Beekeeping Meeting

Last weekend, my cousin Vickie and I went to a Beekeeping seminar.

Since it was an hour and a half away,

 and it started at 7:00 a.m.,

we decided to get an hotel room close to the seminar location.  Now, I don't know about you, but for me to be away from home for any length of time, I have to have a good magazine, and some crochet, 

 

 and some HGTV!  I do not get HGTV at home right now, so it's a treat.  I sent My Shug a picture of this screened in porch (taken off of the tv) and asked him to build it for me when he is finished with the house!  He told me to stop watching HGTV!!!

 Oh yeah, I need wine and chocolate too!

 Early the next morning....

 

 over 900 people....(I think that guy behind us should have gotten a room the night before!)

   

attended the Beekeeping School of Indiana's seminar.  900 beekeepers in Indiana alone!

The seminar lasted the entire day.  

They had several different classes you could attend throughout the day.   You had to pick and choose though.  So we each picked four different classes and off we went.  Our theory was to teach each other what we learned.

 

 Aren't these baby bees the cutest!

And you thought beekeeping was just about bugs!

 One of my classes was on Disease and Pests.

The one I got the most excited about was this one....and his program is online!  So I came home and watched the whole thing again. 

 And I'll probably watch it again and again, as it's a little bit confusing but I'm very excited about giving it a try.

You've heard me talk about feeding my bees....

 This beekeeping school took place at an Indianapolis High School.  They had vendors throughout the hallways where you could shop for supplies, finished products, and artsy-craftsy stuff pertaining to beekeeping.   So during your breaks throughout the day, there was plenty to do.  They also had a silent, and a "regular" auction where they had a caller and such.  I told Vickie to get me the nuc box (which is a wooden box about half the size of a hive) but not to spend more than $30.00.  I had something else to do.  Well, I looked at the time and decided I had time to sit, so I did.   The nuc was the first thing to go.  When she was bidding, she had it for $20.  I might add Vickie is very competitive!  When someone bid against her, her head whipped around to see who bid, and she reminded me of Monica on the TV show Friends!  I started laughing!  She got it for $30!  Thanks Vickie. 

 I used to say I didn't need to go to these meetings, that beekeepers years ago didn't have all of these meetings to attend.  They just kept bees.  Well, beekeepers years ago didn't have varroa mites, tracheal mites, etc. either.  Some of these mites just arrived in the 1980s.  And I suppose, the farmers back in the day did their "meetin' time" at the local General Store over a cup of coffee.  I was wrong about the meetings.  I learned so much that I want to talk about it.  Try talking about varroa mites to your crochet group, or your lady friends at a luncheon!  It doesn't work peeps!  I'm glad I went to this meeting.  I plan on going to more.  I learned a lot and I enjoyed it.

There are a couple of  things I would like to say about meetings such as these for any hobby.  They had different levels of meetings for Beginners, Intermediate, and Advanced beekeepers.  And they put that information beside the class title so you would know which classes to attend, based on your level of beekeeping.  What they did NOT do was give a general description of the class.
SO......
1) If you are in charge of putting on seminars, don't just give a title and expect people to know what the class is about.  Put a brief description of the class.

An example....I thought "Honey in the Kitchen" was going to be about how to set up a honey kitchen in order to sell your honey.  I asked someone about it.  Nope, it was about recipes that had honey in them.  (Luckily, Vickie went to that one! LOL!)
But, the first meeting I attended, I was a bit bored.   When I met up with Vickie she was all excited.  I was almost jealous!  You see, she attended a meeting where she learned something.  I did not.  It wasn't that the speaker wasn't interesting.   The topic wasn't what I thought it was going to be.

2) The next meeting she went to was a beginner meeting.  I went to the one on Pests and Disease.  She came out of the beginner meeting bored.  She already knows beginner beekeeping.
So, give yourself credit for what you do know, and stretch yourself.   Learn something new.  Go to the next level.  Even if you are unsure about what you are doing, try it!  I was getting bored with beekeeping and now I'm excited again.

3) Get together with peeps at the general store over coffee! (I do this with my crochet group every week!)  You need to talk to people who like-minded.  Just don't talk about varroa mites to your crochet group or ladies luncheon! Their eyes gloss over!!!!

Cindy Bee

Wild hive

On Sunday, I got into my beehives.  I was checking to make sure the queens were laying and to see if there was any honey to extract.

All hives had good laying queens, but no honey to extract.  They were making honey, but there were only a couple of frames that were capped, out of all of my hives, so I didn't extract.
When I talk about honey being capped, see the top of this frame, how it's white-ish.  (If you add "ish" on the end of the word, it isn't as strong.  Ex: It's sort of cream-ish sort of white-ish)   Well the white-ish part is capped.  The bottom is still open.  So it's not ready to extract.  The bees know exactly when the honey is ready to preserve, when the moisture content is perfect, and that's when they will cap it.  But not until it's ready.  Not much different than the way we can food.

That Vickie...always sneaking selfies in on my camera!  And yes she came over to help me for the day, again.  I gotta admit, she has been a trooper.  Most people say they want to help bee keep, but when it comes to it, it doesn't work out.  She has helped for two years now

and is getting braver by the year!

Here is the real reason for this post. 

 I got a call from our local Extension Office on Thursday about a "swarm" which was not a swarm at all, but instead, a wild hive.  It looks like a swarm in this picture.

 Upon closer inspection, you can see the honeycomb.   A wild hive.   I've only seen this one other time since I've been a beekeeper.  I've seen wild hives INSIDE trees (actually, just seen the bees coming in and out of the tree) but this hive is on the outside of an apple tree.  My Shug and I went to look at it on Saturday evening, and to try to come up with a plan of action.

 

The plan was to put an empty hive body on a ladder and drop the hive into the hive body.  If only it were that easy.  The ladder was too tall.  The home owner had a couple of 2 x 4's handy, so we put two ladders on either side, and put the 2x4's on the steps, then set the hive on that.  If it were a swarm I would have yanked on the limb, and the bees would have fallen into the brood box.  However, they were attached to a very big branch on the back side, which was in the way of putting the hive in the box, then cutting it.  They were also attached to several tiny branches coming out the top, and a few small branches all over.  

I thought about it for quite some time and finally decided to just go for cutting the comb with a serrated knife.  It is not what I wanted to do.  I was concerned that the bees would get REALLY mad.

I gotta tell you peeps, I did not even get nervous.  These bees were the nicest bees EVER! 

I did have help on the ground too, which was very helpful to me.  Since Vickie now knows the names of the parts of the hive and the names of tools from listening to me while we are in the hives, I would ask her for "x" and she would immediately get it. 

It was sad taking this down because a couple of the combs fell into the box.  I don't know if I hurt the queen or not, I hope not, but I'm sure I killed some bees and brood. 

I then tried brushing the rest of the bees into the box, but they wouldn't have any part of it!

 

There were a couple of times I thought the bees were going to get mad because about a dozen of them flew onto my face shield.  I would never have attempted this without suiting up.

This was the clump of bees that I was trying to get into the hive by brushing.  And when they kept flying back up, I had a feeling the queen was possibly in this clump.  I even tried squirting honey on the top of the frames in the hive, hoping they would come down and eat!

After many failed attempts of brushing the bees into the box, the homeowner (who I made sure was also suited up, got on the ladder and sawed off the entire branch they were on.)  He is a brave man.  Most people who are not beekeepers, are not willing to do something this close to that many bees

We then set about trimming all of the other branches and limbs off.

I put everything in the bee hive.  We put the hive on a wagon and wheeled it to the truck and I drove very slowly home.

Here is the sad part.  Usually when you get a swarm or a wild hive this late in the season, they don't survive.  The reason is there is not enough time for them to make enough honey to get them through the winter. 

Yesterday (Tuesday) I checked on them.  I took the limb out of the hive and put brood frames in the hive.  I was going to try to mess with the comb, maybe see if I could stand it up somehow, but it was completely covered in bees and I thought they had been disturbed enough.  I also put three bottles of sugar water and one bottle of honey in the hive.  I'm hoping to feed them enough that they can put the excess in the hive and not starve to death this winter.  At least they have a fighting chance, in the wild, they would have died for sure.

Cindy Bee

A Bag, Belle, and Bees

So Thursday afternoon a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to go "sailing" Friday morning.  I could for a short while, but we are finishing up the pole barn today, so I need to be home after lunch....

CHA CHING!  

This leather bag is the same brand I wanted at the beginning of the summer, at a store, but it was $100.00.  I got it for $2.00!  Yes, TWO DOLLARS!  LOVE IT!

 

Got my Shug a London Fog, wool coat for winter, for $10.00!

 This quilt, for Coral Belle, for $4.00

 

 Bee Lady party tray for $1.00!

And these gauzy curtains that have pockets in them, to hang outside Coral Belle and give her an exotic appearance... somehow, for $4.00.

Not bad for a few garage sales.

Then Saturday, my Shug and I went on a date to a HUGE auction.  HUGE!

Too big actually.  It's a yearly event this church has, but I don't think I'll go back.
There were so many "rings" of auctioneers and so much stuff it was overwhelming.  I wanted this skinny little hall tree in the middle of the above picture.  But not for $20.00.  Especially after they left it out in the rain all night.  (sad face)

I would have given $20.00 for this!!!!  But I didn't stick around this area to see how much it went for.

 
What's this.....off in the distance....at one of the other rings...

 

I want this for Coral Belle's area!  My Shug says to go up to $50!  I secretly thought I'd go up to $75!  Guess what!  I didn't even get to bid!  $250.00!

And a friend of mine said, "well I can't imagine much of a calling for metal palm trees."

I imagine someone in town upsetting their neighbors about right now with this metal palm tree in their front yard!

While I was hanging around between a couple of tents, I noticed this guy on the roof of the church taking pictures!  OH MY GOSH he is really high up there!

I wanted these lamps for my kitchen

but I decided not to wait....it was taking way too much time to get to them....as you can see, there are "things" on top of and under the tables. 

I hope they finished up before church Sunday morning!

I left...with nothing!  

Oh well....I gotta hot new (old) bag for $2 dollah at a garage sale!

CORAL BELLE UPDATE

She's coming along nicely.  My Shug can't keep his hands off of her!  I know...I was fixing her up like a girl, but hey, if he wants to jump in there, I'm not going to stop him.  Actually, we have come up with a little plan.  On weeknights, he gets home from work late, he works 10 1/2 hour days, and he's usually exhausted.  So we are doing small things together on weeknights to move forward, such as camper stuff, pole barn stuff, odds and ends stuff.  Then on the three day weekends, work on the house.  So far so good!

So, there were two vents in the squares below, and the wood was somewhat rotten below them.  We are guessing a refrigerator or stove was in this area back in the day.  We took some aluminum and covered the vents so snow couldn't blow in,

then put the other half of this door over the holes so you can't see the holes.  I'm going to paint either all of it, or the inside of it with chalkboard paint!

He also fixed the door.  Well, I helped with the screen.  I was trying to find a before picture of the screen door and this is all I could find.

AFTER!  (there was a piece of metal in the camper that came with it.  That's what he fixed the door with.  And new screen which you can get for about $7.00 at home building stores)

A can of spray paint whitened up the hitch area and the bumper.

Lastly, I'm off to see a man about some bees.

It's a hive, not a swarm, which makes it much more difficult.

Cindy Bee

PS - I had this post ready to go yesterday (Sunday), but the battery went dead in my computer.  It's way dead...like it won't charge anymore.  Bummer....Anyway, I'll post about this hive adventure next.