[at-l] Bees-OT

[Carla & Dave Hicks]

Wayne

Glad someone with more experience than I spoke to the AHB issue.  As a 
backyard hobbyist, I was reluctant to weigh in.

Chainsaw

BTW -- Please give Jan your take on how/when the 20 hours / colony / year 
cluster throughout the course of the year and how the spring work spaces 
itself out.  FWIW -- My reluctance to expand beyond the backyard level is the 
problem finding extended periods of time to hike, Spring and Fall.  With only 
three colonies, I can get an other club member to cover for me [for a share of 
the honey], or take the colonies off my hands [in exchange for colonies the 
following year], or buy the colonies.



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Wayne Bell" <rainmaker at onlinexpress.net>
To: <at-l at backcountry.net>
Cc: <janl2 at mindspring.com>
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2006 7:58 PM
Subject: [at-l] Bees-OT


Jan, taking the NC State certified Beekeeping course is an important
first step. Also join a local Beekeeping association. There you'll
probably find an "old Fart" whose own children aren't interested in
beekeeping and who would be willing to be a mentor. Their knowledge is
priceless. Go ahead and order you bees now, at least two three #
packages with queens. As for my apiary, my 30 (more or less) colonies
take about 20 hours of attention per colony per year. This year I
harvested about 1500 # of honey and I'll sell all of it. The joint NC/SC
beekeepers meeting will be held in Matthews, NC March 2 and 3, 2007.
Please join us. I'll share what I know about beekeeping if you'll share
you're hiking experiences with Madame and me. We'll be section hiking
Pennsylvania next year.

Dust, US beekeepers do not intentionally keep Africanized Honey Bee
colonies. The articles you cited in your post were all in states with
feral AHB colonies and it appears the incidents were unintentional
disturbances of feral AHB colonies. The first line of defense against
AHB infestation will be well trained beekeepers who use queens that have
been bred to produce productive, hygienic and gentle workers. I
personally use Russian Queens which are more defensive than their
Italian cousins. Nevertheless, I usually work my colonies with no
protective clothing. I do get stung, but rarely, and usually it my
fault. AHB are a different matter. They are super defensive and super
successful at reproducing themselves. As they continue expanding their
territory, beekeepers and the public will need to be educated to avoid
all feral colonies until they can be identified. Removal should only be
attempted by competent folk. BTW, there's a fellow in either Arizona or
New Mexico who earns a living removing AHB colonies from people's
property. He also collects the honey and sells it as Killer Bee Honey.
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