WELCOME TO OUR CLUB!
We are beekeepers and bee-lovers in the Washington County, Virginia area who meet monthly to educate ourselves and the public about how to nurture honeybees for the benefit of Earth and its inhabitants. Please join us.
We are beekeepers and bee-lovers in the Washington County, Virginia area who meet monthly to educate ourselves and the public about how to nurture honeybees for the benefit of Earth and its inhabitants. Please join us.
OUR NEXT MEETING WILL BE HELD MONDAY, MARCH 1, 2021 AT 6:30 PM AT THE SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA HIGHER EDUCATION CENTER IN ABINGDON, VIRGINIA.
Extension Agent Phil Blevins will do his annual presentation on PREPARING HIVES FOR SPRING.
Please bring your face mask. Seating will be limited to 35 in the Executive Auditorium plus 24 in Room 240, the Overflow room, allowing for 2 empty seats between each person. Attendance is at your own risk. Face masks are required by the SVHEC for your protection and to protect your fellow beekeepers. Thank you.
The program will be streamed to Room 240 via Zoom meeting.
If you are not comfortable with a group meeting, you may use Zoom to view the presentation from your own computer at home. To join, click on the link below:
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7940532703?pwd=UWhwc3ZVcGJOMEdoRXJpTHVWKy9pdz09
Meeting ID: 794 053 2703
Passcode: SWVHEC20!
Extension Agent Phil Blevins will do his annual presentation on PREPARING HIVES FOR SPRING.
Please bring your face mask. Seating will be limited to 35 in the Executive Auditorium plus 24 in Room 240, the Overflow room, allowing for 2 empty seats between each person. Attendance is at your own risk. Face masks are required by the SVHEC for your protection and to protect your fellow beekeepers. Thank you.
The program will be streamed to Room 240 via Zoom meeting.
If you are not comfortable with a group meeting, you may use Zoom to view the presentation from your own computer at home. To join, click on the link below:
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7940532703?pwd=UWhwc3ZVcGJOMEdoRXJpTHVWKy9pdz09
Meeting ID: 794 053 2703
Passcode: SWVHEC20!
Review of the February 2021 HBA meeting
At our February meeting, J.R. and Karen Sexton talked with us about cutouts and trapouts they have done.
The Sextons are beekeepers and owners of a construction business in Dryden. As well as doing about 40 cutouts a year, trapouts, and collecting swarms, they also offer pollination services. Over a 2-week period in 2020, they did 14 cutouts. Contact them at sssshoneybees@gmail.com.
Following is a summary of their presentation:
Takeaway lessons:
* No two cutouts are the same.
* 1st step: Sign a contract with the owner stating exactly what will be done. Sextons’ fee is a flat rate after evaluation plus cost of travel, gas, food, hive boxes, equipment needed. They agree to leave the area the way they found it (minus bees and comb). They stay until the job is done. They do lots of education, often to justify the cost of the cutout as compared with the cost of extermination.
* A homeowner’s real problem is not the bees, but the comb and honey inside the walls.
* Bees actually protect a house from mice and termites, etc. that will move in once the bees are gone.
* Cutouts require lots of different kinds of equipment.
* Use a thermal imaging gun to find the bees in a wall or ceiling, and then cut a square opening that is easy to replace with new wallboard.
* Invest in a bee vac system. Sextons vacuum bees directly into a hive body with a plexiglass slide on a super box to adjust the suction and a screen to catch the dust, insulation, etc. that comes with the bees.
* Bees will come back to where bees have been. The only effective barrier is wire screen or steel wool (same for bats).
* Will need a queen clip to catch the queen bee – a MUST.
* Also need: totes and containers Bee Gone spray
food grade containers for honey suits and gloves
spatula, knives ladder
flashlights supplies to rebuild
drop cloths tools, tools, tools
* Mark your transporting truck “Caution! Live Honey Bees!”
* Sometimes the colony does not survive.
* Don’t attempt a cutout after Labor Day because the colony will not come through the winter. “Bees” in the fall are often actually yellow jacket wasps.
* Most homeowners do want to save the bees.
* Some exterminators don’t know about doing cutouts instead of spraying.
Advantages of cutouts over trapouts:
Cutouts done:
The Sextons are beekeepers and owners of a construction business in Dryden. As well as doing about 40 cutouts a year, trapouts, and collecting swarms, they also offer pollination services. Over a 2-week period in 2020, they did 14 cutouts. Contact them at sssshoneybees@gmail.com.
Following is a summary of their presentation:
Takeaway lessons:
* No two cutouts are the same.
* 1st step: Sign a contract with the owner stating exactly what will be done. Sextons’ fee is a flat rate after evaluation plus cost of travel, gas, food, hive boxes, equipment needed. They agree to leave the area the way they found it (minus bees and comb). They stay until the job is done. They do lots of education, often to justify the cost of the cutout as compared with the cost of extermination.
* A homeowner’s real problem is not the bees, but the comb and honey inside the walls.
* Bees actually protect a house from mice and termites, etc. that will move in once the bees are gone.
* Cutouts require lots of different kinds of equipment.
* Use a thermal imaging gun to find the bees in a wall or ceiling, and then cut a square opening that is easy to replace with new wallboard.
* Invest in a bee vac system. Sextons vacuum bees directly into a hive body with a plexiglass slide on a super box to adjust the suction and a screen to catch the dust, insulation, etc. that comes with the bees.
* Bees will come back to where bees have been. The only effective barrier is wire screen or steel wool (same for bats).
* Will need a queen clip to catch the queen bee – a MUST.
* Also need: totes and containers Bee Gone spray
food grade containers for honey suits and gloves
spatula, knives ladder
flashlights supplies to rebuild
drop cloths tools, tools, tools
* Mark your transporting truck “Caution! Live Honey Bees!”
* Sometimes the colony does not survive.
* Don’t attempt a cutout after Labor Day because the colony will not come through the winter. “Bees” in the fall are often actually yellow jacket wasps.
* Most homeowners do want to save the bees.
* Some exterminators don’t know about doing cutouts instead of spraying.
Advantages of cutouts over trapouts:
- A trapout will not get rid of ants, termites, beetles, mice, roaches, and other pests.
- A trapout will not eliminate the eggs, larvae, and brood.
- Trapouts can take weeks of time and must be monitored closely, often requiring assistance of homeowner.
- When access is limited.
- If colony’s location cannot be found.
- If walls are made of cinderblock.
- If bees are in electrical panels.
- If the owner doesn’t want the walls cut.
Cutouts done:
- Their first cutout was from Karen's dad’s bees, which had been left on their own for 25 years; it took them 4 hours to place the colony into new hive boxes.
- Their second cutout was 2 colonies that had been in an old house for 22 years. They were each at least 6’ long and 12” deep, and it took them 16 hours. The bees had organized different types of honey in different areas of the comb.
- The silo cutout was of a colony that had been there about 45 years. They needed 7 extension hoses on their vacuum to reach the bees above the pipework.
- Cutout from a country cabin in Norton with no electricity, which required them bringing in a generator.
- Cutout from a log on top of a mountain in Blackwater, which was infested with Small Hive Beetles and their larvae. They took the bees, melted down the comb, and burned the log.
- The cutout from the Glade Spring “multi-hive” house was to be a 1-week project. The problem was old, rotten boards and plaster walls. There were 8 colonies, each at least 8’ long. After cutting the anticipated cost by a third, the owner declined.
- A cutout from the inside of hauler wheels.
- Laurel Bloomery cutout where, when the ceiling fan was turned on, it would sling honey.
- A log yard in Duffield where the bees were starving and very docile.
- A bee tree that took 6 hours to smoke the bees out.
- A cutout on a construction site they call the “Scrappy hive” because they took 32 stings from the colony. Construction had to be shut down until the bees were gone.
- The Jones Exit 10 hive, which was complicated by needing to order specialized shingles to replace the ones cut out.
- The Bruce hive in a nice, well-kept farmhouse, where a colony moved into combs used by a previous colony.
- A cutout of a colony in a closet.
- They recently did a cutout from an eave on the Girl & the Raven cafe building. The owners bought the honey to use in the café.
Virginia State Beekeepers Association
VSBA MEMBERSHIP
Treasurer:
Ian D. Henry
434-823-8600
5771 Hill Top St.
Crozet, VA 22932
treasurervsba@virginiabeekeepers.org
VSBA MEMBERSHIP
Treasurer:
Ian D. Henry
434-823-8600
5771 Hill Top St.
Crozet, VA 22932
treasurervsba@virginiabeekeepers.org
