President’s Buzzby Ed Moyers

It used to be the weather . . .

Or at least that what folks said. If you were at a party, or meeting with a group of folks you didn’t know, and weren’t sure what to talk about, say something about the weather. And that would get a conversation started. Well, I don’t have rely on that old trick, any more. All I have to do is mention that I’m a beekeeper, and I can be assured there will be no awk-ward silence in the group. People are always curious about bees. How are they doing? Are they nearly extinct? Do you make honey? Do you sell honey? Have you ever been stung?

Many also share stories of their own. A few have kept their own bees. Others have friends, siblings, parents, grandparents or other relatives who keep, or have kept, their own bees. These often become opportunities to clear up misconceptions folks have gotten from friends or the general media. I educate them about the bees, how they reproduce and live. What are the big threats to bees (varroa mites, pesticides and nutrition)? Honey bees are NOT endangered, BUT... that’s only because of the hard work of beekeepers like us. These conversations often become long ones. Sometimes that’s because I have a tendency to wax eloquent about the honey bee. Other times it’s because the folks I’m talking to have a seemingly bottomless pool of questions. Our good friends, and mentees, Michael, Nicole, Kirsten and Jesse, have combined property they acquired in the Belmont neighborhood to create an urban farm, Soulshine Organics. It’s a beautiful place, with downtown

June’s Meeting

June 15 7 PM

Mouzon United Methodist Church

3100 Selwyn Avenue Charlotte, NC

Guest Speaker will be Gretchen Pettis, PhD. and she will be covering Bee & Flora

Relationships

Refreshments provided by Tommy Helms

1

Charlotte’s spires gleaming in the background. They have beds filled with vegetables, spilling into the walkways, as though to say they are overjoyed to live in this place. There are chickens, a fruit orchard and the newest addition, all the way in the back, their bee hives.

The Monthly Newsletter of the Mecklenburg County Beekeepers Association June 2017

President’s Buzz cont’d

Once or twice a year, they host a party and invite their many friends. It’s an eclectic group, including relatives, neighbors, co-workers, other parents they know and... us. They had a party just this past weekend, and we were invited again, much to our delight. We love walking through their gardens, talking about their plants and what they do to get them to be so productive. The chickens are always entertaining. And, of course, we enjoy meeting every-one else there and getting to know them.

Our hosts were busy with other folks when we arrived, so after we left our food at the serving table, I made a beeline for their hives. The bees were very calm, so I took the opportunity to lift the covers and look in. The hives were full of girls, happily going about their assigned jobs.

My curiosity satisfied, I returned to the main gathering, and joined a group of guys who were chatting. One of them said something about a guy whom he saw a few minutes earlier just go up to the hives, openthem up and look in. Was it safe to do that?Another responded that the person the firstspeaker saw must have been very brave, or an idiot. I offered up: “That would beme...”

They stopped and looked at me, a little stunned. Was I a beekeeper? Yes, I responded. And then the barrage of questions started. The questions included topics such as swarming, bee reproduction, honey making, honey bee health, pesticides, and helping the bees.

A couple of the men finally asked me if I could walk over with them to look at the hives. I did. We watched the bees going in and out of the hives. And because the bees were so calm that evening, I carefully lifted the top from one hive, and allowed them a few minutes to peer in and watch the girls at work.

And so the evening went. Of course, we talked with folks about other things. And we enjoyed the chickens and the gardens.

At the end of the evening, as we talked with Michael, I joked with him about being their hive guide during the party. He complimented me by offering that I was a fountain of knowledge when it came to bees. I smiled, and thanked Michael, thinking at the same time that there’s so much that I DON’T know. But then again, to folks who don’t deal with the bees on a regular basis, what I DO know is a deep well of knowledge to them. So when folks come and ask you questions about the honey bee, don’t worry about what you don’t know. What you do know will be a huge blessing to them, if you’re willing to take the time to share.

-Ed Moyers

2 June 2017

We’re located at the corner of

“Queens Court and Honey Bee Lane”

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* ALL QUEENS ARE MATED 2017 STOCK*A. Italian Queens: Available week of March 20th Italian Packages - 3#: Available week of March 20th Italian Nucs: Available Mid-Late April Italian Hives: 8 or 10 Frame: Available in May Italian Complete Hives 8 or 10 Frame: Available in May

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John Caudle Apiaries / Herb’s Bees LLCCharlotte, NCherbsbees@att.net704.995.5484 Cell

3 June 2017

Herb’s HoneyCharlotte, NC

herbsbees@att.net

We recommend raw local honey from a local producer if available! If not, Herb’s Honey would like to provide you with all of your local honey needs. Our local honey is the best of 7 counties including Mecklenburg.

Our Honey Available at These Fine Locations:

You Can Always Order Online Through ETSY.com

Jones Hardware 10100 Moores Chapel Rd. Charlotte, NC 28214

Berry Brooke Farms 1257 East Blvd. Charlotte, NC 28203

Reids SouthPark South Park Mall Charlotte, NC 28209

Reids Fine Foods2823 Selwyn Ave.Charlotte, NC 28209

CMC Monroe 600 Hospital Dr. Monroe, NC 28112“inside gift shop”

Provisions Waxhaw 107 W. South Main St. Waxhaw, NC 28173Piedmont Produce 4212 HWY 218 East Monroe, NC 28110

Mecklenburg County Farmers Market

Building A #36Charlotte, NC 28209

Charlotte Supplements4004 South Blvd.Charlotte, NC 28209Tryon House Restaraunt

Charlotte, NC 28209Renfrow Hardware188 North Trade St.Matthews, NC 28105

Herb’s Honey“Purveyors of the

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NC Seasonal Local Raw Honey Carolina Blonde - late February thru March. A very mild taste, light color with a bit of cool mint.Queen City Gold - A late spring, March thru early May

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and a buttery taste.Herbs Pride - This is a July thru October, late summer early fall honey. Bronze in color with a fantastic

Full Season Raw Honey from NC Mint Hill - From Southern Piedmont area. This is a March thru October Light Golden color

Mountain Orchard - From the foothills of the Southern Appalachian Mountains. This is a March through October, moderately sweet, light color Honey with the aroma of fresh squeezed

Blue Ridge Harvest - From the Northern Mountains along the Blue Ridge Parkway. This is a June through October Honey encompassing

4 June 2017

Fundamentals: What I’ve Learned This Yearby Andrew Thiessen

This year I’ve learned a few things by watching bigger beekeepers and analyzing the mechanics of how they work bees. These few tactics can help us all enjoy beekeeping a little more. #1. Once you get the supers off & set aside, pull the upper brood box, tip it up to look for swarm cells on the bottom bar without pulling a single frame. #2. Then set is aside right side up (as opposed to on end as some do) a couple feet away from the remaining bottom brood box. I set it onto an upside-down outer cover. Put the inner or outer cover or a drape on top of the still-in-place bottom brood box. This keeps the bottom brood box functioning normally and prevents defensive behavior that would come from leaving the box uncovered. Proceed to work the upper brood box you just pulled off. #3. Remove the two outer-most frames from one side of the brood box to give yourself some working room inside the box. Then pry apart every remaining frame in the brood box right away and put your hive tool back in your pocket—you won’t need it again until you work the next box. Getting all the jarring done right away keeps the bees calmer and keeps you from having to pick-up & put down your hive tool between looking at each frame. For me, this has made my bees much mellower as I work them. #4. Once you’ve worked the upper brood box, shift the cover from the bottom box to the box you just worked. Again, covering the box you are not working keeps those bees from becoming defensive. Proceed to work the bottom brood box in the same manner you worked the first box. So, why do we pull the upper brood box off to work it? This immediately splits the hive in half, in effect making it two single-deep small hives. Smaller hives behave less defensively than larger hives. For me, this has made a world of difference in reducing defensive behavior as I work my bees. Calm bees are more productive and are more fun to work. Wait, how are they more productive? Mel Disselkoen says he thinks of beehives as having a finite amount of “voltage.” This voltage can be spent on defense or normal work, but not both at the same time. The more we work to prevent interrupting their normal work, the more they can continue working. Makes sense to me. Mel’s research shows a hive which is thrown into severe defensive behavior can take 1-2 days to resume “normal” nectar-gathering capacity!

5 June 2017

6 June 2017

Bee Presentation: Easy as Pie and Sweet as Honeyby Alice Harrill

When I was asked by a neighbor if I would do a bee presentation at Career Day at Druid Hills Elementary School, I willingly agreed. No problem, right? The letter from the school guidance counselor requested that I include in my outline the job description, perfor-mance skills, educational requirements, and salary range. Haha. None of the above apply. But honey bees are interesting, so I planned most of the presentation to be about the bees instead of my “career” as beekeeper. I arranged to borrow the teaching hive and the observation hive from the bee club. Unfortunately the weather was not on my side, with rain the evening before, and a very cool spring morning the day of the event. The bees were not at all happy to be removed from their warm hive at 7:00 on a 58-degree morning. Given the conditions, I picked a honey frame instead of brood for the observation hive. My presentation was not one, but five 30-minute sessions in a row. It was definitely controlled chaos. I quickly saw the difference between the third and second grade classes in terms of listening abilities. The one fourth grade class I spoke to was like a breath of fresh air. Questions ranged from honey to stings to cries of disgust upon seeing pictures of the larva. And stings again and again. The funniest queries were about the drones: “Why isn't there a King Bee?” (Well, the drones are treated like kings. They are fed and cared for, and can visit any hive they like.) “What do the drones do?” (They go out cruising every day, and when they come home, they are in charge of the heating and air conditioning. Quick segway to heating and cooling the hive) “How are the babies born?” ( They are not born; the queen lays eggs. Show photos of the larvae) “Yuck, oooh, yeaach..” “Why are those bees purple?” (They are not really purple. The photo has faded with age.) At the end of every presentation was a visit to the observation hive. The third graders pointed out the two dead bees in the bottom, drowned by flowing honey from some broken cells. Later, a group of fourth grade boys stuck their fingers in the honey seeping from the observation glass, and were very pleasantly surprised. “That’s honey!” The bees, in the meantime, were becoming more and more unhappy. I took them home after their five hour torture, and one managed to sting me as I returned the frame to the hive. They must have learned something from school, because the next day I received a revenge sting on the cheek just for being out in the yard. Maybe I’ll hang my framed certificate of appreciation in the garage next to the bee supplies. The school has already asked if I would do the presentation next year. I probably will. If nothing else, it was educa-tional.

7 June 2017

Grafting Simplifiedby Andrew Thiessen

When I first read about grafting, it felt beyond me because the author I was reading described all these steps and special equipment, setting up a special “Swarm Box,” reorganizing the “Cell Finisher” hive, checking for “takes” after 24 hours and moving the grafts around throughout the process. My eyes were bugged out and I was over-whelmed at the thought of all those steps I just knew I would never get right. With time and practice, I’ve come to realize (and chant), “The bees don’t care!” It doesn’t have to be all that complicated, and it can be the most reliable method to produce queens. First, I lookup & print my queen rearing calendar here: http://www.thebeeyard.org/queen-rearing-calendar/ I enter my grafting date and go from there. Next, in the morning on Grafting Day I pull the queen and a couple frames of brood & food (Typically, I pull one frame brood and one frame honey—both with clinging nurse bees.) from a random full-strength hive and set them up in a nuc. That now-queenless hive is my “cell builder” and “cell finisher” all in one. No “swarm box” required. Later that afternoon, I go to my best performinghive and pull out a frame of eggs and young larvae. I brush the nurse bees from the frame and take it inside, where I already set up my Grafting Station (pictured), complete with Pandora softly playing classical music on my phone to keep me calm (yes, seriously). It helps to work in a dark room with a small flashlight to illuminate the cells I’ll pull tiny larvae from. Crazy as this sounds, I like to graft in my bathroom because I can shut the door and have it totally dark in there. Plus, I feel it’s fitting that I sit on a “throne” to create my new queens. I “prime” all my cells first with a Q-tip dipped in royal jelly that I buy from Amazon. Once I’ve filled all my grafting cups with teeny tiny larvae, I place that graft ing frame into that hive I made queenless earlier that morning. That’s it. I leave the “cell builder” hive alone for nine or 10 days until my queen rearing calendar says the cells will be capped and past the three-day phase of sensitive development. Then I go in and slip “roller covers” over each capped queen cell and set that brood box aside for a minute. Then I put the queen and all the bees in that nuc right back into the bottom brood box of the hive she came out of. I put a queen excluder on top of this brood box, and

8 June 2017

Grafting Simplified cont’d

replace super(s) on top of it. Finally, I place another queen excluder on top of the supers and put the brood box with the queen cells at the top of the hive. I rely on my queen rearing calendar to tell me when I’ll see emerged virgin queens. In the afternoon of that day, I pull the grafting frame and check how many new queens have emerged inside their little roller cages. Then I set up that many mating hives, which I leave queenless overnight. The next morning, I pull out the grafting frame and put the deep box right back down below so the hive is back to its normal configuration, and thank it for its services. Now the fun part! I install a virgin queen into each queenless mating hive. Really, I just let her walk right in un-protected just like Ralph Jones III taught me (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tcDylT4M4Q ) . It’s a long video, so you can skip to the goodstuff at the 6-minute mark if you’d like. I make up mating hives in regular nuc boxes with one frame of brood, one frame of wet honey (both covered with nurse bees) and fill the rest of the spaces with new foundation frames. That’s it! To make things easy to remember, I check the mating hives one month after grafting day to see if there are eggs & young larvae—indicating a successfully mated & laying new queen. For example, if I graft on March 20, then I’ll check my mating nucs on April 20 for new eggs and/or young larvae. One thing to note: cooler weather can add a few days & hot weather will speed up the process by as much as a week! That’s my simple queen grafting process. No need for special separate swarm box cell starters, separate cell finishers, checking after 24 hours, or any other mumbo jumbo. Heck, if you want to really simplify it, I’d use my “donor queen” hive for the whole thing! There’s really no need to pull larvae from one hive and use another hive to produce your queen cells. You could even use that same hive to provide all your brood & food frames for your mating nucs. Even easier, ha!

Link to Royal Jelly on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000S83TDY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

What’s Blooming in June: Basswood by Matt Burgoon

Common Name: White basswood Botanical Name: Tilia heterophylla Plant Type: Deciduous treeTypical Bloom Period: June-July Nectar Usefulness: highPollen Usefulness: medium A great tree stands at the Harris Welcome Center of Queens University, facing Radcliffe Avenue at Queens Road. It is 67.5 inches in diameter at chest height and its canopy spread is 99 feet. It is an American basswood, Tilia americana.

Most of the Tilia trees growing in Mecklenburg County are instead Tilia heterophylla, white basswood; their leaves are light colored and downy on the undersides. They are sometimes called “bee tree,” because while they bloom for a relatively short time, they shed pollen densely and offer nectar profusely so that they attract an abundance of attention from our bees.

White basswood trees bloom for about two weeks, displaying clusters of 4 to 40 flowers with prominent bracts. The flowers are “perfect”— they have both female and male parts on the same flower, but are generally not self-compatible and need pollinators to initiate fruiting. Most flowers open in the mid-afternoon or evening. Sepals, petals and stamens gradually fold back, and the anthers shed pollen. Tilia are protandrous: the anthers mature first and shed pollen before the stigmas mature to receive it, about 24 hours after the flower first opens. On the second day that a tree blooms, 90% of flowers will have nectar present, sometimes in droplets big enough to see and taste. Peak sugar concentration in the nectar is 28%, and it is a favorite of both diurnal and nocturnal pollinators.

Basswood trees and their European relatives, the lindens and limes (Tilia x europaea, spp.), are a favorite of scientists as well as bees. The pollen shed is so dense that electronic air quality monitors can be used to gather precise data about bloom time. Several published studies have monitored the timing of Tilia pollen shed over time and location. Trees bloom as much as two weeks earlier with just a few degrees increase in annual tempera-ture. They also bloom earlier if they are surrounded by impervious surfaces, such as in a densely paved city.

A visit to the Queens University basswood at the time of this writing will find that it has already bloomed, and the tiny nuts are just beginning to take shape. This particular tree has been featured in a recent book by Margaret Barker Booth, Treasure in the City, and the Queen’s Crown project, www.queenscrown.org, and is certainly worthy of recognition.

Honey from Tilia species is light yellow with a sharp flavor. Pollen pellets are yellow to light orange.

9

American basswood tree at Queens University

June 2017

10

What’s Blooming cont’d

Most of the information in this article came from these studies: The Pollination Biology of Tilia G. J. Anderson American Journal of Botany Vol. 63, No. 9 (Oct., 1976), pp. 1203-1212Published by: Botanical Society of America, Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2441737 Flowering phenology of selected linden (Tilia L.) Taxa in relation to pollen seasons.Agnieszka Dąbrowska, Krystyna Piotrowska-Weryszko, Elżbieta Weryszko-Chmielewska, Ryszard SawickiJournal of Apicultural Science Vol. 60 no. 2 2016https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/j/jas.2016.60.issue-2/jas-2016-0030/jas-2016-0030.pdf

June 2017

National Pollinator WeekNational Pollinator Week is a time to celebrate pollinators and spread the word about what you can do to protect them

Ten years ago the U.S. Senate’s unanimous approval and designation of a week in June as “National Pollinator Week” marked a necessary step toward addressing the urgent issue of declining pollinator populations. Pollinator Week has now grown into an international celebration of the valuable ecosystem services provided by bees, birds, butterflies, bats and beetles.

The Pollinator Partnership is proud to announce that June 19-25, 2017 has been designated National Pollinator Week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of the Interior.

For more information, visit http://www.pollinator.org/pollinatorweek/

2017 MCBA OFFICERS

President: Ed Moyers (meckbeespres@gmail.com)

Vice President: Andrew Thiessen (meckbeevp@gmail.com)

Treasurer: Don Rierson (meckbeetreas@gmail.com)

Membership Secretary: Jodie Rierson (meckbeesec@gmail.com)

Chaplain: Don Rierson

Webmaster: Kevin Freeman (meckbees@gmail.com)

11 June 2017

Contact UsEmail us with questions at meckbeespres@gmail.com

Picture and Article Submissionsare always needed and are

greatly appreciated.

Email submissions to:

Rachel.E.G.Woodhouse@gmail.com

Suspect Identified in Great California Bee HeistNBC News, Tim Stelloh

It was probably the biggest bee heist in California history: on January 17, 2017, hundreds of hives vanished from Sutter County, north of Sacramento. Now, authorities believe they’ve identified a Russian-Ukrainian suspect in the crime — along with a string of other bee thefts that they believe he carried out in California and possibly beyond...

For the entire story, please visit http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/great-california-bee-heist-authorities-identify-russian-ukrainian-suspect-n759886

12 June 2017

In the Beeyardby David Segrest

As we get into June there are several things we have to deal with. They all (at least in our area) revolve around one event. That is the summer solstice on June 21st. This usually marks the end of the honey flow. It also marks the beginning of a nectar dearth.

I hope most of us attended Mel Disselkoen’s seminar. Mel told us that a queen that had been through a nectar flow would start “brooding down” after the solstice. This causes the curves for the mite life cycle and the bee life cycle to cross in favor of the mites. In other words the mite population continues to increase while the bee population decreases and the bees get wiped out. There are other things that happen as the bee population decreases. There may not be enough bees to control the small hive beetles and the wax moths. Once they get to a certain point they will ruin the whole hive. A queen that is mated after the solstice and has not been through a nectar flow will continue “brooding up” and keep the colony’s population strong. Also re-queening can cause a break in the brood cycle, breaking the mite’s brood cycle as well. Whether re-queening by notching or some other method, it is still a good practice. The bees that are born now will be the bees that raise the winter bees. The winter bees are the ones that will keep the colony alive through winter and raise the spring bees. This is the time of year as well when wax moths and small hive beetles really take over. Extra diligence is required on the part of the bees and the beekeeper to keep these populations down. Hopefully some of us will be harvesting some honey. Gerry Mack invented a tool that he calls a “honey horse” that is great for harvesting honey. It is a stand/bagger for honey supers. The super can be placed on the arms of the “honey horse” and a bag can be slid over it. The bag can be sealed with duct tape to keep the bees out of the super. A word about harvesting the honey… If it is not going to be extracted within about 2 days, it should be frozen. No matter how clean your hives are there will be small hive beetle and wax moth eggs in the frames. They can hatch out and the larvae will ruin the honey. If any of the honey is going to be used as cut comb or chunk honey or left in the comb in any way, it must be frozen. If you sell or give someone some honey and the eggs of wax moths or small hive beetles hatch out it will ruin their taste for honey forever. Just imagine… Usually our honey flow ends at the solstice and a nectar dearth begins. Last year we got lucky and had a longer flow. We can hope for that this year. It is important to be watching for the slowdown in the flow. This is time to begin feeding and to be vigilant for robbing. Using robbing screens or some other prevention is almost mandatory. If the bees are being fed it is even more critical. A lesson I learned last year changes my fall food recipe. Honey Bee Healthy is great in the spring, but the smell really advertises the food to the whole neighborhood in the summer. Sugar water and vinegar is good to stimulate a nectar flow and some pollen sub patties will furnish some protein. Nutrition is a complicated matter. Talk to your mentor or read a whole bunch of books and articles.

Mecklenburg County Beekeepers Association 2017 Dues Form

(Please print clearly)

Today's Date____________________ Please circle one: County Association $5 I am: New Renewing N/A State Association $15 I am: New Renewing N/A Total Paid: ______ **If renewing, Member ID #_________________ *First Name:____________________________________*Last name:____________________________________________ *Address:_________________________________________________________________________________________________ *City:_____________________________________________*State:____________*Zip code:_________________________ Phone:__________________________ *Email:_________________________________________________________________ County of residence:___________________ Send Newsletter via: ______ Email (thanks!)______Paper How long have you kept bees?___________(yrs) Number of hives__________ Would you like to become more involved with the Club? Yes / No *This information (name, mailing address, email address) will be provided to all members of the Mecklenburg Beekeepers (and to members ONLY- no one else will receive this information from us). If you DO NOT want this information shared, please opt out by initialing here. _____________ Questions for State Membership only: Circle one: I want to receive the NCSBA quarterly Bee Buzz newsletter by: Email Postal mail Don't want it I want to receive notices of bee-related EDUCATIONAL opportunities by email: Yes No I want to receive bee/beekeeping related SOLICITATION emails: Yes No The "Yellow Book" membership directory is mailed to active members annually as a printed copy. It is not available electronically. If you DO NOT want to receive a hard copy of the Yellow Book, please initial here_________ Make check payable to MCBA and mail completed form to: Jodie Rierson MCBA Secretary 7032 Chapparall Lane Charlotte, NC 28215

13 June 2017