State Beekeepers Spring Conf (Day 1)

I'm in the auditorium waiting for the conference to start. I have my netbook, backup paper and pen (for emergencies :D) and am ready to learn all about NC beekeeping practices. There is mostly speakers today and one workshop. I'm really split on which one to attend: preparing honey for competition and sale or considerations for starting a honey business. Competition and sale seems more relevant for this year, but having my own bee company would rock.

While waiting I'm digging the conversation around me. The merits of the various vendor's smokers is cracking me up. I will need to drop by the vendors and pick the wifey a veil. Having a spare wouldn't hurt a bit I think and it may put Sue at more ease while around the hives.

• Powerpoint presentation on a Mac and having the pinwheel of death. Hehehehe.
• Announcement on why the Community College wants all of our personal info - good luck.
• Bee based prayer - interesting
• The sound system has a nasty feedback thing going on
  
• Workshops announcements - Nothing that impacts what I want to attend

Charles (my sales partner from the State Fair) announcing a new county chapter - Haywood County. Introduction of two other new chapters. Now it is door prize time - which seems to be a time honored tradition for every NC beekeeping meeting. Charles just won one of the door prizes - to much ribbing.

Dr David Tarpy (NCSU prof) - Great joke to start off. He was not introduced and made a great reference to it. He is doing the NC update. ~360 people here so far, probably another 100 for tomorrow. EAS at AppState looks really good, but it is over my anniversary - that may be a hard sell, unless I take the wifey camping while there. I also need to get the bee magazines.
Talking about queen quality studies. The mating quality is consistent compared over the last 60 years. The study was coming from California colonies. It looks like the drones may be shooting 'blanks'. The sperm viability is really the problem. The study will continue on the drones. Again there is a big push to have 'Born and Bred in NC' movement. I will probably requeen this fall with 2 NC queens. "Microbreeders" in the state to fill the gaps. The Queen rearing classes are all full :(. There is a competitive fall clinic for bee breeding. I might try to get into this next year if they get another grant to offer it again. The crappy thing for today's first session is they can't actually work in the on-site hive because of the colder weather.

Dr Lilia de Guzman (USDA researcher). She will also be doing the keynote this evening. Small Hive Beetle research. She also is active in the Russian Honey Bee research. Nematode's seem to be very good at controlling SHBs. Russian's have fewer SHBs also. The Russians carry the SHBs away from the hive. Louisiana Bears - raccoons (they also like hot peppers) were taking down the traps and eating the pollen substitute. I was thinking of using that stuff - but it seems to attract SHBs. Direct sun light seems to help SHB and mites - thank dog my hives are out in the sun. A threshold of number of beetles does not indicate that a hive will survive or collapse.

Power outage - LOL. Back on after 3 minutes. Impromptu break called. The main projector died, but the Robeson beekeepers were prepared and had a backup.

Dr Juliana Rangelposada (postdoc NSCU). Swarming - It seems like the beekeepers swarmed, cause they took 20 minutes to get back to their seats :D. She is from Cornell - I wonder if this is the woman the wifey met at her orientation. Her "piping signal" was hilarious. Piping starts 60-100 minutes before a swarm. The exodus takes 10-18 minutes. The signals have context and are initiated by a small number of bees. Appledore Island as a test site is awesome.

Workshop - Prep for competition and sales. Danny Jaynes (former pres of wake county beekeepers and current 2nd VP of NCSBA). Get a copy of the rules for the state fair and then get someone to help you. When do you start compitition

• First extracting - 3 jars with. warm to 100 degrees and let it sit for 3-5 weeks. Filter (nylon sheer) and bottle it. Check the glass to make sure it is perfect. Fill past the ring. Let it settle for 3-5 and then remove the top to the proper level. Clean the jar and the lid. Take it to judges not the registrar. Have an extra new lid. Saranwrap will remove the bubbles off of the top.
  
• Extracted honey: Light, Amber and Dark. They will adjust if needed. 3 Jars (competition), 4 jars will give you insurance. Check the chapter for a refractor - you want 16.5 - 17.5 and a polariscope (crystals and bee parts). Blue honey is very rare. Try to enter into all categories.
  
• $200 for 60lbs of honey for the state beekeepers association.
• Chunked Honey (same categories): right out of the hive - freeze it for 2 days. 1lb jars - cut the wax out of the frame. 1.5 - 2 in strips.
• Creamed Honey - smooth crystals (cotton works well) 1oz of starter to 1 lb of honey. Slow mixer (dough hook) 20 minutes then sit for 12 hours. Pick up the bubbles. 12 more hours and remove more bubbles. The put it in the containers. cool it at 57 degrees for 4-5 days.
• Wax - Solar extractor then a double boiler. Nylon(curtains) is best strainer. Each straining will remove more impurities. Block - 8 Lbs min, Candles.
  
• Observation Hive - marked queen from the current year. Brood, Honey and Pollen - top frame of honey.
• Gift Baskets - this is not judged correctly :D
  
• Labels - Name, type of honey (pure or wildflower), address, phone or email, weight in ounces (This is for sales not competition.

Keynote speaker: Dr de Guzman - Asian Honey Bees: Hosts of Potential Threats to US Beekeeping. She grew up in the Philippians and threw stones at them. Didn't get interested until college. 8 species of honey bee in Asia. Cavity and open nesting types. Api cerana is smaller than the european honey bee and has several subspecies. They vent the hive in the reverse way of the EHB - funky. Red bees - Apis koschevnikovi There are questions if some of the species are really the same. And why don't they do a DNA typing to find out if they are a subspecies or separate??? Dwarf Honey Bees - open nest and single comb. The drones dance and fly in groups. Giant Honey Bees - Apis Dorsata - single comb, open nest, ferocious. Drones fly at night. 50 colonies may be in one tree in a "bee tree". In Vietnam they use rafters for keeping the bees.

Drones will mate with any species honey bee queen - the pheromone is the same. The interesting thing is that the drones have set times for their flights with very little overlap.

Apis cerana is the natural host for mites. They are better grooms and only the drones get infected. She discovered a new one Varroa rindereri that she named after her boss. LOL She just said PMS - parasitic mite syndrome. Asia has some super mites (tropilaelaps) that are actually worse than varroa destructor, but one of the cute ways of handling it is to cage the queen and remove the existing brood.

I dig the fact that she is using images from wikipedia.org :D Awesome - someone is actually snoring - really loudly too.

Question time: Overwintering of the new mites? They are surviving in the mountains. But with the brood stopping over winter here it should control them if they did make it to North America.

And done for the day.