The Capital Buzz Will Be Showing At The DC Shorts Film Festival

The Capital Buzz, a film about DC beekeeping and yours truly, has been making the rounds nationwide at numerous film festivals.  Coming soon to DC, here is an article about it!

http://www.gazette.net/article/20120829/ENTERTAINMENT/708299681/1149/george-washington-grad-student-makes-a-bee-line-for-dc-shorts-film&template=gazette

Please check it out if you can!

Our New Online Store Is Now Open

Please visit us at the Georgetown Honeybee Company Store.

Purchase local honey, hives, bees and bee products.  The site remains under construction so please email me with any requests, comments, or commendations!!  Jeff@DCHoneybees.com

Jeff

We Get To Tag Along With A Commercial Beekeeper-VIDEO

Jerry Mattiaccio, of Rock Hill Honeybee Farms, was kind enough to invite me to join him on a pollination run to southern Virginia to visit and feed some hives on pumpkins.

Jerry could not resist describing me as a "city boy" as I wondered out-loud how many tanks of gas it took to get to his hives.  But it was an excellent learning experience, and a window onto the backbone of the bee industry, the pollinator. 

We cannot be hobby beekeepers without them as they provide the bee root-stock that gives us bees.  And honey.  Oh, and high yields that keep food prices low.

It was an awesome time, hopefully more experience to come!  Here is the vid.

Our Friend Charles Gets Some Love From the Washington Post

Charles is a beekeeper in the Anacostia area of Washington, and is a very active member of the community.  I have worked with Charles on not only bee-related stuff, but also in wearing my other hat as representative of the Mayor's office.

You may remember Charles from this post:
http://dchoneybees.blogspot.com/2012/03/bees-east-of-anacostia-river.html

These pics of him show him after a rather eventful and reactive encounter with his bees, and his face was in recovery at the time!

Thanks, Charles, for keeping the momentum!  Still waiting for that honey...

Here is the link to the Post article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/a-local-beekeeper-brings-honey-to-anacostia/2012/08/23/fb78a8a6-e555-11e1-8741-940e3f6dbf48_page.html?hpid=z5

Nucs Arrive In Memphis Safely!

The two nucs that we sent on Monday from our local post office arrived yesterday (Thursday) in Memphis via Parcel Post from the US Postal Service.  That was much better delivery timing than was quoted (seven days) and bolsters our belief that we can now make a habit of mailing our DC-raised bees and queens to folks around the country.  The cost for shipping for each nuc was about $30.

This fall and winter we will be setting up a limited number of nucs to over-winter.  Those that survive we will sell in early spring, with the bees in a position to actually collect some honey for harvest next season.

 Let me know if you would like to reserve one! Jeff@DCHoneybees.com

Test Driving Mailing Nucs

 We have a client in TN who was anxious to get one of our nucs!

Hooray for us as we had some that were in great shape, but we had never shipped nucs, only provided them for pickup or drop-off.

We first tried overnight shipping through UPS.  They specifically do take bees, but don't take them to the UPS Store...you're not going to get the best understanding of their policies or their legendary customer service.  I would argue that the UPS Store was a bad move for UPS as it debases their otherwise excellent reputation.

The cost to overnight the nucs was over $110 each.  WOW.  And then a few bees escaped and they aborted the whole thing and returned the nucs to me in a sealed box and with our queens dead.

Charges returned (thankfully) we took the nucs a week later to the US Post Office.  I know, right?
Who uses USPS anymore unless you have a catalog to send.

Full disclosure, we are using Brushy Mountain nucs for shipping.  They are waxed cardboard with lots of ventilation.  But we needed to use the inner cover (which we have been neglecting) to fully enclose the bees. For some reason the shippers are not fond of bees escaping their colony.  UPS shipping did not get our best effort at full containment.

Lesson learned.

We have now modified our program to guarantee the containment of the girls.  We used a plastic wrap product to wrap the entire box in cellophane.  From Uline, it is this stuff.

After speaking with the Don, I think we are in good shape as long as the bees do not get overheated.

Please stay tuned as we hear about the health of the arriving bees.  There may be an opportunity to share our genetics with folks outside out market if it is successful!

We Have Local DC Honey For Sale Now

After this year, in spite of a few crashed hives, we were able to harvest about 60 lbs per hive out of many of our urban colonies.  we now have honey to sell.

This is honey we harvested using the crush and strain method and has not been filtered, only strained to leave in all the goodness of the local pollen.  We have varieties collected from Georgetown, the Mount Vernon Triangle, and Takoma Park (DC).  All delicious!

Please email me if you would like some!  jeff@dchoneybees.com

Friends at Paris Barns Are In Trouble

As you may remember, we have a bunch of hives out in Fauquier County that we help with.  This is at the Boneta Reserve where they rescue livestock, raise agricultural products, and do farm demonstrations.

 
Apparently, the local government has been giving them a rough time for the "commerce" they are undertaking on the property, in spite of their possession of a business license.

From the Washington Examiner:
Farmers in Fauquier County are planning to bring their pitchforks to an Aug. 2 hearing before the Board of Zoning Appeals to protest the arbitrary treatment of one of their own. On April 30, Zoning Administrator Kimberley Johnson sent Martha Boneta an official cease-and-desist notice for selling farm products and hosting a birthday party for her best friend's 10-year-old daughter on her 70-acre Paris, Va., farm without a special administrative permit.

Johnson threatened to fine Boneta $5,000 per violation if she did not stop the alleged unlawful activities within 30 days. In doing so, Boneta's fellow farmers say, Johnson stepped far beyond her authority. They're supporting her appeal before the BZA because they rightly fear that left unchecked, this infringement on one farmer's freedom to make a living will spread to other agricultural enterprises like a dangerous pest.

The Virginia Right to Farm Act prohibits local authorities from treating agricultural activity as a "nuisance" -- which seems to be what's happening here, since Johnson was reportedly responding to complaints from nearby residents. Boneta already had a business license the county issued her in June 2011 that allowed her to operate a "retail farm shop" on her property. Her license application specifically noted her intention to sell handspun yarns, birdhouses, soaps and other handicrafts in addition to fresh vegetables, eggs, herbs and honey.

The following month, the Fauquier County Board of Supervisors changed the classification of "farm sales" to require a special administrative permit for activities that were in compliance with the ordinance just one month before. But documents received under the Freedom of Information Act showed that Boneta is the only farmer in Fauquier County who has ever been cited -- even though the county's own website lists dozens of farms that sell similar products to end-use customers.

On July 12, supervisors voted to limit the number of visitors allowed at food- and wine-tasting events to 25, and to limit such events to two per month, even though they were warned by the county attorney and Virginia Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry Todd Haymore that such restrictions are illegal. Virginia's growing wine industry and its small artisanal farmers contribute millions of dollars to the state economy while providing urban residents with a taste of country life. But even in picturesque Fauquier County, their future is clouded by the growing burden of capricious government regulation.

Here is more commentary on the subject:
 

http://disruptthenarrative.com/2012/08/06/tyranny-coming-to-a-neighborhood-near-you/

Why is this beekeeping blog covering this?  We certainly we want to support our friends the Boneta's who have been huge proponents of the bees.

But also important are the impacts of this kind of government intervention on your beekeeping operations, or your honey sales, or your farmer's market activity.

Making a Few Queens, Part 2 VIDEO

After a poor first attempt, where I failed to provide a queenless hive for our bees, we try again with some queen-rearing equipment from Mann Lake to improve our success.

To Veil, Or Not To Veil....

We get a lot of inquiries about our use (or lack thereof) of protective gear when we work the bees.  And it is true, I do not own a bee suit or gloves, and use my veil sparingly.  You are likely to find me in the hives in shorts and a tee-shirt in summer, and on my roof generally in bare feet.

There are a couple of reasons for that:

• I'm lazy;
• Vision is hampered in a veil, especially if one is looking for eggs;
• Our mission includes promotion of bees as gentle and non-aggressive.

Do I get stung?  Absolutely.  Sometimes I can get into a hive and have no problems, just a little smoke and they are quiet as mice.  Other times, they hit me repeatedly like kamikazes.  The former is more generally the outcome.

Does it hurt?  Sure, a little, but the lingering affects of swelling are the greater aliment.  Thankfully, after hundreds of stings (yes hundreds) I am finally building up a modest resistance to the bee venom.

Note that we take a lot of our cues from the FatBeeMan Don Kuchenmeister who is similarly fearless around his hives.

During our classes, we provide veils for folks to wear around the hives, which they do.

With our kids, it is a different story.  If you have a child, you know how difficult it is to tell them what to do, and if they don't want to wear a veil, like tough love, I leave it up to them.  And it has consequences:

This is Kaitlin (our No. 1) after she entered a hive to pull a frame for a bee display she was managing.  Note the swelling around the lip, eye, and ego!

And this is Maddie (No. 2) who got stung on the finger while carrying a nuc and who then had a bad enough reaction that it warranted the emergency room.  Note the irony of the "Got Bees" t-shirt she is wearing!  Obviously, a veil would not have mattered in this case, but this is for illustrative purposes...

So bad parenting?  I'm more of the view that raising a kid in a plastic bubble is both unkind and belays the realities they should expect when they reach maturity.  So a little controlled pain is not necessarily a fault.  Maybe they will wear a veil next time?

Then is it do as I say, not as I do?  I think you should decide for yourself what feels most comfortable for you.  I think requiring oneself to put on a bulky suit in the middle of summer before hitting the hives might hinder one from spending time there.  But at the end of the day it is about personal preference.

We Try To Make a Few Queens - Video

Queen rearing is as much of an art as science, and although the bees do all the work, it is the help of the beekeeper that ensures success and manages the outcome.

As we put together nucs for our bee-supplying services one of the biggest risks is the availability of queens that can manage our climate, be resistant to hive pests and diseases, and be gentle. Oh, and honey production!

We have had great success with queens we have purchased from suppliers, from whom we receive queens in the mail.  But we also have many hives that have successfully overwintered here treatment-free and we would like to consider breeding queens with stock, have them open-mate with feral survivor stock, and introduce these queens to our nucs.

Thus, this new adventure into queen rearing!

Our foray began with elements of queen rearing from videos by the FatBeeMan and Long Lane Honeybee Farms with our own twist.  Here is the video.  SPOILER ALERT - we were unsuccessful on this try, but we are now putting together another video with a more foolproof method, and we will also retry the FatBeeMan method again.

Here is the video:

More Urban Beekeeping Coverage - VIDEO

Here is a recent report done by Voice of America on our DC bees.

Pulling Nucs, A Trip to the Smithsonian - VIDEO

Today we pulled some nucleus colonies, and hived a couple young ones, at our secret apiary in SE DC.

Of the three we pulled (all Don the FatBeeMan's small-cell stock), one was destined for a very special place, the Smithsonian Natural History Museum on Constitution Ave.

The museum has an observation hive of rather ingenious design, and they have been having trouble with their colony for a couple of years.  You may remember that last year we provided a couple of honey frames for them in order to boost the health of the colony.

We were pleased to be able to help them out again, with a fresh and thriving colony produced in Lula, Georgia by the great Don Kutchenmeister.

Here are some excerpts from our day:

Summer Splits Season - Nuc's Coming Soon

With the flow almost over we have begun splitting up our robust hives into nucs for introduction into new hives.  Generally, we take three frames of brood, a frame of honey, and a frame of foundation and introduce them into five-frame nuc boxes, like the ones in the picture above.  We then introduce a queen from one of our queen purveyors: Russell Apiaries or Long Lane Honeybee Farms.

From Russell, we use the Sunkist variety for queening.  From their site:

They are of Italian origin, and have been selectively bred since 1951 for heavy laying, low swarming, honey production, distance of foraging, mite and disease resistance, gentleness, comb building, and early build up. They were created for his use as cell builders and for package production. They produce a much higher than average number of bees per hive.... with swarm levels around 100-120k. 

Having run several hives with these girls, I can attest to their huge hives and plenty of honey.  They also survived last year's winter in a single 10-frame deep box, so they are hardy, although last winter was not a brutal test.  Given their large numbers, these girls may not be ideal for an urban setting, however.

From Long Lane, we import their Pioneer Queens.  From their site:

We finally decided to name our queens and call them "Pioneer Queens". There are several definitions for pioneer in the dictionary. One says, "Leading the way; trailblazing". We hope to join many others, like us, who feel the importance of seeking greater diversity within the queen genetics, traits and characteristics that show resistance toward pests, diseases and harsh winters. Most of our pioneer queens are dark in color, more along the line of being Carniolan or Russian.  

These queens have done great over the winter and have provided a significant honey crop.  Their Central Illinois background has them hardy and stingy of resources during the winter and they have been raised treatment free.

We should have a few of these nucs available in the coming weeks, they are now "ripening" by which I mean I want the new queen to have a cycle of brood under her belt, and have the hive bursting with bees when we sell.

Please email me at jeff@dchoneybees.com if you would like to reserve one.

 

Moving Hives Off the Roof - VIDEO

As you may remember, we began our urban beekeeping adventures like many city-dwellers in placing our first hives on our roof.  Since then we have done countless rooftop installations in DC for our new beekeepers.  Never, however, have we had to do the reverse, and take a hive off a roof.