Nuc Box Plans

Posted on October 23, 2015 by Jason
Nuc will look like this WITHOUT the hanging bar.

Nuc will look like this WITHOUT the hanging board on the side.

A while ago I posted New Swarm Trap Plans.  This post was about a set of plans for 4 traps out of ONE – 4 X 8 sheet of plywood.  Sometime later a question was posed to me about the plans.  In response to further discussion those plans have been renamed as NUC plans.  This was written about in Evolution in Swarm Trap Logic back in April.  Jason from AllMorgan.com raised concerns that those traps had a total-volume that was SMALLER than the optimum cavity size especially for some of the large swarms here in Eastern and South-Eastern Indiana.  Hardy productive colonies could potentially choose larger cavities over the traps due to this aspect of bee biology. Continue reading →

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Mouse Guards

Posted on October 16, 2015 by Jason

20151014_104153 CROPPEDFall is coming quickly. Trees are already turning colors and we’ve experienced a couple cool nights. A form of selective pressure is on its way in the form of Winter. Many beekeepers are frantically checking their hives, fretting about varroa thresholds, stores and whether they still have time for feeding. Having feral sourced bees makes it easier to sleep at night and not worry about those things….. as much. Winter is gonna come, and I’m probably gonna lose some hives, but it’s not keeping me up at night. Losing hives is like just like making mistakes. If you’re gonna call yourself a beekeeper you’re gonna need to lose hives and make mistakes.  Sometimes a lost hive is NOT a mistake on the beekeepers part, but poor utilization of mouse guard technology IS a mistake and will contribute to colony loss.
Continue reading →

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Extraction Flash Mob

Posted on October 10, 2015 by Jason

20150920_1357582015 is turning out to be a memorable beekeeping year. There’s been late night mishaps with cops and several angry dog incidents, but I must remember it’s not over yet! I have always invited some close friends to honey extraction ever since I started keeping bees. It’s a good time for me to visit with people because it’s one of the few times of year I am in a fixed location long enough to have a conversation. This year I said something to several people about extraction Sunday, but everybody was busy this year. Over time I had asked more and more people over, but thought it was just gonna be my father-in-law and a potential co-worker “maybe”.

About 11:30 Sunday morning the text messages started rolling in…
– “Are you still extracting honey today? Be there this afternoon”,
– “Need help doing honey? See ya sometime after lunch”,
– “Our plans fell through, we’ll be there at 2… we’ll bring some appetizers and wine”.
When this started happening I knew I had better relay the message to Holly ASAP, “We’re just about to have a bunch of people over……”  It is a good we keep some mead around. We didn’t know it yet but we were getting ready to experience an impromptu BASH!  
Continue reading →

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Fall Trap Maintenance

Posted on October 2, 2015 by Jason
BAD corner

BAD corner

One of my yearly maintenance tasks is unloading swarm traps every Fall. Many of the bait combs can be used next Spring as long as you are proactive. Old brood comb is the most valuable capital for my future in beekeeping. It is the key to sourcing hardy bees that are suited to my climate and regional weather WEIRD-ISMS. Traps give you an annual return on what is primarily a single investment of mostly TIME of construction.  I was able to catch 20 swarms this summer, 15 of which are looking VERY good thus far standing a good chance for overwintering. A little maintenance now and these traps will be in service for many years into the future. Continue reading →

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After hours beekeeping

Posted on September 18, 2015 by Jason
My idea of a wild night.

My idea of a wild night.

Any time a married man comes rolling in at 2 a.m. there had better be a story. On Wednesday 8/5/15 I experienced such a night and it was probably the craziest night of my entire life!!! No alcohol involved in this fiasco, just BEES, police, barking dogs and a car with the exhaust broken right before the catalytic converter. Sound like a good time?

I have a 1997 Chevy Cavalier that’s seen better days. The car is getting long in the tooth and about every time I’m out something falls off of it or a new issue comes up. The exhaust had been a problem for 2 weeks. I was North of Richmond on 7/22/15 picking up 3 full traps and a raccoon got hit by the vehicle directly in front of me. It was flopping around in the road and I couldn’t miss it. Unfortunately it was a large animal and went under the car like a bowling ball striking the exhaust at some point and the throaty roar of a four cylinder white-trash beater car was born! Between work and the late swarms I hadn’t had time to fix the car so I was just listening to it and taking ribbing from co-workers, friends, and relatives. Continue reading →

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Trap Talk / Get Your Traps Out There!

Posted on May 1, 2015 by Jason
Submitted trap pic

Submitted trap pic

Recently I had an e-mail dialogue with a new swarm trapper from Georgia about some difficulties they are experiencing. They deployed their traps this Spring and wasps began to set up shop in 4 of their 6 traps. This subject also came up in the Treatment-Free Beekeeping Group on Facebook a while back and I was a little befuzzled. I put out a lot of traps, somewhere between 20 and 30 each of the last 4 years. I have NEVER had a wasp nest in any of my traps EVER. I don’t know if it has to do with my trap location, climate, or just the particular wasps inhabiting different regions of the United States. It got me wondering, are there others out there annoyed with wasps in their traps? Continue reading →

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Resource Devotion to Reproduction

Posted on April 24, 2015 by Jason
Would you say his horns are TOO BIG?

Would you say his horns are TOO BIG?

In nature we find resources utilized in what appears initially as inefficient allocations. Cases where resources are allocated in odd ways include many examples of sexual dimorphism in mammals, birds, and insects resulting in ornamentation and secondary sexual characteristics. These nuances of biology may at first glance seem unimportant, but these oddities are extremely important to every extant species on Earth today. A specific example is the HUGE amount of resources devoted to antler formation in the Family of mammals of Cervidae. Commonly known as Deer each year large amounts of resources are devoted to antler formation in males. These antlers are used not to defend the deer from hunters, to assist in some migration, or to make it easier for males to find food. An antler’s only function is ornamentation and weaponry used against other males of the same species to gain access to females.

Continue reading →

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Evolution in Swarm Trap Logic

Posted on April 20, 2015 by Jason

A while back I had some dialogue with Jason a beekeeper that operates about 45 minutes to the South of me. I have been talking bees with him for several years now over the internet though we never really have met in person. He is a member of a Bee Club that I have attended in the past Southeastern Indiana Beekeepers Association. He notified me of a swarm trapper who had pointed out a flaw with the 5 frame traps I had available for a while on this site.

2015-04-20 -- 01 swarm-trap

Picture of larger volume trap.

He stated that he felt they were too small, and actually he is probably right. Now I know that some have already built these things and that’s OK. They can still catch swarms, but they probably aren’t giving you the best opportunity to select for larger colonies of bees. If you have them already don’t fret. They can still be an asset in your beekeeping operation. More on that in a minute. Continue reading →

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Fear-Based Beekeeping

Posted on February 13, 2015 by Jason

Screw FearI listen to a lot of podcasts. Several of them are Beekeeping Podcasts that have come and gone over the last several years. Unfortunately an annoyingly consistent theme arises frequently in these BeeK-Casts. This recurrent theme is FEAR.  Fear seems to drive beekeepers to wishy-washy practices that include treatment regimens, feeding, and frequent manipulations. So in this supposed enlightened time, when we have access to more information than ever before in history, why is fear based Beekeeping so pervasive?

Would you go to a Fear-Based Financial Advisor for advice about your retirement? Perhaps some people would, but count me OUT! Fear is an extremely basic animal response to stress and we must always remember that when dealing with complex problems.

Continue reading →

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Blackberry Mead

Posted on October 29, 2014 by Jason
2013 Cherry Mead

2013 Cherry Mead

It is time to talk about another use for honey. In this case it’s a use for uncured nectar that would be unstable on a shelf. As many already know if honey isn’t cured to proper moisture content it will ferment. I have seen the results of high-moisture honey in bottles and it gets messy with all the bubbling, bursting, seeping, and sticky stuff everywhere. Common rule-of-thumb is that honey needs to be less than approximately 18% moisture to prevent fermentation.  There are methods of drying it down and at a later date I may go over that, but I’ve got other plans for this stuff.  Continue reading →

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