In
2005 the SOF was lucky to add Joe Riddle to our cadre of student
farmers. Joe came to us as a freshman from Pennsylvania where
he grew up as a third generation beekeeper. Joe proposed that
we start our very own bee colony under his watchful eye. Of course
we were thrilled at the idea of having honey, the benefits of
their pollination and an expert among us to teach the art of beekeeping
to our student farmers. So, in the spring of 2006 we ordered four
3lb. packages of Russian bees and began to prepare for their arrival.
We owe a debt of gratitude to Dr. George Ayers for his generous
donation of beekeeping supplies.
The First Day
April 15, 2006, Lauren, Joe, Kristen, and Andy
rolled onto SOF with the newest addition to the farm. Joe opened
the hatch to Andy’s Pontiac Vibe and pulled out four 3lb.
packages of Russian Honeybees complete with their young Russian
Queens. All the excitement preparing for the honeybees: acquiring
equipment, putting wax foundation into frames, and picking the
right spot to place the hives. And now they were finally HERE!!
So we suited up. Joe grabbed the first package and Whack! A firm
shake dropped the bees to the bottom of the package. Next, he
pried open the top, pulled out the sugar and queen cage –
yep she is in there. Then, he shook them out of the package, pouring
them into their new home. Finally, he put the queen cage between
two frames and closed the hive up. Someone else’s turn.
Laurie to do the next one. Open the hive, grab the package and
tap. No! BOOM! SHAKE those bees down; Check for a Queen; Dump
them in, don’t forget the Queen; and Close ‘em up.
Two down, two more to go: Kristen and Lauren. All done! We have
welcomed the Russian Honeybees to the SOF. A few days later, Joe
and Laurie returned to quickly check that the queens have been
released and started to lay eggs. Two hives had freshly laid eggs.
The other two needed a little help to let the queen go. It was
great to see white wax added to the foundation, comb is being
built.
Mites
Well
this is the SOF and these Russians are not going to be just honeybees,
so we have to give them names, but that is impossible to come
up with names for each and every honeybee, so we named the Royalty:
Natasia, Natina, Svetlana, and Tatiana. Well everyone was not
happy and Tatiana and Svetlana were superceded, replaced, by Tatiana
II and Svetlana II, respectively.
Oh NO what are we going to do about those mites, we cannot let
them kill our precious bees. Well Joe has the solution. We are
going to use Drone Mite Traps to collect and kill Varroa destructor.
The concept was thoroughly explained to Bee Team members that
varroa has a liking to reproduce on drone pupae when the drone
cells are sealed. Drone cells are sealed for about ten days, in
which time the traps can be collected. Drone Mite Traps then were
melted or frozen, killing the expendable drone and dreaded varroa
mites. This procedure was repeated several times through out the
season. But the sweetest time of the season was harvest time.
Harvest
Laurie,
Kristen, Joe, and a few others removed two supers from Natasia
quite easily. We took them back to the distribution room and set
up the extractor, uncapping knife, and buckets with a little help
from John. I uncapped the first frame to show how it is done and
then everyone else had a turn. It takes a little skill and know-how.
We put the frames in the extractor; I started cranking slow at
first and faster and faster and then all of a sudden the weight
changed. We looked inside and found a frame with the comb pushed
out. Well we pulled the comb out and started up again and throw
out another frame. Moved the frames around and finished the load,
not spinning so fast. I uncapped the next six frames, loaded the
extractor, and ruined two more combs. We drained the extractor
and started bottling. Did the third load perfect. Finished up
the last two frames. Lunch time.
Came back to find honeybees flying around and IN everything. We
forgot to CLOSE ALL the DOORS!! It was a MESS. Bees in the extractor,
bees in the honey filtering trough, bees in the cappings, bees
on the floor, and bees in the air.
I felt so irresponsible for being a little careless and not remembering
to make sure that the doors were closed because I knew that the
honeybees would find the honey. All I can do is laugh at myself;
better than being upset.
And then the end of the season was coming up and we needed to
prepare the honeybees for the winter, which has been very warm
and brown. We made sure that they were strong and had plenty of
honey and had an upper entrance at the top two front corners,
and removed the queen excluders. All in all it was a very good
season.
In
2005 the SOF was lucky to add Joe Riddle to our cadre of student
farmers. Joe came to us as a freshman from Pennsylvania where
he grew up as a third generation beekeeper. Joe proposed that
we start our very own bee colony under his watchful eye. Of course
we were thrilled at the idea of having honey, the benefits of
their pollination and an expert among us to teach the art of beekeeping
to our student farmers. So, in the spring of 2006 we ordered four
3lb. packages of Russian bees and began to prepare for their arrival.
We owe a debt of gratitude to Dr. George Ayers for his generous
donation of beekeeping supplies. 
Well
this is the SOF and these Russians are not going to be just honeybees,
so we have to give them names, but that is impossible to come
up with names for each and every honeybee, so we named the Royalty:
Natasia, Natina, Svetlana, and Tatiana. Well everyone was not
happy and Tatiana and Svetlana were superceded, replaced, by Tatiana
II and Svetlana II, respectively.
Laurie,
Kristen, Joe, and a few others removed two supers from Natasia
quite easily. We took them back to the distribution room and set
up the extractor, uncapping knife, and buckets with a little help
from John. I uncapped the first frame to show how it is done and
then everyone else had a turn. It takes a little skill and know-how.
We put the frames in the extractor; I started cranking slow at
first and faster and faster and then all of a sudden the weight
changed. We looked inside and found a frame with the comb pushed
out. Well we pulled the comb out and started up again and throw
out another frame. Moved the frames around and finished the load,
not spinning so fast. I uncapped the next six frames, loaded the
extractor, and ruined two more combs. We drained the extractor
and started bottling. Did the third load perfect. Finished up
the last two frames. Lunch time. 