Dewey Caron

I have received a very low response this year from WVBA members (<10) for the annual pnwhoneybeesurvey. It will only be up until end of day Friday May 1. Please if you have not yet had the opportunity won't you take a few minutes and add your overwintering success and management information so I … Read more about LAST FEW DAYS OF SURVEY

The PNW honey bee survey is now open extending to end of April. WVBA has had consistently great participation in past surveys (38 survey returns last year – loss level 46%) and I AKS PLEASE complete a survey again this year. Go to https://pnwhoneybeesurvey.om/survey To examine past survey results … Read more about Winter loss survey NOW OPEN and Dead colony Necropsy

Many of you are aware that I winter 3 months in Bolivia, South America where my wife Nieves hails from. While here I do some bee classes and apiary visits. We have class beginning this Saturday in fact (it is summer her). I just finished an intense week of coarse and field work. Kerry Clark … Read more about News from Bolivia

How do you overwinter? What do you consider the greatest challenge to successful overwintering? 38 WVBA survey respondents reported average  overwintering losses of 46%, just two percentage points different from the 416 OR beekeeper average winter loss. As Figure 3 of the WVBA report illustrates … Read more about Ready for winter?

Do you fly a drone?  No I don’t mean the live drones you find in your bee colony or tethered drones you might fly at a bee display but instead I am asking if you fly a robotic drone to use for aerial services? Drones have been used in war, espionage, research, videography and farming. New research … Read more about DRONES Keeping up with Technology

The first posting on WVBA winter losses reported loss of 122 colonies = 46 % average loss, slightly lower than the statewide loss of 48%, which equals the highest for OR backyarders. The 46%loss was the highest WVBA level of the previous 4 years and 9.5% above the 4 year average.  The trend is … Read more about Bee loss update

At the March WVBA meeting I distributed paper copies and directed members to a web-based survey document in a continuing effort to define overwintering losses/successes of backyard beekeepers in Oregon. This was the 10th year of such survey activity. I received 416  responses from OR backyarders, … Read more about 2018-19 WVBA Winter LOSS FIRST Report

I hope your bees are OK despite our cool, wet spring weather. If you overwintered colonies from last year, PLEASE don’t forget to send in a survey to www.pnwhoneybeesurvey.com to report winter losses/survivorship and your managements for the past season. Survey is open until end of April. March … Read more about Our Reluctant Spring