President’s Page

Ros Horton

Today is October 24. If you were at our last bee meeting you were among the last people to hear my voice. The next day I had laryngitis, and while it has come and gone several times, I still don't have my "real" voice. I have to tell you, it's been a mixed blessing around my home. While I've pondered the wisdom of "two ears and one mouth means you should listen twice as much as you speak", it's been interesting not being able to answer my husband from another room or call our puppies. Hopefully by the time we meet again I'll be a better communicator, or maybe not

.
One of the things I was privileged to enjoy (without a voice!) is spend a day with the state bee inspector. Alabama is participating in a nationwide USDA survey to determine what pests are in our country so the government can impose trade restrictions on imported bees that carry pests or disease presently not in the US. Both the Inspector and I were delighted to find almost NO hive beetles in our apiary. Most of my beetle blasters were empty and the ones that were not only had one beetle two at most. What I DID have in great abundance were armadillo holes - hundreds of them - around the bee yard. Please understand that I'm not a bee expert (yet!) and am certainly not an armadillo expert, but knowing that two plus two equals four, I have to consider the possibility that the tasty grubs the armadillos were enjoying in great abundance might, just might, and were probably, small hive beetle larvae.

For what it's worth, my main apiary is in a secluded piece of pasture next to the woods partway down a hill on our property. We've known for a while that armadillos live in some holes around the old trees not far from there. And I have to brag that one of my "puppies" led the way through a maze of trees into the apiary, promptly chased out the horses that were grazing in the vicinity, took up vigil at a safe distance while we worked, and led the way home when we were done. The Inspector was impressed. And if you're wondering, the answer is "no". Get your own white German Shepherd.

For those of you who enlisted to help with the Peanut Festival booth, by the time this goes out we should be a fairly well organized group about to tackle (or just finished!) our 2011 booth. I'm excited and will be working on that and contacting everyone this week.

And don't forget to enter your honey/ wax/ frames of capped honey, baked goods with honey, etc., in the Peanut Festival! If you have any questions or need help coordinating your entries, call Tracy Miller at 334-790-5500. She will be glad to assist any way she can.

Till December!
Ros

November Hiveworks

Bill Miller

The November Hive

The goldenrod flow will be pretty much over by the middle of November, and with it the last large nectar flow of the year. There will be little bits of nectar coming in from here or there, but the next flow of consequence will be the dandelion/wild mustard flow of mid-February. From now until then, any food the bees eat will be either their stores or feed that we provide the bees.

Also, with the onset of cold weather, the bees will begin to form winter clusters, especially at night. Most days will still be warm enough to permit bee flight and hive inspections, as long as the wind is not too severe.

Inside the colony, brood rearing is now greatly reduced, and the drones have been mostly expelled from the colony. My observations have been that I will normally find a little brood and a few drones in a colony, but not enough to be significant. The main tasks of the beekeeper just now are to make sure the colony has enough population and food to make it through the winter.

Food

At least one colony I checked for a friend was essentially running on empty, and I suspect many other colonies out there are in the same condition. If a colony has less than three frames equivalent of honey stores, it needs immediate feeding (as in rush out to the store and get feeding sugar). Colonies with more than three frames equivalent of honey stores can wait a bit, but my recommendation is that a colony around here should have at least 1 medium super’s equivalent of honey stores when it enters the winter.

Two of my colonies will require some feed. As to the feed itself, I use 2/1 sugar syrup at this time of year. The recipe for 1 gallon is 7 pounds of sugar and 3 ½ pints (pounds) of water. You will have to heat the mix to about 120 F to get the sugar to dissolve.

As for the feeding itself, I like to use 1 gallon paint cans with a few holes punched in the lid; the holes are put over the hole in the inner cover and the bees suck out the feed. However, you have your choice of many other methods for feeding; use whatever you feel comfortable with.

Don’t be shy about feeding. A gallon of feed may set you back about $3.50, but having to get a package to replace a starved-out colony will set you back about $80.

Population

Big colonies overwinter better than smaller ones. I like to have basketball-size clusters in my colonies at the start of the winter. If you have a colony with a cluster smaller than a soccer ball, I recommend you unite that colony with another one to produce a colony with a cluster the size of a basketball. You can always split the colony in the spring to restore your colony count.

The Beekeeper’s Calendar

No meeting on November 3 because of………..

November 3 Entry date for the Peanut Festival

The particulars about the entries (classes and entry requirements) are at http://www.nationalpeanutfestival.com/Forms/2011npfHoneyExhibitsRules.pdf. Entries will be accepted between 4 and 7 pm on the 3^rd.

Post-festival entry pickup will be between 10 AM and 2 PM on Sunday, November 13.

Rumor has it that in the interest of getting more people to enter the Peanut Festival, one of our members is offering a valuable prize to anyone who can beat Bill Miller’s entries. Bill is willing to sweeten that pot some more – he thinks his money is safe.

Are you going to let him get away with that kind of thinking?

Thursday, December 1 The Annual Banquet

7 PM Houston County Farm Center

You can’t ask for a better way to kick off the holiday season than our annual banquet. We will have lots of good food, an interesting program, and of course elections for next year’s officers. See you there.

Wiregrass Beekeepers Association

2991 Eddins Rd

Dothan, AL 36301

e-mail: wgmiller@aol.com