Announcements:
Visit sustainable living in near Woodward on 7 Mile (across from Palmer Park). Fireweed Universe City is a local sustainable living program utilizing renewable energy, urban farming and re-cycling programs. If you can't visit in person visit their website www.fireweeduniversecity.com and www.wwoofusa.org.
Q&A:
Q: Where did the bees go?
A: It began with a warm winter and early spring last year resulting in no nectar and the drought in the summer resulting in no egg laying. These combined to insufficient numbers of bees to sustain the hives during the winter.
Q: What to do with last years honey when installing new bees this year?
A: Don't put too many frames of honey in the new hives. You want to make sure the queen has plenty of room to lay eggs. Feed them with sugar water, they need the moisture. If you do add frames of honey, score the caps so they have to eat it or re-cap it.
Q: After the new bees are installed, when should the hives be opened to review the hive status?
A: Pick a day after about a week, when it is warm enough to wear a light jacket. Check to see if the queen is out of her cage and is laying eggs.
March Meeting - Splits
Announcements:
The club hives will be opened at the April meeting. Meet in the parking lot at 5:30 with your equipment.
Volunteers are need for the Green Living Festival June 22-24 in Rochester.
MBA's Summer picnic will be July 20th and the fall conference will be October 25th & 26th
Hive Splits: Don discusses options for splitting your hives.
Splits are used to manage overcrowding in the hive and prevent swarming. Swarming is an indication of a healthy hive. It is a natural process of a bee colony. However, if a hive is allowed to swarm, only about 20% of swarms will find a new home and survive. If you do not want to expand your bee colonies, the bees can be donated to 4H clubs, schools, or scouts. A second option would be to sell them. A third method would be to save them and re-unite them later in the season. One way to tell if the colony is getting ready to swarm is to look for queen cells. If there are peanut shaped queen cells in the middle of the frame, they probably already swarmed.
Swarms are triggered by over crowding. When the bees are forced to be in the hive during periods of rain, they realize that the hive is a little crowded and prepare to swarm the first chance they get. Swarms could also be triggered by not enough space for the queen to lay eggs. There are opportunities to capture swarms from the general public and save the bees from the exterminator. Seven Ponds Beekeepers, MBA, SEMBA, local fire and police, and the county offices have lists of beekeepers will to capture swarms. Contact any of these organizations if you would like to get on their call list. If you get a call, ask the following questions.
How long have the bees been there?
How high are they off the ground?
How big is the group of bees?
Are they yellow jackets? As for a picture.
The easiest way to get them in a nuke or box is to shake or sweep them. Another method is to attract them into a box. Put some old comb, new frames and an attractant (lemon grass oil or lemon pledge) in a hive box and hope the scout bees are attracted to it.
Time to do a split is around when the dandelions bloom.
Book Split Method
1. Number the frames in the bottom box 1-10
2. Then number the frames in the top box 11-20
3. Take the odd frames from the bottom box
4. Combine with the odd frames from the top box
5. In a new box, put the frames in the box in the following order 11-13-1-3-5-7-9-15-17-19.
6. In the old box, put the even frames in the following order 12-14-2-4-6-8-10-16-18-20.
7. Check in 21 days for eggs
8. Check in 28 days for sealed larva
9. If there are no signs of eggs being laid in either hive, buy a queen for $25 or a queen cell for $5 and introduce her into the hive.
NOTES: This keeps the brood in the middle and honey on the ends. The queenless hive will make a new queen. To encourage them to make a new queen follow the steps in Part 1 and Part 2 of 2010 Spring Splits on http://www.mdasplitter.com/.
Announcements:
Super Raffle in the April meeting
March will have elections. Vice President, Secretary, & Member-at-Large are up for re-election. It is a two year term.
To purchase new bees there are a few avenues:
Bob Hollis (bees are from Georgia) see Mark Wagner. Pick up will be in the Almont/Dryden area.
Don Schram has nukes. They will be available in June.
Michigan Honey Festival at the Eastern Michigan Fairgrounds in Imlay City on July 17th. It will be a two day event. There will be a meade competition - Michigan Meade Cup. Amateurs and professionals can enter. It will be a sanctioned event. Chef's will be cooking with honey demonstrations. Local vocational schools will be participating in a 'Top Chef' like competition with their recipes including honey. The winner will get a $1000 scholarship. If you would like to get involved, see Melissa. Visit the website - www.michiganhoneyfestival.org .
Membership is $10 it includes access to the club extractor (rent for $5 with $20 deposit) and access to the club library.
Spring Management:
As spring approaches and the temperature begins to warm up (50 degrees or warmer), the hive becomes more alive with action. If you see activity on those warm days, it is a good sign. If it looks like they are alive and the honey is gone, sugar could be put on the top board. Look for the queen or capped brood. If you have a strong hive consider putting a sheet of newspapper and a honey super on your hive. This will keep the hive warm but will give the bees room to expand, if needed. They will eat through the paper. If you are concerned about swarming, consider using the Demaree method ( http://countryrubes.com/images/Swarm_Prevention_By_Demaree_Method.pdf ). If you think swarming is inevitable and queen cells are present, pull some frames with queen cells and put them in a nuke with some empty frames.
Disease Management
Mites - In the spring, the mite count is generally low. However, if you want to treat for mites, Formic Acid can be used during honey flow and when supers are on the hive. Drone cells promote mites. HopGuard ( http://www.betatechopproducts.com/products/varroa-mite-control ) can be used when installing your new bees to control Varroa Mites. Apiguard ( http://bees.tennessee.edu/ipm/apiguard.htm ) is another treatment for Varroa mites.
Small Hive Beetle - Formic Acid can be used to help repell small hive beetle ( http://www.mitegone.com/pdfpages/Small%20Hive%20Beetle.pdf ).
Nosema - Nosema apis is a winter time parasite that causes diarrhea and in the spring and summer the bees can get rid of it. Nosema ceranae stays with the bees year around. It does not cause diarrhea and is more difficult to diagnose. Fumagillin-B can be used in the spring to treat for Nosema. It must be treated before honey supers.
American Foulbrood - Medicate with either tylan and terramycin. Then the treat with the other in the fall. Must be treated 22 days before honey supers are put on the hive. It is important to follow the directions precisely.
Announcements:
1. Michigan Beekeepers Association (MBA) will be held on Friday & Saturday, March 8th & 9th at the Kellogg Center on the campus of Michigan State University in East Lansing. The link to MBA is located on the links page. Costs and a link to preregister and/or to become a member of the MBA is available at the website.
2. This year will start with two sessions each meeting one for the new beekeepers and one for established beekeepers. This will continue until April.
3. To purchase new bees there are a few avenues:
Bob Hollis (bees are from Georgia) see Mark Wagner. Pick up will be in the Almont/Dryden area.
Dave Anthony (bees are from California). Pick up will be in Davison.
Don Schram has nukes.
4. Many club members have experience heavy bee casualties. It is theorized that the queens shut down during the drought and the clusters dwindled.
5. Michigan Honey Festival at the Eastern Michigan Fairgrounds in Imlay City. It will be a two day event. There will be a meade competition - Michigan Meade Cup. Amateurs and professionals can enter. It will be a sanctioned event. Chef's will be cooking with honey demonstrations. Local vocational schools will be participating in a 'Top Chef' like competition with their recipes including honey. The winner will get a $1000 scholarship. If you would like to get involved, see Melissa. Visit the website - www.michiganhoneyfestival.org .
6. Custom Garden Hive Contest - Kellogg center is giving us a place to display these hives. Quarters will be placed a box near each hive. The hive with the most quarters will win a package of bees. The money from the votes will be donated to the Rolland-Warner bee club.
Building Hive Components:
The members spent the rest of the meeting in the basement of Seven Ponds Nature Center assembling hive components. Not only will the members benefit from these demonstrations of proper hive assembly, but the club bees will enjoy new hive components this spring.
September Meeting - Marketing Your Honey
Club Hive Opening: Three honey supers were pulled off one of the club hives. Wax moths had taken over the other two hives.
Wax Moth:
Para Moth, moth crystals, or paradichlorobenzene (PDB) can be used to treat wax moth.
Winter Feeding:
Put candy boards on the hive on a warm day around Christmas. The candy boards should consist of 16 lbs of sugar, 1 qt of water, and 1/4 cup of white vinegar.
Marketing Your Honey:
Cottage Food Act - Don presented some of the highlights of the Cottage Food Act. The Cottage Food Act of 2010 allows the small time beekeeper to produce, package and sell a limited amount of honey. Honey is one of the few foods that is potentially non-hazardous food. The Cottage Food Act limits gross sales to be less than $15,000 per year per household. Labeling is an important requirement for selling honey. These requirements are as follows:
- Common name "Honey" must be predominantly displayed
- Name and address of the responsible party
- Net contents (by weight, volume or quantity) in standard and metric units
- "Made in a home kitchen that has not been inspected by the Michigan Department of Agriculture (MDA)" in 11-point font
- Lot or batch number is recommended.
When pricing your honey make sure to include all your expenses. The price should cover not only the honey, but also the jar, label, lid, your time, and a portion of your hardware.
For more information click on the link http://www.michiganbees.org/2011/09/cottage-foods-presentation-at-the-mba-2011-spring-conference/
Do-It-Yourself Printing - Dave presented two options for printing your own labels. The first is using OnlineLabels.com to create and print your labels online. The second is to download the Word template and construct and print your labels off line.
Obtaining a License - Bob discussed some of the requirements in obtaining a license to sell honey outside the limitations of the Cottage Food Act. A license costs $70/year. To obtain a license, your honey house has to meet some specific requirements such as 3-tiered stainless steel sink, washable walls, sealed concrete floor with drain, hot water etc. For more information on obtaining a license visit http://www.michiganbeekeepers.com/honey/honeyregs .
August Meeting – Fall Management
Club Hive Opening:
One hive is dying. It’s re-queening didn’t work. Wax moths have taken over the hive. The second hive is also failing. It was also re-queened, but again it didn’t take. Wax moths took over this hive too. Terry will try to take the remaining bees and put them in a nuke box. The third hive has four honey supers and is very healthy and active.
Announcements:
Honey Festival was a great success. There were about 1000 paying visitors, but over 2500 visited the festival. The next one will be July 27th, 2013. Meetings are all ready beginning. They are the first Wednesday of the month at the VFW in Lapeer.
The fall MBA conference will be October 5th & 6th at the Gateway Holiday Inn in Flint. Visit the website for more details - http://www.michiganbees.org/2012-fall-conference/ .
Fall Management:
It’s time to start thinking about removing honey and preparing the hives for the winter. Any time from now until the end of September is a good time to start. To remove the honey supers, you must first remove the bees. There are a couple popular methods. The first is to use a bee escape. It is a one way door for the bees. They can find their way out, but not back in. Once it is on the hive it will take up to a week for the bees to leave the honey supers. For those that can’t wait that long, a fume board is the best way to go. A fume board has black metal on one side and felt on the other. A small amount of either BeeGo or Bee-Quick is sprayed on the felt part of the fume board. It is put on the hive and allowed to heat from either the sun or a propane torch. It usually takes a few minutes for the bees to leave the super. The honey supers can be removed and the honey spun from the frames. If the honey supers are pulled early enough, then the wet frames can be put back on the hive and the bees will begin to re-fill them. The empty frames can also be put by the hive for the bees to scavenge out the remaining honey. The bees need about 70 pounds of honey to survive the winter. If they don’t have that much honey, it might be worth feeding them with sugar water for a while during the fall and use a candy board over the winter. The bees can survive cold temperatures. However, they can’t survive moist conditions, so make sure the hive is well ventilated. An entrance reducer should be put on the entrance and the notch on the top board exposed so the moisture can leave the hive. This is the best time to evaluate the health of the hive. Here are a few methods to determine if there is a mite problem. The simplest, but least accurate, method is to put Pam or Crisco on the bottom board. Let it is sit for 24 hours. Then pull it out of the hive and count the mites. It is best to do this process in the summer to get a baseline to compare to in the fall. But, the rule of thumb is for large hives should be treated if the count is greater than 30 or so and for smaller hives greater than 22 or so. The second method is the powdered sugar method. This method entails taking a half a cup of bees (300 bees) and putting them in a mason jar with a screened lid. Add to the jar 1 cup of powdered sugar. Cover the bees with the powdered sugar for about 2 minutes. Shake out the sugar and add water to dissolve the sugar and count the bees. If there are more than 48 mites / 300 bees then the hive should be treated for mites. The third, most accurate, method is to take a half cup of bees (300 bees) and put them in a mason jar with a screened lid. Add to the jar ¼ cup of rubbing alcohol. Dump out the alcohol and count the mites. If there are more than 54 mites / 300 bees then the hive should be treated for mites. There are a couple YouTube videos that highlight these last two processes.
Powdered Sugar Method - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0hfL3fdBsk
Alcohol Method - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-W5R2bKa_c
Club Hive Opening: Terry opened the hives and answered questions. One hive has four honey supers. The other two are queenless and one of them has a super filed with honey.
Announcements:
Honey Festival needs volunteers. See Dave Hansen, Terry or Melissa to volunteer.
Bee Vacuum:
A effective Bee Vacuum design was presented. The picture below explains the function and components.
Honey Extraction:
The process of extracting honey from the comb. A hot knife cuts the caps off the comb and the honey is then spun out of the comb.
Upcoming Events:
The club has bought a space at the Imlay City Farmer's Market. Club members can contact Terry if there are interested in selling their honey wares at the market. The farmer's market is Thursdays from 1 to 6 starting in May.
Green Festival in Rochester is June 22-24. The club will have a display at the festival
Michigan Honey Festival, Eastern Michigan Fair Grounds
July 28th, 2012
http://www.michiganhoneyfestival.com (Information on this event and fun activities that you may want to do with your family during the day are available at this web site.)
Melissa is selling T-shirts. They are $15.
Rich from greentoegardens.com presented information about products from the hive.
Propolis
- Bees collect tree resins.
- It has antibacterial and anitfungal properties. It has been used on athletes foot, acne, burns.
- Many pharmaceutical use propolis in their drugs.
- To make a spray version of propolis, fill a mason jar 3/4 full of propolis, fill with 190 proof ever clear, and shake or flip the jar a couple times a day until it is dissolved.
Pollen
- It has the highest source of protein, even more that meat or chicken.
- It contains about 33% protein by weight.
Honey
- It kills bacteria by drawing moisture out of it.
- Can be used on wounds to help them heal.
Bee Bread Recipe
- 1 part pollen and 3 parts honey
- Heat to 80 degrees
- Flip jar a couple times a day to mix.
Propomeil Recipe
- 1 part propolis plus 3 parts pollen and 6 parts honey
Bee Venom Therapy
- It is used to help arthritis, shingles, bad knees, sore joints
- It relieves pain by the body reacting to the toxins in the sting.
April Meeting - Capturing a Swarm
Upcoming Events:
The club has bought a space at the Imlay City Farmer's Market. Club members can contact Terry if there are interested in selling their honey wares at the market. The farmer's market is Thursdays from 1 to 6 starting in May.
Michigan Honey Festival, Eastern Michigan Fair Grounds
July 28th, 2012
http://www.michiganhoneyfestival.com (Information on this event and fun activities that you may want to do with your family during the day are available at this web site.)
Melissa is selling T-shirts. They are $15.
The next organizational meeting is Wednesday, May 2nd at the VFW hall.
Swarm Capturing:
Several club members discussed their techniques to capture swarms.
Dave's discussed a Steinkraus-Morse swarm catcher he found in the American Bee Journal. It includes a thin plastic flower pot, some lightweight nylon, and miscellaneous hardware. It looked lightweight and easy to handle.
Bob H. discussed his more heavy duty 5 gallon paint bucket, 1 1/4 PVC pipe with a threaded adapter on the end, and a pipe flange that is screwed to the bottom of the bucket. He also discussed how a tractor and extension ladder could also be used to assist in capturing a swarm. A picture could be seen in the gallery at his website - www.goldenharvesthoney.net
Bob W. discussed a more brute force method of capturing a swarm by cutting the branch with the swarm and placing it on an empty box.
Tommy discussed a passive approach. It includes building a smaller 8 frame box with old, weathered wood. Since the box does not have a bottom board, he found adding a little space between the box sides and the bottom gave the bees some more room to maneuver. He would place the box in a tree about 10 feet into the woods and up in a tree. He put a little lemon grass oil in and on the box to attract the bees to the box. He has had much success with this method.
Beginners Discussion
Terry led a discussion with the beginners.
March Meeting - Splits & Starting Your Hive
Club Hive Opening: Terry opened the hives with two club members (Kurt & Karen). Surprisingly, all three hives are doing well. In April's meeting at least one hive will be split.
Board Elections:
President: Terry Toland - Re-elected
Vice President: Bob Hollis - Elected
Treasurer: Pat Stier - Elected
Member at Large: Jim Goodrich - Re-elected
We would like to Thank David Gable (Vice President), and Yvonne
Henderson (Treasurer) for the volunteer service they provided to the
club.
Upcoming Events:
Green Living Festival, Rochester Michigan
June 22 & 23, 2012 from 11am-5pm "Seven Ponds Beekeepers" needs you help.
Please contact Deb Shimmel regarding the our "Seven Ponds
Beekeepers" table. She would deeply appreciate your participation! (deb48367@yahoo.com)
Michigan Honey Festival, Eastern Michigan Fair Grounds
July 28th, 2012
http://www.michiganhoneyfestival.com (Information on this event and fun activities that you may want to do
with your family during the day are available at this web site.)
Small Hive Beetle: The discussion of small hive beetle was carried over from last month's meeting. Small hive beetle is in 95% of our hives. However, if your hive is strong it tends not to be a problem. They originated in Africa and came to the U.S. in shipments of fruits. They tend to sense hive in distress and can travel for miles in search of beehives. They can lay thousands of eggs a day. The larva burrow in the comb for 10-15 days then leave the hive and burrow into sandy soil to pupate. They have 3-5 life cycles per summer.
To control hive beetle follow these steps:
1. They are attracted to pollen. So avoid use of pollen patties.
2. They are also attracted to rotting melons or fruit. So keep hives away from composts.
3. Traps - http://www.brushymountainbeefarm.com/prodinfo.asp?number=296
4. Sunlight - stack supers 90 degrees to each other.
5. Poison - Permethrin
Reference: http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/220240/small-hive-beetle-management-options.pdf
Hive Splits: Terry and Don discuss options for splitting your hives.
Time to do a split is around when the dandelions bloom.
Option #1: Book Split
1. Number the frames in the bottom box 1-10
2. Then number the frames in the top box 11-20
3. Take the odd frames from the bottom box
4. Combine with the odd frames from the top box
5. In a new box, put the frames in the box in the following order 11-13-1-3-5-7-9-15-17-19.
6. In the old box, put the even frames in the following order 12-14-2-4-6-8-10-16-18-20.
NOTES: This keeps the brood in the middle and honey on the ends. The queenless hive will make a new queen. To encourage them to make a new queen follow the steps in Part 1 and Part 2 of 2010 Spring Splits on http://www.mdasplitter.com/.
Option #2: Nukes
1. Find the frame with the Queen
2. Save this frame in an empty super
3. Take every other frame (5 frames) and put them in the nuke.
4. Take the nuke to a new yard.
5. Put the 5 nuke frames in a new super with new foundation. Don't wait more than a couple weeks for this step.
6. Add a feeder until it is ready for a honey super
Starting Your Hive: Jim discussed hive equipment, package installation, and early hive management techniques.
February - Spring Management/Feeding & New Beekeepers Class
Spring Management/Feeding: Terry and Bob discussed the techniques for caring for your hives in the spring.
As spring approaches and the temperature begins to warm up (50 degrees or warmer), the hive becomes more alive with action. It you see activity on those warm days, it is a good sign. They will use warm days for cleansing flights. Their first natural food source is Maple tree pollen. Starvation is the biggest killer of bees. To help make sure they make it to the nectar flow, it may be necessary to feed your bees. Mix one part sugar to one part water to feed the bees. You can put the sugar water in an entrance feeder. However, if the colony is still clustered in the top of the hive may be a better option. The bees tend to eat food stores that are closest to them. This make top feeders a better option. A top feeder is just a jar with small holes in the lid. It is turned upside down on the top board over the hole. A spare hive box is put on top of the top board before the cover is replaced. In February, the queen should start laying in a small brood section in the center of the cluster. As the days become warmer, the queen will gradually increase her laying, and by the end of March the bees will be bringing in pollen from maple and pussy willows. Adding pollen paddies is an option, but bees prefer fresh pollen and there is an adequate supply of pollen. April is a good time to open the hive for spring cleaning. Open the hive down to the bottom board. Clean the bottom board and rebuild the hive in the same order as it was prior to disassembling it - bottom super on the bottom and top super on the top. If you were to reverse the order and the brood could freeze in the bottom. Make sure the queen is laying eggs and they are in the center of the hive (1-2 frames of honey, 6-8 frames of brood, 1-2 frames of honey). Spring is also a time to begin disease management. However, all disease management techniques MUST BE STOPPED when the honey supers go on your hives. For mites, Halls mentholated cough drops have been known to be helpful in reducing mites. For hive beetle, reference next months meeting. For American Foul Brood and other diseases, remove and destroy a third of your frames every year and replace with new frames and foundation.
Reference: http://www.celsias.com/article/dying-honeybees-it-was-insecticides-all-along/
Bees are considered social insects. They live in organized groups called colonies. Each colony has one queen (female), many workers (female) and a dozen or so drones (male). The queen is the largest bee and the only egg layer in the hive. The workers do all the work. Their jobs include tending to the larva, cell and hive cleaning, brood capping, attending to the queen, building comb, ventilation, guarding, and foraging. There are about 55,000 worker bees in a colony.
Hive components
Brood Box: It contains 10 frames. The middle frames house the brood. At the edges of these frames, the brood is in the middle and honey is around the edges. The end frames usually contain all honey.
Bottom Board: It contains the hive entrance. An entrance reducer can be added to keep small animals and the cold out during the winter months.
Honey Box: It also contains 10 frames. It is added on top of the brood box to collect honey.
Queen Excluder: It goes between the brood box and honey box to keep the brood out of the honey.
Further Reading:
"First Lessons in Beekeeping" by Keith Deleplane
"Apiary Locations & Starting with Bees"
"Basic of Hive Manipulation"
"Spring Colony Management"
Announcements:
1. Michigan Beekeepers Association (MBA) will be held on Friday & Saturday, March 9th & 10th at the Kellogg Center on the campus of Michigan State University in East Lansing. The link to MBA is located on the links page. Costs and a link to preregister and/or to become a member of the MBA is available at the website.
2. Southeastern Michigan Beekeepers Association (SEMBA) will be holding their annual beekeeping conference the following weekend, Saturday, March 17th from 8 to 4 in the Vis Ta Tech Center at Schoolcraft College in Livonia. The keynote speaker will be Dr Dewey Caron. The SEMBA website is also on the links page for further info on event topics and fees.
3. The club is purchasing a quantity of "First Lessons in Beekeeping" by Keith Delalane. They will be made available for purchase at a special price.
Building Hive Components:
After several announcements, the members spent the rest of the meeting in the basement of Seven Ponds Nature Center assembling hive boxes, frames, hive tops, and top bar hive. Not only will the members benefit from these demonstrations of proper hive assembly, but the club bees will enjoy new hive components this spring.
A top bar hive was assembled. For those unfamiliar with top bar hives may be interested to know the pros and cons of this type of hive. Some of the benefits include that the hive grows horizontal rather than vertical. Beekeepers that have trouble lifting or are wheel chair bound can still keep bees. The simplicity of this system is also a benefit to gardeners who want to bee keep for pollination of their crops. The disadvantages are that the hives do not produce as much excess honey for harvesting. Top bar hives are also not as well insulated which makes successful overwintering bees in Michigan harder.
Two of these hives will be raffled off. Seven Ponds Beekeeping Club will be holding a super raffle. Tickets will be $5 a piece. The winner will receive one complete hive (no foundation) and one 3 lb package of bees. The top hive bar will be raffled off by the club at the Michigan Beekeepers Association's sprint 2012 conference.
Making Creamed Honey: Bob demonstrates how to make creamed honey..
Equipment:
- Mixing container i.e. 5 gallon bucket
- Power drill with mixing attachment
Ingredients
- Honey - Non-crystalized
- Seed Honey - Fine grain granulation
- Flavorings - Optional (Cinnamon, Lemon etc)
Procedure
- Mix seed honey into honey at a ratio of 1 lb of seed honey to 10 lbs of honey
- Optional - add flavorings like cinnamon at a ration of 1/8 cup of cinnamon to 10 lbs of honey
- Mix until evenly mixed
- Let sit one day then remix
- Bottle
- Let sit in cool area for 7-14 days.
Tips
- Honey granulates the best at about 57 degrees F.
- Use at least one plastic bottle to know when the creamed honey is ready. The bottle can be squeezed to see if it has setup.
November Meeting - Making Mead
Making Mead: Doug and Karen demonstrated how to make mead.
Equipment:
- Mixing container and fermenter (Size depends on batch sizes - Doug's and Karen's holds over 15 gallons)
- Gallon Carboy - Glass is recommended - It won't absorb the mead. (Multiple sizes is needed for racking to minimize the amount of oxygen in the carboy).
- Drilled Stoppers to Fit Carboy
- Airlock
- Hydrometer (Measures sugar content)
- Bottle Brush
- No Rinse Sanitizer
- Corker
- Bottles & Corks
- Racking Tube with Anti-sediment Tip
- 5 ft. Siphon Tubing
- Bottle Filler with shut off valve
Books:
- Winemaker's Recipe Handbook - Raymond Massaccesi
- The Art of Making Wine - Stanley F. Anderson
- Complete Mead Maker - Ken Schram
Ingredients:
- Honey
- Water
- Yeast (Wine or Champagne)
- Peptic Enzyme
- Yeast Nutrients
- Campden Tablets (kills unwanted bacteria)
- Fruits or spices
- Measure sugar content with hydrometer for starting specific gravity - target 1.090 - if below add honey, if above add water.
- When hydrometer reading reaches 1.040 (after about a week) siphon to carboy. Do not siphon sediment.
- When adding fruits, juice the fruits and put pulp in a cloth bag and toss in fermenter.
- If fermentation seems to stop, doesn't reach 1.040, it is probably too acidic and chalk should be added.
- Rack (transfer from one carboy to another) every week or so to remove sediment. Leave as little air as possible in carboy.
- Add honey at the end to sweeten to taste.
- Typical mead alcohol content is 13% by volume.
Club Hive Opening: Terry demonstrated how to use a fume board to remove the bees from the honey super. He sprayed Bee-Quick on the fume board, put it on the hive, and heated it with a propane torch to evaporate the fume quicker. The fumes forced the bees out of the honey super.
Social Time: During the social hour many of the club members brought in some of their honey for others to sample. This opportunity gave members a chance to see and taste the variety of colors and flavors.
Marketing Your Honey:
Cottage Food Act - Don presented some of the highlights of the Cottage Food Act. The Cottage Food Act of 2010 allows the small time beekeeper to produce, package and sell a limited amount of honey. Honey is one of the few foods that is potentially non-hazardous food. The Cottage Food Act limits gross sales to be less than $15,000 per year per household. Labeling is an important requirement for selling honey. These requirements are as follows:
- Common name "Honey" must be predominantly displayed
- Name and address of the responsible party
- Net contents (by weight, volume or quantity) in standard and metric units
- "Made in a home kitchen that has not been inspected by the Michigan Department of Agriculture (MDA)" in 11-point font
- Lot or batch number is recommended.
For more information click on the link http://www.michiganbees.org/2011/09/cottage-foods-presentation-at-the-mba-2011-spring-conference/
Professional Label Printing - Professional Instant Printing can print waterproof labels for your honey. Contact them at 248-335-1117 or pontiacpip@yahoo.com
Do-It-Yourself Printing - Mark and Dave presented two options for printing your own labels. The first is using OnlineLabels.com to create and print your labels online. The second is to download the Word template and construct and print your labels off line.
Obtaining a License - Bob discussed some of the requirements in obtaining a license to sell honey outside the limitations of the Cottage Food Act. A license costs $70/year. To obtain a license, your honey house has to meet some specific requirements such as 3-tiered stainless steel sink, washable walls, sealed concrete floor with drain, hot water etc. For more information on obtaining a license visit http://www.michiganbeekeepers.com/honey/honeyregs .
September Meeting - Fall feeding
After the honey crop has been removed it is important that your bees have enough stored honey to carry them through winter into early spring, otherwise they will starve during late winter or early spring. In Michigan we find the hive needs about 70-100 lbs of stored honey. Translated into easy math's, each frame (standard deep) will hold approximately 7 lbs, so a hive examined in late fall should have at least 7 plus frames of sealed stores. If not then they should be fed, quickly.
Is sugar better than honey for feed?
This is a question that will get you more than one answer from local beekeepers. It is possible to feed honey drippings etc. from the fall extracting, but it should be stressed not to use heated honey in any form, otherwise dysentery is almost guaranteed. Then some believe firmly that if the honey is carrying any type of spore you could be entrenching spores into your hives even more by leaving it on the hive. And that sugar is less costly than honey, so if you have already extracted it, bottle it & feed them sugar syrup.
Reference: http://www.americanbeejournal.com/site/epage/79326_828.htmFall Ratio…..
A mixture of 2:1 , two pounds of sugar to one pint of water, is typically fed to administer medications and fed to help build winter stores.
1 parts water to 2 parts sugar OR 1 gallon water to 16 pounds sugar
Spring Ratio….
1 parts water to 1 part sugar OR 1 gallon water to 8 pounds sugar