Bee donation needed for Acta Non Verba Oakland nonprofit youth farm

[Rob Mathews, ACBA Treasurer / Webmaster]

Hi folks! Here's some info about a donation/volunteer opportunity.

Acta Non Verba is a well-established Oakland urban farm nonprofit with a goal of empowering youth through farming, education, and leadership programs. You can check out their website here.

A previous ACBA member, Steve Dreyer, stopped keeping bees a couple of years ago but  donated his old equipment to Acta Non Verba so they can include beekeeping as part of their project. He's going to take care of them, although he's out of practice and would appreciate some guidance too if he needs it.

What they will initially need is two colonies to get going. I don't have two spare colonies right now, but if anyone's willing to donate them -- or help Steve with advice as he needs it -- let me know and I'll connect you.

(By the way, Acta Non Verba means "deeds not words", so this is a great way to do a good deed!)

[Kurt Schaefer]

My swarm traps have been put out.  Last year I caught 2 more swarms than I needed.  I post when I have an extra swarm available.

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Kurt Schaefer
510 928-9464

ktsch...@gmail.com

[Gerald Przybylski]

This may be a good opportunity to do good AND practice spring swarm-management. 

i.e. I don't think you have to donate whole colonies.
Suppose a colony has over a dozen brood frames in two boxes... 
One can make a "Split" from one's  Strongest (most well behaved) hive 
consisting of
    •  a couple of frames of brood partly open partly capped, 
    •  a queen   ((( The alternative is to donate just the brood frames with some eggs and larva, and count on the split to make a queen for itself for the donee.  )))
    •  a frame uncapped honey 
for each split. 
If you donate the queen, with all the drone we've been seeing, an emergency queen from the mother hive should be able to mate well in the window 17 to 33 days after splitting

The upside for the donor 
is that a colony that's exploding can be reigned back in at a time when the impact on honey production won't be severe. 
Introduce some drawn but empty frames with worker size cells adjacent to the brood ball of the donor hive, 
or if you want to cool-their-heels a bit more, some undrawn Foundationless frames into the heart of the brood boxes in place of the brood that was donated. 
imo unwise to put frames of undrawn foundation in the brood ball while night temperatures can plummet. Adjacent should be OK, but one per box at a time.

I've been a bit more proactive this last 30 days about inspecting and rearranging colonies. 
They all have a remarkable amount of uncapped honey, even the ones that were in trouble.
I've been adding supers where they need it.  I have a colony in 2 medium brood boxes with four honey supers of mostly full but uncapped honey.
Consolidating brood frames where I find them scattered around 3 or 4 boxes into the bottom one or two boxes.
In colonies that aren't enthusiastic expanded into a second box, I move  couple of frames to the middle of the bottom box, flanked by drawn worker-cell frames for the bees to polish, and the queen to lay in. 
(Sometimes I put 2 medium frames of larva and pupa into a deep box below. When the queen starts laying in the deep frames adjacent to the mediums, 
I move the medium frames back up. Medium frames left in a deep have planes of comb drawn under their bottom bar to fill the available space.)

The goal is to save the neighbors from the drama of having swarms show up in their yards.  (Our civic obligation to not be an annoying neighbor) 

Why act now? Tame those exploding hives.  Waiting for a swarm will delay the donation by probably a month since the swarm calls to the club's hotline 
are few and far between until the last week of March when they REALLY pick up.  The swarm season peaks in April. Competition for swarms is high early in the season. 

BTW, the donation doesn't have to come from just one beek.  Two generous neighbors can adopt them. 
If they Need two colonies, perhaps they can also keep a Nuc colony for insurance and resources. 
If hives are doing "Well" but not really "Booming" then maybe two colonies can each afford to give up one brood frame. 


That's my 2¢
j

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