Hivelights

Our May weather has certainly been a mix of at least 3 seasons. The New Zealand packages that arrived in late April were doing well in the 25+° weather – then it snowed and gale-force winds tossed hive lids like Frisbees. Before we could get them all back on, a few of the hives had perished in the cold conditions. Thankfully the 36 hour power failure only impeded us – not the bees!

The next beekeeping chore (between cleaning up the ‘dead outs’ or dead hive boxes) was to split some of the remaining strong hives to increase our numbers and replace our winter losses. That was done last week, the new queens (from California) were introduced a few days later and this week we checked them, hoping for a good acceptance rate.

Back at home, the observation hive was not successful in making their own queen so a new one was introduced 10 days ago. We have had difficulty spotting her and so far there are no tell-tale eggs or larvae either so we are suspicious that she may have been rejected by the group. We’ll give it another week or so and then move to plan C – taking more brood from another hive and hoping they will make a queen.

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Buzz Notes

New in the store – bee baby plush toys
New in the store – 6 kg size creamed honey
Back in the store – propolis soap (and royal jelly soap too)
Flavours of the Foothills Discount Coupons – click here for yours

UPCOMING EVENTS
Saturday June 12
1st Millarville Farmer's Market
From 8.30 am until 12 pm
Click here for more info

Saturday August 28
Flavours of the Foothills
Harvest Festival
Click here for more info

Product of the Month

Hard Working Hand Salve

Many of us spend much of May and June on our knees, with our hands in the wonderful soil. Later, after you’ve scrubbed your hands clean, Hard Working Hand Salve is just the thing to return moisture to your skin and repair roughness, cracks and chapping. The balm is all natural with such beneficial ingredients as calendula, beeswax, shea butter, honey and vitamin E – and a little goes a long way.
It is available in both the 40g size at $9.95 and the 80g size for $15.95.

Mead Matters

The weekend of May 15 marked the release of our 2 newest meads, Excalibur and Raspberry Rhapsody. They have met with rave reviews, especially the Excalibur which Art has been very secretive about. Its classic rich, honey flavour is winning over many who were previous Melissa’s Gold fans.

In late April we entered Buckaroo Buckwheat and Bodacious Black Currant in our 1st ever wine competition. The competition was the North West Wine Summit which included the northwest states and provinces. There were numerous wine categories but only a few fruit wine and mead divisions. We were quite happy that both meads won silver medals. It’s rewarding and good inspiration to enter more competitions and keep improving our products.

Bees and Honey in the News

Infections link to bees decline

Wednesday, 26 May 2010 9:55 UK
By Katia Moskvitch Science reporter, BBC News

US researchers claim to have identified a new potential cause for Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) in honeybees.
The disease is responsible for wiping out many beekeepers' entire colonies over the past few years.
Scientists from the US Department of Agriculture say the pathogens to blame are a fungus and a family of viruses. 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science_and_environment/10159361.stm

Cherie's Web Picks

1. Beekeepers turn away from chemical cash deals after safety fears
http://www.agroclipping.com.ar/2010/05/05/Beekeepers-turn-away-from-chemical-cash-deals-after-safety-fears/

2. Project of Assistance to populations hit by a broad catastrophe
http://www.apitherapyreview.org/article51.php

3. Smart Planet: Can bees be trained to prevent plant disease?
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/smart-planet-can-bees-be-trained-to-prevent-plant-disease/35023

4. Elephants Have an Alarm Call for Bees
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2010/04/elephants-have-an-alarm-call-for.html

5. Biologist discovers 'stop' signal in honey bee communication
http://www.apitherapyreview.org/article55.php

Teasing Trivia

Q: How much does a honey bee weigh?
A:.Worker honey bees weigh about a tenth of a gram and are usually between ½ to 5/8 inch long. Queens and Drones are longer and weigh a bit more. Beekeepers who purchase bees buy them by the pound. There are on an average about 3500 bees in a pound.