Winter?

To day 17/11/2007 7:30 AM arrived to my beeyard. As you can see It’s snowing. OH, I love this white, not only because is white that mean it’s pure and very calming.
Looking at this white I start thinking that there are bees that never see the winter but they are preparing for winter. It’s not interesting? They rush to collect nectar but they never use this nectar (honey).
A lot of reading doing this time from the internet and from the books and forum. Reading in Beemaster Forum I found a sad news: Charles Martin Simon passed away October 23.He was a nice person, answering to all my email and try to explain to me his way to seeing beekeeping. Interesting way of seeing beekeepin is “Principles of Beekeeping Backwards” , 10 Principles truly from another side of beekeeping. He send to me 2 Ormand’s books.R.I.P.

Organic beekeeping or Bio Dynamic beekeeping ?

Organic beekeeping or Bio Dynamic beekeeping ?
Few years ago I start wondering what do mean all this stuff. Well, I know the meaning of the word but I’m asking myself how can you get all this done in a world full of pesticides, fertilizers and FGMO. Looks to me strange to pretend you get organic or biological honey in this environment. Well I agree that you can keep your bees free of chemical, not treat them against Varroa I mean .Don’t take me wrong You can keep bees not treated against Varroa but for sure you can’t keep the bees out of this damaged environment. There are a lot of chemical spread in the air against mosquito there are a lot of pesticides and fertilizers used to get better crop.
Reading all the post in Organicbeekeeping I realized that we can speak about organic beekeeping and biological beekeeping. I’m wrong? No, I don’t think so. The consumers are confused about organic and bio and so the beekeepers. Looking to Romanian beekeeping forum I find out that a lot of beekeepers confused organic and bio beekeeping.As far as I know biological beekeeping is follows the rules of biological agriculture set up by R. Steiner at the beginning of the 20 century.
Please don’t take me wrong. I appreciate the beekeeping working their bees organically, using small cells foundation, and not treat their bees with chemicals. In my opinion the are only organic beekeeper and not biological beekeepers. Even harvest the honey is not biological. The biological beekeepers, as far as I know, harvest their crop next year not in the same year the bees gather the crop. I don’t want to judge the beekeepers using the term biological but all I want is to tell you my opinion. Perhaps I’m wrong. What’s your opinion? You can comment.

Sad News

Sad news Coning back from my beeyard I had read on Beesource 2 sad news: Dr. Eva Crane and George Imirie passed away.
Dr. Eva Crane teach me the The Archeology of Beekeeping, and George Imirie teach me to become from BeeHaver a BeeKeeper.

Thank you dr. Eva Crane Thank you George Imirie. R.I.P.

Come Back

Hi All,
It’s about 6 month I did not write in my blog not because I haven’t subjects but because I was to busy with my work. I spend only few hours on the weekends with my bees. Because I did not work my bees I had 3 colonies that swarmed.

Now my apiary looks like in this picture I did not do experience with my bees but I did try a kind of hive used by C.L. Farrar, as far as I know. In the next days I’ll show you my 18 cm hive.
What worried is the weather. My opinion is that the climate is changing.

See you soon!

The theft ?

Hi,
Cloudy weather and temperature at noon not exceeded 14 Celsius degrees.
Arrived at beeyard ad I had the first surprise. Somebody opened one hive and pick up some frames and throw away in front of the hive. I suspect that the intruder (or thief) was a beekeeper because he looked in the middle of the hive that make me think that he looked to see the strength of the family or looking to find the queen. I’m not sure it’s only a supposition.
The spring is here as you can see a lot of spring flowers, and the hazel is in boom. I pray God not to freeze.
By the way it’s not the time to stay in weekend to my apiary so I spend the rest of the weekend on Romanian beekeeping forum. I have an argument with guys about small cell size. I have to admit that I learned something. How to estimated the date of acacia bloom. The acacia will bloom when the average temperatures is 1000 Celsius degrees.
I’m waiting the weekend to go to my apiary. I hpoe it will be a good weather.

Spring around the corner

The forecast for next 5 day said that the temperatures will be around 0 Celsius degrees so I decided on Friday-23 February- to go to visit my bees and to give them patties. Arrived to my beeyard by 2 PM. The outside temperature was 14 Celsius degrees. First look to my hives.
The bees from all the hives, except one, flying. Coming back with load of pollen. I realized that somebody check 2 hive before me. The covers were removed and not put back in place properly. I was real happy anyway. Light a cigarette and watch them. It was a pleasure to t see them in hurry with pollen and perhaps a little bit of nectar. Star dreaming of future harvest. Stop. Check the hives.
As you can see in the photo they are ok. I did not check the dead hive. A think is sure they have plenty of food. I’ll check it next time.
I’ll start feeding from 1 March with sugar syrup 2 times a week. I think that the build up will be faster and the colonies will be ready for acacia flow.
Only one problem: I hope the winter will not come back.
About Romanian beekeeping. As probably you know from the first of January this year Romania joint EU. A lot of misconceptions. It’s not permitted to sell honey here and there. The extraction room must be so and so… The Agricultural Minister will fix the rules till July this year. I hope that the rules will be ok.

New Start, New Situation

Well, I did not write for a long time in my blog for two reasons. First all my Internet connection was off for more that three month because of the systematization of my area and second because I want to give up posting. Why? A lot of beekeepers friends asked me why I’m writing this blog and why I’m writing this in English. Few day ago I decided to write again despite of all incrimination. So let’s start.
First of all let’s talk about weather. The weather is going crazy. Here, it should be winter season, with minus degrees temperatures and snow, but looks like being mid March. Only for few days was real winter with the temperatures around –4,-5 Celsius degrees. We had a few with snow and few days were raining. My opinion there is no doubt that the weather is changing dramatically. We can see everyday on TV news about the global heating and dramatically change of the climate. The worst part of this situation is that mankind is doing nothing or few thing to stop it. I hope we’ll wake up before is too late.
By the reason of the weather changing the bees life is changing too. I did visit my bees in January 18, and the bees were flying like in March. The outside temperature was about 9 Celsius degrees I did give them candy as bonus for being good girls . A friend of mine checks 2 of his hives for brood. He found out that there are more brood as usual. He saw a lot of drones flying. If I remember correctly Steve Taber wrote in one of his articles or in his book that if you look in the hive you can find drones. Does anybody something about this subject? Because the last few days it was very windy I did go to my beeyard to see if there are problems.

I was lucky no problem. I saw snow in my beeyard.
Well, you can look to one thing from different point of view. This happened with Romanian join the European Community. I agree with this, because Romania is part of Europe and we do believe in European values. There are a lot of problems concerning this adherence. I know that in UE there are rules concerning beekeeping and this must be respected. Between Romanian beekeepers start a competition and Romanian authorities ,in my opinion, don’t do as much as we expected. I’ll tell you much more in next post.

THINK ABOUT

"ONLY WHEN THE LAST RIVER HAS BEEN DRIED UP
THE LAST TREE BEEN CUT DOWN
THE LAST WILD FISH CAUGHT
WILL MAN REALIZE YOU CAN'T EAT MONEY"
GHANDI (?)


Bees reared in cities 'healthier'
I’m a constant reader of Beesource Forum and Organicbeekeepers group I find out few days ago an article named: Bees reared in cities 'healthier'
As beekeeper who kept bees on the balcony for few years a can tell you that there is true in this article. Yes, in the town the bees go out more and very morning (I mean 5 am) for nectar. I don’t think that urban bees enjoy higher temperatures as you can see in the photo.
The second article "Bees and flowers decline in step" the author and the researchers are right.
I’m speaking from the point of view of normal man living in this world. In my opinion in last 10 –12 years the climate changed dramatically. Here in Romania we had floods every year. A new meteorological phenomena show up in Romania: tornadoes. It’s enough to look to the news on TV and you’ll see a lot of floods, earth flows, the deserts. are growing. Why? For sure not the bees are the cause for this. For sure climate change and modern industrial farming are factors for this decline. As far as I know there is Kyoto agreement. (Convention on Climate Change and Kyoto Protocol) Why the politicians speak about this only when the election time comes?
I don’t want to be a pathetic prophet but for sure the world is on a wrong way. We have to wake up before is too late.
I know that I’m writing only for this blog and nobody pays attention to this. Pity!

No name for this post

Well, It’s not time for summing up my activity but I can tell you that I made roughly what I planned with my bees till now. I made increase, requeened my hives. I rearranged my out apiary. I was happy with this till last week end when I checked my hives. I find a bad queen in one hive, I mean that when you look to brood pattern you can see more drone cells that worker cells. So, something is wrong, the queen has to be change. Thanks God I have spare queens. All I have to unite the 2 colonies.
I know a lot of you are using "news paper method" to unite 2 colonies. We do use this method here too. We do use another 2 way to united 2 colonies.
First one is to rub the top of the frames of the both colonies with onion, and than the colonies can be united with no problems.
Second one is to spray " palinca" over the top bar of the frames of both colonies and than the colonies can be united. Good results.
To be true with you I use the first method. (Onion method TM) more that the second (palinca method TM). What is palinca? You don’t know? You miss a lot. Palinca is drink made from fermented plums. Home-brew. Strong drink.
I’ll let you know what method I’ll use to unite the 2 colonies.
What name to put for this post?

Weeds

I don't use to argue with other beekeepers because: "Ask two beekeepers, get three answers." The subject was about the most important plant for bee. The important bee plants, or trees. For God sake a lot of answers: acacia, lime, and honeydew, sunflower.As far as I can remember I read in Bee Culture few years ago an article wrote by "Older But Wiser" (must be a pseudonym, a pen name) named "Weeds" in witch he said that the weeds are important for bees. I agree with him. I think that the weeds pay an important role, I can say number one. In the spring, when the colony build up and in the autumn to grow brood for winter. When no nectar flow there are the weeds all around. Along the road, near river side the bees can find nectar for their family. Take a look to this Canada Thistle Cirsum Arvense (I'm correct?) the bees do visit them and I think they love them. And for sure they are a lot just look around.What is your opinion?

Rambee

Last 2 days I evaluated all my hive to see how many I’ll winter. I have to think that my apiary is 64 km far from Arad and only in weekend I can look after them. I have to think that the weather can change in matter of hours and I’ll have no chance to work my bees even when I’ll be in the apiary.











Checking the hives I can say that all the hive are OK. All the queens are mated, marked and clipped. I evaluated the stores and I have to buy about 100 kg. Well, it’s summer and the bees have plenty of time to gather some honey.














Well, looking under the hive I had the chance to see a new problem: this is mouse. Mouse guard needed.
For about a week the temperatures are around 33- 35 Celsius degrees. It’s dog days.

Half summer

Half summer
Looking to calendar I realized that a half of the year gone and a half summer gone too.
I’m really happy: I done all plans. Only one unmated queen but I hope that next week end I’ll find her laying.
Well, I’m happy I have spare queens, and I could help a Friend of mine, beekeeper, who lost one queen on mating flight. It’s good to have queens bank.
I’m writing this small article to say “ Thank you Jorn ! “He help me with the computer, so starting for today I can write and use the PC it will work. I have a lot to write so “Thank you Jorn !”

Traveling night

Last night was the traveling night to new home for the bees from balcony. I’ll miss them.
Every day when I came back from the work I was eating and then I spent a lot of time looking to them. It was very relaxing for me.
9:47 PM. Last inspection before departure. Make sure if everything is OK. I fixed the inner cover, blocked the entrance.
10:05 PM With the hive in boot of the car started the journey to Capruta.
11:25 PM Arrived in Capruta, the new home.
About mid night the hive is on the new stand. I opened the entrance. The bees were calm after 64 km traveling. I slept in Capruta till today, traveling by train back to Arad. Today coming back from the work. I did find 5 or 7 works bees flying up and down but no home for them. I fill sorry for them.

Time to move

Funny things: till one week ago was raining even every day. In the north of the country floods, landfalls. Now for one week the temperatures are around 35, 37 Celsius degrees (98 F degrees).No winds.
Yes, it’s time to move to Capruta the hive from the balcony. The temperatures are too high for bees on the balcony. My experience with bees on the balcony tells me that I have to move the bees to my bee yard in Capruta. From one frame of bees and a queen now is a strong hive on 8 frames.I want to raise 2-3 queens from this queen. Three years ago I kept the bees on the balcony and due to high temperatures the combs start to melt and a lot of bees and capped was killed.
To protect the bees my Mom had the idea to put the umbrella on the hive. Looks funny. Tomorrow night I’ll go to Capruta with my hive.
Last week end when I visited my bee yard every things looked Ok. I had 3 unmated queens. Hope that this week they will mate.
To write this post took me 4 hours. Not because of my poor English but because of this bloody computer. But from next week Thanks of my friend Jorn I’ll have a brand new one. Thanks Jorn.

Bad Weather

For 2 weeks we have bad weather in this area. This means that every day or at least 2 days we have rain here. What mean this? This means that the rain washes away acacia nectar flow. So, little acacia honey. After acacia is the turn of lime to get in bloom. It was
promising, but the rain had a strong come back .




Last week end I had only 2 hours Sunday to look to my bees. Recording played an important role. I had to check the queen cells. I was happy I saw the virgin in one nuc.There are 2 queens to emerge. I worried about the weather when the mating time comes. Hope for better. I want to write more but I have problems with the PC.
I have to visit my fiend he catches a swarm for me. A nice one. See you!

CAN WE CALL THIS SUMMER?

Well, because of this bloody PC I have to write from time to time to my blog, when my neighbor boy PC is free .So, I have to concentrate my thoughts to say all I have to say in few words.
For the star I can tell that everything is OK but only one thing is not OK: the weather. We have plenty of rain and cloudy days.Well, it’s acacia time and the bees are busy gathering nectar for them and I hope for me. As you can see in the photo. It’s wonderful









One week ago I marked 2 queens and clipped them. As you can see I use genuine method to mark my queens. I use fluid corrector. Because here in Romania we don’t use to mark our queens so you don’t find marking pen or colors to mark your queens. About clipping the queens I can say that at the beginning all the beekeepers in my area had a good laugh. They don’t understand why I do this. But I keep marking and clipping my queens because I find that is very useful One week ago I mark 2 queens and clipped them. As you can see I use genuine method to mark my queens. I use fluid corrector. Because here in Romania we don’t use to mark our queens so you don’t find marking pen or colors to mark your queens. About clipping the queens I can say that at the beginning all the beekeepers in my area had a good laugh. They don’t understand why I do this. But I keep marking and clipping my queens because I find that is very useful
Last Sunday I got angry with my bees: I did find out that they are communists; they gather a lot of red pollen.
The big problem for me is :what method to use to raise few queens. To use Jenter System, Miller method or to use swarm cells. I’m a little bit confuse,but I think that in few days I’ll make up my mind.

HANDS UP, I’M BACK!

HANDS UP, I’M BACK!
I have problems with the computer. It’s an old one so … this is why I can’t publish something or to answer to my email. After 5-7 minutes I start it this bloody machine turn off by himself. The specialists said that I have to buy a new one. In the same time the net connection was broken due to the excessive rain. I’m using now the PC of my neighbor Alin.
6.05.2006 The weather is unstable. We have rain, winds and all you call bad weathe.The problem is that in the south of the country we have floods. Lot citizens lost their houses and all they have.
6:20 in the train. Arrived 7:30. Temperature about 6 C degrees. Sometime happen miracles: I have electricity. Now I can use my electric tools and visit my bee yard day and night and summer or winter.
First thing I mowed the grass and made some arrangement in the “house.” Little by little the weather warm up. Around midday I checked my hives. Looks OK. I decided: I will gather some acacia honey and after acacia flow (if any) I’ll make nucs.
By 8 o’clock PM a guy (about 35 years old) from next village on the way to the train station stop by and ask if I know somebody buying honey in bulk with better price. I said: no. We talk about bees. He gets on my nerves. Why? He do not pay attention to the new way of bee keeping, I mean, he is not interested in queens rearing, new methods to manage your bees and so on. All he wants is to get as much honey as he can. He said that that his grand father got a lot of honey doing this way. I think that he don’t accept the time change. It was an exhausting discution. It’s a way of doing beekeeping, I have to accept this.
1.05.2006 The first of May. international holiday celebrating labor and workers. 2 years ago Jorn Johanesson visited me. In the first of May we visited Capruta and we had a nice talk with an old beekeeper. Well, I was 2 years younger.
The bees on the balcony gather plenty of pollen from chestnut. The hive on the balcony gets stronger because of the new generation of bees. It’s a real nuc. Next week I’ll put the fourth frame (foundation).I think that it strong enough to draw for himself foundation.
28.04.2006 I took 2 days off and Thursday, Friday and Saturday I did spend on the bee yard in Capruta. I blanched the trees using lime.
24.04.2006 The temperature comes up to 25 Celsius degrees. The color of the hive on the balcony is intense red so a lot of heat inside the hive. The bees come out in front forming a beard (as you can see in the picture). I did stick Xerox paper around. Now everything is OK.
23.04.2006 Easter time. This is a day of joy but for a lot of people is a day of tears. The bloody Danube flooded the south of the country. Not only has the Danube been to be blamed but the administration too. It Saint George celebration. It’s my name day. But I did not have the mud to feast.

Two beeyard:one in Capruta and one on the balcony

8. April I did visit my bee yard for several hours. In the train going to Capruta I saw floods everywhere. I did feed them and uncapped one frame of honey for each hive. Back home 2 pm. I did take a look to the hive on the balcony. I’m really happy. There are capped brood (as you can see in the pictures) so everything is OK. The bees gather pollen and I was sitting near the hive to see them bringing in communist pollen. No luck for the moment. I’m waiting for high temperatures( 13 C degrees now) and a lot of flowers.

7. April The temperatures drop to3-4 C degrees during night. Keep feeding the colony with sugar syrup.
3. April The temperature is at noon up to 18 C degrees. The girls are OK. I started feed them with 200grms each evening. By the end of this May I’ll be the happy owner of the super strong colony
31 March. Sunny morning but started the rain at 1 PM. A hell of weather
30 March (morning temp: 5 C degrees noon: 15 C) Open the entrance. Too early but the temperatures are to high and I have to open it. Only a few bees go back to old place .I have lost only around 20-25 bees. The queen started laying eggs. Feed the bees 200Gr. of sugar syrup.

Sometime happen miracles

At work everybody was looking for me. Ring to your apartment! I have ringed my Mother and she said to me to come at once home because my neighbor finds a bee family in his stove she wants to demolish it. (Parenthesis: During Ceausescu regime they did not give us enough heat to our apartments and if you have kids you have to add a supplement of heat. So, a lot of families build stoves in their apartment. The way around, now.)
The man doing this job-his name Mircea ( Michael if you want)-is a softhearted and took care of this little and wonderful creatures and ask my Mother to get me to save the bee family. Back home, going strait to workshop pick a new hive and try to get the bees in their new home. A difficult job but at the end it was successful operation. A lot of stings but worth it. In the afternoon I picked the train and go to Capruta to get few drown combs with honey to use them in new hive. 7:30 pm back home and started to transfer the bees on the new combs. 8:05 pm the bees are on the new combs. Today March 29, 2006 I take a look and I saw eggs, the queen started laying. I’ll keep the hive closed because they will go back to their home. Now I’m a happy owner of a small bee family on the balcony in the middle of the town Arad.
A bet Toni? Who will get more honey from one hive on the middle of the town?
Do believe me I’m so happy.
15 years ago ,when I started keeping bees I did keep them on the balcony for one year.Is this a new start?

First sting this year (25 March 2006)

Thanks God the spring is here. The sun it’s on the sky and a promising day it’s coming..
Arrived at Capruta 9:20 am. When I left Arad the temperature was 1 C degrees, it’s about 5 C degrees the time of arrival.
Well, for the beginning I have to plant some prunes and cherries I brought with me. I want the place, in the coming years, to become a garden ( the exact word is orchard)
By the noon I started working my bees. Before opening the hives I took a look at the hives entrances. As you can see in the photo they bring in pollen. As far as I know it’s hazel pollen, the first pollen in the area- except of the snowdrop and viola. Judging the activity in the hive- looking at the hive entrance as the books say- must be a lot of brood inside.
Opening the hives I saw a really big coming and going and everybody is busy. So, I decided not to disturb them. I did take a photo and live them alone. Seems that the bees don’t like my camera so I got stings. Two stings. These are the first stings this year I’m really happy anyway.
I did received an email asking about united the 2 hives with both queens and what happened. Yes you can unite the 2 hives with the 2 queens. Important is the 2 queens to be clipped. Happened as working with 2 queens. If you do want to see how this works take a look here.