6 posts tagged “apiculture”

Club members are invited on the full-day field trip, Saturday, April 25, to visit Randy Oliver's Grass Valley operation. Randy is the club's guru, and recognized for his careful methodology for evaluating less-toxic and non-toxic apiculture methods. You'll also be able to purchase nucs to bring back with you.

For more information, to reserve a nuc, or to find a carpool, contact Sara Willis at 510-531-9423 or email  sarahchickbee [at] aol [dot] com. 

Zucchini Festival Hayward Aug 16 &17. Set up 12 noon Friday and Sat 6:00a.m-9:00am. Vehicles must be out of park by 9:00a.m. Saturday. Festival is from 10:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. BOTH days leaving early will not be allowed.

The club has a pop up tent with sides that zip shut. No one person has to be there all day both days. We will need co-operation for set up and tear down.

Club aprons are available for use at these events. Tables can also be provided. Bring your own chair, food and hat. If you have honey, candles or other items to sell have them marked with the price and your initials. Also keep an inventory to make sure you get all the money you earned.

For more info, contact president at alamedabee dot org

Next meeting is August 12 at the Rotary Nature Center at Lake Merritt in Oakland at 7:30 PM. It's free and open to everyone.

Thanks to Derek of Urban Beekeeping for this link to a roundup of information about bees and apiculture from the New York Times. 

The Alameda County Beekeepers Assoc. has special activities this month that will get beginning beekeepers up to speed, while providing new info and insight for more experienced folk.

The regular meeting will be held Tuesday, April 8, from 7:30 to 9 PM or so at the Rotary Nature Center, 600 Bellevue Ave., Oakland near Lake Merritt.

Joe Gutierrez has a large bee yard in Hayward, and he has agreed to allow us to have a hands-on workshop at his place.  We'll discuss that also at the next meeting.  We'll need volunteer instructors, so if you can help, please attend.   It would be really neat if we can have a few members bring some of their beekeeping hardware to the next meeting so beginners can see what they need to buy.

This year, the Alameda County Beekeepers Association hopes to again take a field trip to Randy Oliver's Apiaries in Grass Valley, CA.  This will likely be the weekend of April 12th, but the trip is subject to the weather in Grass Valley.  People will be able to buy bees from Randy on the trip, Randy provides a full nuclear colony complete with brood and queen.  It's your best chance of success because the bees are already established.  You will need a nuc box, and you can place an order for one or more at the next meeting.

People can place their orders on Wednesday (4/9), we can have Joe's workshop on Saturday (4/12) and then go to Randy's place on Sunday (4/13).  We can call it "Bee Week."

If you can't make the meeting but would like to attend Joe's workshop or go to Randy's place, email us at president at alamedabee dot org.

You've heard the stories: Itinerant beekeepers trucking their hives to work the orchards of the Central Valley and beyond. Now, see the movie.

Pollen Nation, a film by Singeli Agnew and Joshua Fisher, is completed and ready for the Mill Valley Film Festival. Visit the site, and catch the flick:

- Mill Valley Film Festival: Saturday, October 6 and Sunday, October 14

- Taos Mountain Film Festival: Friday, October 5

- Ojai Film Festival: Saturday, October 6

- Montana CINE International: October 2-7

- Kern Projections Film Festival: October 10-14

Beekeeper Yvette Renee posted a question on her blog, and I'm cross-posting it here. You can answer in the comments here or on her blog:

I am a backyard beekeeper. I also have dogs and cats, and a new baby girl!

I am trying to connect with the alameda beekeeper's association, which has its own blog on vox. I need some beekeeping advice.

I have two hives. One we call Adeline, the other Betty so that we know which hive we are talking about.  Betty has always been a bit feistier than Adeline.  Both Adeline and Betty are going real strong and healthy this year.  Betty was so strong about three months ago, she had 8 swarm cells. I have never seen so many swarm cells in either of my hives!  With the baby due, and no extra honey super wax (the two supers on there were already pretty full) we decided that the easiest way to give her some more space quickly was to add a second brood box. This was a first experiment with a double-decker brood.  By the time I got through the hive and got that second box on, Betty was really angry, and I didn't have a chance to carefully space out the brood frame, which would have been a good idea since we only had 9 brood frames.

Betty went crazy and drew out the comb and filled it with honey and tons more brood in no time.  The few times that I worked through Betty's hive it was hard for two reasons, in my opinion. One, the extra space meant everytime I pulled out some of the frames I wrecked some of the free from brood Betty was happy to make in the free space.  The second reason it was hard was that it takes forever to work two brood boxes! I honestly don't understand how anyone manages it without leaving the hive open for far too long!  So Betty has not been happy with me any time I worked her boxes.

So my problem is that after the last three times I have worked Betty she  stays pretty mad. How do I know this? The hive is in our backyard. For two-three days after going through Betty, as soon as we walk out the back door  a group of bees end up buzzing around our heads.  Sometimes darting at us.  It always seems like one bee is on the lookout and she goes and fetches some of her buddies to come back with her to investigate us. They follow us around the  side of the house even!

This seems aggressive, doesn't it?  It seems like they have fixed on the area of our back door and are constantly patrolling it.  The hive is about 20 feet from the back door.

Does any beekeeper have any ideas about what to do? Betty is stressing my hormone-driven girlfriend out in a major way! She lost her bee-nerve when she got pregnant.

This weekend I reduced the brood back to one box.  The majority of the brood was downstairs anyway, and they can replace the brood with honey when the rest hatch out, hopefully. We also just got more wax, so I can put another super on her soon.

We plan to requeen Betty in the fall, since her hive seems overly aggressive. Does anyone have any other idea?
All comments and suggestions are welcome.

For background, Adeline has always been pretty chill. Betty started out as a swarm from Adeline.