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September 1st to 10th, 2004
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It
has been said that man is a rational animal.
All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this.
-- Bertrand Russell --
Left panel on?
Yes
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No
The image heading this page came attached
to the following message from Silvio in Brazil. I like it.
Dear Allen
I am beekeeper and designer. It follows my homage to your
professionalism and the great enthusiast of the beekeeping you are.
Put it in your next issue, if you like to.
Silvio -- Jaraguá do Sul - Brazil
|
Medhat
called around noon and said he was in the area, so I invited him over.
We had coffee, then decided to visit Meijers. We wandered through
their honey house, discussing various matters, then decided to go for supper
in Drum. We went to Fred and Barney's.
See the Power Trac
go. (video)
Calgary Weather: Today : Cloudy with sunny periods. 60 percent chance of
showers late this afternoon with the risk of a thunderstorm. Fog patches early
this morning. Wind becoming east 20 km/h near noon. High 19. UV index 4 or
moderate. /
Tonight : Cloudy. 60 percent chance of showers this evening with the risk of a
thunderstorm. Clearing near midnight. Wind northeast 20 km/h becoming northwest
20 this evening. Low 5. / /
Normals for the period : Low 6. High 19.
Fall is coming, and the ideal time to
treat with oxalic is October/November, when the brood area is minimum
and the temperatures outside are around zero Celsius. You all know
how I feel about coumaphos (Checkmite+). I would not put it into a
hive except in the direst emergency. Even though it is approved,
it is being widely abused (used for routine, rather than emergency
situations) , and with the recommendation of provincial apiarists.
Unfortunately, oxalic, which is benign and effective is still not
officially sanctioned. I
recently talked to Cor and he says he is having good success with two
evaporations a year and nothing else in the way of treatment.
See
Cor Dewit's Oxalic method
I asked CHC how the official approval
process for oxalic is coming along and whether approval will be for both
evaporation and drizzling.
> I hope that the pending registration
for oxalic will include both > evaporation and drenching techniques, not just one or the other. >
> Any luck getting the US guys interested in sharing the effort?
The application request includes both end
uses.
We did not try to get the US interested.
It is hard enough getting Canadians interested in the idea and did not
go the extra step to involve others. Once we register the product we can
make arrangements with them later.
Robin Owen is supervising
the project but everything has been unbelievably slow. Gathering all
the reference documents is tedious and has taken more time than we
thought. However it is well underway and we hope to submit very soon.
The project is still short of funding.
CHC depends on beekeeper donations for financing this effort.
Since approval will save Canadian beekeepers about $4 per hive per year,
how about coughing up some of the dough you will save to support the
project. Visit the
CHC site for
contact info or call 403-208-7141.
Do it today. |
Calgary Weather: Today : Cloudy with sunny periods. 60 percent chance of
showers. Risk of thunderstorms this afternoon. Wind becoming northwest 30
km/h this afternoon. High 12. UV index 3 or moderate. / Tonight : Rain. Risk
of thunderstorms this evening. Amount 5 mm. Wind northwest 30 km/h becoming
light this evening. Low 6. / Normals for the period : Low 6. High 19.
A message in
my inbox:
Did I have a
bad dream? ...about a conference call between the major US honey
packers and they decided the price this fall would be $1.10 per lb.
-- down 30 cents from JUNE'S MARKET?
There is
however a short crop everywhere, and foreign honey cannot supply all
the white honey in the US. Maybe that is why that big packer
in eastern Pennsylvania came up to $1.15, Another generous
millionaire.
Hope
everyone hangs on to their honey for awhile.
Short of
cash? Don't let that pressure you into selling too cheap.
Use the Advance Payment for Crops program available through the Alberta
Beekeepers Association in Alberta, and provincial organizations
elsewhere in Canada. It guarantees loans against the crop in
storage for up to one year.
I called
the Mid-US Honey Price Hotline (763-658-4193) and here is what I
heard.
-
Updated
September 1
-
Cdn crop
is down -- Crop looks like average to 20% down
-
$1.35
Cdn offered from Grossman
-
$US1.15
paid for amber recently
-
Barkman
was offering $US1.20 now $US1.10
-
Some
came in at $US1.09 -- west coast from Canada
-
Mid west
US production spotty. Big mite problems. Concern
about bees for the almonds?
-
Thinks
the price may go to $1.30- $1.40 for white after the final
numbers are known.
Seems the
Canucks are getting with the program. I see that some are now
calling the line, which formerly had mostly US reports, AND leaving
info to share with others.
IMO, this is
service very important, and it is very important we all
contribute to the common good.
Knowledge is
power. Honey packers constantly share price and volume info,
and that works very much to their advantage, but many beekeepers
think they are being smart by keeping their cards close to their
chest. They are wrong. By doing so, we all lose.
Some think
that if everyone has the same good information, that the competition
will increase, and they will lose an advantage, but, in my
experience, different people will use the same shared information in
different ways. Each has different beliefs and priorities and
reaches different conclusions.
|
Calgary Weather:
Friday : Showers. Wind becoming northwest 20 km/h late in the morning. High
11.
El & I drove to
Carbon in the afternoon. Ellen went to a local art gallery, and I
drove down to look at a coal stoker system.
Coal is much cheaper
than gas, and our place is big. We use coal as our fuel and our furnace
is a fully automatic stoker, but we are looking at improving it.
Calgary Weather:
Today : A mix of sun and cloud. Wind becoming west 20 km/h this afternoon.
High 20. UV index 5 or moderate. /
Tonight : Cloudy. Clearing near midnight. Wind northwest 20 km/h. Low 5. /
Normals for the period : Low 5. High 19.
We spent the day at
home. Ellen is still recovering from the intestinal upset she
experienced immediately after returning from China.
Ruth came for supper
and stayed until 9.
Hi Allen,
I understand that many beekeepers in
Alberta feed in the fall using open drums filled with straw to prevent
drowning. I'd like to try this method this year since I have one large
wintering yard that is relatively isolated from other yards (3 miles
minimum distance). This would eliminate the cost of buying an extra 100
feeder pails plus the time to fill and place on the hives. What I need
to know is how much straw to use and if oat straw is OK.
BTW, thanks for posting honey price
trends. The short honey crop certainly does apply around here. I have
about 1/3 less total crop than last season with 25% more colonies. The
good thing is that colour is very white. Any offer less than $1.50 C /lb
is opportunity buying on behalf of the packers. Beekeepers must hold on.
With several years of good prices, there shouldn't be a huge need for
cash, plus like you stated, beekeepers can take advantage of the cash
advance program through the provincial associations.
Gilles
I
checked my
selected topics and see that drum feeding is not on the list.
Spring feeding is and I'll do a
site search and add drum feeding now. Here are some links:
(1),
(2),
(3)
I should also describe the straw and
the arrangement here, since I could not find a good description in the
diary:
The straw we use is whole straw, not
crushed. The stems should be round and not flattened, and the
straw should not be rotten or water-soaked. We use wheat straw
where we can find it. Grass can work well, too.
We
take the straw from the bale and sprinkle it into the drum -- either
full of syrup or not -- in a circular motion, so that it does not all
line up one way. We want a criss-cross, porous mat about four
inches thick. The idea is that the bees can crawl up and down
through it easily, and that it will cover the surface entirely, but not
make finding and reaching the syrup surface difficult. We
sometimes throw some old comb scrapings or a broken frame onto the to of
the straw to act as a notice to the bees that syrup is there, since
otherwise they may not recognize it, especially if they have never had
syrup before.
Experimentation is the key. Too
much straw, or too dense a mat, and the bees will not be able to feed. Too little
straw or too loose, and they
will drown. In Fall, if it rains a lot, water may sit on the
surface of open drums and prevent the bees from recognizing the syrup.
Water may need to be removed. Moreover, open drums may attract
livestock or wildlife, and syrup will kill them if they drink much, so
many of us use some sort of lid arrangement to protect the syrup and the
animals. See the links.
The syrup we feed is 67% sugar/water, as it
comes, delivered from the sugar factory. At this thickness, any
bees that fall into the syrup tend to float to the edge and emerge dry,
if there is a good spot to climb out.
A good yard of hungry bees will empty a drum
or more in a day.
If there is a limited surface area for
feeding, such as where only one drum is open, and many bees competing
for syrup, there can be a tendency for bees to fight, and a lot of bees
can be killed in the drum. For that reason, we often use several
drums in a yard, and partially fill them. Done right, we often see
less than a handful of bees left behind when a drum is empty.
We often see that the closer to the
hives, the faster the drums empty. Any hives that we see robbed
out are ones that are too weak to winter and usually drone layers or
otherwise impaired. We
seldom see any robbing of hives as a result of open feeding, and I
really do not know how much of a beekeeper's syrup would be taken by a
neighbour's yard a mile distant, if the home bees are strong and they
are aware. I doubt it would be much.
If bees are not familiar with syrup in drums
and are reasonably well fed in Fall, when the weather gets cooler, they
may ignore syrup brought to them for days, even if there is good flying
weather. The bees can be alerted to the feed by either pouring a
little on each cluster or by squirting some into all entrances in a
yard. We feed in relays.
We start with a drum or two as soon as we pull honey to prevent any
starvation, and to give the bees a start. Then we wait a week or
two and feed again. This time, the bees that are well fed will
show less interest, and the lighter colonies will fill. We do this
again later, after the bees have settled down, and often feed into late
October
We feed pretty much all the bees will
take, but staging the feedings reduces the risk that some hives will pig
out and cram their hives to the point where they are forced down too far
and cannot consume enough of the feed to get back to the top during
winter in time for brood rearing. |
Calgary Weather:
Today : A mix of sun and cloud. Wind west 20 km/h becoming north 30 near
noon. High 14. UV index 5 or moderate. /
Tonight : A few clouds. Low 2 with risk of frost. /
Normals for the period : Low 5. High 19.
We drove over to
look at the furnace again, then rested for the afternoon, and went to
Purves-Smiths' for supper.
Calgary Weather: Today : A mix of sun and cloud. High 17. UV index 4 or
moderate. /
Tonight : Cloudy. Wind east 20 km/h becoming light near midnight. Low 6. /
Normals for the period : Low 5. High 18.
Ellen
returned from China last week, and brought home a jar of Chinese honey as a
treat.
We took it out at
supper with beekeeper friends, Meijers, visiting to try it, and were amazed.
If it is honey, it is not like any we have ever tasted. It felt strange on
the tongue, and the flavour was like an added perfume.
Honey? HFCS?
Ultra-filtered honey? Dunno. None of us wanted more. Yuck.
Moisture? 24.6%!
Calgary Weather: Today : A few showers ending this morning then cloudy with
sunny periods. High 17. UV index 4 or moderate. / onight : Cloudy periods. Low 4.
/
Normals for the period : Low 5. High 18.
Book work.
Calgary Weather:
Wednesday : Sunny with cloudy periods. Wind becoming southeast 30 km/h in
the afternoon. High 19.
I drove with Joe,
Oene and Jake up to see Cor Dewit to discuss oxalic treatment for varroa.
he has been doing some research and we wanted to see his system in
operation.
After visiting Cor,
we stopped in New Sarepta to see the Mini Flame coal stoker/boiler unit.
The Mini Flame is a 150,000 coal fired boiler system that sits outside and
provided both heat and hot water.
I heat with coal
presently, but need to either rebuild my current forced air system or
replace it one of these days. This unit looks very worthwhile and is
very much cheaper to run than natural gas (NG). I'm considering having
both, a coal boiler, and a NG boiler, feeding a hot water system, with NG
picking up if the coal unit cannot keep up or fails for some reason.
The downside with coal, even automatic systems, is that they need to be
checked regularly, and ashes need to be removed periodically.
The ABA convention
is coming up again, and it is again at the West Edmonton Mall (WEM).
I notice that the
ABA have mention of the convention on
their site,
but again, this year, there is no no registration form or agenda. I
hope they get that on the site soon, for those who are out-of-province.
Time is running out.
Thinking of
attending?
Here is some general Edmonton information, and WEM info, too.
Calgary Weather:
Thursday : Cloudy. 30 percent chance of showers. Low 7. High 15.
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so much by what you acquire but by what you give away,"
-- Larry Wall (the inventor of Perl) |
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