From The Philadelphia Inquirer  about Tim Schuler and his work that appeared in The Philadelphia Inquirer on September 2. From Medford Leas Life, October 2011 by Betsy Pennink It’s hard to tell who’s been busier this summer, the honeybees on our Medford campus or Corey Melissas, the beekeeper. Because our worker bees have been out foraging all day, there’s little activity around our hives until evening, when many of them congregate around the entrances. Finding Corey has become more difficult, because she is actively tending her six beehives, five of them some distance from her home in Cherry Hill. Two of these are here in Beaver Meadow. Corey brought us the first one in April this year (see Medford Leas Life of June 2011) and the second one soon after. She had had to rescue this second one from its site near a meadow when a weed killer was sprayed there before the planting of a corn crop. Both our hives are thriving, says Corey, because “the bees are happy!” And producing honey! Corey has been harvesting the honey regularly and selling it to family and friends. An “accidental beekeeper,” Corey discovered that Rutgers University was giving a course on beekeeping, and she decided to give it a try. She graduated in October 2008 and is now an active member of the New Jersey Beekeepers Association and listed on their web site. As a result she receives calls from people far and wide who want to find out how to get a hive. She is also listed as a swarm collector, prepared to catch bees that swarm outdoors in the spring because their hive has been disturbed. As a member of the association, Corey also receives a yearly visit from Tim Schuler, the New Jersey apiary inspector. In August, Tim certified all of Corey’s hives as healthy. A reporter and photographer from the Philadelphia Inquirer accompanied him. The article and a video of the inspection of the Lumberton Campus hive can be reached from the apiary page at mlra.org Beekeepers build their own hives. The pieces come in three different sizes, the deepest one being the brood chamber. (“Brood” refers to the egg, larva and pupa stages in the life of bees.) Corey orders the pieces for her hives and the frames for the bees from a woman in Cranbury, NJ. She assembles the hives and paints the outsides in bright colors. After that she sends away for a “nuc,” that is, a small working colony, consisting of a queen bee with workers and some brood. When Corey was looking for good places for her hives, she immediately thought of Medford Leas, where her late father, Mickey Gray, had lived. One hive went to the Lumberton campus of Medford Leas in 2009, and the Medford campus now has two. Two others are at the Mill Creek organic farm. Six hives may not be enough for Corey. She is so enthusiastic about beekeeping that she is thinking of setting up several more. From Medford Leas Life, June 2011 by Betsy Pennink The 2011 photos at were taken by Betsy Pennink with her iPhone. Click on any photo to see it larger. After Ro Wilson found out that Lumberton Leas had a beehive (Medford Leas Life, May and September 2009 and May 2010), she campaigned to get one here. It has arrived! On April 28, Corey Melissas, the beekeeper, drove her small yellow SUV to the designated place at the far end of Beaver Meadow in Rushmore. [The photo below shows the components of the hive tailgate of the SUV. ]  She lifted out the red-and-white box containing our bees and, in the excited but subdued presence of Ro and Karel and Betsy Pennink, placed it carefully on the platform created for it. As she loosened the wooden stick blocking the entrance to the hive, bees crawled out to investigate. (crawling bees are shown in the photo below - click to see it larger)  While she worked to free an opening on the top, Corey enthusiastically explained the life of a bee (workers, drones, and queen). Obviously an expert on bee psychology, Corey gave us some tips. For instance, although our honeybees are a gentle Italian strain, you don’t want to stand directly in front of the hive. This is because bees returning from foraging are always in a hurry and literally make a beeline for the hive. You might get hit! After 4:00 pm it’s even more important as the forager bees coming in for the last time of that day are “taking on their nighttime job which is protection.” Corey continues to come back to the apiary. She has brought another box to put directly on top of the first, an upper story so to speak, with more frames hung in it. (Frames are flat panels on which bees build their wax cells to hatch eggs and store honey. Frames are hung side by side in the box.) The bees are already at work there and may need a third storey or “super” when the nectar flow is “in full swing.”  Corey has also been bringing a tray of sugar water to supplement the bees’ food while nectar is still scarce. She places this on top of the apiary. On top of that is the aluminum cover to protect the bees and a rock to hold it on. The boxes are painted in bright colors to help the bees find them, says Corey. (Three-story hive with the rock on top- click pic to see it larger.) Everyone is looking forward to harvesting honey. In the meantime the bees are doing their essential work of pollination. ----------------------------------------------------------- Hi've Been Busy Newsletter by Corey Melissas May, 2010 Hey! Someone`s been eating out of my feeder! The only, yet unanimous, complaint I received from my bee neighbors was how much the honey bees were robbing their hummingbird feeders. One resident said he actually watched the bubbles rise like an emptying office water cooler. Hummingbird watching is a very popular pastime here and everyone has a feeder. For fear of having to relocate in August, a little research yielded the following. Among other things, honeybees like to enter a flower/feeder via a slanted entryway, and they’re attracted to yellow. So if you have one of those popular feeders, you know the ones, pitch the yellow flowers, the hummingbirds don’t care about them anyway. Then, replace them with “bee guards”. They come in a variety of types: some look like cages, and some are cylindrical plastic sleeves with a self-healing film on one end. The honeybee tongues are not strong enough to penetrate the film at the bottom, but the hummingbirds' are. These guards run $1-$4.00. And, for the most part, work. If you want to buy a new feeder, try the Humzinger! Guaranteed to be bee proof! Sure it is, well I hung mine right in front of my hive. Before long the honey bees found it and…it actually worked! I couldn't believe it. Word spread quickly through the hive and they never tried again. It’s all in the flying saucer design. The holes are on top of the flat disc and the bees don’t do vertical; simple as that. Humzinger is the original and can be more than $20.00 for a fancy one, but there are many others on the market with the same design strategy for a lot less. There is also water well in the center to trap ants. A few ants did make it through mine somehow, but what’s a few ants in your syrup if it saves your home sweet home. April, 2010 I almost couldn't wait, but around the third week of March I opened the hive on a very warm day to find them happy and plentifuyl. The entire first level [hive body] was empty of bees, brood and honey. The upper body was filled with all the bees and a few frames of untouched capped honey. This is good news because it means they were able to store enough honey on which to live through the winter. If you remember, this was the first year goal. Their success was not without bumps, however. Honey robbing, especially. Besides the feral bees we talked about in the last newsletter; those of us close to the bees were met with ravenous yellow jackets in early November. I learned quite a bit about this carnivorous wasp, and even though they do perform a valuable environmental function, I found an eco-friendly trap that worked so well, I recommend its use to anyone around their home, no honey bees necessary. Winter is always a challenge. The worst part for the honey bee is getting wet. If you can help them keep the humidity down, by removing any supplemental syrup feeder and keeping the hive in good weather proof condition, the snow actually is good insulation. Protection from gusty cold winds helps too. My obsessive mothering kept them warmer than if they were near my own drafty windows. Tht ridiculous looking shelter was probably overkill but I still was glad to have it when digging out of the snow drifts. You may have noticed the hive was moved over a foot or so. I discovered the pesky small hive beetle [SHB] during the March opening. Part of their life cycle includes spending some time in the soil below the hive. Some bee keepers keep their hives on a concrete slab, and there is of course a pesticide. I did some research and made an eco-friendly trap placed under the hive and scraped off the first layer of soil from the original placement. This should work well enough until I decide if something else is necessary. I'd always been thought to use whatever I have first before I go and buy something fancy. I'm sure this isn't exactly what my dad had in mind, but, my SHB trap is filled with a banana, extra virgin olive oil and aged white balsamic vinegar; lucky them. When spring nectar/pollen flow begins, the queen starts laying more eggs, and the hive becomes crowded. Instinctively, the bees want to take their queen and move to a new location, leaving behind queen cells and a small cluster of workers. This is the time when you may hear of swarms in mailboxes, play sets, eaves, or trees and the beekeeper needs to make a decision. A beekeeper could use this opportunity to split their hives. This leaves two smaller weaker hives that need extra care. This is where we were last spring. Not a bad idea if yo want to increase your bee yard and sell one half. Some beekeepers use this as an opportunity to gain free bees by offering to capture these scary swarms and rescue homeowners. Swarming honey bees are actually in a very calm peaceful state. This is true only for honeybees and not wasps or hornets. Another option is to keep them from swarming. You can provide lots of room, by switching the empty lower body to the top and adding extra layers [supers] as needed on top. If you remember these guys got here late last spring and missed this early flow. I've already witnessed them bringing in pollen. The protein rich pollen reminds the queen to start laying more eggs. By doing all these things there should be no reason why we shouldn't have surplus honey to extract thius summer. I attended a class on soap making, using honey and the beeswax which I would love to try. This year I also want to learn about capturing pollen and its medicinal benefits. So let's all cross our fingers for a warm dry spring and we'll bee seeing you. Hi've Been Busy Newsletter by Corey Melissas August, 2009 It’s been a busy couple months, and we`ve reached a milestone. The honeybees have been doing extremely well, growing in number, still amazingly calm and gentle. From egg to pupae to emergence as a worker bee, takes 21 days. In the summer, hard working worker bees typically live 45 days at most, which brings us to 66 days total, that's today. Every honey bee in our hive is officially a Lumberton Leasian. However, several residents` enjoyment has been interrupted by bees in their hummingbird feeders. In an effort to combat this problem, I purchased an ant/bee proof HBird feeder. Being the biggest skeptic, I set out to disprove it`s claim and hung it right in front of the hive. I humbly watched as one of our bee scouts tried to access the syrup. Unsuccessful, the word spread quickly throughout the hive and they didn`t even try anymore. In two days I was able to take some pictures of an Hbird drinking, which was nice. The ants fall into a water trap and drown. Honeybees have to enter a flower/feeder via a slanted entryway; this feeder is flat topped, almost horizontal. Honeybees are attracted to yellow, so if your feeder has those yellow flowers at the syrup access points, remove them. Replace them with available little plastic tubular sleeves with self mending bottoms that slip down the holes in those slanted feeders. The HBirds` tongues easily poke through the slotted bottom to get the syrup. The honeybees` tongues are not long or strong enough to get in. Some of you have noticed our bees hanging around en mass out front. They`ll do this for a few reasons. Our reason is; it`s hot and humid inside the hive. The best temperature for brood rearing is 92o. They will be found at the entrance and under the screened bottom fanning the wings to remove excess moisture and ventilate the hive. This is a lot of work especially for a young colony. So I decided to help them out by adding a ventilation hole in one of the upper bodies, along with an empty body for added dead air space as a cushion. This action proved to be a bad idea. This new air vent not only provided a hot air escape, but to my surprise, a second entrance for starving outsiders to siege. August is typically a time of dearth, many beekeepers choose to supplement their bees, and others do not. Feral bees must always fend for themselves. Especially having a new colony, I`ve supplemented constantly to reduce stress. The next day, all the syrup was gone and 100 or more dead bees were lying out front. The “robbers”, as they`re referred to, were trying to get into the new vent/entrance and it was taking two or three of our bees per robber to defend. I quickly removed the extra entrance/vent, refilled the syrup and swept away the dead. I caught one of the robbers to take home and try to identify. Beekeepers have their own preference in strains of bee. Ours are Italian; small, furry, light yellowish brown with two to three rings of black at the end of the abdomen. Italian bred bees are known for their gentleness, good hygiene, ease of handling and are good honey producers. For example, I rarely wear as little as a bandana anymore and have yet to get stung. I believe I identified the robbers as Carolinian Caucasians. Caucasians are bigger, stronger, and more aggressive. The strongest will survive theory. Some beekeepers choose them for those very reasons. The robbers were easy to distinguish from our bees at our hive because they are a little bigger, hardly fuzzy, with a shiny longer abdomen that is almost one-half black. Plus their behavior was ruder. I was stung twice that day. Several robbers remained at the site of the missing upper vent the next day, but no more dead, and only one or two robbers the day after that. This leaves us with our original problems: the robbing of the HBird feeders, the heat and humidity in the hive, and the newly added stress from the attack. I believe if we amend our hummingbird feeders with those minor changes mentioned earlier, the feeder-robbing will stop. Please feel free to come and borrow the honeybees` hummingbird feeder and test it out in your own back yard. It`s red and hanging on a wire left-front the hive. Share with others how it works out for you. Honeybees` lives are so short; their wings only last so long. Fanning the entrance to ventilate a hot hive is a waste of precious wing resources, and now they`re understaffed. Since we know an extra vent near the roof is an invitation for robbers, I`ll add a temporary awning or umbrella for extra shade, which should do the trick while it remains hot and humid. Things should get back to normal soon after that. I`ve never been a journal writer, but I was encouraged to keep an account of my observations each visit to the hive, if for no other reason than a reference. I`m so glad I did. Now I have a very informal thick journal in an old notebook, and I have some pictures too. If anyone would care to see it, feel welcomed | Irene Meets Medford Leas - August, 2011  Corey Melissas provided these 2009 and 20011 photos and captions. of the hive in Lumberton. Click on any photo to see it larger.  Hummingbird at a bee-proof feeder about 10ft away from hive, summer 2009  Feb 5th one of many snows  Winter Coat  Hot bees "bearding"  Bees fanning from underneath screened bottom to ventilate hive and help evaporate excess water from honey  Note - Click photo to see it larger.   Little extra shade for hot bees; really don't need it  Typical frame of bees  Warm, happy bees inside  June 2009 inside, couple days later. bees happily eating  June 2009 finished set up just before a thunderstorm with a water station on left |
The Apiary -- Bees at LeasUpdate - October, 2011 In the October, 2011 issue of Medford Leas Life, Betsy Pennink's article (below) told of the visit by a reporter from The Philadelphia Inquirer who took a video of the state inspector checking the bees at the Lumberton Campus. In the same issue the Hurricane Irene article showed a picture of the hive taped and tied down in preparation for the storm. Update - In April 2011 a hive was installed in the Medford Campus. That story, by Betsy Pennink, has been added to the previous stories by Corey Melissas. The reports are in BLOG order, with the most recent at the top of the page.
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Apiary Articles from Medford Leas Life
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