Clubul Local

[D006]

[D006]

In seara asta avem sedinta pe febroarie.
Ce sa discutat in Ianuarie.
        GENERAL MEETING   JANUARY 22,  2009
Call to Order
The meeting was called to order at 7:30 PM by our Vice President, Mark Hoppe,
as Mark Allen was attending a meeting in Monterrey.  Due are now due.  Our
post office box was in Hacienda Heights, but that is gone now.  We have a new
one in La Mirada now and it is PO Box 992 La Mirada, CA 90637-0992.   A new
brochure should be printed for our organization and post card reminders too.
The Community Resource Center is reserving room only for 3 months now.  Our
next meeting in February will be in the building behind this, so we will meet at
the Activity Center in February; this may be one time only.  The following two
meetings (March 26th and April 23rd) will again be here at the Community
Resource Center.
Secretary's Report:  the Secretary had e-mailed the minutes by e-mail to all
members who could receive them on-line and had provided extra copies to the
members here who were not yet on our list.
One of the members asked if the minutes could be posted on the web site. 
Mark Hoppe will ask Mark Allen if that can be done.
A motion was made by Russ Levine to accept the minutes as presented.  The
motion was seconded by Ron Hoyle and carried unanimously. 
Round table discussions and introductions began.  We had our Christmas
dinner last month and it was enjoyed by all.  Ron Hoylel mentioned that it was at the North Woods Inn and the meal was very enjoyable.  Kirk Visscher from UC Riverside spoke to us and showed slides.  (Kirk told the Secretary that one of his former students was giving the course at Cal-Poly Pomona and Kirk will give the beekeeping course at UC Riverside in 2010.)   Andrei took pictures and will mail these and maybe they could be put onto our web site.
Ron Hoyle discussed the upcoming Beekeeping 101 and will put it on Power
Point.  Ron and Jerry Mc Carter teach this once a year at Jerry's house in
Upland.  There will be paraphernalia, smokers, tools, frames and much inform-
ation for new beekeepers including building bee boxes, extracting honey, and
using the hot knife.  They will open their hives and let us handle the frames and bees, so that we will not be intimidated.  This will probably be the end of April this year.  The address is 2535 Vista Drive in Upland (zip code 91784), but maps will be available beforehand.  The phone number at Jerry's is (909) 234-6339.
Maybe Huell Howser could do a show on public television?
It is not the 60,000 bees that are a problem, it's the 60,000 stingers.  We need to be sure that all parts of the bee suit are zipped up and closed (except for those beekeepers who go in bare handed and uncovered).  Mark Hoppe does not wear a bee suit and usually doesn't mind being stung.  April 23rd is the meeting date, so the following Saturday should be the date: April 25th.
NEW BUSINESS
Russ Levine and Dave Mendes, president of American Beekeeping Federation,
contacted the bee pollinators regardidng selling some of their hives and bees.
Russ will sell a pallet of bees at a time, but you must buy a bottom board as
these hives do not have bottom boards.  These bees will be coming out after
pollinating the almonds up north and will go for $125.00 and will be 1 and a half
boxes high and will include the frames and the bees, 2008 queens and their
brood.  This will be between March 28th and April 23rd, but call Russ within the
next weeks at (909) 560-1063 or e-mail to  E-mail
The almond bloom is approximately 6 weeks and there is not much nectar, but
the bees do get the pollen.  They can almost starve, though, so provide sugar
water. 
Clint Venable said to make sure there is a queen.  Bees can be brought to
Upland.  Levine is in LaVerne and will bring the bees at night.
Mark Hoppe said that Varroa mites changed things and there are not enough
bees available.  The almond growers are more picky now and want heavy
hives, so the ones coming back should be pretty good.
Larry Wehage of Bellflfower asked is anyone had lost hives in the fires.  A
discussion followed.  One person mentioned a swarm about 10 feet off the
ground and his neighbor asked if he wanted the swarm, but it was gone in just
a few hours.
Clint Venable told us that bees don't always run from smoke.  He had a fire
scorch the bottoms of his hives, but the bees stayed in the hives and endured.
Dick Dyer had some fires and once the front of a hive was charred black. 
Dead bees blocked the entrance, but when he scooped those out all the other
bees had been saved by those who died at the entrance.
Mark Hoppe told us that in Fallbrook they had a fire that originated in Rainbow,
which is east of the 15 freeway.  The fire jumped the freeway and there were
200 hives on the west side.  The heat dried the leaves in the avocado groves,
but not the trees.  The leaves were entirely gone, but the hives survived.
Dick Dyer: orange and avocado groves are wet, but a pine box burns well and
so does sugar and wax.
Linda Sun:  the avocado groves have often saved the areas behind them by
acting as a damp firebreak.
Mark Hoppe:  Laurel Sumac burns well and has heavy sap; the limbs explode
in a fire, but it is a good honey plant and that honey tastes like butterscotch.
Jerry Mc Carter: buckwheat will not come back for 3 or 4 years after a fire.
Is oleander honey a problem, due to the plant's toxicity?  It could be, but the
bees seem to eliminate any toxins.
Russ Levine enjoys woodworking and showed us a swarm catcher made with
a vacuum with windows covered with screening on each side of a box and
this box fits nicely inside of another box.  You put the hose on the outside and
it forms a vacuum.  Plexiglass is on both sides of the outer box and he puts
foam on the back wall to cushion the bees when they are sucked in.  It is
important to adjust the suction, so that it is not too strong.  A hole in the top
surface has a flap which gradually closes by hand.  He also makes a box
which keeps the workers in, but excludes the bigger drones and the queen.
The trap has a sliding bottom so that bees can fall into the box.  This fits over
the hive box.  The green box on the bottom is a super with 2 hinged doors.
The green box is a filter for when you want to get the queen out of the hive.
He takes the supers off and the brood frames out and sets these aside.  He
puts the supers back on so that the bees can return from foraging. He takes
the brood frames out and brushes every bee off into the filter and then has
empty frames.  He brushes and shakes the last frame and all of the bees
(probably including the queen) are back together except for the brood.  The
queen is really good at hiding.  Then he closes it up and puts a brick on top
and uses a very little bit of smoke.  The drones and the queen are stuck
inside and he puts cold water on them and they just roll around.  The queen
who was raising mean bees is destroyed.  In a week a new peanut appears
in the hive for a new queen.  The bees have a new attitude with a new queen.
A new queen will not use the drones anyway so they are gotten rid of also.
The new queen will use drones from down the street on her maiden flight.
Dick Dyer said that this would be far more convenient to clean than a card-
board box.  Dick has just "induced" swarming in one of his hives.
Mark Hoppe: you can buy queens in the warmer months.  The queen lives
3 to 5 years and the workers know when they need to swarm.  They will not
kill the queen; that is the beekeeper's job.
There will be several queen cells on the frames.  Take one of those frames
and put in into another hive after killing the queen. 
When there is a new queen, how often does she not return from her mating
flight?  Maybe one out of 10 queens do not return.  One hive will gladly adopt
the brood from another hive.
Ron Hoyle:  according to talk at the convention, most beekeepers replace the
queen every year.
Dick Dyer:  It is tradition to replace her every 2 years, if you can remember,but
you don't know every one of your hives.  All swarms have old queens.
Mark Hoppe:  I suspect that mean bees survive better; it just makes sense.  I
had bees that knew that sweat inside the suit made it much easier to sting me
right through the suit.
Dick Dyer:  My yard has about 10 hives; the best producers are the ones I cut
in half last summer.  They are also the nicest and they produce the best.  I
still favor a young queen.
Is it feasible to keep bees in a standard sized lot?   Yes, but don't tell your
neighbors.  It is good to camouflage the bees.  The City of Long Beach does
not allow the keeping of bees, but the president's hive concealer has no roof
on it.   You need a place to run if the inspector comes out; he only gives you
5 days to get rid of your bees; if you still have them after 5 days he will take
your wallet.  If you have no place to go you must kill your bees. 
Is water needed?  Yes, the bees are attracted to water and we usually put
water lilies or water hyacinth into the bucket to keep the bees from drowning.
They are also attracted to chlorine water, so they find swimming pools, but
they often drown there.  In some ponds a board or boulder is used to help
the bees climb out.
Dick Dyer: If you are in a city where it is illegal to have bees, you can use a
vacant second story room and people usually don't know the bees live there.
Bee Culture's 2009 Bee Calendar has fabulous photos (it was passed around).
You should register with the county if you have 10 hives or more.  Those who
spray chemicals are supposed to notify the county and the county is then
supposed to notify the registered beekeepers (in advance), but it seldom
happens.  We just installed "security bees" for a car sales lot.
Thinking of the current peanut butter scare, if I sell honey can anyone come
back at me?  Honey is special and is very acidic, which keeps bacteria and
fungi from growing on it.  It also contains hydrogen peroxide and the sugar
attracts water which dries out microbes. 
Dick Dyer:  If you can sell tomatoes across the fence, you can sell honey,
but it should not be fed to infants under one year old.
How many people here provide water sources for their bees?  About half of
us raised their hands (the other half probably lives in cities where water is
abundant from sprinklers, hoses, etc.)
Beecatchers.com   go see photos of people catching swarms.
ted.com   see (hear) a talk on Colony Collapse Disorder.
Andrei Nastase:  Learn the difference between a swarm and a colony.  A
swarm does not have brood and honey to protect, so they don't sting unless
greatly provoked.
Can you pull frames out one-at-a-time to remove honey, or should you wait
'til the frames are all full?  You can do it either way, but drip extraction does
not work well.  You would have to put a frame into the oven at 170 degrees F
for several days to get they honey out and by then it would be cooked. 
Honey would crystallize if left for months, although cold temporarily retards
crystallization.
Dick Dyer:  The best place to store honey is in the beehive.  Bees must make
wax and they need 3 pounds of honey to get 1 pound of wax.  Now we take
the frame out when it has been capped as the bees know when to cap it.  It
is best if we give them their wax frames back after we centrifuge the honey
out.  Then they don't have to make new wax and use up their time.
Clint Venable:  take the hot knife and cut out a 2 inch by 2 inch piece and
replace the frame in the hive.  The bees will fix it.  Honeycomb is best that way.
Dick Dyer:  The bees are constantly repairing their combs to get rid of wax
moth worms.  It so pretty to see the different colors of pollen in the wax.
At 8:55 PM Willie Solomon moved to adjourn the meeting.  The motion was
seconded by Ron Hoyle and carried unanimously.
The next meeting will be on February 26, 2009 at the Activity Center. 
Respectfully submitted,        Linda Sun,  Secretary

[D006]

Feb. 23
CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order at 7:15 PM by our President, Mark Allen
with 49 people present.  Jim Mieras brought a swarm of bees and
suggested that it be raffled off.  Jim told us that these bees are smart; he
got them at a school.  The January minutes were ordered corrected at
the first sentence under NEW BUSINESS:  Dave Mendes is the pollinator
as well as the president of the ABF.
Ron Hoyle had a Power Point presentation and discussed the Beekeep-
ing 101 held in the spring at Jerry Mc Carter's house in Upland.  The
photos showed the 4-frame extractor which is available free to any
member for extracting honey by hand using a crank.  Jerry was shown
explaining the uses of tools and equipment.  Boxes can be purchased
already assembled or they can be put together after buying the parts
separately and Jerry will show us how.  Jim Mieras was shown explain-
ing the headgear, suits, smokers and suggested that beginners buy their
hive boxes already assembled.  Ron was explaining theuse of the
scraper and hot knife in the photos.  Jerry and Ron also have a large
extractor which processes many frames.  The County of San Bernardino
watches them and requires that water be provided for the bees and that
hives be labeled.  A photo of water hyacinths floating in water was
shown as a place for the bees to land without drowning. 
Question:  When you harvest honey, is it bad to let it set in the comb?
You should not let it sit as it will really crystallize, then you can't get it out.
Question:  Do you have to change the drinking water for the bees?
No, you just put mosquito fish into the water which are provided for free
by the Vector Control departments in Ontario, and Riverside and
Orange Counties; they eat mosquito larvae and keep the water clean.
Photos were shown of beginning beekeepers examining frames of
bees; this keeps us from being intimidated.  Ron told us that a friend of
his daughter had bees and when they saw him he was wearing rubber
boots and gloves and was all taped up.  I said, "Lets open the hives up,
take off the supers and look at the brood."  He was surprised because
he had never been in his hives.  We worked them and got familiar with
those bees.  Pollen and capped brood will be shown to the new
people.  We will show you how clamps and hive tool work. The queen
cells are usually on the bottom edge of the frame.  We have coffee and
lunch, then go to the bee yard.  A bee hat and long-sleeved gloves are
necessary.  Beekeeping 101 for 2009 will be on April 25th (two days
after the April meeting) at 10:30 AM at 2535 East Vista Drive in Upland,
which is in San Bernardino County.  The zip code is 91784 for those
locating it on Map Quest. It is just north of the Foothill freeway (highway
210), east of the 57 and west of the 15.  You can take the 10 freeway
and exit onto Euclid, which is highway 83, and go north.  At 24th street,
Euclid Ave divides and becomes Euclid Cres West (left) and Euclid
Cres E (to your right).  Stay to your right and follow the half circle of
Euclid Cres E around, but now go left when this street again divides,
and go left onto Prospect.  Prospect will intersect with Vista Drive and
you will have arrived.  If you have a San Bernardino Thomas Guide,
the location is on page 572 at 1 and a half and halfway between B and
C.  The phone number there is (909) 234-6339.   The secretary will
mail advance notice by e-mail and Mark Hoppe will send out flyers. 
There is no charge, but you must be a member to attend; dues are
only $8.00.
Mark Allen told us that avocados are blooming now.  Bees pollinate
these trees, but the avocado embryo dies when the temperature goes
below 55 degrees F.  It is not an issue right now, but we can provide
pollen patties for the bees.  According to the studies, the bees will not
store this pollen, but will eat it.  Don't waste money on sugar solutions
right now.  When the ground is wet there is nectar.  The poster show-
ing the beekeeping year is wrong for our area.  Corn syrup feeding is
still up in the air as to it being good or bad to feed to bees.  In summer
the sugar solution is 1 to 1 by weight, but I do it 1 to 1 by volume.  We
are supposed to weigh water.  (1 pint of milk, water, eggs, solid butter,
granulated sugar and chopped meat all weigh 1 pound each, per the
internet.)  We must use hot water, but don't burn the sugar as it
becomes toxic to bees.  I use a paint mixer attached to a drill to mis it
all in a 5 gallon bucket.  Each feeder inside a hive holds 1 gallon. 
Sugar solution is slightly perishable, so don't keep it around.  If they
needed it, the bees took it.  If they didn't need it the solution ferments
and stinks.  A very tiny bit of chlorine in the syrup makes it keep fresh
longer.  It is hard to get fungus or mold off plastic.  It is virtually imposs-
ible to keep tiny spores out of a mix.  Bleach probably works, but the
trick is to not put too much in. 
Jerry Mc Carter leaves a full super of honey on top for his bees.
Dick Dyer said that honey is the preferred food for bees.  You can put
a frame of undesirable honey into a different hive for the bees to use.
Sterilize equipment with food-based cleaner, which might be found at
Smart and Final.
Fred Hesper noted that the old extractors were galvanized and we left
a coating of honey in there to protect the extractor from rust and wash-
ed it out in the spring.
Mark Allen on preventative treatments:  We always have mites of
some kind; for Varroa mites the old treatments no longer work, but
currently we use powdered sugar sprinkled onto the tops of the frames
if we have 10 hives or fewer.  A drone came out of his brood cell with
14 mites on him.  The female mite is parthenogenic - she lays eggs
without mating.  The male that emerges mates with his mother.  There
are lots of drones this time of year.  They feed off the bee in its brood
cell and we get deformed bees.  When the bee comes out she pumps
her wings full of blood to straighten and harden them, but twisted wings
make her useless.  Packaged bees usually do not have mites, but we
should always have mites on the brain.  The IPM (Integrated Pest
Management) system is the use of screened bottom boards and
powdered sugar.  The screens for the bottom are 1/8 inch hardware
cloth and these must be used if sprinkling powdered sugar onto bees.
Dick Dyer: In nature bees live in a tree with no bottom; when mites fall
off of the bees they don't come back. 
Mark Allen:  there are drone frames with larger sized wax foundations.
Apiguard is made from thymol and it works well.  The thyme oil gets
transferred from bee to bee.  Don't buy it from Dadant as they want the
buyer to get a permit.  Mite-Away II is tricky.  Fumagilin-B...
Dick Dyer:  Bees drift in if there is a large entrance, but if the entrance
is small, bees are not so close and get fewer mites.
Mark Allen:  Mites are not good at moving around; they crawl sideways
on suction feet, but when they fall off the screen keeps them from
returning.   Use a sieve of powdered sugar shaken over the frames
and try to get it onto the bees.  When the mites hit the sugar they can
not hang on and will fall.  Bees love to eat the powdered sugar.  Bees
can regulate the heat in a hive to within one-half of a degree within 10
seconds.  In Calexico they can keep bees at 120 degrees F in the
summertime.
Members:  It is not an actual window screen, but is 1/8 inch hardware
cloth.  Bosch sells it and Ace Hardware and Orchard.  There is a
hardware supply in Pasadena on Artesia and Pioneer which is a
combination hardware and sheet metal shop.
Mark Allen:  Some bees are always cleaner than others and they
don't allow the larvae of moth worms to remain in the bottom debris.
Question:  Should the bottom screen be removable to help the bees
with their housekeeping?
Usually you just brush it off. It could be removable if it were not nailed
or screwed on.  Another mechanical way to make life easier for the
bees is to use 2 drone frames per hive (these come in green on
purpose) and are made by Pierco; Jim Mieras has them.  When the
queen goes over these larger cell foundations she lays drone eggs
and that is where the mites go.  You can pull that frame out when it
has been filled up and put in another.  Put that first one into the freez-
er for 12 to 48 hours and it kills the drones and their mites.  Put it back
into a hive as is and the bees will clean it out.  You can figure out that
a drone takes 26 days to hatch, so pull it out at 24 days and freeze
the frame. 
If a worker is filled with food she will usually be allowed in even if she
has come to a foreign hive.  Nosema ceranae (like Nosema apis) is
a spore-forming micro protozoan which came from the asian honey
bee, Apis cerana.  It is a fungal disease which has taken over and
causes damage and is no longer limited to Asia.  It causes dysentery
and bees are infected in their gut.  The hyphae burrow into their
intestinal walls and they cannot feed babies or produce royal jelly
and the hive begins to crash.  Nosema Ceranae came out the same
time as Colony Collapse Disorder.  It comes from the drifting of bees
and from spores.  Drones drift like crazy and look like drunken heli-
copters.  In commercial bee yards they must treat all hives to avoid
the spread and they use Fumagillin.  A member of the Los Angeles
County Beekeepers said at a meeting that Fumagillin does not get
into the honey.  A mycologist was shocked to hear that we use
Fumagillin which is so toxic and should be a last-ditch effort.  Spring
and Fall is the best time to treat as the bees are susceptible to every-
thing.
Question:  If asked to do a bee rescue and the homeowner admits
that he/she has used a spray, what should I expect?
The greatest risk is of bees dying, but any spray will not be in the
honey as it would have killed the hive long ago if it had been in the
honey.  Contamination from pesticides can be found in the wax in a
great amount for a long time, while not appearing in the honey from
the same hive.  I stopped using comb and keep that in a separate
bag and trash it.  A piece goes in to help the bees get established,
but I take that out after a week to be safe.
Russ Levine:  A 2 box vacuum system has a lot of vibration.  If you
put a motor on top it will be more trouble.  The basic design of all
bee vacuums should be a large diffusion of pressure.  The bees
need a soft base on which to land after being sucked in. 
Dick Dyer:  the air should be slowed down.
Question:  When brood and all is collected from a site, it I don't get
the queen, will they make a new queen?
If it is only a short time, yes.  If you get the majority it is possible that
the queen will go in, but don't count on it.  Get on the phone to
northern California to get a queen and have her sent by overnight
mail.  Bee Happy  (530) 795-2124;   Buzz's Bees  (530) 882-4302;
Bz Bee Pollinators  (530) 787-3044;  Coma Apiaries (530) 547-5773;
Honey Bee Genetics  (707) 449-0440;   Noble Apiaries  (707)
628-6046;  Olivarez Honey Bees  (530) 865-0298;  Pendell Apiaries
(530) 963-3062;   Powell Apiaries  (530)  865-3346;   Strachan
Apiaries  (530) 674-3881  or Breeder Queens in Fallbrook if you
would like to try your hand at this:  Glenn Apiaries   (760) 728-3731
The queen would not settle down anyway after a vacuum capture,
so wait 5 days to look into the hive.
I had 7 swarms at my house this last week; every day a new one.
Question:  Is there a way to keep bees from swarming?
Mark Hoppe:  Have a lot of room in the hive with good ventilation
and a queen to lay eggs.
Keep the brood area clear.  If a queen runs out of places to lay she
cannot continue and the bees do not feed her.  Splitting is best as
you get 2 hives with plenty of space in each.
Question:  Do we need one box or 2 boxes?
Some use one box with a queen excluder, but that gives a faster
chance to swarm.  Two boxes gives lots of room.  I like 2 boxes
with no queen excluder.  They use honey as insulation. so I
always will have honey in one box.  Three short single boxes
equals one "deep".
Jerry Mc Carter:  You must get the old frames out every so often.
Question:  I built a top-bar hive and put it into a friend's garden
and a swarm was quickly attracted.  How do I proceed?
Come to Beekeeping 101.  If pollen has been brought in, they
have babies and a queen.
Lots of beekeepers use white dots on their queens, rather than
the official color for this year because the white is so much easier
to see.
Mark Allen:  Our library is much bigger now than what is shown
on the web.
Clint Venable made a motion to adjourn the meeting.  The
motion was seconded by Mark Hoppe and carried unanimously.
Meeting adjourned at 9:30 PM.  Next meeting will be in our
usual room on March 26, 2009 at 7 PM.

[valter]

Mosule,am cateva f16 si b 52 langa bloc, baietii construiesc la m kogalniceanu o noua baza NATO. hAI SA PUNEM DE-O COLABORARE. Daca trimite negrul avionul 1 va putem trimite miere bio la pret de conventionala, oricum voi bagati la OMG la greu.
Stupina-i gata, vecina cu baza NATO, pe plopilor nr. 1.
era sa uit, am citit tot ce-ai postat, sunt bet crita si-am inteles tot.
Voi faceti proces verbal la intruniri?

[D006]

Ai tu asa ceva langa bloc?

[D006]

Sa nu mai vb de B52 ca ala e cat blocul.
Dar oricum ma indoiesc ca ai tu acolo miere bio la un pret convenabil. $4kg transportata.
Da, la fiecare intrunire se face proces verbal si se distribuie cate o copie la fiecare.

[D006]

Domnule AndreiRN,
La romani este greu de facut un club apicol(si nu numai)sa functioneze pentru simplul motiv ca toata lumea vrea sa fi sef si lucrurle nu ar merge bine.
Dupa parerea mea cluburile locale joaca un rol de frunte in alte tari.
Ati vedea un club local facut din membrii de pe acest forum?

[D006]

Adevarat ce spuneti.
La romani e greu si o asociatie de 2 persoane si de aici si problemele.
2 ani de zile am fost presedintele clubului columbofil local TOPER si pot spune ca a fost o placere voluntara.
Aici un aspect al cooperitivizari in agricultura functioneaza de zeci de ani ff bine.
Clubul meu apicol BASC ofera extractor pe gratis oricui are nevoie ca sa nu mai vb de alte facilitati.

[filip]

Andrei toate bune si frumoase daca am fi inteles si unii dintre noi care au fost la scoala la profa de RUSA
Pe viitor cateva cuvinte in limba lu'EMINESCU daca se poate

[milu56]

Bravo filipe,in acest club cred ca si limba albinei se intelege.

[dedu]

Unde i acest club?Prin Alba,Sibiu,Turda nu i vreunul(Alba mai ales)???

[milu56]

Nui in Alba e la casa alba.

[D006]

Andrei toate bune si frumoase daca am fi inteles si unii dintre noi care au fost la scoala la profa de RUSA
Pe viitor cateva cuvinte in limba lu'EMINESCU daca se poate

Asa este dar Linda scrie tot ce se vb cuvant cu cuvant si e mult tare de tradus.
Cand se vb de ceva nou mai postez la topicul potrivit.

[D006]

Sambata, Dec 12 vom avea intalnirea clubului apicol BASC, Beekeepers Association of Southern California, de sfarsit de an si va avea loc la restaurantul North Woods Inn care este pe o tematica rustica.
http://www.honeyrunapiaries.com/bee_lin ... -262.phtml
Va fi un event placut chiar daca o sa am un program ff incarcat Sambata.