In mid-September, it was time to take all the honey supers off the hives. I was pleased to find that the fall honeyflow was adequate to allow the bees to fill the honey supers nicely.
From my nine production hives I removed 400 pounds of honey in addition to the 250 pounds I took off in July. This was a little improvement on last year. I will be sure to get this all extracted and bottled pretty soon. If you wait too long, the honey can crystallize. If it crystallizes in the comb, you will never get it out and will have to feed it all back to the bees. If you allow it to crystallize in five-gallon buckets after extraction, you will spend all day trying to remove it with an ice cream scoop then heating it up gently to melt the crystals. I have broken many ice cream scoops this way.
All natural raw honey will crystallize. I love this thick sugary form of honey to spread on bread, but if you prefer your honey runny, you can melt the crystals by gentle heating.
The job in the bee yard is feeding those hives that still are not quite full of honey. In a few more weeks, it will be too cold to feed them, so all my smaller relocated hives need to be fed as much as they will take until then.
By the end of October, they also will need some quarter-inch wire mesh over the hive entrances to stop mice from getting inside over the fall. While the bees are clustering to keep warm, mice like to get into the lower part of the hive and chew a big hole in several combs and build a nest. There they can feast on honey and keep warm by the heat of 20,000 clustering bees.
Later in October my next beekeeping classes start. I will run an intermediate course at Bangor Adult Education starting Oct. 20. I also will be giving Beekeeping for Beginners classes starting Oct. 21 at Hampden Adult Education and for the first time on Oct. 22 at Mount Desert Island Adult Education.
This coming month, Penobscot County Beekeepers Association will be hosting the Maine State Beekeepers Association annual meeting at Hampden Academy. Doors will open at 8 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 18. The event brings together about 300 beekeepers and nonbeekeepers alike from all over Maine to hear guest speakers, meet other like-minded folks and see some of the many vendors.
Dr. Dewey Caron will be keynote speaker. With more than 43 years experience in honeybee research, he will deliver two talks on basics of opening the hive and reading the brood frame as well as bee stewardship. He is the author of many beekeeping books and a widely sought- after public speaker.
Tony Jadczak, the Maine state apiarist and bee inspector, will give an update of beekeeping in Maine in 2014. Erin McGregor-Forbes, former president of Maine State Beekeepers Association, will be talking about the conclusions drawn from a three-year study she has undertaken on the survival and performance of honeybee colonies using southern-reared and northern-reared queens.
Matt Scott, who has retired from positions of deputy commissioner of Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife; chief biologist of DEP and president of Maine State Beekeepers Association, will talk on the impact of climate change on beekeeping.
There will be many vendors and a huge selection of raffle items, all to help raise funds for the Maine State Beekeepers Association and all the good work they do.
The meeting is open to all members of the Maine State Beekeepers Association and will cost $35, which includes lunch and snacks through the daylong event. If you would like to attend, you can pre-register by joining Maine State Beekeepers Association (only $15) and getting your ticket at www.mainebeekeepers.org.
Cost of admission goes up to $45 if you register after Oct. 11.
We at Penobscot County Beekeepers Association, as hosts, have been busy organizing the event, recruiting vendors and assembling the raffle assortment. If you are interested in being a vendor or donating a raffle item please email us at pcbamaine@gmail.com or contact me directly.
Peter Cowin, aka The Bee Whisperer, is president of the Penobscot County Beekeepers Association. His activities include honey production, pollination services, beekeeping lessons, sales of bees and bee equipment and the removal of feral bee hives from homes and other structures. Check out “The Bee Whisperer” on Facebook, email petercowin@tds.net or call 299-6948.