Small Swarm Capture

When we had the observation hive at Heritage Days in Romney the bees got overheated. The next day at home they left the hive and swarmed to a small pine tree nearby. This video shows us putting the small swarm in a super box. We wanted to give them lots of room to settle into. We'll be taking the observation hive to the Appalachian Festival in Frostburg so we'll just take two frames out of the super for that. Capturing the swarm is easy as you'll see on the video. The queen was just starting to lay eggs when they swarmed so they must have gotten so hot at Heritage Days that they must have felt they had to abandon the observation hive to save themselves.

Blue Ribbon at The Fair

The Hampshire Beekeepers display at the Hampshire County Fair took the blue ribbon. I think I counted 9 other farm/business displays that HCBA was in competition with for the blue ribbon. The observation hive was a tremendous success. That's the reason for the blue ribbon in my opinion. It created a dynamic display instead of just a static display. We went to the fairgrounds at about 4 Pm on Saturday to pick up the display. Even as I was carrying the observation hive to the truck people were flagging me down to talk about it. It was a great experience and I think it provided a lot of exposure for HCBA.

HCBA Hampshire County Fair Display

We completed the HCBA display at the Hampshire County Fairgrounds today. Also pictured with Ruth is Paul Roomsburg, the horticulture teacher at Hampshire High School and the main coordinator for the agricultural displays at the fair. Paul is partially blocking the observation hive which we delivered and set in place today.

Top Bar Hive Frame

Ruth took a pretty interesting photo of me holding one of the top bar hive frames today. We saw the queen and there is lots of brood present.

Allegheny Fair Photo

A real nice photo of Ruth and Harry Mallow at the Allegheny Fair display which was set up by AMBA members at the fairgrounds in Cumberland.
AMBA members were awarded numerous pries and ribbons for honey and beeswax products.

Nice Photo - Bees on Buckwheat

A very nice photo from Michell Mack.

HCBA July Meeting - Honey Uncapping Video

HCBA July Meeting - Honey Uncapping

At the July HCBA meeting, we had a hands on session for members to learn how to uncap and harvest honey. A slideshow of the hands on session follows:

Queen Rearing Seminar - June 30, 2007

Bear damage to hives

Subject: Bear damage to hives

I had a bear visit two nights in a row at our place off Jersey Mountain Road. The first night two hives were knocked apart but the bees didn't seem to be too devastated. There were scratch marks on some frames and scoops out of others; there was a bear paw print on honeycomb of one frame. The second morning I found one hive knocked apart and scattered again. The only bees left with that hive are dead. We are looking into serious fencing.

I'd be happy to have suggestions from anyone who has dealt with this type of problem before.

Maurine Mazzeo

WVU Progressive Action on Colony Collapse Disorder

The April 30th Orchard Monitor newsletter put out by the WVU Extension Service addresses Honeybees and Colony Collapse Disorder which is getting attention just about everywhere these days. WVU is participating in the Colony Collapse Disorder Working Group. WVU seems to be focusing on chemical contamination of beehives as a contributing factor. The neonicotinoid class of insecticides has come under suspicion. Trade names are Actara, Assail, Calypso, Clutch, and Provado. This is now the most widely used class of insecticides in the US and they are used in agriculture, lawn care, golf courses, and buildings. These are highly effective insecticides, almost too effective. WV is the first state to recommend that growers refrain from using neonicitinoids until honey bees are removed from the orchard in order to protect these pollinators. Continue to monitor http://maarec.cas.psu.edu/index.html for emerging Colony Collapse Disorder info. Increasing the understanding of honey bee issues by fruit growers is critically important. Hampshire County is also progressive in this area by opening up the March, April, May, and June Fruit Grower meetings to local beekeepers. We do not and will not used any of these toxic insecticides on our own farm. We use horticultural oils, dormant and all season, and we will be using Surround, which is a clay particle spray film . We also do not use chemical fertilizers which can also be harmful but instead use foliar sprays such as Neptune's Harvest. Herbicides, such as Round up are OK to use as they break down/decompose almost immediately and do not remain concentrated in either soil or plants.

New York Times Article

A recent New York Times article entitled Honeybees Vanish, Leaving Keepers in Peril was published on February 27, 2007. It describes the sudden hive losses now taking place. the complete web link is http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/27/business/27bees.html?em&ex=1172898000&en=a550b78a46399bbc&ei=5087%0A

First Post

This is the first blog post to establish the Hampshire Beekeepers blog. The Hampshire County Beekeeper's Association web site can be found at www.hampshirebeekeepers.com The web site will evolve over time to include useful information. The blog will be used more for current events type information. The Association will be managed with the collaboration tools from Google Apps. All members will have access to the tools and can post information to Google Apps, the web site, and the blog. For example, all documents will be stored and available within Google Apps. Please contact Steven Martin, stevenmartin@frontiernet.net, 304.822.3878 for access.