NYC BEEKEEPING 2010 CLASS (1)

FREE WINTER COURSE LECTURE 1

Wednesday 11/10/2010

New York Arsenal

Central Park, 64^th St, and 5^th Ave.

The first lecture of the Fall Series given by New York City Beekeeping took place at the New York Arsenal last Wednesday, November 10^th. The Arsenal is a huge old building located just inside Central Park where East 64^th Street terminates at 5^th Avenue.

Jim Fischer conducted the class and Liane Newton, the current Organizer of NYC Beekeeping, handled the sign-in table and helped keep things moving along.

The room was packed and most of the seats were taken by the time I arrived. Over 140 people had signed up for the series of FREE beekeeping classes and some people had to be put on a waiting list.

As more people arrived and people were left standing without seats, Liane and I went up one floor to the outdoor terrace and brought down 10 extra seats. The seats were a little stiff from not being opened and closed regularly so it took a bit of trial and error, as well as a bit of muscle, to get them set up. Eventually everyone had a place to sit.

In the meantime Jim had started the slide show. I’d seen some of his slides before at various events conducted by the NYC Beekeeping MeetUp this summer, but most covered material that was new to me.

The material covered was both interesting and informative. It included introductory material about the different kinds of bees, the anatomy of the hive, and the kinds of forage available to bees in NYC.

One fact Jim mentioned that may not seem immediately obvious to new and future beekeepers in the City:

Bees make their living mostly off trees.

So trees provide the majority of bee food in the city. Beekeepers need to know more about city trees and be involved in the city treescape. The City has a program called A Million Trees. Beekeepers should make a effort to influence the types of trees planted to insure that they are species that provide forage for our bees.

(This is a good place for me mention that I am putting together a Google Map of bee-related information for New York City. The map will contain the location of forage trees, empty and abandoned lots in need of flower seeds, and the approximate locations of bee hives – located to the nearest block or intersection to protect beekeeper privacy.)

One of Jim’s slides two columns showing the contrasts between what the bees want and what the beekeeper wants. The following is from my notes, and I only jotted down the beekeepers wants, so the bee side of the table below may not be completely accurate.

The Bees Want:	The Beekeeper Wants:
Build-up ON the bloom.	Build-up BEFORE the bloom.
To use any queen they can come up with.	To keep the queen provided.
Produce a normal number of drones.	Produce fewer drones.
To reproduce by swarming.	NO SWARMS !!!
Make honey to survive the winter.	Make as much honey as possible.
Make new comb when needed.	Make new comb often on the beekeepers whim.
To defend their hive.	As few stings as possible.

One item that came up during the discussion was that Tim, who has kept bees for thirteen years and runs the blog Borough Bees, is interested in obtaining one or more swarms of bees to provide hives for the Value Added project in Red Hook. So keep him in mind when swarming season arrives if you wind up with an extra swarm and no place to put it.

General information:

The series of 10 (or possibly more) classes will be the equivalent of a college course in beekeeping.

This set of classes and demonstrations is intended to provide a cost-free comprehensive foundation for new beekeepers and to foster a community of cooperative beekeepers who work together throughout the year to help each other learn more about beekeeping.

The goal of NYC Beekeeping is to operate in a non-profit mode, to help people get own bee equipment at a discount through group purchases. Larger pieces of equipment to harvest wax and honey will be shared as a group co-op purchase.

People will be given an opportunity to extract and bottle their own honey as a group in a proper commercial kitchen. People were told that messing up their own kitchens is something they would not want to do.

(All of the above is a refreshing contrast to other bee “courses” I have seen offered in the city that provide a single one-day class for something like $150. The other organization also asked for part of your honey crop if you used their equipment to extract your honey. )

Brooklyn Beekeepers Club Anual Honey Tasting & Open Bar

Last night I attended this months meeting of the NYC Beekeepers Assoc and saw a handout for the following:

Honey Tasting
The Brooklyn Beekeepers Club's Annual Honey Tasting will be held Thursday Nov. 4 from 6-9pm at Choice Greene, (214 Greene@Grand) Brooklyn.

One block from the 'G' train on Lafayette/Classon or a 10 minute walk from the 'C' train at Franklin.

$12 at the door includes open bar (with our signature honey sangria), the honey tasting, and chance at dozens of door prizes!

$5 at the door if you bring honey to sample.

*FREE for BBC members

(I learned that $20 memberships for the club will be available there)
See the handout at:
http://brooklynbeekeepersclub.blogspot.com/

Bee on the salt shaker: What do you do?

I was preparing lunch this morning in my kitchen and reached for the salt shaker. On the top of the salt shaker was a honey bee.

She probably flew in through a gap in the cat door last night, attracted by the neon lights in the kitchen.

What would you do? Pick up some solid object and try and smash it?  This would be a violation of Rule One of beekeeping.

Rule One: Don't box with bees. They are faster then you are.

What I did was to gently pick up the salt shaker, open the back door, stick my arm out of the back door and give my wrist a sharp twist, dislodging the little honey.

The is not the first bee I've found in my kitchen in the morning.  Several times it the past I have entered the kitchen on a bright summer morning and found one or more bees trying desperately to get out through the closed window or screen.

My solution at such times was to pick up a hand towel, press it gently against the glass, scrunch it up slightly and then shake it out on the back porch, freeing the bee.

A much better solution then going postal on the bee.
-Dennis

Saturdays NYC Beekeeping meeting for Fall and Winter preperations.

I just gave 4 stars to FALL & WINTER PREP FOR YOUR BEES meeting run by New York City Beekeeping.  

If you want frequent eyes-on and up-close bee knowledge presented in a format that is free and open to all, then the NYC Beekeeping is a constant source of satisfaction for NYC beekeepers.

In spite of subway problems and feeling under the weather I was glad I attended.

The single tip to paint the edge of your queen excluder red so you can see it at a glance and be reminded to take it off your hive before winter starts could, by itself, make the difference between disaster and a live hive in the Spring.

The slide show was full of useful images that illustrated the right an wrong ways to go about caring for your bees.

I still find myself thinking of the two images of bees treated with powdered sugar. On the left was a bee that looked normal if a little pale. This was a bee that had been properly "poofed" with powdered sugar.  The right side image showed bees that were so over coated with powdered sugar that they looked like some strange breed of bees that spend their days flying through Antarctic blizzards.

If this blog entry is being read by the new crop of beekeepers in following years then be sure to attend NYC Beekeeping Fall and Winter prep meeting the next time it is offered.
-Dennis

Work is the Curse of the Beekeeping Class

Consider this quote from Oscar Wilde:
     "Work is the curse of the drinking class."

Isn't the same thing true for beekeepers?

It's getting cooler in the mornings and the bees are not hanging out on the hives' porch when I go out to get my daily "fix" of observing the comings and goings of the little honies before heading off to my job.

It's warmer in the middle of the day and no doubt they are out and about, but I won't be there to see them.

To paraphrase Oscar Wilde:
Work is the curse of the beekeeping class.

(But it gives the hobbyist beekeeper the where with all to buy the necessary hive furniture.)

Saturday is supposed to be mostly sunny.
:)

Sunday's forecast is for showers.
:(

Anyway, you can find me att the Pacific Standard down on 4th Avenue, 7 PM Friday nights after work, having a pint of fine microbrew beer, if you want to join me in drowning my sorrows.


-Dennis

A Warning to Bugs

I found this bit on the internet and had to grin. I hope no bees were harmed. 

A Notice to Bugs found on a Buddhist Temple
http://www.thereformedbuddhist.com/2010/08/notice-to-bugs-found-on-buddhist-temple.html

Notice to Spray Pesticides

   This is to inform all ants, insects and other creatures
that we will be spraying pesticides in 5 days time. This 
temple is a place for cultivation. Please do not disturb or
cause alarm to residents. We hope all ants, insects and other
creatures can leave this place as soon as possible to avoid 
being harmed.
    We hope all guarding spirits can help insure all these 
creatures leave the temple in time.
   We dedicate all merits from the Compassionate Mantra 
to all ants, insects and other creatures so they can be reborn 
in the Pure Land of enlightenment.

Sisterhood

I found this poem on thee BEE-L mailing list
and tried to contact the author to ask if it had been published anywhere
but never got a reply.

I feel this poem resonates with the theme of this blog.

      SISTERHOOD

Our abode is modest—small wooden boxes

painted cloister-white, scattered upon a

sunny hill.  There we sustain our meager

existence on eager diet of water, honey, and

pollen we gather in the wild.

We are all filial piety.  We cluster around

our Mother Superior, who bore us into our

existence.  We will defend her, our abode, and

our way of worship to death.  Kamikaze runs

in our veins, and we each carry a dagger.

Daily we divide our simple chores: baby-sitters,

maintenance crews, guards, and hunter-gatherers.

Practicing Puritan work-ethic, we trod miles to

collect nectar, our bread and butter.  Unsung

environmentalists, we live in perfect harmony.

We seldom talk, never balk, for we know talk

is cheap.  We communicate in silence and a few

body-languages.  We respect tranquility—-our

modus operandi.  We do have a few men around

for emergency.  Like most men, they wax their

one-track minded thoughts day in day out.

Large mouths, they consume three times as much,

and when they are around, they call too much

attention to themselves.  They are expendable.

At the first sign of frost, we abandon them, for

they are big and fat and lazy and stupid.

We rise to work at the first hint of dawn; we

toil the natural soil till Vespers, the sixth of

the seven canonical hours.  Throughout our

hard lives none of us whine—-we are content.

When our body can no longer house our soul,

we know the time has come.

Quietly we leave our humble abode behind

to meet the face of our maker, alone.

Yoon