t I r . * » f 4*•* » » ClS— Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 25,1981 Bees keep Howard Brossman ‘ bzzzzzy 9 BY SHEILA MILLER REHRERSBURG - With the return of spring to northwestern Berks County, the bees on Howard Brossman’s farm are keeping ‘bzzzmy’ tapping blossoms and flowers for sweet nectar. The tenants of Brossman’s 17 hives have shaken off winter’s weary dormancy and are ready for a summer of honeymaking and baby bee rearing under the watch ful eye of their 66-year-old caretaker. Brossman has been an apiarist since he was 10, when he and his 13- year-old friend Paul Zeigler, from nearby Bethel, acquired their first hive of honeybees. When he reached the age of 16, Brossman recalled, he went into beekeeping in a bigger way. He purchased 60 hives from a retiring apianst who lived in Kutztown. Then the United States Army called him to serve in 1942 and Brossman sold most of his hives to Zeigler, who cared for 15 of his hives while he was away. Farming became the object of his energies after the war, Brossman said, and he had no tune for bees for fifteen years. “When I finally realized the chicken business didn’t pay, I decided to get some hives. I spoke to Paul Zeigler and he asked me if I’d consider a job with the state as a bee inspector,” Brossman ex plained. “I decided to give it a try, and worked for the Department of Agriculture for thirteen years. "Paul Zeigler and I were the only bee inspectors who worked as a team We were in charge of checking the hives of producers in Chester, Delaware, Bucks, Lebanon, and Schuylkill counties. ‘‘Our inspections started around mid-April and finished up in November. After our regular in spections for the season were finished, we’d travel all over the state, inspecting about 8000 hives for migratory bee keepers. These hives were heading for Florida for the winter to work the blossoms in the fruit orchards there. “Bees get diseased just like people do. If American Foul Brood, a highly contagious disease. Howard Brossman, Rehrerburg, has been raising bees since he was ten-years-old. Brossman eases a frame out of the super in each <*„ and WO rker bees hatch out * he gets stung occasionally, but doesn t fear working the bees and wa t c hes the worker bees and nurse bees in 21 days f U || y developed and able to sting. * without a veil. filling honeycombs. The queen bee lays an egg strikes the hive, the bees must be gassed and the honey and hives burned. “If an out-of-state hive is found, to contain American Foul Brood after it arrives in Florida, the hive is burned within 24 hours. That’s why we inspect them and certify them disease free.” Brossman explained how the disease destroys all the young larva and eggs in a hive. He said adult bees are not affected by the disease, but all young are killed. Because of its contagious nature, the disease is controlled by an nihilation of infected bees and destruction of hives. Brossman said bees can be fed the drug terramycm to help combat the disease. But, he added, the drug will hide the disease and it will rear its ugly head the minute the drug is stopped. Brossman said the infected hive’s honey is burned because healthy bees may fmd it and carry contamination back to their hive. The entire insides of the hives are destroyed, also. Hie wooden frames on which the bees construct combs and store their honey are burned. However, the supers (wooden ‘boxes’ con taining the frames) can be either boiled in lye water or scorched out with a blow torch. Brossman recalled how his duties of inspecting called him out m all kinds of weather. Remem bering one particular incident, Brossman chuckled: “One winter Zeigler and I were out in Clearfield County inspecting hives. We were caught in a wet, heavy snow and got soaked through our clothes. “In winter, bees can’t fly quite right. They crawl into your clothing and sting when they’re pinched. “Well, when we finally got back to a motel in State College, we were just about wet. When we took showers that evening, there were hundreds of bees in our clothing and on the floor. “I wonder what that maid thought the next morning when she found ail those bees?” Since his retirement from the state job, Brossman has gotten back into the bee and honey business on his own farm. He admits he prefers selling bees to customers rather than handling the heavy honey in the fall. When Brossman first began selling bees, the cost for one super and its residents was $43. Now, he said, the cost has risen to $6O a bargain considering the materials for a new hive, including supers, frames, bottom board, lid and foundation, is about $lOO without bees. Brossman said he sells a super when he has too many bees. Tins keeps them from swarming and moving to a new hive in a hollow tree an insufferable loss for an apiarist. “I make two hives out of one,” he said. “During the day, I remove the bottom super, usually the larger of the two, where most of the bees are working. That super, housing the queen, becomes a new hive. “Later, as the worker bees return from the field, they return to the remaining super that way there are enough bees to keep the hive active. They’ll raise a queen bee, again she’ll hatch in 14 days and will live for about 3 years, (Turn to PageCl9) Bees, bees, evei ,re and y are cannot enter any other without a fight. The 'bzzzzzzzy* filling wax combs with the fruits of trick to keeping them happy is having plenty of their labor. Each bee knows its own hive and flowers nearby, and moving very, very slowly. The bee hive is the center of all the honeybee hustle and bustle. Two supers, one shallow, one deep, rest on top of a bottom board and foundation, with a lid sheltering the honeymakers from the elements. Bees enter and exit through a slot along the bottom board.
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