Member Spotlight... Leo Scarnici

I'd like to introduce a new club member who is doing great work trying to save bees.  Leo Scarnici officially joined the HCBA just last month at our July BeeBQ.  Leo shoots breathtaking photos and videos of bees and uses his work to correct the public's perception of them.

Check out this recent video...

About Bees: Flight Modes from isavebees on Vimeo.

You can learn more about Leo and his mission on his website I SAVE BEES

Welcome, Leo!  We're so glad to have you as part of the club and we look forward to seeing more great projects from you.

Swarm Rescue Update...

The swarm  I rescued a few weeks ago, is now kicking some serious butt!  The swarm queen, who I am now calling Catherine II or Catherine the Great is an egg laying machine!  Look at this brood pattern!

 And the rest of the girls are working hard and putting up some honey!  I can't wait to try it!

Wintering a Beehive in New England with the Gleasons...

Thanks to club members Dan and Joseph Gleason for sharing their new over-wintering experience!

Congratulations!!!

Club member Matt Slowik and his fiancee Kelly

Matt and Kelly were recently engaged so I'd like to take this opportunity to say CONGRATULATIONS to them both from all of us at the HCBA!!!  I think marriage is awesome and I wish you two the best of luck!

Matt and Kelly were also the proud winners of the Duck Dynasty board game in the Yankee Swap.  So, congratulations on that too... I guess.

Sharing Our Love for Bees...

One of my favorite things about bee-ing a beekeeper is the moment that someone first finds out that I'm a beekeeper.  For the most part, people seem to think it's pretty cool and say things like "Wow!" and "That's pretty cool!"  Some folks go the opposite route and say things like "Gross!" or "Weird!".  Either way, it's a great start up for conversation.  Some of my favorite people to talk to about bees with are the littlest ones.  Kids have a way with words and questions that lacks the inhibition and restraint we adults practice.  For me it's ALMOST always fun talking to kids about bees.

I was very happy to be asked to speak to a local Brownie Troop about bees and bee-ing a backyard beekeeper to help them earn an insect badge.  We talked bee basics, I showed them all of my equipment, we tried some of my honey and I even brought an observation hive so they could find the queen.  It was very fun!

Here we are...

I know I'm not the only who has volunteered to share my love of honeybees with the kids... Club member Annette Isner shared her love of bees with a group of pre-schoolers from Westfield and was thanked for her time with this amazing beehive...

Has anyone else had a volunteer experience they would like to share?  Please let me know, I'd love to add it to our blog.  If anyone has plans to do anything like this in the future, plan to take pictures and share your experience!  Keep spreading that honeybee love! 

Bee well! 

My Final (I hope) Sting of This Season...

I'm a cautious beekeeper, and I almost always wear all of my protective clothing when working with my bees, so I rarely get stung.  My sting of the season was a good one though!  I had closed up my hives and was putting my equipment away in the garage.  All was well until I was getting out of my suit on our back deck before heading back into the house.  One of my girls went rogue, and dive bombed my forehead as soon as I removed my veil.  Didn't see it coming and she got me good.  Just above my left eyebrow.  Day two swelling pictured below...

Extracting with the Gleasons...

Club member Dan Gleason was nice enough to share this video of his family's recent honey extraction.  They got 40lbs this year!  Nice work Gleasons!

iPhone Cameras are Great!

I snapped this photo with my iPhone while shopping for plants at a local nursery.  Not bad for an amateur with a cell phone camera!

Swarm Cells...

Club members Andy & Joyce are enjoying all the challenges of beekeeping in their first year.  Wanting to experience all the things a new hive has to offer, they started two hives, one from a package and one from a nuc.  Turns out the nuc has been non-stop excitement.  I believe they're up to 3 swarms now.  Andy was kind enough to send these awesome photos of their overzealous hive.  Look at all those capped swarm cells! Luckily, these photos aren't too recent, and Andy & Joyce and one of those new queens seem to have everything under control for now!

Thanks to Andy & Joyce for sharing these photos and thanks to senior club member Eric Nitsch for taking a look at their hives and offering a helping hand.

Insecticide?

Time magazine recently featured the honeybees' struggle on their cover.  It's nice to see the subject getting more and more attention.  

Unfortunately, some of what's killing the bees has recently directly effected one of our members.  HCBA Trustee, Larry Borysyk, recently sent me this photo of the front of his hive. 

All the bees on the ground near the hive are dead.  Larry thinks they may be victims of insecticide.  If so, let's hope the effects on the hive are limited and they recover and gain strength to be ready to over-winter! 

Thanks for sharing this with us, Larry!

Bill's GIANT Swarm...

This just in from Bill Crawford!

Bill stands 6 feet tall and this swarm is taller and as wide as he is!  Unbelievable!

Thanks for sharing, Bill! 

My First Marked Queen...

The weather has been getting warmer finally, and while at first I had noticed my bees taking the opportunity to get out and stretch their wings, the last week or so, there seemed to be fewer and fewer bees leaving the hive.  I had been checking in with and feeding my bees on Saturdays for quite awhile, and there seemed to be plenty of bees in the hive when I opened it.  So I started to get nervous when as the weather got warmer, I wasn't seeing more and more bees leaving the hive.  The field bees that were coming and going were bringing in pollen, a good sign, but the traffic still seemed light.    

Last weekend we had beautiful weather, a great time to find out what's really going on in there. I'll be honest, I was nervous to do a full inspection of my hive, afraid to confirm I might be losing it.  So, I called on my support system, fellow HCBA members, Mike Feeney to help with the inspection and Sean Martin (also known as my husband) to take photos and have his shoulder ready just in case I needed to cry on it.  

Mike's first suggestion for me was to reverse the position of my inner cover.  I usually keep the notch on the inner cover facing the back of the hive so I have a rear entrance.  Well when all the bees are using the back door, it's much harder to tell how many are coming and going.  With both entrances facing the front of the hive, it's much easier for me to see who is coming and going without having to go into the beeyard.  I agreed to changing the position of my inner cover, and we went out to open my hive. 

At first glance, things did not look good.  As I feared, the number of bees in the hive appeared to be much fewer than the week before when I last fed them.  Determined to find out what was going on, we pulled out each frame and meticulously looked them over.  There were a lot of empty cells (too many if you ask me) but there were also plenty of pollen and syrup stores, one whole frame up top was almost completely full of syrup.  Unfortunately, there were no signs of brood... Until one of the last frames out of the top box!  Mike spotted some eggs in the lower cells and my spirits were lifted!  What a relief to see those eggs!  When we opened the bottom brood chamber, we found all the signs pointing toward "Queen Right"!  More eggs, and larvae, and then, her majesty herself!  Thank goodness.  Mike is like a beekeeping boy scout and is always prepared, so when we saw the queen, he was already to trap and mark her.  

I have never marked a queen in the past.  My beekeeping philosophy is that if I can see all the queen right signs, I don't look too hard for her because I fear I may do something while searching to compromise her well being.  But... there she was!  And we were prepared!  How often does that happen?  

 Ladies and gentlemen... Queen Daryl Palumbo

So we put everything back together, keeping all the brood in the center, and rearranging some frames so that some of the empty celled frames were closest to where she was laying.   

Switching the inner cover really seemed to help too.  Now I can see all the bees coming and going, and it already looks like more traffic than I originally thought.  

Plus, I know I'm queen right, so I can relax... until next week! 

Mike Trapped a Swarm...

HCBA member Mike Koleczek sent in this awesome photo of the first swarm he's captured in his trap...

We'll have to find out what he using to lure them, because it looks like it's working good!

Bill Crawford Photo Update...

Bill just emailed me some photos from his cell phone, so we can all see some of what he's seen on his commercial beekeeping journey.  Feast your eyes...

Keep up the good work, Bill!  And keep those photos coming!

Bill Crawford, Professional Beekeeper- UPDATE...

Hello Hampden County beekeepers,  

I hope everyone and their bees are doing well.   As some of you had heard, I have decided to jump to beekeeping on the commercial level.   I starting this summer by subcontracting to a beekeeper in the South Dakota praire during the Sweet Clover flow, running about 4500 hives, mostly alone.  I worked there for about 7 weeks until arranging to work for my friend of mine's father with about 3000 hives near Gettysburg, PA.  I worked there for about a month, splitting hives and preparing the hives for fall and winter.  When the labor demand there began to slow down, a friend of my boss said his friend in Lewisburg, PA.  As it turns out, I am now sub-contracting long term for Hackenberg Apiaries, the first people to be hit with and blow the whistle on Colony Collapse Disorder.  The owner is a very outspoken critic of the chemical and pesticide industry.  He has been featured on 60 minutes for talking about CCD and have been featured in the recent bee documentary movies.   I plan on working here for a couple years, that is until I break off to return to Mass with 600-1000 hives.  

With my current gig, I am able to come home on weekends if I so choose, allowing me to continue with my local honey sales and to run hives in both Massachusetts and Pennsylvania with some additional ones in New York.  As the situation works,  as I work for the family, they will in turn also be helping me grow to the point where I can break off on my own.  The apiary I am now working for are primarily pollinators, after beefing up the hives in Florida and Georgia in January, bees are sent to almonds in February,  then later in the season to pollinate blueberries, apples, and pumpkins, and after all is said and done, placed for summer and fall honey.

I have learned NUMEROUS things over the past few months, way too many to list.  But the thing that makes one a better beekeeper, is learning from your mistakes, and mistakes of others.  

The beekeepers nationwide this fall, are suffering major losses, with a good portion losing over half already.  For us, we have already lost almost half due to corn and soybean pesticides, varroa mites, viruses, and CCD.  Just this morning, I went around and checked about 1700-1800 hives divided into your bee yards for blown off lids from the storm, we ended up losing about 100 hives to drowning.

I hope by this time, everyone has their hives fed and have proper weight, with mouseguards on.  If you think of treating for nosema now, dont, it was too late and you will do more harm than good, as the hives tend to go downhill for a little while after treatment before getting back on track.  Raise you outter cover up about a half an inch to help expell moisture and keep the hives out of the bears reach.  I will be down south with my boss and I's bees and will be back in April.    I will send out another message soon regarding nucs and detail if anyone is interested, my coworker, my boss, and myself will be making nucs for sale once our bees get back from almonds, and if there areenough people interested I could bring a load to mass for people, they definitely have an edge over packages, 4-5 frames of bees with a laying queen.  

If anyone has any questions, don't hesitate to email me.
Bee Well,
Bill Crawford
Billy81389@aol.com

Hive Loss, Wax Moths, and Storage...

HCBA member Sage Franetovich sent the following inquiry via email, and has allowed me to share it here, so that the information may be of help to others too. 

I had one hive that was started with a new colony this spring.  Unfortunately, I lost all my bees and the honey to robbers (wasps and other bees).  It happened so quickly!  After the robbing, I opened my hive and found empty cells and wax moth larvae and webbing.  So, I am wondering what to do next.  How can I clean up my hive and safely store it for the winter?  I would like to use the same hive next year and minimize buying new equipment.  Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you!
~Sage

The dreaded wax moth.

I stole this picture from Google images, but this is an example of a frame with minimal damage from wax moths.

When I receive an email inquiry from one of our members, I forward the message to some of our most experience members and enlist their help.  Below is a response from our VP Jeff Rhys...

Bee keeping can be frustrating sometimes. But with each new challenge you overcome the better beekeeper you become First you need to get rid of any active wax moth to prevent further damage. This can be done by freezing the hive for a couple of days. Then it will depend on how much damage was done to the comb to see if any can be saved. If the damage was advanced you will need to take each frame and remove the damaged comb and install new foundation. If there is only a small amount of damage you can clean each frame as best you can and let the bees finish repairing the comb next year. Remove all traces of wax moth from frames and boxes and then properly store your equipment to prevent any more damage from the wax moths. Hope this helps.
~Jeff Rys

I think Jeff's answer is great, and if you'd like to add some helpful advice for Sage, or anyone else reading this post, please do so in the comments section below.

A First Timer's Install...

New HCBA Member, Vanessa Mathieu shared this video of her first install earlier this year.  Vanessa started two hives this year, one standard Langstroth hive and one top bar hive.  Thanks for sharing Vanessa!  

Bill Crawford... Professional Beekeeper

I just received and email from HCBA member Bill Crawford.  Bill was offered and has accepted a job at a commercial apiary in South Dakota!  Congratulations, Bill!  The apiary where Bill is now working is home to almost 5,000 hives!  Bill wrote to me to let us know about the experience he is having and that he will have plenty of stories to share.  I know I'm looking forward to hearing them!  I promise to share them here, so we can all share in Bill's amazing experience. 

If you have any questions for Bill, please email them to me, or post them in the comments here. 

Bee well!

Recovering Your Own Swarm...

Dan & Joseph Gleason are not going to let their bees get away!  Check out this great video Joseph shot of Dan recovering a swarm that landed in their apple tree.

Keep an eye out, everyone!  Swarms seem to be aplenty. 

Introducing My Queens...

This is the Martin Beeyard...

We're a small operation.

The hive on the left is our first hive, and the girls who live there over-wintered OK. I was very excited about that and thought it meant I had completed my first year as a successful beekeeper. So, mother nature decided to challenge me. On an inspection about two weeks ago, I noticed open queen cells, and that the frames were too full of honey, and worst of all... NO BROOD! I switched out some of the full frames with some built-out empty frames I had from last year. Maybe if there was a new queen in the hive, she just needed some space to lay? Left it alone for almost 5 days, and upon reinspection, still no brood. Not an egg in sight. I reached out to some of our experienced club members and the reply was unanimous, "RE-QUEEN! RE-QUEEN!" I got a new queen and installed her on Saturday. Introducing Queen Elizabeth Woodville II...

I'm going to check on her tomorrow and hope she's been accepted and freed by her people. Cross your fingers for me!

The hive on the right is our new hive. I installed a package of Italians from Tom on Easter weekend, and they're doing great so far. I've only done two inspections, and I've spotted the queen quickly and easily both times without really looking. This leads me to believe she's a bit of an exhibitionist. Please meet Queen Daryl Palumbo...

*A note on the size difference between my hives... I wanted to be sure I would be able to manage my first hive alone and was a little nervous about the size and weight of everything, so I opted to start with two medium hive bodies and an 8 frame hive. Initially this worked out great. When they needed more space, I added a third hive body, this seemed to prevent them from swarming. In the fall, they gave me 36 lbs. of delicious honey, and they over-wintered well. With an increased level of comfort going into my second year and second hive, I decided to go for deeps on our new 8 frame hive. Hopefully they'll both be a success!