#20. Bee school is over, but the education has just begun

My novice beekeeping journey that began last February ended last month when our class met for the final session of our nine-month beginner beekeeping course at Cornell Cooperative Extension in Riverhead.  


My classmates and I are hardly on our own, however.  Besides ordering our bees, our teacher, Ray Lackey, offered a good base of knowledge, including hands-on experience with the classroom's 1/2 dozen hives, a couple of excellent books to get us started, plus an introduction to the LIBC, our Long Island beekeeping club.  But perhaps the best resource all of us novices now have is each other; Ray is going to set up a Yahoo Group for all his former students (includes 3 or 4 different classes over 2 or 3 years) so that we continue to have a forum for communication and support, and a number of us from the East End have started our own group, the South Fork Beekeepers (unofficial name).  Our group has met three times so far, and each time we came away knowing a little more.  An old-time Master Beekeeper, Pete Bizzoso, who lives in Manorville, has joined us every time, and it's great to be able to pick his brains.  We also have our own Yahoo Group now, with a current membership of about 15.


The latest meeting was this past Tuesday at my home.  There were 8 of us, and the centerpiece of the meeting was going out to work my hives.  My swarm hive, Team Purple, had already been 'put to bed' for the winter.  I did my last thorough inspection a few weeks ago.  4 boxes had comprised the hive:  3 medium 8-frames for the brood area with a medium super on top that contained mostly drawn comb, and a hive-top feeder above that.  I had been sneaking peeks (see the photo in the last blog) and was pleased to see that the bees were taking the sugar syrup down into the super, drying and capping it for the winter.  But I'd suspected that I might have some rearranging to do with the lower boxes, and I was right.  As it turned out, the bottom box was largely unused.  Some of the black plastic Pierco frames had not even been drawn out.  So I removed that box.  The next box up was heavy with honey, with no brood present.  The third box also had good honey stores, and a little bit of brood in the center.  Here's the potential problem:  we have learned that as bees eat through their stores throughout the winter, they move up - not down -, so having honey below the brood area is not useful.  (Apparently, it is not unusual for a beekeeper to open a hive in the Spring to find a colony of starved, dead bees clustered at the top of the hive, with an untouched super full of honey on the bottom of the hive.)  So I placed the box with the brood on the bottom, the full box of honey above that, and the partially-filled super over that.  The feeder box will stay on top until around Thanksgiving, or until the bees have filled every nook and cranny and stop taking the syrup down.


Based on my last inspection, I knew I had a similar scenario to contend with in the red hive.  (Both the red and yellow hives had the same box configuration as the purple hive had had.)  One unexpected wrinkle was that Team Yellow had turned so nasty last time I tried to inspect it that I had to give up halfway through the inspection, I was so overwhelmed by a cloud of angry guard bees pummeling my veil.  At the time, I wondered if it was the DNA provided by their new queen (that hive swarmed for the second time during the Autumn, so the current queen is new since then).  Alternatively, I was afraid that there might be something else insidious going on inside the hive that was stressing out the bees and upsetting them.  Apparently, a queenless colony, or a colony infested by pests, can also get testy.  Anyway, I decided to wait until I had the supervision of Pete before going into the yellow hive again.


The day of the meeting, Pete wanted to start with the yellow hive.  Besides Pete and me, there were 6 fellow beekeepers watching and ready to help.  However, as soon as we opened the yellow hive, all but 4 of us headed for the hills - Team Yellow was on the warpath!  Pete, who usually doesn't wear gloves or a veil, was stung several times, including a nasty one on the eyelid.  A bee got into the crown of my hat, through one of the grommets, and stung me thoroughly on top of my head.  Thankfully, all the unsuited onlookers moved far away and were unharmed.  Undaunted, Pete put on a veil, and the super-brave Bea and Paige helped us to inspect and reorganize the hive similarly to what I'd done with Team Purple.  Interestingly, we found no signs of the stress factors I had been fearing, like an infestation of hive beetles or hive moths.  Just a vast number of really aggressive bees.  


We moved on to the red hive, and dealt with them in a similar fashion, putting the box with brood on the bottom, with two boxes of honey above.  But the mood in the red hive was markedly different from Team Yellow.  Box after box, the bees kept to their business and tolerated us extremely well.  Note that this is the hive that produced the vast majority of my honey this year - like 60 lbs., compared to 15 lbs. from the yellow hive.  All in all, an excellent colony.  The yellow hive, in contrast, was problematic from the very beginning, first being weak, then swarming more than once, and finally becoming aggressive.  If all three colonies survive the winter, it will be interesting to see how they develop in the Spring.  Aggressive bees have a reputation for producing a lot of honey.  If that's the case, I may try to tolerate Team Yellow's crankiness.  Otherwise, this is a case where I will consider replacing the queen.


My bee friend Josie, at whose home in Springs we met for our last meeting, brought me a fabulous gift when she came to the meeting at my house.  She had been caring for 2 hives in Montauk all summer at a lakeside rental of a NY designer.  He wanted bees for the summer, so he had them shipped down from upstate NY to the tune of $1500.00, and then gave her the colonies to move back to The Springs when he moved back to NYC after Labor Day.  Wow.  Anyway, I had gone over one day to help her with the bees, and asked her if she was going to want both the unused nuc boxes that the colonies were originally shipped in.  Well, she brought me one of the setups.  They are great!  Heavy duty plywood construction.  2 deep boxes just 5 frames wide, with a shallow super, plus frames, a lid, and even a queen excluder!  I will modify them by cutting them down to medium depth, and I'll be all ready to go in the Spring when a swarm appears, or when I decide to split one of my hives.


I'll end by including a recipe for panmelati, an Italian confection that I made and entered at the LIBC annual honey show last month.  (See post #19.)  It is modified from a Lidia Bastianich recipe.  These make a great holiday treat to finish off a meal, perhaps with a glass of vin santo, eiswein, or other dessert wine.  My only criticism is that they are a bit soft, so you might want to try adding more bread crumbs to stiffen up the 'batter'.  Also, they keep forever, and would make a terrific hostess gift, especially if made with your backyard honey!

PANMELATI

4 large navel oranges, washed & dried
3 cups honey
1 cup fine, dried bread crumbs (see note above)
2 cups toasted walnuts, finely chopped (or try with other nuts)  
2 Tbsp. brandy or other alcohol (optional)
vegetable oil

• Peel oranges and clean away all the light-colored pith.  Slice into thin strips and dice finely and evenly.  There should be about 1 cup.
• Mix peel and honey in a saucepan and heat to a simmer, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes, or until peel is somewhat translucent.
• Stir in 1 cup of nuts and the crumbs.  Simmer, stirring frequently, about 10 minutes, or until the mixture pulls away from the sides of the pan.  Stir in brandy.  Remove from heat.
• Scrape mixture onto a lightly oiled work surface.  When cool enough to handle, break off small pieces and roll with oiled hands.  Then roll the balls in the reserved nuts.

Makes 60+ pieces.