March 3rd Meeting: Honeycomb Management with Joe Kovaleski

Guernsey Noble Beekeepers met at the Buffalo Mid-East Campus at 6:30 P.M. on March 3rd. Don called the meeting to order and gave the Treasurer's Report for Marge. Misty read the Secretary's Notes for the last meeting, which was on February 3rd. Don reminded everyone that Bee School is coming up on March 15th. He then introduced Joe Kovaleski, an OSBA speaker and Master Beekeeper. Joe's topic for the night was honeycomb management.

Honeycomb is a secretion of wax from the bee's wax glands made from sugar. It takes 8oz of honey to make 1oz of wax. Bees 10-20 days old make wax during the stage after nurse bees. Wax is made up of 284 compounds, 48 of which is for aroma.

Wax starts out white and becomes darker with use. The darkest wax tends to come from brood comb and should be cycled every three to five years. Pesticide will build up in comb over time as bees bring it in from their flights. Nurse bees also recycle cappings from brood cells, making clean comb important.

Hives can have either natural or planned comb. Natural comb does not use foundations, but may use supports to help the bees build out comb. It is very fragile and not ideal for honeycomb that will be spun. Planned comb does use foundations. It gives a base for bees to build from and is strong enough to spin honey. While extra frames can be stored for future honey production, it must be stored properly to prevent wax moths. The moths do not like light, open spaces. Frames can be frozen to kill larva, but freezing will not kill eggs. Paramoth can be used during storage to kill larva that hatches from hidden eggs. Frames stored with Paramoth must be aired out before being used in the hive.

Joe finished his talk by introducing bee insemination at Don's request. He described the method used to collect sperm from drones and how it is then inserted into a virgin queen. The process is very time consuming and expensive, but provides better control of genetics.

Our next meeting will be April 7 at 6:30 P.M. at the Mid-East Buffalo Campus. Matt Mead, a club member, will speak about beekeeping as a business. The club will also hold its annual silent auction fundraiser.