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Happy New Year! It's 2012. Do you know where your bees are???
A beekeeper's Winter ToDo List: • Build/repair and paint your woodenware for spring. • Call/email your bee purveyors and verify that your nuc/package/queen orders are in good standing. There may still be opportunities to place orders. • Need woodenware or other beekeeping supplies? The GBA Spring Meeting will be held at the Coweta County Fairgrounds on 18-Feb-12, and there are sure to be plenty of vendors coming. To save the shipping ($$$), call Rossman Apiaries or Kelley Bees to place an order, and ask that Fred or Earl bring your order to the GBA meeting! Can you ask for any service better than that...? **** Much of what you can do with the bees right now **** is dependent on the ambient temperature. When temperatures are expected to be below freezing: • Consider sliding an IPM board (corrugated plastic sign board, or the like) under your hives that have screened bottom boards to reduce stress on your clusters. Note: Many beekeepers don't worry about doing this, and some beekeepers are flat-out against it (They say that it coddles/pampers the bees and that the bees are slower to build up in the spring as a result - which I don't have any data to support or condemn). But, in my humble opinion, any opportunity to reduce stress (e.g.: be it from thirst, hunger, infection, pest infestation, or temperature) on the bees is good management practice from the standpoint of colony survival. Just be sure to pull the boards when the weather returns to better conditions. On warm days (above 50°F), check on your bees. • Are your girls coming and going? If you don't see any activity, or you suspect the activity to be of a robbing behavior (i.e., seeing the bees leaving the suspect hive and making a "beeline" for a neighboring hive), you may have a dead out. Don't leave uninhabited woodware out in your apiary over winter for pests to move into and the elements to deteriorate. Disease-free, drawn comb will be very valuable in the spring; protect it. • Perform a lift test by picking up the back of the hive and judging the current status of honey stores. If the box is noticeably light (for reference, a medium super of honey should weigh 60 lbs.), consider emergency, internal feeding of 2:1 syrup (table sugar to water). While the temperature may be too low to go through your hive (frame-by-frame) or spend a lot of time with the box open, you can open it long enough to get some feed on the bees, You want to get the food as close to (and OVER) the bees as possible. You can enclose an inverted jar/pail in an empty deep super, or try using a perforated ziplock freezer bag laid on the frame top bars with an Imirie shim as a spacer. Be sure to take advantage of the occasional "extraordinarily" warm day (above 60°F), and open your hives to check on your bees. • Remember, when in cluster, your girls will NOT migrate left or right to reach food, but typically work upwards. Make sure that you have honey stores ABOVE your bees. You can do this by rearranging your honey frames and/or bees (switching hive boxes to put bees on bottom). • How do your pollen stores look? Are they next to your bees? If pollen stores are low, plan for introducing pollen patties in February. Move your best two pollen frames to positions like bookends alongside your active brood frames. • Do you have a viable population? If your bee population seems small (ie., covering less than three frames - or six "frame sides"), you may want to take action. If there's a queen and you want to try to save this colony, you have at least a couple of options: [1] You can move the colony and their resources into one (or more, stacked) nucleus hive boxes. [2] Or, you can move the hive from its bottom board to the top of a stronger hive to reduce stress using a double-screened divider. • Do you have brood? If not, this is may be a great time to do a winter Varroa mite treatment. With little to no brood (especially without any drone brood) a very high percentage of mites are in the phoretic, rather than reproductive, lifecycle stage, and, therefore, are very susceptible to a range of treatments. Read and follow miticide product instructions for appropriate colony size, dosage(s), applicable temperature ranges, and safety requirements.
• In the Metro area, Red Maple and Dandelion should be in bloom by the end of January if not sooner. Your queens' egg laying activity should be responsive, by virtue of the pollen being brought in by foragers, to the environmental changes around her. If one of your colonies is lagging behind the others in early spring build up, you may have a queenless or underperforming queen situation; consider merging the weak colony into a stronger one. To do this, remove the queen (if there is one) from the weak colony, and stack it on top of the brood chamber of the queenright colony with only a couple of sheets of newspaper between the two groups. Make several slits in the newspaper to give the bees a headstart. Take a look at this fun video on overwintering by a young Dr. Delaplane, courtesy of the UGA Cooperative Extension Service.
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Quick Links: * When's the next Tara membership meeting? * "Help! I need directions to the meeting" * Did you miss the last Tara meeting? * Our 2012 Officers & Directors. * The 2011 Evelyn Williams Honey Show. * Our spring short course,"Beekeeping for Beginners," Sat 18-Feb * Our Club's spring PICNIC, Sat 19-May * Recipe of the Month: January
Queen color marking guide
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Georgia Beekeepers Association
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2012 Officers and Board of Directors Elections were held at November Meeting
Please congratulate and thank the following members when you see them: Secretary, Mary Cahill-Roberts Treasurer, Linda Cooke Vice President, Gary Cooke President, Philip Quinn Three-year Director, Jim Moye Three-year Director, Doug Clack Two-year Director, Ed Mellon Two-year Director, Doug Robinson One-year Director, Paul Partin One-year Director, Ned Isaacson Also, special thanks go to the Nominations Committee and its Chairperson, Gary Cooke, for assembling the 2012 slate of candidates.
Our next Board Meeting will be held at Forest Park's Georgia Power Building (same location as our monthly membership meetings) on Friday evening, 13-Jan-2012. We begin with a potluck dinner at 6 PM, and the meeting starts around 6:30 PM. ALL TARA MEMBERS are welcome to attend, participate in the dinner, as well as listen & contribute to the meeting discussions. We need help!
Our Board and Membership meetings are great times to step up and TAKE OWNERSHIP OF YOUR CLUB. Please volunteer to help with any of the club's various jobs, committee positions, and service project assignments (all appointed by the President - just let Philip know that you're willing...):
Jobs: Committees: Service projects: Website Contributor Audit Committee Mentor & Hive Inspections Program Newsletter Reporter Picnic Committee Spring Short Course volunteers Club Librarian By-Laws Committee Spring Short Course Presenter Honey Show Committee
"We need new people, energy and ideas to carry our club forward!" - Philip Quinn, Board of Directors meeting, 14-Oct-11
Email webmaster@tarabeekeepers.org to express your interests and consider the club's
current needs.
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We have set a date for the Spring Short Course, "Beekeeping for Beginners:" Saturday, 18-Feb-12, 8:00am - 4:15pm
Distribute the brochures to your friends and other interested contacts, on bulletin boards, store front windows & doors, or busy counter areas.
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The date for the 2012 Tara Club Picnic has been set with JoAnn Minter for the Tara club to return to the Minter's Farm in Inman, GA on Saturday, May 19th. This promises to be the BEST PICNIC ever! Please act now to join the 2012 Picnic Committee! We need your help. (To join, simply send an email to webmaster@tarabeekeepers.org . Thanks!)
The committee will be led again by the infamous, "Dynamic Duo" team of Co-Chairmen: John Duke and Jim Moye. They welcome your input. And, remember, "Many hands make light work!"
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(click on the picture for the recipe) Honey Brined Smoked Turkey Ready to "get your grillin' on?!?" Tender, juicy and smokey, this winter treat is sure to satisfy even the most discerning BBQ officianando's palette. Serve it for dinner with traditional turkey accoutrements, or opt for your favorite sauce and rolls for incredible sandwiches. To begin the adventure, just click on the pic!
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Notice that our website doesn't look/act like it used to...?
Well, there's nothing wrong with your computer or connection. Yes, several of the page link buttons (upper left) are not currently in use. Unfortunately, as many of you already know, our website was hacked in late 2011 and had to be taken down entirely. We are in the process of rebuilding it to its previous glory. Please have patience in the meantime. We welcome your feedback, suggestions and content submissions.
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Thank you for visiting the Tara Beekeepers website. Please forward any comments or questions about our club or the website to webmaster@tarabeekeepers.org |
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