Even though it's January in November, it's not too early to start thinking about the 2019 beekeeping season. I know it's hard to know if we'll be needing bees in spring because we may have 100% survival of our colonies (and it may be 90 degrees tomorrow), but maybe you want to expand and aren't sure if splits are in the cards, and maybe you want to introduce different genetics to your apiary. The following was received from Tim Wilbanks of Heritage Honey Bees in Sullivan, and although this is not an endorsement for Heritage Honey Bees, it is information that may be of value to you. ______________________________________________________________________________ We hope you had a good bee season. The weather was definitely challenging with a cold and snowy Spring and a cool, rainy Summer and Fall. Most reports were of a below average honey crop. However, while we've had our challenges, it's nothing like what many of our producers are experiencing with the wildfires in Northern California. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers! We are starting to take reservations and deposits for packages and nucs for Spring 2019. Pricing will not be finalized by all of our Northern California producers until mid/late January. Getting your deposits and pre-orders in early allows us to more closely match your preferences and timeframes. We strive to provide you with the best quality bees, and we give you choices to add diversity to your apiaries. We use only state-inspected apiaries that are in the business of producing queens, package bees, and nucs. Our producers include 3 in Georgia and 8 in California. We will be offering the following for Spring 2019: 5 frame nucs (Italian or Carniolan queens available mid April through May) 2lb. packages (Italian, Carniolan, or Buckfast queens) 3lb. packages (Italian, Carniolan, Buckfast, or Russian/Italian hybrid queens) Package timeframes are: early (late March-April 14th) middle (April 15th-24th) later (April 25th-May 12th) *timeframes are approximate and ultimately depend on the weather in Northern California and Georgia. Deposits are $10 per package or nuc. Please fill out and include the attached form with your deposit. Once pricing has been finalized, we will invoice you for the balance due. Mail deposits to: Heritage Honeybee, LLC PO Box 117 Sullivan, WI 53178 _______________________________________________________________________________ Tim Wilbanks is also free Beekeeping 101 classes on Dec. 4th and 5th in Sullivan: _____________________________________________________________________ Beekeeping 101: Two Day Course Tuesday, December 4th and Wednesday, December 5th 9:00 AM-4:00PM This two day class will cover all the basics of beekeeping. Topics covered:
Classes are offered free of charge. The Heritage Honeybee Bee Barn will be open from 8:30 AM – 4 PM. Register by clicking here: Beekeeping 101, December 4th and 5th, 9 AM -4 PM _________________________________________________________________ So, this is just some information from Tim that I'm passing on to all of you in case you are interested. Tim has also offered to speak at our January meeting and will talk about commercial queen production, and package and nuc production. We end up seeing the final product of a commercial beekeepers work, but most of us probably don't know how those queens and packages are produced on a grand scale. I don't. So for me, this is something to look forward to during OUR dearth period when we can't really visit our bees except to listen in on how they're doing, and slip them some sugar when they reach the top of their food stores. Also, Jack Rademacher has gathered information concerning the possibility of the ECWBA holding beekeeping classes and he will present this information at our December meeting. One item of note is that Fond du Lac has modified it's beekeeping ordinance to include "other appropriate organization or online training". That ordinance is no longer a hurdle. I hope to see some of you on Saturday at our meeting, and best wishes for a safe and productive hunt for those that are taking to the woods. Gerard BTW, it appears that Brushy Mountain Bee Farm went dark over the weekend. Totally gone. I saw something about a family emergency, and there's a clip on YouTube about it, and I hear it's all over Facebook. But no emails from them or anything posted that I can find. If you know for sure that they are no more, please let me know
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ECWBA NewsletterSince 2009 Archives
March 2019
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