Saturday, February 7, 2009 Auburn University hosted the Annual Beekeeping Symposium. From the CVBA, the following were in attendance, that we are aware of: Rich McDowell and Earl Cheal.

During the opening remarks, Lonnie Funderburg, asked for a show of hands of those in beekeeping for over five years. A quick survey indicated only about 10% raised their hands.

For those of you who were not able to attend, the following is a brief summary of the event.

Good Queens and Bad Queens -- Dr. Clarence Collison, MSU explained techniques and tell tails to identify the difference in queens.

· Size and weight of queen (the larger the queen the better she will produce—more ovialories.

· Brood pattern. Is it tight (good) spaced about (not good).

· Calmness of the hive.

The Small Hive Beetle -- Dennis Barclift, AL State Apiarist reviewed the problem with hive beetles, when they become a problem and ways to reduce the numbers. Mainly, keep a healthy hive, keep hives in full sun, use traps with attractant made of pollen, yeast, honey and water, and allow it to ferment before feeding (non-chemical) Traps outside of the hives is a good alternative.

Full sun, even in the south, was a new point for most beekeepers. He said if the hives can’t be in the full sun, at least set the hives up where they will catch the morning sun to get them started. Moving the hives to disrupt the SHB pattern was also mentioned, bearing in mind bees need to be moved two miles so they won’t try and return to the old hive site. Since most beekeepers don’t have that much property they recommended placing the hives in a friend’s yard for two months to disrupt the pattern.

Bee Biology from the Beekeeper's perspective -- Lonnie Funderburg This was a basic Bee 101, which started by showed the parts of the bee.

Helping Your Bees Eat Right -- Dr. Collison. He provided information about the nutritional requirements and various ways to satisfy those requirements. Asked about how much to feed them, he said keep feeding until they stop taking the feed. They also recommended feeding them pollen or a pollen substitute such as MegaBee and BeeGo.

Basic Beekeeping: What You Need to Start -- Randy Hamann AL bee inspector. Using a start up of five hives he ran a cost break down that showed that a novice beekeeper could make $200 the first year and $600 by the fifth year if sound beekeeping practices were followed (and assuming the beekeeper sold his honey).

Using Your Beeswax to Make Candles and Wax Products -- Phillip and Nancy Garrison ABA.

Open Hive Demonstration -- Ben McGehee & Damon Wallace

Africanized Honey Bees - When should Alabamians Worry? -- Dennis Barclift. He showed the progression of Africanized Bees and discussed the efforts AL is making to detect the entrance of them. So far, none have been confirmed.

Basic Beekeeping: Feeding Your Bees -- Jimmy Carmack

Sweet Treats with Honey -- Sherry Ferrell, OSU

Monitoring Varroa Mite Populations -- Will Montgomery

Basic Beekeeping: Hive Management the First Few Years-- What Should You Do? -- John Mynard Bee Inspector. This presentation discussed the dollars and cents of getting into beekeeping and the anticipated profit during the first few years. Also discussed putting bees at other locations, keeping a good queen, making sure there is good accessibility to the hives, checking bees every month except the dead of winter. Explained the process of inverting the inner cover and removing the queen excluder in the winter. Swarm prevention by adding supers or splitting. Also using a bait hive close to the bee yard to give the swarms a place to go, which can be retrieved easily (should be mounted high, in the shade, entrance facing south, with a small amount of comb inside). Should start feeding in August. Plants that are liked by bees include: Basswood, Holley, yellow popular, sourwood (needs shade), popcorn tree, black locust, vitex and clovers. As usual, some of the presenters said it was impossible to prevent swarms, others claimed proper management techniques could help prevent swarms.

After Extracting Honey Grading and Storage -- John Grafton He demonstrated a polarizing film that he recommended bee associations purchase to determine the purity of their honey.