These are photos and captions of recent (and past) mentoring activities arranged as Mentoring Reports for each month's business meeting to inform members of what has been done regarding teaching, mentoring, helping new or relatively new beekeepers get to know their bees a little better.

Mentoring Report - September/October 2024

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MYTH BUSTING:  Someone mentioned to Dennis that the slots in the 5" diameter stainless steel dial-an-entrance disks exclude bees from coming and going and that they could not pass through if the hole drilled behind it was 1" or larger in diameter, but if hole was 3/8" diameter they could pull themselves through okay by gripping the wall of the small hole.  Well they have no problem passing through in our testing. Myth busted. - October 2, 2024

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Mentoring Report - August 2024

Mentoring Report - July 2024

Mentoring Report - June 2024

Mentoring Report - May 2024

Mentoring Report - April 2024

Members Jennafer and Angela spent most of the day going thru member Josh’s 13+ hives as Dennis watched . Hives for the most part were growing and had high bee density. A deep super of honey was harvested, split equalizing was performed and double deeps used for capped brood frame redistribution. All hives were treated with probiotics and beetle jail traps installed. The hives were being overran with small hive beetles, but colonies were strong enough to keep them jailed, but resulted in irritated bees. Traps should ease this. One nuc was missing a couple of frames which slowed us down to correct this mess up. Wednesday 4-10-24

Mentoring Report - February & March 2024

Mentoring Report - December 2023 & January 2024

Mentoring Report - November 2023

Mentoring Report - October 2023

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Mentoring Report - September 2023

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Direct Feed ProBiotics

FIELD UPDATE - August 28, 2023 by Angela Holbrook Bartholomew (BASF member)

...what we’re seeing around this area and how we’re troubleshooting it. Big take away if you don’t have time to watch video is you need to check your hive for resources. If you lack sufficient resources then you need to feed your bees. If you believe your bees are poisoned then give them bee probiotics immediately. (Yup that’s a thing!) If you have any questions after watching the video feel free to reach out to Dennis or me and we will GLADLY help

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Mentoring Report - August 2023

Mentoring Report - July 2023

Mentoring Report - June 2023

Mentoring Report - May 2023

Alexandra's Honey Extraction - Part 1 (Note: 30 to 35 pounds, NOT 35 gallons)

​Alexandra's Honey Extraction - Part 2

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Mentoring Report - April 2023

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Mentoring Report - March 2023

Mentoring Report - February 2023

Checking member Jim Lunsford’s two hives. Both hives were doing well and not in need of any attention. He had diatomaceous earth in hive beetle trap which was effective; however the vinegar/oil trap had no beetles. January 30, 2023

Mentoring Report - January 2023

Mentoring Report - December 2022

Mentoring Report - November 2022

Mentoring Report - October 2022

Mentoring Report - September 2022

Besides Recent Mentoring Activities and Photos in the form of Mentoring Reports (presented at each month's business meeting as appropriate) the following is a list of of other mentoring which may or may not appear in the photos above, but are listed here for the record.

​August 20, 2022: Dennis was Celebrating National Honey Bee Day thru educating new beekeepers. Helped member Carolyn M. with her recently acquired gift of beehives with bees. So she is becoming a beekeeper one step at a time. Her confidence is building and things are doing well... even getting to see honey being cured and capped. A great day with her and her bees.

August 20, 2022:  Dennis was spreading the bee knowledge on National Honey Bee Day. Helping member Jim save one of his colonies that was hopelessly queenless and checking to make sure his other colony was doing well enough to make honey. Yay! he had lots of bees in super curing and capping honey. He should get his first honey harvest soon.

*August 29, 2022: Marc assisted member Perri Williamson with her two hives. Two boxes full of bees and brood... with honey supers on both. 

August 31, 2022: Dennis visited Victoria and she checked the supers of her 3 hives. One hive had just recently been supered (the Cordovan golden girl colony), but the other two were drawing out, filling, and even capping honey.

September 1, 2022:  ​Marc assisted member Brie today (Thursday, 9-1-22) with her bees and harvesting her honey. She got 1 1/2 gallons of honey. Moisture content reading 20%.

September 1, 2022:  Dennis got a call that member Jim was having difficulty seeing the larvae and suspected that the queen was still not laying or missing. I went right out to check with him. Yay! Good news he has a couple of frames packed pretty solid with larvae! A good morning today.

**September 7, 2022:  Marc visited member Michelle Daniel as she went through her hive

**September 7, 2022: Marc visited member Bob Brown and his bees

**September 8, 2022: Marc visited member Jeff Huddleson.  Golden Girl (Cordovan) queen is still there, well-marked, and doing well.

​September 10, 2022:  Dennis visited with member Jackie to check her Flow-Hive to see if any thing out of the ordinary and to see if they were capping any honey. All appeared normal, but no capping of honey yet. Brazilian Pepper has blossoms, but not opened yet. Hoping for a nectar flow and some capping in her hive. Golden Girls from C.F. Koehnen & Sons Inc looked nice in the sunshine this morning.

*Marc skipped over this at September meeting... so maybe mention more about Perri's hives at October meeting

**These photos were not ready in time for September meeting... so maybe mention these at October meeting.

Mentoring Report - August 2022

Mentoring Report - July 2022

Mentoring Report - June 2022

May 28, 2022 - Follow up with member JERRY BROWN to check on nuc which was in trouble and dwindling... today it was on it's way back to recovery.  Later photos will show this added back to 10-frame after making a full bounce back.

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The California Golden Blonde Girl (Cordovan) Queens ordered for members and several installed under mentor program with assistance by Marc & Dennis

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Side Note on CANNIBALIZATION found during Victoria's Inspection:

  Wait... what?! eating off heads of pupae and cannibalization?! When a larval honeybee (Apis mellifera) is sick, a worker bee is likely to sniff out the infection, open the cap on the sick larva's brood cell and eat it. Entomologists call this behavior hygienic cannibalism.

"It's a beneficial behavior, and many beekeepers actively breed for it," said Jay Evans, an entomologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Bee Research Laboratory. It's especially useful for fighting bacterial and fungal infections, Evans said, because workers kill the infection before it produces spores that can infect the rest of the colony.
Honeybee colonies also employ this tactic against parasites such as Varroa destructor, a mite that attaches to the bee's body and feeds on its fat. Varroa infections can cripple a bee colony, but behaviors such as hygienic cannibalism largely keep the mites in check.  https://www.livescience.com/virus-hijacks-bee-cannibalism.html 

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Mentoring Report - May 2022

Jennafer visited her hives that I am temporarily BEEby-sitting for her. Nucs were full of brood and bees. There was no shortage of honey and nectar, so the bees were doing well. Not a single hive beetle. Queens that were located still had their marks intact (but paint was chewed, but still there). Sunday, April 24, 2022

Jennafer came over today to transfer her five nucs into five 10-frames. Nucs were from Bonnie's Bees (Martha Carpenter Mite Maulers) and queens were marked yellow. Nucs were definitely ready for transfer and were heavy with more than everything needed. No sign of pests. Sunday, April 24, 2022

Jennafer spotted small larvae and eggs in the cells of this frame. Sunday, April 24, 2022

Visited Victoria today and we went through her 3 hives to see how they were doing after undergoing a few treatments for mites and beetle issues. Good news was no hive beetles and they colonies had bounced back nicely after the mite treatments. Recent blooms (including palmetto) has resulted in more comb building and queen eagerly laying on the comb as fast as it could be build. Expecting these bees to really start being productive. Added super to the third (and strongest) colony (Red Rose Colony). Monday, April 25, 2022.

Victoria uses foundationless frames and the bees were eagerly expanding... and queen was right there already laying as the comb was being build. Monday, April 25, 2022

Victoria said she couldn't see that well without her contacts in, but she saw well enough to pint out the eggs on this frame... and the tiny larvae. Monday, April 25, 2022.

Victoria uses foundationless frames and while it requires a little extra care handling the frames it is worth the rare risk of forgetting not to tip frames. Fun to watch the bees do things the way they want... plenty of communication and frame-to-frame travel...festooning to build new comb, plus natural cell size and so much more. April 25, 2022

Mentoring/Assisting new bee club member Peter Trepper. He had two colonies with lots of honey in super from a nectar flow of the past. Checked Brown box and while it had capped honey in super, the brood box was filled with a queenless roar of bees, nectar, pollen, but no brood, no queen. So I went into second double brood box hive and found 20 decent frames of brood, so took it down to one 10-frame with existing queen and took other 10 frames to make two queenless split-offs. Bonnie's Bees is supplying two Mite Mauler queens on Sunday for the two nucs. Friday, 4/29/22

Checking in on Jackie and her Flow-Hive after last months lack of nectar flow (dearth) and at that time when there were no visible nectar or honey stores. Today, they were fully active, growing with plenty of capped honey reserves in the upper corners of frames. Friday, April 29, 2022

Checking in on Jackie and her Flow-Hive after last months lack of nectar flow (dearth) and at that time when there were no visible nectar or honey stores. Today, all looked very well. Friday, April 29, 2022

Checking in on Jackie and her Flow-Hive after last months lack of nectar flow (dearth). The queen I had previously marked "orange" was easily found. She was plump and nice... laying well to catch the palmetto nectar flow already started. Friday, April 29, 2022

Saturday, 4/30/22 went out to help Jerry Brown locate his two hard-to-see "unmarked" (gone feral, superseded) queens before we requeen tomorrow. One of his HOOVER hives (dipped-wax finish still looking nice after 2 or 3 years) was even being filled and capped with honey. He's holding one of the frames which they are filling as fast as they draw out the wax... and capping as they go. I located both queens and removed. NEXT DAY: I went out again the following afternoon with his two new queens from Bonnie of Bonnie's Bees. These Mite Maulers are the only queens Jerry has used since he started beekeeping a couple years ago. Cages are hung in two of his 3 hives and we will check to see how the release is going on Wednesday. Thanks Bonnie for supplying the two new queens!

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Mentoring Report - April 2022

Visited with Victoria yesterday (3/18/22). Project today was take frames (brood and resources) from her other 3 hives to accomplish a nuc split which would remain queenless for 2 days prior to installing a newly purchased Martha Carpenter Mite Mauler queen from Bonnie's Bee's Victoria's apiary is looking great with her newly painted hives.

Today (Monday, 3/21/22) checked on Victoria's requeening progress. They had not chewed much candy in one day. We decided to transfer the 5 frames from plastic Pro-Nuc into a nicer wooden nuc box. I felt the heat from the sun on the plastic was a bit intense when compared to wooden nuc with wooden cover. I also poked a tiny hole (tunnel) through the candy to encourage the bees to release her. She purchased this yellow marked, caged queen from Bonnie's Bee's. The queen is from the queen line Martha Carpenter Mite Maulers. Thanks Bonnie Raye

Friday, March 25, 2022: Checked Victoria's 4 hives and specifically checked the newest colony with recently hand-released Mite Mauler queen from Bonnie's Bees. We found the released queen with barely any of her yellow paint left, but you could still see small amounts of the yellow, so the queen was there and there was plenty of larvae. One of her other colonies was exhibiting hygienic behavior by uncapping and removing pupae.

Friday, March 25, 2022: Checked Victoria's 4 hives and noticed workers which were uncapping and removing dead, parasitized, or diseased larvae and pupae from sealed brood cells is indicative of hygienic behavior. The more cells uncapped and pupae removed, the more hygienic the colony. The odor of the mite itself triggers or influences which cells the worker inspects. Because of noting this activity we decided to treat all colonies for mites using oxalic acid just to be on the safe side.

Friday, March 25, 2022: Checked Victoria's 4 hives Some cells the worker bees uncapped to take a peek, but they took no action unless they found the pupae to be dead and/or diseased. If they find DWV (Deformed Wing Virus) they will sometimes decapitate or cannibalize the pupae. Often they will recap the cell after taking a peek.

Victoria going through her 3 hives this morning (Friday, 4/1/22) assisted by Marc and Dennis. Routine follow-up check of hives being treated for mites. Bees looked good. Oxalic acid towel treatment repeated a week ago has produced results in the form of many mites detached and stuck in the Pam veggie spray coating on the bottom inspection tray/board.

Victoria going through her 3 hives this morning (Friday, 4/1/22) assisted by Marc and me (I don't usually get in photos, so had Victoria take one today for fun). Queen in this colony was easy to spot with bright orange paint that I marked her with because she was ordered "unmarked" from queen supplier.

Checking Victoria's 3 hives this morning (Friday, 4/1/22). This hive is doing well with a queen that barely has any of her white paint left... but still enough paint to let us know that she hasn't been replaced. This is a 2022 queen (hence the white paint color).

Victoria checked her 3 hives this morning (Friday, 4/1/22). Her hives have the screened bottom board that I modified to have a white pull-out tray drawer to serve as sticky (Pam spray) trap and inspection board. The shop towels (oxalic acid) had done their thing by causing a huge mite fall over the last week.

Assisting Jocelyn with her 3 hives on Friday, 3/18/22. First two Langstroth hives had laying queens and an okay brood pattern; however, were in dire need of food. They had no honey left in supers, no honey or nectar in brood box. Completely dry and void. So she purchased some feeders and will be feeding 1:1 sugar water steady until conditions improve in her area. If you zoom in on photos you can see the dry, empty cells in upper corners of brood frames. Nothing to fuel them nor to stimulate them to build up.

Assisting Jocelyn with her 3 hives on Friday, 3/18/22. While first 2 Langstroth were totally light (no food reserves), the 3rd hive KTBH (Kenya Top Bar Hive) was totally the opposite... no food shortage and had plenty of capped honey and resources. Strange they must have found a good foraging area the other two hives failed to find.

Checked in on Jackie and her Flow Hive yesterday (Friday, 3/18/22) and discovered that like some others she was experiencing a light colony (all reserves were gone... no capped honey, no nectar), but colony was still strong. So we installed a can of sugar syrup 1:1 above top bars/inner cover and protected with super box to help reduce any robbing problems. Can will be replaces with more appropriate mason jar inverted feeder later. Her colony is currently queened with "orange" marked queen (a color I use when queens are purchased without supplier marking, so I know which ones were purchased unmarked... currently color would have been yellow).

Assisting Jerry Brown as he transfers 5-frame nuc from Bonnies Bees consisting of Martha Carpenter Mite Mauler bees (with their yellow-marked queen) into his new Hoover 10-frame Langstroth. Sunday, April 10, 2022.

Assisting Jerry Brown as he transfers 5-frame nuc from Bonnies Bees consisting of Martha Carpenter Mite Mauler bees (with their yellow-marked queen) into his new Hoover 10-frame Langstroth. This makes his third colony. Two previous colonies were also Mite Maulers and also in Hoover Hives. Sunday, April 10, 2022.

Jerry's new Hoover 10-frame Langstroth now contains the nuc of Mite Maulers... all done. We did look at his other two hives which we will be ordering two new mite mauler replacement queens since they had swarmed and queens were superseded by feral queens. Sunday, April 10, 2022.

Bonnies Bees nucs were well populated and queen was laying well. You can easily see the eggs in this photo. This new nuc was calm and pleasant to install in their new hive. This is more than I can say for the other two colonies which no longer had marked queen and were quite testy. Sunday, April 10, 2022.

Bonnies Bees nucs were well populated and queen was laying well. You can easily see the tiny larvae in this photo. Sunday, April 10, 2022.

Brand new beekeeper Jim Lunsford installed 5-frame nuc from Bonnie's Bees into his own 10-frame hive box about 5 days ago. I went out today to see how the 5 frames were doing in their new hive box. They still looked great. We observed brood (open and capped including larvae in various stages of development). There was plenty of glistening nectar and also capped honey in corners and/or along tops of frames. Advised to leave them alone for a week to 10 days before checking on their progress. Friday, 4-15-22

Newbie Jim Lunsford and I checked on his first hive containing the 5 frames from Bonnie's bees. (Martha Carpenter Mite Maulers). We observed brood (open and capped including larvae in various stages of development). There was plenty of glistening nectar and also capped honey in corners and/or along tops of frames. Bees were calm and gently. Jim started with gloves, but quickly took them off to make the inspection go easier. Friday, 4-15-22

Mentoring Report - March 2022

Mentoring Report - February 2022

Mentoring Report - January 2022