Coweta Beekeepers Association
August 2022 President’s Message
Hello, my fellow beekeepers!
As mentioned last month, we will be holding officer/board elections in November. If you are interested in becoming an officer or board member, please email me at cowetabeekeepersassociation@gmail.com and I will add your name to the roster when we vote in November. I can also provide job descriptions and roles/responsibilities, I would love to see some fresh faces become leaders for our association and community!
Roles of our Club
- Board Member
- President
- Vice President
- Secretary
- Treasurer
- Newsletter Editor
- Webmaster/Social Media Coordinator
- Raffle Prize Coordinator
August Mentoring Session
As everyone collects honey, please be sure to save some back for the honey shows coming up. Everyone can submit for the Coweta County Fair competition coming up in September and then we will have our own Honey Show for the club at our October meeting, see Event details below. CBA Board member Kara Bassett will be doing a mentoring session on August 8, 2022, at 6:30 pm on prepping for a honey show.
August Monthly Meeting
Speaker for the August meeting will be our very own member, Bobby Torbush. Bobby is a Master Beekeeper and a current Board member. He has been the coordinator of our yearly Introduction to Beekeeping course for several years. He will be presenting “Nectar Producing Plants for Honey Bees” on August 8, 2022, at 7:00 pm. Located at the Coweta UGA Extension Office, 255 Pine Rd. Newnan, GA.
Please use the parking lot behind the building.
Upcoming Events
Kiwanis Coweta County Fair and Honey Show September 15th- 25th, 2022
We will have a Coweta Beekeepers Association fair booth in the exhibit hall, if you would like to staff the booth to talk about bees with visitors, please send me an email.
For the honey show, see the fair book:
-Look for Honey Division in the fair book link above, page 33.
-Exhibitors may be residents of the following counties: Coweta, Carroll, Fayette, Fulton, Spalding, Heard, Meriwether, Pike, and Troup
Coweta Beekeepers Association Honey Show October 10, 2022
You can get an idea of what our club’s honey show is all about by visiting the link above. We will be updating the honey show rules for 2022 very soon. Show us your love for beekeeping by submitting items into various categories. We will have Welsh honey judges for the show and cash prizes for the winners! 😊
Georgia Beekeepers Association Fall Conference
The fall state conference is coming up and you do not want to miss out on all that wonderful education, please be sure to register on the GBA website, see the link above.
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It’s time to get all your colonies ready for winter.
August 3, 2022
Steven Page
The nectar flow ended about ten weeks ago, and the weather will cool, ending syrup feeding in about 12 weeks at the end of October.
At the end of October, a colony needs
- A queen
- 30 pounds of honey in the Piedmont of Georgia, a ten-frame shallow super of honey contains about 25 pounds
- A large population of workers (7-9 frames of workers in the deep, when you look at the top of the deep super, there are bees between 7-9 of the frames)
I start feeding all my colonies in August to encourage brood rearing and honey storage. By feeding now, the colony can raise three to four brood cycles before the end of October.
A quart Boardman feeder in the entrance will not get the job done. It’s too little, and later it will be too cold. Use a hive top feeder. I like one, and two-gallon feeder pails from www.betterbee.com. Bees, ants, and SHB don’t drown, and ants can’t get to the syrup. I place the inverted feeder pail on the frames of the top super. Another way I use the feeder pails is to flip the inner cover so they still have ventilation and place the inverted pail over the center hole of the inner cover. An empty deep super goes on next, then the telescoping cover.
How much do you feed them? Feed the colony until the shallow or medium super is full of honey. Expect the queen to lay in the super. That’s good; the colony is getting stronger. I keep a super below the deep to relocate brood frames from the top super to the bottom super and move empty frames from the bottom to the top super. The supers need to be the same size. Feed gallons and gallons. I have fed as much as 12 gallons of syrup to one colony; it usually takes less to prepare a colony for winter.
DO NOT RELY ON A FALL NECTAR FLOW! Goldenrod and aster will start to blossom about September 15. There will be plenty of pollen but no nectar. Not enough to make honey.
In the Piedmont of Georgia, a colony only needs a deep super for the cluster and a shallow or medium super above, full of honey. All the books and starter kits use two deep supers because they need a deep super of honey for the colony to survive winter up north. We have a relatively mild winter with a warm spell every three to four weeks. You can run two deeps for the winter; it’s just not required. I have used two deeps and had success, but I moved frames in late January instead of swapping supers. At the January meeting, I’ll talk about how to get your colonies from January to April.
I continue to find dead colonies and expect some to die between now and spring. Colonies die all year, and I clean up dead colonies as soon as I find them. If I can save any drawn comb or honey, it goes to a hive that needs it. Typically there is wax moth damage, and I scrape off the old comb and use my solar wax melter to render the beeswax out of all debris.
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We are in the dearth.
There is no nectar.
There is pollen.
The foragers are hanging out at home waiting for a nectar flow to start, and then you show up.
They are not happy to see you.
They are going to sting you.
Wear your protective clothing and use your smoker.
Stay hydrated!!!
Your smoker is your friend.
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Support our Local Beekeeping Supply Stores?
SWEET KINGDOM, LLC
Full line of Beekeeping equipment & supplies including,
Mann Lake, Glory Bee, Dadant, Custom orders, and local builders
Store located at 4046 Sharpsburg McCullum Road (Hwy 154), Suite 213. Newnan, GA. 30265.
Hours are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday & Saturday 11 am - 5 pm.
We are closed Wednesday and Sunday except by appointment.
We accept Cash, Charge/Debit, Check, and PayPal.
- Mated Queens $40 (All Marked)
- 5 Frame Nucs – price to be set when they become available
- Package of bees - $140 (Payable in advance of February 15, 2022) Pickup date starting March 24th.
Follow us on Facebook - Sweet Kingdom Bees Supplies and Products from the Hive
BUZZ FACTOR HONEY
2022
PACKAGES AND NUCS
* Packages 3 lb package Italian with mated queen $135
Delivery March 19th at the Coweta Extension Office
and at Douglasville American Legion
We have mated queens for $35 as available.
You must make reservations.
Will call for the exact time frame so I must have a contact phone number (and cell number).
A non-refundable deposit of $50 per package or nuc with order will hold your package or nuc.
* NUCS are 5 frame Italian line and are $210 each.
The frames are drawn combs and we use both wood and plastic. They will be delivered in ProNucs. Should you want to keep the ProNuc Box, there will be a deposit of $20 per container. They must be returned by 60 days in order to receive a refund on the box. It can be used for swarms, splits or a “quiet” box. Estimated Nuc delivery – Last week of April/First week in May.
Queen marking is available on nucs only.
Nucs will be picked up at my home 7148 Shell Rd. Winston, GA 30187
Deposit of $50 per nuc with your order, with balance before pick up.
Mail deposits:
Buzz Factor Honey 2nparker@bellsouth.net
7148 Shell Road 770-949-6640 home
Winston, GA 30187 770-366-7455 cell
*********************************************************************************
Your Name _________________________________
Deposit ___________________________________
Check # ___________________________________
Delivery Date _______________________________
Location ___________________________________
Packages __________________________________
Nucs ______________________________________
Your contact phone number ____________________
email address _______________________________ |
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Feeding a new colony
By Steven Page
Do you want your new colony to survive the coming winter and make honey next spring?
I am writing this for new colonies in the Piedmont of Georgia. The piedmont is above a line from Augusta to Macon to Columbus and below the mountains. If you are in the coastal plain or the mountains, this applies, but there are some variations. A new colony is any of the following; a nuc, package, swarm, split, etc.
The basics. The hive consists of a deep super and one medium or shallow super at the end of October. Your colony must have drawn comb on all 20 frames and 30 pounds of honey stored by the end of October. A ten frame shallow super holds 25 pounds of honey, a ten frame medium super holds 30 pounds of honey. A deep super containing the brood frames will have honey too.
The main nectar flow starts about April first and ends sometime in the second half of May. There are no other nectar flows, including the fall nectar flow for the remainder of the growing season, which ends in November. After June first, there is no nectar flow for the rest of the growing season! There is pollen available every month, including December and January.
All new colonies must be fed syrup made from cane sugar and water. Do not feed any sugar that is not white; brown sugar will make the bees sick. Powdered sugar contains starch which will make the bees sick.
Typically the new colony will be in the deep or brood super. Feed syrup using a large feeder, and I like one and two-gallon inverted pails from www.betterbee.com. A Boardman feeder is not adequate; four Boardman feeders on the top of the super is a good start.
During the main nectar flow, the colony will not consume much syrup. As the main nectar flow ends in late May, consumption will increase.
Continue to feed and watch the colony draw out comb in the deep super. It can be frustrating to get the bees to draw comb unless you do two things.
- If you use plastic foundation, coat the plastic foundation with melted beeswax. I use a 4” foam paint roller to apply the liquid beeswax. A new foam roller will not absorb wax unless you force the air out by pressing it against the bottom of the pot.
- A honey frame is the outside of the nest, and they will not go outside the honey frame to draw out comb on a frame of foundation. Rearrange the frames during an inspection, so one frame of foundation is outside the brood frames and inside the honey frame. In a few weeks, the foundation frame will have drawn comb, repeat the process, move another frame of foundation outside the brood frames but inside the honey frame.
When only two frames of foundation are left, add a super and continue to feed. When the medium of shallow super has all drawn comb, and it’s full of honey, you can stop feeding. Typically this happens in September, and it is normal for the queen to lay in the middle frames of the super.
Stopping for a week or two will not harm the colony during the summer. Just make sure to reach the 30-pound goal by the end of October.
DO NOT LET ANYONE CONVINCE YOU TO COMPLETELY STOP FEEDING UNTIL YOUR HIVE HAS AT LEAST 30 POUNDS OF HONEY.
My first inspections are in late January. It is quick, and I only look for brood, which indicates there is a viable queen, and assess honey stores. I can prevent starvation and feed in late January, and I only feed if required. Feeding in January thru March when not required enables the colony to swarm.
I have 15 years of experience and manage 50 to 75 hives in Coweta County, Georgia.
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DO NOT FEED MATURE COLONIES MAKING HONEY DURING THE MAIN NECTAR FLOW IN APRIL AND MAY.
FEED NEW COLONIES (SWARMS, NUCS, AND PACKAGES)
1:1 Syrup Recipe
By Andy Anderson
1. First off 1:1 syrup means equal parts of water and sugar measured by WEIGHT. Water is pretty much H2O but there are many kinds of sugar. You need to use PURE CANE SUGAR and nothing else.
2. You can do the math (because I did) or . . . 3 Gallons Water plus 25 Pounds Sugar makes 5 gallons of 1:1 syrup. Add the sugar slowly and stir a lot. When I make this much, I take three-gallon milk jugs of hot water from the kitchen sink which aids in dissolving the sugar.
3. For smaller quantities use . . . 8 cups of warm water plus 9 cups of sugar will make about 3/4 gallon syrup.
4. Essential oils can prevent mold and other stuff from growing in the feeders. Mann Lake offers Pro Health. Follow label recommendations, but less may be enough to prevent mold. More information on Pro Health below
5. The girls will love it.
- Pro Health is a feeding stimulant composed of lemongrass and spearmint (essential oils concentrate)
- Pro Health helps promote strong and healthy hives when used as a feeding stimulant during late winter, early spring, and during dearths of nectar
- Pro Health has a natural calming effect when sprayed on the bees
- Pro Health is antibacterial, antifungal, and antimicrobial which aids in the overall health of the bees
- Pro Health added to your feeding mix will help build up packages, nucs and swarms
- Pro Health prevents syrup fermentation
- Stimulates bees to draw out new foundation faster when used as a spray.
"I use Pro Health too, to reduce mold growth and enhance colony health. I add 1 fluid ounce to five gallons of syrup." Steve Page
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