The Buzz Newsletter

February 2006

 

 

Page 13

The Beeyard Report

With 50 degree weather in mid January, the bees have had a chance to get out and dump their load. I could almost hear the collective sigh of relief. It’s pretty stressful when you have to hold it for a long time.

The dozen or so colonies that I have around my house all look good. One of them has the queen and bees that Tim Laughlin used in his observation hive at the state fair. I picked up Tim’s displays after the state fair was over. He had a nice queen in his observation hive so I put her in a nuc box. When it came time to go to Mt Pleasant, I didn’t have any mated queens in our nuc boxes. We had been producing queens all summer but I still ran out. Tim said I could use his, so she got to spend another week in an observation hive. Then, later in September, she was in a third observation hive for a local show we have in Lynnville. I put her back in the nuc box and didn’t look again until late October. To my surprise, the box was full of bees. I put them in a hive body, gave them some pollen supplement and two gallons of syrup. They may die but they look good right now. If they live, I think I’ll charge Tim a boarding fee.

I traveled to Houston for the American Honey Producers meeting. I sold a few buckets of honey to a guy in Dallas. It wasn’t a big sale but I made gas money and a little extra so it was worth driving. The meeting is always interesting. The really big beekeepers live in a world of semis and forklifts. While I have no desire to live in this world, it’s fascinating to see how they do it. Richard Adee had a picture of forty semi loads of bees spread out around a valley. Lyle Johnston described this as feed lot beekeeping.

One of the practical things I picked up at the meeting involves queen breeding. I was talking to Bob Cox early in the meeting and he told me I should introduce some SMR genes into my gene pool. Bob Danka talked about this later in the meeting. The idea is to create SMR colonies and then bring them back as drone mothers. By doing this, the queens impregnated with SMR semen may produce as many as 50% of the worker bees with SMR traits. Sounds good doesn’t it. I wonder if the real life outcome will be as good. We also hope to start testing for hygienic behavior. I think Adam is going to be busy.

Package bee prices are up considerably from last year. They are a lot higher at the point of origin and the fuel to haul them is a lot higher. If you are a hobby beekeeper, a $50 package isn’t much of a deterrent. For those operating on a bigger scale, it’s an economic obstacle. Our survival has been good enough the last few years that we haven’t had to use any packages ourselves. I think I am going to keep a few this year and see if I can split them at the end of May. The first lot usually shows up at the beginning of April. If I can get them going, that will give them almost two months to develop. The boxes should be full by then and we should have a few queens from our own production to put in the splits. I’ll report later on how this turns out.

I have never regarded beekeeping as a very good economic engine. For sure, it’s a real scary way to make a living. My earnings would probably be regarded as sub par but it’s enough for me and my sons are making a good supplemental income. As I look at the things we have planned for the upcoming year, I’m optimistic--even with all the problems we face. In today’s economy, there are very few chances to be independent and work with your family at the same time. I feel fortunate.

Submitted by Phil Ebert