Hello, I’m Sheri Burns from Long Lane Honey Bee Farms and before David comes today to teach his newest lesson, I want to share something important with you.
Last year, I put together a special beekeeping package around Valentines day and I called it Sheri’s Sweetheart Of a Deal. People responded so well to my offer that I’ve decided to offer it again this year.
This is a special complete beekeeping package for 2010! Once again, we are very hopeful that we can encourage more people to become beekeepers! This package includes everything you need to keep bees including the hive, the queen and bees and equipment gear! To make your start in beekeeping as easy as possible, we have put together a new package so you can purchase everything you need. This package includes 1 Completely assembled and painted hive. And for 2010, it comes with an entrance feeder and an entrance feeder lid with the holes already in it. Just screw on a canning jar and you’re ready. Plus this kit comes with a beginner's beekeeping book. This package also comes with a 3 pound package of bees with a marked Italian queen. The queen marking this year is blue. And this package includes: a smoker, a hat & veil and a hive tool. It's everything you need to start keeping bees!! So I hope you’ll take advantage of this offer and please tell your beekeeping friends about it too. Click here for more information or to place your order today. You can also order by calling me at 217-427-2678.
And, many of you will be excited to hear that David and I will be recording a podcast each Friday. It’s not every day, but it’s more often than we’ve been doing them. Just tune it at: www.honeybeesonline.com/studiobeelive.html
David and I really enjoyed teaching another class on beekeeping. We filled our room and had people from northern Illinois, Southern Illinois, Indiana and Minnesota. They were great students! Our next class will be an advance beekeeping course on March 27th here in central Illinois. We will deal with more advanced issues such as making splits, identifying disease and pests, swarm control methods, various hive types such as nucs, 8 frame hives and Top Bar Beekeeping, queen castles and more. We will also look into queen rearing, and advanced overwintering techniques. More information on this class below.
Okay, David’s going to share another lesson today on bee biology and how you should be feeding your bees. Here’s David…
Thanks Sheri, and hello everyone! I turned 50 a few weeks ago. The big 5-O. People ask me if I feel older. Hey, growing old is great! After all, there is only one alternative…dying young. So as the years continue to go by, faster than ever it seems, I have to say that beekeeping has kept me young. For one thing, I love learning. I believe if we keep our minds expanding, learning new things and enjoying a hobby or pastime, that we are just better off all around. Wouldn’t you agree? And meeting new people through beekeeping on a daily basis is such a blessing. Most days we receive phone calls and emails from many of you telling us how much you appreciate our efforts to help you discover beekeeping. So, beekeeping has been such a good thing for us, and I believe for you too!
Before I teach our next lesson today, I want to tell you about the wood we use for our beehives that we make here at Long Lane Honey Bee Farms. Our wood is manufactured by Wynndel who claims to have the finest board finishing line in the world. They say, “We started with installation of the SuperThunder Mac (by LeaderMac) the largest production moulder of its kind. Running at a production speed of over 1000fpm, it can produce an eased edge board (1x4 to 1x12), with near-sanded appearance. With its incredible control and delicate handling of the raw material, we are able to maximize quality and grade, minimize trim loss, and create our new line of high end 2&BTR WynnWood Premier Plus”. They are right. We love their wood. It has taken us 3 years to finally find this awesome grade of wood. If you want to watch a video of how they make their wood, CLICK HERE but I don’t like the music on the video, but the video is cool to watch. We feel the quality of the board makes a huge difference in the overall longevity of the hives you purchase.
LESSON 70: Basic Honey Bee Honey Bee Biology – Bee Mouth
Everyone knows that honey bees have stingers, but we don’t think of them as having a mouth. But they do. They have several different parts to their mouth that enable them to chew and to suck. With their mandibles they can chew, manipulate wax and even crush mites. Another mouth pieces is their proboscis. Their proboscis is their way of suck up all the delicious nectar from flowers. They also suck up water. They even use their proboscis to exchange food between bees. This is known as trophallaxis.
When bees gather nectar they draw it out of the flower with their proboscis into their honey stomach which is different than their main stomach. They fly back to the hive with the nectar in their honey stomachs. When they arrive, they transfer it to several other house bees. These house bees take the droplets of nectar and roll it around in their mouth pieces and add enzymes to change it into unripe honey. The house bees work these transferred droplets of honey like this for about 20 minutes and then they deposit the droplets into a honey cell. At this point, it is still honey that is not ripe. It now takes several days for the bees to dry the unripe honey and then they seal off the cell.
Among the different races of the honey bee, the Caucasian has the longest proboscis which might seem to make it a candidate to draw nectar out of deeper and harder to reach flowers.
One of the most unusual behaviors of the honey bees is when the bees will move back and forth on the bottom board ledge or the front of the hive, using their mouth in which they appear to be scrubbing the wood. This has sometimes been called, “scrubbing the deck”. Just what are those bees doing? Some say they are trying to scrap off the paint. Others say there are too many bees in the hive, so some have been told to go hang out front and scrub something to look busy.
We have found that when bees do this, it is usually when there is high humidity or moisture on the surface. The bees are using their tongue to lap up moisture from the hive. It is done after foraging hours. It is amazing to watch. If you’ve never observed this yet, it will surprise you and you’ll know what’s going on.
FEEDING YOUR BEES
Now that the days are getting a little longer, the bees will be expanding their brood area, placing a heavy demand on pollen and honey requirements. The next 6 weeks will be extremely hard on hives, especially in the north. Feed you bees! Pollen patties are great! Place them on the top of the cluster, on the frames. Also, if you can place 2:1 sugar water above the cluster this would be a big help too! Some use bucket feeders, but the easiest way is to place your entrance feeder on the top of the frames above the cluster and then place an empty deep body around it and then the lid on top. Feed your bees!!
We are selling a new product which is basically like a pollen patty with Honey-B-Health mixed in. We want to hear how well you like them, so on Monday after 9am central time, we will take phone calls and the first 10 people who call and request these patties, we’ll send you one Free! Only for the first 10 callers after 9am. No earlier calls please and remember central time!
That’s all we have time for today. For those of you interested in upcoming beekeeping courses, let me tell you about three Sheri and I are holding soon!
Advanced Beekeeping Class Saturday March 27, 2010
We’ve been asked so many times to hold an advance beekeeping class, and finally we are. Mark your calendar for Saturday March 27th. This advance course is only for those who have kept bees for a minimum of one year. We will deal with more advanced issues such as making splits, identifying disease and pests, swarm control methods, various hive types such as nucs, 8 frame hives and Top Bar Beekeeping, queen castles and more. We will also look into queen rearing, and advanced overwintering techniques. This class will be held at our Honey Bee Farm unless registration is too larger, then we will hold the class near us in a larger facility near Champaign Illinois. This class is limited to 32 students. Registration is $79 prior to March 1st. Cost of registration after March 1st is $99. Lunch is included. Time is 9am - 3:30pm Central Time.
To register online with a credit card, CLICK HERE. Reservations are limited.
Two Day Queen Rearing Course May 14-15, 2010
Every beekeeper can benefit greatly from raising their own queens. Join me on Friday and Saturday for a two day comprehensive queen rearing training adventure. On Friday we begin at 9 am with indoor presentations on queen rearing and grafting until lunch. After lunch each student will be led through the entire process of grafting, from the selection of the right aged larvae, transporting the frame to the grafting room, grafting and placing grafts into cell bar frames and placing grafts into the starter nuc. On Saturday we begin at 9 am with indoor presentations until after lunch. In the afternoon we are in the field learning how to prepare starter nucs, a finishing hive and the use of the Cloake board and queen Castles. Then, at near the end of the class around 3pm, each student will remove their grafts from the day before for evaluation and will be given transport containers to transport their grafts home to be placed into a finishing hive This is hands on so all beekeepers must bring a hat and veil or suit. Hive tools are provided. Lunch on Friday & Saturday is provide. Include in the course, each student will receive our booklet on queen rearing, a grafting tool, a three frame wooden transport nuc, a cell bar, a cell bar frame and 20 plastic queen cells. Cost is $179 for the two day course and the listed supplies.
To register online with a credit card, CLICK HERE. Reservations are limited.
Basic Beekeeping Course With Nucs Saturday May 22, 2010
This is a "LAST CALL" basic beekeeping class, where students can become fully educated in beekeeping, purchase their equipment if needed and take home a 4 frame nuc with our pioneer queen. This course is design for those who decided to go into beekeeping too late, and cannot find packages or a beekeeping class. This is a one stop, turn key beekeeping course. Learn and purchase everything you need including the bees! This class is limited to 20 students. We set aside 20 nucs for this class. Lunch is provided. Registration cost is $89. Nucs are an extra $120.
To register online with a credit card, CLICK HERE. Reservations are limited.
Until next time, remember to behave yourself!
David & Sheri Burns
Long Lane Honey Bee Farms
14556 N 1020 E. Rd
Fairmount, IL 61841
Phone: 217-427-2678
Website: www.honeybeesonline.com
FREE ONLINE LESSONS: www.basicbeekeeping.blogspot.com
