U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

The Xerces Society

Pollinator Partnership

I’d also like to remind you that in addition to your honeybee hives you can also build nests for other bees. Two of our members, Jack Borden and Elizabeth Cunningham spent some time in France and Switzerland a few years ago and came back with some great images of native bee/pollinator habitats. Notice all of the different materials that are used.

Small Insect Tower

Small Insect House

Small Insect House in garden

February 17      Snellgrove Boards Frontier Senior Center

March 17     Bears Frontier Senior Center

March 26    Massachusetts State Beekeeper’s Association Spring Meeting and Southern Adirondack Beekeepers Association Spring Meeting

April 21     TBA

May 19     TBA

June 23     Field Day UMass Agronomy Farm

July 21     Annual Pot Luck Picnic

July 25-29    Eastern Apiculture Society summer convention

August 18     FCF Planning Meeting

September 8-11     Franklin County Fair No meeting

October 20     Annual Business Meeting Frontier Senior Center

October 29    Massachusetts Beekeeper’s Association Fall Meeting

November  17     TBA Frontier Senior Center

December     No meeting–Happy Holidays

The Frontier Senior Center is located at 67 North Main Street, South Deerfield. You can get directions by clicking here. We will post other meeting places as they come up. For non-FCBA meetings please click on the link to get more information.

Here are some pictures of how my two topbar hives fared in 2010. One failed completely (most of the package bees joined the other hive, the queen failed, and the colony never recovered). The other did very well and I hope will be strong going into 2011.

Some pros and cons of topbar hives:

Pros:
- Simple, easy to manage, cheap to build
- Avoids drawbacks of Langstroth hives (if you believe that there are any)
- Natural cell size, natural hive organization
- Fewer varroa mites because of small cell size? (probably not)

Cons:
- Less honey, destructive honey harvest
- Not compatible; you can’t swap frames with “normal” hives

Here are a few web resources on topbar hives: Wikipedia. Barefoot Beekeeper (has a book and free plans for download). Top Bar Beekeeping. Or just run this Google search.

Did your bees do such an extraordinary job pollinating your garden that you are ankle deep in vegetables and fruits right now? FCBA member Bruce Harrision’s wife Kathy will be presenting a workshop on Food Preservation later this month sponsored by NOFA. Information on registering, contacting NOFA, and the event itself are listed below.

NORTHAMPTON, MA – The Northeast Organic Farming Association/ Massachusetts Chapter (NOFA/Mass) is holding a hands-on workshop on how to preserve food from the fall harvest on September 18 from 9:00am to 3:00pm at St. John’s Episcopal Church on 48 Elm Street in Northampton. The event is part of the Massachusetts Food Preservation Workshop Days. Similar events will be held in 8 other towns and cities throughout the state in September, including Ashland, Brookline, Shirley, Groton, Winchendon Springs, Barre,  Princeton, and Great Barrington. Registration cost is $50; $5 discount for NOFA/Mass members.

“Every year people are planting more and bigger backyard gardens and enjoying the tremendous wealth of produce available from local farms in the fall. To enjoy this bounty throughout the winter, it’s helpful to re-learn some techniques for preserving food at home that our grandparents probably used but that many of us haven’t learned yet,” said Ben Grosscup, the event organizer. “With this event, we’re offering the public an opportunity to learn basic skills they need to get started from experienced food preservation educators.”

The workshop in Northampton will be taught by Kathy Harrison who is author of “Just in Case: How to be Self-Sufficient When the Unexpected Happens,” a mother of seven and an avid food preservationist. She lives in Cummington.

“When I put food on the table, it matters to me to know where it came from,” said Harrison. “I preserve food because it is the easiest way to be able to know this. Every meal at our home, we remember specifically where each ingredient came from. Each jar of peaches served has a name of a person who grew them or a memory of how we grew them ourselves during the previous season. We also talk about what we could do next year to be able to grow more of certain things we like on our own land.”

Harrison says workshop participants should be prepared for an intense schedule and learning about a variety of new techniques. A few highlights of the workshop will be learning how to use a dehydrator to put by vegetables, can sauces and preserves using water bath canning, pickling techniques for delicious condiments that can complement the main meal, ways to safely can meat using a pressure cooker, as well as cold storage for root crops.

Workshop participants will receive hand-outs on what different techniques are ideal for various crops, and list of the top resources available for learning more details about food preservation. Workshop participants are encouraged to bring their own questions to the workshops.

“Incorporating these food preservation techniques into your life helps you save money, lessen your dependence on industrialized agriculture, and provide wonderful flavor and nutrition all year round for your family,” said Grosscup. “The best time to preserve food is the same as when backyard gardens and local farm stands reach the height of the season’s harvest. Savoring fresh summer flavors is an enjoyable way to make it through the winter.”

For information on how to register, visit www.nofamass.org, or contact Ben Grosscup 413-658-5374, <ben.grosscup@nofamass.org>. The workshop cost is $50, and there is a $5 discount for membership in NOFA/Mass. Pre-registration is requested, but on-site registration is available for an extra $5 charge. If you plan to do a walk in registration, please call Ben Grosscup in advance to find out if there is space availability. A potluck lunch will be shared at the event, and registrants are invited to bring something to share or bring their own lunch.

About NOFA/Mass

NOFA/Mass (Northeast Organic Farming Association, Massachusetts Chapter) is a community including farmers, gardeners, landscapers and consumers working to educate members and the general public about the benefits of local organic systems based on complete cycles, natural materials, and minimal waste for the health of individual beings, communities and the living planet. The NOFA/Mass office is located at 411 Sheldon Road in Barre, MA 01005; telephone is (978) 355-2853. Visit www.nofamass.org for much more information.

• I just got through my harvest time here.  2 of my 3 hives had swarms, and barely produced anything!  I was pretty bummed.  Maybe it was the swarms, or the dry weather.  I wonder if anyone else was in the same boat?

Anne G.

• I wasn’t able to get to the meeting the other night an was wondering if anyone had any good thoughts about increasing honey production in a drought?  My new hives have almost no honey and I am worried.  Heard anything helpful?

Eva G.

Last weeks meeting brought up some questions about getting your honey ready for entry at the fair. Here are some basics that the Eastern Apiculture Society  judges look at:

1. Density and moisture content should optimally be between 15.5% - 17.0%.

2. There should be an absence of crystals.

3. Cleanliness counts. You don’t want lint, dirt, wax or foam in your honey. The “cleanest” honey is from the middle of your bucket. Save the top and bottom pours to use or sell.

4. Flavor. Fermentation will get you disqualified. Over smoking prior to pulling your honey can affect the taste.

5. Container appearance can include bubbles in your glass or fingerprints on your jar. No labels either. Bring fresh jar lids to the competition in case any honey sloshed up on the inside of your original lid.

6. Accuracy of filling is important too. Fill both jars evenly. Maximum headroom between honey and top of jar is 1/2″, minimum 3/8″.

Directions:

Earthdance is about 1 mile off of Route 9 in Plainfield up Packard Street (turn off between Cummington and West Cummington, closer to West Cummington on the right, 252 Prospect Street.

Bee Bath (formally a bird bath)

It has been really dry and hot recently in western Massachusetts. Do your bees have access to water so that they can create their own air conditioning? Worker bees collect water and place droplets of water along the edge of cells. House bees then fan their wings and create bee “air conditioning” as the air flows over the water droplets evaporating and cooling the air inside the hive.

Honeybees will gather water from many different sources–a dripping faucet, mud puddle, swimming pool, bird bath. Make sure that your bees have a good, consistent water supply, especially in this dry weather. Bees can be conditioned to come to a source that stays consistent. I’ve set up the modified birdbath you see above. Originally it was set up for birds, but then we noticed that the bees kept coming to it. I added the rocks after I watched a few bees who fell in try unsuccessfully to do the backstroke. Now the girls have something to crawl out on if they fall in.

Club members Jack B. and Elizabeth C. saw these moss watering troughs (picture below) when they traveled to Switzerland a few years ago. It’s simply a box filled with rocks and moss to which the beekeeper adds a gallon of water to each day. It’s a great idea and if you look closely you’ll see all the bees on the moss.

Do any of you  have bee watering idea you’d like to share?

Moss watering trough for Bees

2012 Meeting Schedule

Jan: Excellence in Queens

Feb: TBA

March: TBA

April: TBA

May: TBA

June: No meeting, instead MA State Beekeepers Field Day June 23

July: Potluck Picnic

August: TBA

September: No meeting, instead Franklin County Fair Bee Booth, September 6-9

October: Business Meeting, at the Senior Center South Deerfield

November: Cooking with Honey, at the Senior Center South Deerfield

December: no meeting