Queen's Castle Beekeepers Assoc.

 2d Minutes for the Queen’s Castle Beekeepers Assoc.

                             February 22, 2014

                                    21980 U. S. Hwy 29, Andalusia, AL  36420, 334-222-0751/376-9824

   Lucy opened the meeting with a welcome to all and reported that our club treasury was now up to $450.92.

There was a lot of discussion on the following:

·         Concerning the bees in the winter time.  You need to reduce the amount of space the bees live in during colder weather.  Take all the supers off and if there are supers with honey in them, but not enough to harvest, give it back to the bees by placing it in a central area away from the hives so all the bees can clean the honey out of it for you.  OJ mentioned that when the queen stops laying the population is greatly reduced 30 days later. 

·         To make a split from your hive; take a frame with a capped queen cell or the old queen and put it/her in a new box, Add two frames of brood with bees on it and two frames with food (pollen and honey), Place these frames in the center of the new box and shift the frames to the center of the old box, then add new frames to fill the rest of the box out.

·         Your hives should usually face south or southeast when you are determining the right location for your hives.  This is to allow the morning sun to hit the hives and provides the maximum sun exposure in the winter. 

·         When should we extract the honey from the hive?  If the honey is capped, it is ready to be extracted.  If all the cells are not capped or a large amount not capped, turn the frame upside down and if it drips put it back in the hive, if it does not drip it is safe to extract.  This is a way to show that the moisture content is right or not with this test. 

·         OJ reminded everyone to keep at least a source of water near the hives at all times so they do not have to travel far to drink and bring water to the hive. 

·         It will only be a couple of weeks and we can start adding supers to the brood chambers.  It is important to wait until you have a lot of plants blooming.  In the mean time keep feeding your bees so they will be built up when the honey flow starts.

·         You can buy your nucs from Elmore Herman at Millie Bee Company.

·         Remember to clean the bottom metal tray at least every two weeks.  It is simple when you use a putty knife to do this.

·         We still need to help with laying the blocks for the bathrooms for our new club house. 

  After a delicious meal, the club went outside to observe OJ checking and cleaning the bottom metal trays.

Present at our meeting was Lucy and OJ Blount, Sharon Campbell Baglivo, Gary Barrow, Vicky Barrow, Gwin Prestwood, James and Carol Turk, Dirk Price, John Kilmer and others.