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Stories From This Months Newsletter:

Spring Frost!   More Damage This Time!
Recent Experience with "T-Corks"
The Pictorial Story of Cayuga
More Winemaking Contests
Grape Recipe for June - Grape and Green Tomato Chutney

June with the Honeybees
June honey recipes - Honey Bread

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June with the honeybees.

  May and June is the swarming season. Here is a picture of a nice swarm that landed very high up in an apple tree near my honey house. It was too high to capture so I hope that it moves into one of my empty storage supers nearby.

Our spring colony check is a very important part of the bee year. Weak colonies are made stronger by taking frames of brood from strong colonies & given to the weaker ones. This also helps to prevent swarming which is sometimes caused by colonies being too big and crowded. Splits are new colonies made by taking 3 - 4 frames of brood, bees and a queen cell. We use splits to replace colonies lost over the winter and sometimes to re-queen weaker colonies. Usually 2 colonies can be made into 3 or 4. Raising new queens for these colonies has always been a large part of our spring work. Making splits ......

Quite often I will use about 50 to 100 new queens every year. At $10 to $20 a queen this can get quite expensive. By raising your own queens you can maintain better queen control quality. I raise queen with a "Jenter" system that help to transfer 1 day old larvae into queen cells. I then put them into a queenless hive for the bees to finish them into a queen. This year I used 2 queens that are bred from new mite resistant stock.
Click here for pictures & info on how I raise queens.

These breeder queens, called SMR (or smart queens) have just been developed and many people hope that the genes from these bees will start to spread accross the country to help control the devastating loss from the varroa mite.
Click here for more information about "smart" queens.
Click here to see how we install and raise new queens.

We also move, change or increase bee yards at this time of the year. The colonies are smaller and much easier to move if we have to. Since I do not move bees for regular pollination fees (I leave 15 - 20 colonies - a bee yard - in one place)

We are starting a pictorial page that will show where honey comes from and what we do to our honeybees each month throughout the year. Watch a field of flowers become honey.

June honey recipes - Honey Bread

Mix all ingredients together. Fill foil-lined, greased tins ½ to ¾ full. Bake in slow oven (325 degrees) for 1-1 ¼ hours. Remove from pans and foil. Cool. Wrap in plastic wrap or foil and store in tightly covered container to ripen. (2-3 weeks) When ripe, the top will have a very moist layer. Slice thinly and serve as cofee cake. May be buttered if desired. This makes 3-4 medium loaves.

This recipe was given to my parents by a Belgian couple (Truck gardeners who lived near Selfrigde Field) in the Mid 1930’s. We make at least one batch in time to be ready to eat at Christmas and often will make another later.

It is a good way to use up left-over coffee, but it can be made with strong instant coffee also. It is very important that you follow the instructions about the lining in the pan and the ripening of the bread after the baking. The pans are bread loaf size. We use the smaller size as this gives more top sides. Richard C. Bloom, Grand Blanc.