World Vision helped me get hives to a family in Mali.

We often find these letters a bit difficult to write. We have very little in common and     are careful to not include a lot of detail about material items. Lets face it….the average American can not relate to the daily struggles that the average African villager has to face, nor could an average 14 year old girl from Nonsombougou, Mali have any concept of what it is like to live in our world. We are not only separated by half a world but by language (she speaks French), religion, polotics, currency, life style, terrain, weather, education and basic daily concerns. As a result our letters are pretty generic. She writes to update us on her education, what her interests are and usually draws a picture….our letters include topics about the weather, animals, and encouragement. Each letter from us has to be translated from English into French…..and each letter from her needs to be translated from French into English. We did learn, however, that her Dad is a farmer. They plant sourgum and have a goat and a cow……which leads me to why this story is on my bee blog.

A couple of months ago I sent over an inquiry through World Vision asking if Mr. Traore, Kadiatou’s Dad, would be interested in adding bees to his farm. To my delight his answer was yes. A phone call and a couple of months of waiting we just learned that their bee equipment has arrived. I immediately sent out a letter to Mr. Traore congratulating him on his new arrivals. As I wrote the letter it occurred to me that now we have something in common, something we can both relate to on every level. We will have the same concerns, want to know the same things and will try to solve the same mysteries. We now share a common language……the language of bees.

If you are interested in sharing the investment in a hive click here….or you can click the beekeeper below to donate/invest in the whole set up for a new beekeeper. Your investment will change lives.

As I get updates from Mali I’ll post them here. In this way you can get a glimpse into beekeeping in the Pacific Northwest from me….and beekeeping in Mali Africa from Mr. Traore…..the newest beekeeper in our family.

World Vision Beehives to Donate Click Here

George Purkett WSBA

On Friday a swarm came down from the sky and went into a top bar hive I was going to put a package into on Saturday. Kiva started drumming on the deck railing when she saw it swirling in the air. It quickly went into the hive. Not sure if it was already headed there or not. I spent Saturday evening and most of Sunday looking through my hives looking to see where it came from. It didn’t come from any of them.

Sunday afternoon another swarm showed up in my driveway and settled as a double clump in a fir tree. I checked all the entrances, and it also did not come from my hives. I then took the field glasses and looked at the neighbors tree. Lots of activity at that bee tree. I wonder if both swarms came from that tree?

Last year in June, I was about to set up a large colony with a cloak board for rearing queens. Unfortunately, the hive was more eager to grow queens than I. It swarmed and landed high in a tree above the apiary. The next day I watched the swarm leave and move into a hollow in a very large tree in the neighbors yard. I was saddened that the swarm left, but then realized that a WSU daughter queen just went feral in my neighborhood.

I wonder if one of the swarm queen will be marked when I check in a few days. I am also going to keep checking the sky and the trees. Maybe more previous year wayward swarms will return home.

The double clump swarm landed as two clumps and stayed as two clumps.

Usually a swarm will gather into a single clump after initially landing in a tree in multiple clumps. this one did not. Knocking two clumps of bees into buckets 15 feet straight up did not work so well. One clump went into a bucket, the other clump came raining down, oops, minor setback. All in a days fun.

Keep looking up for swarms.

George

Note: George Purkett is a key member of our bee club, West Sound Beekeepers Association. He teaches several classes and has designed this years hands on beekeeping class that over 40 beekeepers have signed up for. He posted this story on our clubs bulletin board and with his permission I’m reposting it here.

Frank

This year I ordered 1 package of bees to bring me back up to two hives. The Italians came in the earliest so I got those. With our short season even two or three weeks can make a big difference.

We decided to do what I call “a quiet installation”. Instead of turning the bee package upside down and dumping the bees into their new home, we instead gently turned the package upside down on tope of the hive bars after having placed the queen cage between two frames in the middle of the hive. We added two boxes over the travel cage and then put the top on. It starts out looking really tall but once the travel cage is removed we are back to two boxes deep.

After 24 hours all of the bees had migrated out of their travel container and into the hive. Another 24 hours later I checked the queen cage and the marshmallow had been eaten and the queen had been released.

I think this meth

od would work well in bed weather too……Granted, this method is not as dramatic as having a cloud of a thousand bees buzzing around you, but it worked just fine.

The new package of bees

Queen in her travel cage

Marshmallow in the end of the queen cage

Place queen cage in center

Placing the queen cage between two frames

Turn travel cage over

Gently turning the travel cage over, hole down

Place an empty over travel cage

They need plenty of sugar water for now

place jar off to the side

Use up the rest from travel feeder

Place the top on

All done for now

A 3 pound package of bees contains about 10,000 bees and one queen.

You will find other bee package installation videos here and here.

David Mackovjak does a great job not only installing this package of bees but also fielding questions from the onlookers.

A 3 mile travel distance creates a 6 mile in diameter circle around your hives. A 3 mile radius covers 18,110 acres of ground. A farmer would be proud to be able to cover that many acres and as you know the honey bee is the fraction of the size of a human.

An excellent report by Dan Rather. More questions than answers but this story at least heightens the awareness of the impending doom of the honey bee unless we can get a handle on the use of chemicals and pesticides on our crops.

Beekeeping Certificate

A new beekeeping season is upon us. Last year at this time I was just starting the beeginners beekeeping class. I had done a lot of reading, a lot of asking and had no real idea the adventure I was stepping into. Now, a year later our club is once again assembling those folks who would like to learn about this fascinating hobby.

This was probably one of the most important steps I took to prepare myself for beekeeping. Not only did I learn a lot about keeping bees but almost as important is that I was able to meet others who have been where I was. Our local beekeeping club, West Sound Beekeepers Association, puts on the class each year. We covered everything a new beekeeper needs to get started; equipment, bees, bee anatomy, bee pests, different types of hives, swarming, working with the bees, inspecting your hives and growing your apiary. This is also the launching point for becoming a master beekeeper. Above is my apprentice certificate, I’ve started work on the journeyman level and finally…after many years and lots of knowledge you can become a Master Beekeeper.

Additionally the club offers advanced classes, mentors, and specialized equipment to check out. Our club also has an extensive library of books and DVDs that we have either purchased or have been donated to us by our members…..a real treasure trove of information.

This should be one of your first steps, finding and joining your local bee club. If you can’t find one locally contact your state beekeeping association, they will have a list of local clubs in your area. In my area that would be the Washington State Beekeepers Association or WSBA.

This was me a year ago. I was chomping at the bit to get my first bees. This year I’m a little wiser and have the experience of one season. So much more to learn and regardless of your goals, to be a back yard beekeeper with a hive or two….or have dreams of a commercial operation….we all start here……at the beginning, what kind of bees do I buy, what kind of equipment do I use and where do I put them. And soooooo much more to learn; grafting and raising queens, splitting a hive, catching a swarm, and expanding my apiary……..Its going to be a great beekeeping season!!

At our bee club meeting last night we had the discussion about overwintering our bees. One lady suggested that perhaps it would be a good idea to move the hives into a warmer, protected area like a carport or shed. While this sounds good it was pointed out that what is really better for the bees in general is to let the stronger ones survive the winter then try to graft some queens from this stock. In this way we are promoting bees that are stronger and that can deal with winter in the Northwest.

Three things affect our bees in this area

1. Food
2. Moisture
3. Wind

If each of these are kept in check the bees should make it.

My goals for this year:

Have at least 2 of my 3 hives survive.

If my nuc survives move it into an 8 frame western

Capture one swarm

Graft a queen from my healthiest hive

End the season with 3 or 4 full hives and 1 or 2 nucs

I do have quite a bit of work to do on equipment. I need to build the nuc boxes I bought from Brushy Mountain when they had their sale and I also need to build a lot of frames so that I’m ready to stock the western, and I hope to build a jig that will help me to glue and nail straight frames……Can’t wait for the next day that is in the 40′s so I can take a closer look at the hives….Til then all I can do is worry.