Napa Valley Bee Company

BEE SYMPOSIUM A GO-GO

BEE SYMPOSIUM Saturday, March 7, 2009
Bee Symposium 2009

The Honeybee Crisis: A Critical Point in Evolution
"Beekeeping that Respects the Colony as an Organism" Holistic Solutions to Colony Collapse Disorder. This year’s symposium will explore our critical point in evolution, and how we might protect honeybees for the future.

Our special guest speaker is Gunther Hauk, an authority on natural beekeeping. Gunther is a well renowned author, biodynamic gardener and beekeeper for 33 years. In 2006, Gunther co-founded Spikenard Farm, Inc., a 610 acre farm with a honeybee sanctuary at its heart.

The day will also include a panel discussion with Gunther and local beekeepers: Kathy Kellison (Partners for Sustainable Pollination) Serge Labesque (Santa Rosa JC Beekeeping Instructor) Michael Thiele (Natural Beekeeping Teacher) & Doug Vincent (Owner/ Instructor beekind Beekeeping Supply)

SATURDAY TIME LINE  

9:00 AM Intro/Welcome
9:15 Gunther Hauk
10:45 Break
11:15 Gunther Hauk
NOON Michael Thiele (on Natural Comb)
12:30 PM Lunch
2:00 Video clips of "Queen of The Sun"
2:15 Gunther Hauk
4:00 Break
4:15 to 6:00 Panel Discussion

This is my third year attending the annual Bee Symposium hosted by Beekind at the Summerfield Waldorf School and Farm in Santa Rosa.  Every year there are a couple things I look forward to:
Well, Christmas of course, (If my wife is reading) my anniversary, The Sea Otter Classic mountain bike race in April, The Friend’s of the Napa Library book sales – okay, they’re every other month but I still really look forward to them, The Turkey Trot Thanksgiving mountain bike ride in Fairfax, and these symposiums. In years past there have been some amazing people speaking about bees. This year was particularly exciting because the primary speaker, Gunther Hauk, was talking about biodynamic beekeeping. Curious enough while I was in the Berkshires earlier this year someone gave me Gunther’s book "Toward Saving the Honeybee" which really made me re-think my beekeeping strategy. I read the book on the flight home and thought his overall spin on beekeeping was pretty interesting. He feels we should be looking at our colonies as a whole, rather than as individual components. I assigned the book as the text in my class which opened a lot of dialog.  Not everyone bought into it, but at least it offered a new perspective. Some of the things he discusses in his book and in person are a little Waldorfian Woo Woo for me, yet some of it really makes sense. Don’t get me wrong, I’m fruity for Rudy (Steiner) and every year I get closer and closer to biodynamic beekeeping. I mean the root day, leaf day thing is a little much but I'm certainly open to the preps and some aspects of the spiritology. Not sure I’ll ever get all the way there but between Gunther’s book and meeting Michael Lauher at Connolly Ranch I’m getting pretty Steiner. I feel most comfortable looking at all the different approaches to beekeeping and picking and choosing for what works best for me and my bees. Hanging my hat, or veil -with only one approach to keeping bees is for the beekeeper that dosen't have a mind of their own.  For the most part I subscribe to school of Serge but even so we have our differences. The way Serge looks at the species feels intuitive to me.
Intuitive: in·tu·i·tive  adj
1.known directly and instinctively, without being discovered or consciously perceived
2.knowing things instinctively.
Times are tough for bees, the “me “ and “my” bees attitude is tired. As the new school sustainable beekeepers, we are at the forefront of honeybee problems and have to be adaptable, open to all new approaches and techniques, continually assessing our progress, and most importantly be willing to change protocol if we see it’s not working. Of course, open dialog and sharing ideas with other like minded beekeepers is extremely important as well. This is why I love the symposium every year, feel blessed Serge attends our lil’ Napa Beekeepers meetings, and excited about being involved with my local bee freaks marching forward in the fight for the species.
To me the highlights to the symposium were the people I commuted over with: Eric Huczko, Lorinda Fallini, and Arnie Bunter.  What could be better than riding with three super engaged beeks in a Prius? Sitting with Lisa Sambora was pretty cool too.
Gunther Hauk was the primary speaker through-out the day. I really enjoyed the way the he brought so much more into the discussion than just bees. The way we address bees, the language we use to describe bees, spiritual body of the bee, the beehive as it’s own entity, and the correlation with the hive and human body. He compares the hive to the organs in the human body. Perhaps it is my history working in veterinary medicine but I’m particularly drawn to the body as metaphor. Body, blood , guts, bees, it’s all good with me. Think about it,.. the hive is very much like a vital organ, I can see how bees could be a functioning part of an internal organ. Well, if bees lived in your body… Gunther also has a lot to say about the bees need to produce their own wax. He compares the amazing rhythmic process of wax production to the forming of our bones, only outside of their bodies. Michael Thiele had Gunther’s wax back with his talk on how important the production is to the vitality of the colony. Michael was in a lecturer at the Melissa Garden skep building class I attended last summer. I like his belief that beekeepers need to follow their own natural instincts. He talks about when working your bees one needs to listen to their internal gut instints. I find this to be very true and often I make my beekeeping decisions based on what feels right to me instinctually, at least at the time. Often I rethink my actions later and wonder what the hell was I doing…? 
Equally as interesting to any of the lectures was talking with Kathy Kellison over our veggie lasagna lunch. She is so immersed in pollinator politics and has bee-speak so wired everyone around was intriqued by what she had to say. It's interestingb because I feel like Kathy and myself are on the same pollinator page but her approach is so much more gentle and rational, I suggested we start a coupe. Although the best part of the day had to be the panel discussion at the end of the symposium. It was a riot with the spiritual vs. the practical and Doug Vincent sitting dead center. Gunther and local beekeepers: Kathy Kellison ,Serge Labesque, Eric Mussen, Michael Thiele, and Doug Vincent all got a chance to address the audience. Eric was awesome, he really knows how to fire-up that Waldorf throng. Every year he seams to go fist to cuffs over the science of beekeeping with the tie-dyed propolis crowd. The thing is Eric is about the biggest bee-head in the nation that knows more about bees than the bees know about themselves.  I guess it all boils down to love and science. Ross Rubin wrapped the whole symposium up with his hilariously true statement that Gunther Hauk needed a lot more science in his beekeeping love and Eric Mussen could use a little more love in his science of beekeeping.
Genius – all three of them…

-Gunther-


Michael with April's head.


Ross and Lisa.

Blurry Bunter

Sarah Black in the back.

Ross Rubin stuck between love and science.

You've got love in my science... well, you've got science in my love. 

L 2 R - Eric, Serge, Kathy, Doug, Gunther, and Michael.

Wax head - Gunther head

The First Swarm of the Year

Yesterday I saw the first swarm of the year. It was an interesting one because I have been speaking with Jim Verhey for a few months prior about a colony of bees that have taken up residency in an owl box in his vineyard. I’m pretty familiar with this sinerio, bees always move into both wine barrels and owl boxes, it's their nature. I have even removed hives of bees that have started colonies in a chest of drawers. Drawers, barrels, and boxes are the perfect space for bees that replicate a hollow tree. Jim and I have been discussing the owl box colony removal and relocation to a conventional Lang. To me, that is the most logical thing to do with these owl box hives, they tend to bee too small a space for sustaining a colony. Which doesn’t mean they won’t hold up in such a small house. It just means they will never really have the space to thrive and tend to throw off a lot of smallish swarms. In such a cramped space You also have to make sure to vent the hive or the colonies will tend to create too much moisture inevitably resulting in chalk brood in the spring. We have decided to hive the colony and give the owls their box back. I advised him to get prepared with his hive bodies, supers, frames, and foundation from Mannlake and a top and bottom from Jim at Feather Farm. It’s a little early in the season to go busting into a hive of bees just yet, but it is better to have your gear on-hand for the right weather. Premature to go tearing into the brood but apparently not to early for the bees to swarm. I think the owl hive swarmed...
Luckily Jim had gotten in touch with me early and I was able to advise him on how to at least keep the colony dry while it was dumping rain. Not sure what those bees were thinking... What colony in their right mind decides to pack it in during a rain storm?  On my cell phone, in the pouring rain while driving ( look who's calling the "right mind" kettle black...). I told  Jim to cover the bees the best he could to keep the water off them. Generally it's not being out of the hive in the cold weather that kills them, it's the moisture. It has been my experience that as long as they have a dry place to cluster they can keep the queen warm for a few days. Jim was able to find a grape picking box that covered the bees nicely. When I arrived it was still raining off and on but sunny, some of the bees were flying – good sign. I removed the opaque white box and there was a small colony of bees clustered on some vineyard clippings, a lot of the bees had dried. These days we are trying our best not to offer bees honey from other colonies but I thought I’d gamble that and give them a little sweet sticky yum-yum from one of the colonies that toppled over in my front yard last week. The bees I robbed the honey from were healthy, they just went for the colossal fall to their final resting place, why not use their honey? I offered the the cold colony a full frame of warm honey, two frames of drawn comb, one of which had a lot of pollen, and follower boards. I only had a super on me so I used that, a converted solid bottom board that had the center cut out for one of those varroa screened adapters, one of Serge’s super stout inner covers, and a telescoping cover. When I left the bees it was nice to see some of the foragers coming home and landing on the top of the hive. I’m encouraged… Last week when my hives fell I thought I would lose them all. They too were totally drenched and looking pretty pathetic but I was able to save one. The other two that died were really small colonies and I sort of knew they were DOA so I didn’t even reassemble. However, the colony that survived have totally rebounded. I offered them a similar comb, honey, pollen, cocktail and in the last week they have all moved up into the super. It was a two queen colony, I wonder if that had something to do with it? I dunno… one thing I’m fairly sure about is the wet swarm in the vineyard that Jim called me about must have been a very early split from the owl box that was only 5 or 10 rows away. My guess is they must have first flown to one of the vines in front of the cluster on the ground first because I saw a few stragglers hanging around the limb area. Herself must have bailed to the ground in the rain and they followed her. The bees were either really gentle or really cold because I didn’t have much trouble transporting some of the bees from the clippings to the top bars. I find it interesting that swarms are so hard wired that as soon as they smell the new comb anywhere near them they start filling towards it single file. This cold wet colony were no different, shortly after I set the frames gently on top of the cluster they started marching into the new hive like little soldiers.
The plan is to revisit the bees when the rain stops and relocate them to a dry location. Probably to the Carnaros apiary because there aren’t any bees out there at the moment and it is more than 3 miles away. We’ll offer them the best possible accommodations with good ventilation and a screened bottom board. Cross our fingers for varroa resistance as the colony grows. We’ll also hive Jim’s owl box bees as soon as the weather warms, and watch them closely as well. I have not discussed with Jim where those owl bees will go on his property or preparing him for having two colonies long term, but we'll get to that...

The source.

This is what I saw upon arrival, kinda looks like a dog-loo for bees.


Under the box of bees...


I shook a few on the top bars and placed the hive on top of the cluster.

They took to it very easily, almost as if they were grateful. I realize this is a complex emotion for a wild animal so I don't expect it, but I felt love in the air.

Look who came out to say hello!



A small cluster on the inner cover.


This is how I left them.

Notice how they were filling the large entry with propolis. I could see a few bees but it appeared the majority had left.

One I took home accidentally.

 


 

 

A big fat shout-out to my Overlander home boys George and Zach!

Movin’ on the Overlander in the past couple weeks. So far the rear bench is complete except for the finger holes in the top for storage access. The cabinet/ shelf over the right side wheel well is almost completed and the cabinet/shelf over the left side wheel well is under construction. George has been amazing with his diligence in moving forward in spite of my not always knowing what was next. My plan is to have at least 3-4 places where kids can sit at a desk space to either do bee projects or use the computer to examine the bees with the built-in scanner. I’d also like that counter space to be used to graft queens, look for nosema under a microscope, and a place for me to do data entry since the trailer will eventually be located in one of my three the apiaries. I am currently wrestling with what to use as a countertop. I really want those two tops to make a stand-out statement about the project but also be functional and can clean and sanitize easily. I also like the idea of a material that might imply science or have a medical context. I own some pretty fabulous stainless steel medical tables that came out of one of my mother’s veterinary practices when they closed that would work great. However, I am torn by cutting off the legs. They would need a couple slight mods to fit perfectly.  right now the countertops are on hold while I continue my search. Like I said not only is George an incredible craftsman he is so flexible in how he works, I am truly blessed to have him on board. I love how he cleans up every night when he is through and places all his tools in a neat and organized system. I aspire to be more like him when it comes to my tools, basically my tools are all over the place. I can never find them when I need them. I'm frustrated most times I have to do any FYI projects around here because I’m often using the wrong tool for the job and jack things up worse than when I get started.
The shelving below the countertops will hold four 2x2 foot metal boxes on one side and six 1x1 foot stainless boxes on the other. We are going to make custom metal brackets that will hold the boxes in place while the trailer is in route. Last Friday I bought a wonderful retro cooler that George will build into the cabinet, it will also be held into place with metal brackets. One thing for certain is we’ll need a place to keep our drinks cold while we are working, and you can’t spell beer without bees. The other thing I am a little preoccupied with is the wall covering. I’m not sure whether I will paint exclusively or have a combination of other materials too. I was thinking it might be interesting to incorporate cork board that I could just post pictures, notes, and other forms of ephemera directly on the walls and partially up the roof.
This weekend my friend Kelly Granelli’s son Zach helped me paint the primer coat, so now most of the interior, except for the areas that need to be cut in, is pearly white. A couple other problems I’m contending with in the trailer is it is still leaking under the rear vent. This was a little distressing because it hasn’t been leaking to date then with the last storm decides to leak on my new oak floor.
On the campers behalf it has been dumping here and perhaps like a full bladder it was holding for as long as possible, I dunno... The other thing that has started happening is the trailer must have an electrical short in it somewhere, if you try and open the door with bare feet it shocks the shit out of you. It would be a great anti-theft device for those barefoot robbers who might try and break into the trailer. However, not so grand for me when I run out to lock up the trailer in my boxers when it’s raining. Yeah – yeah, like you never make a mad dash to get something out of the car or pick–up the paper in your boxers hoping your neibs don’t catch an eye full.

Cabinet before completion with super sitting next to it. built super tight to the wheel well to save any possible space around the pillar of hives.

Right side wheel well cover and cabinet. Two steel boxes with lids will fit in each bay.


Nearly completed rear bench.


George Castle the Overlander cabinet king.


George's tools.


Davis playing with George's tools.


My Airstream < > George's truck.


George's gloves in the bed of his truck.


Cool - Cooler


So Jackson Pollock...


ONE


TWO


THREE - 3 screws.


Zach rolling like that.


Zach's roller.


My brushes.


Added bonus, look what I found in this Warhol bag while painting...

The dried persimmons Lia Betinelli gave me for Christmas. Yum! Everything goes a little easier with persimmons on board.