Future Georgia Beekeeper

Thought I would share some photos from yesterday. We split off our colonies and my daughter Rylee Maxwell (8 yrs old) was in the middle helping us locate the old queens and queen cells. Doesn’t she look cute in her weebee suit! She has been an active part of our bee efforts for 4 years now and is a natural beekeeper.

Cole Maxwell
Altamaha Plantation Apiary
Darien, GA


Bee Venom Article

Thank you for the thorough and thought-provoking coverage on Bee Venom by Larry Connor in the March 2013 issue of the American Bee Journal. One point that was not made in the article with regarding the use of Bee Venom Therapy to help alleviate the symtoms of disease, is that it is extremely important for apitherapists to always administer a test sting if the person receiving stings has not been stung in over two weeks.
Test stings are administered by removing the stinger immediately after a bee sting is applied so that the stinger is imbedded in the skin for only a slit second. Allow a period of 15-20 minutes to pass in order to see if the patient is exhibiting any adverse hypersensitive reactions before proceeding with stings that administer a full dose of venom.
By proceeding with a test sting first, the life-threatening reaction that Cathy experienced would have been greatly diminished due to the decreased level of venom that is injected into the sting site and would have been much easier to overcome when using anti-histamines or an Epipen. Luckily, Cathy survived her ordeal, but her experience serves as a great reminder to anyone who practices apitherapy, always apply a test sting first just to be on the safe side.

Ross Conrad
Dancing Bee Gardens
Middlebury, VT


“What I Love Most About Beekeeping”

I am the Education Teacher at Liberty Correctional Institution in Bristol, Florida.  I have an inmate who would like to submit an article concerning “What I Love Most about Beekeeping”. I thought it was a good article and am submitting it for him.

Jack Hal Summers, MEd.
ITA Education Teacher
Florida Department of Correction
Liberty Correctional Institution
11064 NW Dempsey Barron Road
Bristol, Florida 32321


WHAT I LOVE MOST ABOUT BEEKEEPING

I am a prison inmate in Florida and I receive the American Bee Journal. When I was a child I got to spend a few summers working bee hives in South Florida and this was one of my dearest memories in life.  I can still recall the smell of wax and honey during the extraction process.  The salt built up on my T-shirt from the hot Florida Sun, as a young man working in the hives.  As I looked into the hives for the first time and being excited and scared at the same time, I remember not wanting to do anything else after that summer. When I returned home, I searched online for everything I could find about beekeeping and its history. I loved it! I have given you this background to tell you what I love most about beekeeping. Sometime right after that summer I took the wrong path in life and ended up in prison. I am still in prison and each month, as I look through the pages of the magazine, I am still captivated by this wonderful profession, time and time again. Beekeeping pulls at my heart and sparks my mind. I find daily, as I read this magazine, being transformed onto the wings of the honeybee, if only for a moment as I leave my imprisonment behind. I hope upon release from prison that I can continue this profession which pulled very early at my heart strings.

Kourtney Terrill B05730
Liberty Correctional Institution
Bristol, Florida


Beekeeper Welcome Sign

I had some time in between getting bee equipment ready for spring, and put together this decorative entry sign for a beekeeper’s house. It is hive sized, and I milled out some lumber to resemble a working beehive front. My wife Cheryl actually let me put it out next to our door! Thought you might enjoy it.

Andy Hemken
The Bee Guy
Wisconsin


Small Hive Beetle Control?

By my second year as a new beekeeper, I was battling with “the worst case of small hive beetles” my mentor had ever seen. I tried every beetle trap on the market, but still was plagued terribly, losing two hives to those pesky creatures. Then, I read in a Letter to the Editor in the American Bee Journal that some guy had made Lexan plastic lids to replace his solid metal / wood lids and he was thinking it would work to get rid of small hive beetles.
So I tried it. A greenhouse project left scraps I could use, for free. The plastic is double-sided with baffles between the two layers. My thinking was that it might provide extra insulation as well as light to keep the hive beetles away.
I cut the tops out of my regular Langstroth hive lids and replaced them with the plastic. A little caulking, a couple of screws and the see-through lids were ready to try on the last two hives I owned. I was really desperate.
After one week, there were no more hive beetles. But, wait! I must give it time to see if it works in the long run.
Oh, the comments from other beekeepers... “That will never work because the bees do not like light!” “That will not be warm enough.” “You are merely making a solar melter.” Etc.
Well, my thoughts were that the bees didn’t like the beetles, either, and the sun provides a lot of warmth, even in snow. And I will only use them in late fall, winter and early spring.
So, now two winters later, my two beehives are cramped full of so many bees that I have double brood boxes on each. The bees are happy and thriving and I can check them in cold weather without taking off the lid! Just look down through the plastic. And when I do open them to check, guess what! Not a single small hive beetle, for the past two years. I do feel a little like Attila the Hun as I have conquered this enemy in my beeyard.

Joan Slemenda
Moore, SC

 

 

About 3 years ago, my wife and I moved from Northwest Florida to the mountains of North Georgia in Ellijay. Needless to say, we had to make many adjustments to our lives from flat ground to the mountains, and biggest and most of all, our Grandchildren still living in Northwest Florida (Perry). While our Grandsons were visiting with us, many questions were asked about the bees, the honey and all facets of the bee’s life from the egg laid all the way to the sale of our honey.
Coby was my right hand man when working and extracting the honey, and you wouldn’t believe the interest the bees stirred up in his mind. Luckily for him and especially for me, he was here when the sourwood honey was ready for harvest. Although our apiary is quite small compared to what we had in Florida, Coby was big time help to his Papa and made him so proud.
I understand that you can’t print everything you have been sent, but I thought it was very important to promote beekeeping, especially to the young folks. He realizes that it is hard work, the money isn’t all that great compared to some, but there are so many other rewards to understand why God put the honey bee on this earth and how we take care of them. Thank you in advance for sharing our story with other readers of “the Journal.”  Maybe we can stir up some interest in some other younger “to be” beekeepers!

Chuck Edwards
Ellijay, GA