Transylvania County Beekeepers Association

https://www.psu.edu/news/research/story/buzz-me-bees-wearing-itty-bitty-qr-codes-reveal-hive-secrets

WATCH: Experts baffled by mass bee deaths
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/experts-baffled-by-mass-bee-deaths/

There were 20 people in attendance. Marvin made a motion to approve the 2/4/25 meeting minutes as emailed out and posted on the website on 2/7/25. Randy second the motion. All were in favor. Sheila stated we have a $498 balance in the association’s fund. We have 18 paid members to date. The Transylvania County Beekeepers Association has been contacted by the local camp association to work with the camps in their education program. Please let Devin know if you are interested in working with the local camps to educate them about bees. 

The speaker for the meeting was David Ellis. David is a former commercial beekeeper from Maine and relocated to our area. He has six decades of experience in beekeeping. We have a lot of floral sources for bees from March to September, unlike a lot of other places, such as Maine. 

When starting to keep bees, you need to determine your goals. Most important goal is keeping your bees alive. Think about what you want out of your bees (nucs, queens, honey, pollination for farmers, etc.). Keep an annual calendar of what you need to do each month regarding your bees. 

Around valentines day (weather permitting) you can do a quick first inspection just to determine if your hives are dead or alive. A quick peak in the box and/or by lifting the box to see how heavy it is. If they are dead, you will need to clean out the hive and disinfect it with a 5:1 part of water and bleach. Spray down the frames and let them dry in the sun. Wipe down the bottom boards and inside of the hive with the disinfectant. If you need to feed your hives in February, you want to use sugar, not syrup because it is still too cold. 

The second inspection is in March, when the temperatures are above 60 degrees. Out of ten hives, you may have 25% weak, 50% perfect and 25% real strong. The real strong hives may result in a swarm. You want to make sure you keep the real strong hive flourishing. In November David usually puts some sugar and a winter patty in the hive. If they ate it all in February, then it is a strong hive. If not, it is a weak hive. You may want to think about requeening, or combining weak hives. In March you can start feeding syrup to hives that have a little honey supply at a 1:1 ratio. If there are no bees in the bottom hive, David takes it off and cleans it up, moving the top box down. He adds space, an extra box to the strong hives around mid March. Look for sealed brood in March. If there is a lot of brood, you will need to split the hive around the first part of April to prevent a swarm. David doesn’t reverse boxes if the bottom box is empty and the top is full, but some beekeepers do. 

During the spring/late winter months, you need to work quick and efficiently when peeking inside your bees. Try not to disturb your bees too much. Make sure you have your smoker going good and equipment ready to go. 

Bees out breed the mites this time of year. Around 60% of hives will have no mites if you test for them now because the mites are in the brood and will hatch out in May during the honey flow. Best time to treat your bees is now, before the honey flow. Otherwise, you will have to wait until after the honey flow sometime in June. David likes to use Oxalic acid or Apistan this time of year for mite treatment. When David goes into his hives he also likes to dust them with a little powdered sugar, chaga and reishi mushroom mixture to keep them healthy and hopefully keep down the mite count. 

Watch the bees to see what they are bringing into the hive. If not bringing in any pollen, then there may not be a queen, or she is weak. If the bees are crawling on the ground and acting unusual, they may have a virus, mites, or have been affected by some chemical in the environment. Plant stuff your bees like to provide them food and energy. 

David Ellis also raises queens. It is best to plan ahead for new queens. David sells queens and queen cells. Queen cells are 1/3 of the cost as a queen, but the queen is accepted better than the cell. In August you will need to start getting your bees ready for winter by feeding them, etc.

Hope to see everyone at our next bee meeting on tax day, April 15, 2025. You can arrive at 6:30 pm to share your bee news and hear about other bees. The meeting will start at 7 pm at the Community Services Building 106 E. Morgan St. Brevard, NC. 

Hope you can join us for the next Transylvania County Beekeepers Association this coming Tuesday, March 18th. We now have the meeting facility at the Transylvania Community Services Building (106 E. Morgan St. Brevard) for an earlier time (6:30 pm) to socialize and get to know other beekeepers in the community. The official meeting will begin at 7 pm. If 6:30 is too early, hope you can make the 7 pm meeting. 

We will have a special presentation: “Planning for late March and April in the Bee Yard”, by David Ellis. David is a retired commercial beekeeper from Maine. He managed thousands of hives for honey production and pollination across the US, and now manages a 50 hive operation here in Transylvania County. David raises excellent queens and consistently  has very high winter survival rates.  Come learn from David to help you feel more prepared heading into this year’s bee season! 

Spring is just around the corner. The bees are out and about enjoying the warm, sunny days. I encountered a nice surprise when I found some honey bees feeding on the sugar maple in our yard. Attached is a picture of the bees filling up on the syrup. You may need to zoom in to see all the bees. The whole tree trunk was covered in bees.

NEW MEETING DATES STARTING MARCH 18

There were 15 in attendance. The earliest we can access the meeting room is at 7 pm. This makes it difficult if we have a speaker that needs time to set up. It was decided to change the meeting dates to the third Tuesday of the month. Our next meeting will be March 18. You may come early at 6:30 pm to socialize and share what is happening with your hives, etc. The meeting will officially begin at 7 pm. Parker Brown made a motion to accept the meeting change. Randy Austin seconded it. All were in favor.

Sheila Holland made a motion to accept the minutes for the January 7, 2025 meeting that were emailed out on January 11th. Randy Austin seconded the motion. All were in favor of approving the minutes. The minutes were not posted on the website because it was down. We discovered former president Eddie Thompson had covered the annual subscription cost out of his own pocket. Thank you, Eddie! We were unaware that the subscription was due again. Holly Votaw has been very helpful in developing the website and researched the problem. Devin checked with Mary Ann at the Cooperative Extension office (who is managing around a $1,000 grant the association received). We can use some of the grant money to cover the renewal of the website as well as help with the expense of any speakers. 

With the warmer weather, several members had checked on their bees and had questions. Some were putting sugar into the hives to help supplement the honey supply to help prevent starvation. You can use dry pollen or pollen patties to provide protein if the hives don’t have much available. You can use patties placed in the hives, or a pollen feeder. However, you have to be careful not to provide too much. Pollen can attract hive beetles. Pollen can activate the hive into producing too much brood, causing a premature swarm. The bees could also spend too much energy in keeping the extra brood warm during cold temperatures, causing the hive to collapse. 

The end of March, first of April a lot will start happening with the bees. You may want to consider combining weaker hives with stronger hives. You can also put a queen excluder on top of a strong hive, then place the weaker hive on top to build up the weaker hive. Tony Chapman and Devin Gentry are selling nucs. Marvin and Sheila Holland don’t have any nucs available right now, but may in the future. Dave Ellis is selling queens. The difference between a nuc and a package of bees was discussed. 

A good queen will lay about 2,000 eggs a day. The worker bees hatch out in 21 days. The drones hatch out in 24 days. They need space to grow, but not too much space for them to be able to defend the hive. Mid March bees may start swarming. Signs to look for include: Queen cells on the frame’s edges. Bearding. Nectar and pollen in the middle of the brood nest. A good book of reference is: Honeybee Democracy by Thomas Seeley. 

Devin Gentry and Dave Ellis brought in some of their swarm trap boxes (see attached photos) for members to view and ask questions. It is important to leave space in the brood boxes for the bees to expand. The boxes have 4-5 inches of space below the frames. Once the bees have moved into the swarm box, the entrances are covered with hardware wire in order to transfer them into a hive. The boxes don’t have to be real high up in a tree, on a post, etc. About 4-5 feet is sufficient. The boxes do have to be level and securely attached to the structure they are sitting on. It is best to use an old frame of brood and some empty frames with just wire, such as fishing line for the bees to start building, plus one frame of wax, for about 5 frame structures inside the swarm box. Lemon grass, lemon oil, or you can purchase a swarm commander to place inside the swarm trap/box to help attract the swarm of bees. 

There were 14 in attendance. It is time to renew membership to the Transylvania County Beekeepers Association. $10 for an individual and $15 for a family. The membership will help secure speakers, cover the cost of future bee expos, grow the local association, etc. Currently we have around 20 paid members. If you would like to join the association, you may pay your dues at the next meeting, or mail a check payable to The Transylvania County Beekeepers Association PO Box 92 Brevard, NC 28712. 

You may also want to consider joining the state beekeepers association: https://www.ncbeekeepers.org/membership/join-or-renew-now It is a good resource for more information. The state association has also been assisting beekeepers who lost their apiaries from hurricane Helene. 

The Henderson County Beekeepers Association is also starting their annual beginner’s beekeeping class on January 27th: https://hcbeekeepers.org/education/2021-beginner-beekeeper-education-enrollment-2-2-2-2/

It was also time to vote in the local board. All current officers agreed to continue unless someone else in attendance wanted to take over their office. Randy Austin appointed Sheila Holland to continue serving as Treasurer. Carolyn Thompson seconded the vote. All voted in favor. Sheila Holland nominated Priscilla Tinsley as secretary. Mary Caldwell seconded the vote. All voted in favor. Priscilla Tinsley nominated Dean Klingensmith as vice president. Jim Thmpson seconded the vote. All voted in favor. David Knierim appointed Devin Gentry as president. Dean Klingensmith seconded the vote. All voted in favor. Sheila did mention that this would be her last year as treasurer for members to be thinking about serving next year.

Mary Caldwell asked that we create a list of members who would be willing to share their email and/or phone number to volunteer as mentors and/or be available to answer general questions from other members who may run into something unusual going on in their hives. We will work on getting that available for the future.

Members discussed feeding the bees in the winter. It is important not to go into your hives when we have cold temperatures. The temperature should be at least 50 degrees or above. If it is near 50 degrees, you don’t want to spend too much time in the hive. The bees need a lot of food (frames of honey) stored up for the winter. If they are running low and we have an unusual warm winter day, it is best to feed them some kind of dry food such as a bee patty or dry sugar. It isn’t a good idea to feed sugar water in the water because of moisture building up within the hive. Most members in attendance do not insulate their hives in the winter. They leave it up to the bees to keep it warm inside.

David Ellis had attended a northern conference beekeepers meeting. A lot of the beekeepers were experiencing a 30-40% loss in their bees this year mostly due to droughts. David also shared some bee books he had and some Betterbee catalogs. Reading up about bees on these cold, snowy days can help the local beekeeper.

There are several species of honey bees. There isn’t really a way to keep your bees a one species apiary. They fly around to other hives and mix up the species. Members discussed how it is best to have smaller bee yards in several areas rather than one large bee yard due to bears, disease, etc. 

Meeting adjourned a little after 8 pm. Please mark your calendars for next month’s meeting (first Tuesday of the month), February 4th at 7 pm, Transylvania Community Services Building, 106 E. Morgan St. Brevard. 

bers in attendance do not insulate their hives in the winter. They leave it up to the bees to keep it warm inside.

David Ellis had attended a northern conference beekeepers meeting. A lot of the beekeepers were experiencing a 30-40% loss in their bees this year mostly due to droughts. David also shared some bee books he had and some Betterbee catalogs. Reading up about bees on these cold, snowy days can help the local beekeeper.

There are several species of honey bees. There isn’t really a way to keep your bees a one species apiary. They fly around to other hives and mix up the species. Members discussed how it is best to have smaller bee yards in several areas rather than one large bee yard due to bears, disease, etc. 

Meeting adjourned a little after 8 pm. Please mark your calendars for next month’s meeting (first Tuesday of the month), February 4th at 7 pm, Transylvania Community Services Building, 106 E. Morgan St. Brevard. 

437 × 340

It’s going to be cold out, but you will warm up fast at our next Transylvania County Bee Keepers meeting. Please join us Tuesday evening at 7 pm, Transylvania County’s Community Services Building, 106 E. Morgan St. Brevard, NC. You don’t have to be a bee keeper. All you need is a little interest in bees. We have a lot of local knowledge to share. Hope to see you this Tuesday evening! We meet most every first Tuesday of the month, usually same time and same place.

Hope everyone is doing ok and are close to being back to normalcy. It has been a difficult time for most with all the storms! FEMA is utilizing our normal meeting location for the next four weeks. Due to everything that has happened in the last month and lack of a meeting facility, we have decided to cancel the November meeting. Hope to see all of you at the next meeting on December 3rd! 

Anyone whose bees were impacted by the storm, loss of colonies, equipment, etc. may go to this link and fill out the form: 

https://forms.gle/bsLQ8uaoiJfjYRnm6

This information is very important. There are resources being made available through the state association NCSBA. The information will help the state determine the resources needed in each county. The cutoff date to file a claim is January 30, 2025. The hive loss payment is $230.00 for the 2024 program year.

Here is some more information that will help if you have been affected by this storm:

Click to access usda-programs-resources-support-beekeepers.pdf

Click to access fsa_elaphoneybeefact_sheet_22.01.pdf

Please check out this link about the new predator to the honey bee, the Yellow-Legged Hornet. The Yellow-Legged Hornet is in addition to the Asian Giant/Murder Hornet that we all know so well, but also may be confusing the Asian Giant to the European Hornet. https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/food-environment/2024/scientists-combat-honeybee-threat-yellow-legged-hornet-spread-us

To Keep your hornets straight. The European “will not” normally kill a honey bee. The Asian Giant “will”. Now there is the Yellow-Legged Hornet that may be even more devastating to our sweet honey bees.

The European has tear drop stripes on its thorax. A head and thorax that are similar in color.

The Asian Giant/Killer on the other hand has straight stripes across its thorax. Its head is lighter in color than their thorax.

This is a good U-Tube video to tell the difference between the European and Asian Giant Hornets. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vz6PDJOZK9s&feature=youtu.be

We had eleven members in attendance. Randy Austin shared his new technique for keeping his smoker going. He uses a toilet paper roll filled with cardboard from Amazon cardboard and three smoker pellets. Amazon doesn’t use any artificial chemicals in their cardboard. See the photo below. Most members stated pine needles are their source for smokers. However, sometimes it is hard to find dry pine needles and keep them smoking. 

There was a question about losing queens at the end of the year. Some reasons may be due to her age and/or repeated exposure to mite treatment medication. A weakened hive due to mites. The queen gets injured or killed during hive inspection. If the queen needs to be replaced, most of the time it will be during the last honey flow, which is the Sourwood flow for our area. 

If you have a hive with a lot of drones in mid October, it’s in trouble and probably won’t make it through the winter. It is best to combine the hive with another one. 

It is the time of year for robbing. You probably want to add your entrance reducers.

It was discussed that sometime in the future the club could get together to share in equipment and purchase mite treatment in bulk for those who only have a few hives and don’t need a lot of medication. 

There are some bee stores around that will rent equipment.

Hope you can make it to our next bee club meeting on October 1st.