The Buzz Newsletter

Page 6

Mike White found this honeybee enjoying the early spring pollen of the Amur Maple in his yard.

THE BEEYARD REPORT

I have had trouble finding time to grind out the Report. It has been pretty hectic. The phone is quiet at last. Package bees are history.

What a relief. The volume of phone calls leading up to it took up a lot of time. It is also the time for the annual cleanup of the garage. This has to happen so we can get the packages inside. The truck pulled in at 2 AM. There wasn't much point in going to bed before it arrived. We laid down for a nap around 4 AM. I left a message on my answering machine to not show up before 9 AM. The message went unheeded. The first vehicle pulled in at 7:30. Alex and Adam were here for distribution. It's a good thing they were. Lack of sleep made me pretty testy. I got out of the way and let them handle things. The 2nd day I took 300 packages to Illinois while Alex manned the home front. I found the drive relaxing after the chaos of the first day. One of the neighbors came by after we finished with packages. He wanted to know if I had all my money counted If only it were that easy.

I am not optimistic by nature but things looked good to me as I worked my way through the yards with early spring feeding. It looked so good to me that I ordered an extra 100 queens. Now, things have hit the skids. Several yards have crashed. It also appears that the "no drug method" is not working for us. We are seeing way too much EFB and some AFB. In past years EFB was a rare thing. I was holding out against using Tylan but Adam insisted. The boys have brought several colonies home to shake onto foundation. Our yards to the east have yielded some splits but, so far, the west and south have been a disaster. We are boosting colonies instead of splitting them. The actual death loss is still hovering in the 25% to 30% range but the bees aren't building up. Many of the colonies have been queenless. We have struggled the last two years to maintain our numbers at 500 colonies. It looks like this year will be the same. I am thinking more about leasing bees. We have locations.

I still want to get away from drugs. I have started culling massive amounts of combs. We have some that are really old. There is logic in culling but it seems like the ones that get foulbrood are quite often on new combs. This whole thing is nothing but a big guessing game.

Mite control is still a big issue. Treatments are expensive and don't always work. We are going to try pallets with screened bottoms. Alex made some nice ones. I like the way they look. He put some cleats on the runners so we can put a solid insert under the screen for winter. I want to build some drone frames like Randy Olivers but that hasn't happened yet.

Dave Fassbinder has brought me a couple lots of honey this spring. The last time he was down he told me he heard there were going to be bees at the white House. Michele Obama has started an "organic garden" and bees are supposed to be part of the picture. I hope it happens.

As we worked our way through package bees I heard several people refer to us as beekeeping experts. The boys commented on this, also. I just shook my head. I think all that means is that our mistakes cost more money. The problems are pretty universal.

Good luck with the upcoming season.

Submitted by Phil Ebert

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