A Miracle in the Making at The Bee Folks....

Life has been very exciting around here! In February and March, we were at the Florida Renaissance Faire. Just after the opening weekend of the Faire, we discovered Lori is pregnant!

We made it through the heat, rain, tornadoes, and high wind (the wind shredded our tent, and we were left scrambling for a replacement....). We had a short vacation in Orlando on the way back up.

But, when we returned to Maryland, Lori started having some complications. After a few calls to the midwives and a sonogram, we found the cause - TRIPLETS! Not only that, but as time has progressed, we have come to learn that they are probably identical triplets (occurs approximately 1 in every 167,000 births), and they seem to be boys.

So - to those of you who have had problems reaching us in the office over the last few weeks, we heartily apologize, and hope you forgive us. With all the doctor appointments, morning sickness, and pregnancy "sleepies", we hope you understand. And we have recently hired extra help around the office to make up for Lori's "condition".

Triplets are born early. If things go well, they will be delivered sometime between mid-August and mid-September. But don't expect to see Lori at any of our upcoming shows - she is taking it easy, and letting her extended family (and wonderful managers) to run shows through the end of the year.

Thanks for all the well-wishes we have received so far, and we will keep you updated!

Free Upgraded Shipping to APO Addresses

I was really surprised to see the deadlines for shipping items to APO addresses. The deadline to send items parcel post to APO addresses has past (it was November 13).

The deadline to ship items priority mail to most APO addresses is December 11. (APO/FPO AE 093 has a deadline of December 4).

In large part to honor my father's past military service, and in another large part to support our men and women overseas, The Bee Folks will be offering a free upgrade to priority mail for any order placed with us that is being shipped to an APO/FPO address. This free upgrade will be in effect until noon, December 11.

Just choose parcel post at checkout. When we see that the order is being shipped to an APO address, we will provide the upgrade on our end. If in doubt - call us at 877-4BEEFOLKS, or email me at lori@beefolks.com.

Happy Holidays, one and all!

Tartan Terrors

I just received this from the PA Renaissance Faire. If anyone can afford to donate, please do. Or go to their website and purchase their CD's - hopefully they had a stash that was not in their truck or trailer. They are a marvelous band, and they have done alot to raise funds for healthcare for Renaissance Faire workers via the RESCU Foundation:

November 9, 2007

Friends~

We, the family of the PA Renaissance Faire, are all pulling together to help out our mutual pals, the Tartan Terrors. On their trek home their vehicle and trailer, including all their merchandise, costumes and instruments, were stolen. The vehicle was found later, burned to a crisp, and the trailer remains at large. There was more than $100,000 in damages, all while facing a large tour schedule.

We’re asking you to kick in some funds…whether it’s $5 or $500 or anywhere in between. It’s that simple. Friends…need…help.
If you can help, send your check or money order in c/o:

Carrie Emich
PRF
2775 Lebanon Road
Manheim PA 17545-8711

Please be certain to clearly mark the donation as for “Tartan Terrors Aid.”

'Tis the season for a bit of cleaning

The one problem with the Renaissance Faires ending is that now we have to figure out where to put the leftover merchandise. I tell my "kids", if we have one left of everything on the shelf at the end of the final day, then we had just the right amoung of stuff. If we have two or more, then we obviously have too many. If we run out, then maybe we could have sold one more. And, whatever is left at the end of the final day, they have to pack down for me.

PA Renfaire did pretty good (thanks, Paddy!). But the MD Renfaire....

To give Ben some credit, it was his first time managing something this large and this busy on his own. Given that, he did a great job. Its just that we have many, many shelves full of candles, honeysticks, and candy come back.

Well, at least we won't have to make many candles for awhile! And, I hope to see the carpet soon. At least, I THINK we have a carpet.....

The Renfaire are Almost Over!

I almost hate to say it, but.....YEA, THE RENFAIRES ARE ALMOST OVER!

Please don't get the wrong idea. We loved seeing everyone there. But we have been working 18 hour days, 7 days a week, for several months now. We are due a brief spite before the holiday rush is upon us.

Last weekend was the final weekend at the MD Renfaire, and this weekend is the final weekend at the PA Renfaire. When I last checked www.weather.com, they are calling for a bit of rain on Saturday, but gorgeous weather on Sunday. Well, as long as you dress for 65 degree weather. Still, I think it hit 45 degrees a year or two ago, so 65 should be a nice balmy day!

If you haven't done so already, sign up for our email list - we will be sending out new newsletters soon, and the holiday sales are coming up. Should be exciting!

Swarm at the MD Renaissance Faire

What is a swarm? Well, if a queen runs out of places to lay eggs, and/or if the bees run out of places to put honey, then the hive will swarm. The queen and a portion of the workers will gather up and leave the old hive, settling on a nearby branch. They will send out scouts from there to look for a new home. In the meantime, the old hive makes a new queen, and continues on with life.

The swarm queen and workers are programmed at this point to make a new hive and stock it full of honey as fast as possible. This is important, since they are starting over from scratch! To help them in this endeavor, they have stuffed themselves so full of honey that they cannot get their stingers out!

An old rhyme goes:

A swarm in May is worth a bale of hay.
A swarm in June is worth a silver spoon.
A swarm in July isn't worth a fly.

This is a comment on the value of a swarm at different times of the year. A swarm early in the year is a good thing, since the beekeeper can expect them to make lots of beeswax and honey. However, a swarm late in the year is not worth much, since the spring honeyflow is over, and they are running out of time to stock their new hive for the winter (hence are likely to die).

So, imagine my surprise when our bees swarmed on September 30 at the Maryland Renaissance Festival!

This was a Sunday, and the bees swarmed sometime around noonish. The hive had been congested, but the bees did not show any signs of making queen cells, and bees are genetically programmed not to swarm at this time of year, anyhow. Still, nobody ever said that bees "read the book".

The queen's wings were clipped. This is done in a manner similar to clipping a bird's wings, and for the same reason - so she cannot fly too far. Thus, when the bees swarmed, the queen came down to the same level as our customers!

Mind you, the customers were never in any danger. Bees only get aggressive when they are frightened, or when they are protecting their hive. When the swarm, they do not have a hive to protect, and like I mentioned above, the bees are so full of honey at this point that they cannot even get their stingers out. Still, it can be a bit unnerving for some people to walk through a cloud of bees.

Our workers came out from inside the booth, and formed a ring around the swarm as they were flying. We knew they would settle down within 20 minutes, but we weren't entirely certain where that would be. In the meantime, we tried to keep people from walking into the swarm. When it became obvious that people would not listen (you would not believe how many people purposefully walked through the bees because they thought it was cool!), we called Security, and they put yellow security tape around our booth until the bees settled down. Even so, we had people lift up the tape, walk underneathe, poke at the bees, and ask us what the bees were doing!

Anyhow, eventually the bees settled down, and we set up a curtain around them to protect them from curious eyes. Once the dust settled, we took down the security tape (with Security's blessing), and proceeded with the remainder of the day. Once night fell, we brought an empty hive in and literally grabbed handfuls of bees and placed them in the hive. They thought it was a cool home, night was falling (they fly by sight, so need daylight in order to fly), and stayed put.

To make a long and exciting story short - the old hive is now ensconced at home and being well-fed so they can survive the winter, we brought in a weaker hive to replace the display at the Festival, nobody was stung, and lots and lots of people were educated about the gentleness of honeybees!

(As a side note - the new display was also a late swarm that was mite infested and was unlikely to survive on its own. By placing it in the display, we can treat them for mites, feed them heavily, and hopefully they will survive the winter.)

Preparing the Bees for Winter....

OK, so this is really my way of procrastinating, rather than having to go out and work the bees today. The weather is beautiful, it is the perfect day to work the bees, but we have been really, really busy recently, between the MD Renaissance Faire and the PA Renaissance Faire, and I just wanted a slow day for once.

We have observation hives at both of the Renaissance Faires, and people ask us questions all day long about it. (We have someone stationed with the bees at all times, specifically to answer questions!) One of the many, many questions is which are the boys, and which are the girls.

We usually tell people that, by this time of year, the bees are all girls! Worker bees are sterile females, the queen is a fertile female, and the drones are the boys. Thing is, the drones are there to eat, mate, and die, and this is past mating season. Notice - food collection is not on the list of "things to do". If the boys stayed in the hive during the winter, they would eat all the food and the hive would starve. Even if the hive did not starve, the boys would not be productive in those first few weeks when the bees are hunting for food sources, when nothing is blooming yet. Nope, better to get rid of the guys. After all, the queen can make new drones.

How does she do that? She can choose to lay a fertile egg, or an unfertile egg. The fertile eggs turn into workers, and the unfertile eggs turn into drones. The queen just chooses not to lay drones in the fall!

Anyhow, what I really intended to write about is how we go about preparing our hives for the fall. Beekeepers typically treat the bees for disease, and make certain they have enough honey laid in for the winter. If they do not have enough honey, they are often fed either a mixture of sugar and water, or corn syrup.

At our apiary, rather than treat with harsh chemicals, we use essential oil treatments. Might sound rather new age-ish, but the oils we use are found in nature, and seem to be beneficial. For example, it has been noted that bees that are in fields of mint and thyme have lower incidents of mites. It is believed that as the bees fly into the hive, they are brushing against the leaves and stems, thus getting some contact with the plant oils.

Our treatment consists of feeding the bees a sugar-water solution that contains wintergreen (which is a type of mint) and lemongrass in it. (This website from the University of West Virginia, or this website from Wikipedia will give you an idea of what is involved.) We also apply a paper towel that has been soaked in a thyme oil mixture.

These methods apply the oils in three ways: the bees breathe the vapors, have direct contact with the oils, and eat the oils. Breathing the vapors helps control tracheal mites, direct contact helps control varroa mites, and feeding the oils to the larvae helps to disrupt the mite lifecycle.

Our bees usually don't require feeding. However, we often have a warm spell followed by cold weather. In such times, the queen would have started laying eggs, and the hive will starve to death in a hive full of honey trying to keep the broodnest warm - they won't leave the nest to get to the food! When the weather gets really cold, we find it beneficial to fill a paint bucket with sugar syrup and place it directly over the cluster of bees in the hive. This way, the bees have a ready food source without travelling for it, if necessary. If they are able to get to the honey, they won't touch the sugar.

Anyhow, enough I have procrastinated enough for one day. It is dark now, so I have served my purpose - a nice, slow afternoon, writing in my blog!