Beekeepers Helping Beekeepers
The Milwaukee Waukesha Beekeepers Association lost a long time member recently. Richard Suleski passed away July 4th, at the age of 78. He was a long time beekeeper at Honey Acres, and operated his own commercial beekeeping operation for many years. He did presentations, training and shared his knowledge freely with new and other beekeepers. He was active in the community, and volunteered with several organizations.
Upon his death, his wife Sharon started sorting through his things, and working to clean up his beekeeping operation. The President of the association and close friend saw the difficulty and organized a clean up day. Richard was a typical beekeeper, and had a few extra things put aside, and these were somewhat overwhelming. In later life, Richard was not able to do as much cleaning and work. A detail of members descended on the property, and proceeded to start cleaning and moving. Sixteen members spent over 5 hours, making approximately 35 trips with trucks and trailers. The basement in the house was cleaned of scrap lumber, bee hive parts, hardware, and over 48 years of accumulated stuff. About half of the garage attic was cleared of frames, beehive parts, hardware.
There was a fair amount of usable beehive equipment, tools and other items, and members were able to take these home to their own operations. The equipment was all inspected for any problems. It was interesting to unearth some of the antique and heirloom beekeeping equipment, and this was an opportunity to teach some of the members about the evolution of beekeeping. The association will plan a follow up cleanup day in the near future. Sharon Suleski was extremely happy to receive the assistance of the group. It is very refreshing to belong to such a caring group, and to know that beekeepers can pitch in when needed.
Regards,
Andy Hemken, President
Milwaukee Waukesha
Beekeepers Association
Thanks & a Question
Kirsten,
Thank you for the great job you’re doing as editor of ABJ. I love all the improvements. I especially like Notes From the Lab and The Scientific Trenches. Well done.
I also have a question for Jerry Borger. I wonder if you would pass this along:
In your article on queen rearing using a double screen board in September’s edition on page 1000, you say to close the upper door on the double screen board and open the door immediately below it. This would send all the foragers downstairs. Why don’t you want foragers upstairs with the new queen cells?
Thanks again, Kirsten. Keep up the good work.
Steve Wall
The Buckin’ Beekeeper
Santa Fe, NM
Jerry’s Response
Steve,
Thanks for the question. Recall the threefold purpose:
- to minimize the swarming urge;
- to maximize honey reserves by not having to use as much ….
