West Virginia Trip

What a great trip we had! We went to West Virginia for the weekend for the WVU/Mississippi State game with our friends the Grahams (MSU grad/fans), and my mom and dad.

New River Gorge Bridge, WV

It was a gorgeous drive through the mountains in fall, with the mountains in full spring color!

US Route 19, Webster County, WV

The trip up was uneventful. We left on Thursday night, and camped in the Wal-Mart parking lot in Wytheville, VA. We arrived at our campsite at Stonewall Jackson State Park & Resort, an excellent campground, with a golf course and spa attached!
The picture above is of the kids, both ours and the Graham's, getting ready for gameday!

Following are some more pictures from the trip. By the way, West Virginia won! 6-1!!!

Mystery Flower revealed!

The mystery is solved! I contacted a former college roommate of mine that is a botanist, and he said that this flower is a passion flower.
It's also known as a maypop. So thanks Brett! I need to get some for next year to plant near the house and hives!
I did a mini-inspection yesterday, and put a hivetop feeder on the third hive, which appears to be low on honey. Both hives have a nice brood pattern going, but I noticed that the small hive beetles were moving around pretty good. But I still felt like I needed to feed Hive 3.
I took apart the hive that had died out. I should have gotten to it sooner. The wax moths have made a complete mess of the deep and shallow. So I now have a big cleanup job to look forward to once my classes end next week.

Trip to Callaway

We spent our Labor Day weekend camping in Pine Mountain, GA. Erica had won some tickets from 104.7FM (The Fish) for a day pass at Callaway Gardens. If you've never been, I suggest you find time to go! We had a great time there!
For my beekeeping friends, they had a nice little apiary set up, with a tall screen in front so the bees had to fly up and over instead of at the viewer. They also had some nice vintage bee hives (no, I didn't get a picture!).
I also need some help: What is this flower?
This flower was growing on a vine in Mr. Cason's vegetable garden at Callaway. I have to admit that it is one of the coolest flowers I've ever seen
I did see several honeybees on it, but every time I got close enough for a picture, they took off! How rude!



Here's a picture of my butterfly kids at the butterfly conservatory:Here is Owen & I at the beach at Callaway with our game faces on:










Speaking of game faces, WVU is 2-0!

It's Hot...

I mean, really hot. We've had a record number of 100 degree days in a row here in Georgia. I haven't been out to touch the hives in about 3 weeks due to the hives being COVERED in bees. I have observed them from the outside, but they've been too irritated over the weather to bother them. Today, we finally had a good hard thunderstorm! We're supposed to get some rain all week, so hopefully that will help!
I've noticed that the goldenrod is starting to bloom, which is good news! I have smelled it around the hives, so I am going to hold off feeding the bees for awhile.
hive number one has finally died out. I tried all year to keep them going, but they never raised a viable queen, and even killed the one I tried to introduce. So I know of at least one package I will need to purchase next year. However, if my other hives survive the winter, I may try a split instead.

One more thing:
6 more days until West Virginia football!!

Honeybee Websites for Elementary Teachers

Well, here it is! In an earlier post I had promised to post this list of websites that would be helpful for elementary students to view to learn about beekeeping. Enjoy!
If you know of any others, let me know and I'll add them to the list!

Category	URL	Description	Application
Students/ Teachers	The Beekeeper's Homepage	This site contains a lot of information on what BAD beekeeping is, as well as information on good beekeeping, beekeeper jokes, and a list of famous beekeepers.	This site would be very useful for finding info on beekeeping, especially in Canada. The list of famous beeks* would be good for a research project or two.
Teachers	National Honey Board Page for Kids & Teachers	Website from the National Honey Board.	This website contains info on bees, kid tested recipes, and a free downloadable teacher’s resource manual (with accompanying video series for purchase) to introduce these amazing creatures to your students.
Teachers	Honeybees resource guide for teachers	North Carolina Teacher’s printable PDF	This PDF is useful for ages K-5. It is full of more information than there is room to type here. It also has several activities that students can engage in.
Teachers	Africanized Honeybee Lesson Plans	Lesson Plans from the University of Arizona for K-12	These lesson plans have been divided into grade groups. They cover everything from bee biology to the emergence of Africanized honeybees in North America. Each lesson plan is divided into daily units.
Students/ Teachers	Brainpop - Honeybees	Educational Animated Movies for students about honeybees.	This website requires a subscription, which many schools have. The video is very engaging for students to watch either in a whole-group or individual setting.
Students/ Teachers	Honeybee information with matching quiz	Pelotes Island, FL site about bees.	Short website which contains information on bees, a sound clip of bees in the hive, and a fill-in-the-blank drawing of a bee’s anatomy.
Teachers	Printout of Honeybee Anatomy	Enchanted Learning Label Me! Printout	This site is a labeled picture of a honeybee anatomy. There is a link on the page to print out a blank bee anatomy picture for students to fill in.
Students	Honeybee Trivia	Texas A&M Dept. of Entomology	This site is a quick list of unusual facts about honeybees.
Students	NOVA - Tales From The Hive	Website of the PBS program NOVA	This site is great for students to learn about several different aspects of hive life. A good companion for the NOVA video of this episode.
Students	Brief History of Beekeeping	Southeast Texas Honey Co. website	Contains a brief history of beekeeping in Egypt. Useful for research projects.
Students/ Teachers	Becoming a Beekeeper -Info	Article on what a beekeeper does.	This article would be useful for students that want to know about what being a beek entails. Students can either view this site on their own, or the teacher can use it to answer questions students may have.
Students	Bee Basics	An introduction to bees by Dr. R. Iacobucci	Short site, full of information. Has some GREAT pictures of bee development from egg to adult.
Teachers	Lesson Ideas on Bees	4 2 Xplore Pathfinders site	This site has an extensive list of online activities for students. CAUTION: A few of the links were dead. Be sure to double check all sites listed before using. Pay close attention to the yellow box.
Students	Hivetool - Live Hive Cam!	Flash-based web cam from inside a hive!	This webcam is neat to watch, as it streams in real time. This site gets viewed a lot, so be sure it is working before you send students to it.
Students	NATURE - Alien Empire	From the Nature PBS series.	This is by far the best, most interactive site for students! It is extremely interactive, and easy to follow. The graphics are top notch. CAUTION: Be sure the volume is turned down, as this site insists on playing a drum rhythm as you watch it.
Students/ Teachers	Beekeeping Webquest	Internet Treasure Hunt on beekeeping	This is a good Webquest to do with students, however several of the links were dead. Teachers: Use this as a model for your own Webquest!
Student/ Teachers	Save the Honeybees Webquest	Webquest for grades 3-5	This is a very well-done Webquest. Students are required to draw a flower diagram, and then write a persuasive essay.
Teachers	Michael Bush's Bee Site	Website for Bush’s Farms	Probably the most knowledgeable person I know of in the field of beekeeping. The answer for just about any question a student can ask a teacher, as well as how-to construction tips.
Teachers	Article on Africanized Honey Bees	Scientific article on AHB.	Very well written article on the history and introduction of AHB in North America. Can be used to educate the teacher about the reality of AHB, so they can then educate the students.
Students	Another Bee Cam	Draper Bee Company web cam	Another live bee cam. This one is a single image that is updated every 14 seconds. A good cam to fall back on should the Hivetool cam be down.

*beeks – short form of “beekeeper”

Finally! An inspection!

Yay! I finally made an inspection today! The first time in three weeks! And it was time! I brought out some empty supers to add, and this hive needed one...


I opened up the third hive today, and found about seven fully capped frames, and some brood, so I put a shallow with Pierco foundation underneath this super, with hopes of pulling the super when it's full and the brood are gone.




Here's a cool pic of my hives as they were this afternoon:

Solar Wax Melter? Not without the sun!

Well, it's been awhile since I've posted. I'm nearing the end of my summer classes for my MAT, and the papers have been EXCRUCIATING! I haven't checked on the bees since July 4th! I was able to pull a fully capped shallow super of comb honey back then, and have bottled it. I was able to get a couple of frames of sourwood! It amazes me that we have any down this far south in Georgia.
The picture above is of my homemade solar wax melter. I got the idea from Linda, although I haven't painted it black. But isn't it my luck that as soon as I put this thing together, we start getting rain every afternoon here!! We're in the middle of a drought, and as soon as I need the heat and sun, it gets cloudy for three weeks! This is the second filtering of this wax, and it's been in there for two weeks, due to the rain cooling it off! You can see in the picture above that I have two Venus Flytraps, one that is going through rehab right now. I rescued it from Lowe's, where it was stuck in the darkest part of the plant section. In our part of Georgia, these plants can be grown outside. Remember, they come from swampy North Carolina, lots of heat and humidity, but they also go through a dormant winter period, and can survive low temperatures in the winter.
Anyway, back on subject (aren't I strange? I keep bees, and I keep plants that can eat bees!).
This solar wax melter has been pretty low maintenance, but the lack of sun has made the going S-L-O-W! I know, we need the rain....


Here are three different honeys that have been pulled by me this summer. What kind do you think they are?