So far it's been a pleasant weekend for me. I got out to all of my hives and 11 out of 12 are still buzzing. And I'm happy to report that the club's yellow hive is still alive at the Meadery. So far my losses aren't anywhere near as severe as last year at this time, and I'm extremely happy about that. We still have March to go, but once the temperature rises and the maples blossom out, I'll be feeling like the bees will make it. Overwintered colonies (survivors) will be building up and thinking about reproducing. That means swarm season isn't far off, and we should be preparing ourselves to prevent swarming. It has been found that feral swarms have about a 15% chance of surviving the following winter, so it's better if we can keep the bees. We will be discussing techniques to keep them at our March 23 meeting, and that will include:
As part of my preparations for swarm control I decided to get some slatted racks and more medium supers today (and frames and foundation) since Mann Lake has 9% off of everything this weekend. Sale ends tomorrow, 3/3, so if you have a wish list, this may be the time. Remember that one-handed queen catcher I mentioned? Yep. I have the plunger style queen marking tube, but the one-handed version has openings in the grid large enough for workers to escape. The plunger style doesn't have that type of grid so when I capture workers with the queen it's a bit of a struggle to mark the queen. This one-handed one looks easy on YouTube. This newsletter was to get Patti's Minutes from the February meeting to you, and to alert you to the Mann Lake sale that's in progress. I'll send a March reminder as we get closer, and reiterate what's all planned for that meeting. That will also be our first meeting with a door prize drawing, and I can't wait to see what Patti selected for the prize. Keep those bees in food. March is when a lot of colonies starve out. They're going to be using their resources for brood rearing as well as staying alive, so what they have will go fast. Later, Gerard
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ECWBA NewsletterSince 2009 Archives
March 2019
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