[ocba] OCBA Update

Lewis Cauble lewis at hivebody.com
Sat May 30 13:59:12 EDT 2009


Hello Beekeepers,
Just wanted to check in with a couple of things.

Don't forget that our field day is scheduled for Saturday morning,  
June 13th.  We will be at Busy Bee where Jack and Betsy will show us  
the ins and outs of queen rearing.  Also, Master Beekeeper John  
Wallace will be available to administer practical exams for Certified  
and Journeyman beekeepers.

Jack and Betsy will also be with us at our regular meeting this month  
with their queen rearing presentation.  That's Thursday, June 11 at  
our regular place in Hillsborough.

The NCSBA meeting in Wilkesboro will be happening during our regular  
meeting in July, so we will be taking the month off.  No meeting in  
July.

Two weeks ago, an intrepid crew gathered at my shop to remove some  
bees from a tree that I had there.  John Harrell and his daughter  
Allison, new beekeeper Rhonda Jones, Marc Zylka from the Caswell  
Beekeepers, Geneva, and myself suited up and went at it.  We gathered  
the usual beekeeping stuff like a smoker, suit, hive tool, frames.  On  
top of that we added a few other tools like a chainsaw, a sledge  
hammer, a maul, and a vacuum cleaner.  We threw our usual beekeeping  
finesse out the window and went medieval on them.  They returned the  
favor.  Everyone was stung at least once.

Anyway, we split the tree open, removed the comb and vacuumed the  
bees.  Brood comb was tied in to frames and most of the honey went in  
to a bucket.  We put the frames in a hive, dumped the bees in, threw a  
feeder on, and left the honey bucket out for them to reclaim.  They  
cleaned it up in about 2 or 3 days.

Marc and I inspected the hive today and I am happy to report that the  
queen is laying and the bees are busy filling in the pieces of comb  
that we tied in to frames.  We threw another batch of food on them and  
we expect that they are going to be fine.  Rhonda has some pictures of  
the adventure posted on her blog.  http://personalphotos.iloverumcake.com/GalleryThumbnails.aspx?gallery=202498

On Sunday (tomorrow, the 31st), Geneva, Angie, and Connie will be  
tackling a cut out on Rogers Rd in Chapel Hill.  I'm not exactly sure  
what the address is but I believe the meeting time is 2 PM.  Let me  
know if you would like to come by and I'll get some more details.

Next weekend, Geneva and I will be extracting honey in Cedar Grove.  I  
expect that we will be tackling between 8 and 11 supers with at least  
one if not 2 borrowed extractors.  We've never extracted this much  
honey before, so we'll be figuring it out as we go.  Come join us if  
you need a good laugh.

Cheers,

Lewis
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