From Dan Van Peursem:
At 6:30 on Tuesday, September 22, Mark and Sandy Friedrichs hosted us on their acreage outside of LeMars, Iowa. It was another beautiful evening and setting. The meeting kicked off with folks donning their veils to observe Todd Osterbuhr and Dave Korver demonstrate how to do a mite count via the alcohol wash method. The key is to get nurse bees from a brood frame that is ready to be capped as mites reproduce in the capped brood so that is why they hang out there. Note they also prefer drone brood over worker brood by a factor of 7:1 so if you have drone brood ready to be capped, that would really be ideal. At any rate, take ½ cup of bees (which is roughly 300 bees) and insert them in a jar or special container bought from Dadants or other bee supply store. Pour in alcohol to cover the bees and shake them up thoroughly for a few minutes. Then, if you have the special container, the bees are screened above and you merely count the mites that fall to the bottom of the container. If you are just using a mason jar, use #8 hardware to separate the bees as you pour the alcohol mixture in a pan to count the mites. This time of year you want very low counts, preferably 0.
Next on the agenda we had Lenore Field and Dan Landsness give a demonstration on making Mead. Samples were provided of the various kinds! The cheap and easy method was 3 lbs of honey in a gallon container, add good spring water so a little space is left at the top, and add a packet of wine yeast, stir it up and put a balloon on top of the bottle. After 8 weeks or so it should not be leaving off gas anymore and you can take the top layer of mead off the jar by siphoning it to another jar to let it cure some more. The longer it sets the better. They mentioned that clean equipment is the key and they use Starsan to wash their equipment and air dry. You can add fruits and other flavoring as well. They promoted a book by Ken Schramm “The Complete Mead Maker” for a good beginners guide.
Dean and Barb Johnson then gave a demonstration on making creamed honey. Take 10 lbs of honey and a 1 lb of cream honey that you made previously or purchased, mix them together for 5-10 minutes with either a mixer or paint stirrer on a drill. (Ya gotta love food production with a drill!) You can then put in separate 1 lb containers in the fridge for 2 wks (actually anywhere 55 degrees is best). Again, samples were provided with pretzels or honey bear graham crackers with samples of the creamed honey they brought along. (Is anyone getting the idea that food samples was the theme of this meeting?)
Dean then discussed making candy boards for winter. Take 16 lbs of sugar, 3 cups of water, and a tablespoon of vinegar. Mix and pour on waxpaper in a 2 inch frame the size of your boxes, leaving a void in the center for bees to crawl up. Your 2 inch frame should have a wire mesh on the bottom to support the sugar and wax paper. Shims can also be added below the wire if you want to add winter or pollen patties later on. This goes directly on the boxes with your top cover or quilt box on top of this candy board.
The meeting finished with Todd Osterbuhr talking about crystallized honey. We concurred the best option was to advertise a drop off sight so people could bring us all their crystallized honey they thought was badJ However, he gave several fine examples of warming it up to 110 degrees with a light in an insulated box, stove, or old fridge and it would be good to go. Do not microwave or you will kill the good enzymes and pollen in the honey. There are also commercial hardware you can purchase to heat it up, (band heaters for 5 gallon buckets or 50 gallon drums), but even a heating pad works well also.
After that we loaded up the General Lee with the extra moon shine (Mead) and headed home. Hope to see you all again at a meeting near you.
Dan