Middlesex, Oxford, Elgin Beekeepers Association Annual Bee Yard Meeting

Every year in June the "MOE", Middlesex Oxford, Elgin Beekeeper's Association (moebee.com) meet at a beekeeper's yard.

It's a chance for the experienced and non experienced to get together where we can get some hands on the bees and learn from those that have been beekeepers for years.

[Photo - Albert Devries holding up a frame of queen cups]

I remember a couple years back when we held the event in my bee yard that I learned more in 10 minutes with an experienced beekeeper than reading all kinds of books.

You just can beat some good old fashioned hands-on training.

This year we met in Elgin County at Albert Devries' home where he raises Buckfast bees.

He was trained as a beekeeper in Guelph but for a while other occupations kept him busy.

Recently he's started working for Clovermead Apiaries.  He was quick to recommend following your dreams and was very content to be doing work that he loves.

On his property was a lovely ravine with a creek.  Multiple hives were nestled there among the trees.

Dappled sunlight was lovely, mixed with just enough shade to make it comfortable.

We geared up and formed groups of beginners and queen rearing wannabees.

I was asked to mentor a group of beginners and so we gathered around a grouping of hives.

Albert breeds and sells queens too.  He demonstrated queen breeding, showing a frame filled with queen cups.

This is when I learned that when grafting tiny larvae into the queen cups that they cannot be flipped.

They only have breathing spiracles on one side of their body.  So if the larvae is flipped in the pool of royal jelly it will drown.

Everyone took turns prying frames from hives and holding up the bees.

We saw queen cups (empty), drone cells, drones and workers.

[Photo - new beekeepers try their hand at grafting larvae into queen cups]

Frames were passed around and even my mother got in on the act and held up a frame--with no veil or hat on!

Afterwards we returned to the shade trees and our lawn chairs and enjoyed some cool drinks and sandwiches.  Of course the talk was all about bees, naturally.

It was a good day.

If you're interested in purchasing Buckfast queens you can contact Albert at 519-868-9429 or via email at devriesfour@gmail.com 

[Photo - my Mom holding a frame of bees.]

Swarm Collectors: Beekeepers in London/Middlesex, Oxford and Elgin Counties who will Collect Bee Swarms

Below is a list of beekeepers in the Oxford, Middlesex and Elgin counties in southwestern Ontario who will collect honey bee swarms or do hive removals.

Before you contact them, please read this article on Swarms to be certain what you think might be honey bees are actually honey bees.... No sense wasting your time and theirs if they're not bees.

If calling a pest removal agency ask if they will collect the bees to put in a hive or terminate them.... I hope you opt for collection.

Many beekeepers will take a swarm because it's a great way for them to get free bees. Bees are under great stress these days so I hope you opt to put the can of Raid away and let someone take the bees.

There are many types of insects that may look like honey bees that can take up residence in an attic, garage, a backyard barbeque or bird house. These insects could be wasps, hornets or other kinds of bees.

Honey bees have gold and brown stripes and are furry. They also build a wax honeycombs that can hang down from a surface. The combs [pictured above] look like double-sided rounded waffles. Honey bees don't build nests in the ground and are more likely to select a sheltered location such as a hollow tree or attic of a home.

[This honey bee has pollen attached to her back leg].

Most beekeepers will have a service charge for attending a call which usually only covers the cost of their gas to get there. Often there will be a charge regardless if the insects are honey bees or not.

If in doubt, why not email them photos? Or simply observe the nest/swarm for a few minutes and compare with the photos on this page. Are they coming and going with pollen on their back legs? If so, they will be bees... but which kind? They could be honey bees, bumble bees or carpenter bees, etc.

Wasps, bumble bees and hornets do not make honeycombs. Their nests are made from various materials such as mud or wood scrapings (paper wasps). Wasps are not hairy and both hornets and wasps can sting multiple times whereas a honey bee dies when she stings.

One of the most common hornets is the Bald Faced Hornet [pictured at left] which is white and black and quite large. These wasps build paper nests that hang from an object. The nests start small but then grow quite large - bigger than a basketball. They do have a few hairs on their body but no where near as many as a honey bee.

Wasps and hornets do not collect pollen and bring it back to their hives attached to their back legs - only bees do that.

Yellow Jacket Wasps are about the same size as honey bees and are common pests at fairs and picnics. Wasps and hornets are omnivores and will eat both your tuna sandwich and your sugary pop. Yellow jackets primarily nest in the ground. In the fall they tend to become more aggressive as food becomes more scarce and they sting more frequently.

Bumble bees [pictured below next to a honey bee] are the gentle giant fuzzy bees. They are very docile and not inclined to sting.

They make small wax pots to store small quantities of nectar. They primarily nest under ground in old mole tunnels. I'm happy to have a nest of them under my dog house. They help to pollinate the flowers in my garden and have never been a problem.

Bumble bees collect pollen as well and will attach it to their back legs, just like honey bees.

If you see a bee Swarms you can just leave them alone. They have a plan and they know what they're doing--they're house hunting and they know what they're doing.

Once they find a new home they'll leave as a mass. They'll fly off in anywhere from a couple hours to a few days. The best thing to do is simply leave them alone. Watch an amazing swarm video for fascinating details about a honey bee swarm.

If you have bees or another insect in your residence that need to be removed, be aware that many pest companies will only come and terminate the current nest of insects. If the insects' entry way into your home isn't closed off, within a short period of time more insects will move in. Repairing or closing off the entrance is the only way to ensure they don't return.

Thank you for caring enough about bees to take the time to read about them. I hope you opt to have the bees collected by a beekeeper.

List of Beekeepers Who Collect Swarms in Ontario:

This is a list of beekeepers in southwestern Ontario who will collect swarms.

If you have bees in an attic, garage, etc., or have a swarm you can find beekeepers who will collect them by checking with the bee clubs/associations for that province or state. I have a few of them listed on my web site Associations page.

Sometimes people will sign up to the beekeeping Yahoo group and post a message for help as well. They're also listed on the Associations web page.

The Middlesex, Elgin and Oxford Beekeeper's Association

With a little Googling around the internet and a couple emails, I was able to find out where and when the local beekeepers in my area meet.

I was quite pleased to hear they are an active group that meet monthly almost all year round.

I attended the first meeting in May last year (2008). I'll never forget walking into the room and seeing the sea of white hair. There were approximately 40 people in the room, mostly men, and almost all of them were seniors.

Two thoughts struck me almost simaltaneously: What a vast amount of experience and knowledge in that room; and that the industry could be doomed if younger people didn't start to jump on board and get into beekeeping.

I have to confess that I have developed a deep love and respect for seniors. I certainly didn't always feel that way though. When I was younger I didn't care much for "old" people (my grandparents were always an exception). I thought they were grumpy and very set in their ways. Maybe some of them were but what I was completely overlooking at that time was that maybe they were grumpy for good reasons. And maybe they were set in their ways because they'd tried everything else and they knew what worked and what didn't!

Some things I guess you can only appreciate once you get closer to it yourself. I'm approaching 50 myself, having just celebrated my birthday this month.

I had my most consistent contact with seniors while I worked out of my home as an aesthetician. My most loyal, dependable and entertaining clients were the seniors. They came to have their feet done - toenails trimmed and calluses or bunions smoothed out. For them the pedicure wasn't a luxury, it was a necessity--older joints, arthritis, and artificial hips preventing them from doing their own foot care. What was a reality for them was a blessing for me. It brought in income at a needed time and it also opened the world of the older person to me--the life and times of the golden years.

So, when I entered that bee meeting and I saw seniors, I got excited. All that wisdom and experience in one place. I knew beyond a doubt there would be those that would be more than willing to mentor me in beekeeping, to share their knowledge, to pass on something of themselves. And I knew too that I would be obliged and happy to pay it forward for them too by helping someone else in turn.

The bee meetings are very interesting. They have professionals from all aspects of the industry speak at each meeting. Many bring a video or slideshow to share the scientific facts coming out about our poor beleagured bees. Topics discussed are Diseases, Overwintering of Hives, etc., etc. Many of the topics presented these days relate to the science of bees.

I overheard one beekeeper recently say to another how much the professionals--scientists--are now getting involved in beekeeping. And they need to be too. With bees in serious trouble world wide, the beekeeping and scientific community are coming together, not always in agreement, but at least coming together to try to find out what exactly is going on with bees today. Agreement, I think, mostly exists in a fictional utopia, but I do believe that people in the bee industry are working toward a common goal. What they do agree on is that they want to help the bees.

I was very pleased to see that some of the white heads at the local bee meeting were women! I gravatated to them and it was like kindred spirits meeting to chat about old times.

The bee club also arranges to have visits to beeyards where we can open up some hives and see someone else's operation. Last summer (2008), we met at Bill Ferguson's Apiary (http://www.fergusonapiaries.on.ca/home.html) in Hensall, Ontario. We spent part of the day touring some of his 700 hives. He breeds and sells queens as well and he showed us his queen rearing operation. His honey house is a real commercial operation with equipment for large beekeeping operations. (See my next blog coming soon for photos and details).

The club works closely with the Ontario Bee Association (OBA) (http://www.ontariobee.com/) and many events are arranged in common, such as the annual summer meeting and the Annual Beekeeper's Convention in December--both of which I'll blog on later.

Last month, the bee club had a presentation of a video on bee migration in China. It was very interesting to watch a few months in the life of beekeepers in China. They certainly do things very differently there compared to here. This week there will be a presentation on the results of experiments with frozen bee spermatoza. The range of topics is certainly enough to satisfy the beekeeping appetite.

And the seniors, oh yes, they are more than willing to answer my questions about bees and behives. They are very patient and I can tell they enjoy an opportunity to share their wisdom and experience.