May 19

Swarm Removal by Zip Code

Categories:

Beekeeping

May 19, 2010

It's taken longer than I hoped for to get this feature up and running, but I now I'm pleased to announce that users can now search for beekeepers and companies that do swarm removal by zip code.  This should make it much easier for users to identify someone to do swarm removal who is near them.  This was becoming a bit of a problem in some states because we were getting quite a list users were having to sort though.  It is based on the latitude and longitude of the zip code, so it's not completely accurate when calculating the distance  (it's based on the centroid of the zip code area).  But it will give a good idea who is close to the swarm.

Search for swarm removal by zip code:

Want to get on our list for swarm removal.  Email us your name, contact information, zip code and any other information you think relevant to your listing.

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May 05

Yet More Cures For The “Bee Problem”

Categories:

Completely Off Topic

May 5, 2010

I just received an email advertising yet another cure for the "Bee Problem".  Like the one offered by the ccdsolution.com that popped up in 2007, this one is a magic solution that is sprayed per acre.  Their theory is the problem with the bees is, in their words: bee populations are dying off, less and poorer honey is being realized, an increase of diseases and pests are killing bees, and Most bee environments are deficient in sugars and nectar, fewer blossoms lack aroma, and most crops are simply no longer able to sustain an attractive environment for healthy bees to live and thrive.

Now I would have thought that fewer blossoms lacking aroma would be a good thing, but I'm not the one with several well know (but completely unnamed) universities testing this cure according to their document.  They claim the cause (in short), are poor soils and synthetic chemical fertilizers rendering most soils incapable of growing healthy nutritious fruits and vegetables.  But they also claim organic farming often has the same problem.

A yellow fly that mimics a bee.Their cure… 'MicroSoil' (microsoil.com)… it's a formulation of naturally occuring soil microorganisms combined with enzymes, polysaccharide and polypeptides which is suppose to assist in the growth of nitrogen fixing microorganisms and all other beneficial and 'native soil microorganisms'.   Skipping all the big words in the document they sent which I'm sure is intended to wow most people, in short it's suppose to help nature extract the nutrients already in the soil.   How is this suppose to help bees?   More blooms, high BRIX content, high nutrient content in the blossoms, etc.   (Ignoring the fact they use term BRIX, the scale by which sugar content is measured, completely wrong).  The best part is…. their picture of a bee in their document is a FLY.  That really instills confidence if you have bought into their pitch so far.

The cost for this snake oil?    Only $295 for enough to treat 15 acres at this special beekeeper's introductory offer.  That's only  $157,000 dollars to treat the 8000 acres bees from a single apiary forages on.  Quite a steal considering the ccdsolutions solution costs half a million to treat the same area.

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May 02

Mating Nucs

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Uncategorized

May 2, 2010

The weekend's forecast was calling for rain Saturday through Monday (last weekend) and I had two batches of queen cells that needed to be placed in nucs by Sunday and Monday.  So, I took a half day off work(really just traded it for making the time up over the weekend) and set out to split my strongest yard of 18 hives.  Normally I try to only work up 40-50 nucs in a day because it's a lot of work, but with the lousy weekend approaching I knew I had to make the most of the little time available.

By the time the truck was loaded up I didn't get started splitting up nucs until 2:30.  The bee yard is in a very nice location, but you can't drive the truck up to the hives, so everything has to be carried 100 foot or so to the hives and back.  My wife and son showed up later to help with all the moving of equipment and in the end we made up 87 mating nucs with the last couple hives split after it stared spitting rain.  Most of them were stronger than what was necessary, but the hives were very strong and I was quite surprised I only found swarm cells in a one hive, but I knew in another week they all could have been preparing to swarm.    It was nearly 10PM by the time the hives nucs were loaded, transported to the mating yard and distributed on pallets in the rain.

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Apr 27

Swarm Season

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Uncategorized

April 27, 2010


super

Swarm season isn't quite upon us yet, but look out.  With many hives building up weeks ahead of last year I expect the swarm calls to start early this year.  In my own yards I supered many of the strong hives last Sunday (the 18th) because I haven't been around to split them all for mating nucs and it's not quite time to split for nucs to sell.  I'm glad I did because by the following Friday many were half full of honey and some even had brood in them already.  The picture was taken Friday, just 5 days after adding the super to a hive that already was 4 mediums in height.

Another tell tale sign is that I'm getting a request or two every day from someone that wants added to our swarm list.  If the bees aren't thinking of swarming yet, the beekeepers sure are.

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Apr 22

Looking for Package Bees?

Categories:

Beekeeping, Journal

April 22, 2010

We just received our 3rd shipment of package bees from Gardner's Apiaries.  Like the past 3 shipments they have been on time and look to be in great shape.   We hived one ourselves from the first shipment and it is building up strong.  I've heard a lot of people still looking for packages or that have had their packages delayed and delayed again so I've been very pleased our have been on time.

The good new for those still looking is that as of this time Tony has 300 or so packages available for the May 6th pickup date and they can be picked up in Cincinnati, Columbus, Tipp City or here at my location near Lima.  But act fast, he needs to receive the order by April 29th.  Details and the order form are on his website at  olddrone.com

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Apr 12

New Name

Categories:

Other Stuff

April 12, 2010

Ranco ETC SupplierDue to the popularity of the Ranco digital temperature controls we started selling on the Honey Run Apiaries website and the confusion and questions as to how beekeeping and HVAC temperature controls go together, we started a new website specializing in just the temperature controls.  The new site did well enough that we were able to both expand our inventory and hired an employee to help out both with filling and assembling orders as well as the beekeeping.  Still far from enough for me to do it full time, but a great thing for the employee who had been laid off previously.

Unfortunately after several years with this new business one of the manufacturers thought our name was too similar and we were asked to change our name.   I do see their point as we still have people wanting to return their Ronco Pocket Fisherman because we carry parts with a similar brand (though by the website it should obvious we aren't them).  But it's not worth the legal fight, so I'm happy to announce the new site www.ETCSupply.com even though it's been up and running for several weeks now.  So if you need a Ranco, Johnson, Honeywell or other HVAC control  (especially if you are going to build a queen cell incubator or honey warmer) we'd be happy to help.

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Apr 11

West Virginia Passes Beekeeper Immunity Law

Categories:

Beekeeping, Rants

April 11, 2010

West Virginia has become the first state in the nation to pass a law giving beekeepers immunity from liability for ordinary negligence. This law came about as a result of strong support by the leadership of both the House and Senate. We are fortunate to have a State Senate President, Earl Ray Tomblin, whose father is a beekeeper. Additionally, House Speaker Richard Thompson was raised by a grandfather who was a beekeeper. Finally, it helped that the honeybee is the state insect!

The law requires that beekeepers register their hives. It also mandates the WV Department of Agriculture to promulgate Best Management Practices for beekeepers. All beekeepers who abide by these two provisions will have absolute civil immunity from ordinary negligence. The Department is working on a set of emergency rules they hope will be in effect soon. Governor Joe Manchin signed the bill into law the first of April making this the first state to protect its beekeeping industry

Come on Ohio!  West Virginia is getting their act together.  Why can't the Ohio legislature get something done?  The best they have come up with is to form a Task Force to study what they may want to plan.  (Basically they planning to plan.  Which means nothing will be done for quite some time, if ever.)  -Tim

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Apr 08

Time to Graft…The Season has Begun

Categories:

Beekeeping, Journal

April 8, 2010

With the unseasonably warm weather in the 70's the bees are building up quickly and flowers are well ahead of schedule.  Based on pictures from last year (Specifically the picture from the blog post Buzzing Trees with it's picture of a pear tree taken last year) the blooms are about 2 weeks 3 days ahead of last year.  This all means it's time to begin grafting, just in time to be perfectly on schedule for this years queens  (the first graft was actually this past Sunday). 

I've talked to a number of beekeepers over the past weeks and the results of the winter are quite mixed. Some did quite well and have mostly strong hives and few losses.  Others did poorly with 50-75% losses.  Unlike past bad years where almost everyone did poorly, there doesn't seem to be a pattern by area, size of the beekeeper or experience.   Fortunately most of our bee yards fall into the mostly strong with few losses category.  I chalk it up to good stock and the extra effort in winter preparations we made last year.  Still, if our winter had been a few weeks longer some hives may have run out of stores and would likely have starved out without assistance as some of the strong hives were getting light.

A good start to the season so far but we aren't out of the woods yet.  The last time I recall such a great start to April ended with snow the last week of April.  So keep your fingers crossed.

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Apr 07

Help Reinstate the Boyscout Beekeeping Merit Badge

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Uncategorized

April 7, 2010

Note: This is a quote of an email I recently received.  I'm posting it for our readers because I believe in it's goat to encourage young people to learn about beekeeping and hope you will too.   -Tim
 
Beekeeping Merit BadgeI want you to consider helping Christopher Stowell, a young Boy Scout and beekeeper, in his efforts to persuade Boy Scouts of America to reinstate the Beekeeping Merit Badge. There is not enough youth involvement in beekeeping.  Both the involved scouts and the beekeeping community would benefit greatly if BSA will reinstate the merit badge.
 
BSA discontinued that merit badge about 15 years ago. I don’t think it is a coincidence that, around that time, many beekeepers quit due to difficulties caused by varroa mites.  With the development of the internet, we now have a way to pair up scouts with mentors.  Beekeepers support for this effort will be critical to its success.
 
Here is what I ask you to do:
 
1.  Please go to this website and sign Christopher Stowell’s online Petition:  http://www.experienceproject.com/beepetition
 
2.  Please spread the word about the online Petition by asking your friends and contacts to sign it.  For example, you can send an email to your contacts or send a message to your friends on Facebook giving them a link to the Petition and asking for support.  You will find that most people, even non-beekeepers, are happy to support a 13 year old who is on a mission to accomplish something positive. 
 
3.  If you are actually willing to be a mentor, please pledge to BSA that you would be willing to act as a beekeeping mentor for scouts in your area.  There are two ways that you can make this known.  The easiest way is to go to the “Pledge To Be A BSA Beekeeping Mentor” thread on BeeSource, which is located here: http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?p=521453#post521453
 
If you do not want to do a public post, you can print, sign and mail this form letter to Christopher Stowell: http://www.beesource.com/files/bsabeekeepingletter.bsa.pdf .
 
4.  Finally, if you are a member of a beekeeping club, please ask your club to pass this resolution:  http://www.beesource.com/files/bsaclubresolution.bsa.pdf
Christopher's goal is to present to the BSA on July 15, 2010. So please keep this in mind and make sure you take action as soon as possible. 

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Mar 30

2010 Bee Census (Winter Loss Survey)

Categories:

Beekeeping

March 30, 2010

The Apiary Inspectors of America and the USDA-ARS Beltsville Bee Research Laboratory are seeking your help in tabulating the winter losses that occurred over the winter of 2009-2010. This continues the AIA/USDA survey efforts from the past 3 years which has been important in quantifying the losses of honey bees for government, media, and researchers.

 

This year’s survey is faster, easier and does not require your time on the phone. It is all web based and automatic, just fill and click.

Please take a few moments to fill out our winter loss survey at:   http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/beeloss0910

This survey will be conducted until April 16th, 2010.   If you have any questions or concerns please email beeloss@gmail.com., or Honeybee.Survey@aphis.usda.gov

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