George Imirie's PINK PAGES

October 2002

Some of the MAJOR problems that I have seen over the past 70 years that seem to “bam boozle” many beekeepers, so I mention them for you to think about. Will your bees be of forager age to gather the early spring nectar flow, or will they still be young...

September 2002

Subjects Presented: 1. “What” about Wax Moths? 2. Should you treat for Nosema Disease? 3. Feed Now - Not in November 4. Some Winter Items Often FORGOTTEN “What” about Wax Moths Just about now, I often hear some one say, “The Wax Moths have KILLED my hive of bees!” They...

June 2002

Do You Requeen? - How Soon? ================================================================================ Every year, I am besieged with inquiries from local people and e-mail inquiries from beekeepers over much of the U.S. and even some foreign countries with the question in this article’s title. If you can’t find much brood, particularly “open brood” (eggs and...

March 2002

This monthly edition of my PINK PAGES is a different one because I have resorted to something I have never done before - I have REPEATED a previous PINK PAGE and added some pages of more explanation of the problem in the hopes that my readers will see the importance...

September 2001

Since I have already lived longer than the average life expectancy of the American male and am disabled by strokes, I doubt that I am a good bet to be around next spring; but MY BEES will be ready, willing, and “chomping at the bit” to gather that first skunk...

July 2001

This was a quote from an address made by Dr. Dewey Caron at a MAAREC Short Course last week that said in three short words what it takes me pages to say! Wow, I was impressed! Do you understand this saying, or need some help? I am reminded of the...

April 2001 SPECIAL EDITION

All Beekeepers want to see the end of using chemicals for killing mites, and I predict that we are close to accomplishing that. I am very proud of my Scottish ancestry as well as being a scientist; and this reminds me of the story of penicillin. A Scottish biologist, Dr....

April 2001

Have you got enough Supers? Are you using drawn comb or foundation? How old is your queen? Are your colonies strong enough in forager age bees? Are you going to be AHEAD of your bees, or behind of their actions? Do you really know WHAT causes swarming, and how to...

November 2001

There are certain questions that are asked at any meeting of beekeepers that you attend and they are asked not only by beginners and novices, but sometimes by someone who has had some colonies for several years. As in most cases, these questions come from someone who has just not...

Don’t you dare skip reading this page! Understanding that word, and then reacting to it, is a MAJOR STEP in the upgrading process from HAVER to KEEPER. OK-What does it mean? An-thro-po-mor-phic means to ascribe or to refer HUMAN characteristics to NON-HUMAN things. This is a very narrow human way...

October 2003

Surely, most beekeepers in Maryland and Northern Virginia will remember 2003 as one of the worst honey production years of the past 50 years, and then “insulted” by Hurricane Isabel in mid September. Many colonies STARVED in May and June simply because continuous rain kept bees from flying, more were...

February 2004

I have lived in Montgomery County over 80 years and kept bees here for 71 of those years; and I am an “old retiree scientist” that “notes” things that perhaps many people ignore. I have seen much colder weather than any we have experienced these past two months of December...

January 1999

In this wonderful Season of the Year that features Joy, Happiness, Thankfulness, and Hope, I feel sad and guilty about asking about the condition of your bees. In the long analysis, if your bees are weak or already dead, is it an Act of God, or is it your fault?...

In today’s society, we sort of wonder when we see that word “behavior”, because it often indicates some bad action that might require the use of discipline. Frankly, I really prefer the phrase of “THINKING LIKE A BEE”. Now I have introduced a secondary thought was is: Can a bee...

October 2000

Most of you have heard of beekeepers (right in your area) having annual yields of 100, 125, or even 150 pounds of honey in most years; whereas your colonies seem only to produce 40, 60, or 80 pounds in most years. Your natural inclination is say “Somebody is telling tall...

Let’s talk about stings ‘secretly”, just so you can maintain your superior masculinity and nobody will ever know that you hate to get stung. Get stung, it makes you more appreciative of your expertise after you learn to work your bees using little or no protective clothing and getting FEW...

August 2001

In recent articles of Bee Culture and American Bee Journal, some notable beekeepers have written about beekeeper burnout, pointing out that so many beginners start out with great enthusiasm, attend local bee meetings, lose some bees to improper maintenance, failure to treat pests with either correct chemicals or treat at...

April 2004

Beekeeper’s Duties concerning Supering and Swarming in the Maryland-Virginia area near Washington DC UNlike about 90% of the rest of the U.S., our nectar flow is VERY EARLY, VERY INTENSE, VERY SHORT, and is TOTALLY OVER SHORTLY AFTER JUNE 1st. If you don’t believe me, get a SCALE HIVE, and...

July 1999

Maybe I should “rattle” your brain by asking you: “Can a bee really THINK?” When you HARVEST honey, do the bees interpret that action as robbing them of something they have collected and made? Does a bee know it is going to DIE if it stings you? If a bee...

June 2003

All of us know that iron rusts if not painted, bread gets stale if left in the open, meat has to be refrigerated, and you sunburn unless you use sun protection. HONEY IS NO DIFFERENT! IT REQUIRES PROPER CARE AGAINST FERMENTING, or CRYSTALLIZING, or DARKENING IN COLOR, or FLAVOR LOSS....

Feburary, 1998

I hope you enjoyed Part l in January, and as promised, this part will provide you with details of the most important procedures. However, not unlike your elementary school teachers, I will first remind you of some salient principles that I hope you will never forget! These are: A colony...

April 2003

Beginning last November, Commander-and-Chief George Bush ordered the Pentagon to get troops well prepared for the possible invasion of Iraq. Repeatedly, I have warned beekeepers that you start preparing your bee colonies for an April-May nectar collection in September, not March. As I write this in March, pollen is coming...

May 1999

Take that long awaited trip to the Carribean Islands of Jamaica and Nassau before the temperature gets too hot and before the kids get out of school. You can leave tomorrow if you had started planning your 1999 “honey bee plans” last fall by requeening with a young queen, treated...

May 1999 Special

Perhaps I shouldn’t bother to address you like a “school teacher” to a class of children; but each year, I see the downtrodden faces of those that lost swarms and hence much of their honey crop. They become discouraged, and I blame myself for my poor instruction methods. Therefore, allow...

March/April 2004

George W. Imirie, Jr. American Beekeeping Federation Newsletter March/April 2004 ———————————————————————————— Drawing Foundation and Proper Supering Why do I combine drawing foundation and proper supering into a single subject? Unlike we humans, honey bees are mentally able to plan ahead, and do all their duties only when there is a...

July 2000

Dr. Roger Morse, age 72, died in his sleep on May 12th. Cornell University awarded him a Bachelor’s degree in 1950, his Master’s in 1953, and his doctorate in 1955. In 1958, he went to work as an assistant professor in the Department of Entomology, later promoted to associate professor...

January 2005

PREFACE: Although I have written these PINK PAGES for over 20 years as a written instrument to aid MY MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MARYLAND beeHAVERS to become competent beeKEEPERS, for years, these PINK PAGES have appeared monthly on various websites over the U.S. suggesting 20,000 “hits” per month. Of course, I am...

Basically there are five different feeding systems known and I will give my opinion of all of them: Entrance Feeder (Boardman Feeder): Throw it away! It invites robbing, and bees cannot get to it when it is chilly. Division Board Feeder: I refuse to use them because they drown a...

June 1999

This is Memorial Day weekend and we are rapidly nearing the end of our spring nectar flow. Your super frames will be in various condtions: many TOTALLY capped, some maybe 90% capped, others partially capped, and others empty. It is a mistake just to remove all the supers now, and...

February 2003

Often there is a hue and cry by many that say “Let the bees be natural as they do things in nature.” If you follow that line of reasoning, you lose a lot of bees and don’t produce much honey. You are not aware of the fact that only about...

At this time of year, I constantly seem to trip into 2nd season or even 3rd season novices trying to treat foundation and drawn comb as equals; and I explain that they are like nickels and quarters, while both are coins, they are not the same. The quarter would NOT...

February 1999

As often as I have written it or said it LOUD AND CLEAR, more bees die of starvation in late February or March than any other time of year. It still happens! It is not the fault of the bees, it is not the fault of the weather, it is...

December 2003

Isn’t it great to see this COLD winter weather arrive! While my bees are all snuggled in their winter cluster just keeping warm and eating very little, because the queen is not laying any brood, it is time for OLD GEORGE to relax and have some FUN for myself before...

June 2000

No longer do we harvest honey like “Daddy did” years ago. We have learned new techniques (hopefully), new methods have been developed bees make MORE honey QUICKER in LESS time than days gone by, because we MANAGE our bees BETTER than Daddy did. Back in World War 11 days, one...

September 2000

My entire month of August was spent at the annual Eastern Apicultural Society (EAS) meeting, and my own 9 day long Montgomery County Agricultural Fair, during which my basic “job” was teaching successful beeKEEPING. I never cease to be amazed at how little many people know of the CHANGES in...

November 2000

I have written a great deal about the importance of new findings about bees for the 21st century, particularly PHEROMONES. However, and perhaps even more important to the beekeeper, who has been beleaguered with mites and now resistant American Foul Brood, is the “hygienic behavior” of his selected race or...

June 2004

Just because the weather is warm from April to October over much of the U.S. has NOTHING to do with WHAT plants make a nectar yield in your part of the country. In central Maryland, basically there is zero nectar yield after June 15th, whereas the Illinois clover nectar yield...

January, 1998

In our area this past spring, our nectar flow was about three weeks late, and many colonies swarmed before the flow. Further, some beekeepers judged the year as a loss about June 1st, and lost interest in hive management; and when the nectar flow suddenly materialized in June, colonies which...

December 2000

SURPRISE! Apis mellifera were not indigenous to our western hemisphere, and the followers of Capt. John Smith as well as Miles Standish had to import honey bees from England in the early 1600’s so that the new settlers could have some “sweets” in their diet. Unfortunately, some Americans put the...

March 1999

We have some new members since last spring and we have some novices that tend to forget. In my effort to UPGRADE all beekeepers to be BETTER, and attempting to prevent some disappointment and discouragement, I thought it might be a fine idea to repeat two of the items that...

March 2001

When do most colonies die of STARVATION? What is the BEST feed? What makes the BEST feed? When should you feed? Why should you feed? What is the BEST type of feeder? When do you stop feeding? What problems can feeding cause? It is quite amazing to find that most...

March 2003

Note: The following article about Swarming was written by me for the American Beekeeping Federation Newsletter to appear soon, but we have so many new beeHAVER members and some forgetful beeKEEPER members in the Montgomery County Beekeepers Association, I thought it would be valuable to all members to read it,...

September, 1998

How old is your Queen? Most of you do not have a MARKED queen, and hence you do not know whether your queen is 2 weeks, 2 months, or 2 years old. Many of you are saying: “George, so what?” Rudely, I could reply: “ Why do you think that...

June 19, 1999

Select an exact date for your new queen to arrive and make it known to your queen breeder, and get a MARKED QUEEN. TEN days before the new queen is to arrive, insert queen excluders in between any two boxes where your old queen can go. When your new queen...

October, 1997

I have written about this many times, but people “forget”, “Daddy didn’t have it”, and some new beeHAVERS have not heard it before; so here it is again. Frankly, I am tired of hearing all this CRAP about a hard, cold winter killing bees. How do you think wild bees...

How do you know your bees are alive? Do they have enough food? Is the queen laying brood? Will there be enough foraging age bees present in the May nectar flow? Will there be enough nurse bees present in late March and early April to feed all these future forager...

On November 19th and 20th, the U. S. Department of Agriculture Division of ARS, Agricultural Research Service hosted a “special” meeting at the Holiday Inn in College Park, MD. Its purpose was for the scientists of ARS to hear from representatives of ALL SEGMENTS of our honey bee industry of...

March 2004

Wow, this will be a l-o-n-g edition of the PINK PAGES, because In Maryland, MARCH is a VERY IMPORTANT Month for the Beekeeper’s PREPARATION for APRIL NECTAR =============================================================================================== Some of the things I am going to mention are: Starvation, Testing for mites, Super preparation, REVERSING and REVERSING, Feeding to get...

February 2005

Never known for being nice or complimentary to EVERYONE (like politicians campaigning for votes and money), my thoughts are to TEACH, EDUCATE, INSTRUCT, and INFORM all beeHAVERS and some beeKEEPERS the methods used to be a successful beekeeper in central MARYLAND; and hence, sometimes, I am TOUGH and DEMANDING in...

January 2000

I can hear some beeHAVERS saying or thinking “ George, are you nuts? It is winter and cold and my bees have no thoughts of spring and nectar gathering yet!” Then there are some beekeepers that are too lazy to think about any bee work in January or even February,...

George Imirie’s PINK PAGES SPECIAL for TN Beekeepers —————————————————— Keeping Your Bees Alive President Robert Elwood asked me to talk about this subject at the October 2001 Meeting in Nashville; but I might not be alive then, so I said that I would write about it right now, so you...

In spite of my continuing disapproval of the use of UNKNOWN queens in contrast to purchasing a good queen from a reliable professional queen breeder and marking her(so you can identify her), there are still some beeHAVERS living in the “days of Daddy” who don’t requeen,and probably do not know...

What is so important about our Fair? It is NOT “just a county fair”! It happens to be the LARGEST agricultural fair east of the Mississippi River! That just did not happen by itself, but required the intensive, dedicated work of a whole gang of volunteer help LIKE YOU, I...

February 2002

After arriving home from the week long American Beekeeping Federation meeting in Savannah GA, my computer was crammed with e-mail and asking for help. I drove over to a beekeeper’s home to see his one colony of bees. I found just a hand full of dead bees and the dead...

December 1999

THAT is what everybody wants to know! HOW does a beekeeper produce more honey, and how to work his bees with fewer stings! You expect me, or famous Roger Morse, or Mark Winston, or your local bee group, or the Internet Bee-L just to say a short speech or write...

October 1999

There are volumes written by hundreds of authors on these subjects and no one has the time or fortitude to read all of them. Hence, to make it simple, at the request of many beekeepers, I will write a simplistic, but explanatory, outline of the diseases, mites, and pests that...

July 2003

I am “MAD as hell” with many of you, in fact MOST of you. UNlike politicians, which I intensely DISLIKE, I call a “spade” a “spade”, and not an “agricultural instrument”. In other words, I speak rather bluntly, and hence confuse no one. I don’t win any popularity contests, just...

February 2000

These past 15 years, beginning with the entrance of the Tracheal Mite in 1984, the appearance of the Varroa Mite in 1987, and the killing of bees by the viruses as a result of PMS (parasitic mite syndrome), has totally altered most of the beekeeping techniques that had been in...

May 2000

The NECTAR FLOW IS ON! You should have put about 5 supers of drawn comb on your colonies before the first of May, but if you did not, and if your bees HAVE NOT ALREADY SWARMED, you should do it tomorrow rain or shine, or give up beeHAVING because you...

January 2004

Do you remember in years past that many people made all kinds of RESOLVES that they were going to do this, NOT going to do that, stop drinking, stop smoking, clean the garage, DAILY tell my wife “I LOVE YOU”, go to church, stop cheating on my income tax before...

Most of you know that one of the strokes that I have suffered paralyzed one of my two vocal cords, which materially diminished my normal loud, resonating speaker’s voice. A surgeon who specialized in various throat surgery suggested a procedure that might restore my voice to almost pre-stroke condition; and...

1999 ABF WORKSHOP

This was originally assigned to my Bee Partner, Ann Harman, to present; but last week Troy Fore found a more important job for her and he asked me to substitute for Ann, knowing fully well that my strokes have given me some voice problems, so let us work together and...

2000

Just like adding gasoline to your car before the gage is on E, or buying the 12 roll pack of “On-Sale” toilet paper before you run out, planning ahead is SMART. The EAS meeting for the year 2000 will be held at the beautiful campus of Salisbury University on the...

September 1999

I don’t like things left until the last minute, particularly when you positively know that cold weather is surely coming and we might have frost in October and surely in November. Maybe you have someone to put up your storm windows, add antifreeze to your boat engine or your car,...

November 1999

1) WHAT are they? 2) WHAT do they do? 3) How much do YOU know about them? 4) How important are they for good bee MANAGEMENT? 5) Will they be MORE important for bee management in the 21st century? 6) How much more SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH has to be done? The...

June 2001

Part 1 - Harvesting Honey Part 2 - No Brood & No Queen! Do You Requeen? Part 3 - Some IMPORTANT FUTURE DATES Proper Time and Techniques of Harvesting Honey Some might say, just suit up, light a big smoker, get a big bee brush, and ROB the honey in...

August 1999

Ever since my shim was endorsed and put on the commercial market, many users have contacted me by phone, E-mail, or letter asking me for advice about some problem with their beekeeping; and they use their purchase of the shim as a “justification” for contacting me. Let me say LOUD...

It is quite apparent from the questions seen on E-mail and the questions asked at bee association meetings that many Beekeepers need an understanding of favorable or unfavorable conditions when trying to requeen a colony. Two PRIME problems quickly come to mind: YOUNG bees, just a few days old accept...

December 2002

You don’t have to tell me that I am TOO long winded, but scientists like to “cover all bases”; and, who knows, I might tell you something that you did NOT know. If so, then I feel good, because I have helped you LEARN; and in today’s times, successful beekeeping...

April 2000

I said SUPERING, not Swarming. That is, if you have a young queen, reversed brood chambers to reduce brood chamber congestion, and follow the rules that will be given in today’s PINK PAGES, your chances of a swarm in our April swarm SEASON will be minimized. With our warm weather...

READY OR NOT — IT IS swarm season Did you know that prior to a hundred years ago, beekeepers wanted their bees to swarm? Were they “nuts”, or just wanted to create neighborhood FUN? Neither. Up until Rev. Langstroth invented the movable frame hives were kept in straw skeps or...

1999

It was a fine meeting, held on a beautiful old (1819) Presbyterian college campus with fine buildings, lots of trees, and easy to get from place to place. I am always “taken” by the excellence of the 2 and half day Short Course, always using presenters (teachers) of national status...

March 1999

Swarming, a beekeeper’s nemesis because of the loss of honey crop, can usually be prevented by “splitting” a colony into two parts. Bee scientists have now well proven that the two major reasons for a swarm are, in order of importance: BROOD Chamber congestion, having nothing to do with Super...

August 1999

Back in those “pre-historic” days of 1933 when I started beekeeping, most bees were on farm properties and tended by the farmers of that day. Hence, who was really bothered or even knew about MAD, STINGING BEES when they were under 1-2 acres of orchard trees on a 200 acre...

September 2004

September, NOT April, is the month that determines the success of your honey bee colony next spring!!! I say that for all the colonies within 100 miles of Washington, DC. I surely AM NOT KNOWN FOR BREVITY, but this “edition” of PINK PAGES will be BRIEF, as I, and many...

March 2005

In our Montgomery County, Maryland, WITHOUT beekeeper KNOWLEDGE about swarming, some of you, during April and particularly MAY, are going to lose much of your honey crop and perhaps YOUR BEES because they SWARMED. I have heard many say “isn’t that NORMAL, part of the game?” My reply is: Could...

May 2000

Often I am asked “Where do you get your information about bees, equipment, management techniques and other things?” Other times, people in the audience reveal in their eyes or questioning voice that they think some of my “teaching” is derived from some place “out in space” and they are just...

February 2001

For many years, I have taught that success in beekeeping is a result of both bees and beekeeper being READY at the beginning of our major nectar flow, which in Central Maryland is quite early, about April 15th. In spite of my writings and talks, often the bees have not...

May 2004

(I strongly suggest you read my remarks) SWARMING Disaster, Disgusting, Depleted honey yield, DAMN! It amazes me that we have highly intelligent beginners, beeHAVERS, and even some crusty old beeKEEPERS that are doctors, teachers, executives, computer guru’s, bankers, salesmen, lawyers, and ad infinitum; and they let their bees swarm, but...

2004

It has long been known that successful beekeeping is a combination of an ART and SCIENCE. There was precious little scientific knowledge about a honey bee until the last 100 years, and more particularly the past 20 years when bee science was FORCED into finding management techniques, equipment changes, better...

February 1, 1999

Maryland is NOT too cold for this new “critter”, nor is Maine, Ohio or Minnesota (who has already filed or special exception to treat). How well I remember those days of 1984 when tracheal mites were first found in the U.S., and the reaction of many beekeepers. Most ignored the...

January 2001

I was honored (and SURPRISED) in October when the Tennessee Beekeepers Assn. presented me with a KEY to the City of Oak Ridge plus a Certificate of Honorary Citizenship, just because I was sent by the Army in 1944 to X-10 Laboratory to work as a scientist to purify plutonium....

January 2001

IT IS NOW JANUARY OF THE YEAR 2001! Are your bees ALIVE? Depleted in population? Hungry? Is there still 40-50 pounds of food still present? Diseased? Is there any brood? Is the queen alive? Is is she more than a year old? Is the bottom brood chamber EMPTY of brood...

January 2002

It is a NEW YEAR, so some changes have been made. Let us start off with an INDEX of this month’s PINK PAGES subjects: 1.) Reversing Brood Chambers - Perhaps the most important technique to prevent swarming, but it has to be started in February. 2.) Feeding: Why? When? What?...

April 1999

WHEN? HOW MANY? COMB or FOUNDATION? SUPER SIZE? 9 or 10 FRAMES? QUEEN EXCLUDER or HONEY EXCLUDER? HARVEST TIME? PROTECTING COMB? Year after year, all of these points are answered, books are filled with pages of information, my previous PINK PAGES are old and voluminous, but every year, it seems...

April 2002

In any part of Maryland, during April the beekeeper’s mind is focused on a single thought - honey production! Unfortunately, although they have known about installing supers in April for months in advance, their supers are STILL NOT prepared for installing on the bee colonies; and particularly this year of...

November 2003

There is little question among scientists that menthol is the most effective killer of the TRACHEAL mite; and in spite of what you may have heard, tracheal mites are still in most states, counties, and surely, in central Maryland. However, menthol MUST be used at the RIGHT time, or it...

October 2001

September 11th will not be forgotten by most of us, just as December 7, 1941 is still quite vivid in the minds of we older folks. As a Citadel cadet in Charleston, SC, I was eating a banana split in Raley’s Drug Store on King Street in Charleston when the...

Your doctor always takes your temperature with a thermometer to “test” for a fever. If telephone book numbers get harder to see, you go to the ophthalmologist who puts drops in your eyes, darkens the room, and then “tests” your eyes with an ophthalmoscope. Your dog runs across your driveway...

July 2002

In our central Maryland area, my scale hive stopped showing any increase in weight right on time, May 31st. It lost 7 pounds during the next 21 days, and now the dearth of nectar during July and August will be upon us making bees frustrated and cranky just like you...

Italian? Carniolan? Buckfast? Caucasian? Midnite? Starline? Uncle Joe’s? What do you want or expect from your bees? Just as German people are known for their blue eyes and blonde hair, the Negro is known for their big round eyes and curly black hair, and the Oriental is distinguished by “slanted”...

May 2003

Part 1: Getting most nectar capped Part 2: Four methods of removing honey Part 3: Extracting procedures and tricks Part 4: Cleaning the extracted frames Part 5: Storing drawn comb until next year Getting most nectar capped Beekeepers destroy so much good honey each year by extracting UNCAPPED nectar, which...

May 2001

If you have LOST a swarm from one of your colonies, you can’t say anything GOOD about swarming. If you have just retrieved a swarm that was found hanging in a tree near the county police department, you can’t say anything BAD about swarming. Bees swarmed back in the Garden...

September 2003

WHAT am I trying to say? It is mid August, the 9 day Montgomery County FAIR is over. What a Wonderful FAIR (good), Barry Thompson driving 12 hours back from a poorly attended EAS meeting in Maine designed and built a SPECTACULAR display about honey bees in Old MacDonald’s Barn...

May 2002

Do you just add one super on top of the previous super, which is called TOP supering, or do you lift the previous supers and put a new super next to the brood chamber, which is bottom supering? This difference has been argued for years with the same intensity as...

November 2004

Today is October 21st, and would be my 61st wedding anniversary if Valerie had not died of cancer two years ago. I am VERY lonely. Nectar flows are long since OVER. Winter is just around the corner. Most members are concerned about the Redskins or the Ravens.Wives are planning Thanksgiving...

June 19, 1999

You can’t keep bees like Daddy kept bees! I want you to notice that word “kept”. Anybody can “have” bees on their property today, and buy some more when those die; and I am concerned with that vast number who can’t seem to KEEP their bees today. The package bee...

Wow, you are talking my language when you mention UPPER ENTRANCE. I think every colony in the world should have an upper entrance 365 days of the year. I am in my 65th year of beekeeping, spending much of the last 20 years teaching beekeeping all over the world FREE...

March 2000

While seeking new ways to recover Varroa mites from bees for laboratory assays, Paula Macedo, a University of Nebraska Graduate Student, found a new way to check colonies for Varroa mites that is more efficient than ether roll, and NOT necessary to kill bees to conduct the test. You will...

July 1999

It is most discouraging to have a strong colony of bees make a wonderful crop of honey in May and early June, maybe even a record crop for some, and then find the colony DEAD in July! This is happening all over the country, and Maryland is no exception. WHY?...

April 2005

Surely WHEN and HOW MANY are the most important considerations on this subject. Although I write this for my Montgomery County, MD beekeepers, the entire writing is apropos in every part of the country by just changing the starting date according to your local weather. For my home county, APRIL...

August 2000

I just always assumed that beekeepers knew “all about Queens” until I got heavily involved reading the questions, answers, comments, and advice given on the Internet Bee-L. Then, I started to pay more attention to questions and answers of Maryland and other beekeepers, and to my surprise and alarm, I...

December 2001

As a scientist, I was taught to deal in cold hard facts, using no assumptions, no guesses, ignore anecdotes, and avoid “gray” areas. As a result, I go to Las Vegas only to see the shows, ignore the football point spread, don’t play any lotteries, and don’t allow any “strange”...

July 2004

About 20-25 years ago, Wendy’s Hamburgers electrified the world with its TV and radio advertisement with a grouchy old woman disgustingly saying: Where is the BEEF? Today is July 1st, and the nectar flow and honey crop for central Maryland is O-V-E-R. True, there might be some very tiny, isolated...

1998

Maybe some don’t even know what a “MARKED” queen is, so I better explain that first. You paint the top side of the thorax of the queen bee with honest to goodness fast drying paint that will not wear off in the life span of the queen, nor does the...

January 2003

Successful beekeepers start “doing things” with their bees 2-3 months in advance of the spring nectar flow. Since our central Maryland only major nectar flow occurs in April and May, this means that responsible beekeeping begins in January or no later than February 1st, and not on the calendar’s first...

August 2002

August, September, and October are the three months that will determine not only whether your bees will be alive next April, but how strong they will be to gather the spring crop of nectar. Dr. Roger Morse wrote a book about a honey bee’s NEW YEAR starts in September, but...

October-November 2004

Today is October 21st, and would be my 61st wedding anniversary if Valerie had not died of cancer two years ago. I am VERY lonely. Nectar flows are long since OVER. Winter is just around the corner. Most members are concerned about the Redskins or the Ravens. Wives are planning...

July 2000

Unfortunately, far too many people forget their bees after the honey harvest around July 4th in Maryland, not unlike putting your bathing suit in the attic until next summer. Maybe these people are satisfied with just “having” bees, because they surely are NOT doing those things necessary to “keep” bees...