115 Pictures At Bud's April 2009

[JP]

Well let me tell you, this get together far exceeded any expectations I had. We had a very loose agenda but there was never a dull moment of any kind whatsoever.

One cannot help to fall in love with Bud, instantly! He is a bear of a man with a ton of heart and a country boy that knows how to cook and entertain. You would be hard pressed to find a better host than Bud.

Bud keeps quite a few hives, mostly langstroths but he is very fond of top bar hives, which BTW, are very cool!

We went through every hive but maybe a few, inspecting and making management decisions. Some hives needed a little feed or needed re queening. we made a few splits, checked swarm traps, caught a swarm, did three cut outs, one in a garbage can, and two duck boxes.

We did have one agenda besides just having a plain good time and meeting up, and that was to learn queen grafting techniques from Alan Bukley, who BTW, is a walking, breathing bee encyclopedia, and one heck of a good guy.

Alan's knowledge of bees is astounding and what's even better is the fact that he likes to share that knowledge. Alan, thanks so much for your time and patience, and caring enough to take time out of your busy schedule to teach us some of your hard earned tricks.

Lord have mercy did we eat good! Steaks, shrimp ettouffe, pork loin, incredible breakfasts and last but not least, Chris (CW bees) decides on the last night that the remaining six of us were gonna eat lobster!

Chris doesn't believe in buying the little ones either, no, he comes back with six two and a half pounders!!!

Boy did we eat good that night!

Thank you Chris!

Where Chris was able to find two and a half pound lobsters in the middle of nowhere is beyond me, but hey, I wasn't complaining!

Bud and I had to show them fellas how to sop up that good lobster sauce with Bud's famous sourdough bread!

I could go on and on but let's just say we all had a wonderful time and we will be back!!


Pics http://picasaweb.google.com/pyxicephalus/April282009?authkey=Gv1sRgCOvWoa2w0dy3zAE#


...JP

[annette]

Wow,  That's all I can say.  That queen grafting stuff looks so interesting. What are you doing with those needles??? Looks like you are pulling something out of the wax combs and placing it into the little plastic cups. Those then become queens?

Everyone looked so relaxed. Nice country spread that Bud has there.  Glad you had a great time JP

[JP]

Annette, we used that pick to remove the appropriate size larvae and place them at the bottom of the cell cups.

Once they're in place, the bar goes in a 4 frame nuc with approx 4 lbs of bees that draw out the cups and feed the larvae royal jelly.


...JP

[poka-bee]

Thank you JP for all the pics. Those queens were sure pretty!  Looks like you guys had a great time.  Bud's place is beautiful!  Hey...I didn't see any girls just wondering!  J 

[JP]

Everyone was invited but this was the gang that showed up. Its tough getting away sometimes, most of our wives were holding down the fort back home.

Hopefully next get together we'll have some ladies show, that would be a real treat.


...JP

[Scadsobees]

We know where Santa goes in the summer

[kathyp]

we did show up on the computer 

considering the bad time we gave you guys, it's probably a good thing we were not there!

thank you guys for sharing.  it was good to put faces to names and watch you guys "work". watching you eat???  well, that was an experience also!

Alan Bukley?  by what name is he known on this board,  or does he not post?

[Keith13]

Great pics JP!! Looks like yall had a great time
Man I sure am sorry I missed it Hopefully next year or the year after I can make my way up for the next one

Keith

[sc-bee]

Alan is Mountainvalleybees ---- maybe he will post more!!!

[annette]

Annette, we used that pick to remove the appropriate size larvae and place them at the bottom of the cell cups.

Once they're in place, the bar goes in a 4 frame nuc with approx 4 lbs of bees that draw out the cups and feed the larvae royal jelly.


...JP
[/quote

I always thought they needed an egg to make a queen. I thought the larvae was to old to become a queen

[buzzbee]

Here is Alans profile:
http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php?action=profile;u=4182
 He has joined us in chat many times in the ventrilo program.

[JP]

Annette, we used that pick to remove the appropriate size larvae and place them at the bottom of the cell cups.

Once they're in place, the bar goes in a 4 frame nuc with approx 4 lbs of bees that draw out the cups and feed the larvae royal jelly.


...JP
[/quote

I always thought they needed an egg to make a queen. I thought the larvae was to old to become a queen

Once the larvae matures past a certain point its too old for them to make an acceptable queen, but you graft with very young larvae.


...JP

[Irwin]

Way too go JP nothing like rubbing salt in the wound Sure wish I could have been there. Great pic's and thanks for sharing.

[beemaster]

Irwin:

I think I told you this on Ventrilo, but to make it official:

We discussed WHO we all would love to have come to the event at Buds and HANDS DOWN you were the winner. My freind, that says a whole lot about you and how the group feels about you - I'm doing my best to show everything I can in the videos, so it won't be the same as being there, but you will get a feel for it!

PLUS, I know you were with us on LIVE TV through Mogulus, you ctually got to see more than most - I think we had a HIGH of 14 people watching, at once, but the actual count of individuals who came in and watched was over 20.

I'm working now on the only feature my video software doesn't include ( a BLEEP sound) for those nasty words that get people mad at Beemaster and won't answer his PMs anymore  The opening scene of what I'm calling the "Whole Enchilada" roughly a 10 minute film covering events from Thursday through Monday, starts with Dallas and metossing a little language around in his car - it really is th perfect starting point and I don't want anyone to miss a thing.

I have all the video uploaded to my computer, and am working at getting it up as soon as I can, I'm just in a health funk and it is slowing me down LOTS.

But I'll save a special camera feature as a surprize - you'll recognise it when it come up - I'm hoping to make one film EDUCATIONAL and the others informative but more jolly. Enough insight: but you were honorarilly there with us and by far ( a near landslide) the choice to attend!

[Irwin]

I want to THANK you all for letting us in on the get together It was great just being able to watch you all on Moguls. I had fun just watching. And thank you John aka the beemaster for those kind word's you made me feel good after a bad day at work

[JP]

I have to say we are all suffering major withdrawls from having to leave Bud's. Its hard to put in words how much of a good time we had.

Also worth noting, Bud called me with excellent news about the grafts, 12 of 15 cells drawn out and capped. Alan was even impressed with that number.

Oh, not to rub it in Bud, but I had a visitor last, of course Bud knows that Alan stopped by my place last night and we put him up for the night.

Alan decided to come down and visit for a few hours after he had already driven 4 and a half hours to one of his bee yards. He said it put him a lot closer to me so he hopped in his truck and drove an additional 2 hrs to BS some about bees.

I swear he's like that ever ready bunny!


...JP

[Camp9]

Which one in the photo's in Alan?  I've does a lot of business with him, can't beat his bees. 

Camp

[JP]

Which one in the photo's in Alan?  I've does a lot of business with him, can't beat his bees. 

Camp

Alan Bukley http://picasaweb.google.com/pyxicephalus/April282009#5329929207269159698


...JP

[Camp9]

Thanks, wish I could of been there.  After talking to Alan so many times  you get to wondering what he looks like. I sent him a bottle of mead, so you guys have another meeting,, so tell him to bring it to share.   

Camp