Paul Mallory

Beekeepers across the Mid-South moved their bee hives an inch this week in the Old English custom of notifying the bees of a death in the family. The Memphis Area Beekeepers Association lost a dear friend, Paul Mallory, a beekeeper for 68 years. Almost every Short Course in Beekeeping held annually by the MABA began with Paul’s tale of following a young beekeeper driving a pickup truck overloaded with bee hives. Paul related that every few minutes, the truck pulled to the side of the road; the driver got out, beat the hives with a stick, and then continued driving. When the truck reached its destination, Paul asked the young man why he was banging on the hives. The explanation was simple: he had a ton of bees to carry in a half-ton pickup truck, so it was necessary to keep half of the bees flying. Paul introduced new beekeepers at the local association’s annual Short Course in Beekeeping with the most understandable explanation of why a person would want to become a beekeeper. After his brief presentation, a few attendees were relieved to understand that handling stinging insects was not for them; others knew exactly why they wanted to learn the art and science of beekeeping.

Once, a swarm of honey bees moved into the MABA’s storage shed and built a huge nest behind a stack of hive equipment. I assisted a group of association members to expose the feral nest, cut out the combs, and band them into two deep hive bodies. However, we could not find the queen. At the end of the lengthy operation, Paul, sitting quietly, suggested that we look into the opposite corner of the room where a number of bees were posed with tails high and wings fanning. There, we found the queen. Paul’s picture and other stories of his significant beekeeping career can be seen at http://peacebeefarm.blogspot.com/2010/02/beekeeping-short-course.html. Flowers celebrating Paul’s life, like today’s groundsel, are seeded on roadsides across the Mid-South.

--Richard

Installing Packaged Bees

We can thank the postal service for helping in the proliferation of honey bees. Every spring live honey bees are distributed across the country in small screened wooden boxes by postal workers. These packaged bees are used to establish hives, replace winter colony losses, and expand beekeeping operations. Packages of bees include a number of worker bees, usually three pounds, or around 12 thousand bees. The package also includes a mated queen bee housed in a small cage. The package of bees cannot be considered a colony; it is comprised of bees removed from numerous hives. When the bees are packaged, they are not familiar with the included queen, which was raised separately. It is only after the bees are exposed to the queen’s pheromones that the group organizes as a colony.

During the spring, beekeepers across the country use packaged bees to expand their colonies. Procedures for installing packages of bees are taught at local beekeeping associations. In today’s picture, Richard Hillis assists Agnes Stark install packaged bees in Agnes’ Arlington, Tennessee bee yard. Melissa Bridgman also assisted Nobuko Igarashi install bees at her Midtown Memphis home. Each group was successful in establishing their colonies using techniques they learned from the Memphis Area Beekeepers Association. They protected the bees when they received the packages by storing them in a cool, dark area until it was time to install the bees. They kept the bees from dehydrating by spraying a little sugar water through the packages’ screens. The beekeepers were careful to place the queen cages in the hive so that workers could access the screen around the queen to feed her until her release, and they positioned the candy plug so that the workers could access it. The time involved for workers to eat away the candy plug allows the bees to become accustomed to the odors and pheromones of their new queen. The beekeepers will wait about five days to check for the successful release of the queen.

--Richard

Short Course Forty-Seven

By the time I made my presentation to 150 new beekeepers at the Memphis Area Beekeepers Association’s Forty-Seventh Annual Short Course in Beekeeping, I was already packed for my next assignment. Speaking to the enthusiastic Tennessee, Arkansas, and Mississippi beekeepers about different approaches to keeping colonies healthy, I explained that some beekeepers reacted to the invasion of parasitic mites in the mid-1980s by attempting to kill the pests with chemical miticides. The result of this approach was a temporary control followed by an evolution to a heartier strain of mites resistant to the chemicals. I told the new beekeepers that some individuals took no steps to control the parasitic mites, and that their colonies usually dwindled and died after about two years. I proposed that the beekeepers adopt an Integrated Pest Management approach to beekeeping designed to strengthen the bees and weaken the pests while using a minimum of chemicals in the bee hives. I explained that our goal should be to evolve strains of honey bees that are capable of living in the presence of pests that, once introduced into our area, are surely here to stay. The reception from the audience was positive. Many are entering into beekeeping with a desire to be environmentally responsible, and they seek a way of effectively managing bees without relying upon chemical agents to control honey bee pests. An individually designed IPM plan offers them a workable solution. In today’s photo Adam Power and Sam Mardis demonstrate building bee hive frames.

Leaving Memphis’ short course, I turned my attention to my next beekeeping teaching assignment far from home. I had been invited to travel to Africa to train beekeepers in techniques for producing additional products from the bee hive. The voyage would take me to areas I never expected to see. It would provide me with great insights into the capabilities of people who live close to the land and rely upon the honey bee to harvest the resources of the forest.

--Richard

Short Course Forty-Six

Much of the practical training of beekeepers is provided by local beekeeping associations. These groups provide initial introductory courses in beekeeping as well as ongoing training and mentoring of beekeepers. The Memphis Area Beekeepers Association serves beekeepers across West Tennessee, North Mississippi, and East Arkansas. On Saturday, the association will conduct its forty-sixth annual Short Course in Beekeeping. The short course serves as an overview of a broad range of beekeeping topics. The program starts with a description of the equipment and protective clothing used by beekeepers. New beekeepers get to assemble bee hives to get an idea of how to put together these puzzles. Folks are introduced to the honey bee’s life cycle. We discuss where to locate the bee hives and carefully cover how to install the bees in the new hive. The course briefly mentions how we harvest and extract honey. Like other timely topics, this will be covered in greater depth during a monthly meeting prior to harvest.

I will address the new beekeepers on honey bee health issues. Since honey bees may be attacked by pests from bears to other insects as well as from bacteria, viruses, and fungi, it is important for new beekeepers to be aware of what the hives face. I will mention the pests introduced into our hives, mostly through world trade, since the mid-1980s: tracheal mites, Varroa mites, small hive beetles, and a new strain of Nosema. I’ll briefly describe Africanized honey bees and Colony Collapse Disorder. The majority of the presentation will be a suggestion for the beekeepers to adopt an integrated pest management approach to beekeeping, relying first on biological, cultural, and mechanical controls of pests. Chemical control measures will be held as last resorts. I will encourage everyone to avoid using insecticides and nerve toxins in the hives and to treat American foulbrood with the only sure cure: burning the hives. Peace Farm lakes are frozen now; wild ducks circle to maintain small areas of open water.

--Richard

Art and Science of Beekeeping

Man has kept honey bees for thousands of years. Ancient Egyptian artwork depicts honey bees housed in clay cylinders similar to those used into recent times. Beekeeping was highly developed during the classic Greek and Roman periods. European settlers brought the honey bee, an Old World insect, to the Americas. Honey bees were reported as being well established in America by the mid-1600s. The craft has been passed along from one generation to the next. Many learned how to gently manipulate honey bees from their grandparents. Beekeeping today is based upon honey bee biology and scientific observations and studies. To effectively manage honey bees today requires both the old-time skills demonstrated by experienced beekeepers and the scientific understanding of honey bee biology. Most beekeepers get their start in beekeeping and continue to gain skills in local beekeeping associations. Many of these associations conduct introductory beekeeping classes. The Memphis Area Beekeepers Association will be conducting its annual Short Course in Beekeeping on February 20, 2010. Paul Mallory, who has been keeping bees for 63 years, will help people answer, “Why would you want to keep honey bees?” I will be conducting a portion of the training. My topic will be honey bee health.

On December 26, 2009, I showed a simple method of storing brood comb using PDB (paradichlorobenzene) moth crystals to protect the frames from wax moth damage. I stated that the frames need to be exposed to the air for several days before using these frames in bee hives to allow any remaining moth treatment to evaporate. Chris, a beekeeper from North Carolina, posed a pertinent question. He asked if the untreated frames would be vulnerable to attack by wax moths during this period. This is really not a problem. Wax moths prefer to lay their eggs in dark, enclosed spaces. We can make the frames unattractive to the moths while airing the equipment by stacking the frames upright as shown with the boxes exposed to light and air circulation.
--Richard

Beekeepers Meet and Share

Beekeepers share the craft of handling and caring for honey bees through educational associations at the local, state, and regional levels. Typically, local associations cover an area of one or more counties and meet monthly with programs devoted to beekeeping activities as they change throughout the year. Our local group, the Memphis Area Beekeepers Association, meets monthly in Memphis and has membership across portions of three states, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas. State-wide beekeeping associations typically meet once a year in the fall after the honey harvest for an educational program which often includes beekeeping expert speakers brought in from outside the state. Rita and I recently traveled to the mountains of northern Arkansas for the Arkansas Beekeepers Association's annual meeting. Next, we traveled to the hills of Middle Tennessee to attend the Tennessee Beekeepers Association's annual conference. Speakers at both of these meetings covered topics of honey bee health. Beekeepers honed their beekeeping craft skills by participating in honey show events. The manufacturers of bee hive equipment brought their products to demonstrate to beekeepers. Many attended the conferences to meet with friends that they only see once a year.

The topics discussed at the meetings included new trends in beekeeping that move away from the use of chemicals. Other presentations featured the marketing of honey and bee hive products and reports on research being conducted on honey bee health. Rita and I have served as officers of both the Memphis Area and Tennessee beekeeping organizations. I am concluding my service as president of the TBA. Today's photo shows a honey bee collecting nectar from the blue-colored flowers of vitex. Vitex is a large shrub or small tree which blooms throughout the end of summer and into the fall when few flowering plants can be found by the honey bees.
--Richard