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Organizational
Notes |
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President
Vice
President Frances Akridge Secretary/Treasurer
Rick Walls
For
the July 14, 2011 Meeting
was called to order at 6:30 by the President Bob Fanning. He
welcomed guests and gave some introductory remarks. He
stated that this is shaping up to be an outstanding honey
production year. Beginner’s
corner presentation was made by Bob Fanning. The
following announcements were made: 1.
Contact
Dale Rohe if you want to use the Association extractor. 2.
Be
sure and tell Jason at Dodson Farms that you are an MCBA
member to take avoid paying sales tax on jars. 3.
Do
the same at Walter T. Kelley IF YOUR PICK UP supplies in KY. 4.
Bob
reminded everyone of the North Alabama Beekeeping Symposium to
be held 13 August at 5.
Bob
announced that the Alabama Law regarding movement of honeybees
into the state of Alabama on the comb without permission form
the State Apiarist has been changed to include a $100 fine PER
HIVE for anyone caught violating the law.
6.
Bob
reminded everyone of the Alabama Beekeepers Association annual
convention 7 & 8 October in Montgomery, AL. 7.
Dale
Rohe announced that he had made arrangements to purchase
plastic honey jars and gave pricing if anyone was interest in
a group buy. Program Since
July is election night, no program was given. Business
Meeting 1.
A
motion was made, seconded and passed by majority vote to
purchase a modification kit from Walter T. Kelley to convert
the Association’s loaner extractor from a 2 frame reversible
to a 9 frame radial at a cost not to exceed $350 2.
A
motion was made, seconded and passed by majority vote to
reimburse Bob Fanning $500 to replace his personal computer
that was trashed at the January beekeeping class.
Bob donated the $500 back to the association
after expressing his sincere appreciation for the gesture. 3.
A
motion was made and seconded but tabled to purchase a
PowerPoint projector to be used for the annual beekeeping
class. The
motion was tabled pending research on what is available, what
is needed, price and funding.
(Dale Rohe and Bob Fanning will investigate) Elections The
following officers and BOD members were elected; President:
Vice
President: Frances Akridge Secretary
and Treasurer: Rick Walls New
BOD members: Lionel Evans and Roger Owens (both were
re-elected) Meeting
adjourned
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Drs. Mr. and Mrs. Ken Ward present an outstanding program on the results of the
study of the effect of honeybees as cross pollinators of BT cotton.
CLICK HERE for the latest test results. This is a very large file and may take some time to download. |
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The state of Alabama requires that all colonies of honeybees kept in Alabama be registered with the state Department of Agriculture and Industries by October 31 each year (yep, you got to register every year). You can be fined by the state if found in violation of this requirement. The fee for registration is a very small as follows:
NOTE: This is not the official State Website. Please check with the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industry ( Chapter 14 (Honey Bees and Apiaries). ) for latest fee schedule.To register your colonies, CLICK ON and print the below forms (note, if you have more than one bee-yard location or an unusual location you must enter this information of the back side of the form which is shown below as side 2). Fill out the form, attach your check, and sent them to: Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries ATTN: Apiary Section P.O. Box 3336 Montgomery, AL 36109-0336 Welcome to Alabama Beekeeping, you are now legal, from this particular standpoint. Submitted by: Bob Fanning |
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PACKAGE AND QUEEN BEE SHIPPERS NOTICE: In the past, I have strongly recommended that all Alabama beekeepers purchase their package bees and queen from Alabama state certified producers that produce their bees within the state of Alabama. This was primarily because of our "closed border" law. Each year a list of those suppliers that had been certified for that year were listed here on alabees.com. The Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industry will no longer furnish the list of Alabama beekeepers that have been inspected by the state apiculturist. The 2004 list that was previously published here has been removed because it is surely very out of date. Since the State Department of Agriculture and Industry will no longer furnish an updated list I have to assume that either some quirky Homeland Security rule prohibits publishing the list or no one was inspected or no one passed inspection.Maybe it does not really matter anymore because the closed boarder law is apparently still on the books but exceptions have been made by the Department of Agriculture and Industry to allow Alabama beekeepers to ship their bees out of state and back for pollinating out of state crops. This negates my reason for recommending the purchase of Alabama bees. Therefore I do not recommend Alabama Packages and Queens over any other state. I recommend purchasing packages and queens from what ever state that will meet our delivery / price needs. Bob Fanning 4/1/07 |
Methods
of feeding:
I started
feeding with Boardman feeders. I believe everyone knows what those
are, just a quart jar turned up on a little plastic holder, wedged
in the entrance. I like these, as you can see at a glance how much
feed is in the jar without having to open the hive. The three
drawbacks with these, is 1; they don’t hold much, 2; they
promote robbing, and 3; the bees won’t go to them in cold
weather.
Another kind of feeder is what they call the division board feeder, which is a feeder you put in the hive in place of a frame. Some are made of wood, and Amazonite, and you can also buy plastic ones from the bee supply houses. They have a rough interior to enable bees to go down to the level of the syrup, and then be able to climb back up. The main drawback on these is you have to open the hive to fill, and check the supply of feed. These work well in cold weather, as the feed is close to the cluster.
Another kind is the Miller type feeder. I never have used these, but it is simply a shallow super, with two compartments in it filled with feed. It has an opening in the center of the bottom, where the bees climb up into the chamber on screen, (for footing) to feed. Some use syrup on one end, and the other end fill with artificial pollen. They will hold about 3 gallons of syrup. The drawback on these is the bees have to climb up to the top of the dam, then back down to the level of the feed. The simplest and cheapest way I have found is called "baggie feeding". You make a ring over the top of your cluster, to make room for your baggie. This ring only needs to be about 2 inches high. This can be made of an old rotted super. Cut the old super down to the height you want. Or, go first class and make them new out of strips of lumber. Whatever way you do, you want room over your cluster to place a 1 gallon baggie, filled ½ full of syrup. Place it on the top bars by brushing the bees out of the way with the bottom of the bag. Take your knife, and cut a slit about 2 inches long in the bag, push a little on the bag to force some syrup out of the bag, to help them find their free meal. What ever you do make sure the bag is sealed. I had a bag that had a bad zipper, and I lost 2 quarts of syrup down my leg all the way into my shoe, I even had it in my pocket. You do that once, and you will check every bag from then on.
Submitted
by Lyle Greenwood Madison Co. Beekeepers Assoc.
Other comments on feeding methods:
If you use "baggie feeders" per the above instructions you might consider not placing them directly the top bars but instead place a queen excluder there and put the "baggie feeder" on top of it. This will make it much easier to move the "baggie" if the need arises. You can easily pick up the plastic bag full of liquid with holes in it if it is on an excluder. Good luck moving it otherwise! Also a tip (from Bill Mullins) for filling the "zip lock bag" is to place the empty bag inside a 2 lb empty coffee can (or equal). Then fill the bag to the top of the coffee can, zip it and remove it. This serves two purposes:
- It is hard to fill a flimsy plastic bag with liquid (especially on the tail gate, in the field - from a 5 gallon jug) but it is not that tough to fill a 2 lb coffee can.
- It makes it easier to get the right amount of fluid inside the bag and makes all bags uniform in volume.
Another good and possibly the best feeding option:
Hold on to the Boardman feeder as they work well as feeders in warm weather if you put them on top of the inner cover and let the bees come through the inner cover vent hole to get to the feed. You can feed pretty fast with this method because you can use several Boardman feeders on the same hive.
Boardman feeders work better for me on top on the inner cover than in the entrance as designed to work. The bees can get to them better in cool weather, they don't leak on the ground attracting ants and robbers and they may even be a little warmer in cool weather.
By the way, if you buy or build inner covers with only the round hole instead of the standard oval vent hole should you ever need to stop it up (like to prevent robbing) just put a jar lid in it. Not related but if you have menthol bags (with menthol) and robber bees are trying to get in the inner cover vent hole, just place the menthol in the bag over it and they will soon abandon the effort. Seems they don't like the smell and it probably mask the stress pheromone odor and or honey smell.
Submitted by Bob Fanning 11/19/05