The holiday season is coming to an end and now comes that long, cold, relatively dormant period until spring. It's a time of little beekeeping activity except to check that the bees have food and that critters aren't moving in to the hives. I have mouse guards on several of my hives that seemed to be at risk earlier in the winter, but the majority are open for easier cleanout of dead bees, by the bees.
Above is a photo, taken this morning after the fresh snowfall, showing that there's quite a bit of critter traffic between my hives. They could be mice, shrews, moles, voles, whatever. They're around, there's no doubt, but they don't seem interested in taking up residence with honey bees. (There weren't any paw prints in the snow on the landing boards.) Not yet, anyway. Another photo taken this morning shows quite a few dead bees that have been removed from a hive by undertaker bees. It was a balmy 20 degrees when this was taken. (Notice the dead bees are on top of the fresh snow.) I wanted to share this because we often read and hear that bees stay clustered when the temps are below 30F, but obviously some stay busy with house duties. I heard one bee flying very close to my ear shortly after taking this photo. Maybe she was taking a cleansing flight, or maybe it was her time to die and she left the hive one last time. Who knows? I didn't lift any covers today because tomorrow is forecast to be better weather for that. The prediction is 36F with a clear, sunny sky. It's supposed to be breezy with gusts up to 23 mph, but I just wait for the gusts to pass before opening. I take a quick look under the cover and close it. If they need sugar I wait for next lull and put it in. In and out in a couple of seconds. And I've found that when the sun is shining, it feels a lot warmer than the thermostat says it is. Now is the time to prepare for the 2019 season. I think I'm in pretty good shape as far as extra woodenware and foundation is concerned, and I took advantage of Cyber Monday sales to stock up on supplies that I never seem to have enough of. Watch for after Christmas sales, and get on mailing lists. This can be an expensive hobby and a penny saved........ And if you're planning to replace equipment or increase your number of hives, winter is a great time to assemble boxes and frames. Now is the time to also consider package bee and nuc purchases. Fred has a list of suppliers on our blog and is adding more as he becomes aware of them. Note that prices have not gone down from 2018 (or any other year for that matter), and some sellers are sky high. For everyone that is taking beekeeping seriously, it's less costly if we can keep our bees alive over winter. We aren't always going to be successful, but if we do nothing to help them we will lose them. A huge benefit of being a member of a club is to hear from each other what seems to help and what totally doesn't. Queen markings for 2019 will be green. I usually see forest green markings, which I find hard to detect on a queen's back. It doesn't help me to spot the queen quickly on a frame, but it's fine if I just want to know that the queen hasn't been superceded. This year I had gotten a forest green paint marker because it was all I could find locally, but I returned it when I found a fluorescent green paint marker on eBay. My marked queens should be easier to spot this season, after they're marked. We will be having elections for Vice-President and Treasurer at our next meeting, and all members-in-good-standing (dues paid) are eligible for nomination and voting. We will hold these elections at the beginning of the meeting because I'm pretty sure we'll want to visit with Tim Wilbanks after his presentation on how nucs and package bees are put together on a commercial scale. All other business will also be addressed before Tim's talk. That includes where we're at with holding beekeeping classes and organizing our upcoming talk at the Fond du Lac library on February 12. Next meeting: January 19, Caestecker Library, Green Lake, 9:30 a.m. Happy 2019 to all! May it be good and prosperous for us and our bees. Gerard
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ECWBA Meeting Minutes Dec. 15, 2018Location: Green Lake Caestecker Library, downstairs
Meeting called to order by Gerard Schubert at 9:40 Attendance: 16 New Members: 0 Visiting: none Old Business
New Business
Make your own Quick Strips
Fred Presentation - Mite Management Simulation
Thank you to all the members who brought items for the potluck. Dues are now being accepted for 2019. $10 Membership Dues
Facebook Page www.facebook.com/ecwbeekeepers @ecwbeekeepers Club Website Club Blog ecwba.weebly.com http://ourbeeblog.blogspot.com/ Next Meeting Jan 19th, Green Lake Caestecker Library 9:30am I hope that everyone is having a safe and happy holiday season. Many cultures observe holidays during mid-winter and honor the returning of the sun following the Winter Solstice. The tradition of bringing greenery into our homes dates back to the ancient Celts who brought evergreen branches and trees indoors as a reminder that life goes on with hope, even in the darkest times. The Light returns.
Our bees recognize the lengthening days as well, and now the queens will start laying small batches of brood to replace the workers that have died, and are dying, as their time as a bee comes to an end. The brood still needs 94 degrees F to develop correctly, and the worker bees won't leave them, as always. So now we're entering the high risk time of winter survival. Lately the temperatures have been in the 40's and the clustering colonies could move toward honey and/or sugar. But now it's getting colder and the clusters will tighten up to retain the heat, generated by heater bees, around the queen and the brood. Honey bees have survived winters for millions of years this way, but there's always the risk of a severe cold snap that will trap the bees away from the food source. It's fatal when that happens, and obvious when you open a die out that went this way. Bees will be clustered, heads in the cells, an inch or two from honey. This is beyond our control. But fortunately severe cold snaps don't usually last long enough to kill a colony. Usually what kills a colony is disease in bees weakened by Varroa. A weakened bee cannot fight off viruses and bacterias as well as a healthy bee. And in addition to weakening bees by dining on their fat bodies, some Varroa transmit viruses to the bees in the process. These viruses can kill, and at a minimum shorten the life span of, the host bee and can be transmitted to bee larvae if the host is a nurse bee. So hopefully our winter Fat Bees are healthy and our mite counts are low. Find some time in all of the season's hustle and bustle to check on your bees. I checked mine yesterday and so far my (12) and the club's (2) are alive. I peeked in to check sugar and frost levels and found no frost in any of them. Only (1) of my (8) home hives, (2) of my (4) out hives, and (1) of the (2) club hives are consuming sugar at this time. (I put one of the 2 1/2 lb. sugar bricks from Fred in the yellow hive last weekend and there was still 75% left.) The colonies not consuming sugar are down in the deeps. I also checked the bottom entrances and all of them are still open. One had a layer of bee bodies on the bottom board up to the level of the entrance, but the entrance was clear. When checking your bees, check that the upper entrance is open after you put the top cover back on. Some of my covers partially overhang the hole, and some covers come up tight against it. In those cases I put shims under the top cover so the hole is free and clear. My typical shims are pieces of branches that are about 1/2" - 3/4" diameter. And don't forget to put the rock or brick back on top. Expect that we will be getting some pretty strong winds along the way. I check my hives weekly, although I may skip a visit if the weather is bad. But I never let more than two weeks go by without checking, even if it costs me a day of vacation from the day job. All I can do now is make sure the bees have emergency sugar on the top bars, and in a month I'll add a pollen substitute patty if it seems like they could use it. Stay warm and celebrate the lengthening days. Merry Christmas. Gerard Next meeting: January 19, Caestecker Library, Green Lake, 9:30 a.m. Tim Wilbanks, owner of Heritage Honeybees, to speak. March weather, and the bees have been flying this past weekend. Those that needed a cleansing flight certainly had the opportunity to do so. Below is a shot of the club hives taken around 1:30 on Saturday, Dec. 15. Although you don’t see any snow in the photo, there is plenty nearby for water gathering.
Thanks to Fred, Jack Rademacher and Paul Rowley for donating sugar cakes to help with feeding the yellow hive. That colony has gone through around (6) 1 lb. sugar discs so far, and I put in a 2 ½ lb. cake Saturday. Notice the winter covers from Charles Crites. They’re awesome. Lots of ventilation ports and loads of insulation. Thanks to Charles for donating them, along with inner covers and bee escapes. While some bees were taking cleansing flights others were gathering water, necessary to dilute honey and sugar. It was a good weekend for it, and a bonus for the bees. I heard buzzing around me Sunday afternoon, a ways away from my home apiary, and spotted a number of bees on wet canary reed grass and directly on the snow, presumably gathering water. One even landed on the snow on my boot while I was watching a couple of others. This weather was a gift to all of us, and I hope everyone got to visit their bees and check the winter stores of honey and sugar. It’s going to get cold again.We can now register/renew registration of our hive locations at Beecheck, Driftwatch, or Fieldwatch for 2019. The same username and password will give you access to all 3 “sites”. This is a free service that is checked by responsible applicators of pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides so that they know where sensitive crops and apiaries are located. Applicators can’t contact you if they don’t know where your hives are, and the listing will give them your contact information. To keep your hive locations on the map, you must renew annually. https://beecheck.org/ https://driftwatch.org/ https://fieldwatch.com/ If you frequent our blog, http://ourbeeblog.blogspot.com/ , you may have seen Fred’s post “CONTROLLING SWARMING”, posted December 5. In that post is the following link to a very informative article by Meghan Milbrath on swarming; what to watch for with survivor hives, and why and how to prevent swarming. It’s a very informative article with lots of photos and illustrations, and well worth the read by anyone that is expecting to experience over-wintered colonies this coming spring. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/56818659c21b86470317d96e/t/5c08401c6d2a7321cc0f484f/1544044623816/Swarms_Milbrath2018.pdf Meghan’s personal website is located at the link below. There you can find more on Meghan, her love of bees, and a variety of articles on beekeeping. Education — The Sand Hill The Fond du Lac Library asked if the ECWBA would do a presentation on beekeeping basics, and we have agreed to do so on Tuesday, February 12, at 6:00 p.m. in the McLane Room (seats 100). This will be a talk on beekeeping basics for people that may be interested in beekeeping, or just curious about what it is we do. Several members have already signed up to participate, and everyone is welcome to attend. We will discuss the specifics at our January 19 meeting. We have decided to move ahead with sponsoring beekeeping classes, and Jack Rademacher (Chair) will set up a meeting time and place for some time in January so that those who are interested in participating can meet and discuss how we will proceed. A lot of things will need to be worked out if we are to hold classes before the season starts. Once the committee has formed and determined a course of action, our Events Coordinator, Laurie Koeck, can get the word out. Tim Wilbanks of Heritage Honeybees will be the guest speaker at our January 19 meeting. Tim is part of a beekeeping family located primarily in Georgia, I believe, but he and his family live in Sullivan, WI. Tim will be talking about commercial queen raising, and about how bees and nucs are packaged for sale to beekeepers across the country. We will also be electing our Vice President (currently Mike Koeck) and Treasurer (currently George Weigel) for the 2019 – 2021 (two-year) term at our January meeting. Everyone interested should please be sure to attend and make your voice heard. Remember that one paid membership equals one vote in elections and in ECWBA decisions that require voting. If you haven’t already, you can pay your $10.00 annual dues to Patti Ingram (Secretary and acting Treasurer): · Mail to Patti Ingram, 724 Congress St., Ripon, WI 54971 · PayPal to Patti Ingram, 920-229-8959, include name and email in Note section · Pay at any ECWBA meeting. Hats off to Mary Montag and Larry Beuthin who will be taking a beekeeping program to the Youth Detention Facility at the Fond du Lac County jail on December 29. Mary and Larry did this earlier this year (January?) for detained youths of the community, and it was reportedly a huge success. Excellent outreach! A big thanks to everyone who brought food items to the meeting. Awesome stuff. I had more than my share, and I loved it. I don’t have Patti’s Meeting Minutes to attach but will forward them when I do. That’s it for now. Happy Holidays to all! Next meeting: January 19, Caestecker Library, Green Lake, 9:30 a.m. At today's meeting, Fred gave us a tutorial on using Randy Oliver's (Scientific Beekeeping) Varroa model to predict Varroa populations over time, under different treatment scenarios. He entered the data for his treatments in 2018, as well as Jon Polcyn's and mine. According to the model, all three of our treatment methods should prevent our hives from crashing this winter due to Varroa. Nice to know. This model can be used as a tool to decide when to treat, and which treatments to use, to prevent losses due to Varroa (theoretically, but based on Randy's scientific inquiry). I am sending this Excel file to all of you because it was reported that it won't download from the Scientific Beekeeping site to all computers. Hopefully everyone that wants to use it can download it from this email attachment. Note that you must open it with Excel as it doesn't work with all spreadsheet programs (like "Sheets"). Thanks Fred for taking your time to figure out how this works, and for sharing that knowledge with all of us today. I know I will be using it to develop targeted treatments. (Notes from the meeting will be sent later.) Gerard
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