Enclosed is the upcoming PEI BEEKEEPERS COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION=20
NEWSLETTER  to be published next week.
 
Harvey Hyde
[log in to unmask]
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
       =20
             PEI BEEKEEPERS COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION
                           NEWSLETTER
        =20
                           =20
                           JULY 27/94
 
=0C
In this issue:-
 
PRESIDENT'S REPORT
COMMENTS & OBSERVATIONS
UPCOMING EVENTS
HAWAIIAN NEWS
CROWDING=20
STING ALLERGIES
REQUEENING
WORKER LIFESTYLE
LOCAL HELP
 
 
 
PRESIDENT'S REPORT:-
 
   Since the last Newsletter, your executive has been working on
new ideas to be undertaken by the PEIBCA.=20
   One of a number of such ideas was that the Co-op should focus on
making the latest beekeeping technology more available to Island
beekeepers.
In this regard it was proposed that a number of executive meetings
include a workshop.  A short executive meeting would conclude with
a workshop open to Island beekeepers on a number of timely
subjects.
It is proposed that our October 3rd meeting include a workshop on
Winter preparations. (See the next newsletter September 8th for
details.)
   Another item to be initiated is the set-up of a comprehensive
bee library to be supported partially by fund raising ventures that
will be undertaken by the PEIBCA as well as contributions by those=20
interested in sharing in such a project.
   Of course we can't forget about our latest project --the
Maritime Bee Tour to be held July 29-30.
   The executive have been working very hard to host this year's
Tour by arranging excellent venues, lots of good food, great
speakers, interesting displays, and a chance for you to talk till
you drop about bees, with a lot of the beekeepers from Atlantic
Canada.
   We are expecting 80-100 people; I am looking forward to seeing
you at Tour 94 --the theme of which is "Nectars of the World!".
 
 
COMMENTS & OBSERVATIONS:-
 
   An item which didn't make the last Newsletter was  of the
attempt by Nova Scotia Beekeepers Association to bank queens during
the past winter.
Jerry Draheim indicated that he produced and banked 62 queens in a
climate-controlled storage, at the Kentville  research station.
   The bees were stored at 12=F8C and 60% humidity. Unfortunately the
attempt met with failure with the loss of over 90% of the banked
queens.
   On the bright side however, there was an 85% survival rate for
the queens housed in mini nucs (3 deep x 1/2 frames).
For us in this part of the world, this activity is one of the
critical keys for us to become truly self-sufficient in bees.
 
 
 
UPCOMING EVENTS:-
 
   The Maritime Bee Tour July 29-30 commencing at the Kin Canter,
329 North Market Street @ 6:00 PM.  For more information contact
John Burhoe @ 962-3834.
 
 
 
 
HAWAIIAN NEWS:-
 
Date: 5 May 1994 12:50:31 -0700
 
   State agriculture inspectors on Maui have intercepted a shipment
of live honey bees mailed from the Mainland.  State law prohibits
the importation of live or dead bees in an effort to keep Hawaii
honey bees parasite-free. The Department of Agriculture said the
ban on honey bee imports is the main reason why Hawaii-reared queen
bees are free of two mites devastating Mainland and foreign
colonies.
 
Editors Note: PEI is also in a state of quarantine and the illegal
importation of honeybees from other provinces or countries, is
forbidden.
 
 
 
CROWDING:-=20
 
   Every beekeeper is taught that strong colonies are the essence
of beekeeping.  However, what does crowding of bees do to a colony?
Dr. John Harbo, USDA Baton Rouge Bee Laboratory, reports on this in
his study "Worker-Bee Crowding Affects Brood Production, Honey
Production, and Longevity of Honey Bees," Journal of Economic
Entomology, Vol. 86, No. 6, pp 1672-1678, December, 1993.
     Through an elaborate set of experiments, using several hive
sizes and different initial populations, Dr. Harbo found that in
winter more crowded bees consumed less honey, but produced less
brood and lived shorter than less crowded colonies.  In spring and
summer, more crowded bees produced more honey.  They also produced
less brood, but the difference was not as marked as in winter.
     With reference to how available space affected colonies during
honey producing times, the results are not clear cut.  "Of three
treatments, colonies with five combs in a 25-litre hive produced
the most honey and colonies with additional space and comb (10
frames in a 47-litre hive) produced the least, while colonies of
five frames in a 47-litre hive were intermediate.
 
 
 
STING ALLERGIES:-
 
   There has been so much confusion out there about reactions to
bee stings, that I've been known to pounce on unsuspecting,
innocent people in the street while trying to set them straight on
stings.  Happily, the majority of people who think they are
allergic to bees aren't, only about 1 person in 10 is truly
allergic to honey bee stings.  Because our bees get a bad
reputation from all this, it has become a pet peeve of mine, so
here are the facts...
   There are three types of reactions to honey bee stings -- 1)
yelling "Yeeooww" and dropping the frame on your foot; 2) gritting
your teeth and holding onto the frame; or 3) not noticing until you
later find the empty stinger still stuck in your skin. =20
   But seriously, the first type is called a LOCAL REACTION.  It
involves pain, redness, swelling and itching surrounding the
immediate area of the sting. It can vary from nothing to a
"mosquito bite" bump to a swollen finger or hand, or even to a
whole swollen arm.  This is NORMAL -- even the whole swollen arm --
it goes away in a few days, it happens to everybody.  Those
of us who are stung frequently and regularly (several stings a
month for a year) may develop an immunity to this type of reaction
-- the body produces high levels of antibodies to the bee venom --
and you no longer need to swell up to eliminate the venom from your
system.  The stings still hurt though. =20
   The second type of reaction is called a TOXIC REACTION.  In
sufficient quantity, bee venom is poisonous.  Approximately 1,000
stings will kill you and a couple hundred will definitely send you
to a hospital.  This is the stuff that freak accidents and killer
bee headlines are made of.
   The third type of reaction is the infamous ALLERGIC REACTION.=20
In this case, the body reacts at a site DIFFERENT from where you
were stung.  For example, your throat will swell or you will become
short of breath or dizzy or break out in a rash (hives, anyone?).=20
You must be stung on at least two separate occasions (the first
time you will react normally) for this to occur.  After you are
stung the first time, your body will produce "allergy" antibodies,
which are essentially antibodies gone haywire -- they react against
your own body tissues instead of against invading venom, bacteria,
viruses, etc. When you are stung on a second occasion, these
"allergy" antibodies are activated, producing the allergic
reaction.  The symptoms can vary from mild rashes and joint aches
to the dizziness and major swelling of the get-to-the-hospital-in-
ten-minutes-or-your-dead, full body reaction. Usually, the symptoms
will become more severe each succeeding time you are stung, so
people who are allergic normally carry a prescription allergy kit,
containing a shot of adrenaline, to help lessen the reaction if
they are ever stung again.  I should also mention that these
reactions usually begin within about half an hour from the time you
are stung.  They can last for hours or days.
   Allergic reactions can develop at any time in one's life -- some
people are born with the tendency to be allergic, others develop it
later in life -- in all cases, you must first be exposed to the
thing causing the allergy (bee venom in this case) at least once,
but possibly more times, before you develop an allergy.  The people
who are most at risk to developing allergic reactions to bee stings
are those people who are stung OCCASIONALLY, say 2 or 3 times a
year -- which includes most hobbyist beekeepers.  The people who
are never stung (say 2 or 3 times in a lifetime) or who are
frequently and regularly stung have a much lower risk of developing
an allergy.  That's not to say that you should kick your hive
before you open it -- just be aware that allergic reactions are a
possibility, and don't take a change in your reaction to bee stings
lightly.
   Another common misconception is that if you are allergic to
yellow jackets, hornets, and/or wasps, you are also allergic to
honey bees.  The chances are very good that you are not.  While the
venom of yellow jackets and hornets are very similar (yellow
jackets are actually a type of hornet), the venom of honey bees is
quite different.  The wasps can vary a bit more, depending on the
type of wasp, but generally their venom is also pretty different
from that of honey bees and cross-reactions are rare.
   So how many of you are still allergic???
   I'm really NOT an encyclopedia, it just sounds that way!!!=20
Jennifer Finley
(JVF101 @ PSUVM.psu.edu) Department of Entomology, Penn State
University =20
 
 
REQUEENING:-
 
REQUEENING WITHOUT LOOKING FOR THE QUEEN by Nick Wallingford
 
   One of the big stumbling blocks for many beginner beekeepers is
that problem of how do you actually get the queen into the hive.
   The fundamentals -- the colony should be queenless, it should be
well fed and it should have young bees emerging.
   How do you actually go about doing it?  Most books tell you
simply to find the old queen, kill her, and introduce your young
queen in the mailing cage she came in.  Fine, you think.  Until you
go out to look through your (strong) (aggressive) (agitated) colony
for the queen.  And knowing that you have your valuable,
newly-arrived queen sitting in the house just waiting to be
installed!
   So this message will be mostly devoted to giving you a method of
introducing new queens to your hives without ever having to look
for the old queen.  And like any such system, it is not foolproof.=20
It works for me and for many other beekeepers, but if it doesn't
for you, first make sure you are following directions. Then
consider special problems you might have, especially as they
relate to the 'golden rules' of queenless, well-fed, with plenty of
young bees.
   The system I will describe is not new, and it was not my idea.
It's a combination of all sorts of ideas.  Its the sort of
management technique that develops when you have a fair idea of
what you want to do, but you're not sure how.  Then, rather than
just making up your system, you sit back and think about bee
behaviour and try to work effectively within the bounds of the ways
bees will *usually* respond to certain stimuli.
   The object of the system is to create a nucleus colony on top of
the old colony.  I wanted a system that could be easily used by
hobbyist or commercial beekeeper alike, without ever looking for
the queen.  It should be versatile, both in being able to deal with
colonies of differing strengths and with end results.  That
is, the resulting nucleus, or top, can be used to re-queen with or
to start a new colony.  The method should use a minimum of extra
equipment, and no exotic or complicated gadgets (much as I like
them...)
They are based around beekeeping systems that use two full depth
brood chambers for most of the year.  The system introduces a third
box, which is of the same depth as the brood chamber boxes. After
all is complete, you'll want to work this extra box 'out',
especially if you (1) use different depth boxes for
storing/extracting surplus and/or (2) you are particular about
using white comb only (never used for brood rearing) as honey
supers.
   The only 'extra' piece of equipment needed is a split board,
also known as a division board.  To those of you who may not know
what that is, it is simply a hive mat (inner cover) that has had a
notch cut out of the rim on one side so as to form an entrance for
a colony set above it.  The notch can be anywhere from 20 to 100 mm
wide; I prefer to have mine about 50 mm, making it large
enough for a fairly strong unit but still small enough that the
bees can protect it while the colony is still small.
   I have modified the inner covers on all of my hives in this
manner.  Just to try something new this last autumn, I turned them
over on my hives in an effort to give some sort of upper
ventilation.  I'm not really sure how much good it did.
   You will also need a queen excluder.  As I have one of these for
each hive as a matter of course, that is no problem. One last piece
of equipment needed will be another box of drawn comb.
   Now, after all that prelude, let's see how the system works.=20
For the sake of beginning, let us assume that it is springtime and
your colony is housed in two boxes and you want to simply re-queen
it.  As you'll see later, you have other options, but let's start
from this basic case.
   When you open your hive, you'll find most of the brood and bees
in the upper box.  Remove three frames of brood, both sealed and
unsealed, from the centre of the brood nest.  Take a glance over
them first to see if you can spot the queen.  Now that you're
starting on a method that means you don't have to find her, its
amazing how often you will!  Then shake all of the bees off of
them, back into the colony.=20
   You needn't shake off every last one of them, so long as you are
sure that the queen is not one of the bees remaining. Now, place
these three frames into the middle of the box of combs you have
brought with you.
   If there are plenty of stores in the parent colony, take two
good frames of honey, shake the bees from them, and place them in
the new box with the three frames of brood.  If there is not much
honey in the hive, you will have to feed either the parent hive,
the nucleus, or in the worst case, both.
   Now, you can start to re-build the hive.  Replace all the frames
you have taken from the parent colony with empty combs, doing your
best not to split the brood nest if possible.  On top of this
second box, place the queen excluder.  On top of the
excluder, place the new box containing the brood and honey that has
had the bees shaken from them. Put the lid on the hive and go away.=20
Think about what you have just done.  You have lifted brood and
bees above the excluder. What is going to happen to the brood up
there?  The pheromones it
gives off will attract nurse bees that are down in the main hive up
to it.  Combining that with the frames of honey, the third box that
you have added has quite a 'pull' to bring bees up into it.
   But remember, there is a queen excluder between the boxes, so
there is no way the old queen can come up there.
   After about 20 minutes, if you go back to the hive and lift the
lid, you will find that enough bees have come up into the nucleus
to take care of the brood, defend the colony and take care of your
new queen.
   All you have to do now is replace the queen excluder with the
division board and presto!  You have your nucleus colony ready for
introducing the young queen.  It is queenless (because the queen
couldn't come up through the excluder).  It has plenty of young
bees (because they have come up to take care of the brood you
lifted).  And it has plenty of food (because you provided
them with two frames of honey).  All the conditions have been met
for ideal queen introduction.  You can expect that some of the bees
will drift back to the main colony, but the young bees taking care
of the brood will most likely remain - the new unit shouldn't drop
in bee strength too drastically.
   This system could be used on a larger number of hives.  By the
time the beekeeper has worked through the yard, shaking bees from
brood and honey to lift into the new box, the first hive would have
been left long enough for the bees to come up.
   Introduce your young queen into the top and wait a week. Don't
disturb them in this time if at all possible; until the new queen
is established and laying fully, the bees haven't really fully
accepted her.  Disturb them during this period and it is possible
for them to turn on her.
   After a week, you will have a parent colony on the bottom, only
slightly reduced in strength by the bees, brood and honey you took.=20
And you will have a nucleus colony headed by a young queen above
the split board, all set for your next decision.
   You can either use it to re-queen the parent colony, or you
could place it on its own floor to use for increasing your colony
numbers.  If you choose the second option, it would be best if you
actually moved it several miles away to avoid the loss of field
strength through drifting.
   If you want to re-queen the parent colony, you could now go
through it, looking for the old queen, preparing to unite the two
colonies by replacing the split board with a sheet of newspaper for
them to chew their way through. But that would defeat the whole
point, wouldn't it?  We're supposed to be doing this without ever
looking for a queen, aren't we?
   If you can go through and find the old queen, aided by any
tricks/knacks you might have to quickly locate queens, so much the
better.  You're certain of results then.
   But, believe it or not, you have the odds of success heavily in
your favour if you simply newspaper the two units together without
looking for the old queen at all.  In almost 90% of the cases, if
you unite two colonies with the young queen on the to of an old
queen, the young queen will be left to head the resulting hive.
   Why this happens is open to argument.  Some beekeepers will tell
you that the bees always select the best of the two queens. I doubt
that.  My explanation goes along the lines of the young queen's
bees are confined in the top box when you replace the split board
with newspaper.  As well, her field bees returning cannot use their
normal entrance, the slot on the split board. They then drift down
to the main colony entrance.  As they are
foragers returning with a load, they will be accepted without
causing outrageous fighting at the hive entrance.  I think the
old queen is then probably killed by the 'scissor' effect of bees
foreign to her coming at her from both directions - down as the
bees confined above the newspaper chew through and move down in the
hive, and up by the foragers from the top unit coming in through
the bottom entrance and finding a 'strange' queen in 'their' hive.
   It has certainly worked for me, and if the thought of trying to
find queens is an impossible one for you, the system might be worth
considering.  You might just want to experiment with it to
see if the time savings will repay the small amount of
uncertainty involved.
   It's not the answer to all of a beekeepers problems, but it just
gives you an idea how by thinking a little bit about bee behaviour,
you can sort out your management system to make your life a little
easier while doing all you can in the interests of maximum
production.
Nick Wallingford (East coast, N Island, New Zealand)
Internet [log in to unmask]
 
 
 
 
WORKER LIFESTYLE:-
 
The worker bee normally adheres to the following pattern of duty
within the hive following the first 10 days after her emergence.
The young bee has a short period of self grooming. She eats large
amounts of pollen. She then cleans the debris out of cells vacated
by emerging bees. She then becomes a nurse bee and deposits a mass
of royal jelly in the base of cells to feed the larvae 2 1/2 to
five days old. Later she begins to feed the one to two day old
larvae. She then begins to take short orientation flights from the
hive.=20
 
 The next 10-day period of a worker's life is spent doing another
group of varied chores. She secretes wax and builds cells. She
accepts nectar from field bees, handles and stores it. She packs
pollen in the cells. She removes dead bees and other debris from
the hive. A few bees of this age take on guard duty at the entrance
to intercept honey bees and other honey robbers.  =20
 
 The next 10 to 20 days of her life or until her death is spent
working as a field bee. She takes 12 or more daily flights from the
colony foraging for nectar, pollen, and water.=20
 
 
 
LOCAL HELP:-
 
The following list identifies the members of the PEI Beekeepers
Cooperative Association who donate their time and expertise to the
promotion of the honeybee.  All are willing to assist the public
with their honeybee problems/questions. Just call. If we cannot
help, we will refer you to someone who can.
 
 
 
President
John Burhoe
RR#4 Montague
Ph. 962-3834
 
 
Secretary
Paul Dick
RR#9 Winsloe
Ph. 368-8277
 
Glenda Carver
30A Newland Cresc.
Ph. 892-0973
 
Harvey Hyde
RR#2 Cornwall
Ph. 566-2228
Internet: [log in to unmask]
 
Carol Jollimore
RR#2 Kensington
Ph. 886-2044
 
Sharon Labchuck
RR#2 Breadalbane
Ph. 621-0719
Internet: [log in to unmask]
 
Philip Maxwell
10 School St.
Kensington
C0B-1M0
836-4943
 
Al Picketts
Norboro
836-5180
 
Eunice Wonnacott
Box 2624, Charlottetown
C1A-8C3
Internet: [log in to unmask]
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
******************************
Did you know that Caucasian bees, on becoming queenless, have been
known to steal an egg from a neighbouring hive, carry it home,
build a queen cell and  raise their own queen?