D's Bees Honey

It’s early spring this year and we haven’t seen a flower bloom yet in the garden, fields or woods. But the bees have found some! The first loads of pollen are coming in. This is a sure sign that the queen is laying and new bees are being produced in anticipation of the first honey flows.  Six of seven hives look great and one hive is definitely an underachiever. This queen is 2 years old and I suspect she’s not as healthy as she needs to be. Hopefully they can hang on until we can introduce a new queen.

Wintering boxes still on - you can see an early load of pollen being delivered to the nursery.

It’s the first nice day in weeks and we’re going to take advantage of it. We’ll be feeding pollen paddies to accelerate the build up of the hives. Pollen sometimes called ‘bee bread’ is an important source of protein for the development of new bees Patties are a pollen supplement usually containing 10 – 15% pollen, soy flour and sugar. You can buy pollen supplement pre-mixed or in powder form or mix your own.

Bees are chowing down, 20 minutes after feeding pollen patty.

It’s still early spring with no pollen plants out yet but colonies try to build up in anticipation of spring blooms. Pollen patties will help bridge the gap until the pussy willows, marsh mallows and other early pollen sources are available.  This strategy is even more important for beekeepers who rent their bees for pollination. They’ll need to move their bees into fruit orchards or blueberry fields in April and need good strong colonies to do their pollinating job properly.

It’s the first warm day of the year. Can’t resist checking hives and putting in some sugar syrup to stimulate recovery from winter This winter’s been cold and long. Winter is a bee marathon

Start by popping off the tops of the winter packing crates. Bees flying and happy.

So the first warm day with the sun shining we pop open the tops of the packing and check the hives. 5 out of 7 look strong with lots of bees on the top bars of the upper brood chamber. Two hives have bees in them but they’re not on the top bar of the upper brood chamber. I pop a frame and can see bees in the lower brood chamber so maybe they’ll be OK. Fed sugar syrup to stimulate build up. And as soon as the weather breaks again we’ll feed pollen patties.

Lots of bees in this hive.They've gotten this far in great shape.

This is a critical time for all beekeepers. We try to assess winter losses, predict which hives will build up successfully and plan on how we can recover by splitting or purchasing nucs.  Exciting times in the Niagara peninsula as our season is weeks ahead of other Ontario beekeepers to the north of us.

Feeding sugar syrup. There's a division board plastic feeder between the frames.This allows syrup to be placed next to the bees for warmth and easy access.

We were hunkered down for a day as the storm passed through Jordan dropping about 31 cm of snow accompanied by high winds overnight on Friday. Saturday we awoke to waist high drifts and a calm but overcast day. Finally  by mid afternoon the skies cleared and blue skies prevailed. Took out the snowshoes and went over to check on the bees. Some drifting over the bottom entrances but all the top entrances are clear and letting in air and letting out bees on cleansing flights. No matter how cold it is, you’ll always find a few bees on the snow near the hives. I’m always puzzled as to why these few bees feel that they must get out of the hive even though with the low temperature and the snow they are doomed. Perhaps the reflection of the sunlight off the snow is too much to resist. Or just like us they get cabin fev

Midafternoon and the shadows are starting to lengthen

This bee took a brief cleansing flight and landed on the snow. She's chilled and lifeless.

er.

It’s February and the queens should be laying now even as the snow piles up.  The lengthening days signals that the much anticipated spring will be here soon. Just thinking about equipment order and some new management practices that I wan to initiate this year. More on that later.

Ontario Beekeepers Association is dedicated to the health of Ontario's beekeeping industry.

Hello everyone. I hope you’re enjoying your holiday break. We’re expecting a big snowfall today and luckily there’s no place we have to drive. The bees are snug in their hives covered with a blanket of insulation and plywood to cut the wind.

At the end of November, I was elected to the board of the Ontario Beekeepers Association. As a board we’re tasked with ensuring that Ontario has a viable and prosperous beekeeping industry. That means looking after our bee’s health. As recent as this summer Ontario beekeepers suffered a number of bee kills in several locations. Several hundred hives were lost in various parts of Ontario. Quebec beekeepers have witnessed a similar phenomenon. Lab tests found a newer pesticide,  neonicitinoid in the dead bees. This chemical is used to treat corn seed and 95% of what is distributed in Ontario is manufactured by Bayer. Needless to say the OBA is  very concerned about this situation as dead bees in front of hives represent just the tip of the iceberg. With the increase in corn acreage and the universal use of these chemicals by corn farmers, many more bees are likely to be sick or in marginal health. We will be in discussion with Bayer and the government in an attempt to find a reasonable but swift resolution to this very serious problem before we see more hives destroyed .  Ill keep you posted.

Enjoy your holidays and to all a healthy and happy new year.

D

Another year is passing and the winds are turning cool. Good friend Rob Bremner and wife Anne spend the night in Jordan. Early the next day around 6:30 am. Rob and Dennis truck over to Good Earth Winery to pick up the 2 hives there and take them back to Jordan for packing with the other 5 hives. The move went without a hitch and after a nice breakfast of waffles, fresh strawberries and maple syrup we went back out to pack the hives.

This year we designed a new system of packing hives in pairs vs the 4 pack + 1 we had last year. This means that managing the number of hives for winter is greatly simplified. You will notice that our system is 3/8 plywood with 1″  foam insulation for sides, back and front. A vapor barrier and  Fibreglass bats then go ontop of the inner cover that has a top entrance space. Then a plywood cover is screwed on. Holes are cut in the front to match the top cover entrance. A top and bottom entrance provides air circulation to help reduce moisture build up in the hives. The whole hive covering can now be pre assembled and slid over the hives. A big saving in time and cold fingers.

The hives will stay packed until early April. The insulating system keeps out the chilling winds and the insulation keeps the temperatures from moderating up and down and thereby reducing moisture and dysentery caused by excessive moisture in the hives.

Bees are all packed for winter - seven hives 3 X 2 and 1 x1. Cozy! The weather is still warm and some bees can be seen in flight.

Time to take the honey from the bees, put it into jars and let others enjoy it. Lovely daughter Anna was a great help this year. We found a queen in one of the last supers above the escape board.

Anna holds up a perfect frame of honey. Yum!

Luckily we spotted her before brushing her onto the ground with the other bees.  We carefully set her frame aside and then gently smoked her off the frame and into the main hive body. Mission accomplished.

The crop was sparse this year due to the drought. However some bright spots with one overwintered hive filling up almost 4 supers. Anna is showing off a perfectly filled frame of honey. Nice.

No, that’s not Burt. It’s Stan Sandler.

Stan and I started beekeeping together on PEI almost 40 years ago. When we started keeping bees on PEI things were very different. Each April, a PEI beekeeper would drive to Florida in his truck and pick up the Island order of packages and drive back. We all gathered at a parking spot in Charlottetown and picked up our 2 lbs of bees and a queen. Sadly, at the end of the last bloom,  Island beekeepers killed off their hives and put their equipment away until the next spring.

The new generation of beekeepers including myself, Stan,  Larry Cosgrave and others did not believe we had to manage our bees in this way. We started overwintering using Buckfast queens and were very successful at bringing the bees through the long Maritime winter/spring. We were also the first to rent our bees to blueberry growers. I was the first to do so when I set hives out in J Angus MacLean’s (an MP a the time and later Premier of PEI> blueberry fields.

Today things have changed. I’m a hobby beekeeper in Ontario. The PEI lowbush blueberry industry has exploded. Blueberry fields fill many of the woodland meadows on the east end of the Island.

Stan kept on keeping bees and is easily the biggest beekeeper in PEI. This year Stan placed over 3,000 hives in Island blueberry fields!

This picture was taken after lunch. Stan and I had a little while to catch up and of course I pumped him for information about how he manages his hives. Stan has become a master beekeeper. He is thoughtful and very much into the science of beekeeping.

Today there are no tracheal mites on PEI and no Small Hive Beetle. The Island has

Stan Sandler, Iris PEI, Master Beekeeper

tried to isolate itself from diseases and Stan is doing his best to protect Island bees.  But it’s probably only a matter of time until parasites make themselves across the Strait what with Nova Scotia beekeepers now placing their hives in PEI blueberry fields.

I’ll see Stan at Apimondia this year. But Ill miss the time we spent together sharing the chores of extracting and going on the Maritime beekeepers tours. Ill also miss those acres of clover and goldenrod on PEI.

See you in November, Stan.

It's 7 am on Monday and already 25C.

It’s hot and dry this summer. The lawn is brown and flowers are probably not yielding much nectar in these conditions. The hives are building up nicely in anticipation of 8 weeks of nectar gathering. We had a scare with the last of the Buckfast hives. Just two overwintered but one queen failed in April. I combined hives and the last Buckfast queen was not looking good. A spotty brood pattern, dwindling numbers of bees and too many drones led me to believe that the hive was queenless. So I introduced a new Szabo queen in early June. Usually a doomed hive will not take a new queen. I looked in the hive last week. It looked weak from the outside but lo and behold the Szabo queen was on the throne. She was in the top box which surprised me. I put that box on the bottom and checked it again this week. Much better! She is laying and the hive is getting itself organized. I won’t expect a lot of honey but if they can build up we’ll go into the winter in top shape. Such are some of the strategies of beekeeping.

On May 29 Foodland Ontario put on a day to celebrate Ontario’s home grown products. Close to a thousand people came through the line of booths exhibiting fresh food from pork to pears,  beef to beets and from carrots to asparagus. As membersof the marketing committee of the Ontario Beekeepers Association Leslie and helped out by manning the booth with Nancy Comber,
Promotions/Media Coordinator for the Association. Over 700 people visited the booth in about 90 minutes in spite of a hot, humid spring day including this guy:

Nancy Comber, OBA Promotions Manager, Ted McMeekin, Ontario's Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and D.

D presents the Minister with a jar of D’sBees’ finest, a cook with 100% Ontario honey apron, and the coup de grace, a loaf of Leslie’s famous Honey Cake – recipe can be found on this site (I refuse to comment on the honey cake and the Minister’s apparent healthy appetite for Ontario farm products).  A grand day for all and great PR for beekeepers. Lots of people asking about the health of our bees and where they can get local unprocessed honey.  We have a lot of friends out there.