Blue Ribbon for Photo

Went to the Tennessee Beekeepers Convention this year that was held in Cookville,TN. Lots of good speakers Keith Delaplane of Univ. Georgia,John Skinner Univ.Tennessee,Mike Studer Tennessee State Apiarist,Phil Craft Kentucky State Apiarist,Ann Harman Writer for a number of publacations,Kent Williams a certified master beekeeper and Fred Hembree a Journeyman Beekeeper. Was a very good convention. I entered the picture you see at the top of my journal and won a blue ribbon. Lots of good pictures were there and feel lucky to have won.

Homemade Entrance Reducer

Since this is rather a slow time in beekeeping, I get lots of ideas on maybe improving my hives. Sometimes having time on your hands not a good thing. Many times the bees reject ideas that you thought might work. This is a entrance reducer I made that lets you vary the size of the opening while on the hive. Or you can remove it altogether. Its worked well in robbing situations and also in moving hives.

Knox County Fair

Over the week-end my Grandson and I worked the honey booth at the local fair. We had a great time talking with the fairgoers about honey and beekeeping.

Using Smoke on Hive

This is a short video of using a smoker on a hive before going into it to inspect. The smoke seems to help calm the bees.

Feeding Hives for Strength

I got behind on my Blog enteries and now trying to catch up. Started feeding 2:1 sugar water to help build the numbers and for stores for the winter. Added Fomagilin B to syrup while I was at it. Will give each hive two gallons of syrup with the medication. At this time the bees have set a course of taking in about half a gallon a day with the medication added to it.

Medicating For Winter

Just recently took off Api-Guard and replaced with Menthol and added a Grease Patty. Hives seem to be doing well but Hive Alexis seems a little light in weight. May start feeding some 2:1 sugar water.

Homemade Wax Melter and Honey Extractor

I made these two items small because I want to only keep no more then four hives. Someone once told me bees are like weeds when they take hold you get covered up with them. I hope this is not the case. Due to back trouble four hives may be about my limit. The wax melter is simple,an ice cooler,glass cut to fit the top,duct tape on glass edeges to keep from getting cut,plastic bowl with about an inch of water in bottom,and paper towel on top of bowl secured with a rubber band. Most important a sunny day from 85 to 90+ degrees. The honey extractor was made from scrapes around the shop. It only holds one frame at a time but this is how I want to keep things small. I feel a good year I may have no more then forty frames to extract. I built it on the design of a icecream feezer that you crank with a handle. I like the crush and strain method but I need to have drawn comb to start the year off and can't do that when I destroy the comb.