Inventor of the Honey Extractor

By happenstance, I came across mention of the inventor of the radial honey extractor, a Franz Hruschka, via the Beekeeping Hacks group on Facebook.  Apparently it was an important development in apiculture.

Oxalic Dribble

I attempted an oxalic dribble in the fall on three hives.  Due to the light weight of the crystals, I had to use a gunpowder scale to get the right accuracy.

Scientific Beekeeping mentioned using a water-only base for the oxalic.  Another article suggests treating package bees initially.  This makes sense in that they’ll be carrying phoretic mites and the number can be drastically reduced if treated prior to the development of brood.

One paper describes using oxalic and thymol together.  I was more interested in the dosages mentioned.

蜜蜂

日本語での養蜂用語は知らなかったので調べてみた。特に解剖学の単語は一般的に日常生活に使わないと思われる。日本語だと割と普通だった。

• ミツバチの解剖学 の日本語訳
• 山田養蜂場ミツバチ研究支援サイト
• ミツバチQ&A
• 養蜂学 （近代養蜂の用語が載っている）
• 趣味養蜂
• 養蜂用語辞典

Beeswax Extruder

This beeswax extruder showed up in the Beekeeping Hacks group on FB in response to someone who wanted to fabricate drawn comb.  Since it's open-source, it'd be interesting to look into—if I ever make the time!

Packages via Mail

There are a number of places that still ship package bees via mail, either USPS or UPS.  3-lb packages, unless otherwise noted.

• Mountain Sweet Honey [GA] - Italian, $125-ish
• Kelley Beekeeping [KY] - Italian, Carniolan, or Saskatraz, $198-ish
• Gold Star Honeybees [GA/TN] - mixed-breed, winter hardened (supposedly), treatment-free, $185
• R Weaver Apiaries [TX] - Buckfast, clipped/marked, shipped via UPS, $175
• Winters Apiary [TN] - Caucasian, shipped via UPS, $140
• Roberts Bee Company (H&R Apiaries) [GA] - Italian?, $87 for 2-lb, $97 for 3-lb

It seems perhaps more economical to get a cheaper package initially, build up their numbers, and then introduce a queen of the desired type, since the queens are typically $30-40 each and could be used to split an established hive.

FGMO

A 3rd-year beekeeper I met recently claimed success at knocking down mite counts by fogging with food-grade mineral oil (FGMO).  Beesource has a thread discussing it, with the OP who tried fogging for a while and eventually converting over to oxalic acid vaporization (OAV).  There's also a link to a 2004 USDA study on FGMO that declared it ineffective.

Beekeeping Link Dump

The accumulation of this detritus is getting out of hand!

• Removing hardened latex paint from brushes -- well...it happens, when painting hives....
• Ulster observation hive design
• Funky beehive hardware at Eco Bee Box
• UofM beehive equipment plans
• Handhold jigs: Beesource (Hogan's jig, circular saw), Korschgen (YT video, drill press)
• YT video on how to make your own dado set -- good stuff
• How to start a queen in a 2-frame nuc (HoneyBeeSuite) -- explanation of using a "queen castle"
• Using queen cages to hatch multiple queens in the same hive, thus preventing one from killing the others (Facebook)

So much info, so little time.

Gabees Honey

From several months ago, a discussion at Patrick's cafe regarding a bee-related project.

• The parked site, gabeeshoney.com
• Connecting a domain to the Wix-hosted site
• Generating a QR code for the URL to put on the business card

Apparently the lady's gone to Argentina to look for bulk honey....

Honey Bee Forage Species

Someone on Facebook (I think it was RJS) had kindly posted this list, from NASA no less, on honey bee forage species.  Minnesota has four main sources, apparently: alfalfa, sweet clover, dutch clover, and basswood.  Apparently some folks at NASA have the beek habit as well.

Wood Sealant

So I'm trying to figure out if I should seal the beehive woodenware or not.  The boxes I built and painted seemed to be in pretty sad shape after one winter, despite using two coats of exterior latex paint.  One article I read claimed that the moisture from the bees during the winter migrates through the wood and causes the paint to peel on the outside.  Seems possible.

However, finding something non-toxic / food-grade is an exercise.  One problem is that I want to paint over the sealer, and not all of them are paintable.  I was considering boiled linseed oil--but then I found out that the commercially available stuff uses metal salts to accelerate drying, and it's really raw linseed, not boiled.  No dice.  An article on natural wood sealers and another on non-toxic paints gave me a list of things to check, but the one I found was via a source I don't remember.

AgraLife makes a couple different products, Lumber-Seal and Hive-Seal.  The former is available at Home Depot and is supposedly food-safe.  The MSDS for Lumber-Seal notes that "All Products except Hive-Seal contain 1% Zinc Oxide/Borate for film protection and are not considered hazardous by EPA."  However, the actual composition is noted as a "trade secret," which makes me somewhat suspect.  What I don't know for sure is if the stuff is paintable or not.  Perhaps it'll say on the can.

Perhaps I'll pick up some Lumber-Seal for the pressure-treated base and hive stand, and do the outside of the woodenware for now.  I could always apply Hive-Seal to the interior when I'm able to obtain it.

Another interesting product I found was Seal-Once Marine Waterproofer, which is paintable.  It doesn't show as food-safe, but if I were sealing a deck or something it appears like a good candidate.  Actually, I might try their Concrete Rust Remover on a couple spots on my driveway and garage floor.

There was one more that intrigued me because it's linseed oil, but there wasn't much info about how it was produced: Earthpaint's "Special Linseed Oil."  It's back to where I originally started looking as far as wood sealers go.  On the other hand, it's twice the price of Lumber-Seal ($66/gal vs $35/gal), plus S&H ($22+ for the gallon container).

Adrian Quiney's Photos

Know-how for overwintering bees in the upper midwest, etc.

Hive Components

In attempting to build my own equipment, I've found that it's necessary to be more cognizant of bee space, not just the dimensions of the frames and boxes.  One Canadian's page on hive components has most of the pertinent dimensions.

Local Bees

For the apiarist, some MN bee stores:

• The Bee Shed (Oronoco, MN)
• Bee's Knees Honey Farm (Oronoco, MN)
• B and B Honey Farm (Houston, MN) - lots of equipment
• Mann Lake (Hackensack, MN, as well as sites on the coasts and in the UK) - the biggest beekeeping shop
• CrossRoads Apiaries (Fertile, MN) - no website; Email: crossroads0305@gmail.com, Tel: 218-230-1146

The Southeast Minnesota Beekeepers Association has a website and a forum.