A Beekeeper's Diary
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A Beekeeper's Diary
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Thursday February 28th, 2002 We had an inch or so of snow overnight. This morning Paulo reported that he only found 6 dead hives out of 177 he checked yesterday. Stan came by around noon to drop off some supers and visit. Today..Flurries. Wind northeast 20
km/h. High minus 12. Wednesday
February 27th, 2002
Paulo is checking some of our northern yards today and won't be in. Dennis was bitten by a dog a few days ago and has been off work all week. Looking back a year, I can see how busy I was getting ready to sell everything. Well, things didn't quite work out the way we planned. We did sell some of the hives and machinery, but we are still running a pretty large operation -- that is assuming that our bees pull through the winter. 10% losses at this early date are sobering, but when I checked to see how we were doing in previous years, I see that this is not unusual. The ones that are gone by now are the ones that were simply too light or had poor queens last fall. We don't spend a lot of time in the fall trying to figure out which ones won't make it. We just wrap everything and pick up the losers in the spring. I went to Global around noon, picked up Grant's patties and looked at the patty making process. Then I bought a few groceries and went home. Mike and his family came by in late afternoon and the kids rode the snowmobile around the neighbourhood for an hour or two. I spoke to Adony and he will be coming to Calgary next weekend. I called a few beekeepers in south and Central Alberta and am setting up a meeting with Adony for Friday afternoon March 8th in Calgary. The meeting is to discuss the research that Beaverlodge is doing, what they wan to do, what we want done, and all the various permutations and combinations of those topics. Basically it is an information and brainstorming session. Everyone is welcome and I am asking people to send me email so I can notify them of exact time and place.
Today..Mainly
sunny. Becoming cloudy this afternoon. Wind light. High minus 1. Tuesday February 26th, 2002 239 this morning. A little exercise makes a big difference. Paulo took some samples yesterday again (from the very hives shown at the top of this page), and we are gearing up to check a sufficient number of our yards to determine how much sampling and treatment will be necessary. We have about 66 active yards, so I think we will start with ten to see if we spot anything at all. The first sample from the home yard yielded
Results like that are always suspicious. Until we hit some positives, we have no way of knowing how well our sampling is working. I recall when Eric and I did nosema tests a few years back, I could not find anything and started to doubt my technique. It was only after I had a positive to compare that I was assured that I had been doing things correctly. We just had zero nosema. Rich has been reading this diary and offered me some good advice regarding the engine work by email. I always appreciate notes from people reading who have suggestions and ideas that can help. We had visitors this afternoon, a couple from the Wainright area interested in getting started in bees. Paulo got back from 5 yards and reports 17 dead from 176. Al those were light and I assume that this was due to bad queens last fall. He will be sampling another 5 yards tomorrow and after the bees have soaked twenty-four hours, and been dissected, we will see where we are likely to wind up in terms of mites. Today..Increasing cloud this morning.
Wind becoming west 30 km/h. High minus 1.
Monday
February 25th, 2002 One more cold day and then back to more normal temperatures. I went out early to start the forklift early, since we are expecting a truck. It's minus twenty, and wouldn't you know: the guys park the FLs near a plug-in in warm weather -- and away across the yard when it is going to be cold. Anyhow, I got it started, then went in to exercise. I've been skipping the exercise since I attended the conventions two weeks ago, and have been starting to notice a lack of energy, motivation and mental crispness, so I've made a point of getting back to it the last several days. I can tell the difference right away. The truck came for our cappings around ten and Paulo loaded it, with the driver helping. Matt is taking the engine out of the car. Today..Clearing this morning. Wind
northwest 20 km/h. High minus 10. Cold wind chill minus 25 this morning. Risk of
frostbite. Ten more months until Christmas.
Sunday
February 24th, 2002 I've been busy. Here are my posts to BEE-L since Jan 2002
We watched the Olympic hockey gold medal game in the afternoon, then Meijers came by for supper.
Today..Flurries. Wind increasing to
north 30 km/h. High minus 15. Cold wind chill minus 25. Risk of frostbite. Saturday February 23rd, 2002 I got the furnace and the fridge and the stove in the camper working. I also spent away too much time at the keyboard.
Today..Mainly cloudy. Flurries this
morning. Wind north 20 km/h. High minus 13. Friday February 22nd, 2002 We are expecting a weather change, and not for better. Minus twenty and 30 km winds are not good news this late in February, but are not unusual.
Today..Occasional snow developing this
afternoon. Wind increasing to north 30 gusting 50 km/h this afternoon giving
local reduced visibility in blowing snow. High plus 2 this morning then
temperature falling this afternoon. Thursday February 21st, 2002
I built some tweezers, following Arlene's instructions and Paulo went out to take samples from the two groups of bees in the home yard. He says he saw three dead hives, but that they were on one pallet and he is pretty sure they were some duds he brought in from an outyard. I hope he is right. Seeing as he only looked at about 32 hives, that is 10%. Losses this early in the year -- other than from hives known to be very poor going into winter -- are worrisome, since losses usually are expected to come later. Arlene had mentioned that the vacuum idea shown previously did not work for them. They had blown up the unit when alcohol got sucked into the electric motor that powers it, and she says that tweezers made from sheet metal pick up five or six bees very nicely. The tweezers worked well for Paulo and he went home with some real samples. I'm waiting to see what they find. Ellen went to her art club meeting and I watched the Canadian women's hockey team play the US women's team for the gold.
Today..Increasing cloud. Wind
increasing to south 20 km/h. High plus 6. Wednesday February 20th, 2002 It's been balmy, but we are apparently now in for some cooler weather again. The pup load of materials for protein patties arrived and the guys re-loaded most of them onto a truck and trailer in preparation for my trip to Airdrie. Dennis was not feeling well and it took forever, but the job got done. I drove the materials to Global and had a good visit with Mike and Frank, then returned home. In the evening, Ellen & I watched the Canada/finland hockey game on TV. I quit watching hockey over twenty years ago when it got to be more about fighting than hockey, but thought I would watch this match. It was a good clean game, with a very satisfactory outcome.
Today..A mix of sun and cloud. Wind
westerly 20 km/h. High 8. Tuesday February 19th, 2002 Today was definitely one of those days... I woke up and noticed a blue glow around my computer. It was the BSOD1. I rebooted. During the night, defrag and AVG anti-virus2 (free version) had decided to run at the same time and that often results in a lock-up. I looked outside as soon as daylight showed itself, and it was foggy, windy and chill. I ordered the supplies for the protein patties -- Hi-way 9 is sending a pup to AHPC to get them today -- then went out to fuel the truck. While fuelling and looking over the truck, I noticed that the muffler had come off and so we had to wire it up so I could do what I needed to do during the day. After all, my car is still laid up with a bad timing chain, and besides, I was off to pick up the camper. I got down the road a way and realized that Paulo and his wife were on the way to Medivet for training, and that I might not have mentioned that they needed to take bees with them. I called and, sure enough, they had not, but we managed to get Terry Greidanus to help out and he supplied some bees. By then I had decided I'd better drop in there, since I had to go to Dewinton and High River is only a little extra distance. I got there around 11 and by then they were settled in and pulling bees apart with Arlene. One thing she pointed out tis that they built a vacuum such as shown here a few days back and that they blew up the vacuum by getting alcohol into the motor. I had wondered about that. Arlene says that they only need a few bees from each hive, and that simply folding a 2" x 10" strip of galvanized furnace duct material over makes forceps that will grab about five bees at a time- perfect! The bees can be dunked into the alcohol if the forceps are designed to fit the sample bottle and vice-versa. I visited a bit, then left around 1:30 to go get the camper. It turned out that I had no tools and the electrical hook-ups did not match, so I drove the 90 miles home with no lights. I discovered that the camper was pretty long and heavy -- 2150 lbs when I weighed it later and it handled a bit oddly, even on the 3/4 ton Camper Special truck. I had checked the tires and they were at 40 lbs in the morning. They should really be at 65 for a load like that, but at 65 the truck rides very hard running empty and I had not put them up. Anyhow, the tires did not overheat. I came the back way, but that did involve a few miles on the Trans-Canada. Not only that I went through a police checkpoint -- with no muffler and no tail or signal lights! And no comment by the cop. I made it home okay. Ellen loves the camper.
Today..Morning fog patches otherwise
cloudy. Clearing this afternoon. Wind south 20 km/h. High plus 5. Notes Monday
February 18th, 2002 I rested and tidied today. Purves-Smiths and Robinsons came over for a Family day supper. Today..A mix of sun and cloud. Wind
becoming northwesterly 20 km/h this afternoon. High plus 5. Sunday February 17th, 2002 I left around 10 AM with the intention of going to Calgary to ride the C Train (another link) (another link) all day. It seemed like an interesting idea -- to be a tourist in Calgary. I never got around to doing that, though. I dropped by Indus Airport to see what was up at my old flying school, then called a number I had been trying for a while, and, finding the people home, went to Dewinton and bought a camper. After that, I went to Shawnessy, did a little shopping, and went home. Today..Mainly sunny. Wind west 20 km/h.
High 8. It's a gorgeous warm sunny day (8:25 AM), with the temperature predicted to be a balmy 14 degrees (Celsius, of course). The bees will sure have a chance to shift around on their stores and to liquefy some of the granulated honey. They will be sitting on brood now, but only a patch on a frame or two. We won't bother trying to look, since unnecessary examinations are disruptive, possibly leading to losses later, and we can see that most hives have ample food. Today is Saturday and the first day of a long weekend. I can't decide what to do. El is still not feeling great, but I'm itchy to go somewhere today. We've been discussing going somewhere for a week or so, like Mexico, but maybe the time for that has passed. The winter is almost gone now, though and a little over one month from now we will be getting seriously to work, putting on patties, applying Apistan, feeding where necessary, etc. Spring skiing is coming up. The days are getting long and the weather warm. We are getting ahead on the summer work already, though. Last week, we spent time washing out the extractors so that we will not have that job in July. I'm hoping that we can run with lower pressure this year, since we are again set up for honey production and should be able to take more time off during the season than some previous years. I read on BEE-L that some beekeepers are extracting today. Hard to imagine. I went to Purves-Smiths for supper. El stayed home.
Today..Mainly sunny. Wind becoming
southwest 20 km/h with gusts to 40. High 14. Friday
February 15th, 2002 Today is going to be busy. I sold the old Badger forklift (at a loss) to a beekeeper friend and will have to load it this afternoon. I have an ad and an article to write today as well and a zillion other small jobs. The guys are off, since it is Friday, but Dennis is on call to load the FL and also to unload some boxes that are coming. Matt says here will be here. Monday is a holiday. Ellen woke up with laryngitis and is still under the weather.
Stan showed up after lunch and we unloaded his truck, then loaded the Badger. It took four men, two hours, and three forklifts (not including the Badger) to get the heavy machine onto his truck. The guys have Fridays off, but Matt was here doing some mechanical work, and Dennis came in to unload and reload the truck. It was warm in the afternoon, and bees were flying as we loaded, looking for anything interesting to take home. Somewhere among the other tasks, I did an
article for the Alberta BeeNews and an ad for the mite and nosema sampling
service we are offering. Today..Sunny. Wind west 30 km/h. High
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Allen's
Link of the Day: 
I
bought the Badger about eight years back and it it was one of those purchases we
all make that we realize -- even as we are in the process of completing the deal
-- will not be a good decision. It was back before we were palletized and
before we expanded and went pollinating, and my wife was against getting a
forklift. We did everything by hand or with the boom-type hive
loader. A friend told me that the wreckers in Consort were selling
out and that I could get a forklift for $1000. I hooked up a trailer and
drove all the way out there. I knew when I saw it that it was a good
machine, but more work than I would want to do. I bought it anyhow, since
I had driven all that way, and brought it home. I drove it around the yard
a time or two, parked it and then took the engine out, removed the mast, and
generally disassembled it in preparation for rebuilding. We then got busy
and parked it outside, and there it has sat since then. We since bought
another homemade machine and four Swingers, but never got back to fixing the
Badger. I'm glad to see it go to a new home, since the buyer is a patient
fixer-upper type of guy.
