An Unexpected Beekeeper

One hundred people quite deliberately headed toward Savannah, Tennessee in spite of extreme rainfall, flooding, and violent weather. They were drawn to the Savannah Area Beekeepers Association’s sixth annual Short Course in Beekeeping. One person, however, a businessman, Paul Durr, braved the weather to attend the meeting by accident. Mr. Durr misread the announcement in the local newspaper. Interested in furthering his business skills, he thought that he would be attending a bookkeeping course—not a beekeeping course. Once he arrived, Mr. Durr decided to stay for the day. He did, after all, have a long-time interest in honey bees, having shared his home with colonies of bees that have lived in the space above his ceiling for 40 years. Mr. Durr sat in on beekeeping sessions throughout the day.

I had the honor of giving the keynote presentation, introducing the new beekeepers to the history of the beekeeping craft by tracing the tradition of beekeeping from its honey-hunting roots with our cave-dwelling ancestors. Training sessions were conducted by invited speakers and talented Savannah beekeepers. Dr. Jeff Harris from Mississippi State University, renowned for identifying honey bees with the Varroa Sensitive Hygiene trait, spoke on developments in breeding parasitic mite tolerant bees. EAS Master Beekeeper Kent Williams described measures for increasing honey production, and Trevor Qualls taught the new beekeepers how to install packages of bees into their hives. Other speakers described the bee hive equipment, methods of feeding bees, catching swarms, and what to expect in the first two years of beekeeping. Conducting a random drawing, “Coach” Lynn Wood, the Tennessee Beekeepers Association’s Regional Vice President, awarded three bee hives to new beekeepers. Mr. Durr was drawn as a hive winner. He was surprised to end his day becoming an unexpected beekeeper. His greater surprise came in learning that “Coach” Wood remembered teaching him years earlier in high school. Today’s photo: TVA releasing two million gallons of Tennessee River floodwater per second at Wilson Dam, Florence, Alabama.

--Richard

Locally Adapted Bees

Every geographic area has its own challenges for honey bees. The bees in different locals experience varied weather as well as pests, pathogens, and parasites. Honey bees that thrive in one area may not be able to survive in a different area. A number of beekeepers are attempting to rear honey bees in their own area rather than relying on bees purchased from afar. They feel that the locally produced honey bees stand a better chance of surviving in the local environment. Recognizing the importance of honey bees for crop pollination, the Tennessee Department of Agriculture is helping the Tennessee Beekeepers Association fund a program to rear queen bees. The queen bees will help supply Tennessee beekeepers so that they can fill vacancies in pollination needs.

In today’s photo, Kent Williams, demonstrates queen grafting techniques to Shirley Murphy. They transfer one-day-old larvae into queen cell cups, and then they move the cell cups to a cell builder hive. The cell builder hive is established by brushing a large number of bees from frames of capped brood. The bees are of various ages, and they may come from different hives. With a large population of bees, plenty of food, and no queen present, the bees in the cell builder have a strong desire to create a new queen. When these bees are presented one-day-old larvae, they will begin feeding them royal jelly to begin the physiological changes that make the larvae develop into queens. As the larvae are being fed, other workers extend the queen cell cup into a queen cell using beeswax. The queen is encapsulated in a cell shaped like a peanut shell and resembling in size, shape, and texture. Two days before the queen emerges as an adult, the queen cells are moved to queen mating nucleus hives holding bees to tend to the new queens. As the newly trained beekeepers gain experience in rearing queens, they will share their best stock to develop a hearty Tennessee bee.

--Richard

Tennessee Beekeepers Meet

Mankind has long known that honey bees produce honey, a delicious and nutritious food, and beeswax, a valuable item with many uses. To get to these items, people first learned to rob wild colonies and later to manage housed colonies of bees. Beekeepers, throughout history, have relied upon a sharing of skills to exploit and manage honey bees. Beekeepers from across Tennessee and from a number of neighboring states converged upon Cookeville, Tennessee for the annual conference of the Tennessee Beekeepers Association. The audience for Tennessee’s state-wide association included beekeepers from each of the state’s 30 affiliated local associations. Local, state, and regional beekeeping associations provide training and mentoring of new beekeepers. These associations are the foundation for the sharing of beekeeping skills. To effectively manage honey bee colonies, one must be exposed to both the modern scientific understanding of honey bee biology and the traditional beekeeping skills passed down from experienced bee handlers.

The annual conference is first a social event where beekeepers meet old friends and make new ones. It is most importantly an educational event where experienced beekeepers, researchers, and industry experts share information and tips on managing hives, maintaining healthy bees, and marketing honey and bee hive products. Beekeeping equipment manufacturers display and sell bee hives and equipment. One of the ways that beekeepers hone their skills in producing products from the bee hive is through honey shows. Here, beekeepers compete to present the most perfect jars of honey in extracted liquid form, or in chunk or cut comb form. Chunk honey includes a piece of honeycomb in a jar filled with liquid honey. Beekeepers also compete by exhibiting beeswax candles, blocks of beeswax, and products made from beeswax. Competition exists between producers of frames of capped honey, taken from the hive and displayed in boxes behind glass or plastic. Bee-related photography is a popular event at the honey show. I was greeted at the conference hall by larger-than-life and charming honey bees.

--Richard

4-H at 100 Years

Tod and I headed out for Martin, Tennessee, crossing the Mississippi River near Dyersburg. In the early morning light we spotted a peregrine falcon near the river. Beyond the river bluff we saw a bald eagle perched atop a dead tree high above an oxbow lake. Our destination was the 4-H Roundup being held at The University of Tennessee-Martin campus. For one hundred years the 4-H has been training young students in leadership and useful skills. The program teaches agricultural skills, but is expanding into areas not specific to the farm. In Tennessee 300 thousand students participate in 4-H projects. Tod and I were honored to participate in the 4-H Roundup, the competition among the state’s determined participants. We joined John Skinner of The University of Tennessee in judging presentations of the finalists among 17 hundred who participated in the entomology program. These students studied insects, learning how some are beneficial and some are pests. They studied insect control methods using biological controls as well as insecticides. Some in the entomology program are learning to manage honey bees.

The peregrine falcon and the bald eagle both are recovering in the South after their numbers were decimated as the result of the birds taking in persistent insecticides in their diets. Being at the top of the food chain, the birds received a concentrated amount of insecticides, including DDT. The chemicals were often absorbed from the soil by earthworms and passed along to birds and fish which were then eaten by the carnivorous falcons and eagles. The insecticides stopped the birds’ reproduction by making their egg shells thin and subject to breaking. In the photo, I am presenting awards on behalf of the Tennessee Beekeepers Association to the entomology program students at the 4-H awards banquet. A number of students received college scholarships for their efforts. I felt good after the day’s events, knowing that Tennessee is producing new generations of powerful birds of prey and agricultural leaders.

--Richard

Early Spring Hive Inspection

When the calendar turns to April, conditions change rapidly in the bee hive. Scout bees are finding a variety of sources of nectar and pollen, and foraging activity picks up considerably. Warmer weather allows beekeepers the opportunity to check on the bees and count winter losses. A number of colonies can be expected to not survive through February and March when starvation frequently occurs. In the early spring, hive inspections reveal the potential for expanding the honey bee colony and planning corrective actions to be taken if the colony is not strong and healthy. In the photo, Shirley Murphy lights her smoker while Mike Worthy and I prepare to look inside the hive. Shirley is participating in the Tennessee Beekeepers Association’s program that pairs new beekeepers with experienced mentors. Shirley’s colony of bees survived the winter, but the hive may need some attention. While the hive was full of bees, the brood was not as we expected. There was an abundance of drone cells throughout the hive and a number of drones walking about the frames. We could not find any worker brood, however. It appeared that the queen had run out of sperm and was only producing infertile eggs that become drones. Such a condition leaves the colony hopelessly doomed to dwindle away, as it results in no work force of foragers to gather food. I suggested that Shirley should purchase a new queen. She is adding new hives this spring as well. Having extra hives will give her the means of correcting many hive problems. She will be able to borrow brood and bees from one hive to add to another.

The Apiary Inspectors of America, the USDA, and Penn State University are conducting a survey of beekeepers in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, and Europe to measure the over-winter losses. Beekeepers can participate by logging onto http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/beeloss0910. Widespread participation will help them determine the size of the losses and their locations.

--Richard

Beekeeper Mentoring Program

I traveled to Shirley Murphy’s Tennessee River home to help ensure that her bees were ready for winter. Shirley is beginning beekeeping through the Tennessee Beekeepers Association’s mentoring program which is matching 72 new beekeepers with seasoned beekeepers. While beekeeping literature, training sessions, and expert speakers available at beekeepers association meetings are valuable, a mentor can answer pertinent questions, identify what is being seen in the bee hive, and help plan the timing of beekeeping activities.

Shirley started her hive by installing a nucleus colony, a small colony of bees with a laying queen, brood, and workers covering a few frames of comb. She placed the bees in a hive that she built after attending the Memphis Area Beekeepers Association’s Forty-Fourth Annual Short Course in Beekeeping. She assisted the bees to draw out the comb on the frames of foundation by supplementing their foraging by feeding sugar water. Shirley is following many of the same procedures that I employ in attempting to care for the honey bees in a chemical-free manner. Her integrated pest management approach started with a queen bred from parasitic mite resistant stock. Her hive is placed above the ground for good air circulation and uses a screened bottom board for ventilation. Screens block robber bees from entering her top feeder while providing ventilation to the top of the hive. She traps small hive beetles inside the hive, removing the beetles without the use of any chemicals. We monitored the levels of the colony killing Varroa mites by removing drone brood pupae and counting developing Varroa. A frame of drone brood foundation is available for sampling mites and killing them by freezing. Shirley also tests for colony mite loads by counting mites on a sticky board. She has encouraged the reduction of mites by dusting the bees with powdered sugar. Her hive is now set-up for the winter with a prolific queen, a large population of young bees, and good stores of honey.
--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

Tennessee Adds New Beekeepers

Facing a decline in the number of pollinators, the Tennessee Beekeepers Association is attempting to help individuals enter beekeeping across the state of Tennessee. The state-wide organization provided bee hives and start-up equipment for 72 Tennessee beekeepers. An integral part of the program to help first-time beekeepers is the matching of all new beekeepers with an experienced mentor. Training courses, books, and literature go a long way toward explaining the science of beekeeping. An experienced mentor can explain the art of beekeeping. It takes experienced eyes to detect the subtle differences between hives. It takes a good teacher to explain to the new beekeeper what is occurring in the bee hive and why. A mentor can help detect and correct hive problems and turn the early efforts into a rewarding experience.

I had the opportunity to visit Shirley Murphy, one of the new beekeepers, at her Tennessee River home. Shirley and her partner, Mike, an avid nature photographer, have added honey bees to the fruit and nut trees, vegetables, and flowers that they grow in clearings in the hardwood forest. Deer and wild turkey abound as well as small game and song birds. The honey bee plays an instrumental part in providing food for wildlife by pollinating plants which provide fruit and seeds. Shirley and I inspected her new colony of honey bees located near her vineyard. The prolific colony had recently superseded its queen, and we found the new queen in the brood nest. In the photo, Shirley examines a deep frame of brood, covered with nurse bees. We started our inspection in gloves, and then removed them as we got a feel for the gentleness of the hive. Shirley and Mike are true stewards of the environment. I enjoyed their hospitality, a wonderful lunch, shared stories, and a very nice bottle of home-made wine. Shirley’s bees are in good hands.
--Richard

Honey Bees and Beekeepers

This has been a wet spring, a lot like last year’s spring. Regular rains for the past several weeks have brought a number of plants into heavy bloom. One of those is privet, an ornamental hedge of home sites which escapes into the forest. The privet bloom has contributed to a fairly significant nectar flow in parts of the Mid-South. I am serving as president of Tennessee’s state-wide beekeeping organization. Let me share words I am posting today in the Tennessee Beekeepers Association’s newsletter, The Hive Tool:

Honey bees and beekeepers are resilient social creatures. We are revealing this in greater detail every day. We know from the fossil record that honey bees have occupied an ever changing environment for millions of years. Today they are facing an environment changing at a much faster pace than ever before. World trade in the past few decades has transported pests around the globe. The 1980s brought parasitic mites. The 1990s brought small hive beetles. Recent years have brought new viruses and fungal diseases. We now have Colony Collapse Disorder. Chemical use in the environment has increased dramatically, often causing stress and death of the bees. For the past three winters, America’s beekeepers have experienced colony losses averaging 30 to 40 percent. However, the bees are not all gone. With the careful observation of conditions, analysis of the problems, sharing of ideas, and plenty of hard work, beekeepers have kept the honey bee colony count numbers at close to recent levels. The beekeepers have proven to be resilient in that they have adjusted their methods to be more in tune with the honey bee’s biology. Many beekeepers are returning to more natural beekeeping techniques. Mentoring programs are teaching these less chemically-dependent methods to new beekeepers. The bees have likewise proven to be durable if given a chance. To the beekeepers, I offer my appreciation and congratulations; to the honey bees, I offer my thanks.
--Richard Underhill, President

Tennessee Beekeepers Association