell, also on the cellwalls. I thougt i just lost my queens and a worker bee started to lay eggs, or maybe a new young queen. Next time i would ally the wrong hives with som healthy i noticed some (regular, the old ones) queens in three of the 4 hives and they allready lay eggs TOTALY NORMAL (one egg/cell on the cellground), so i think the queens are working again. Until now tehre are only open breed so i dont know the result of the "new" eggs. Do someone have experience with coincidence like this or a idea what the cause for a temporally infertility could bee? For me it`s a mystery. best regards Christian ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 15:05:41 -0500 Reply-To: beeworks@muskoka.net Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology Comments: Authenticated sender is From: David Eyre Organization: The Beeworks Subject: Re: Introducing Virgin Queens In-Reply-To: <199705161314.JAA25481@mail.enter.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT On 16 May 97 at 9:14, James C. King wrote: Introducing Virgin Queens > cells because of rain. The cells emerged in protectors in my incubator. > The following day I introduced them directly to two frames nucs above > division boards. Acceptance appears poor. I would appreciate any advice > on introducing virgin queens. thanks. The introduction of virgin queens is one of the trickiest manipulations for a keeper to perform.....consistently. Failures can often be traced to the ignoring of a 'Golden rule'. It is simply "Like replaces Like" explanation:- If the hive is recently de-queened and still has open brood and eggs, don't try to introduce a virgin, you could introduce a laying queen, but not a virgin. The hive configuration has to be as Mother Nature intended virgins to be in a hive, all sealed brood, after swarming is the ideal time, before mating. One way that I use to introduce a virgin. Make up a nuc even with eggs, when the emergency cells are ready to emerge, cut them out, shake the bees up, when they roar run a virgin in the front door. The bees are waiting for a virgin to emerge, and so will accept the new one without question. Another way. Make up a nuc, wait 4 days, cut out emergency cells, now introduce a virgin in a cage, the bees will eat her out. One more. Make up a nuc, make absolutely certain there is no open brood, eggs or larvae, wait 24 hours, spray the bees and new queen with sugar syrup flavoured with one of the strong food flavourings, vanilla, etc. The bees are so busy cleaning up that they accept the virgin easily. Of course the very best way is for the virgin to emerge within the nuc. But even here troubles can arise. If the bees are not queenless for any length of time they will sometimes break down the cell, then the ideal way is to use a cell protector every time and play safe, as they never kill an emerged virgin. It never ceases to amaze me how many keepers use unprotected cells, just to save 10cents on cell protectors. In this case perhaps the author should have got his umbrella out and prevented all his problems. ********************************************************* The Bee Works, 9 Progress Drive Unit 2, Orillia, Ontario, Canada. L3V 6H1 David Eyre, Owner. Phone/Fax 705 326 7171 Dealers for E.H.Thorne & B.J.Sherriff UK http://www.muskoka.net/~beeworks ********************************************************* ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 15:05:43 -0500 Reply-To: beeworks@muskoka.net Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology Comments: Authenticated sender is From: David Eyre Organization: The Beeworks Subject: Re: BEES:how to treat beestings? In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT On 15 May 97 at 6:34, Judy Spradley wrote: BEES:how to treat beestings? > understand the part about scraping the stinger out. My question is how do > you cope with/treat the swelling/itching that goes on for 3 or 4 days after > the fact? The itching is AWFUL. I tried an over the counter antihistamine > last time and that helped some. Is there any topical ointment that is > effective? My bee books don't address the subject. (must be some macho > beekeeper thing). I have found the best, cheapest and easiest stuff to use is Bicarbonate of Soda. It's the stuff made by Arm and Hammer to put in the fridge to keep smells down. A few years ago, I had a hole in my veil, at the back of my head. Dealing with a nasty angry hive I got loads of bees in my veil. To cut a long story short, Bicarb was wetted to make a paste and plastered on the 30+ stings around my ears and neck. It really helped to cool things down, including my temper!!!!! ********************************************************* The Bee Works, 9 Progress Drive Unit 2, Orillia, Ontario, Canada. L3V 6H1 David Eyre, Owner. Phone/Fax 705 326 7171 Dealers for E.H.Thorne & B.J.Sherriff UK http://www.muskoka.net/~beeworks ********************************************************* ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 18:20:27 -0400 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Harry Sweet Subject: Do You Want a Dead Queen? Was someone looking for a few dead queens? Harry Sweet N. California ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 19:18:44 -0400 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: John Moore Subject: MOLDY SUPERS I find the BEE-L very informitive. I just took out my shallows that I had stored this year in a root celar. At first glance I thought wax moths at attacked them. They have a mold on them, and some had like a cob web. My question is can the bees clean this up . John Moore N. Smithfield, RI 3rd Year 10 Hives+ 10 packages installed just after the April Fools Blizard of 97 in Beautiful Sunny Southern New England ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 21:19:55 -0700 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: "Paul Cronshaw, D.C." Subject: The Keeper of the Bees. Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/enriched; charset="us-ascii" I know that Brother Adam has been discussed at length on this list, and more recently there has been a request for Buckfast queens. A friend of mine handed me a copy of an article on Brother Adam written in the "World Press Review" Jan 1997 issue. I have OCR'ed it FYI. My question is: who is continuing his work? Paul Cronshaw DC Cyberchiro and Hobbyist Beekeeper Santa Barbara, CA USA **** GenevaKeeper of the Bees Brother Adam, who has died at the age of 98, was once described as the Einstein of beekeeping. A Benedictine monk, he had been in charge of beekeeping at BuckAbbey in Devon since 1919. He achieved world fame as the breeder of the Buckfast superbee, for which he combed the Mediterranean countries and Africa in his search for suitable genetic material. The bee combined all the qualities most sought by beekeepers: a reluctance to swarm or sting and, when managed in the right way, an ability to produce large quantities of surplus honey. Born in Germany as Karl Kehrle, Brother Adam entered Buckfast Abbey at the age of 11. His reputation was already growing when in the 1920s he became involved in the Ministry of Agriculture's restocking scheme, following the ravages of the so-called Isle of Wight disease, which wiped out almost every bee colony in Britain. Brother Adam's Buckfast bee, which earned hundreds of thousands of pounds for the abbey in reproduction royalties, revolutionized honey production around the world. But Adam's work came to a halt in 1992 following an acrimonious difference with the newly elected Abbot of Buckfast, David Charlesworth. At the time, the superbee's resistance to the disease acarine had already been academically certified, and Brother Adam had begun preparations toward the development of a bee with genetically based resistance to Varroa jacobsoni, a killer infestation affecting bees in many parts of the world. But after suffering a minor heart attack in 1991, Brother Adam requested an assistant and nominated a man who could have taken on much of the heavy work: Michael van der Zee, a Dutchman who visited Buckfast regularly for 20 years to help him and had once carried the old man in a cane chair strapped to his back on an expedition to Kilimanjaro in search of one particular bee. His choice was rejected, and Brother Adam resigned his duties. The move caused outrage in Europe and North America, where beekeepers threatened to withhold substantial royalties unless the old man's work was reinstated. But the Abbot of Buckfast remained unmoved. "Brother Adam is a member of this community, and I am sure that having been so for over 80 years he would consider himself a monk first and a beekeeper second," he said. "His work is unique," he conceded,"but . . . I do not think that any reasonable person could imagine that any other institution would have supported him in this way." Publicly, Brother Adam seemed to continue as before: accepting invitations to meetings and addressing beekeepers around the world. Privately, he was deeply hurt. He was a prolific letter-writer; one could expect a typed reply almost by return post. His ambition was to live to 100. After receiving the last rites on several occasions and making seemingly miraculous recoveries, it looked as though his ambition might be achieved. But he died on September 1 in a Devon nursing home close to the abbey. Unless someone continues where Brother Adam was compelled to stop, and develops a bee with built-in resistance to Varroa, honey producers will be forced to continue the chemical treatment of bees and hives, while the answer to Varroa-once tantalizingly close-continues to elude them. Brother Adam might have provided that answer. -Kevin Rowntree, "The Guardian" (liberal), London, Sept 3, 1996. ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 22:07:27 -0700 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Larry Lindahl of AGF 722-2825 FAX 746-1292 Subject: ANTS MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Greetings from Vancouver Island Ant Control Make a dry mixture of powdered sugar and cement for concrete ( 1 to 1 ) and put the mixture it in any form of container that will keep it dry in the apiary, accessible only to the ants. Do not allow it to get wet before the ants take it and do not try it on yourself. A little patience and the ants will soon disappear. Cheers!! Larry Lindahl llindahl@galaxy.gov.bc.ca ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 17 May 1997 05:42:05 -0400 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Trevor Weatherhead Subject: Re: Introduction of virgin queens David go it right when it said it is hard to introduce virgin queens. I would endorse getting the umbrella out as I have had a lot of experience under an umbrella in the rain. Queen rearing has to be carried out on the day. No time to procrastinate. On the introduction side, I have introduced emerging queens into a nuc from which the queen bee has just been caught many times with success. Maybe it is the disruption of catching the queen that increases the acceptance. Brian Sherriff from England told me several years ago that he used to buy virgin queens and introduce them to queenless nucs. As I recall it he had a queenless nuc (not sure how long it had been queenless) and went to the nuc just after dark and ran the virgin in with the aid of a little smoke. Brian said he had good success rates. Also I have found that if the virgin queen is older i.e say 6 days as against 1 or 2 days, the acceptance rate is better. Hope the above helps. Trevor Weatherhead AUSTRALIA ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 17 May 1997 21:01:58 +0900 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: j h & e mcadam Subject: Re: BEES:how to treat beestings? Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Judy wrote: >I am a newbie beekeeper looking for info on treating beestings. I >understand the part about scraping the stinger out. My question is how do >you cope with/treat the swelling/itching that goes on for 3 or 4 days after >the fact? The itching is AWFUL. I tried an over the counter antihistamine >last time and that helped some. Is there any topical ointment that is >effective? My bee books don't address the subject. (must be some macho >beekeeper thing). Judy, After 100 or 200 stings you either won't feel a thing (after the initial prick) or you will give up beekeeping, heh, heh, heh. However in the meantime, make a paste with bicarbonate of soda and a little water and spread over the sting area - it does stop the itching. I found that the sting brought itself back to my attention when I absentmindedly scratched the itch. Re-apply as necessary - no need to expensive antihistamines. HOG BAY APIARY Penneshaw, Kangaroo Island j.h. & e. mcadam Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: "JG~NY" Subject: Re: Excluders In-Reply-To: <2CE98B964E0@bad.dundee.ac.uk> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Excluders are a "must" if you are running single brood chambers (Langstroth or smaller anyway). If you can tolerate a bit of brood in the first honey super, early on, you don't usually *need* them for double- or triple-brood chamber hives. The brood in the honey super eventually gets replaced with just honey. At least that seems to work well here. It is good, as we don't have to worry about the bees sulking below the excluder, & procrastinating in getting to work in the first supers. Then, too, with an early nectar flow the bees will fill the upper part of the brood nest with honey, and the queens will not get to lay in the first supers. This is the situation during some springs. One recommendation I can offer, fwiw: Go with the metal-bound wire excluders. The wooden-rimmed ones cause way too much burr-combing, as they result in too large a bee space on one side or the other. The metal-bound ones stay much cleaner, and besides, the wooden rims tend to rot and fall off anyway. The metal ones are cheaper, as well. my two cents... best wishes Joel Govostes Freeville, NY ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 17 May 1997 09:47:49 EDT Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Aaron D Wolfenbarger Subject: BEES:how to treat beestings? <<>> I use amonia when I get stung.What I do is just rub the amonia with a cotton swab or paper towel or whatever. It helps tremendusly. If you get it on within a few minutes it does not swell or itch at all. I don't know why but maybe some of our scientists out there can help with that. Aaron Wolfenbarger 1st Year 2 est. hives and 1 swarm Clinton, TN (mom and dad on homestead work and homestead) ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 17 May 1997 07:52:43 -0600 Reply-To: allend@internode.net Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology Comments: Authenticated sender is From: Allen Dick Organization: The Beekeepers Subject: Re: Introduction of virgin queens, cells, nucs In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT > On the introduction side, I have introduced emerging queens into a nuc from > which the queen bee has just been caught many times with success. Maybe it is > the disruption of catching the queen that increases the acceptance. I don't claim to be an expert on this: maybe I'm just lucky. My understanding was that virgins lose acceptibility to the bees rapidly after emergence, so have never presumed to try to introduce an older virgin (more than a few hours old), except at swarming time when I have found them emerging or running around in a hive and grabbed a few to use later in the day elsewhere in my travels. At such times I can't recall ever having trouble with acceptance, but then again, I did not check back *too* carefully. I think I would have noticed though if there had been problems. In our queen rearing, on the other hand, we have been presented with emerging virgins a number of times when schedules get loused up for whatever reason, and again, we have not had much trouble having them accepted in either baby or 2 and three frame nucs. Again, though I did not presume to hold them more than a few hours, and after all these years, I guess the things that David was saying come naturally and I may have met the conditions without thinking consciously. At any rate, I cannot recall having had problems with rejection of virgins to the extend I have occasionally had problems with rejection of mated queeens - even after long and careful introductions, sometimes. To my taste there is nothing easier to introduce than a cell. David hit the nail on the head when he mentioned cell protectors. We use the JayZee BeeZee ones - the larger two tang ones are better if the cells are a decent size - and even put them on the cells *as soon as they are capped* in the cell holding colonies if there is any chance of a stray queen or early emergence. (Note: Jean-Marie sent me some European cell protectors, and I think we decided that the JayZee BeeZee are superior. I believe he purchased some subsequently). We stick cells into anything. Particularly, we like to make two frame splits above an excluder. We slip in a division board and introduce a cell all in one second trip. Acceptance and success is fairly close to the average acceptance level (for us) of mated queens, and cost is much less. Any duds we use as seconds on the successful ones when we move them out, so nothing is lost. As for introduction time, we find cells result in laying queens 11 days later about 75% of the time or better. With mated queeens on the other hand, typical release is *at least four days* and often seven, and I can't count on finding the queen laying until at least a week after introduction. I often wait the same ten or eleven days, since the release rate is so variable. Thus the difference between cells and queens is not great, and although that can be significant sometimes, on average, it is not important. I do direct release queens sometimes to cut the time, but it is time consuming, since much more attention must be paid, and weather and time of day are huge (uncontrollable) factors. > Also I have found that if the virgin queen is older i.e say 6 days as against > 1 or 2 days, the acceptance rate is better. I really can't recall having any virgins that old and can't comment. One reason is that I assumed that virgins that old are near the end of their mating window and risky. Allen ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 17 May 1997 10:43:12 EDT Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: "Steven A. Creasy" Subject: Re: BEES:how to treat beestings? Aaron Wolfenbarger Wrote: >>I use amonia when I get stung.What I do is just rub the amonia with a cotton swab or paper towel or whatever. It helps tremendusly. If you get it on within a few minutes it does not swell or itch at all.<< I too use amonia. (Must be a Tennessee thang!) ;>) My wife bought me a product called After Bite - The Itch Eraser. It is basically a tube with a plastic applicator tip haveing a small hole in the center. Just shake-up, apply, & stop itching! The active ingredient....ammonia. One could refill the container with *much* cheaper store-bought ammonia when dry. The sting site will contain a small zit/pimple-like bump after a few hours. The pain does indeed become less noticable the more you get stung, but this is a great bridge until you get there! Steve Creasy- (\ Maryville, Tennessee USA {|||8- Proverbs 24:13, 25:16 (/ screasy@juno.com ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 22:44:13 -0700 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: "Paul Cronshaw, D.C." Subject: Single vs Double Brood Chambers In-Reply-To: <199705170403.VAA10727@beach.silcom.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Steve Pearce has reminded me to ask a question: I am curious.... Are most beekeepers still working with 2 brood chambers or is there a move to use single brood chamber to beat the mite? Paul Cronshaw DC Santa Barbara CA USA > From: Steve Pearce > To: BEE-L@CNSIBM.ALBANY.EDU > Subject: Re: queen excluders > Date: Friday, May 16, 1997 6:05 AM > > Hi Charles > > I have used excluders and no excluders, and find that the queen does not like to lay eggs in honey > supers which have already been drawn very deep by the use of wide frame spacing in a previous years > Steve Hi all I use single brood chambers and must use Queen excluders. I have tried using deep combs but the queen simply lays drone eggs in them and the bees happily raise them. I get 3 or 4 supers of honey off single brood chamber colonies in a very short season so I don't believe anyone can convince me that excluders are bad. Frank & Phronsie Humphrey beekeepr@cdc.net ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 23:25:03 -0700 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Roy Nettlebeck Subject: Observations in a Bee Hive MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Hello All, I have noticed the posts lately about hive inspection for Varroa. I would like to go futher into hive inspection. More of a Bee behavior observation. We all start with a hive and maybe a book. Then we start to look into the hive and see what is going on in there. It looks like Greek to most of us , bees walking around and maybe some eggs and larva. We see the queen and that makes us happy and egar to see how our hive will expand with this queen. Lets look at what problems we have at the get go. We are human and have a bias by the way we look at nature.You need to understand a little about how nature is balanced. If there is plenty of nectar and pollen the hive will expand with a good queen. Your ears are as important as your eyes when you are looking at a hive.If you look for a queen because of the lack of any eggs , listen to the sound that the bees make. Don't ever foreget that sound. It will save you a lot of time in the future. When you lift the lid you will know if the hive is queenless. When you look at your bees on a frame, notice how they walk and stand. They should be upright on there legs and not wobble on there leggs when they walk.You have to know what healthy Bees look like and how they act when you open them up. There is only one way to this, you have to pay attention to your bees. You must look at them and ask questions to yourself of what you see and hear. I had my hives open all the time for the first 2 years. The book says , don't disturb your bees very much. Well I blew that one big time. I had to learn what was going on in the hive.I did learn how to move slow and not open them up in bad weather. Now for over 30 years I have been learning more all the time. Bee behavior is very complex. You don't need to feel like you need a PhD. to know and enjoy your bees.You can do many things to expand your knowledge on honey bees. This list is very usefull. When I lost 50 of 80 of my hives 2 years ago to Varroa. I knew what I was going to do. I asked questions and found out what researchers were working on what , in regards to the mite. I did know that my bees died with more than one pathogen. I found out who was woking with Viruses and asked them questions. My bees died very fast , in fact some went down in 3 days. My mite count was not high enough to cause that to happen. ( 5 mites in 100 bees with an either roll ) No mites now on my bees and they are the strongest populations that I have ever had at this time of the year. I did evrything that I could think of in the fall to get them ready for winter. I lost 1 out of 50 do to the queen kept on laying during the winter. Since we cover the world with this list, we need to do the right thing for where we live. The enviornment is very important on how the bees behave.The important part is to be open to your bees and let them show you what they want. Don't go against them , because they will always win.You need to learn what they need and give it to them. When you see white comb on the top of the frames give them supers. You already lost some honey by leting them pull out new wax on old comb. To all the newbees , don't worry , we started at the same place. Look at them as a very important part of a bigger picture. We owe a lot to our bees. That is why we all need to pass on the word of how important they are to all of nature.We are doing a service by keeping bees. They are doing a service to us , showing us how wonderful and complex nature is to all of us. Ask questions and try to understand the bee from her prospective. Enjoy what we have been given to care for.We all have a lot to learn from the Honey Bee. Best Regards Roy ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 17 May 1997 14:29:48 EDT Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Richard E Leber Subject: Suppliers Hi Charles in Salt Lake City; My wife and I spent the day working three of our bee yards located on a loop-run of about fifty miles. After a shower I was checking my e-mail when I saw your inquire on the Bee-L concerning the use of queen excluders, but what really caught my attention was the $600 spent on two unassembled hives. Real estate prices in Salt Lake must be really extreme if you consider cost per square foot. Our local association provides a welcome packet to new members which includes an abbreviated list of suppliers as a starting point. I will include that list for your reference. All are reliable and usually can ship materials so we receive orders within three to four days. A few thoughts on the excluder question: (1) There are 3 styles of construction -- PLASTIC, too flimsy -- WOODEN Bound, requires painting and allows space for burr comb -- METAL Bound, my personal choice (2) "Honey" or "Bee" excluder reputation -- Maybe? But unless you are going for a world record production what little loss there is in honey is MORE than made up for when you don't have to worry about the Queen being in the super you just carried to the house to extract or the loss of any brood found in the super. It also makes for a cleaner appearance when the whole neighborhood is watching and wanting a piece of comb to chew. (3) One caution with their use -- If the first super above the excluder contains ONLY FOUNDATION leave the excluder out for the first few days to encourage the bee to start drawing out the comb, then you can slip in the excluder. The trick here is that the queen will usually not move onto the foundation until the cells are drawn out enough to lay in. (4) Excluders are designed with close tolerance measurements between the wires which restrict the movement of the Queen, but allow the workers to squeeze through. Be careful with that hive tool. If you bend the excluder it becomes almost worthless. Here is the supplier list A.I. Root Company P.O. Box 706 Medina, OH 44258 800-289-7668 Ext. 3219 Betterbee Inc. R.R. #4, Box 4070 Greenwich, NY 12834 800-632-3379 Brushy Mountain Bee Farm 610 Bethany Church Road Moravian Falls, NC 28654 800-233-7929 Dadant & Sons Inc. 51 South 2nd Street Hamilton, IL 62341 800-637-7468 Glorybee P.O. Box 2744 Eugene, OR 97402 800-456-7923 Groeb Farms Inc. 10464 Bryan Highway (P.O. Box 269) Onsted, MI 49265 517-467-2065 Lapp's Bee Supply Center 500 South Main Street (P.O. Box 460) Reeseville, WI 53579 800-321-1960 Mann Lake Ltd. County Road 40 & First Street Hackensack, MN 56452 800-233-6663 Rossman Apiaries Inc. P.O. Box 905 Moultrie, GA 31776 800-333-7677 Western Bee Supplies Inc. P.O. Box 190 Polson, MT 59860 800-548-8440 Walter T. Kelly Co. 3107 Elizabethtown Road Clarkson, KY 42726-0240 800-233-2899 All but one of these suppliers have 800 numbers and free catalogs. It will be worth your fifteen-twenty minutes to call and request their catalog and price lists. Best of Luck, Rick Leber, Beekeeping since 1987 Mobile, Alabama P.S. I tried to send this to Charles@apeleon.net, but mail was returned. ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 17 May 1997 15:08:28 -0700 Reply-To: mister-t@clinic.net Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Bill Truesdell Subject: Re: BEES:how to treat beestings? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Best guess as to the reason that both ammonia and baking soda relieve bee and other insect stings is that both are "bases" and counter the acids in the venom. There are lots of different acids in many insect stings (including non-insects like portugese man-of-war, a salt water creature) which when treated with a base, relieves the sting. Acid+ Base = a salt and water, so the acid is nutralized, at least what the base (ammonia) can get to. ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 17 May 1997 15:25:30 -0700 Reply-To: mister-t@clinic.net Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Bill Truesdell Subject: Dirty rotten frames MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Well, not maybe rotten, but covered with mildew and other black stuff. My dumb question is how bad is bad enough to get rid of a brood frame and start with new wood? Some frames are mildewed pretty bad on one end because of water damage this past winter where they were stored in a barn. I cannot get rid of the black in the wood without sanding them down I noticed in commercial hives most of the wood did not have the dark stain associated with mildew, dysentary or nosema. Do they bother to clean old frames that show dark stain? I replaced the "dirty" brood frames (seven years old) in one brood box in each hive with new wood last year and did not lose a hive. Plus had no dysentary or other problems this winter. The bees were tested and no tracheal mites were found. I feel like the best route is to get rid of the frames that do not come clean, but that seems a bit wasteful. I would appreciate your insight. Bill Truesdell Bath, ME ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 17 May 1997 09:24:27 +0100 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Paul Walton Subject: Re: Queen marking colors In-Reply-To: <970515.102100.EDT.SYSAM@cnsibm.albany.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 In article <970515.102100.EDT.SYSAM@cnsibm.albany.edu>, Aaron Morris writes >This year's color for queen marking is indeed yellow. The color scheme >is: >White for years ending in 1 and 6, >Yellow for years ending in 2 and 7, >Red for years ending in 3 and 8, >Green for years ending in 4 and 9 and >Blue for years ending in 5 and 0. > >There are two mnemonics to help in remembering this: >"When You Requeen Get the Best!" or "What!? You Raise Green Bees!?" >Personally I like the green bees, but I always try to get the best! > >Aaron Morris - thinking it's time to grow my own! Or, there is always: "Will You Raise Good Bees?". Are there any more out there ? -- Paul Walton Email : Paul@adrem.demon.co.uk Toddington, Bedfordshire, England. ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 17 May 1997 09:41:18 +0100 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Paul Walton Subject: Re: The Keeper of the Bees. In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 In article , "Paul Cronshaw, D.C." writes >I know that Brother Adam has been discussed at length on this list, and more >recently there has been a request for Buckfast queens. > >A friend of mine handed me a copy of an article on Brother Adam written in the >"World Press Review" Jan 1997 issue. I have OCR'ed it FYI. > >My question is: who is continuing his work? > >Paul Cronshaw DC >Cyberchiro and Hobbyist Beekeeper >Santa Barbara, CA USA > Peter Donovan, who was Brother Adams assistant for many years, is now the apiary manager at Buckfast Abbey. In fact, he gave two presentations ("My work with Brother Adam" and "Queen Rearing and Introduction") at the Spring Convention at Stoneleigh about a month ago. He assured the audience that he was continuing Brother Adams work in the way that Brother Adam had taught him. -- Paul Walton Email : Paul@adrem.demon.co.uk Toddington, Bedfordshire, England. ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 17 May 1997 18:44:51 -0800 Reply-To: beeman@Alaska.NET Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Tom & Carol Elliott Organization: Home Subject: Re: BEES:how to treat beestings? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit j h & e mcadam wrote: > After 100 or 200 stings you either won't feel a thing (after the initial > prick) or you will give up beekeeping, heh, heh, heh. I don't think that is strictly true. In the past 16 years I have gotten several hundred stings (many intentional, I must admit, for therapeutical purposes) and they still hurt. What has happened to me, is the psychological aspect of the sting has disappeared. It is simply a minor pain, among many minor pains we humans experience every day. I would prefer a bee sting to a paper cut any day. - - - - - - - - - - - - "Test everything. Hold on to the good." (1 Thessalonians 5:21) Tom Elliott Eagle River, Alaska U.S.A. beeman@alaska.net ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 17 May 1997 20:19:07 -0700 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Larry Lindahl of AGF 722-2825 FAX 746-1292 Subject: Fluvalinate In Beeswax MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Fluvalinate Content In Beeswax Over the past couple of years there has been expressed concern over the increase of the fluvalinate content in beeswax through the continued use of Apistan strips for the control of the Varroa mite. One of the recommendations for the use of the Apistan strips is to keep the strips away from exposure to sunlight as it will render the fluvalinate useless over a period of about two hours? Therefore my question to the Bee-L world, has any testing or research been done to reduce, disapate or eliminate the fluvalinate content in the wax by exposing comb or beeswax to sunlight or ultraviolet radiation? Would this work? Any Comments out there? Cheers!! Larry Lindahl District Apiculturtist for Vancouver Island RR #3, Tiesu Rd Ladysmith, BC, V0R 2E0 Phone (250) 722-2825 E-Mail: llindahl@galaxy.gov.bc.ca ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 04:14:21 GMT Reply-To: mjensen@crl.com Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Mark Jensen Organization: No Junk Mail Subject: Re: Single vs Double Brood Chambers In-Reply-To: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Fri, 16 May 1997 22:44:13 -0700, "Paul Cronshaw, D.C." wrote: >Are most beekeepers still working with 2 brood chambers or is there a = move >to use single brood chamber to beat the mite? I went to singles last year for ease of mite treatment and was amazed at how much easier everything has become. No noticable increase in swarming and, if any thing, even more honey. Lots of brood supers in storage for a while, but a real improvement to my beekeeping.=20 -- Mark Jensen Double J Apiaries mjensen@crl.com Los Altos Hills California fax 415 941-3488 ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 19:10:07 +1200 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: bates Subject: Re: Observation hive Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" There is an amazing observation hive in a bee shop near Warkworth, just north of Auckland New Zealand. This hive is installed in an inside wall of the shop, and consists of a full 30 frames set in the wall behind glass. They are arranged in a 6 (high) by 5 (wide) square. When I was there there were several active queens and also some virgins visable. The queens can (and do) move all over the frames, even encountering each other on occasions, according to the owner. The hive produces brood all year round, (admittedly our winters are pretty mild compared to the conditions I read about here that some of you endure). From memory there were entrances all along the bottom of the hive, on the outside wall of the shop. Well worth a look to anyone who passes this way. Cheers ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 03:53:32 -0400 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: David Doyle Subject: The one book that every serious ecologist needs to read!!! Comments: To: envstud-l@piper.hamline.edu, ESAC-L@yorku.ca, ar-views@envirolink.org, ESPRIT-L@listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu, bioregional@csf.colorado.edu, CLASS-L@ccvm.sunysb.edu, chameleon@orsp1.adm.binghamton.edu, hg-list@soils.umn.edu, NEONET-L@nic.surfnet.nl, ET-PARTI@searn.sunet.se, CAVNET@uvvm.uvic.ca, LPN-L@brownvm.brown.edu, RainForest@gdarwin.cox.miami.edu, hellbenders@envirolink.org, ELAN@csf.colorado.edu, OTS-L@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu, DARWIN@yorku.ca, BIOCIS-L@sivm.si.edu, MARMAM@uvvm.uvic.ca, SIRFF-L@sivm.si.edu, PALCLIME@sivm.si.edu, ORNITH-L@uafsysb.uark.edu, Mammal-L@sivm.si.edu, TGIF@caligari.Dartmouth.EDU, COASTALP@uriacc.uri.edu, SOCINSCT@cnsibm.albany.edu, BIOMCH-L@nic.surfnet.nl, ELBE-L@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de, COCE-L@yorku.ca, BIOSPH-L@listserv.aol.com, ET-FREJ@segate.sunet.se, forest@rana.im.nbs.gov, BIOSEM-L@nervm.nerdc.ufl.edu, Ecofem@csf.colorado.edu MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=unknown-8bit Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable The one book that every serious ecologist needs to read!!! Deeper Ecology: Essays on Ecological Spirituality Dear Colleagues: I have recently published a book entitled "Deeper Ecology: Essays on Ecological Spirituality," which outlines and discusses a protocol for the preservation and restoration of global ecology, wildlife populations, and ecosystems based on the degradation due to human exploitation. This book also delves into the "connectedness" aspect of humans to the natural worl= d, with my own personal reflections on our role in the scheme of the finer workings of the world's flora and fauna. The Journal of Mammalogy and The Canadian Field Naturalist, as well as a dozen other publications, are planning to review this book in the near future. I invite you to read samples of the text; directly following. Ordering instructions for the book are shown at the end of these abstracts from the entire, 50 page text (8 1/2=94 x 11=94 format). Please share this information with others, and enjoy! Note: The price for each copy has been drastical= ly reduced to only $5.95 for each copy!!! ************************************************************** "The figures are astounding in their portrayal of the worldwide rape of the land: Nearly 100% of the face of the earth in Ethiopia, Japan, an= d The United Kingdom has been disturbed; with a similar 75% rate in the U.S= ., Mexico, and China. Also, 95% of the forests in the U.S. have been lost, while only 10.5% of the total land area in the country is protected there (The rest (89.5%) is exploited). As can be seen, the cancerous growth of human invasion has spread to the far reaches of every continent on mother earth. We have set aside fo= r parks and refuges, which have shown to be increasingly ineffectual, becau= se of the island biogeography theory of poor dispersal and geographic isolat= ion, which causes populations of wildlife to go extinct. We simply can't section off a small plot of real estate in the midst= of civilization and expect it to function as a micro-ecosystem with unlimite= d potential. Furthermore, zoos and captive breeding programs are hardly a match for true wilderness, for these animals are far less keen to predators, and often become habitualized and imprinted to humans and their interactions. Healthy populations must consist of a great amount of individuals in order to persist. This is because of genetic traits, mutation, inbreeding, and general heterozygosity of alleles in the traits shared and passed on to the offspring. Dispersal, via proximate patch availability and transportation corridors is the salvation of these remnants of the dissolved landscape, within which the flora and fauna have free reign. A long time before I learned this in my college courses, I keyed in = to this process in the city park bordering nearby hillsides, which at that t= ime were undeveloped due to rough, mountainous terrain. Over the years, as I hiked there, I noticed that the city was spreading up the hill, and proba= bly now over, spilling into another valley, like an explosion with no end. What was once a wilderness park, with it=92s coyotes, deer, and rattlesna= kes, readily witnessed; has now become just what I described: A city park, with a manicured lawn equipped with sprinkler systems and picnic tables for a Sunday afternoon for the family to =93get out into nature.=94 I bring to this discussion the recurrent buzzword called rainforest, which evokes majestic visions of valleys filled with rivers of fog, brigh= tly colored birds; and low and behold, a pair of massive tractors, with a 50-meter length of chain sweeping every tree in it=92s wake, decimating a grove in a matter of minutes. Yes, the tropical rainforest is the most diverse ecosystem on the planet, primarily because of the highly-specialized niches, incredible nutrient availability, and proportional energy influx from the rich and abundant biomass, which seemingly litters the terrain. Unfortunately, a large proportion of this quality habitat is found in undeveloped countries, where conservation is a luxury. A common practice which nearly literally brings tears to my eyes is the slash-and-burn technique of agricultural clearing of land of which impoverished, indigenous peoples practice for their livelihood. For, aft= er a minimal amount of time, the soil in one area becomes nutrient-depleted, thus a new site must be obtained to produce viable crops, thus forests are decimated at a sickening and utterly evil rate. I became morbidly depressed in ecology course years ago when I saw satellite photographs of the earth taken at night, which showed scores of =93wildfires=94 burning across the planet, primarily located in rainf= orests, caused by what I have just described. The feelings that are conjured by this atrocity are those of deep pain and a very strong motherly instinct for the nurturing and healing of this sickness, which is plainly seen to those, who, like me, have the stomach, or perhaps the honesty to look upo= n. The naturalist side of me cannot bear the site of a tree which has b= een harvested for human use. For the dismembered stump which remains is a mockery of the dignity once claimed by the testimonial lifesource by the one who wields the ax. The simple fact is that trees produce the oxygen which we breathe. It is pitiful enough to have to stay indoor= s on a warm day in a large city to avoid being rendered unconscious from the poisonous fumes of industry. The accounts of air pollution are endless, with some of the most striking to my mind being the Black Forest in Germany, which is nearly gone, from acid rain caused by the rapid advancement of modern machinery in that country. A professor of mine once told the class that air pollution didn=92t matter, because it was simply blown =93somewhere e= lse.=94 This did not sit well with me, and does not to this day. This will not suffice. Another example of corporate madness is in a seemingly pristine, alpine lake, located outside of New York City, where another professor of mine expected to find countless circles on the top of the water in the morning from trout foraging for insects (A common site in a typical wilderness setting). Yet, he found the lake to be entirely, and without exception, a motionless void of highly acidic water. Furthermore, scientists have documented a one degree overall increas= e in global temperature in recent history, giving evidence to the =93greenh= ouse effect=94 of the diminishment of the ozone layer; this perverse, proverbi= al newsflash, which has captured the interest of millions over the last few decades. Again, satellite images show that this risk in our protective coating from the sun=92s ultraviolet rays is increasing as time goes on, caused by the build-up of carbon dioxide, stemming from the overharvest o= f trees. Thus I pose a solution in the broadest sense, to deal with a combine= d sum of local catastrophes, which has become a global epidemic. What is needed is a committee composed of leaders from each and every country, representing each city, state, and tribe which consists of that region. There must be a protocol for every nation to follow, in order to succeed = in our goal as a race, in the longevity of Homo sapiens as well as all other forms of life on the biosphere.=20 I would hope that the petty wars would end, which to outside observe= rs must seem as trivial as the "too many rats in a cage with no place to go" syndrome. First and foremost on the agenda will be a global birth rate of one-child-per-couple throughout their lifetime, and subsidies, as in China, for those who willingly go without giving birth at all, and severe penalties for those who exceed this one-child limit. We must incorporate scientists into our political systems, for any o= f this to succeed. My fear and dread comes with the urgency that this proc= ess must be implemented within the next 25 years, or the doom-and-gloom philosophies of many ecologists will come to prevail. For even though I may not see one of the mighty black rhinos in Africa in my lifetime, it simply feels good to know that they are there, and that they are well. For how can we have respect for ourselves as a species, if we do not treat other organisms with the same honor and integrity? As a final note= , to synthesize this whole establishment of population control, I believe t= hat once this is in effect, many, if not all, of our environmental problems w= ill take care of themselves, since the basic premise of this movement is that too many humans, requiring too many resources, have basically mucked it all up." **************************************************************** "The universe is in a constant state of entropy; that is, all matter= is trying to break into a simpler form, and life strives to alter this cours= e by building and creating an environment of sustainable use. As someone once told me: Going against nature is a part of nature too. I think that this is why I prefer simpler living, because it is quite frankly an easie= r mode of existence, in such a world of molecular diffusion. For this thought I introduce, finally, my concept of Deeper Ecology, which to my thinking is a synthesis of what the Native American Indians and Buddhists and Taoists were trying to accomplish. With these three disciplines I shed a light of science and biology into the grand scheme of cosmic, inter-related metaphysics which seem to dominate the Homo sapien struggle to at once master the planet and attain a sense of humili= ty through the process. Deeper Ecology is a realization that we are composed of the same elements that exist in nature, and thus we are no more import= ant than all living and non-living material around us. Some suggest that I am giving up the cause of environmental restoration, and perhaps denying my species of it's grandeur (Which for some odd reason individuals insist on promoting). All I am trying to do is propose a level of consciousness whi= ch surpasses most modern belief systems, and which I believe can lead to a richer and more fulfilling span of life on Spaceship Earth, before each and every one of our physical bodies returns to the soil. To me this is reality in it's truest form. This is the skeleton of every argument pose= d by every critical thinker that has ever been, and that will set foot upon this realm. Humans have only been on the biosphere for a fraction of it's entirety, and we must keep this in mind when trying to establish notions of mastery and dominance over an entity which gave birth to us to begin with and will persist long after we have wasted much valuable time, attempting to reverse it=92s inherent processes of homeostasis." ***************************************************************** TABLE OF CONTENTS: 1. Sequoia sempervirens =20 2. Homo sapiens 3. Extinction 4. Genetic Viability 5. Hierarchy 6. Homo sapiens II 7. Ursus americanus 8. Lions, Tigers, and Bears 9. Social Darwinism 10. Spaceship Earth 11. Biology 12. Oncorhynchus tshawytscha 13. Nirvana 14. Cyanocitta stelleri 15. Carpe diem 16. First Law of Thermodynamics 17. Ecological Angst 18. Homo sapiens III 19. Eve 20. The Circus 21. Tyto alba 22. Lady of the Lake 23. Iguana iguana 24. Tyto alba II 25. =93Spotted Owl Tastes Like Chicken=94 26. Coexistence 27. Anthropocentrism 28. Tyto alba III 29. Academia 30. Deeper Ecology 31. Colaptes auratus 32. =93The Chicken or the Egg=94 Hypothesis 33. Ignorance is Bliss 34. Reality Check 35. Homo sapiens IV 36. Global Ecology 37. Earth Day 38. Canis lupus 39. The =93Umbrella=94 Approach 40. Man=92s Best Friend 41. The Killing Jar 42. Stochasticity 43. Earth Summit 44. Ecosystems 45. Testament EPILOGUE APPENDIX A: Bear Myths and Neanderthals APPENDIX B: Important Ecological Reasons For Conserving Ecosystems Rather Than Simply Individual Species ************************************************************* To order a copy of "Deeper Ecology: Essays on Ecological Spiritualit= y,=94 send your name and address and a check or money order (in U.S. funds) for $5.95 for each copy, plus $3.00 ($1.50 for each additional copy after= the first) to pay for shipping and handling ($10 shipping to countries outsid= e of U.S. and Canada, $5.00 for additional copies after the first) to: =20 Wild Side Publishing P.O. Box 5241 Eureka, CA 95502 U.S.A. Please make your check or money order out to Wild Side Publishing. You will receive your copie(s) within 4 to 6 weeks from the time we receive your order! Orders will be sent as Priority First Class U.S. Mai= l. For orders of 10 or more copies of the book, please inquire as to discoun= t rates! =20 Thank you very much for your order! David Doyle Wild Side Publishing P.S. My apologies for any cross-postings and/or duplications of this message. =20 P.P.S. All text in this message is copywritten by Wild Side Publishing, 1997. -------------------------------------------------------------------------= ----- --------- ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 08:24:21 -0400 Reply-To: Bob Billson Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Bob Billson Organization: organized? me?! Subject: newbie question: when to add body? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Hi all! After many years of wanting to keep bees, I finally got my opportunity this year. I started (here in New Jersey) two colonies in mid-April. So far, they seem to be doing well though off to a slow(?) start unseasonably cool Spring we have had. Right now the colonies are in a single hive bodies (deep supers) with 10 frames of foundation. They have all but the outside frames, which they are starting to work on. I have brood on at least 4 frames in each colony. My newbie question is: how do I know when it is time add the second hive body? In my reading during the winter, I'm a bit confused. The books say to add the second body when the bees need it. Not too early or they will chew up the foundation. Not too late or they will get crowded and swarm. What's a newbie to do? :-) I estimate within the next 7-10, I'm going have a population explosion as the capped brood are born. Should I add the second body in anticipation of this or wait a bit more? Thanks for the help! Bob -- Bob Billson, KC2WZ email: kc2wz@intercall.net MS-DOS, you can't live with it. You can live without it. Linux: the choice of a GNU generation! ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 15:12:37 GMT+0200 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Garth Organization: Rhodes University South Africa Subject: Re: Bee Stings Hi All On the topic of bee stings. With bee stings one has to look at the various aspects of a bee sting. Bee venom contains a phospholipase (A2) which is an enzyme which disrupts cell membranes it appraoches. There are also other organic compounds which mark, irritate and so on. All of these are not normal components of our bodies, hence the body views them as a threat. It will produce antibodies to the foreign substances. These antibodies will in some cases bind with specialised cells in the body which will release histamine. This causes localised swelling and a certain amount of raw plasma will get into your sting area. This will cause the area to harden a bit amonf other things. histamine also causes warming of the area. As time progresses you will develop more antibodies to the bee sting. Hence in theory you will swell more and more till you die with each sting. (anaphylactic shock) Your body cannot allow this to happen (it does happen in some cases leading to anaphylaxis etc). It develops regulator T cells which control the histamine response and soon you will find that all that your antibodies are doing is lapping up the offending bee sting compounds and you don't get the swelling anymore. What you will find is that you will get a little red dot where the bee stings you, as what happens is that your body basically cordons of an area with a mat of antibodies, leading to the unreacted venom being concentrated and eating a little hole. The sting gets less but still stings, especially on finger tips. The venom does not spread as muc which is nice as well, and hence the 'I'm in a bad mood from being stung twenty times' or 'I feel sleepy because I've been stung twenty times' scenarios don't happen much. Keep well Garth --- Garth Cambray "Opinions expressed in this post may be those 15 Park Road of Pritz, my cat, who knows a lot about Grahamstown catfood." 6140 *garth@rucus.ru.ac.za* South Africa Phone 27-0461-311663 In general, generalisations are bad. But don't worry BEEEEEE happy. ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 21:39:22 -0700 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Stephen W Davis Reading on Bee-L of government cut-backs in funds to assist beekeepers, I thought it maybe of interest to some subscribers to know the West Virginia Department of Agriculture has received funding from the State Legislature to help West Virginia beekeepers avoid honey bee losses from tracheal and varroa mite. The WVDA beekeepers assistance program will provide help to State beekeepers by providing medication and one Buckfast queen. With few if any feral colonies and a handful of beekeepers left, hopefully the distribution of this fine strain will give better resistance to the future stock. We've had a cool spring this year, but the first main honey flow of tulip poplar and blackberry should start in the coming week. My grand total of five hives have increased to thirteen by way of swarming. All the swarms landed, as they do every year, in the same bush and tree. This year seven out of eight settled on or at ground level. This could be due to the windy, cool weather. Our bee inspector could not find any varroa mites in my hives but this was only by drone brood examination. At least they are at low levels. Steve Davis sdavis31@juno.com ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 10:02:28 -0400 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: PondSite Subject: solar wax melter MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I have some questions on using a solar wax melter, and could use some HELP! please what size screen do put in the bottom of the melter? When the wax melts, what do I do with the empty comb shafts that still are in the wax, do I just strain them out. Any help that I can get concerning the operation of this melter will be appreciated. WALT pondsite@barnwellsc.com ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 08:03:25 -0700 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: "Paul Cronshaw, D.C." Subject: Painting Bottom Boards Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Bee-listers: Today, I was painting some new bottom boards, the ones with wide entrance on one side and narrow entrance on the other. The wide entrances have the reducer boards with different size entrance notches. It suddenly occurred to me that if I wanted to use either of these entrances that I should leave them unpainted. Can I paint both sides of a bottom board? Or just the runway? How about painting the entrance reducers? Paul Cronshaw, D.C. Cyberchiro and Hobbyist Beekeeper Santa Barbara, CA USA ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 12:01:32 -0400 Reply-To: Bob Billson Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Bob Billson Organization: organized? me?! Subject: newbie question: smoker fuel? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII I have another newbie question. :-) What is a good smoker fuel which doesn't leave me smelling like I need a shower after I get done working with my bees? I have been using dry, long pine needles. The smoke doesn't upset the bees. However, when I get done, I (and my clothes) don't smell that great. I smell more like burned [broadleaf] leaves rather than pine needles. My roommate doesn't even want me in the house until I 'air out'. Any suggestions on a less smelly fuel? Or, perhaps, I am overdoing it with the smoke? Bob -- Bob Billson, KC2WZ email: kc2wz@intercall.net MS-DOS, you can't live with it. You can live without it. Linux: the choice of a GNU generation! ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 09:36:22 -0700 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Adony Melathopoulos Subject: Re: Fluvalinate residues In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Hi Larry and BEE-Lers There was an article in the Decemeber 1995 issue of ABJ on the issue of fluvalinate residues in wax. Unfortunately there were no references to check the scientific papers supporting the article (I suspect they are in German anyway). The paper brings up a few interesting points : 1. Fluvalinate (and sister compound flumetherin) bind strongly to wax. Honey surrounding heavily contaminated wax will not become contaminated with the miticide (especially in the case of flumetherin, which seems to bind to wax more readily). So wax is a big sink of all the fluvalinate put into hives. Honey extracting processes that leave sizable amounts of wax particles in suspension may result in contaminated honey (although I would guess that if someone ate honey with fluvalenate contaminated wax particles, the fluvalinate may be so tightly bound to the wax that it would all end up in the toilet - but this is a job for a toxicologist (maybe i'm just saying a lot of crap ;) ?)). 2. 70.8% of beeswax samples from outside of Germany contain detectible levels of fluvalinate (compared to 13.2 % of German samples). 3. Fluvalinate and flumetherin will survive the wax rendering process without considerble degredation. The paper suggests that fluvalinate may be prevalent in foundation outside of Germany (although they had no data to support this, they point to the detection of PDB (for wax moths) in foundation as food for thought). Now, getting to Larry's idea, there is a short paragraph in the paper that reads like this : ' The exposure to UV-light showed that only the residues on the wax surface were destroyed by this aggressive radiation. With the solar melter the UV-part of the sunlight is not able to penetrate the sheet of glass. In practice these attempts brought no solution' Only the surface eh ? Well a the wax on the comb is not very thick (its all surface). I do wonder if you could just put lay your combs out flat under a UV source (lamps, the sun) if fluvalinate would break down ? Maybe UV radiation cannot penetrate the depth of a comb though, or maybe in wax fluvalinate is less readily broken down than if it were out in the open (and not complexed with anything). This raises another question. What if you kill your colony off using a another synthetic pyrethroid (resmethrin - registered by the US EPA to kill honey bee colonies) because it has very heavy AFB. Lets say you burn all the frames and scortch the hive body, bottom board, lid, and inner cover, and then reuse the equipment. Anyone ever experience bee kills from residual resmethrin seaping out and killing bees in the new colony (I ask this because it has been asked of me before) ? A big question not addressed in the paper is how much fluvalinate accumulates in wax using label recomended doses of Apistan. Maybe the wax samples used in the study I have been talking about are from negligent beekeepers who overdoses their colonies with massive amounts of the compound. Maybe not. It is worth further study. On Sat, 17 May 1997, Larry Lindahl of AGF 722-2825 FAX 746-1292 wrote: > Fluvalinate Content In Beeswax > Over the past couple of years there has been expressed concern over the > increase of the fluvalinate content in beeswax through the continued > use of Apistan strips for the control of the Varroa mite. One of the > recommendations for the use of the Apistan strips is to keep the strips > away from exposure to sunlight as it will render the fluvalinate > useless over a period of about two hours? > Therefore my question to the Bee-L world, has any testing or research > been done to reduce, disapate or eliminate the fluvalinate content in > the wax by exposing comb or beeswax to sunlight or ultraviolet > radiation? Would this work? Any Comments out there? *********************************** ** Adony P. Melathopoulos ********* *** Center for Pest Management **** **** Simon Fraser University ****** ***** Burnaby, British Columbia *** ****** Canada, V5A-1S6 ************ *********************************** Tel : (604) 291-4163 Fax : (604) 291-3496 e-mail : melathop@sfu.ca "The pursuit of agriculture promotes the strength of the mind as well as the body" - Rev. John L. Blake, 1853 ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 12:51:51 -0700 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Julia and/or Robert Biales Subject: Re: The one book that every serious ecologist needs to read!!! MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Well . . . I live in, love, and protect the land where I gew up, the most beautful place one earth (to me and a lot of people, anyway) the Adirondack Mountains. We have many of the problems you mention, and we need more people, not less. Why? So that we can be the voices of the mountain, so that there will be people here to speak, to care for, to love this wild, wonderful place. I plan to adopt as well as bear children, children who will be as much a part of our ecology as any other species here. Town after town is empty here, people have left, so few are left to speak for the land, for the lakes, for the trees. I am needed here, my children also are needed here. We have some of the most rare species of plants and animals on earth -- black phase timber rattlesnakes, giant otter, plants, bugs, and so many more. So why do I also deliberately introduce a species from far from here -- bees-- into my wilderness? Because they are needed here -- the ecology changed when the bees came. Now we are becoming like in the U.K., like Japan, where populations have remained stable over many years, and the people belong there, and care for, and love their spaces. We don't need to leave, we need to care more. We need to fit in. Change is how you know time has passed -- and we haved changed this world. I came to a dump and turned it into a farm. I found species after species and moved the rotting cars and lawn out and the children and the bees as well as native species back in. Change can be good as well as bed. It's not so bad, not if we all pick up and speak for our own corners of this pretty planet. JulieB Beekeeper with hope. ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 12:55:04 EDT Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Richard E Leber Subject: Dirty Rotten Frames Those dirty rotten old frames; A large operator here in south Alabama cleans his frames in a 55 gallon drum of boiling water treated with laundry lye. He put together two wire mesh baskets with lids each just smaller than the drum. After he heats the water to boiling he loads a baskets with "dirty rotten frames" and lowers it into the drum. While they take a 'Bath' he loads the second wire cage. Take out the first and lower in the next, in and out all day while keeping the water boiling. When all of these recycled frames are done and the water cools he salvages any wax which has solidified on the surface. This operation could be reduced down to fit your or my scale, but is it worth the effort? If you have 3,000+ hives and can salvage 1,000 frames (100 boxes at 10 frames per box) there is an asset worth $500. Obviously worth a days work and a box of lye. If you have a few hives in the backyard as a hobby, enjoy the time spending it with the bees and not trying to save a few bucks. Keep in mind why you started that first hive and don't lose perspective by trying to run with the big boys. A box of 100 frames costs about $50 puls shipping,about fifty cents each. The time to assemble new frames will be less than that required to scrape and boil old wooden ware and can be one of the activities that keeps your interest up over those Maine winters. Best of Luck, Rick Leber, Beekeeping since 1987 Mobile, Alabama ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 09:58:20 -0700 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Adony Melathopoulos Subject: Re: newbie question: smoker fuel? Comments: To: Bob Billson In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Bob : On Sun, 18 May 1997, Bob Billson wrote: > What is a good smoker fuel which doesn't leave me smelling like I need a shower > after I get done working with my bees? I hear in Texas they use dried cow patties ;). Try burlap, blue jeans, egg cartons or dried grass (all of which leave you smelling smokey, but I don't think they smell repulsive). Cheers Adony *********************************** ** Adony P. Melathopoulos ********* *** Center for Pest Management **** **** Simon Fraser University ****** ***** Burnaby, British Columbia *** ****** Canada, V5A-1S6 ************ *********************************** Tel : (604) 291-4163 Fax : (604) 291-3496 e-mail : melathop@sfu.ca "The pursuit of agriculture promotes the strength of the mind as well as the body" - Rev. John L. Blake, 1853 ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 12:08:29 +0000 Reply-To: barry@birkey.com Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Barry Birkey Organization: BIRKEY.COM Subject: Re: Painting Bottom Boards MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Paul Cronshaw, D.C. wrote: > It suddenly occurred to me that if I wanted to use either of these > entrances that I should leave them unpainted. > > Can I paint both sides of a bottom board? Or just the runway? > > How about painting the entrance reducers? Paul - I guess it depends on how long you want your equipment to last. The bees don't give a buzz whether it's painted or not. It probably won't make as much of a difference for you being in an arid climate but I'd go ahead and paint it up. -Barry -- Barry Birkey West Chicago, Illinois USA barry@birkey.com http://www.birkey.com ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 14:36:42 EDT Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Richard E Leber Subject: Adding Second Box Hi ya'll and Bob, If you wait until you KNOW those bees need another hive body or super you are too late. With a new colony on foundation I feed heavy to help insure my investment. Starting with a division board feeder until all but two frames are drawn then replacing the internal feeder with more foundation I switch to an entrance feeder until ready to add another box. Here along the Gulf Coast I use a single deep hive body for brood rearing so the first addition above the deep brood box is a honey super. Hives here with double brood boxes don't produce a large surplus crop for me. If you are setting up for two story hives I would suggest adding the additional box now and continue to feed until the second story is well on the way to being drawn and filled with stores and brood. As long as there is a strong nectar flow or supplemental feeding the bees will probably not chew up the foundation to use the wax else where for comb construction. Don't cut your bees short on the feed. A $2 five pound bag of sugar mixed with a half gallon or a little less of water will yield about a gallon of feed syrup which is cheap compared to the stress on that $40 package when they have to bring in all the required raw materials. Estimates vary, but about 6-7 pounds of honey are required to yield a pound of wax. Best of Luck, Rick Leber, Beekeeping since 1987 Mobile, Alabama ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 14:36:42 EDT Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Richard E Leber Subject: Wax Melter Operation Hi ya'll and Walt, The sun shines HOT in south Alabama so processing the salvaged wax from old combs and cappings through a solar was melter is the natural choice for my operation of about 75 hives. Most of the wax runs through the melter two times: First time around I make no attempt to filter or clean the wax. The goal at this time is to get the volume down, a five gallon bucket of cappings will yield enough wax to fill my catch pan, a plastic (rubbermaid) ice cream freezer container. The next morning when the wax has cooled the flexibility of the container makes easy removal of the block. As the wax collected in the catch pan 90% of the trash naturally settles to the bottom. Now I take the block and warm the bottom side in the sun, down here 10 to 15 minutes is plenty. My hive tool is the choice to 'cut' off the bottom leaving the bulk of the wax. The removed trash is collected until I have a quantity and then all of it is returned to the beginning of this process to reclaim any remaining wax. The second trip through the solar melter is for cleaning. The metal sheet in the melter is covered with a piece of window screen to prevent the block from sliding down and off as the bottom begins to melt. The filtering is done through 'panty hose' stretched over the catch pan, don't stretch this filter too tight. This second pass through the melter isn't necessary if you are trading the wax to a supplier for foundation, but it makes for a cleaner product. Of course you can repeat the filtering process, each time producing a cleaner and lighter color product. The exposure to the sun light bleaches the wax and reduces the fragrance. Keep Watching the Bees, Rick Leber, Beekeeping since 1987 Mobile, Alabama ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 10:34:49 -0800 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Jerry Fries Subject: subscription Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Take me off the bee list. Jerry Fries Fries@servcom.com Thank you ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 15:07:29 EDT Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: "Steven A. Creasy" Subject: Dead Horse: Don't beat please... >>has been successfully distributed to the BEE-L list (525 recipients).<< I notice subscriptions are up somewhat..... Steve Creasy- (\ Maryville, Tennessee USA {|||8- Proverbs 24:13,25:16 (/ ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 17:02:56 -0400 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: "Augustus C. Skamarycz" Subject: Re: newbie question: smoker fuel? Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" At 09:58 AM 5/18/97 -0700, you wrote: >Bob : >On Sun, 18 May 1997, Bob Billson wrote: > >> What is a good smoker fuel which doesn't leave me smelling like I need a shower >> after I get done working with my bees? > >I hear in Texas they use dried cow patties ;). Try burlap, blue jeans, >egg cartons or dried grass (all of which leave you smelling smokey, but I >don't think they smell repulsive). > >Cheers >Adony > > > >*********************************** >** Adony P. Melathopoulos ********* >*** Center for Pest Management **** >**** Simon Fraser University ****** >***** Burnaby, British Columbia *** >****** Canada, V5A-1S6 ************ >*********************************** > >Tel : (604) 291-4163 >Fax : (604) 291-3496 >e-mail : melathop@sfu.ca > >"The pursuit of agriculture promotes the strength of the mind > as well as the body" > - Rev. John L. Blake, 1853 > I prefer to use Pine needle from Southern Pines. In the south they use it for mulch. Its bests quality is that once you light the smoker you can keep it going for a long time. ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 17:32:27 -0400 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Guy Miller Subject: Re: Dirty Rotten Frames Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" At 12:55 PM 5/18/97 EDT, Richard E. Lebe wrote: >Those dirty rotten old frames; > If you have a few hives in the backyard as a hobby, >enjoy the time spending it with the bees and not trying to save a few >bucks. Keep in mind why you started that first hive and don't lose >perspective by trying to run with the big boys. > Well said! Every now and again I need to be brought down to reality. I appreciate the trip. Guy F. Miller "Start every day with a smile, and get it over with." Charlottesville. VA W.C. Fields ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 18:23:21 -0400 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Brian R Tucker Subject: Soy Beans I wanted to ask you midwestern bee Keepers if I should expect much of a honey crop off af soybeans this year. And if so is it usualy a very good quality honey. Brian Tucker Polo MO ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 18:10:05 -0400 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: PondSite Subject: Re: Adding Second Box MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit TNX for the solar wax melter info, and I also just put on a 2nd hive body on top. I will continue to feed them sugar syrup. Walt from pondsite@barnwellsc ---------- > From: Richard E Leber > To: BEE-L@CNSIBM.ALBANY.EDU > Subject: Adding Second Box > Date: Sunday, May 18, 1997 2:36 PM > > Hi ya'll and Bob, > > If you wait until you KNOW those bees need another hive body or super you > are too late. > > With a new colony on foundation I feed heavy to help insure my > investment. Starting with a division board feeder until all but two > frames are drawn then replacing the internal feeder with more foundation > I switch to an entrance feeder until ready to add another box. Here > along the Gulf Coast I use a single deep hive body for brood rearing so > the first addition above the deep brood box is a honey super. Hives here > with double brood boxes don't produce a large surplus crop for me. > > If you are setting up for two story hives I would suggest adding the > additional box now and continue to feed until the second story is well on > the way to being drawn and filled with stores and brood. As long as > there is a strong nectar flow or supplemental feeding the bees will > probably not chew up the foundation to use the wax else where for comb > construction. > > Don't cut your bees short on the feed. A $2 five pound bag of sugar > mixed with a half gallon or a little less of water will yield about a > gallon of feed syrup which is cheap compared to the stress on that $40 > package when they have to bring in all the required raw materials. > Estimates vary, but about 6-7 pounds of honey are required to yield a > pound of wax. > > Best of Luck, > > Rick Leber, Beekeeping since 1987 > Mobile, Alabama ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 21:13:08 EDT Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Robert E Neely Subject: Re: newbie question: smoker fuel? Comments: To: kc2wz@intercall.net To Bob from Bob: Dry pine needles are my second choice. They do work very well if they are very dry. It is nice to put some in a garbage can and store them inside with the lid off. Start your fire with a butane lighter that is used with a gas grill. Feed a little more straw until you have some hot coals in the bottom of the smoker, then pack more straw in and keep puffing the bellows. Just try to keep it going away from your face. Just a few puffs in the front of hive...then wait about 30 seconds... take off cover and a few more puffs through the hole in the inner cover. Try not to OVER SMOKE THE HIVE. If you do they may just boil out all over you out of control. My first choice is to use raw cotton. Here in the south it is available at a cotton gin or even on the road or highway where it has blown off of the trucks carrying it. No the kind sold in craft stores will not work, neither 100% cotton cloth. It seems as if it has all been treated with a fire retardant. It will hardly burn. Bob Neely Goose Creek, SC USA neely-bee@juno.com On Sun, 18 May 1997 12:01:32 -0400 Bob Billson writes: >I have another newbie question. :-) > >What is a good smoker fuel which doesn't leave me smelling like I need >a shower >after I get done working with my bees? > >I have been using dry, long pine needles. The smoke doesn't upset the >bees. >However, when I get done, I (and my clothes) don't smell that great. >I smell >more like burned [broadleaf] leaves rather than pine needles. My >roommate >doesn't even want me in the house until I 'air out'. > >Any suggestions on a less smelly fuel? Or, perhaps, I am overdoing it >with >the smoke? > > Bob >-- >Bob Billson, KC2WZ email: >kc2wz@intercall.net > MS-DOS, you can't live with it. You can live without it. > Linux: the choice of a GNU generation! > ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 18:45:46 PDT Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Dennis Subject: Colors MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; X-MAPIextension=".TXT" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit One color scheme is the electronic industry associations: 0 Black 5 Green 1 Brown 6 Blue 2 Red 7 Violet 3 Orange 8 Grey 4 Yellow 9 White The rather rotten jingle that helps to remember this that I learned is: Bad Boys Rape Our Young Girls But Violet Gives Willingly :( Anybody got a better one? Dennis Morefield Sideline Beekeeper, Oregon, USA denmar@mind.net ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 22:32:32 -0500 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: "Walter T. Weller" Subject: Re: Colors On Sun, 18 May 1997 18:45:46 PDT Dennis writes: >One color scheme is the electronic industry associations: > >0 Black 5 Green >1 Brown 6 Blue >2 Red 7 Violet >3 Orange 8 Grey >4 Yellow 9 White > >The rather rotten jingle that helps to remember this that I learned >is: > >Bad Boys Rape Our Young Girls But Violet Gives Willingly During World War II, the Navy electronics technicians had the same six words to start the mnemonic, but the last four were "Behind Victory Garden Walls". How many of you remember "Victory Gardens?" For that matter, how many remember WWII? >:( > >Anybody got a better one? >Dennis Morefield >Sideline Beekeeper, Oregon, USA >denmar@mind.net > ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 20:56:05 -0700 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Larry Lindahl of AGF 722-2825 FAX 746-1292 Subject: Smoker Fuel MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Greetings, For a pleasant sweet smelling smoker fuel, try last years dried flower tassels from the Sumac tree. Cheers!! Larry Lindahl ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 19 May 1997 00:17:19 EDT Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Albert W Needham Subject: Re: Colors On Sun, 18 May 1997 22:32:32 -0500 "Walter T. Weller" writes: >How many of you remember "Victory Gardens?" For that matter, how many >remember WWII? >:( I do, because believe it or not, my deceased father-in-law is the WW II " Kilroy" of "Kilroy Was Here" fame. Al, Al Needham--Scituate,MA,USA--awneedham@juno.com ...............http://www.xensei.com/users/alwine/................. A New Kind Of Web Site- *Honey Bees Or Wacky Humor* ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 23:15:11 -0700 Reply-To: mwr@hotcity.com Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Michael Reddell Subject: Re: BEES:how to treat beestings? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Judy Spradley wrote: > > I am a newbie beekeeper looking for info on treating beestings. I > understand the part about scraping the stinger out. My question is how do > you cope with/treat the swelling/itching that goes on for 3 or 4 days after > the fact? The itching is AWFUL. I tried an over the counter antihistamine > last time and that helped some. Is there any topical ointment that is > effective? My bee books don't address the subject. (must be some macho > beekeeper thing). For many years I swelled and itched like crazy when stung. I never found anything over the counter or otherwise that helped after the fact. However, I found that I hardly swelled at all if I would take an antihistamine before I started working with the bees. For what it's worth, I noticed a remarkable drop in my general reaction level within a month after I started an intensive antioxidant vitamin program for other reasons. This was about a year ago and I'm averaging 3-10 stings a week, often all on the same day, with virtually no itching or swelling reaction (but they still hurt just as much!) Michael Reddell mwr@hotcity.com http://www.hotcity.com/~mwr ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 19 May 1997 02:32:38 EDT Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: John M Thorp Subject: Re: Colors Comments: cc: TheKolonel@Top.Monad.Net I always like to hear from Al,that's neat about "Kilroy". Al,would you fill us in more about your father-in-law in his "Kilroy" role.It would really be appropriate around this upcoming "Memorial Day" on the 26th of this month. My hat is off to all the Vets that have gone on before us which is what "Memorial Day" is all about. My Dad is in that class having fought in Germany occupied France during WW2. He checked out 16 years ago. Myself,I was in Viet Nam from 12-66 to 5-68 and am proud to have served. To all of you out there,give honour to those who have gone on before us every "Memorial Day". When "Veterans Day" comes around,send a card or make a phone call. You'll never know how much the guy's and gal's who served will appreciate it. I'm sorry that I did'nt touch on the "Bee's" and went on about this so three cheer's for the "Bee's". See ya! Take Care and GBY,John in Homestead,also at On Mon, 19 May 1997 00:17:19 EDT Albert W Needham writes: >On Sun, 18 May 1997 22:32:32 -0500 "Walter T. Weller" > writes: >>How many of you remember "Victory Gardens?" For that matter, how >many >>remember WWII? >:( > >I do, because believe it or not, my deceased father-in-law is the > WW II " Kilroy" of "Kilroy Was Here" fame. > >Al, > >Al Needham--Scituate,MA,USA--awneedham@juno.com >...............http://www.xensei.com/users/alwine/................. >A New Kind Of Web Site- *Honey Bees Or Wacky Humor* > ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 19 May 1997 10:06:47 -0400 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Greg Hankins Subject: Re: Fluvalinate residues In-Reply-To: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" >2. 70.8% of beeswax samples from outside of Germany contain detectible >levels of fluvalinate (compared to 13.2 % of German samples). Hate to ask a dumb question, but why the difference? Do German beekeepers not use Apistan? (BTW, I read someplace that the German for "beekeeper" is "bienenvater" -- "bee-father!" I really like that.) Greg ______________________________________________________________ Greg Hankins Montgomery Packaging ghankins@ac.net Troy, North Carolina Voice: (910)576-0067 Fax: (910)576-0367 ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 20:59:22 -0600 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Charles Hatton Subject: Queen Excluders-Are they any good? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable I was told by the store where I got my two hives, that a queen excluder = will stop the other bees from doing much up there. The lady at the shop = said it really is a bee excluder. I don't know what to do. Please = advise.=20 Charles in Salt Lake City Charles@Apeleon.net ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 21:02:27 -0600 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Charles Hatton Subject: Mean Hive-What to do? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable A problem I'm having is that of the two hives we built and bought bees = for, one of them has a personality of a mean wet cat and the other is = more like a friendly kitten. Why is this? (They are about 1/4 miles = apart.) I was thinking that if I didn't do anything to the mean hive = for six weeks, all the mean bees would have been replaced by new young = bees and the temperament might be better. Is this true?=20 Charles in Salt Lake City Charles@Apeleon.net ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 17 May 1997 11:55:25 -0700 Reply-To: dpbees@slkc.uswest.net Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Derk Phelps Organization: Phelps Honey Farm Subject: Kelly Hive Loader --- Parts? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hello all, I am looking for a supplier of replacement starter switches for a kelly hive loader. Kelly has a few things but not much. Do any of you still have and use one of these lifers? Suggestions? Please e-mail me directly dpbees@slkc.uswest.net Derk Phelps Phelps Honey Farm Thanks ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 19 May 1997 11:45:26 -0400 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: "Conni Still (Long Island)" Subject: Bee Jewelry Hello fellow beekeepers. I hope wherever you are the weather is more cooperative to taking care of your bees than Long Island,New York. I am hoping to find someone to get my husband Clifford off the hook. Some months ago I found a gift catalog, with an inexpensive gold-tone pin of a bee skep. I put it where Clifford could find it and "suprise" me with an appropriate gift to represent our beekeeping hobby. The suprise was on me however, because he never ordered the pin and the catalog was discarded in error. If anyone knows where I can find that catalog again, and order the pin Clifford will be out of hot water. Until then, I will keep reminding him of his mistake. Thanks for your help. Conni Still ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 13:13:26 -0400 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Ingrid Chesnick Subject: Re: BEES:how to treat beestings? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Try and get some Novocain from a dentist {the rub on stuff} or get 10 cases of kill sting witch is what i have ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 19 May 1997 11:23:31 -0600 Reply-To: Charles Harper Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Charles Harper Subject: Re: Mean Hive-What to do? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit On Fri, 16 May 1997 21:02:27 -0600, Charles Hatton wrote: >A problem I'm having is that of the two hives we built and bought bees for, one of them has a personality of a mean wet cat and the other is more like a friendly kitten. Why is this? (They are about 1/4 miles apart.) I was thinking that if I didn't do anything to the mean hive for six weeks, all the mean bees would have been replaced by new young bees and the temperament might be better. Is this true? > >Charles in Salt Lake City >Charles@Apeleon.net > Only if the Queen has been replaced. Another problem is that they are being visited by a skunk at night, if they are close to the ground 6 to 8" or less off the ground skunks don't like the hive higher than 8" so they don't bother them. Charles Harper Harper's Honey farm 1000 + Colonies ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 19 May 1997 12:40:18 EDT Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Robert E Neely Subject: Re: beginning bee book & when do I put on my first honey super? Dear Florence & Mark, How are things going? I am sorry that I missed it and did not answer your question about a book. A.I. Root Company 1-800-289-7668 The Joys of Beekeeping #X37 $7.50 A new release: A Year In The Beeyard #X48 $15.95 Please keep us posted with your results. Bob Neely Goose Creek, SC USA neely-bee@juno.com ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 19 May 1997 12:40:18 EDT Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Robert E Neely Subject: Re: Single vs Double Brood Chambers Dear Steve Pierce Here in the humid warm (understatement) South, some of us have been using one deep brood and one shallow super below the excluder. We usually have a late fall. (First frost in mid November.) Early spring gets things going in a hurry. Two deep broods are really not needed. This also makes them less heavy if we have to move them. Also a split can be made with the shallow super and a couple of deep frames to go in the center of bottom. I also use spacer bars for nine frames in each. This allows for easier movement up and down in the hive and better venelation. When uncapping for extraction you find that the frames are drawn out a little deeper and capped. An uncapping knife or machine will do a cleaner job with few times to use a cap scratcher to open those that are recessed. This method may not be beneficial in a cooler climate. Bob Neely Goose Creek, SC USA neely-bee@juno.com ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 19 May 1997 12:40:18 EDT Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Robert E Neely Subject: Re: kamakazee Bees Hi Juergen: Sounds as if you have a firecracker on your hands. There is no "quick fix" that I know of, other than destroying the hive and installing another package. Aggressive hives are usually excellent producers. If it is possible to move it to another location, you know, like the edge of a pasture, wooded area, etc. If not, you may try and re queen. Not a virgin queen as your drones may have the aggressive genes and pass them on. To move a hive. Seal the opening with duct tape after dark. Then clip the sections together. Nail a strip to each side and back so they wont come apart while moving. For safety sake you may tie them together with heavy cord also. Otherwise, kill the queen and wait approx three or four days and install another from a gentle hive. She will get out of her cage in about three days and they should accept her. If not, try again. Just remember, a good healthy hive is a valuable asset. You may have to work with them. If you place a screen on either side and in front about six feet high it may force them to fly up and thus avoid the yard, wife & kids. (it seems as if you are now caught between the queens) Hope that this will in some little way be of help. Bob Neely Goose Creek, SC neely-bee@juno.com On Mon, 12 May 1997 17:33:55 -0400 Juergen Jaenicke writes: >One of my hives has turned nasty. There will always be a couple of >suicidal >meniac >bees that will follow you around tryng to sting you. No good for >grandchildren playing >in the garden or wife weeding. >Wife has issued ultimatum: "Do something!" >The honey flow is on, what can I do at this point? >Reply to jjimker@aol.com > ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 19 May 1997 12:40:17 EDT Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Robert E Neely Subject: Re: Queen Exluders-Are they any good? Comments: To: Charles@Apeleon.net Comments: cc: "'Bee-L List Server'"@juno.com Dear Charles, Sorry to be so slow with your reply. I must have gotten a little overheated while doing a split. Blacked out. Had a valve job last June (Mitral Valve) and still have to be a little careful. The Queen excluder is just that, a Queen Excluder. The queen is the largest in the colony. The excluder keeps her out of your honey frames. The bees have a tendency to move upward in the hive. I don't know if this to move away from entrance.(Protection, weather or whatever.) It seems better for me when adding a super...to put it next to the excluder..it shortens the distance to the hive entrance. The workers must pass the nursery bees attending brood and if they need food the workers just pass it off to them and go for more...if not they can go upward to the first available super, comb, etc. I watch my honey flow carefully when adding a super. If it slows in any way, I feed sugar syrup for a couple of days. It just helps as a filler for drawing comb. As for the aggressive hive that you have. There are a couple of ways to handle it. If you have any hives in an isolated area, this would be the first one to place there. (It may deter vandals) You may requeen with one from a more gentle hive. I would not use a virgin queen. She would mate with a drone from the aggressive hive and possible carry over the same genes. It is possible that you may need to requeen more than twice to be effective. Just remember, an aggressive hive is usually more productive. Thanks for your interest. Bob Neely Goose Creek, SC USA neely-bee@juno.com On Thu, 15 May 1997 14:48:53 -0600 Charles Hatton writes: >Dear Bob Neely, > >Thanks for all your info on Bee-L. I always look forward to reading = >anything you have to say. I read a letter you sent to an 11 year old >= >young man that is just starting his first hive. My three daughters >(11, = >10, and 8 years old) and I just started our first hive in April. I >also = >bought one for a high school senior down the street. This has been a >= >great thing in all of our lives. > >To that 11 year old young man, you said that he should use a queen = >excluder. I was told by the store where I spent $600 for my two = >unassembled hives, that a queen excluder will stop the other bees from >= >doing much up there. The lady at the shop said it really is a bee = >excluder. I don't know what to do. Please advise.=20 > >A second problem I'm having is that of the two hives we built and >bought = >bees for, one of them has a personality of a mean wet cat and the >other = >is more like a friendly kitten. Why is this? I was thinking that if >I = >didn't do anything to the mean hive for six weeks, all the mean bees = >would have been replaced by new young bees and the temperament might >be = >better. Is this true? > >Thanks again for all you add to Bee-L. > >Charles in Salt Lake City >Charles@Apeleon.net > > ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 19 May 1997 10:12:30 -0700 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Roy Nettlebeck Subject: Re: Fluvalinate residues In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Mon, 19 May 1997, Greg Hankins wrote: > >2. 70.8% of beeswax samples from outside of Germany contain detectible > >levels of fluvalinate (compared to 13.2 % of German samples). > > Hate to ask a dumb question, but why the difference? Do German beekeepers > not use Apistan? > > (BTW, I read someplace that the German for "beekeeper" is "bienenvater" -- > "bee-father!" I really like that.) > Hi Greg and All, Do we still have someone on the list in Germany that can explain why they have less residue. It is a good question Greg. I like the bee-father also. I may use Bienenvater when I sell honey at the farmers markets. Best regards Roy ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 19 May 1997 13:29:16 EDT Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Jim Moore Subject: Queen piping! and other observations As a second year beekeeper I thought I would share a new experience I witnessed this past weeekend. In an attempt to squelch a swarmy hive on May 11 I prepared a four frame nuc with frames from the hive preparing to swarm. One of the frames had 2 capped queen cells. This past week the weather has been cool and damp and I had noticed little activity from this nuc. It was placed about 5 feet from the original hive but most of the bees stayed in the nuc. So things seemed okay except for the lack of any real activity outside the hive. On Saturday, May 17, while inspecting the nuc, I noticed that one of the queen cells was open. The other cell was intact. I was very lucky to hear the 2 queens piping. The hatched queen would make her call and then the unhatched queen would respond with a similar but muffled reply. It was amazing. I located the hatched queen on the opposite side of comb vigorously looking for her rival. I completed by inspection, please that I had a live queen. Sunday provide the first fine weather and my other 4 hives showed good activity. The nuc still seemed very quiet. About noon I did finally notice bee emerging, both workers and drones. At about 1:30 I made a quick inspection to see if the other queen cell was still intact. It was, and there were very few bees left in the nuc. I wondered if they had swarmed or maybe returned home given the first real warm weather since the nuc was made. Well at about 2:00 I heard an unusual amount of bee activity outside. My hives are on my deck off the family room. I was thinking maybe the swarmy hive was swarming. It was the bulk of the nuc's population returning to the nuc all at the same time. Given the small entrance the bees were all over the front face and on the deck railing with many bees fanning to indicate the hive location. I didn't see the queen though I assume she was with them. It was an exciting two days. My question is did the bees escort the queen on her maiden flight and return with her and mark the location to assist her in finding the hive? Is this typical behavior? If it is, it would definitely decrease the risk of queen predation having all the sisters along for the flight. Regards, Jim Moore Second year, 4 hives (1 tbh) + one 4-frame nuc ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 19 May 1997 10:12:28 -0700 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: "Robert A. Roach" Subject: Ants and bee behavior MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable I was watching some curious bee behavior and I wondered in anyone might = explain it. There were some ants walking around on the side of the hive = near the entrance. They are small black ants, Argentine ants I believe. = The hive is a vigorous swarm hived 10 days before. One of the guard = bees would occasionally walk around the side of the entrance and when = she met an ant she would buzz her wings for about a second while turning = around 180 degrees and presenting her butt end to the ant. Then both = ant and bee would continue making their rounds. When they met again, = the same thing would happen. This was repeated many times. Is the ant = irritating to the bee? Was the bee making some sort of display? Do = bees bite ants trying to enter the hive? Bob Roach ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 19 May 1997 13:49:28 -0700 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Adony Melathopoulos Subject: Re: Fluvalinate residues Comments: To: Greg Hankins In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Greg : On Mon, 19 May 1997, Greg Hankins wrote: > >2. 70.8% of beeswax samples from outside of Germany contain detectible > >levels of fluvalinate (compared to 13.2 % of German samples). It would be nice to have some continental European beekeepers comment on this. I think the year the study was done when most German beekeepers were either using coumaphos (Perizin - a systemic added to syrup), bromopropylate (the Folbex smoking strip treatment), or formic acid. While domestic German wax samples had little fluvalinate compared to imported wax, they had considerably more detectible levels of coumaphos (52.7 % for domestic samples vs. 12.5% for foriegn samples) and bromopropylate (72.2% domestic vs. 43.8% foreign). The author of the paper (Klaus Wallner) suggested that domestic German wax may develop detectible residues of fluvalenate (and flumethrin) as these products become more widely used in Germany. An interesting note about residual acaracides in wax. I read a short note from the German Bee Research meeting describing an experiment which suggest that both Apistan and Bayvarol (flumethrin) 'leave long-term residues on combs, which are sufficeint to kill a large number of invading or artificially-introduced Varroa mites'. Combs treated with Apistan 1 year before and used to house 4 infested 1 kg packages resulted on average of 50 % mite mortality over 6 d, compared to 8.5 % mite mortality in 5 infested packages housed with comb that had never been treated. I wonder what implications this residual action might have. Will it speed the evolution of fluvalinate resistance (there may always be a background hum of fluvalinate in a colony) ? Will it kill mites infesting brood whose cell walls contain residues ? Should we be going to the expense of trying to break the residues down, or encourage them ? Cheers Adony *********************************** ** Adony P. Melathopoulos ********* *** Center for Pest Management **** **** Simon Fraser University ****** ***** Burnaby, British Columbia *** ****** Canada, V5A-1S6 ************ *********************************** Tel : (604) 291-4163 Fax : (604) 291-3496 e-mail : melathop@sfu.ca "The pursuit of agriculture promotes the strength of the mind as well as the body" - Rev. John L. Blake, 1853 ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 19 May 1997 17:26:34 -0500 Reply-To: Conrad Sigona Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Conrad Sigona Subject: Re: Fluvalinate residues In-Reply-To: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII > >2. 70.8% of beeswax samples from outside of Germany contain detectible > >levels of fluvalinate (compared to 13.2 % of German samples). > > Hate to ask a dumb question, but why the difference? Do German beekeepers > not use Apistan? Knowing from personal experience how fastidious Germans are, I would bet that Germans are more likely than most to strictly follow the rules for applying Apistan. Conrad Sigona conrad@ntcnet.com ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 00:22:21 +0200 Reply-To: jtemp@xs4all.nl Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Jan Tempelman Organization: Home Subject: Re: Fluvalinate residues Comments: To: Conrad Sigona MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-2 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit A few thing on Apistan - In the Netherlands, we use it to, but only ones a year after the last honey crop (September, 6 weeks, 2 strips one hive) The messages of varroa resistand(In Italy and the south of France), the accumulation in wax, and the pressents in honey, propolis, did us look for other methods. Here is one who helps: http://www.xs4all.nl/~jtemp/dronemethod.html -- Jan Tempelman / Ineke Drabbe | EMAIL:jtemp@xs4all.nl Sterremos 16 3069 AS Rotterdam, The Netherlands Tel/Fax (SOMETIMES) XX 31 (0)10-4569412 homepage webside: http://www.xs4all.nl/~jtemp/index2.html with some pages in english on solitary bees. ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 20:29:48 PDT Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Dennis Subject: Solar Melter Construction MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; X-MAPIextension=".TXT" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable A few years ago I built a solar wax melter. It was cobbled together from= stuff laying around or given to me. It seemed like an interesting thin= g to experiment with! I have learned that you should not use styrofoam insulation, as it tends = to melt. The semi-ridgid fiberglass stuff that heating and airconditioni= ng people use to make ductwork with workes well, and sometimes they will= give you scraps. I also found that the piece of aluminium I used for the metal lining was = a bit of good fortune. It was something called 'stucco' and has a 'pebbl= ed' surface. At just the right angle (sorry, have not measured that angl= e!) the trash stays and the wax flowes out. Well, mostly. Hope this gives you folks some ideas! Happy melting! Dennis Morefield Sideline Beekeeper, Oregon, USA denmar@mind.net ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 19 May 1997 20:37:01 -0700 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Vince Coppola Subject: Re: Queen Excluders-Are they any good? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Charles Hatton wrote: > > I was told by the store where I got my two hives, that a queen excluder will stop the other bees from doing much up there. The lady at the shop said it really Queen excluders will not stop bees from foraging and collecting honey. If the colony is weak it may keep them from storing it in the honey super but that may be a benefit. Personaly I'd rather run my bees without them but we do use them when necessary and have had excellent crops from colonies with excluders. ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 19 May 1997 20:42:10 -0700 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Vince Coppola Subject: Re: Mean Hive-What to do? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Charles Hatton wrote: > > A problem I'm having is that of the two hives we built and bought bees for, one of them has a personality of a mean wet cat and the other is more like a friend It could be that the colony is being disturbed, by skunks for instance. Probably its inherited defensiveness and can be cured by requeening. ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 19 May 1997 20:25:01 -0600 Reply-To: ribac@wi.net Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: "Randy, Isa & Alina Chase" Subject: Re: newbie question: smoker fuel? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Be careful using burlap. Sometimes the former contents of the burlap may have included undesirable residues such as pesticides, fungicides, etc. which could have a rather nasty effect on your bees. I use wood shavings from a local wood mill or cedar chips from a pet supply store. ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 19 May 1997 18:22:37 -0700 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: "Paul Cronshaw, D.C." Subject: Single, Double or 3 6 5/8 Super Brood Chambers In-Reply-To: <199705190403.VAA26710@beach.silcom.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I asked a question last week about bee VACs Someone posted an address for a manufaturer. Southwestern Ohio Hive Parts company send me a flier on their Bee Vac. Any one used their bee VAC model with the 20 foot extension to hive a swarm? At the bottom of their flier they write: "We recommend the 6 5/8 super, and when used as the Hive Body you have a modular hive. Only one size super, one size frame, and foundation. Reports that bees winter better with this arrangement. This size is engineered so that three 6/5/8, or commonly call Illinois, supers equals exactly that of 2 deep supers. This trend in Ophio began years ago as is pictured in the Extension Bulletin 587, Beekeeping equipment, published by the Coo0perative Extension Service, Ohio State University." Are there any Ohio beekeepers who follow this advice, or others on this list who use only 6 5/8 supers to raise bees? As a chiropractor I like the 6 5/8 brood chamber plan. This would help a lot of my beekeeping patients who, by not having lift HEAVY 9 5/8 boxes, prevent wear and tear on their backs. BTW I asked the question about raising bees in single or double brood chambers; responses are running 50/50 at this time. Paul Cronshaw, D.C. Cyberchiro and Hobbyist Beekeeper Santa Barbara, CA USA ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 19 May 1997 21:26:19 -0500 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Ken Lawrence Subject: Re: Solar Melter Construction MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Dennis wrote: > > A few years ago I built a solar wax melter. It was cobbled together from stuff laying around or given to me. It seemed like an interesting thing to experime > > I have learned that you should not use styrofoam insulation, as it tends to melt. The semi-ridgid fiberglass stuff that heating and airconditioning people use > > I also found that the piece of aluminium I used for the metal lining was a bit of good fortune. It was something called 'stucco' and has a 'pebbled' surface. > > Hope this gives you folks some ideas! Happy melting! > > Dennis Morefield > Sideline Beekeeper, Oregon, USA > denmar@mind.net Dennis: I use a old chest type freezer with lid removed and glass lid installed. I cut an old black plastic barrel into and drilled holes in the lower end of barrel half. Place 1/8 inch hardware cloth over holes to catch leaves and other junk. I live north of Kansas City Mo. and can melt wax pretty fast. Ken Lawrence ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 19 May 1997 22:27:15 EDT Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Heath A Miller Subject: Mean Hive, what to do? Charles Hatton wrote: > > A problem I'm having is that of the two hives we built and bought bees for, one of them has a personality of a mean wet cat and the other is more like a friend. Heath Miller, I am a hobby beekeeper in south Florida right now. I have worked for a couple of commercial beekeepers. I had a very similar thing with one of my hives a few weeks ago. I removed the queen (killed her) from the hive and left alone for about five days. At that time the bees had stared queen sells. I then destroyed the queen sell and gave the hive two brood frames with eggs and young larva (from the friendly hive so the queen is not so mean). Then they will raise a new queen and hopefully be a lot nicer. This has worked for me in the past it takes a wile but it may save you from buying a new queen. Heath Miller, 8 hives, South Florida ========================================================================= Date: Mon, 19 May 1997 22:56:32 -0400 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Ted Wout Subject: Queen Excluders-Are they any good? Charles Hatton wrote: >>I was told by the store where I got my two hives, that a queen excluder = will stop the other bees from doing much up there. The lady at the shop = said it really is a bee excluder. I don't know what to do. Please = advise.=20<< I don't think you need listen to the lady at the shop any more. There are a few good reasons for using a queen excluder. 1) You don't get brood in the honey super which is a real pain when you're ready to extract. I used to cut the brood out of frames when this happened. This led to bald Duragilt(:>). Now I use excluders and plastic foundation like Plasticell and Permadent. 2) If you're making honey in the comb, you definitely don't want brood in your comb because if detracts from the pristine appearance of the product. 3) Brood leaves deposits, cocoons etc., in the comb of your supers that attract wax moths. Wax moth larvae prefer the comb that has had brood in it. If you store supers that have had brood in them, you increase the chances that you'll get wax moth damage in your supers over the winter. I have heard of instances where bees are too big for the spacing in excluders. If you requeen with a queen that produces standard sized bees, this problem goes away. It may cause the bees a little more trouble but I haven't seen a detraction yet. As you have probably already read, buy metal bound excluders. They keep a tighter bee space (less burr comb) and hold up longer(wood falls off wood bound excluders). Stay away from plastic - doesn't work very well. I'm using excluders across the board this year. No problems yet. Here in North Central Texas we've had a good wet spring. We've already experienced one Mesquite honey flow and another is about to start. The Mesquite trees around my bee yard are full of new green blooms. My bees have already filled and capped most all of the supers that I had on them! I put on new supers last Saturday and am ready for this new flow. A few hives had swarmed but built back up to foraging strength before the flow. My bees have already made more honey this year than they did for the whole summer last year! Of course last year we had a terrible drought. Ted Wout Red Oak, TX ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 01:35:17 PST Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: "T. Michael Jones" Subject: Re: Books Greetings Karen and Family: In your search for out of print and out of date books I suggest you call or write to "Sam Weller's Zion Bookstore" 254 South Main, Salt Lake City, Utah I bought used and rare books from him when I lived in Salt Lake City but that was 12 years ago. I believe it is still in business but don't know for certain at the time he could get almost anything you wanted in the way of books. Lots of luck. T. Michael Cable-Jones Norfolk, VA On Tue, 6 May 1997 09:40:02 -0400 "Karen M. Ferner" writes: >I am looking for two books. My husband and I were at Dadant in >Waverly >and they told us that one was out of print and one was very hard to >find. If anyone has a copy they are willing to give up (we'll pay for >it) or knows of a place we can find them, please let me know. >We are getting our bees this Friday, 50 hives, and have locations all >ready. It's very exciting and we are looking forward to this new >venture. Well, new for me, my husband worked with bees 10 years ago >and >decided to do it again. >Here's the name and author of the books we are looking for: > >American Honey Plants (out of print) >Frank C. Pellett > >Honey Plants of North America >J. H. Lovell > >Or if anyone has any ideas of another book of similar subject, please >let >me know. >This list has been very interesting the two weeks I have been on it. >Thanks. > > >Karen Ferner > ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 02:43:10 -0400 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: "Thomas W. Hoyt" Subject: Re: newbie question: smoker fuel? I prefer long-leaf pine needles (the short ones will pack in the bottom of the smoker and smother themselves out)... but my second choice is good old Burlap. Where do you get Burlap? From a plant NURSERY. They use burlap bags (usually from imported coffee) to wrap trees for transporation. Go talk the the owner of the nursery. Offer him all the honey he might want for a few old burlap bags. He'll be happy to oblige. It helps if you have a quart of honey in hand when you make your initial trip. My nursery guy gets some bags that are to HEAVY for him to use - they don't decompose quickly. Those are WONDERFUL for my use. We are both happy. ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 09:54:33 GMT+0200 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Garth Organization: Rhodes University South Africa Subject: Re: Ants In-Reply-To: Hi All Just saw the ppost about the ants and the guard bees behaviour to it, with the buzzing and pointing the abdomen. I have observed a few interesting things trying to get into bee hives. Ants get in at night it seems. By day I have watched my guards buzz the ants away with their wings. Bigger ants are actuallyy lifted away and on one or two occarions I have seen two bees actually grab an ant and pull it apart. I don't know whether that was the plan or whether they both just wanted the pleasure of carrying the thing away. A while back I read abouut slugs in hives. Most of my beehives have slugs in them. The slugs go in in the vening and spend the night on the top board, where it is nice and moist and wwarm. I have also come accross snails in the beehive on a few occaions. The slugs and snails seem to move too slowwlyy to be noticed. Keep well Garth --- Garth Cambray "Opinions expressed in this post may be those 15 Park Road of Pritz, my cat, who knows a lot about Grahamstown catfood." 6140 *garth@rucus.ru.ac.za* South Africa Phone 27-0461-311663 In general, generalisations are bad. But don't worry BEEEEEE happy. ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 07:15:13 -0400 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: "(Thomas) (Cornick)" Subject: Re: Fluvalinate residues In a message dated 97-05-19 20:22:29 EDT, you write: << (there may always be a background hum of fluvalinate in a colony) ? Will it kill mites infesting brood whose cell walls contain residues ? Should we be going to the expense of trying to break the residues down, or encourage them ? >> My understanding of the way pesticide and drug resistance develops is exposure of the target pest to less than lethal doses of the drug or pesticide. Therefore residues of fluvalinate in the wax may hasten the arrival of resistant varroa mites. ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 07:56:47 -0400 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: "Karen M. Ferner" Subject: Help MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Hi all. My husband and I just got our bees. They came up from Florida (to Rochester, NY) last Thursday. As usual, the weather here is and has been cold. When picking up the bees, it hailed for 5 minutes. The weather looks like it will stay within 45-65 the rest of the week. We found chilled brood in some hives and are wondering if we should start feeding them. They are in apple orchards which are blooming and would be great if it was warm enough. Will the bees stay inside to clean up the dead brood or will they venture out in the sunny periods, even though it's a bit chilly? We have friends who are not too worried and say they will be fine. Are we being too panicky? It's 47 right now and isn't supposed to go past 57 today, but some sun is expected. Sorry if this is a simple question for all you experts, maybe you can give us your opinion! Thanks in advance for your help. Karen Ferner ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 08:00:58 EDT Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Robert E Neely Subject: Re: Ants Hi Garth: Interesting that you have slugs to enter your hives. I had a hive that was extremely aggressive one day. Yes, it had slugs in it. Someone had been target practicing and peppered the front of the hive with 22 cal. slugs. Just a little humor for your smart cat. Bob Neely Goose Creek, SC USA On Tue, 20 May 1997 09:54:33 GMT+0200 Garth writes: >Hi All > >Just saw the ppost about the ants and the guard bees behaviour to it, >with the buzzing and pointing the abdomen. > >I have observed a few interesting things trying to get into bee >hives. Ants get in at night it seems. By day I have watched my guards >buzz the ants away with their wings. Bigger ants are actuallyy lifted >away and on one or two occarions I have seen two bees actually grab >an ant and pull it apart. I don't know whether that was the plan or >whether they both just wanted the pleasure of carrying the thing >away. > >A while back I read abouut slugs in hives. Most of my beehives have >slugs in them. The slugs go in in the vening and spend the night on >the top board, where it is nice and moist and wwarm. > >I have also come accross snails in the beehive on a few occaions. > >The slugs and snails seem to move too slowwlyy to be noticed. > >Keep well > >Garth > >--- >Garth Cambray "Opinions expressed in this post may be those >15 Park Road of Pritz, my cat, who knows a lot about >Grahamstown catfood." >6140 *garth@rucus.ru.ac.za* >South Africa Phone 27-0461-311663 > >In general, generalisations are bad. >But don't worry BEEEEEE happy. > ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 08:00:58 EDT Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Robert E Neely Subject: Re: Queen Excluders-Are they any good? Date: Mon, 19 May 1997 13:22:27 EDT For som reason this did not get through. Am trying again. Bob Date: Mon, 19 May 1997 12:40:17 EDT Dear Charles, Sorry to be so slow with your reply. I must have gotten a little overheated while doing a split. Blacked out. Had a valve job last June (Mitral Valve) and still have to be a little careful. The Queen excluder is just that, a Queen Excluder. The queen is the largest in the colony. The excluder keeps her out of your honey frames. The bees have a tendency to move upward in the hive. I don't know if this to move away from entrance.(Protection, weather or whatever.) It seems better for me when adding a super...to put it next to the excluder..it shortens the distance to the hive entrance. The workers must pass the nursery bees attending brood and if they need food the workers just pass it off to them and go for more...if not they can go upward to the first available super, comb, etc. I watch my honey flow carefully when adding a super. If it slows in any way, I feed sugar syrup for a couple of days. It just helps as a filler for drawing comb. As for the aggressive hive that you have. There are a couple of ways to handle it. If you have any hives in an isolated area, this would be the first one to place there. (It may deter vandals) You may requeen with one from a more gentle hive. I would not use a virgin queen. She would mate with a drone from the aggressive hive and possible carry over the same genes. It is possible that you may need to requeen more than twice to be effective. Just remember, an aggressive hive is usually more productive. Thanks for your interest. Bob Neely Goose Creek, SC USA neely-bee@juno.com On Fri, 16 May 1997 20:59:22 -0600 Charles Hatton writes: >I was told by the store where I got my two hives, that a queen >excluder = >will stop the other bees from doing much up there. The lady at the >shop = >said it really is a bee excluder. I don't know what to do. Please = >advise.=20 > > >Charles in Salt Lake City >Charles@Apeleon.net > ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 08:38:03 EDT Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Robert E Neely Subject: Re: Mean Hive-What to do? Hi Charles: Me again. Did you get my reply about re queening? I sent it in to the list but I was having some problem at the time. Please respond. Bob Neely Goose Creek, SC neely-bee@juno.com On Fri, 16 May 1997 21:02:27 -0600 Charles Hatton writes: >A problem I'm having is that of the two hives we built and bought bees >= >for, one of them has a personality of a mean wet cat and the other is >= >more like a friendly kitten. Why is this? (They are about 1/4 miles >= >apart.) I was thinking that if I didn't do anything to the mean hive >= >for six weeks, all the mean bees would have been replaced by new young >= >bees and the temperament might be better. Is this true?=20 > >Charles in Salt Lake City >Charles@Apeleon.net > ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 08:38:03 EDT Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Robert E Neely Subject: Re: Dirty rotten frames Comments: To: mister-t@clinic.net Hi Bill: A mild Clorox solution works wonders with some stains and mildews. Clean them first. (scrape all loose wax etc. off) Then dip and soak them for a few minutes. Let them dry in the sun, it will bleach the wood somewhat and evaporate the chlorine in the wood. Wait a few days before using them. Bob Neely Goose Creek, SC USA neely-bee@juno.com On Sat, 17 May 1997 15:25:30 -0700 Bill Truesdell writes: >Well, not maybe rotten, but covered with mildew and other black stuff. >My dumb question is how bad is bad enough to get rid of a brood frame >and start with new wood? Some frames are mildewed pretty bad on one >end >because of water damage this past winter where they were stored in a >barn. I cannot get rid of the black in the wood without sanding them >down >I noticed in commercial hives most of the wood did not have the dark >stain associated with mildew, dysentary or nosema. Do they bother to >clean old frames that show dark stain? >I replaced the "dirty" brood frames (seven years old) in one brood box >in each hive with new wood last year and did not lose a hive. Plus had >no dysentary or other problems this winter. The bees were tested and >no >tracheal mites were found. I feel like the best route is to get rid of >the frames that do not come clean, but that seems a bit wasteful. I >would appreciate your insight. >Bill Truesdell >Bath, ME > ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 08:38:03 EDT Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Robert E Neely Subject: Re: Help Hi Karen: My suggestion would be to start feeding immediately. 50/50 water sugar syrup. This is just as a cushion until the bees get acclimated. If you now have a honey on and it would suddenly cease, your brood would be in trouble. (If a mother is nursing her baby and the milk would suddenly dry up, the baby would be in trouble.) Pardon my illustration, but if there is not enough honey stored up the young bees would starve and set you back a little later. Coming up from Florida would be shock enough. Bob Neely Goose Creek, SC USA neely-bee@juno.com On Tue, 20 May 1997 07:56:47 -0400 "Karen M. Ferner" writes: >Hi all. My husband and I just got our bees. They came up from >Florida >(to Rochester, NY) last Thursday. As usual, the weather here is and >has >been cold. When picking up the bees, it hailed for 5 minutes. The >weather looks like it will stay within 45-65 the rest of the week. We >found chilled brood in some hives and are wondering if we should start >feeding them. They are in apple orchards which are blooming and would >be >great if it was warm enough. Will the bees stay inside to clean up >the >dead brood or will they venture out in the sunny periods, even though >it's a bit chilly? We have friends who are not too worried and say >they >will be fine. Are we being too panicky? It's 47 right now and isn't >supposed to go past 57 today, but some sun is expected. Sorry if this >is >a simple question for all you experts, maybe you can give us your >opinion! >Thanks in advance for your help. > >Karen Ferner > ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 10:08:07 EDT Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Aaron D Wolfenbarger Subject: Re: smoker fuel <> I use cotton jeans that I cut up because I couldn't wear. Has smoke just a good as the pine needles but doesn't smell near as bad!! Aaron. 1st Year 3 hives Clinton ,TN ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 11:12:39 -0600 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Robert Henderson Subject: Re: Queen Exluders-Are they any good? Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" >Dear Bob Neely, > >Thanks for all your info on Bee-L. I always look forward to reading >anything you have to say. I read a letter you sent to an 11 year old >young man that is just starting his first hive. My three daughters (11, >10, and 8 years old) and I just started our first hive in April. I also >bought one for a high school senior down the street. This has been a >great thing in all of our lives. > >To that 11 year old young man, you said that he should use a queen >excluder. I was told by the store where I spent $600 for my two >unassembled hives, that a queen excluder will stop the other bees from >doing much up there. The lady at the shop said it really is a bee >excluder. I don't know what to do. Please advise. > >A second problem I'm having is that of the two hives we built and bought >bees for, one of them has a personality of a mean wet cat and the other is >more like a friendly kitten. Why is this? I was thinking that if I >didn't do anything to the mean hive for six weeks, all the mean bees would >have been replaced by new young bees and the temperament might be better. >Is this true? > >Thanks again for all you add to Bee-L. > >Charles in Salt Lake City >Charles@Apeleon.net I have 4 hives that I checked yesterday- 2 with queen excluders and 2 without. On the hives without, I now have 2 full supers of honey on each. On the hives with the excluders, I have less than 1 full super of honey on each. Also, the hives with the excluders have very little brood-it seems the bees have crammed the hive bodies full of honey (not wanting to to go thru the excluders). The hives without the excluders have tons of brood (and no brood in the honey supers). I have pulled the excluders off. Robert Henderson Operations Manager WSIU-TV / SIUC Broadacsting Service Southern Illinois University Carbondale, IL 62901 (618) 453-6191 ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 13:26:01 EDT Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Albert W Needham Subject: Announcement For those who love to 'advertise' their fondness for their 'girls'... :-) Unique artwork for imprinting on Caps, T-Shirts, Tank Tops & Sweatshirts is now available at the Honey Bee half of my site. The designs are customizable to a degree at no extra charge. They include some designs of my own creation and also some of the great close-up photos by P-O Gustafsson - Swedish Commercial Beekeeper. To go direct to this page: http://www.xensei.com/users/alwine/advertise.htm Al, Offering 'Unique' Honey Bee Artwork On Caps, ------- T-Shirts, Tank Tops & Sweatshirts -------- ------- http://www.xensei.com/users/alwine ------ ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 12:48:04 -0500 Reply-To: tvf@umich.edu Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: "Theodore V. Fischer" Organization: The University of Michigan Medical School Subject: Re: MOLDY SUPERS MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit John Moore wrote: > > They have a mold on them, and some had like a cob web. > My question is can the bees clean this up . Yes, bees love to do housekeeping. They will readily clean up the grossest, moldiest comb stuffed with dead bees, or whatever. Just don't give them AFB combs or heavily damaged wax moth combs. Ted Fischer Dexter, Michigan USA ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 12:45:10 -0600 Reply-To: allend@internode.net Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology Comments: Authenticated sender is From: Allen Dick Organization: The Beekeepers Subject: Shrews MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Has anyone first hand or scientific information about the effect of shrews on wintering bees? We had several yards where we had bad wintering and I saw shrews there. Coincidence? I don't know. If they are the culprits, how does one deal with them? -- Allen allend@internode.net www.internode.net/HoneyBee ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 16:22:40 -0500 Reply-To: beeworks@muskoka.net Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology Comments: Authenticated sender is From: David Eyre Organization: The Bee Works Subject: Re: smoker fuel In-Reply-To: <19970520.100656.11791.0.Bees-n-Trumpets@juno.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT On 20 May 97 at 10:08, Aaron D Wolfenbarger wrote: > < with > the smoke?>> > I use cotton jeans that I cut up because I couldn't wear. Has smoke > just a good as the pine needles but doesn't smell near as bad!! If you're in the shipping business, then rolled up corrugated cardboard is good. CLEAN of course. Lights easily, stays in for a long time, if you tip over the smoker on it's side. Cheap!!!!! ******************************************* The Bee Works, 9 Progress Dr, Unit 2, Orillia, Ontario, L3V 6H1 Phone/fax 705-326-7171 David Eyre, Owner. http://www.muskoka.net/~beeworks ******************************************** ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 16:49:43 -0400 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: bartlett Subject: mite Question Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit When using paper towels with canola oil and an essential oil such as spearmint, how often should this be done? Hate to keep the bees busy removing paper when the honey flow is on. ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 16:44:01 -0400 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Paula Franke Subject: swarm advice needed Comments: To: BEE-L@CNSIBM.ALBANY.EDU. MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit One of our hives decided to swarm this afternoon (about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday 5/20). I heard it as it happened and got to the hives within a few minutes. Have to say that it is a very impressive sight when they first start to go! Needless to say, we got "caught with our pants down". Dan'l has been getting ready to thwart a possible swarming, but didn't get the honey supers on in time and didn't get the new hive body finished (which he is busily working on as I write this). The swarm has settled not too far from the hiveyard, which is convenient. The bad news is that the spot they picked to settle in is in the middle of a giant, overgrown and ancient blackberry thicket. And I mean in the MIDDLE! What to do? My idea is to set up the new hivebody in a cleared area adjacent to the thicket and hope that the scouts discover it. Should it be baited with sugar water or something? How can we make the empty hive more attractive than one of the dozens of hollow trees in the area? (We have 190 acres of woods.) Advice and suggestions please! This is the first time we've had this happen. Paula Franke and Dan'l Sisson pfranke@kih.net http://www.users.kih.net/~pfranke "There are only two things to remember about life: 1. Don't sweat the small stuff 2. Everything is small stuff." ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 16:51:54 -0400 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Frank & Phronsie Humphrey Subject: Re: Help MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit ---------- > From: Karen M. Ferner > To: BEE-L@CNSIBM.ALBANY.EDU > Subject: Help > Date: Tuesday, May 20, 1997 7:56 AM > > Hi all. My husband and I just got our bees. They came up from Florida > (to Rochester, NY) last Thursday. As usual, the weather here is and has > been cold. When picking up the bees, it hailed for 5 minutes. The > weather looks like it will stay within 45-65 the rest of the week. We > found chilled brood in some hives and are wondering if we should start > feeding them. They are in apple orchards which are blooming and would be > great if it was warm enough. Will the bees stay inside to clean up the > dead brood or will they venture out in the sunny periods, even though > it's a bit chilly? We have friends who are not too worried and say they > will be fine. Are we being too panicky? It's 47 right now and isn't > supposed to go past 57 today, but some sun is expected. Sorry if this is > a simple question for all you experts, maybe you can give us your opinion! > Thanks in advance for your help. > > Karen Ferner By all means feed them is these are package bees and don"t have a supply of honey in the hive. If they don't need the syrup, they will ignore it, in which case all you have lost is a little sugar. If they need food and it stays to cold for them to forage, they could starve because they are trying to raise brood. Also if it is very cold, you can put some marshmellows on the top bars to sustain them until they can start getting out again. This is no substitute for syrup but merely a stop gap until they can break their cluster to gather nectar or take syrup. Frank Humphrey beekeepr@cdc.net ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 16:12:31 -0600 Reply-To: Charles Harper Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Charles Harper Subject: Re: swarm advice needed MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit On Tue, 20 May 1997 16:44:01 -0400, Paula Franke wrote: >One of our hives decided to swarm this afternoon (about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday >5/20). I heard it as it happened and got to the hives within a few minutes. >Have to say that it is a very impressive sight when they first start to go! > >Needless to say, we got "caught with our pants down". Dan'l has been >getting ready to thwart a possible swarming, but didn't get the honey >supers on in time and didn't get the new hive body finished (which he is >busily working on as I write this). > >The swarm has settled not too far from the hiveyard, which is convenient. >The bad news is that the spot they picked to settle in is in the middle of >a giant, overgrown and ancient blackberry thicket. And I mean in the >MIDDLE! > >What to do? My idea is to set up the new hivebody in a cleared area >adjacent to the thicket and hope that the scouts discover it. Should it be >baited with sugar water or something? How can we make the empty hive more >attractive than one of the dozens of hollow trees in the area? (We have 190 >acres of woods.) > >Advice and suggestions please! This is the first time we've had this >happen. > >Paula Franke and Dan'l Sisson >pfranke@kih.net >http://www.users.kih.net/~pfranke > "There are only two things to remember about life: > 1. Don't sweat the small stuff > 2. Everything is small stuff." > My advice is to get the machitte out and go for the swarm , scouts seldom go for a location close to the ORIGNAL hive the like to find a place .5 to 1.5 mile from the orignal hive. I get several swarms at my honey house the closet yard is .7 mile from my honey house all in old equipment never in new equipment. Charles Harper Harper's Honey farm 1000 + Colonies ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 14:28:03 -0700 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: "Kriston M. Bruland" Subject: Re: swarm advice needed In-Reply-To: Paula Franke "swarm advice needed" (May 20, 4:44pm) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii On May 20, 4:44pm, Paula Franke wrote: > The swarm has settled not too far from the hiveyard, which is convenient. > The bad news is that the spot they picked to settle in is in the middle of > a giant, overgrown and ancient blackberry thicket. And I mean in the > MIDDLE! What I would do is to get a long extension ladder and lay it down on the blackberries. Then you'll have something you can walk on to go get the bees. I'd walk carefully. I retrieved a frisbee from within a 10 foot tall grove of blackberries once by doing this. It was about 25 feet in. You could also take two half sheets of plywood and walk on one, lay the other in front, repeat until you get to them. Good luck! Kris Bruland Member of Mt. Baker Beekeepers Association Bellingham, WA U.S.A. ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 17:26:48 -0700 Reply-To: mister-t@clinic.net Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Bill Truesdell Subject: Re: smoker fuel Comments: To: beeworks@muskoka.net MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I once used corrugated cardboard until I learned that some is treated with chemicals harmful to bees, so I now use pine needles- the fuel used by every winner in the summer smoker contest at our Maine State Beekeeper's Annual Picnic for the past four years. The smoke is "cool" and lasts long. Bill Truesdell BAth, ME ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 18:52:49 -0500 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: "FLORENCE COOPER, RN" Subject: Re: beginning bee book & when do I put on my first honey super? Dear Bob: Thanks for your response. Now I have another question. Our second hive body has been on for 2 weeks. The weather has been great for the bees. This afternoon I noticed about 50-60 bees "sitting on the front porch". Does this mean that the hive is crowded and I need to super? I don't want the bees to swarm!! Mark would be really upset if half of his bees flew off!! Thanks, Florence Cooper ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 20:27:26 -0400 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: "A.S. Chesnick" Organization: Magnetic Resonance Consultant Subject: Re: beginning bee book & when do I put on my first honey super? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit thoose are probily ether fanning the hive or on gaurd duty or just resting ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 21:22:10 -0500 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: "Carlson@netins.net" Organization: http://www.netins.net/showcase/goldenoak/gof.htm Subject: Positioning supers (crisscross?) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Would there be any advantage or disadvantage to stacking the deep brood supers (or any supers for that matter) crisscross to the previous one? In other words the frames on the bottom running east to west and the frames on the next one up running north to south...? Roger Carlson -- Visit us: at the Farm: "http://www.netins.net/showcase/goldenoak/gof.htm" at Aledo Time "http://www.netins.net/showcase/goldenoak/att.htm" ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 23:47:02 -0400 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: David Green Subject: Carolina News and Question on Wet Honey After an early start, spring has been cool and late. We have had a number of downright cold nights, though no frost. Temps have been in the 70's, when upper 80's and 90's would be more normal. Some of our heat loving melons, cukes and squash have been real slow to grow, so our pollination business is running quite a bit later than usual. We've got bees into several crops that are still a ways from blooming. They've been in and now are out of kiwi fruit and we got a good set. In all my observations in the kiwi, I did not see a single bee of any other species than honeybees this year. So we provided ALL the pollination. A few hives are now in feijoa, though it's bloom doesn't seem very interesting to honeybees. In a twenty minute observation yesterday, I saw three wasps, three honeybees and one carpenter bee working feijoa bloom. The carpenter bee was by far the most effective pollinator. We used to have a tiny solitary bee that worked feijoa intensely, though it seems to be badly decimated, probably by pesticides on cotton. The last year this bee was abundant, was the last good feijoa crop. I suspect the vine crops will all be coming on fast now, as we had 94, 97, and 91 these past three days. So next week will probably be a madhouse hauling bees into fields. Most of the migratory beekeepers are winding down here. Some have bees into northeastern apples and cherries, and made a quick run down for another load. There are quite a few nucs here yet, that have to go north, and a few full hives that were supered up to make honey here. Each one has different systems, and different ideas. I always learn a lot from the group. Most of them tend to congregate here whenever they want to socialize, need supplies, extracting or other help. Most seem to have settled onto one of two trucking methods: hire flatbed tractor trailers, or run one, or one and a half ton trucks with gooseneck flatbed trailers. Gary (the new beekeeper, who was vandalized) has gotten all of his bees, and I wanted to make a full report, with pictures on our web page, but I have not had the time. I am sorry. I hope I can do this soon. We are being run ragged, with honey extraction going right along, continuous (sigh!) vehicle breakdowns and repairs, and preparing bees for pollination. Our main truck caught fire, and we have still not got everything fixed right on it. Well, I guess mechanics need to make a living, too. Another truck has the transmission acting up. The early honey flow petered out, and the bees have been eating honey for two to three weeks. Then, in the last couple days, it resumed. The southeast is a tough place to make honey, because it is so unpredictable. We have been doing some custom extraction for other beekeepers and we have a wet batch in right now that has got me worried. I wish the beekeeper had pulled the honey three or four days ago, when it was dry enough, but he's had a lot of nectar come in suddenly. He has to pull the honey, as he's ready to run these bees back to the northeast, and he'll be overloaded if he leaves the honey on. We have never had a batch of our own honey ferment, but I think this one will. If it were our own honey, I'd put it back on the bees, rather than extract it. We have no sophisticated drying equipment. I could extract it and send it back to him; it's his problem, but it is nice honey and we'd like to buy it. OTOH we don't want to blow up our drums and wind up with worthless honey either. Could I pull much moisture out of it if I warm it to, say 130, and pump it across a flat sloping pan, with a fan blowing over it. Or would I be wasting my efforts. There's about three drums worth. I've spun a couple extractor loads, but I stopped to do some thinking and ask for advice from some more sophisticated honey producers. Maybe there is a better way? Pollinator@aol.com Dave Green, PO Box 1200, Hemingway, SC 2955 Practical Pollination Home Page Dave & Janice Green http://users.aol.com/pollinator/polpage1.html ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 00:19:14 -0400 Reply-To: gwalter@massmed.org Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Gert-Paul Walter Subject: swarms MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit questions re: swarms in this season. Is there any external way to tell if a hive has swarmed after the swarm left? Will there be pollen brought in the next day as usual, and will there be the usual young bees orienting in front of the hive? What happens when the queen and her entourage are ready to swarm and it rains for a few days. Is there enough time before the new queens hatch, do they fight? Can bad weather stop the swarming? thanks Gert Walter ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 00:23:56 -0400 Reply-To: gwalter@massmed.org Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Gert-Paul Walter Subject: allergic rxn from beeswax MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Asking if the rash is an allergic reaction is tough over the computer. You'll have to hold it closer to the screen as its hard to see from here! Seriously, the described rash sounds more like a local dermatitis. Conceivably it could have happened from something in the wax, I doubt it is the wax itself. Sounds like it also could be herpes (cold sore) starting. Gert Walter ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 00:33:00 -0400 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: "William J. Morrison" Subject: Re: newbie question: smoker fuel? Comments: To: "Randy, Isa & Alina Chase" In-Reply-To: <33810B7E.740A@wi.net> MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Be careful of using cedar (Juniperus, Chamaecyperus, etc.) as a smoker fuel or even as a bedding for animals. It stimulates a liver detoxification system and may be hazardous. Natural is not always nice. Juniperus communis was used by certain European peasants as a kind of incense for magical purposes around the farm and on the bees in the spring. I'm not kidding. Bill Morrison On Mon, 19 May 1997, Randy, Isa & Alina Chase wrote: > Be careful using burlap. Sometimes the former contents of the burlap > may have included undesirable residues such as pesticides, fungicides, > etc. which could have a rather nasty effect on your bees. I use wood > shavings from a local wood mill or cedar chips from a pet supply store. > ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 04:38:24 -0400 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: MIDNITEBEE Subject: Maine's spring management MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit http://www.cybertours.com/~midnitebee/ Greetings! I have not included the Spring edition to my web site.The criteria is the same as all years previous. Go to the Beelinks page and follow the link to "A Year in the Apiary". I have two additional bee hives containing the "carniolan" and "new world carniolan" I will report on their behavior as time will allow. Midnitebee(Herb) BTW-The midnites and starlines are building-up rapidly!! So much for these race/strains not doing well in COLD climates. Three years in a row,these bees have produced plenty of honey! ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 07:24:42 EDT Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Robert E Neely Subject: Re: beginning bee book & when do I put on my first honey super? Dear Florence & Mark: Bees may travel over a mile to search for flowers. Sometimes they just hand it off to other bees when they reach the hive. (Pollen or nectar) They may just rest or possibly are "Guarding the hive" Have you inspected the hive as yet? When you look inside, if the frames near the outside are empty, take one from each side out and gently move the others over...then place the empty frames in the center. This action sometimes helps them to fill them easier. If there is not at least three empty frames...add a super. REMEMBER THESE BROOD CHAMBERS WILL BE HEAVY. Possibly over fifty pounds. Please keep me posted. Bob Neely neely-bee@juno.com On Tue, 20 May 1997 18:52:49 -0500 "FLORENCE COOPER, RN" writes: >Dear Bob: Thanks for your response. Now I have another question. >Our second >hive body has been on for 2 weeks. The weather has been great for the >bees. >This afternoon I noticed about 50-60 bees "sitting on the front >porch". Does >this mean that the hive is crowded and I need to super? I don't want >the bees >to swarm!! Mark would be really upset if half of his bees flew off!! > >Thanks, > >Florence Cooper > ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 06:31:57 -0600 Reply-To: Charles Harper Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Charles Harper Subject: Re: Carolina News and Question on Wet Honey MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit On Tue, 20 May 1997 23:47:02 -0400, David Green wrote: > Could I pull much moisture out of it if I warm it to, say 130, and pump >it across a flat sloping pan, with a fan blowing over it. Or would I be >wasting my efforts. There's about three drums worth. I've spun a couple >extractor loads, but I stopped to do some thinking and ask for advice from >some more sophisticated honey producers. > > Maybe there is a better way? > > Pollinator@aol.com Dave Green, PO Box 1200, Hemingway, SC >2955 > >Practical Pollination Home Page Dave & Janice Green >http://users.aol.com/pollinator/polpage1.html > You can remove lots of moisture that way if the humidity is less than 50%,it becomes slower if the R.H. is above 50% . down south here we have to dry our honey quite often a vacuum dryer is what i use here as the R.H. is always too high. Charles Harper Harper's Honey farm 1000 + Colonies ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 07:32:00 EDT Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: "George W.D. Fielder" Subject: Re: Question on Wet Honey BEE-L@CNSIBM.ALBANY.EDU ++++ Dave you asked: > Could I pull much moisture out of it if I warm it to, say 130, and pump >it across a flat sloping pan, with a fan blowing over it. Or would I be >wasting my efforts. There's about three drums worth. I've spun a couple >extractor loads, but I stopped to do some thinking and ask for advice from >some more sophisticated honey producers. > Maybe there is a better way? Well I aint no sophisticated honey producers but suggest that drying in the honey super is best/easiest. Stack them up each staggered on the one below or like chimneys with air inlet at bottom and top. Heat the room up to 30 degrees Centigrade or thereabouts and use dehumidifiers if you have them. You might also encourage airflow through the supers with a small fan arrangement. (I have used some mounted in old brood or super boxes on top of each pile.) DO NOT BLOW WARM AIR FROM A HEATER THROUGH THE PILE - that usually leads to melted wax or comb failure in the extractor. In any case treat the loaded and warmed supers gently! I do not have the figures readily available but you can reduce the water content of sealed honey significantly in a few days. The chap I learned this from will not mix unsealed honey with honey from sealed frames for the raw (or relatively raw) nectar is not cured adequately by this method but it often does raise the honey to the next higher grade. good luck ..... george ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 08:04:08 -0400 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Digest Cesar Flores Subject: Re: BEES:how to treat beestings? Best way to treat beestings is psychologically, but if you want immediate pain relief rub the root end of a cut onion (scallion) on it after scraping stinger out. ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 22:26:30 +0900 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: j h & e mcadam Subject: Re: The one book that every serious ecologist needs to read!!! Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" David Doyle appears to believe that his thoughts are worthy of paying money to read. Without being too unkind to his presumably sincere anguish over felled forest giants, one might ask why he does not become a real conservationist by taking up beekeeping instead of preaching vague woolly-mindedness. Similar thinking to this is obstructing beekeepers in the sustainable use of forests by banning bee-hives, so as to protect the "natural" environment. This is so even where bees are actually of benefit to propagation. David Doyle does not appear to appreciate the reasons why slash and burn agriculture persists or the poverty that causes Thailand farmers to sell their daughters into prostitution. Enough said! HOG BAY APIARY Penneshaw, Kangaroo Island j.h. & e. mcadam From: "Theodore V. Fischer" Organization: The University of Michigan Medical School Subject: Re: Positioning supers (crisscross?) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Carlson@netins.net wrote: > > Would there be any advantage or disadvantage to stacking the deep brood > supers (or any supers for that matter) crisscross to the previous one? > In other words the frames on the bottom running east to west and the > frames on the next one up running north to south...? I can see no obvious advantages to this arrangement, but there are at least two disadvantages: 1) There will be a lot of surface area of frames open to the weather, and will be rained upon. 2) Robbing will be encouraged, again because of the increased open surface area. Ted Fischer Dexter, Michigan USA ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 10:55:56 EDT Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Robert E Neely Subject: Re: mite Question Hi: I use three pounds of crisco, one pound of powdered sugar and 1/4 oz. of essential oil. Place two little balls about the size of golf balls on the top frames. One in the front and one in the rear, mashed flat. They will last about three weeks. The oil gets on thier feet and the mites slide off. The canola works the same. Bob Neely On Tue, 20 May 1997 16:49:43 -0400 bartlett writes: >When using paper towels with canola oil and an essential oil such as >spearmint, how often should this be done? Hate to keep the bees busy >removing paper when the honey flow is on. > ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 10:55:56 EDT Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Robert E Neely Subject: Re: Queen Exluders-Are they any good? On Tue, 20 May 1997 11:12:39 -0600 Robert Henderson writes: >>Dear Bob Neely, >> >>Thanks for all your info on Bee-L. I always look forward to reading >>anything you have to say. I read a letter you sent to an 11 year old >>young man that is just starting his first hive. My three daughters >(11, >>10, and 8 years old) and I just started our first hive in April. I >also >>bought one for a high school senior down the street. This has been a >>great thing in all of our lives. >> >>To that 11 year old young man, you said that he should use a queen >>excluder. I was told by the store where I spent $600 for my two >>unassembled hives, that a queen excluder will stop the other bees >from >>doing much up there. The lady at the shop said it really is a bee >>excluder. I don't know what to do. Please advise. >> >>A second problem I'm having is that of the two hives we built and >bought >>bees for, one of them has a personality of a mean wet cat and the >other is >>more like a friendly kitten. Why is this? I was thinking that if I >>didn't do anything to the mean hive for six weeks, all the mean bees >would >>have been replaced by new young bees and the temperament might be >better. >>Is this true? >> >>Thanks again for all you add to Bee-L. >> >>Charles in Salt Lake City >>Charles@Apeleon.net > >I have 4 hives that I checked yesterday- 2 with queen excluders and 2 >without. On the hives without, I now have 2 full supers of honey on >each. >On the hives with the excluders, I have less than 1 full super of >honey on >each. Also, the hives with the excluders have very little brood-it >seems >the bees have crammed the hive bodies full of honey (not wanting to to >go >thru the excluders). The hives without the excluders have tons of >brood >(and no brood in the honey supers). I have pulled the excluders off. > >Robert Henderson >Operations Manager >WSIU-TV / SIUC Broadacsting Service >Southern Illinois University >Carbondale, IL 62901 >(618) 453-6191 > HI ROBERT: WHEN I ADD A SUPER, I ALWAYS PLACE THE EMPTY ONE UNDER THE TOP SUPER. THEY WILL KNOW THAT THEY HAVE BEEN WORKING IN THE OTHER SUPER AND CONTINUE TO MOVE UPWARD. ONCE THE QUEEN MOVES UP PAST WHERE THE EXCLUDER IS DESIGNED TO GO, YUCKY HONEY. BOB NEELY neely-bee@juno.com ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 09:14:15 -0600 Reply-To: allend@internode.net Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology Comments: Authenticated sender is From: Allen Dick Organization: The Beekeepers Subject: Re: Question on Wet Honey In-Reply-To: <970520234659_1391606991@emout20.mail.aol.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT > I could extract it and send it back to him; it's his problem, but it is > nice honey and we'd like to buy it. OTOH we don't want to blow up our > drums and wind up with worthless honey either. If he has a buyer, he can send it for blending immediately and that is the easiest solution. I'd measure the moisture so that the expected time to fermentation is known. At 17.5% there is no problem. At 18-19, several months is likely safe. Over that, it can go (very) fast,depending on temperature and how clean the handling and containers happen to be. If you pasteurize it (not hard to do - use the same times and temperatures as for milk), it will keep 'forever', and can be blended when some dry honey is available - or sold for blending when convenient. > Could I pull much moisture out of it if I warm it to, say 130, and pump > it across a flat sloping pan, with a fan blowing over it. Or would I be > wasting my efforts. This can work, but is slow, messy, and removes the aromatic scents from the honey. Stacking the supers in a warm room works well, but is slow and it is hard to get low enough relative humidity in the summer in your area, I would think. I'd just extract the honey, measure the moisture (visual checks can fool you, place the barrels (so they are pasteurized too) in a warm room at 120 degrees F for a day or two (check the actual required time & temp - I'm guessing here) and seal them -- and quit worrying. Allen ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 18:23:28 +0200 Reply-To: jtemp@xs4all.nl Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Jan Tempelman Organization: Home Subject: plants names MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-2 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit it must be easy to give my the american names for next listed plants when you have the right book - Robinia pseudo-acacia - Medicago sativa - Citrus sp. - Vicia villosa - Centaurea solstilialis - Sinapis alba - Brassia napis - Rhododendron ferrugineum please email my -- Jan Tempelman / Ineke Drabbe | EMAIL:jtemp@xs4all.nl Sterremos 16 3069 AS Rotterdam, The Netherlands Tel/Fax (SOMETIMES) XX 31 (0)10-4569412 homepage webside: http://www.xs4all.nl/~jtemp/index2.html with some pages in english on solitary bees. NEW PAGES ON THE FIGHT ON THE VARROA MITES. http://www.xs4all.nl/~jtemp/dronemethod.html ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 12:42:30 -0600 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: "Whitney S. Cranshaw" Subject: What is a hobby beekeeper Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" The term hobby beekeeper is used all the time, but what does it mean? The reason for my question is that a local beekeeper is being asked to move his hives because because this is considered to be an agricultural enterprise prohibited within city limits. His defense is that he is only a hobby beekeeper and therefore exempt. But this needs to be better defined. Is there limit to the number of hives that determines a hobby beekeeper? Does selling for profit define if a beekeeper is a hobbyist or not? Any ideas/help? Whitney Cranshaw Colorado, USA ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 15:00:33 EDT Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Robert E Neely Subject: Re: What is a hobby beekeeper Whitney, In our area if you sell honey you are a business. To process honey for sale, we mist have a separate "kitchen" set aside to extract and bottle honey. Honey bees are in such short supply in our area that most people welcome hives on their property. Check with the State Dept. of Agriculture. They must have an extension service in your area. Here in SC the public schools along with the news media have been running programs for public awareness as to the critical state of production without enough bees. Others may reply and give you more insight . Good luck with it. Bob Neely Goose Creek, SC neely-bee@juno.com Member Lowcountry Beekeepers Association On Wed, 21 May 1997 12:42:30 -0600 "Whitney S. Cranshaw" writes: >The term hobby beekeeper is used all the time, but what does it mean? > >The reason for my question is that a local beekeeper is being asked to >move >his hives because because this is considered to be an agricultural >enterprise prohibited within city limits. His defense is that he is >only a >hobby beekeeper and therefore exempt. But this needs to be better >defined. > >Is there limit to the number of hives that determines a hobby >beekeeper? >Does selling for profit define if a beekeeper is a hobbyist or not? > >Any ideas/help? > >Whitney Cranshaw >Colorado, USA > ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 15:04:31 EDT Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Albert W Needham Subject: Re: What is a hobby beekeeper On Wed, 21 May 1997 12:42:30 -0600 "Whitney S. Cranshaw" writes: >The term hobby beekeeper is used all the time, but what does it mean? > >The reason for my question is that a local beekeeper is being asked to >move his hives because because this is considered to be an agricultural >enterprise prohibited within city limits. His defense is that he is >only a hobby beekeeper and therefore exempt. But this needs to be better >defined. > >Is there limit to the number of hives that determines a hobby >beekeeper? Does selling for profit define if a beekeeper is a hobbyist or not? Whitney: I am not a lawyer, but I would think that if it could be said that there is no selling for profit, then it follows "How can it be considered an enterprise?" Perhaps, if it is a real touchy situation, then your beekeeper should check this notion out with a local lawyer. Al, Offering 'Unique' Honey Bee Artwork On Caps, ------- T-Shirts, Tank Tops & Sweatshirts -------- ------- http://www.xensei.com/users/alwine ------ ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 13:05:06 -0600 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Donald Aitken Subject: Re: What is a hobby beekeeper? In-Reply-To: <199705211842.MAA180370@lamar.ColoState.EDU> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Revenue Canada believes that one is a hobby beekeeper in the years he loses money and a commercial beekeeper in the years he makes money. (Signature deleted to protect the guilty) ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 15:33:26 EST Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Keith Cutting Organization: Dartmouth College Subject: Re: What is a hobby beekeeper Comments: To: "Whitney S. Cranshaw" The term hobby beekeeper is used all the time, but what does it mean? US Dept of Ag, in its proposed rules for the EQUIP program, defines an agricultural enterprise as any operation that produces food. In NH a agricultural enterprise is anything that produces foods. You fall under NH Dept of Foods and Markets rules regardless of wether you sell, give away or consume foods produced. The US IRS defines a farm as a agricultural operation that makes a profit three out of five yrs. The exception to this is, horse ranches are allowed four out of seven, or 75% of your income is ag production related. With beekeepers its a class thing where size appears to be important. It has no value other than to satisfy a few ego's. "Of course these are just my opinions and I could be wrong" Dennis Miller :-] . <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<: Keith.Cutting@Dartmouth.edu The Cutting Farm PO Box 605 Grantham, New Hampshire 03753 VT, NH Beef Producers Association Kearsarge Beekeepers Association >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>: ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 16:16:09 EDT Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Jim Moore Subject: another beginner training session or I want my swarm back Yesterday I was fortunate enough to be home when my swarmy hive finally swarmed. It was the first swarm I had seen on the move! It sure is a lot of bees in the air at one time. I had expected a tighter formation, but it was still very impressive. It was a beautiful day and they left at about 1:15, sunny, high 60's with a brisk wind. The swarm was settling at the top os a 25 foot spruce tree on the trunk, not on the end of a limb. I knew it would be next to impossible to ever get this swarm so I decided to try to convince them to move to a "better" spot by shaking the tree. Perched on the top of a step ladder leaning against the tree, the shaking just spread the swarm down over about 6 feet of the trunk. They didn't really move much. Another approach was needed. I was preparing to try a frame of open brood on a long pole. I had cobbled together an arrangement and was about to get the frame of brood when I decided that have the bees in the air again might improve my chances of attracting them to the frame. It had been about 30 to 40 minutes since the initial shaking. The bees had settled into a large cluster, still very inaccessible. I gave the tree a good firm shake and they were in the air once again. I stood and watched to see where they would settle and what do you know, they returned to the hive!! I didn't see the queen at anytime. I have a number of questions: Is this a strategy, bothering the swarm cluster, for getting them to come back to the hive? Will the queen return to the hive in this type of situation? Did the bess "think/experience" that the didn't have a queen and call off the swarm due to the breaking of the cluster numerous times? Can I expect this hive to swarm again in a day or two? I would appreciate comments from others who have experienced similar behavior. Regards, Jim Moore Second Year 4 hives, (1 tbh), 1 nuc. ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 17:30:10 -0400 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: "Augustus C. Skamarycz" Subject: Re: What is a hobby beekeeper Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" At 03:00 PM 5/21/97 EDT, you wrote: >Whitney, >In our area if you sell honey you are a business. To process honey for >sale, we mist have a separate "kitchen" set aside to extract and bottle >honey. Honey bees are in such short supply in our area that most people >welcome hives on their property. >Check with the State Dept. of Agriculture. They must have an extension >service in your area. >Here in SC the public schools along with the news media have been running >programs for public awareness as to the critical state of production >without enough bees. >Others may reply and give you more insight . > >Good luck with it. > >Bob Neely >Goose Creek, SC >neely-bee@juno.com >Member Lowcountry Beekeepers Association >On Wed, 21 May 1997 12:42:30 -0600 "Whitney S. Cranshaw" > writes: >>The term hobby beekeeper is used all the time, but what does it mean? >> >>The reason for my question is that a local beekeeper is being asked to >>move >>his hives because because this is considered to be an agricultural >>enterprise prohibited within city limits. His defense is that he is >>only a >>hobby beekeeper and therefore exempt. But this needs to be better >>defined. >> >>Is there limit to the number of hives that determines a hobby >>beekeeper? >>Does selling for profit define if a beekeeper is a hobbyist or not? >> >>Any ideas/help? >> >>Whitney Cranshaw >>Colorado, USA >> > Check your local zoning laws. If your community prohits agricultural projects, such as, a flower garden, vegatable garden, beekeeping is also an agricultural project, then it can not be ban. If you make a profit in beekeeping then you really must be doing something the rest of the beekeeper cannot do. Make a profit. To be a commercial beekeeper it goes by size of your hobby, not if you sell honey. > Gus ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 18:19:09 -0400 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Ted Wout Subject: Positioning supers (crisscross?) Roger Carlson wrote: >>Would there be any advantage or disadvantage to stacking the deep brood supers (or any supers for that matter) crisscross to the previous one? In other words the frames on the bottom running east to west and the frames on the next one up running north to south...?<< There are dangers of robbing in the bee yard if you do this. But I bet it's great for ventilation. I have never seen supers crisscross but have seen the top super purposely offset a few inches to provide better ventilation during the hot Texas summer. In this case the frames are parallel, just pushed back an inch or two, the same effect as an upper entrance drilled in a super. I don't think you would want to do this during a dearth because all your field bees would be hanging out with no forage. Leaving them an open invitation to rob might be too irresistable for them. I have one super that has a 1" entrance drilled in it. I bought it that way from a retired beekeeper. The hive with that super has produced more honey than any others that I have. Everytime I go to that hive there are bees fanning for all they are worth from this entrance. The aroma of drying nectar is overwhelming at this hive, I love that sweet smell. Maybe there is something to this... Ted Wout Red Oak, TX ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 18:19:13 -0400 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Ted Wout Subject: $300 for one hive? >>To that 11 year old young man, you said that he should use a queen >>excluder. I was told by the store where I spent $600 for my two >>unassembled hives, that a queen excluder will stop the other bees >from >>doing much up there. The lady at the shop said it really is a bee >>excluder. I hope there's a typo here. I think $300 for one unassembled hive is a bit much. If you're paying more than $75 for an unassembled hive, send me a direct mail and I'll give you the 800 numbers for suppliers who will not rip you off. Wouldn't it be great if we could somehow form a relationship with a bee house to give members of the list a special discount? Like since there are over 500 members on the list, wouldn't it be great to get that many customers if you were in that business? Wouldn't it be great to be a member of the list and enjoy some savings. I'm sure that we represent a sizable purchase of bee equipment each year. Wouldn't it be great to flex our economic muscles and take advantage of that? I'm not sure that I haven't violated some facet of netiquete(sp?) here. I certainly don't want to offend anyone. I know that the subject of money on the net causes some people to get real defensive. I just see this as a win/win situation if we could pull it off. Also, I don't have any interest in any bee supply businesses. I just like saving a buck like most folks Ted Wout Red Oak, TX. ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 17:34:11 +0000 Reply-To: barry@birkey.com Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Barry Birkey Organization: BIRKEY.COM Subject: Re: What is a hobby beekeeper MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Whitney S. Cranshaw wrote: > > The term hobby beekeeper is used all the time, but what does it mean? > > The reason for my question is that a local beekeeper is being asked to move > his hives because because this is considered to be an agricultural > enterprise prohibited within city limits. His defense is that he is only a > hobby beekeeper and therefore exempt. But this needs to be better defined. > > Is there limit to the number of hives that determines a hobby beekeeper? > Does selling for profit define if a beekeeper is a hobbyist or not? The factor that determines whether or not someone is a hobby beekeeper has nothing to do with number of hives. It has to do with each individuals interpretation for themselves. If one has 2 hives or 40 hives and still receives pleasure from them and it's not their primary source of income then it's a hobby. This also has no bearing on any local zoning codes. If the code in this beekeepers area is that you must have five acres or more to have animals or crops then he's out of luck. Bees do come under the agriculture umbrella so he either needs to keep quiet about his bees and probably not have any problem or find another place that is suitable. Codes can be changed with alot of work. People are trying to get our county to allow people to keep two hives on their property as long as they are placed thirty feet from all property lines. -Barry -- Barry Birkey West Chicago, Illinois USA barry@birkey.com http://www.birkey.com ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 22:06:56 -0700 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: "Paul Cronshaw, D.C." Subject: SOurces of Burlap Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I like pine needs also but find they burn too fast. Burlap seems to be a popular smoker fuel. Are there any other suggestions for sources of good burnable Burlap? Paul Cronshaw DC Santa Barbara, CA "Thomas W. Hoyt" wrote: I prefer long-leaf pine needles (the short ones will pack in the bottom of the smoker and smother themselves out)... but my second choice is good old Burlap. Where do you get Burlap? From a plant NURSERY. They use burlap bags (usually from imported coffee) to wrap trees for transporation. Go talk the the owner of the nursery. Offer him all the honey he might want for a few old burlap bags. He'll be happy to oblige. It helps if you have a quart of honey in hand when you make your initial trip. My nursery guy gets some bags that are to HEAVY for him to use - they don't decompose quickly. Those are WONDERFUL for my use. We are both happy. ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 17:59:11 -0500 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: "Walter T. Weller" Subject: Re: Positioning supers (crisscross?) What I do is put a piece of wood under the outer cover at one end, about 1/4" thick. Works fine, with no risk of rain getting in. Most covers are a pretty sloppy fit, so if you raise up one end just a little there's plenty of ventilation space opened. I usually raise the back end, so that the air flow from the bottom entrance upward has to sweep through the whole hive to get to the back. Very easy to do, and sure beats drilling holes in your supers. On Wed, 21 May 1997 18:19:09 -0400 Ted Wout writes: >Roger Carlson wrote: >>>Would there be any advantage or disadvantage to stacking the deep >brood >supers (or any supers for that matter) crisscross to the previous one? >In other words the frames on the bottom running east to west and the >frames on the next one up running north to south...?<< > >There are dangers of robbing in the bee yard if you do this. But I >bet >it's great for ventilation. I have never seen supers crisscross but >have >seen the top super purposely offset a few inches to provide better >ventilation during the hot Texas summer. In this case the frames are >parallel, just pushed back an inch or two, the same effect as an upper >entrance drilled in a super. I don't think you would want to do this >during a dearth because all your field bees would be hanging out with >no >forage. Leaving them an open invitation to rob might be too >irresistable >for them. > >I have one super that has a 1" entrance drilled in it. I bought it >that >way from a retired beekeeper. The hive with that super has produced >more >honey than any others that I have. Everytime I go to that hive there >are >bees fanning for all they are worth from this entrance. The aroma of >drying nectar is overwhelming at this hive, I love that sweet smell. >Maybe >there is something to this... > >Ted Wout >Red Oak, TX > ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 19:57:31 EDT Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Albert W Needham Subject: Re: $300 for one hive? On Wed, 21 May 1997 18:19:13 -0400 Ted Wout writes: >Wouldn't it be great if we could somehow form a relationship with a >bee house to give members of the list a special discount? Like since >there are over 500 members on the list,..... That is actually a good idea Ted. Of course, out of the 500+ only so many are in the US. Canadians probably do business in their own country..I don't know. Perhaps David Eyre, as a Canadian Bee Supply Businessman might care to make a comment form the viewpoint of a man in the business...like would such an idea be worth pursuing to mutual advantage ? Al, Offering 'Unique' Honey Bee Artwork On Caps, ------- T-Shirts, Tank Tops & Sweatshirts -------- ------- http://www.xensei.com/users/alwine ------ ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 20:28:35 -0400 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: MIDNITEBEE Subject: volunteer Science Teacher/beekeeping MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit http://www.cybertours.com/~midnitebee/ I received this message on 5/21/97. Any keeper of bees in Palo Alto,Ca., who can help this person? Midnitebee(Herb) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 22 May 1997 11:50:23 +0000 From: klynch@jls.palo-alto.ca.us (Kevin Lynch) Save Address To: midnitebee@hotmail.com Subject: I want to volunteer Can you point me to any beekeepers/associations in the San Francisco peninsula area with whom I could work a few weeks this summer and learn a little? Thanks, Kevin Lynch Science Teacher JLS Middle School Palo Alto CA ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 20:20:17 -0400 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Paula Franke Subject: Thanks to all, the swarm is back home MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit First off, thanks to those who responded to our call for help on Tuesday afternoon. As things turned out, the blackberry thicket was less formidable than expected. The hive swarmed out at about 3:30 p.m. and looked very much like a flimsy tornado as it prepared to leave. The thicket where they settled is about 200-300 feet away from the hiveyard. After studying the layout for a few minutes, we decided that Dan'l would climb up the hill and go into the thicket from the back and above, while I stayed in the field below, calling out directions (I could still see a few bees circling). With some judicious pruning as he went, Dan'l was able to get right next to the swarm, which was hanging from a large blackberry cane. He clipped off the cane and put the whole shebang into a cardboard box (that had just earlier in the day contained a new Kelley's hivebody). He had to go back a second time because he missed a smaller cluster on another cane. The whole operation (not including prep time) took about 30 minutes ( a lot of walking back and forth was involved). Today, the swarm is happily at home in a new hivebody. A couple of things learned during the process: *a beesuit may provide protection from stings, but is useless against blackberry brambles! *this swarm had a very distinct aroma of lemons. And another question: The blackberry thicket was in full bloom. Might that have been an attractive feature for the swarm? Thanks again to everyone! Paula Franke and Dan'l Sisson pfranke@kih.net http://www.users.kih.net/~pfranke "There are only two things to remember about life: 1. Don't sweat the small stuff 2. Everything is small stuff." ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 20:48:00 -0400 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Paula Franke Subject: Rhododendrons MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit While looking up the various plants that Jan Templeman asked about earlier, I came across the following caution: *Honey from rhododendrons is poisonous.* This was found at the bottom of page 628 of the National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Trees, Eastern Region, fifteenth printing, May 1995. It was included in the description for Rosebay Rhododendron (Great Laurel), whose range is mostly the Appalachian Mountains and especially Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Anyone have more information about this? Paula Franke and Dan'l Sisson pfranke@kih.net http://www.users.kih.net/~pfranke "There are only two things to remember about life: 1. Don't sweat the small stuff 2. Everything is small stuff." ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 21:04:08 EDT Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: John M Thorp Subject: Re: Positioning supers (crisscross?) Hi Roger, Some of these questions are so neat that they can't help but bring a smile. The awnser is no but keep on asking and keep on keeping on. Take Care and GBY,John in Homestead,also at On Tue, 20 May 1997 21:22:10 -0500 "Carlson@netins.net" writes: >Would there be any advantage or disadvantage to stacking the deep >brood >supers (or any supers for that matter) crisscross to the previous one? >In other words the frames on the bottom running east to west and the >frames on the next one up running north to south...? > >Roger Carlson > >-- >Visit us: >at the Farm: "http://www.netins.net/showcase/goldenoak/gof.htm" >at Aledo Time "http://www.netins.net/showcase/goldenoak/att.htm" > ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 21 May 1996 21:28:19 +0000 Reply-To: MRichter@pflaphy.pph.univie.ac.at Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: MARCEL Organization: UNI-Wien Subject: Which flying insect is this? Hi Dear People! Does anyone know, which flying insect I found here? It is only on one picture to see. I found it in the swiss mountains in summer between Larix decidua - trees and sunny meadows. I put this picture in the section about my ecological studies of my homepage. There, you can click on it, in order to enlarge it: http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/4568/study.html Thank you, Greetings from Vienna, Marcel ********************************************************** e-mail: mrichter@pflaphy.pph.univie.ac.at Homepage: http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/4568/index.html ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 23:20:07 -0400 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Robert Watson Subject: Re: smoker fuel Comments: To: Bill Truesdell In-Reply-To: <33824148.4C74@clinic.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Tue, 20 May 1997, Bill Truesdell wrote: > I once used corrugated cardboard until I learned that some is treated > with chemicals harmful to bees, so I now use pine needles- the fuel used > by every winner in the summer smoker contest at our Maine State > Beekeeper's Annual Picnic for the past four years. The smoke is "cool" > and lasts long. Are egg cartons likely to contain anything harmful? They are good for starting the fire, and I often continue to add more of the same as well as grass and leaves on top for cool smoke. Rob Robert C.L. Watson rwatson1@freenet.npiec.on.ca pipe organ technician organist - choirmaster early woodwind player hobby beekeeper homebrewer tenor ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 23:37:47 EDT Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Gerry Visel Subject: TheFeet97@aol.com: Beekeeping for Scout camp Any northern Wisconsin beekeepers out there that can help??? --------- Begin forwarded message ---------- From: TheFeet97@aol.com Dear Gerry, Thanks for replying. I am just starting beekeeping. I am the director for the ecology conservation site at East Camp of camp Makajawan, which is near Antigo, Wisconsin: Makajawan Scout Reservation W6500 Spring Lake Rd. Pearson, WI 54462 My twin brother, Jesse, is also going to be involved in this program, as he is the director for the ecology area at West Camp Makajawan, across a lake from East Camp. So far, one smoker, an entrance feeder, and two nucs (which we will use as observational hives for the two camps) have been donated. We are hoping to have one or two main hives a little ways off. If you could help in any way with equipment, I would greatly appreciate it (especially with the main hive and protective gear-so as many Scouts as possible can experience it). We wrote nationals concerninng the discontinued Scout merit badge, and they have told us that a reply is in the mail (it is a bit much to ask for the whole nation to have the badge available, but perhaps they will allow Makajawan to do it). If you have any neat ideas on how to talk to the Scouts about the bees, or any other wisdom for the bee hive setups, I would love the help (we also have two empty nucs, which we might be able to show the bees creating a new queen?). Could you ask the group from rockford if any would be willing to help out with equipment or if any have wisdom for how I should proceed with this. Thanks for your interest, I'm very excited about this. Sincerely, Michael Foote 847-256-3013 105 Dupee Pl. Wilmette, IL 60091 thefeet97@aol.com --------- End forwarded message ---------- ========================================================================= Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 23:42:33 -0400 Reply-To: Discussion of Bee Biology Sender: Discussion of Bee Biology From: Robert Watson Subject: Re: swarms Comments: To: Gert-Paul Walter In-Reply-To: <338277C2.7B20@massmed.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII On Wed, 21 May 1997, Gert-Paul Walter wrote: > questions re: swarms in this season. Is there any external way to tell > if a hive has swarmed after the swarm left? >.................................................... My one colony swarmed today. There was much less than usual activity at the hive entrance. Twenty feet away a three year old mountain ash (sorbus sp.) was bent at a 45 degree angle with the weight of the swarm. I got the necessary equipment ready and hived the swarm..... I called my brother, Ian, to come over and make sure all went well, since I had to leave to go back to work (the organ tech. job). My first swarm...my own bees.... kind of a fun experience :-) I started with a veil and gloves, but removed them and continued on with bees walking all over me .. no stings ... Robert C.L. Watson rwatson1@freenet.npiec.on.ca pipe organ technician organist - choirmaster early woodwind player hobby beekeeper homebrewer tenor