Lesson 43: How To Make Whipped Honey

Hello From Long Lane Honey Bee Farms...

Sheri and I greet you from Central Illinois and from our family honey bee farm where now we do most of our work inside as we move closer to winter. Our bees have now clustered within their hives and they will be like that for the next few months. 

WARNING: There is a push to make beekeeping appear practically hands free. New beekeepers are failing to implement best management practices. I want to be your mentor. I am currently accepting positions to mentor a limited number of beekeepers. You'll have access to my personal cell phone and private email. And you can send me videos or pictures of your hive when it just doesn't seem right or you don't know what's going on. You'll also receive 4 new instructional videos from me and a weekly tip of what you should be doing. Click here to see if spots are still available.

Hi we are David and Sheri Burns at honeybeesonline.com  Please visit our Main Website at: http://www.honeybeesonline.com

Here at Long Lane Honey Bee Farms, we are committed to help you be a successful beekeeper. David is a certified master beekeeper. We offering many classes.
Check out our entire list of beekeeping classes we offer by clicking here.

Welcome to Long Lane Honey Bee Farms Online Lessons! Visit our MAIN WEBSITE AT: http://www.honeybeesonline.com We have a complete line of hives that we build right here in Illinois. We offer classes, sell queens and much more. Give us a call at: 217-427-2678. Our hours are: M-Th 10am-4pm, Fri 10-Noon Central Time.

 

Last week, Sheri and I launched Studio Bee Live! We have produced our first 5 programs and they can be found at:

www.honeybeesonline.com/studiobeelive.html We are producing one program each weekday, so this should prove to be an enjoyable past time for you as you twiddle your thumbs during winter in hopes of a great spring

Click here to hear today's broadcast.

Studio Bee Live invites you to call in and speak on our program. Please consider calling in and speaking to our answering machine, telling us your name and where you are calling from and ask a question or leave a comment and we'll play it and answer your comment or question on one of our upcoming programs. Our question line is: 217-427-2430 We had a great question which will air on Monday or Tuesday asking what is meant by checkerboarding. My oldest son, David, and I had a blast answering that good question. It will probably be answered in Monday's program. So do call in with your questions or comments! 217-427-2430. We live in the country so to put in this extra question and answer line, my phone company had to bury 1, 300 feet of new phone cable to my house, so let's put that to good work :)

Also, Studio Bee Live invites advertisers and sponsors. Give us a call to consider advertising on Studio Bee Live. You can also underwrite portions of our broadcasts in memory or in honor of someone special in your life. Call us at: 217-427-2678 if you'd like to know more.

You can download the files from the website: www.honeybeesonline.com/studiobeelive.html and right click on the MP3 file. Save it to your computer, then upload it to your favorite MP3 device. For those who are more computer advance our program is all rss friendly as well as a Widget if you run the Springbox.

Lesson 43: How To Make Whipped Honey

This week I have been experimenting with making whipped honey. I never know what to call it, whether to call it whipped honey, spun honey, creamed honey or spreadable honey. I looked at the National Honey Board website and they called it whipped honey. I like that definition the best.

Notice in this picture of some of my whipped honey how stiff it is. It will hang to a spoon at room temperature. Some people think that whipped honey is honey with something added to it, or that it has been spun. That is not the case. Whenever I describe what whipped honey is and how to make it, it seems that people are so surprised they almost don't believe me. See if you have the same reaction.

Whipped or spreadable honey is nothing more than honey that has crystallized. Surprised?

Almost all honey crystallizes over time. Remember, honey never spoils and it is best left out at room temperature. Even though honey doesn't spoil it often does crystallize or turns hard. Some honey is faster than others to crystallize base on the individual type of nectar the honey was made from by the bees . The more sugar within the honey, the greater the chance is that it will eventually crystallized. However, it is very easy to liquefy crystallized honey by placing it in hot water or in a very warm room or in a window where the sun can warm it up. Remember, all honey crystallizes and this does not hurt the quality of honey.

Now if your honey does crystallize, you will notice that it is not the same as whipped honey, even though both are crystallized. The reason is that natural crystallization of honey has larger crystals than whipped honey, crystals close to what we find in table sugar size. However, what we do to make whipped honey is to grind up the crystals into much, much smaller crystals, so tiny that the honey feels whipped, smooth, creamy and spreadable.

Before I complicate the matter, about grinding crystals, let me tell you the easy way to make whipped honey.

1. Take a jar of liquid honey

2. Buy some spreadable or whipped honey

3. Remove 1/10 of a jar of honey and replace it with the whipped honey

4. Stir it up and let it stand in a room around 56 degrees (F) for a week.

What happens is that the whipped honey you placed in the jar, duplicates itself and keeps the original size of the crystals that were introduced. That's how you keep the crystals small.

It is really fun to make and what a great family activity on a cold winter day. My basement remains 56 degrees all year long and is the ideal location to allow the crystallization process to be complete. This thermometer is GREAT! I buy these at Wal-mart for around $9. This particular model is every beekeeper's friend. I like it because it only has two readings: Temperature and humidity. These are the two bits of information beekeepers need the most. It is made by Acurite and I think I have given the model number in previous lessons. I use these in my queen incubator, honey processing room and now for making sure my whipped honey area is around 56 degrees (F). This one also records the high and low temperatures and high and low humidity level. Can't beat the price for what you get.

Here's an example of a quart jar filled with whipped honey. This was a regular jar of liquid honey and I removed 1/10 of the honey to make room for the starter, which is just already whipped honey, sometimes called "seed". I added the seed starter, and placed it in my basement for 1 week. It worked perfectly. If you are having trouble selling your honey, then diversify and make whipped honey. People really love it.

The process of making whipped honey was developed and patented by Elton J. Dyce in 1935. He provides us with much more details on how to make a perfect batch, but my batches have been perfect as followed above. Dyce suggested heating the honey first to destroy any previously formed crystals.

In fact, here's the link to the Nation Honey Board's website .pdf file for more specifics about making whipped honey.

Enjoy! It is so good.

It's time to order your hive boxes, known as wooden ware. Call today and get your order in! 217-427-2678. Or order from our website at: www.honeybeesonline.com

Remember to BEE-Have yourself!

David & Sheri Burns

Long Lane Honey Bee Farms

www.honeybeesonline.com

Check Out Studio Bee Live. Here's How!

We now have our first program online. Most operating programs will be able to play our program today. If not, you'll need Windows Media Player. We are still working out the MP3 edition and podcasts, so be patient. Let us know what you think, and remember, we need for you to call in with beekeeping questions and we really need some underwriters.

Give us a call at 217-427-2678

Here's the link to our Studio Bee Live:
http://www.honeybeesonline.com/studiobeelive.html

David & Sheri Burns
Long Lane Honey Bee Farms
www.honeybeesonline.com
217-427-2678

LESSON 42: Protective Clothing

Hello from David & Sheri Burns!

In our blog/lesson today we'll take a look at the following:
1. An update on Studio Bee LIVE! Going online this Saturday.
a. We'd love to have sponsors.
b. We'd like to answer some of your email questions or call inquestion for our first show.
2. A personal note about our family. Get to know us!
3. Lesson 42 on Protective Clothing
STUDIO BEE LIVE coming online this Saturday. I love to listen to beekeeping audio files when I'm traveling or working, but there just isn't that much available. That's why we decided to start Studio Bee Live, to be a place where you can listen, be entertained and learn more and more about keeping bees. We will have these broadcast available to listen to online or you can download them in MP3 format to enjoy in your MP3 player or as podcasts.
Each day we will produce a one hour broadcast on beekeeping, Monday through Friday. Each broadcast will have one main segment as the main topic of the day along with six daily smaller segments: Honey & Honey Receipts, Equipment, Bee Trivia, Bees In The News, A Look Back At Beekeepers and a Question & Answer segment.
We need your help. We are looking for sponsors or advertisers who want to underwrite these six smaller segments. "An now for today's Bee Trivia, brought to you by Clue's Cheverolet..." Each of these spots are available for $20 and does not have to be bee related. In addition, your company or business will be posted for that day on our web site with a link to your business as well. Call us if you'd like to be an underwriter in our first show this Saturday! 217-427-2678
You can even underwrite a segment in memory or in honor of someone special. Maybe Grandpa used to be a beekeeper and you want to dedicate a segment in memory of him. Give us a call. 217-427-2678. We are allowing our answering machine to pick up today to receive questions, but we'll call you back if you leave your name and number
We also need your voice in our shows. We need you to send in your beekeeping questions via E-mail or call in your questions. Just give us a call today and our answering machine will record your question and then we'll play it with our answer on our show. For example, "Hi this is Chad from Ohio and I have a hive that did good this year, but I'm wondering if they have enough honey for the winter. How I can be sure and is it too late to open them up and look and see?" Questions like that.
We will play your question and answer your question on the show. When you call in with your question, our answer will not only help you but so many others who were wondering the same thing. So call in today, Friday, day or night 217-427-2678. And, if you just want to call in and say, "Hi David & Sheri, love your website and good luck on your new bee program", that will be fun too! You can email us your question, but it would be so much better to have your voice on our show. But if you would rather email your question than call, out email is: david@honeybeesonline.com
A Personal Note:
We operated Long Lane Honey Bee Farms from our home in Central Illinois. Here's what we do: We keep bees, sell honey, sell bees (both packages & nucs), raise and sell queens, make and sell hive wooden ware, sell all kinds of beekeeping equipment and accessories, give beekeeping courses from our farm. Bees have become our business, our family business. Today let me fill you in on protective beekeeping gear. But before I do, I want to give you a personal note about our family (after all this is a blog you know)

Sheri is my high school sweet heart. I met her when I was 16 and she was 14. On that day in 1976 I knew that Sheri was the girl for me! Her dad was very protective of his only daughter, and though I don't remember the exact details of a rule that he had, it was something like if I went to church on Sunday, then I was able to spend a little time with his daughter.

Needless to say I became a Christian about a year later, not to win the pretty girl, but to repent and trust in Jesus. But then I did get the pretty girl. God is kinda like that. Sheri and I dated four years before we were married on August 3, 1980. Over the next 28 years we would both receive our college degrees from Lincoln Christian College, and find time to have 6 children (and now we have 4 grandchildren and another one on the way).
I began pastoring my first church, and living in the parsonage when I was 21. We already had our oldest daughter, Jennifer then and had Jill 16 months later. Then we had our first son, David in 1985, our third daughter, Karee in 1991, Seth in 1993 and our newest edition to our family, Christian in 2007. We had our last two sons at home. Over the last 28 years of our marriage I have pastored churches in Illinois, Missouri, Ohio and for the last 13 years, back in Illinois.
I have preached the gospel in the Dominican Republic, Mexico, India, Africa and on 5 teaching trips to Israel. The church I have pastored for the last 13 years now meets each Sunday on our honey bee farm, in our honey store. We are a home church that simply goes by the Bible. I preach each Sunday from our honey bee farm, and you are welcome to join us any Sunday at 10:30am Central Time.
I share all of that with you so that you can get to know us a bit more, but also to let you know that it is a good feeling to have traveled the world and yet find the greatest joy in working on our family farm with honey bees. I guess you might say we are just good ole, down home country folks. Right now, Karee, Seth and Christian are our only Children living at home with us, and they are a huge help with our honey bee business.
Seth started building frames in our business back in 2005 at just twelve years old. Now he's 15 and along with me builds every component in the hives we make. He exclusively builds all of the bottom boards, inner covers, top covers and frames. Seth holds the farm record for the fastest to build frames. He holds the record at assembling a frame (8 staples) in 16 seconds. In a pinch, Karee steps in and builds inner covers, frames and top covers. Last spring, during our busy season Karee really put in some long hours. Now, we have found a way to free up Karee so that she can continue to work only in the queen rearing operation on our farm. She knows the inside of a hive better than anyone! She can find young nurse bees to be used as a queen attendants quicker than anyone! Almost every day this summer she was out in hives picking out queens and young nurse bees and loading them up in their little shipping containers. She rarely was stung and a few times I fussed at her for not wearing a hat and veil. She is great!
Sheri, my high school sweet heart, does it all, but mostly the paper work, online orders, phone calls, and usually single-handedly is the shipping department. Most days she is the one packing the boxes and labeling them too. When it is really busy, we all stop and become the shipping department around 3 p.m. and work feverishly to try and beat the arrival of the UPS truck around 4 p.m. Sheri also feeds my kids, feeds me, my dogs, my helpers and she feeds my bees when they need it. She's a wonderful cook!
Dustin, my son-in-law, (Jennifer's husband) now helps us with our web site and data entry. The poor guy...I sorta dump a bunch on him at once, kinda like numbering books in a full library. But we are trying to get our data base updated so when you call, we can easily look you up. Finally, there's Callie and April, our two hound dogs. They are our long lane alarm system. As soon as anyone turns into our 1/4 mile drive, they bark and let us know we have a customer. They are respectful of all the hives on our property. That's us...On now to protective clothing.
PROTECTIVE CLOTHING
No one likes to get stung. It hurts. By the way, the odds of dying from a bee sting are almost equal to dying from a lightning strike, according to the US National Safety Council:

Odds Of Dying From lightning 81,949/1
Odds Of Dying From A Bee/Wasp sting 72,494/1

Even though bee stings aren't as deadly as some think, it still hurts and you'll turn red, itch and swell up. This happens to almost everyone. Wearing protective gear can prevent most stings. The first defense against being stung is to always use a smoker! Blowing cool smoke into a hive and onto the bees prior to working them is your best protection. I can work bees without any protective clothing if I smoke them first, but not if I do not.

The second defense against being stung is to keep gentle bees. There is no reason to keep a hive that is aggressive. Re-queen a hive that is mean with a more gentle queen and in 30 days the eggs that she lays will emerge to be gentle too! Near the end of this year's bee season, I had requeened all of my hives and because we raise our own queens, I was working my bees with limited protection and no aggressive tendencies from my bees.

But let's say you don't want to worry about requeening and you just want to wear some protective gear to keep from being stung.

Sometimes, especially when removing hives from homes, more protection is necessary.

We always recommend you wear a hat and veil. A hat and veil together will run you between 30-40 bucks. But, it is a very wise investment. No one wants to get stung on the face or head. Most beekeepers use the cheap plastic pith helmet with a veil. The helmets are pretty common but the veils can be different. Some have square screens in the front, as in this picture, while others don't. Some veils only come down just to the neck, while others come all the way down to the chest. The style that you choose for the hat and veil is up to you.

The next level of protection is a jacket with the hat and veil built in. These are nice, and are often referred to as an inspector's jacket. They look kinda like a parka jacket. You can unzip your veil and the hat/veil drops behind you and stays attached, as in the picture. I've unzipped the hat and veil and have laid them back out of the way.

The next level of protection is a complete bee suit. Generally it is like the jacket but includes the pants. Bee suits are not totally sting proof. Though it is very rare, it is possible to be stung through a bee suit. Again, it is almost impossible, but can happen and did happen to my son once when we were removing a hive from a house.
So whether you wear a hat and veil, a jacket or a suit, you'll probably change what you wear after you work your bees a few weeks.
Suits and jackets are very hot in mid summer, so do keep that in mind. It is best to choose a fabric blend such as cotton/polyester blend that is cool. You may want to get one size larger than you normally wear because suits and jackets go over your regular clothes. In this picture, you can see that among a group of beekeepers, there are many different configurations.
A low budget idea is to buy a real inexpensive painter's suit from Menards or Lowes. These are made of material that does not last for every, but probably at least one bee season. I've used them. They can tear easily, but they are white, very thin painter's suits. They do not have a hat or veil, and a bee could sting through it, but they are white and bees just do not like to land on white. I always wear a very light colored shirt and bees stay off. Bees have an instinct to attack black.
To make sure queens are gentle, breeders wave a black cloth over the top of a hive and then counts the stingers on that cloth. The hive with the fewest stings are the more gentle hive. Bees are "wired" to defend their hive against black bears so wearing a white painter's suit can be a low budget solution.
If you are afraid of being stung on your hands, there are many different types of bee gloves with longer sleeves to tuck beneath your suit. Most are sting resistant, meaning a bee might be able to sting through the glove, and others are sting proof which means a stinger cannot penetrate your gloves. But, as you would imagine, the gloves that are sting proof are not the easiest gloves to work a hive with. They are big and clumsy and you look like a Haz-Mat worker. When gloves this awkward, you accidently smash more bees and that makes them more aggressive. When I have to wear gloves I wear a pair of leather work gloves and duct tape the space between my gloves and my suit. I've never taken a sting through a leather work glove.
We sell hats, veils, jackets, suits and gloves so feel free to give us a call.

It was nice to be with you today, and thank you for checking in.
Bee-have yourselves!
David & Sheri Burns
217-427-2678
www.honeybeesonline.com
EMAIL: david@honeybeesonline.com

LESSON 41: Honey-B-Healthy

Sheri and I greet you from our honey bee farm, Long Lane Honey Bee Farms in Central Illinois. Thank you for checking out our blog and beekeeping lessons. Please tell others about what you have found here! There are links at the bottom to "send to a friend" and we would appreciate it if you pass this on to friends that are beekeepers or folks you'd think might be interested.

I've been watching a new product for honey bees called Honey-B-Healthy. I've read some outstanding testimonies and reviews. But what really sold me on this product was inspecting some hives of a couple in our local association. She uses this product in her hives and I have never seen such a healthy hive. Her hive matched the testimonies I have been reading about Honey-B-Healthy. So, I called and spoke with the creator of this product, Robert Noel. He graciously took my call and gave me the details as to why this feeding stimulant works so well. So I tried it, and I was even more impressed! Wow, do my bees love it!Of course, I can only give you my opinion and how this product has help my hives, but let me tell you I am in love with it and so are my bees. I've read testimonies of hives that were almost entirely destroyed from pesticide sprays but Honey-B-Healthy brought them back to full strength again.

We pretty much are off of the medication treadmill, but we do not consider this a medication. It is essential oils, largely spearmint oil, and lemongrass oil. Fall is a great time to feed Honey-B-Healthy to your bees. Many people use it in a spray bottle instead of a smoker to calm the bees. This is commonly referred to as a spritz spray. It is also used on new plastic foundation to help encourage the bees to draw comb on plastic frames. A small 16 ounce bottle goes a long way. You simply add 1 teaspoon to one quart of 1:1 sugar water. As a spray, use 4 teaspoons per quart.

Honey-B-Healthy is great when introducing a new queen too.These essential oils have long been used by beekeepers and found to be very good for bees. Many claim that these essential oils seem to stimulate the immune system of the honey bee.

We are selling the 16 ounce bottle for $28. The 16 ounce bottle is enough for 24 one gallon feedings of sugar syrup. Call us today and we'll send your bottle right out: 217-427-2678. We seldom endorse these types of products, but I sincerely believe this is a great benefit to keeping healthy bees, drawing comb and introducing queens. Give it a try. Use it now to prepare your bees for winter and to have some on hand for late winter and early spring feeding. You can also order online with a credit card. Log on to our beekeeping store at http://www.honeybeesonline.com/ and order this product from our main page.

Now, let me highlight the need for you to provide ventilation in your hive during the winter. Wrapping your hive can actually cause more internal moisture due to condensation. We've worked for a couple of years to modify our inner cover to accomplish several things. We've listened to beekeepers, and have made some changes based on our own beekeeping operation as well.

First, many larger beekeeping companies make their inner covers out of a very thin piece of Masonite. Beekeepers complain that when they place a large jar of sugar water over the inner cover whole during cold months, the thin Masonite will not support the weight. So we make our inner covers from 1/2 inch plywood which will not sag when a large jar of sugar water is placed on top. And get this! We also make a special inner cover that has the regular mouth jar whole already in the inner cover. All you have to do is drop your jar in the hole. And to keep it sealed when you are not feeding, just leave the lid in without the jar. Or for extra ventilation during the winter or during a nectar flow when the bees need the ventilation to cure the nectar into honey, leave both holes open. Take a look at this new inner cover design. Larger side rails with ventilation notches on all four sides. Just in time for a rough winter, why not give your hive another advantage for late fall feeding and better ventilation. And, we have added a special riser that can is attached to the inner cover and can be placed down so the top cover sits flat or raised up to provide maximum ventilation. No more looking around for a rock or a stick to raise the top cover.


Answers to abbreviations and questions above:
DCA - Drone Congregation Area
SHB - Small Hive Beetle
AFB - American Foul Brood
DWV - Deformed Wing Virus
SBB - Solid Bottom Board
AHB - Africanized Honey Bees
What is festooning? It is when the bees hold on to each other's legs, linking themselves together usually when building comb.
What is the age of a nurse bee? A nurse bee describes a bee between the ages of 2-10 days old caring for brood.
That's all for now. Next time we'll take a detailed look at various protective clothing, hats and gloves.
Be sure and check out:Studio-B-Live
Purchase Honey-B-Healthy
Purchase An Inner Cover

See you next time, and remember to Bee-Have yourself!
David & Sheri BurnsLong Lane Honey Bee Farms14556 N. 1020 East RoadFairmount, Il 61841217-427-2678


EMAIL: david@honeybeesonline.com
Website: http://www.honeybeesonline.com/

LESSON 40: The Beekeeping Year Starts In The Fall

Today, I want to offer another lesson in beekeeping focusing on how to prepare our hives to make it through the winter. Before I get into today’s lesson, let me remind you that we do have our beekeeping class coming up October 11th here at our apiary. If you are interested, we might be able to squeeze in a couple more people, so give us a call at the number at the bottom of this lesson. Also, we are still producing queens, though it is getting late in the year, now is still a good time to requeen.
By the way, here at Long Lane Honey Bee Farms, we are a family business working hard to help more people discover and enjoy keeping honey bees. We manufacture beehives and sell everything related to beekeeping. Our busiest season is from November-July. So if you are planning on purchasing hives from us, and you don’t mind getting them early before next year, then now would help relieve the spring demand and we always raise our prices the first of January.

We have a reputation, a particular way of keeping bees. Here are a few fundamentals about beekeeping that we have settled on and have become known for:
1. No harsh chemicals. (We do not use any chemicals in our hives)
2. Use locally produced queens. (We raise and sell from our own survival stock).
3. Screen bottom board.
4. Hive inspection every 2 weeks, especially for monitoring the queen.
5. Yearly requeening is a must!
I was not very fond of requeening yearly until this summer. I did a little test. I requeened about half of my hives and the other half I allowed the 2-3 year old queens to carry on. Each half consisted of approximately 25 hives. By far, hands down the requeened hives way out performed the hives with the older queens. It was not even close. The hives with the older queens had lower population of bees, weaker foraging power, less honey, less everything.

I immediately became a firm believer of requeening a hive every year. September proves to be the most strategic month so that the queen is laying strong going into and coming out of winter, and the new queen can lay well in the fall to produce lots of young bees who should overwinter better than older bees.

Okay, so those are a handful of our particular philosophy of beekeeping.

Now, let’s talk about getting your hives ready for another winter. What should you do? Winter is a nervous time for beekeepers. With every snow, and blast of cold, north wind, we wonder and worry how our bees are doing. Months of cold, winds, snow, rain, fog and clouds causes us to fret over our bees well-being.

In December, most of us place our ear against the outside of the hive and give a gentle tap to see if they are still buzzing, and usually they are. It is rare for a hive to die in December or even in January. The fact is, most hives that die do not even die in February. They die in March, when they have exhausted their food supply and have few to forage the early nectar on the occasional warm days.

So what can we do to help our bees make it through winter? There is no plan that ensure 100% survival. Bees are livestock. Things can just go bad. But a few things can help.

Typically, most consider winter preparations consists of the following:
1) Put on a mouse guard at the entrance.
2) Lift the hive and see if it has enough stored honey by how heavy it is.
3) Wrap the hive with some sort of insulation or roofing paper.
4) We build a wind break.
5) We treat for mites and nosema.

These might be good measures to take. However, they are not fail proof. In fact, here are three concerns that probably cause our hives to die during the winter that many overlook:

1) Queenlessness. Your hive is most certain to die if your queen is weak or gone going into winter.
2) Winter Condensation. If you seal up your hive too tight, you might increase the overall condensation within the hive and cause this cold water to constantly drip onto the cluster and eventually kill your hive.
3) Keeping stored honey next to the winter cluster. How many times do we hear that a hive died even though there was plenty of honey.

So, here’s my checklist for what you should be doing to your hives now to prepare for a great hive in the spring:

1) Remove queen excluders.
2) Remove honey supers.
3) Examine the amount of stored honey and be sure your bees have plenty. Most beekeepers in the north lift the back of the hive and hope it feels like there is 70 pounds of stored honey. 70 pounds is the approximate equivalent of 1 medium super full of honey.
4) If your hive is short on stored honey, FEED! Feed 2:1 sugar water. Use an internal or top feeder if robbing is a problem. Robbing is more of a problem during the fall dearth.
5) Make sure that your hive has some sort of upper ventilation. It does not have to be much but something. We now make our inner covers with ventilation slots. And we leave our screen bottom boards open all winter.
6) Use good mouse guards, either metal or wooden entrance cleats to keep mice out.
7) Treat the hives 3 weeks in a row with powdered sugar for mite control. This is best started in August.
8) If wrapping hives, be sure to allow upper ventilation.
9) Combine weak hives with strong ones. Most of the small swarms you caught are not going to winter well unless you caught them in May. Do not feel like a failure if you’ve worked hard to build up your numbers, but now you have to slice your hive count in half by combining hives. Combining ten hives into 5 which survive the winter is better than having 8 out of 10 die out.

Much can be said about preparing a hive for winter, but the hive that has the best chance of surviving the winter will be the hive that was very strong all year and has a young queen. Remember, a strong hive is more apt to be pest and disease free, thus overwintering much better because it does not have viruses caused by mites.

No matter how much you wrap your hive, medicate your bees and build a wind break, nothing will do much to improve a weak hive overwintering well. Only strong hives overwinter well enough to explode in the spring. Weak hives that do survive the winter usually are not impressive the following year, unless requeened soon in the spring.

This year, I will expand my overwintering experiments. I will be overwintering a variety of configurations to see which hive does best. I will be overwintering 5 frame nucs, single hive bodies and a hive that is made up of 1 deep hive body and 3 medium super boxes.

We also have one hive going into winter that we are now feeding pollen and heavy nectar to stimulate the queen to keep laying deep into fall to see if this is better or worse of winter survival.

Please put it on your calendar to peak in your hive in January on a decent day when the temperature rises to atleast 40 degrees. Then, make a plan to quickly open your hive on a calm day and in 1 minute or less, pull up a frame of honey, scratch it open and place it next to the cluster. If they have no honey left, then feed!

I have a lesson that explains several feeding methods. The lesson can be found at:http://basicbeekeeping.blogspot.com/2008/03/lesson-28-spring-management-of.html

I hope this lesson will motivate you to take advantage of the last few weeks of decent weather and tighten up your hives, feed them and make sure they are ready for winter. We are excited about the 2009 beekeeping year. The crises of the decline in honey bees is still with us. Last year, we helped so many jump into beekeeping for the first time. This is exciting to us because bees play such an important role in our food supply.

2009 = 1,000

For 2009 we have set a goal of encouraging 1,000 people to become first time beekeepers. We will be putting up a special web page with a goal chart anonymously reflecting each new beekeeper.

We only want to count those who we have directly inspired to keep bees for the first time. So here's the criteria for you to be counted as one of the 1,000:

1) Educated by us through our online lessons or you attended one of our on site classes as a new beekeeper.

2) Bought wooden ware or package bees from us as a new beekeeper.

3) Our website introduced you and encouraged you to start keeping bees.

Our website with our goal chart will be a frame from a hive showing 1,000 cells. Every time another person becomes a 1st time beekeeper we will seal off that cell. Eventually we hope to see all 1,000 cells completely sealed off, as all beekeepers know the joy of seeing a complete frame of sealed brood! So, get the word out. Our next blog post will reveal more of the details and the website to watch the goal expand. So get the word out, and help us reach this very lofty goal.

Sheri and I would like to thank you again for being a part of our lives, and enjoying the great experience of keeping bees. Have a great day and we'll see you soon!

Remember, BEE-have yourselves!

David & Sheri Burns

Long Lane Honey Bee Farms

217-427-2678

www.honeybeesonline.com

Lesson 39: Controlling Varroa Mites Without Medication

Hello friends, from Long Lane Honey Bee Farms. Sheri and I (David) welcome you to another basic beekeeping lesson.

Feel free to share these lessons with others. We recently heard where a beekeeping association prints off each lesson and places them in a binder for their members. We are thankful to have an opportunity to help others in the wonderful field of beekeeping.

Today, I want to show you how to control your varroa mites without medication. I have a video below that show me treating an entire hive in about 5 minutes.

I have previously (Lesson 28) written an entire lesson explaining the history, reproduction cycle and how to identify mites. You might want to review that lesson before proceeding through this lesson on how to safely treat for mites with powdered sugar. That lesson can be found by clicking here or going to: http://basicbeekeeping.blogspot.com/2008/02/lesson-26-varroa-mites.html

Powdered sugar does not get rid of every single mite, but it greatly reduces mites in a colony if treated properly. Along with green plastic brood comb and screen bottom boards, powdered sugar treatments can significantly reduce your mite load. Maybe you should consider getting off the medication treadmill and approach mites with an IPM (Integrated Pest Management) method without chemicals. We sell a complete kit that includes a screen bottom board, two green drone combs and a powdered sugar sifting screen which you can see used in one of my videos below. This kit sells for $39.00. These one piece green drone combs allows the bees to raise only drones on these 2 frames. The mites prefer the drone cells since they stay capped longer. When sealed, simply freeze the frame, killing all mites in the sealed drone brood. Return the frame to the same hive and they will clean out the frame and repeat the process.

You will want to get rid of as many mites as possible now that we are into late summer. DO NOT carry a mite infestation into winter. Many mites carry viruses and can kill your hives during the cold winter months. But, if you can reduce your mites then the winter generation of bees will emerge without being bitten by a mite.

How do you conduct the powdered sugar drop?

IN A NUT SHELL: Pour one cup of powdered sugar onto the top of the frames in one deep hive body for a minimum of 3 consecutive weeks on the same day each week. A six week treatment is even more effective. The powdered sugar falls between the frames, coats the bees and causes the mites to lose their suction cup grip on the bees and then falls through the screen bottom board, or off of the bee on their next flight. I strongly recommend a six week application so you can be sure to break the mite's brood cycle.

If you treat only once, but the bulk of your mites are within the capped brood, then that treatment will only help with the mites that are out and on the bees or comb. But as soon as the other bees emerge, the mites spread again. That's why a six week application is so effective.

A MORE DETAILED EXPLANATION First, purchase some powdered sugar. There is a debate on whether the corn starch found in most store bought confectionery sugar may or may not be good for bees. Most of us aren't too worried about the small amount of corn starch compared to how effectively it helps reduce mites. However, if you have a good blender and some time, consider taking granulated sugar and grinding up your own corn starch free powdered sugar. A good blinder will do it very fast, but keep in mind that the sugar does become pretty warm when you grind it up into powder. The volume stays the same, so to make 2 cups of powdered sugar use 2 cups of granulated sugar.

Use 1 cup (8 oz) of powdered sugar per hive body and I do not treat my honey supers because I do not want powdered sugar in the honey. But, if you time things right, you can treat as soon as you take off your honey supers. This year my bees are still pulling in nectar like it is July, so I'm treating a few that still have supers as in the video below.

Next, head to the bee yard with your smoker, hive tool, sifting screen, powdered sugar and humble feeling of knowing that you are a beekeeper!

In this next video, you'll see me actually demonstrate the entire process. And, watch the timer because you'll see that it really doesn't take all that long to do a complete hive even with a stuck super on it!

Okay, let me answer a few questions that the video may prompt you to ask.

1) Why use a screen. Because it holds the bees beneath the treatment. Otherwise, they will fly up and out of the top as soon as the powdered sugar starts falling between the frames. YOU WOULD TOO!

2) What about the powdered sugar on top of the frames. Leave it, or brush it between the frames. Remember, bees love sugar!

3) Why didn't I have an inner cover on this hive. Because I have a special spacer attached under the top cover that does the same thing and makes it easier for me to lift open the top.

4) Why did you put your first deep on the ground? Because I use both common placement methods. In the video I placed my super on the inverted top cover, but placed my deep on the ground. I usually do not place my boxes on my top cover because they stick. I set them on the ground like I did my top deep, always putting the front down so I can place it back on the hive in the same orientation that I took it off. NEVER place a hive body on the ground with the frames down, like it sits on the hive. You'll smash all your bees on the bottom. Tilt it to its front, like you see me doing in the video. By the way, when you place the supers or deeps on an inverted top cover, you can also kill bees, and even the queen. But by placing it on the ground no bees are smashed. The queen does not fall off and the bees do not mind.

Finally, you must be stringent about your schedule. For six weeks, keep track of what day you did your powdered sugar drop. If it was Monday, then repeat the process every Monday for a total of six weeks. Do not fudge or skip or haphazardly complete the process.

Thanks for joining me today for another lesson. As our family business continues to grow, we'd like thank all of our customers who are so wonderful to us. Thank you for your support and business. We sacrifice many hours a day, answering email and answering questions on the phone and it is our pleasure. Many call in who have never ordered from us but simply found us on the Internet and have some questions. We don't mind, but we do need your business :)

We have completed our beekeeping Store/Education/Research Lab and it is really working well for us. And, this year our bees did very well, both in producing queens and honey! We still are producing queens, and September is the best month to replace your queen so that your new queen can lay a great winter generation and take off fast in the Spring. Do not put up with an old, worn out queen. MANY, many beekeepers go into fall and winter queenless. Please inspect the condition of your queens or else your hives will not survive the winter without a strong queen. If you need a queen, please call us at: 217-427-2678.

Our queens are grafted from our hives that have survived two Illinois winters and from hives that have never been treated with medication. We also select for gentleness, adherence to the comb, honey production and low mite counts. We professionally package our queens with 4-5 very young attendants and ship via USPS 2 day guaranteed.

Here's a video of our daughter Karee, preparing queens for shipment. She is choosing very young nurse bees and picking them off the frame and placing them into the cage with the queen. The queen is already in there.

Finally, do keep our upcoming class in mind, and remember now is a great time to purchase your Spring hive equipment!!

Until next time, BEE-have yourselves!!David & Sheri Burns
Long Lane Honey Bee Farms

ORDER LINE: 217-427-2678

EMAIL ADDRESS: david@honeybeesonline.com

WEBSITE: www.honeybeesonline.com

FAX: 217-427-2678

Speed Up Getting Combs Drawn Out & Filled

Hello from David & Sheri Burns at Long Lane Honey Bee Farms. We want to say a big hellow to all our fellow beekeepers and beekeepers soon-to-be!

Here at Long Lane Honey Bee Farms, we've been busy keeping up with rearing queens, building hives, processing honey and putting the final touches on our new store/learning center/bee-lab.









We've made great strides on our Illinois Queen Project. We produced so many great queens this year and sold many queens too. And by the way, now is a good time to requeen your hives. It is a little harder to have new queens accepted late in the year, but August and September queens will produce better brood going into winter, and will certainly help the hive to over winter. Do consider it! It is very important to requeen your hive once a year.




It has been a very productive summer for the bees. And our bees are still acting like it is July 11th instead of August 11th.



We are hopeful this is the case and that the bees will provide us with one more month of good, strong foraging here in Illinois.




I've had beekeepers call in and say something close to this: "I've got two hives and while one is doing great, the other one hasn't pulled out all the frames in their top deep yet. They just don't seem to be moving up at all. What's wrong and what should I do."

This is why I always encourage new beekeepers to start with 2 hives instead of one. Because if you start with just one, and it gets off to a slow start, then you have nothing to compare it to and nothing available to help it with.

During heavy nectar flows, your hive should look like this one in the video below. This is one of our hives working aster and other late summer flowers. This queen has done a great job at raising a huge amount of brood and that's why there are so many foragers now! A poor queen will have the entire hive down in number, which means less comb building, less bees, less nectar gather etc.



First, it is hard to say why one hive doesn't do as well as others. There could be many reasons. Generally, I point the finger at the colony's failure to maintain a strong queen. What I mean by that is that the hive may have supeceeded their queen or tried to swarm and made swarm cells and in the process the colony may have actually become queenless for a good part of the season. This does happen. In fact, in my opinion, queenlessness is actually a worse problem than mites! Maintaining a close eye on your queen and/or any queen cells is vitally important.

Between the months of April and June, you must inspect your hive every 14 days, making sure your queen is laying good and that there are no swarm or supercedure queen cells. During these critical build up months, you must maintain a good laying queen. Once I get into July and my nectar flow is at its peak, I seldom go back into the hive except to remove honey supers because I do not want to disturb the hive's passion to gather nectar for me. I stay out of my hive until the 2nd week in August and then I begin to prepare my hives for winter. August and especially September determines how well your bees will do in the spring of the next bee season.
So what is typical is that a hive will lose its queen, try to replace her, fail, try to replace her and fail again, and finally get the job done but considerable time has been wasted in the effort and after she starts laying, maybe they are not pleased with her performance and they replace her again. This can go on all summer. Other causes for slow build up might be that the queen was not mated well and is only able to lay an unacceptable brood pattern resulting in low bee population.

Beekeepers who choose not to monitor the queen and the brood pattern are taking a gamble and may find out much too late that the hive is not progressing well. When this happens, the first thing to do is to assess the queen and the amount of eggs and capped brood. Nearly solid sealed brood is what you want to see. Spotty brood means the queen needs replaced.

Okay, let's say that you need to get two deep brood boxes drawn and full before winter, and here it is in August and it doesn't look possible. What do you do? First, since this hive is weak, and you have another hive that is strong, swap locations during the middle of the day on a nice sunny day. By swapping the two hives, you actually are transferring the foraging bees from the strong hive into the weak hive because as they return to their home, it is actually now the hive of the weaker colony. Incoming nectar from a larger foraging team means more drawn comb too. Rember, it takes nectar to produce wax which is used to build comb.

Secondly, feed! Place an entrance feeder in the hive and feed 2:1 sugar water. If robbing is a problem, use a top feeder. We sell both top feeders and entrance feeders. Also, take two or three drawn frames with bees and move them up into the top deep and take the undrawn comb from the top deep down into the bottom deep. This will spark the bees to move up because some other bees are already up there.

If the weaker hive still does not seem to build up within the next month, say by the middle of September you should consider combining it with another hive. It is always better to go into winter with one strong hive rather than two weak hives.

If your plastic foundation is not drawn out yet, you might spray it with sugar water or you might need to melt some beeswax and recoat the plastic.

Visit our website at: www.honeybeesonline.com for a complete listing of our products and hives. Or give us a call at: 217-427-2678


Now, you've got to get rid of your mites!! This is the time of year that mites can be bad and spread viruses throughout your hive. A hive that enters winter with a mite infestation is likely to be doomed. So, our next lesson will give you some non-medicated ways to reduce your mite count greatly! Stay tuned.

Thanks for allowing us to share with you today, and please share these lessons with others. We are a family business, simple folks working hard to make a living. We're honest and sincere in helping you enjoy being a beekeeper. Help us out when you can and we will certainly appreciate it!!

If you have trouble reaching us by phone, please email us at david@honeybeesonline.com
David & Sheri Burns
Long Lane Honey Bee Farms
www.honeybeesonline.com
217-427-2678

Remember to BEE-have yourself!