Below is the link to WHPA Fall Conference which runs from November 1 - 3. It's in Wisconsin Rapids this year. Below is the link to the itinerary:
Meetings & Events | Wisconsin Honey Producers Association Meetings & Events | Wisconsin Honey Producers Association and for anyone interested, below is the link to the Registration Form: https://wihoney.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Convention-Registration-Form-2018.pdf The Wisconsin State Fair will be judging honey at the WHPA Fall Conference for all that enter their honey. Below is the link for entering honey: https://wihoney.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/2018-Honey-Show-Rules-Info.pdf Gerard
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Saturday, September 22, is the autumnal equinox, followed by the Harvest Moon on Monday, September 24. So it’s officially fall and our bees are slowing down and developing Fat Bees to (hopefully) carry the colonies through winter. Without healthy Fat Bees, the colonies aren’t going to make it to April. Healthy Fat Bees have low viral loads and a large reserve of "fat bodies". We have done what we could to limit virus transmission from Varroa with treatments throughout the season, and the bees have been gathering pollen for the proteins required to develop the "fat bodies" in the Fat Bee larvae. It's the "fat bodies" that supply the bees with nourishment throughout the winter when pollen isn't available, and used in royal jelly production. The queens will be laying throughout most of the winter, so royal jelly will be required for both the queen and the brood. But, there's a caveat. The bees must be able to digest the pollen in order to use it, and Nosema (a fungal disease) interferes with their digestion. Nosema apis has taken a backseat to Nosema cerenae, and researchers say that every colony in the world has Nosema cerenae present. Fumagilin-B was fed to bees in syrup for years to inhibit the reproduction of Nosema spores in the bees' gut, but Fumagilin-B is no longer available. The only supplement that I’m aware of to inhibit the development of Nosema spores in the bees’ gut is Hive Alive, although Nozevit may help as it is advertised to improve gut health. As a precaution, I have been adding Hive Alive to the 2:1 syrup, as well as essential oils (tracheal mites) and mineral salt. All fully capped frames of honey that were on my hives were removed two weeks ago, and now I'm feeding 2:1 syrup to help the bees load up the pantry for winter. My very populous hives are in a two-deep, one-medium configuration, and I have several smaller colonies in a two-deep configuration. I fed back the partially filled frames of honey that were in the supers, as well as honey from dead-outs that I had in storage since spring. I also have a couple of repurposed Gatorade bottles nailed to trees to offer them Ultra Bee powder (pollen substitute), which they've been harvesting. A couple of years ago I was at a seminar and one of the speakers (a researcher) said that feeding syrup to the bees is a good thing because the syrup is "cleaner" than nectar. She clarified that there are no pesticides, fungicides, and other man-made chemicals that weaken the bees' immune systems in sugar. Of course they're also not getting the vitamins and minerals that nectar contains, so it's a trade-off. Since the bees are still collecting pollen, they'll be mixing it with the syrup to make bee bread, so the pollen and "syrup honey" mixed together should give them what they need. Perhaps they'll even be a little bit better off. The colonies with a medium super have an Imirie shim underneath the the super, and a tin of Apiguard in the shimmed area. This weekend I'll be putting in the second dose, and two weeks after that will be the last time I'll be popping off the supers. I did an inspection of all of the hives two weeks ago so the deeps will not be cracked open again until March or April. They're sealed for the winter with propolis and that's how they'll be. The less populous colonies, the two-deeps, are not getting the Apiguard treatment. The reason they're less populous is that they superseded and had no uncapped brood for four weeks. I didn't know for sure that they were superseding (although I had found chewed open queen cells), or if they'd be successful if they were. The queen breeders in the area were sold out so I gave them brood frames to "make-a-queen", but they became queenright before that had to happen. A nice, natural brood break. I'm wondering if that was by design? So for now it's feed and split firewood. Not a lot to do bee-wise. The supers are in moth crystals, I have a small extraction to do this weekend, and then it's put the equipment away until spring for the most part. I do plan on hitting them all with an oxalic acid vapor treatment in late October to deal with any Varroa bombs, and after that it's monitor the food stores and slip them sugar as needed. May this winter be much kinder than last winter. I want to thank Rich Schneider for the great presentation on winter preparations at our September 15 meeting, and Laurie has noted the bullet points in the Meeting Minutes which are attached. And thank-you Laurie for serving as Secretary in Patti's absence. Our next meeting is October 20, Caestecker Library in Green Lake, 9:30 a.m. We will continue discussing winter preparations, ventilation techniques, winter covers, winter feeding, and everything else winter. I'll bring a winter cover that I use, and I hope that other members will bring their covers and wintering techniques to share and discuss. Welcome to autumn, officially. Gerard
This just in.....starts tomorrow 9/8. For anyone that cares to participate.
Gerard Share Tweet Forward Email THE MITE-A-THON BEGINS THIS SATURDAY! Local beekeeping clubs and associations are key to making the Mite-A-Thon a success! See the program flier and PowerPoint to help spread the word to fellow beekeepers. The Mite-A-Thon is a tri-national effort to collect mite infestation data and to visualize Varroa infestations in honey bee colonies across North America within a one-week window. All beekeepers can participate, creating a rich distribution of sampling sites in Canada, the United States, and Mexico. OBJECTIVE: 1) To raise awareness about honey bee colony Varroa infestations in North America through effective monitoring methods. 2) Management strategies will be made available for discussion within bee organizations utilizing Mite-A-Thon partner developed information and outreach materials. PARTICIPANTS: All beekeepers in North America are encouraged to participate. WHAT YOU NEED TO DO:
CONTACT: [email protected] or 415 362-1137Get resources and stay up to date at www.pollinator.org/miteathon! Thank you, The Mite-A-Thon Partners Learn More [email protected] 415-362-1137 423 Washington St. 5th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94111 Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list. Copyright © 2018 Pollinator Partnership, All rights reserved. |
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