Last Saturday, 2/19, the Forsyth County Beekeeping Association had the first of its beekeeping classes. There were defiantly well over 100 people attending.
After the lecture on a basic introduction to beekeeping, there were demo stations. I presented at one of the stations: Protective equipment, hive tools, smokers and Hive stands. My presentation was to 1/2 of the crowd. They were broken up into smaller groups to wander amongst the stations. Each time lasted about 15 minutes and had a Q&A session at the end.
The next few weekends are going to be full of demo station presentations as well.
March 5- How and when to inspect a hive
March 12- Feeder types and feeding sugar
March 26- Requeening principles and techniques
April 2 will be the bee yard day. I will have up to 9 people to be a mentor for throughout the year and beyond. These people will come to my apiary and I will grade them/help them on an actual inspection. This will be their practical test for the NC Beekeepers Certified Beekeeper level exam.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
warm weather
We have been having really warm weather for the last 4 days... It has allowed the bees to break cluster, and fly. It also has allowed me the opportunity to go into them and inspect the hives.
At my house, one of the hives is down to just 1 frame of bees with the queen not laying many eggs. They might not make it if she doesn't get her act together. She is the last remaining Kona stock I have.
I have one hive that has a HUGE number of bees. two brood chambers worth. The queen has layed eggs on 4 frames in the bottom brood chamber and 4 frames in the middle one. There are tons of bees bringing in pollen. They have gone through an entire candy board already and only have one supers worth of honey spread among 3 hive bodies. I will probably have to feed them more before the honey flow.
You can see the one worker bringing in pollen.
At my house, one of the hives is down to just 1 frame of bees with the queen not laying many eggs. They might not make it if she doesn't get her act together. She is the last remaining Kona stock I have.
I have one hive that has a HUGE number of bees. two brood chambers worth. The queen has layed eggs on 4 frames in the bottom brood chamber and 4 frames in the middle one. There are tons of bees bringing in pollen. They have gone through an entire candy board already and only have one supers worth of honey spread among 3 hive bodies. I will probably have to feed them more before the honey flow.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Big Brother Fail
Once again, our government is doing something stupid.... http://www.globalanimal.org/2010/12/20/wikileaks-says-epa-is-a-buzz-kill-for-bee-colonies/26984/
Wikileaks is bringing light to the fact that the EPA (enviromental protection agency) isnt actually protecting the enviroment.... They have caved to lobbiests AGAIN. No wonder the honey bee is very rapidly becoming extinct....
Wikileaks is bringing light to the fact that the EPA (enviromental protection agency) isnt actually protecting the enviroment.... They have caved to lobbiests AGAIN. No wonder the honey bee is very rapidly becoming extinct....
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