Talking Bees with Barb Bletcher

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Good morning everybody. Welcome my RonWilson and you are in the garden here
on news Radio six ten WTVN eightto one WTV and eight hundred and six
ten WTV and talking about yardening onthis Earth Day? Did I surprise you
know? I hope it's the wordreally got out and around that it is
Earth Day. To day, we'lltalk more about things that you could be
doing about Earth on this Earth Dayto help Mother Nature out and course help

(00:24):
the Earth out as well, andwe'll talk more about that. Hey,
do you know next Friday's Arbor Day. I like to combine the two together
and I'll tell you why after wekick off our show with Guess what Not
Buggy Joe Boggs. He is outof town this weekend visiting his son in
Louisville. But we just took astep up because we have the Queen Bee
from the Ohio Department of Agriculture Barbieb lecture. Good morning, Good morning

(00:51):
sir, and Happy Earth Day,Happy Earth Day to you as well.
Do the bees like her? Didthey celebrate Earth Day? Oh? They
do. They go to every singleflowering tree and pollinate them and say whoa
yeah are they finding? Are theythey right now, they should be should
be finding a few trees and flower. Yeah, everything is flowering, it

(01:12):
seems, the crab apples and thered buds. And I think for Earth
they should plant bee trees, youknow things that bees like. Bee trees.
I like that. Yeah, andcrab apples, bees absolutely love them.
Lots of good pollen source and nectarsource. Did Chatfield is that you

(01:36):
have to say that? Yeah,You've got to plant a bee tree for
sure, the crab apples, mistercrab apple. Hey, we don't want
to talk about it about that.Yeah, we don't want to talk about
Jim Chaffin. We want to talkabout Barbie Bletcher, our state Apier state
entomologist, all at Apartment of Agriculture, and our honey bees out there.
So we haven't talked much this pastwinter, and I'm just I'll throw this

(02:00):
out at you right away. Rightthe week before Christmas had that sudden cold
blast. We went from sixty tominus eight minus nine in about a twelve
hour period. The rest of thewinter has been somewhat of a up and
down, but somewhat of a warmerwinter. How has that affected our bee
honey bees here in Ohio. Sothat warm cold, warm cold is really

(02:22):
hard on bees. So the warmertemperatures, the queen is laying eggs,
I mean she's laying like crazy inwarmer days. She thinks it spring is
coming, and then the temperature dropsand oh, she's got all those eggs,
all those hungry mouths, and there'sno food for them. So warm

(02:42):
temperatures in the west time are actuallyhard on bees because they I think springs
coming, and then all of asudden they have all these hungry mouths and
there's no food and no grocery storeto go to buy any vector or pollens.
What are you gonna do? Yeah? Yeah, So technically, then

(03:06):
what you're saying, if I understandit, is that beekeepers would rather have
a cooler winter obviously not extremely cold, but a cooler winter to just keep
them kind of tight and in thein the hives over the winter, and
then warm up in the springtime andhave at it, but stay a little
bit cooler throughout the entire winter season. Yeah, consistently cold, I mean
not minus twenty five, right,That's what I'm saying, But consistently cooler,

(03:31):
yeah, not the opposite downs,not the warm they can get out
to take right, but otherwise consistentlycold as better form. Ella, our
producer, just whispering in my ears, said, did she just say that?
Yeah, the BP, Yeah,it's I say, be poop.
But you know it's a pe andit's a it's to go to the bathroom

(03:53):
because they don't go to the bathroomin the High, which a lot of
folks don't understand, but they don't, so they have a they hold it
so they can be holding together foryou know, weeks to months, weeks
two months before they can go outsideand release all of that. So you
know that's why when you see themthey're kind of heavy, kind of until
they get released all that and thenthey can start flying again. Talking with

(04:15):
Barbie, Yeah, talk with BarbieBletcher, our queen Bee from the High
Department of Agriculture. So as youlook out there right now, and I
know you don't have counts back andyou don't have it's kind of a gut
feeling right now. But you knowI sent you in an article a couple
of weeks ago that somebody had writtentalking about honey bees for twenty twenty three.
Not getting off to a good stardoesn't look good. I mean you
look west to east coast south aswell, and all the weather fluctuations and

(04:39):
the hurricanes and the excessive snow andthe rainfall and the temperatures up and down
and everything we've experienced. And ofcourse again the hurricane. People forget about
what that does to bee hives.But that, you know, not getting
off to a very good start prettymuch all around the country. What are
you seeing for the state of Ohio. Yeah, California had really bad between

(05:02):
the rain and the fires. It'sbeen really hard. Ohio. I think
we a little better than normal.Way. We have about a sixties to
seventy percent survival over the winter,which is better than what we've had a
sixty to seventy percent success with ourbeehives survival. Yea, yes, you

(05:23):
know what, you have never saidthat before. I like, I like
your enthusiasm. It's always thirty toforty percent loss. Yeah, I like
that. Sixty survival, sixties sentsurvival. That's great, I mean,
really it is. Yeah, hopefullyunless you're in that thirty percent program called

(05:46):
the Bee Informed Partnership and ask beekeepersto take the survey and tell them how
the bees have done that that hasn'tcome back yet, but just based on
beekeeper reports in Ohio, it's beena little bit better this year. Good
as you've been doing the classes andof course a lot of the associations doing

(06:08):
classes around the state and of courseyou're a main player and a lot of
those classes. Um, are youseeing really good attendance there? Oh?
Amazing? Yeah. So Central HoardBeekeepers had three classes, one during the
week and then two Saturday classes andwe had fory to fifty people attend each

(06:30):
class. What's good. So you'reso you're seeing full classes, a lot
of a lot of interest out there, more folks learning about honeybees, and
of course, again like I've toldyou, I've had people emails say we're
going just to learn more about them. We're not going to be a beekeeper,
but just just want to learn moreand of course we want to meet
Barbie Blecher as well. So yeah, one of the nice things about these

(06:55):
classes, not all of them aregoing to be keeping bees, but the
more understand any more education about honeybees and the benefit they have to our
whole environment as well as our foodsupply, is incredible, very helpful.
Of course you're the one to turnus on to the thing about buying local
honey and the honey we see ina lot of the grocery stores, how

(07:16):
it's really not honey. It's justa sweetened syrup. And you always read
the it's like like what that's becauseit's like, you know, coffee whitener,
it's the same thing, only it'sjust a sweetener. Yeah, so
it's you know, read the label. Make sure it's local. I mean
that's the bottom line. I meanI learned that from you. Just make
sure that it's a local source ofhoney, a local beekeeper that's supplying that

(07:41):
honey. Otherwise don't buy it.That's the bottom line. Talking with Barbie
Bletcher from the High Department of Agriculture. So before we take a break,
you got about a minute and alfago where we stand on the vera might
any more success on suppressing that population? Well, I think we're just it's
another case of education. Beekeepers haveto know what their might level is.

(08:03):
And you and since you're helping torun on nursery, you know that you
can't wait until the paskets how tocontrol before you control. It's the same
thing with veramites. So Veramites hurtbees in three different ways. They're actually
chewing on the bee, which causesdamage. They're also vectoring over three different

(08:24):
viruses, and then there's all thesesecondary bacteria that attack the bees once they're
weakened. So it's sort of atriple wammy on the bees. So so
how do you take a veroa mightcount in your hive? Now this has
got to be how do they dothat? Bend over? I mean,
how do you do that? Sothere's there's several ways. Some people have

(08:48):
a screen bottom board and they puta sticky board underneath that and they see
how many might drop in twenty fourhours. But that's it's not very consistent
because you don't know how many framesof brood you have and how many you
know, what beats are actually beingtested, And of course the mites that
we collect it only on the adultbees, and two thirds of the mites

(09:11):
are in the capped brood. Wedo an alcohol wash where we actually collect
some bees and what kind of swishedthem through alcohol, so it kills the
bees, but it extracts all themites, so then we get a very
accurate count. And then there's asugar roll, which isn't very consistent,
but um, some people do thatbecause they don't want to hurt their bees.

(09:33):
Is that a voluntary, voluntary swish? It's a voluntary swish. But
yeah, the mites hang on sotightly that they don't let go, right,
But I mean, do the beesvolunteer to do this? Oh?
Well, they sacrifice themselves for thegood of the high that's what I'm saying.
I figured they'd light up all themails, all the drones and make

(09:54):
them go do it. Well,we collect the mails if we can,
just because they're at Yeah, theydon't do anything anyway. Yeah, why
not? All right, We're gonnatake a little break here and we come
back. We'll continue talking with BarbieBletcher. She's our state apier is talking
about the of course, our honeybees. Uh talking about swarms. Believe

(10:16):
it or not, we have anearly swarms right now. We're gonna find
out what to do with those uhsunflowers to become a really major player when
it comes to the lives of beesand feeding bees. We'll talk about that
a little bit more, and Igot a few other questions for Barbie as
well. Here on news radio sixten WTVN, it is Earth Day.

(10:39):
We're talking about bees and of coursethat means Barbie Bletcher, our state appieris
state entomologists from the High Department ofAgriculture. You probably could tell Ella our
producer has a little bit of acold, and I'm gonna have to share
with some of my Teresa Parker pollen. Maybe that'll help clear that up.

(11:00):
I still take a little she gaveme a jar that I stabbed in the
freezer. I take a little bitevery now and then, and it's it's
great for all kinds of maladies.Has all the central amino acids that we
meet for so growth, I've neverbeen any better since. I mean,
I'm believable. I know, I'vejust you know, haven't been sick nothing.

(11:20):
I mean, it's just what canI say talking without Barbie Bletcher talking
about those bees? Um? Igot a note a couple of weeks ago
from you know, I met lutmerDing from the Central Hobbekeepers Association and he
said, you know, I mightwant to mention our honey bee swarm seasons
started early this year and we wantto remind folks what to do if those
bees would swarm. So I said, hey, we'll get the queen bee

(11:41):
on here. We'll kick Buggy Joeout. Get the queen bee on.
Let's talk about those swarming bees.Why do honey honey bee swarm so honey
bee swarm in the spring because they'recrowded. I mean, there's other reasons.
They can swarm later in the year, but in the spring they're crowded.
There's too many hungry mouths, toomany bees in there, and they

(12:05):
can't smell the queen's pheromon. Soother times of the year, it could
be that the queen is sick andthey have to replace her. But this
is this is how bees reproduce.It's a natural phenomenon, and it shows
that the bees are healthy. Theysurvived the winter, and they're ready to

(12:26):
split and take off. So ifI can't smell what the queen is cooking,
something's up. That's right, andthey know it's time. So there's
time to get out. It's timeto split and get out of the house.
So they split so that one ofthe queens takes off. A bunch
of them hang out with the queen, go with her, and that's the

(12:48):
swarm. The old queen leaves andshe knows it's time to go. The
worker bees put out their own pheromones, and then she smells all these new
queens and developing, so she knowsit's time to go. So the older
bees, the royal her royal subjects, they'll leave with her. And you'll

(13:09):
see that swarm, you know're hangingfrom a tree branch or a side of
a house. We had been ina grand view. It's actually down the
ground because it was cold that day. So they find some unusual places to
swarm. But then you know,within a couple hours or a day,
they'll take off to go to theirpermanent home. There new new permanent home,

(13:30):
you know. And I don't suggestdoing this, but I've told you
this before. I've gone up tothose swarms, and I know you have
two. You could put your handsright up against the swarm. They don't
care. They're all right around thatqueen, keeping her protected, and they
really don't pay any attention to whatyou're doing. But it's very interesting to
do that because they just kind ofcan. You could put your hand right
in the middle of it, Butdon't do it to show off, because
no, no, no, no, no, you're getting stung. Yeah,

(13:50):
And that's why I saying I'm notI'm not suggesting anybody does it.
But you can go right up thereand do that, and they're they're so
concentrated on what they're doing that theydon't paint, you know, they just
kind of ignore you. And ofcourse I do mention while I'm doing that
that I know Barbe, I knowBarbie Bletcher, I know her, I
know her. That seems that seemsto help as well. Now to do
any of the drones go with themwhen they do that? Um, No,

(14:13):
they're not really invited. They getleft back in the hive. Yeah,
and they're older, these and theolder bees so oh yeah, Jones
that they're usually knew that spring theystick around with a new queen, I
get it. So anyway there,why are they swarming so much earlier this
year? Well, I think wejust had such a tricky spring. You

(14:35):
know again, it's been really warmand then cold. So as soon as
queens actually start laying eggs in umin January, and since it's been warm
and cold and warm and cold,she can't forget what to do. So
she's been she's been laying eggs andon the warmer days that the bees are

(14:56):
up being food in and we haveyou know, easily have thirty thousand colonies
bees in our colony already, justbecause she's been she's been laying eggs since
January. I think about that.In one hive, you've got thirty thousand
bees. Yeah, it gets upto fifty thousand and fifty thousand bees in

(15:20):
that one box. Yeah, andthey know each other by name, you
know what. You say that kindof jokingly, but I bet they do.
I mean, they're so You tellme stuff about these bees all the
time. Ah, they're so smart. I can't I can't stand it anyway.
Yeah, how do they do it? And how do they do that?
Of the head ahead of a pen? I don't get it. But

(15:41):
you know what they are. Theyare smart, smart critters, and no
doubt so they are swarming. Soif by chance I'm out in my yard
today or tomorrow, excuse me,and all of a sudden swarm shows up,
They're gonna be a little chilly todayand tomorrow. But um, if
they show up and all of asudden they're on the side of a tree,
don't panic, right, Please,don't panic. Don't spray them with

(16:03):
the hose, don't try to smokethem with something like a grill. Just
leave him alone, they will usuallyfly away, you know, within a
few hours. If they're cold,they may hang around a little bit longer,
just so they can be teamed nearheat. But yeah, don't kill
them, and don't try to cheapsome way called beekeeper because they want those

(16:25):
They will come and collect those bees. Why do those beekeepers want those bees?
So we need Ohio needs every singlehealthy colony we can get, and
we were actually low on on bees. We don't have enough colonies. And
those are the bees that have survivedthe winter. That queen has survived the
winter. So it's that we wantthose jeans, those genetics that allow her

(16:48):
to be able to survive the winter. So, Nina Bagley, you're saying
you need to step up to theplate and create more queen bees. Nina,
they need to get on it.Yeah yeah, Well Nina, if
you're listening orders has she really Yeah? Wow? Interesting? So so leave
them alone, let them do theirthing. If they hang out, they're

(17:08):
not going to attack you. It'snot like in the movies. Make sure
that they are bees. I know, I know it always comes up in
new articles. Make sure they're notyellow jackets or anything else, which I
don't think are really out too muchright now, so make sure they're honey
bees. But but you want tosave those. You have a great website
and of course um um Med wastalking about the Central Ohio Beekeepers, but

(17:29):
you of course have the Ohio Beekeeperswebsite which has all of those links on
there for you and for the wholestate of Ohio. It's really cool.
It's Ohio Beekeepers dot org. Youcan click on your dog, yes,
and you can click on your it'sgot a map, click on your county
and it will tell you within yourcounty who to get a hold of.

(17:51):
And of course it also has linksto all of the associations in the state
and the whole nine yards. Butit's Ohio State Beekeepers dot org. I
also have them on our website atRon Wilson online dot com, so be
sure and check that out. Soagain, if you get a swarm you're
not sure to call, go toOhio Beekeepers dot org and then take it
from there. Don't panic. It'snot the movies. They aren't going to

(18:11):
come after you collect them. It'sa good thing. Now if they wind
up nesting in one of a holein a tree or something, you guys,
it's harder to do that, butyou can recover them from that as
well. Right, Yeah, thoseare called cutouts if they're on the side
of your house having forbid or ina building. But you know, the
best time to do a cutout isFebruary, you know, January, February

(18:36):
because at that point you have theleast amount of bees and the least amount
of honey at this time, youknow they're sooner the better, But you
know by July, once there's aton of honey in there and your colonies
at the maximum population, they're notgoing to want you cutting, you know,
trying to take them out, andthey'll fight. You'll have a sticky

(18:57):
mass and you may or may notbe to find a clean so then the
effort will be lost. So you'regonna have a bunch of like thirty thousand
female bees that are not going tobe too happy with you. And you
know what it's like when you havea lot of women in a bad mood
and if they're not happy, Yeah, if mom is not happy, look

(19:18):
what happens. Well, if yougot thirty thousand of them that's not happy,
not gonna be a good thing.Barbara, running out of time,
I'll talk to you next time aboutthe sunflowers. But one thing I know
we both want to say today,plant sunflowers for yourself because they're beautiful,
but most importantly, plant sunflowers forthe pollinators, especially the bees. It
helps the bees, It helps thebees. Plant those sunflowers. Barbie Bletcher,

(19:41):
always a pleasure. We'll get backto you in a few weeks.
Get our update for the winter andtalk more about sunflowers. Keep letting folks
know about those honey bees. Appreciateall you do and spend any time with
us. This morning, Barbie Bletcher, O hio A Department of Agriculture.
Have a great Earth Day, allright, take care quick. We are
talking yarding. It is Earth Dayhere on news Radio six ten and WTVN

(20:02):
eight to one WTVN, and ofcourse it being Earth Day, hopefully you're
gonna get out. There's a lotof events going on. Get to your
local garden center this weekend. Checkout all the great plants they have in.
They've got all the seeds in andall the seeds starting supplies. I
will guarantee you they're gonna have someannuals in there for you, probably a
few tomatoes and peppers and herbs andcool season crops all ready to go for
you. You know, if you'regonna take the chance with the tomatoes and

(20:26):
peppers, do it in a container. At least you can move them in
and out. Stays a little bitwarmer right now. The soil temperatures I
think yesterday when I check, wasabout sixty degrees running fifty nine sixty degrees.
I guarantee you today and tomorrow we'lldrop them back down into the mid
fifties. Be cautious. Remember mostof those annual vegetables do not like temperatures

(20:48):
lower than about sixty five to seventydegrees, and those soil temperatures. Of
course, air temperatures as well.Now we get them planted, it and
we still have those warm temperature soiltemperatures. But we're gonna get a frost.
You know it's gonna happen. Youknow it's gonna happened. Just be
prepared to cover those over do littlefrost protection if necessary. So you're gonna
have to watch the weather from hereon out. But again we're running about

(21:08):
close to sixty degrees and soil TIMPs, cool season crops ready to go.
Tomato or potatoes great horse, raddish, asparagus, rhubarb, things like that,
all ready to go onion sets,ready to go. So you got
lots that you can be planting rightnow. It's those warm season annuals.
I'd still be holding off a littlebit. Got a ways to go,

(21:30):
unless you want to do it incontainers, or you have raised beds that
may have the plastic over the topthat you can get a little bit of
an earlier start. Speaking of thecontainers, I found a really cool container
and I think I may have mentionedthis several weeks ago. I saw it
at the Cultivate show that we haddown at the Convention Center this summer,

(21:51):
and I think it got voted oneof the best new retailing ideas. But
it's a it's a really cool youknow, there's so many great new types
of planters that are coming out,the towers and all of that that you
can grow a lot of different thingson one particular planter. I really like
this one because I like the wayit was made, I like the looks,
I like the trays. I justliked everything about It's called a pop

(22:11):
up garden and I ordered one severalweeks ago and got it in, put
it together, and it's been sittingin my office on top of the cardboard
box that it comes in, becauseevery time I sit down at the desk
and I'm looking at it thinking aboutwhat I'm going to do with this thing.
I may have to order more ofthem because they are so cool and
there's so many things I can dowith it, it's crazy. Their website

(22:33):
is my pop Upgarden dot com.You're not going to find them in the
garden stores. You got to orderthem online, but it's called my pop
Upgarden dot com. Be sure tocheck it out. But I'm going to
have the folks that invented this thingon coming up at the top of the
hour to tell us a little bitmore about this particular planter. I think
it's one of the coolest things I'veseen in a long time, and I
wanted to share that with you today. So we'll talk with Matt and Mona

(22:56):
Vienne coming up at the top ofthe hour about their newly developed planter called
My pop Up Garden, and that'sthe website My pop Up Garden as well.
Quick break, we come back,lots of tips to share with you,
and still taking your calls at eighttwo one WTVN here on news radio
six ten WTVN thirty six degrees tonight, that's pretty close. You never know

(23:26):
at thirty six degrees when in doubt, cover it up, That's all I
can say. Especially if it's atender annual. If you've got some flowers
that are out pretty tender on someperennials or whatever, you might want to
do that too. If you docover anything up, make it a very
light sheet, something very light weightso it doesn't bog down, especially if
it get a shower or something itmoves through. Even if you can use

(23:47):
stakes to create a little bit ofa tent overtop. Never use plastic.
Remember, never use plastic to coverthose things over unless you actually make a
tent so that's not touching the plants. For smaller plants, of course,
one gallon milk jugs, cut thebottom out and then just do an X
across the bottom so you can foldthose out like feet. You can put
some soil on top holds them down. They make wonderful temporary little mini greenhouses

(24:11):
to protect things over those cold nights, So keep watching those temperatures. Thirty
six is pretty darn close to theyarding phone lines we shall go. Gern,
good morning, good morning, canyou hear me? I sure can.
Well, nice to speak to youagain. Always a pleasure. Gern.
So I lost I lost a bigboxwood and the guy a couple of

(24:37):
houses down as some boxwood to seedugout today and they're beautiful group ball great,
perfect. But he said they haveleaf minor. Yeah, yeah,
that's how I guess that for you. What's that I say? Notice how
I guess that for you? Whenyou're getting ready to say that, yes,

(24:57):
they did, they are, theyare everywhere. Okay, So anyway
to answer your question, Hey,the Gern, the ones that you lost,
those were transplanted also, right,how yes, you have a very
good memory. Yes, yeah,yeah, there's big and I love So
you lost one of them? Yeah, I lost one, Okay, that's
not bad, that's all right.But you so you found two more that

(25:18):
are close. Uh. They hadthe boxwood leaf miner on the edges.
And what you're gonna see are theylike brown about four inches out on the
tips? Uh? He said theythey have a bug that presents back a
like in may or June. Andit flies around and then it lands and
it eats the leaves and then itlays more eggs, and the next year
they same thing. And I'm worriedthat if I bring that in with my

(25:41):
other my other boxwoods that aren't dead, that I'll just be bringing in a
pest that I don't already have there. They're already out there, and there's
a good chance you may have afew on yours already. I mean,
I've almost I've had a hard timefinding boxwood that didn't have one or two
leaves that already had. Boxwood leafminer is crazy. This stuff is exploded
over the last years or so.So anyway, if you if you take

(26:02):
these from this gentleman, what Iwould do is this, And chances are
the tips of those branches. Haveyou looked at the boxwood? Yes,
there are some brown spots, yes, brown? Serious? Yeah. The
first thing you can do is takea pair of shears and sheer off the
top three or four inches, allright, if you do, If you
do that, that's where most ofthem are. So you do that right
away and throw that away. Nowyou've physically gotten rid of those. Now,

(26:27):
the best way to go after boxwoodleaf miner is with a systemic don't
work. The adults are going tocome out, and they do fly around,
they lay eggs on the leaf buds, they penetrate into the leaf,
they feed inside the leaf. Overthe next year hollow it out. So
in the springtime those are nice andbrown and they look like winter damage,

(26:48):
but it's actually boxwood leaf minor damage. And if, if, if the
populations get high enough, they cancause some pretty good problems on boxwood.
So what do you do. Yousheared off the outside, You physically removed
those. Now you come back afterthey're finish flowering, and they do flower,
that little small white flower coming uphere very shortly, soon as they're
done, drenched all of them,yours and the new ones with a systemic

(27:12):
in secticide that's taken up inside theboxwood and will go after those inside the
leaves. You can also do itin October. Both times they're suscept or
great times for putting that systemic downthat'll protect your existing boxwood and help to
finish off the next generation of theones that you're bringing in. And then

(27:33):
you kind of monitor every year justto see if they're there or not.
Populations get high enough, you comeback with that systemic and get them back
under control again. But don't applyit until after they're finished flowering, or
in October or both if you wantso in October and then after they finished,
when will they finish flowering. They'llflower in about another two weeks,
could be sooner depending on the weather. But just watch the inside of the

(27:56):
stems. They're really small, they'rewhite. They're just in a little cluster.
But check that out. And assoon as they're done flowering, and
we do that because we don't wantto affect the pollinators. As soon as
they're done flowering, drench drench andyou're good to go for the rest of
the season. Drench drench with systemicsystemic insect decide and set decide. Cool.
Thank you so much. We appreciateyou very much. You're welcome,

(28:18):
gredon, good luck with everything.We'll take a quick break here, we
come back top of the hour.We're going to talk with Matt and Mona
Vienne. They have developed this isa really cool planner. Bought one myself,
gonna probably want to buying a couplemore because I like them so much.
Probably give one to my mom aswell, but don't tell her.
It's called a pop up garden andtheir website is might pop up garden check
it out. Coming up next Herein the Garden with Ron Wilson