After retirement from a long career of Public Service, in Dade County, Florida, Grace moved to North Florida where she farms a small citrus grove, where she grows tangerines and red navel oranges. She also maintains a small garden of Native plants, Florida friendly plants and also Wild Flowers. Through the extension office where she volunteers as a Master Gardener, she met Santiago Wallace of Wallace Family Apiary, now in addition to her chickens and wild turkeys, she also host some of Wallace’s Apiary Bees. In order to maintain a safe environment the use of chemicals is very minimum in her grove. In the garden adjacent to her home, she has no turf, thus saving precious water and totally eliminating the need for chemicals and/or fertilizers. She believes that with some planning, it’s possible to maintain an attractive landscape without the use of harmful chemicals and fertilizers.

Join Us on June 17th for our podcast with Grace Mathews.

So mark your calendar (or sign up for the reminder at the link below) and plan on joining us for the conversation and share your experiences and/or ask your questions. Hope to see you.

What: WpN Beekeeping Podcast – Native Wildflowers and Bee Friendly Plants Podcast with Grace Mathews
When: Thursday, June 17, 2010 8PM EST
Where: http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/16456]http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/16456

The schedule of future podcasts and recordings of previous podcasts can be found here. You can also sign up to get an email reminder the day of the podcast.

Directions on joining and participating in the podcast can be found here.

Recordings of other beekeeping podcasts can be found here.

My son just bridged from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts this past February, and imagine my disappointment when I discovered the beekeeping merit badge had been discontinued. Along comes Christopher Stowell, a Boy Scout in Troop 250, Skiatook, OK who has taken on the mission to get the beekeeping merit badge reinstated. Here is a young man taking on the task of getting more youth involved in beekeeping, something that we as a beekeeping community should have been years ago. I’m sure this has been and will continue to be a positive life changing event for Christopher’s which is one of the great aspects of Scouting. It is so refreshing to see a young man take on what could be seen as a momentous task for more than just self-gratification. Especially in these times where society is all about entitlements.

It took a young man to start this ball rolling. Now it is our turn, as beekeepers, to help him make it happen. Everyone that is reading this can make a difference. I have been fortunate to connect up Neil Van Dalsem, a beekeeper and neighbor of Christopher Stowell, who has made available some petitions and letters that can be used to show our support. Christopher has set a goal of July 15, 2010 to approach the Council with his proposal, so we must work fast.

What we need to do!

Everyone needs to sign the Online Petition at a minimum, but please try to do more as suggested below.

General Public

If your not a beekeeper or a scout, but are a concerned citizen and want to help out, please print out the following petition, get as many friends and family to sign it and mail it to Christopher Stowell. Remember, his goal is July 15th, so please allow time for the postal system and for Christopher to manage the incoming mail.

General Petition (26.4 KB) (Downloads - 125)

Scouts

If you are a Scout, please print out the following petition and get as many of your fellow scouts that would be interested in earning the beekeeping merit badge to sign it. This is very important. The BSA wants to be assured that there is sufficient interest for the merit badge before they will reinstate it. Oh yea, if your up for it and want to really support your fellow scout, Chirstopher, print out the previous petition as well and get all your non-scout friends to sign that.

Scout Petition (26.84 KB) (Downloads - 117)

Beekeepers

If your a beekeeper, you are where the rubber needs to meet the road. One of the bigger concerns that the BSA has is merit badge councilors. It seems that one of the reasons the Beekeeping merit badge was discontinued was due to the lack of merit badge councilors. For the BSA to reinstate the beekeeping merit badge we need to demonstrate that we, the beekeeping community, will support it. I can’t think of a better way to get youth involved in beekeeping, then a nationally, well defined program. Let’s all take the effort to make this happen.

If you are aware of any beekeeping clubs in your area, print out the first file and approach the club to commit to supporting any scout in the area that would be interested in earning the Beekeeping merit badge. Next, print out the second file and get as many of your beekeeping friends to commit to be a Beekeeping merit badge council. Those two steps are the most important, but if your still up for more, contact your local BSA council to get the word out and get a scout interest petition going in your area.

Club Support (27.43 KB) (Downloads - 46)

Beekeeper Support (17.55 KB) (Downloads - 183)

Updates

Christopher was our special guest on the May WpN Beekeeping Podcast. We had a great conversation with Christopher and got an update on how the campaign is going. I strongly recommend listening to the recorded podcast below. It is very reassuring to see such a determined young man of 13 and the dedication and effort he is putting forth. He has definitely grown and matured, and will continue to do so, through this effort and will make a great leader some day.
- Listen now

I have created a forum at Beemaster dedicated to this effort -> BSA Beekeeping Merit Badge Forum

Coverage of Christopher’s Effort

• Häagen-Dazs® – helpthehoneybees.com
• Online Petition – experienceproject.com
• Busy Bee – TulsaWorld.com
• Boy Scout Merit Badge Project – Beesource Forum

Janet Brisson and her husband Mike have been a self-sufficient family and organic farmers for over 30 years. In 1995 they were forced to become hobbyist beekeepers due to lack of pollination as bees were loosing their fight against the insidious Varroa mites. Horrified to discover that even the most organic-minded beekeepers were driven to use some type of chemical to save their bees, the Brisson’ researched and started building and using screened bottom boards along with intensive drone brood management to reduce their chemical use. After 10 years and various adaptations of SBB’s, they re-discovered using powdered sugar as an effective way of detaching Varroa mites and have been chemical free since the beginning of 2005. One final modification of their screened bottom board to make using powdered sugar easy, the Brisson’ developed their product, the Country Rubes Combo Screened Bottom Board, that has become nationally available to beekeepers. Janet’s program “Healthy Bees & Environmentally Friendly Varroa Control” discusses how to monitor and manage your hives, bees and varroa mites using screened bottom boards, powdered sugar, and drone brood manipulations has been given at Conferences and clubs throughout the United States

- Listen now

Recordings of other beekeeping podcasts can be found here.

David and Sheri began keeping bees in 1994 in Ohio and the hobby went wild in 2004, 10 years later. For the last 5 years, they have ventured into every aspect of beekeeping. First, it was honey, then beekeeping equipment, then packages and queens, then classes and the list keeps growing. They have 6 children and 4 are involved in their bee business.

They maintain around 100 colonies a year and produce and sell hundreds of queens each year. They also sell 500 packages a year along with nucs. David is currently serving as president of our 70 member bee club, Central Eastern Illinois Beekeepers Assoc., and Central Director of the Illinois State Beekeeper’s Assoc. Presently they are the only large scale queen producer in Illinois. David is also serving as a lead member in the Illinois Queen Initiative, an effort underwritten by a SARE grant to produce a better queen for beekeepers.

- Listen now

Recordings of other beekeeping podcasts can be found here.

Amber Rose has been a healer all her life. After graduating form the Universities of Chicago and Iowa with special honors, she went on to study at the Traditional Acupuncture Institute in Columbia, Maryland. Amber is a licensed acupuncturist in three states and the District of Columbia. Amber also became an ordained interfaith minister through the New Seminary in New York City and finally got her Ph.D. in Theology at Columbia State University in Louisiana.

After stumbling on the amazing healing power of honeybees, Amber opened her home in Bethesda, Maryland and created a free clinic to sting people with bees. Inspired by the remarkable recovery of her patients, Amber wrote the award winning book, BEE IN BALANCE. Considered by many to be “The Bible” on Bee-Acupuncture, this book is bound to be a classic.

Amber Rose is a pioneer in a whole new field of medicine. Her approach to healing is unlike anything you have ever seen before. Amber is convinced that the art of Classical Acupuncture and Bee-Acupuncture is sacred medicine. She continues to travel all over the world giving lectures and demonstrations to those in need of healing. Amber was also on the Board of Directors of the American Apitherapy Society.

- Listen now

Elements Questionnaire referenced in the podcast -> Here

Recordings of other beekeeping podcasts can be found here.

The cover has screened vent/feeder holes for each nuc away from the entrance to reduce the chances of robbing. A ratchet strap is used to hold the whole thing together when moving. A sheet of coroplast is placed over the cover for protection when out in the field.

The last photo shows a stack of 17 knocked down double nucs (34 nucs total) with an assembled deep in front for comparison. Each double nuc weighs 12.5 pounds without frames.

Monica Warner is the co-owner of The Carolina Bee Company. She and her husband, Todd have been keeping bees since May of 2004. They are a small beekeeping operation located in Franklin County, North Carolina (about 20 miles north of Raleigh).

This little enterprise was started with just two hives of honey bees. Over these handful of years, the Warner’s slowly expanded the number of hives as well as their experience.

Today, The Carolina Bee Company still remains a small company that produces high quality, chemicalfree, raw honey; and offers limited pollination services to the surrounding gardening and farming communities. Now, they have also expanded their small company to include the production of fabulous all natural, slow-cured, hand-crafted and handmade soaps, lip balms, and body butters.

All of their products are made from scratch with the very best all-natural ingredients to include, of course, the blessings of The Carolina Bee Company honey bees: honey and beeswax. Their products have been a resounding success.

Monica entered the soaps, lip balms and body butters into the 2008 and 2009 NC State Fairs, and won 1st and 2nd place ribbons for them respectively. Feedback on the products has been so positive, that they are expanding the product line further by selling in a couple local (Raleigh area) businesses, in addition to selling them on their website, www.carolinabees.com.

- Listen now

Recordings of other beekeeping podcasts can be found here.

Special Thanks to Jim Hensel for sharing this idea, photos, and directions.

Background: I am making my own hive boxes. I have researched handles and the choices are as follows:

1. Cleat
2. Dado slot
3. Canoe shaped routed pocket

But I wanted something more. I noticed that many “store bought” boxes have a routed pocket, but the bottom side is sloped.

I live where it rains a lot and this sloped bottom handle seemed to avoid water pooling at the bottom of the slot… I WANTED THIS STYLE HANDLE.

Here is my approximation.

1. This uses a router and a 14 degree dovetail bit. Buy the ¾” one if you have to buy one although the ½” one will do.
2. It turns out that to make a pocket that is 1 ½” tall and 3/8” deep at the top and flush at the bottom is a 14 degree angle. And the most common dovetail bit is a 14 degree bit. Go figure.
3. Here is the finished jig:
   
   
   The idea is to have the router on an angle to the surface of the wood. Using a 14 degree slope on the jig and a 14 degree bit means that the cut at the top of the pocket will be perpendicular to the surface. That is, the two 14’s cancel each other out so you get a nice grip at the top of the pocket.
4. Start with a scrap of plywood. I would suggest 3/8” or ¼”. I used 1/2 “and it made the distance the bit has to plunge too deep and the bit would barely make it. If the plywood and the OSB scrap were both ¼”, the whole system would work better.
5. Grab some 3/8” by ¾” scraps to use as cleats. At a corner of the plywood set two cleats in place and the router. Like this. Make a mark on the plywood at the very center of the router – center of the bit.
6. Remove cleats and router from plywood. Using a square, make a line both directions from that point. The measure up 1 ½ inches and make another line. As to the width of the pocket, I make mine comfortable for my large GLOVED hands. Just lay your hand down and make a mark. Draw a vertical line through this mark. You should now have a rectangular box drawn on the page. Place the router over the three other points and draw and line around the outside of the router base. Using the square, you should be able to draw two lines that just touch the arc lines. You now have a box described by the two cleats and these lines. But you want to create room to nail on cleats along these lines so draw another line ¾” outside these two lines. Should look something like this (I still need to make room for the cleats along the two lines. Just lay cleats adjacent to the outside of these lines and make another line. Cut the plywood along these outer lines.

7. Cut the base plywood to 18 ¼” by 8”. Glue and nail a cleat to on long side (not to the edge, but to one side along one edge. This will make a fence to align your box piece.

8. Mark 8 ¼” from one edge and make a mark on the edge that has the cleat.
9. Make two 14 degree wedges. I use a tapering jig, but the adjustable ‘T’ pusher on the table saw should be close enough.

10. Assemble the top and the wedges with glue and nails. Attach cleats at outer edge of the top of the plywood. These cleats are the boundary for the router.

11. Attach to base. Align the center-line of this wedge piece to the 8 ¼” line, flush with the edge of the lower piece (cleated side is down, but along that same edge. Again the thinner the base, the easier it is to make the router bit work.
12. Plunge route set to about ½” the plywood, then the OSB and finally the box part which is clamped below the OSB. Align the right edge of the OSB with the edge of the side of a hive box for a centered handle. Align to the left for an end box part.

13. Lessons learned: Use thinner plywood and OSB. I used a Freud ½” collet Bit.

I’m always open for suggested topics for future podcasts and if you know someone that would be a great guest, please let me know.

Bees will rear queens in three different circumstances. Swarm queens, supersedure queens, and emergency queens. Swarm queens are reared when a colony is booming, resources are plentiful, and the colony is ready to initiate a natural split. Swarm queens are reared out of desire and not out of need, and are also reared vertically in queen cups. Since swarm queens are initiated by bee when conditions are optimal, the results are quality queens.

Supersedure queens are reared when the colony is unhappy with the performance of the queen and decide to replace her. Supersedure does not consider availability of resource or drone population for proper mating. Supersedure queens are reared from eggs of an unacceptable or failing queen, therefore results are marginal at best. You will find some folks that say supersedure queen are perfectly fine. Just keep in mind, that although young supersedure queen may seem just fine, come Fall when the weather starts getting tougher is when the poor quality shows up. This also, coincidentally, is the worst time to have to try and requeen.

Emergency queens are the worst case for the bees. They have no laying queen and the colony will perish if the situation is not rectified. There is no current queen so one is raised from eggs laid in worker cells. What differentiates a queen from a worker is the food that is fed to the larvae on or around day 3. This happens to coincide with the bees needing to get the larvae from the horizontal cell to the new vertical cell they build on the face of the comb. To get the larvae to the correct position, they float it out on thinned out royal jelly. Does this thinned out royal jelly have the same nutritional value? Right at the critical time of a larvae being either a worker or a queen. There may not be an abundance of resources for the bees to produce quality royal jelly and they just do the best they can. Out of necessity, they will attempt to raise multiple emergency queen in hope that one is successful. Any larvae that may be a little older (more than 3 days and didn’t continue to get feed straight royal jelly) will also be the first to hatch and kill all the younger, perhaps better quality, unhatched queens. Out of desperation, bees will try and rear a queen from a non-fertile laying worker larvae, so wouldn’t it be plausible they would attempt to rear from a slightly older than prime larvae? Are “good enough” queens OK, or do you want the best queens?

So next time you plan to do a split, either wait until you have some nice swarm cells, or truly think through the long term costs before you write off a $20 quality queen as too expensive. Any beekeeper trying to deal with a late Fall/Winter queen failure would gladly drop $20 if given the chance for a do-over.