How about this upcoming weather? The forecast is for a week of 50°F plus weather. In February. This happened the first winter I had bees. I was learning beekeeping from a book and the book said that I would need to be prepared to feed the bees 1:1 syrup in April. I didn’t have to though, because they were dead. Heads in the comb, starved. I’m a little more experienced now and know that during this warm period they will be consuming resources at a faster pace than if it was colder. I’ve been checking them every two weeks this winter and adding sugar and pollen patties as they got low, and this weekend will be especially important to do so. I don’t want to face a bunch of bee butts in April. Several things have come up since our meeting on January 14, and everyone should have received email notices for them except for the last one which came up today and is listed below with the others. These are things we will discuss at our meeting next week Saturday, February 25, 9:30 a.m., Ripon Public Library, Silver Creek Room. First is our hosting of Sue Dompke’s presentation and discussion of Primorsky Russian honey bees which will be held on Saturday, March 25, 9:30 a.m., Fond du Lac Public Library, Eugene G. McLane meeting room. Sue intends to arrive at 9:00 to set up, and the library is providing projectors and will set up seating and tables for 45 attendees. The last time I looked at Patti’s registration sheet there were 34 people registered. We will be providing refreshments of some sort at this event, and will put out a donation container to help toward those costs. BUT, we need members to volunteer to pull this thing together in an orderly fashion. Next is the invitation we received from the Walworth County Beekeepers concerning their March 18 seminar in Wausau. It looks like a good lineup and Jack gave a thumbs up on Mel Disselkoen. I requested clarification of the days’ itinerary and was told that “Solomon and Mel” will both be giving talks in the morning and afternoon when no other activities are going on, and the “breakaway sessions” will be focused group sessions concerning the listed topics. Sounds like a full day of beekeeping discussions. I am proposing that (2) tickets be “raffled” for members-in-good-standing (dues paid) that are interested in going. If you are interested, contact Patti at [email protected] to have your name entered for the drawing. Names will be drawn at the end of the meeting. (You can also enter the drawing at the meeting. If you already purchased a ticket and your name is picked, you will be reimbursed for the cost.) Perhaps we can get a carpool going if enough people are interested. The new item is a request by the Oshkosh Public Library to give not one, but two, talks/demos about bees and beekeeping. They would like a talk about bees and beekeeping geared toward adults some evening in March, and something for children/interested adults in the summer when we can bring the demo hive. So for anyone that’s interested, here’s some opportunities to bring honey bee awareness to the community. (I assured Sandy that cell phones are not the cause of CCD when she asked. Education of the public is obviously important.) We can set the date and time for these events. I would like to revisit the idea of having an Events Coordinator to track these events, coordinate them, keep a record of where we’ve been and what we’ve done, and where our educational materials are. It would probably also be helpful to keep a list of our contacts for the various venues. I mentioned in an earlier newsletter that I was researching bee plants and putting together a list of what would be “the best” plants for pollen and nectar. Besides a lot of online research I bought a book that rates pollen and nectar production of a large variety of garden plants on a scale of 1 – 5. Well, the journey has taken several twists and turns but something I found interesting is that bees don’t always collect pollens with the highest crude protein levels when they have a choice. The researchers concluded that there are compounds in pollen that only the bees know about, and what the bees will choose is not predictable by humans. They further concluded that the main thing is for bees to have a variety of pollens available so they can gather what they need for optimum health. I'm still working on this. I’ll wrap this up for now as I’m finding myself starting on another tangent and I still need to make sugar discs this evening. The weekend is fast approaching and that’ll be bee feeding time. Sugar discs and pollen patties. Bees fill the bird feeders and chicken coop when it gets warm enough for them to forage and the maples and willows haven’t blossomed yet so apparently the proteins in seed and grain dust are useful to them as well. Thought I'd see if pollen patties might keep the numbers in the coop down. Suiting up to feed the chickens and collect eggs feels weird. Last note: Those willing to mentor those that would appreciate mentoring please let Fred know so he can list your contact information, and the area you can cover, on the blog. Same if you’re interested in being a Swarm Catcher. That’s it for now, and I hope to see all on February 25. Gerard
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ECWBA NewsletterSince 2009 Archives
March 2019
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