What a wonderful breakfast on a very beautiful, warm Fall Day. From L. to R. are Wayne, and Wayne, Johnny, Tommy, Diane, Linda, and Senia. We talked about our bees being ready for winter and sourwood honey, and honey labeling laws, selling honey at the Farmers Market, what is blooming, like ragweed and dandelion? Questions came up about feeding. On warm days we can feed sugar syrup but when the temps drop below the 50*s we like to feed fondant placed right on top of the frames using a shim to make room for the patty. We talked about feeding peppermint mints, that would be placing four mints, one in each corner of the hive, on top of the frames, which helps repel small hive beetles. We are not feeding the bees peppermints, they are to repell SHB's. However, the bees think the peppermints are a foreign substance in their hive so they will chew the mints into small pieces and carry them out of the hive.

Senia went on to explain that you should be very careful buying pepermints, that is, read the label, some mints have a chemical called Titanium dioxide, which help make the white color in the candy brighter. Research shows that the nanoparticle form of TiO2 can affect the gut microbiota, increase mortality, and can damage the bees immune system. And the nanoparticles can even accumulate in our bodies and affect our health also. Always check the ingredients list for unsafe chemicals.

The ingredients in good quality peppermint mints should read: sugar, invert sugar, peppermint oil, food coloring. And that's it. Our breakfasts are the Saturday before our monthly meetings. All are invited. Check our website at meckbees.org. for dates and locations.