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The Carroll BeeCarroll County Beekeepers Association
April 2018
Message from the President
Our Bee Class is just about over with only one topic remaining. It will cover Pests and Diseases, which I feel are some of the most important things a new beekeeper must learn to keep their colonies alive.We also just had our March meeting, which featured a review of the Bee Class as well as covering other topics. Sixteen of our student beekeepers participated in the Honey Bee Buzz-In learning game. I hope the big take away for all the new students is the importance to read and reread the textbook to absorb all of the information.The nectar flow in our area should be starting in a few weeks and I hope all of our colonies are building up strongly. In our area with the early and short nectar flow, we need our colonies built up as strong as possible, as early as possible. We all need to remember what I refer to as the “forty-day rule”. On average, the queen needs to be laying the eggs of the foragers 40 days prior to the main nectar flow. Twenty-one days for the bees to develop and around twenty more days before they are old enough to leave the hive to forage. At our April meeting, our guest speaker will be Dr. David Hawthorne from the University Of Maryland. He will talk about the effects of different and multiple chemicals in our hives.
I hope to see you there,Larry Truchon
Here’s the Buzz….
Important Dates:
Monthly meeting:April 18, 2018 @ 7:30pm
CCBA meets at 7:30pm the 3rd Wednesday of the month at Bear Branch Nature Center 300 John Owings Road Questions? Comments? Westminster, MD 21158 [email protected]
Visit our new website! www.carrollcountybeekeepers.orgCheck us out on Facebook! Carroll County Beekeepers Association. Join the page to post photos, articles, ask questions, etc. Anyone can view!
Honey bee on blackberry bloomBy Connie Young
BEE SCHOOLThe Learning Corner
SwarmingBy Larry Fritz
Despite the horrible weather we have been experiencing, spring will arrive. Unfortunately this year it will be later rather than sooner (blame it on Phil). When the weather finally breaks, buds will probably pop quickly and webeekeepers will very soon be confronted with colonies that want to swarm.
Now is a good time to refresh our memories on what can be done to decrease the odds of losing a good queen and 50% of her workers. Also, there are methods to possibly stop a swarm even after we see that 1st swarm cell with royal jelly in the bottom. In addition to our text book, there are several good articles in the online CCBA Digital Library in the “Swarming” folder. Also included are a couple of articles on bait hives for those who would like to “trap” a swarm.
•Access the Library by clicking here, or by copying and pasting this link into the URL bar of your browser: http://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B4uCC3CyQd7kNllWXzhacV9vSkk?usp=sharing •If necessary, switch to the List View by clicking on the array of 6 small squares in the top right corner. This array is under the array of 9 squares. The Grid View works, but the List View is easier to view.•Double click “CCBA Digital Library” and select List View to see the folders in the Directory.•Double click the “Swarming” folder to view the articles contained within.This is the current contents of the “Swarming” folder:
Everyone is encouraged to subscribe to both of the very excellent beekeeping magazines, American Bee Journal and Bee Culture, and start your own library of articles that interest you.
Forage Species for the Carroll County Nectar FlowBy Connie Young
We’ve watched our girls visit early bloomers like winter aconite, crocus, and hellebores, grateful for these food sources while we wait for the warmer temperatures needed to wake up more pollen and nectar-rich plants. April is now upon us with promises of rising temperatures, sunny skies and rain to help the cause. These warmer days with greening vegetation, opening blooms and extended daylight hours are quite enticing to honey bees as they continue their spring build up. April is also an exciting time for beekeepers, as we are once again afforded time in our hives, observing, supporting and anticipating needs like good bee stewards. The commonality between bees and beekeepers this time of year is our eager anticipation of the nectar flow, and it’s about to begin!
Historically, our nectar flow in Carroll County begins mid-April, lasting several weeks into May. Weather always plays a role in the flow, improving the bloom or squelching it too soon. As we all know some of the most critical nectar sources come to us in the form of trees. With so much vegetation leafing out and growing, colors pleasing to our eyes and to those of honey bees, there seems to be an abundance of choice for our girls. Industrious honeybees focus on the most important food sources that allow them to store up honeycomb cells fast and furious, primarily nectar from tulip poplar and black locust here, followed by blackberries and clovers, sumac and basswood rounding out the top forage species for our area per NASA.
Blooming dandelions will tip us off that the flow is here. While dandelions serve as a good indicator of the beginning of the flow, bear in mind that many plants bloom outside of the typical range because of their location. I’ve seen dandelions bloom as early as February on the side of our church where they get a lot of sun and are well protected, serving this patch of blooms much like a microclimate. They’re just outliers. We look for the blooms on a more consistent basis to indicate the beginning of the flow and they will be here soon.
Dandelions and clovers are easy to spot in our yards and within the areas we travel. Tulip Poplar and Black Locust trees are not as easy to spot in bloom because not every yard has them and they are such large trees. I am fortunate enough to have many old tulip poplars in the adjoining woods by my hives but at 70 feet tall, seeing their blooms is not practical. I have been monitoring their buds and watching them fatten up, something easy to see from the ground below, but it will become harder to see those blooms open as leaves fill in. Long before the wind or rain knock down big tulip poplar blossoms, my bees will exit their hives, orient and head virtually straight up to them. That’s how I will know that the tulip poplar is in bloom.
Gardening for Bees
Honey bee on open crocus bloom, note the full pollen pouches
Fallen tulip poplar blossom, an unexpected treat for ants who feasted on the sweet nectar
Black Locust trees easily reach 50 feet in height, but their blooms are easier to identify from the ground because of the large clusters of eye- catching, fragrant, white blooms, easily five inches in length draping across the trees. As a member of the legume family, the blooms resemblesweet pea flowers. On a walk last April, I saw one in bloom long before I was close enough to inspect it because of this phenomenon, and the fact that the tree was filled with buzzing life also investigating the blooms.
Schotts Nursery in Taneytown has many bee friendly trees in stock for spring planting such as tulip poplar, red maple, Eastern redbud, serviceberry, white fringetree, and American linden that supplement the key nectar sources we know per NASA.
(https://honeybeenet.gsfc.nasa.gov/Honeybees/ForageRegion.php?StReg=MD_11).
Spring planting is upon us. Since clovers and dandelions are freebies,adding one of the aforementioned trees would be a lovely way to support future pollinators, paying it forward a bit as trees can take years to brandish blooms. Well-sited trees will establish roots, reach for the sky and provide for the future. As beekeepers we can all get around that kind of altruism. Let the nectar flow friends!
Gardening for BeesBy Connie Young, continued
Black locust cluster, blossoms similar to sweet peas
Black locust tree, clusters of blooms evident from the ground
Redbud in bloom
Where’s the Rainbow?By Russell Sprangel
This is my first spring after wintering a couple of colonies, so new ground to cover. I still consider myself a first year novice with a lot to learn. To that point, I took the Howard County beginner beekeeping course last month. After sitting through two beekeeping classes, I should be ready to go, correct? Luckily there was one day warm enough this week to pull a few frames and inspect. As I pulled and looked at each frame, more questions just kept creeping into my head. I have no idea what I am looking at! How can it be that this doesn’t make sense, both classes are fresh in my mind. I need help.
Don’t get me wrong I’ve tried to do the baby steps myself. Over the few months since I closed up my colonies, I made a couple of plans for this coming year. Winter is the time to plan. I’ve got my mite test and treatment plan, a honey production plan (which caught me completely off guard last year), a re-queening plan and my Apiary safety plan. I then went through my inventory and filled in the gaps for needed equipment to go along with my plans. I also did a lot of reading on topics yet to adventure into. I did all of this to be as prepared as possible for the upcoming season.
But none of that prepared me for opening the first colony and trying to figure out why there was no rainbow. I’m supposed to see the rainbow! It was drilled into our heads during class. Brood, pollen and capped honey in a nice rainbow pattern on every brood frame, but no rainbow. There should be more brood, why so little? I’m feeding 1:1 to stimulate a nectar flow, which should stimulate the queen to lay eggs. So why aren’t they taking the syrup? Is that the problem? They loved the syrup last year. They consumed a gallon every four or five days. Are they getting enough food outside already? It seems too early for anything to be in bloom to provide that much food. Why did one queen move back to the top box after I just put her down to the bottom box a couple weeks ago? Capped brood on half of the frame, and capped honey on the other, split right down the middle? What are they doing? That is not what I was taught it should look like and it isn’t what it looked like when I closed them up. Does this always happen through the cold months? Could this be normal?
Then I kept thinking WWDD “What would Dewey do?” Just an expression I heard, but it reminds me to think of what the experts around me have taught me to get to this point. The good news is CCBA has a vast amount of knowledge and experience. Also everyone is more than willing to share, I just have to ask for help. I will be asking a bunch of questions over the next weeks trying to better understand what I’m seeing. If you have the same questions, ask someone else, not me, I don’t know the answers yet. But if you get some answers, please share.
My next call was to my mentor.
CCBA 2018 OFFICERSPresident Larry Truchon [email protected] President Russell Sprangel [email protected] Jody King [email protected] Secretary Monica Schmitt [email protected] Carroll Bee Editor Olivia Canfield [email protected]
In my opinion...... we can all be better beekeepers.
...whoever decided to use yellow as a queen marking color wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed.
... Honey Bee Buzz-In is a fun game.
Pics of the Month
We want your pics! Please submit your bee picture to the Carroll Bee editor to be included in future publications!
Installing packages!Pictures submitted by Andy Driscoll
Worker Bee Classifieds
FOR SALE - CCBA T-SHIRTS (Navy Blue shown)Short-sleeved navy blue club t-shirts will still be available at meetings Long-sleeved options are also available.The special order color choices are as follows:Short-sleeve - Heather Cardinal Long-sleeve - Navy (same as our short-sleeve club shirts) and Military Green
JOIN THE MARYLAND STATE BEEKEEPERS ASSOCIATIONThe cost is $10/year. Click here for the membership application. The application also gives us an opportunity to donate to MDA’s Apiary Inspection Fund. Donations will help to cover the expenses of our state honeybee colony inspectors who work long hours for low pay. These folks are a beekeeper’s friend! Many other states charge us for their services, but in Maryland it is still free of charge. Our contributions demonstrate to the MDA how we feel about this valuable service, and encourages MDA to retain state funding
EAS BasketBy Russell Sprangel
Each year the Eastern Apicultural Society (EAS), has a Honey Bee conference in the Summer for a full week. This year it is in Hampton VA, the second week in August. At the end of the week they have a silent auction on a variety of things that are donated. The money raised at EAS support the conference, scholarships, research, the honey show and the Master Beekeeping program just to name a few. A big part of the auction is baskets filed by county bee clubs from up and down the East coast. Local clubs get together and fill a basket with donations from their club members. If we get enough support from our members, I would like to take a CCBA basket to EAS this year. I would like to start getting ideas on what possible things that you think would represent Carroll County MD, to be included. Many baskets obviously contain local honey from the county they represent. It would be great to get a couple lbs. of some of our finest honey to be included. You all know who has the best CCBA honey, we learned that during Honey Bee Buzz-In during the March meeting. But also let me know any other suggestions on what else you think could be included.