Rich opened the meeting at 7:05 on a rainy, blustery evening.
He spoke about dues for the year.
20 people signed up for bee school.
Rich handed out thank-yous to those who helped at bee schools.
Anna’s hotel, The Allison was named in the top one hundred hotels.
Bee Day will be Saturday, April 19th at 10 AM.
Flying Bee is selling nucs for $210.00
Rich led a discussion on hive losses, some club members have already gotten into their hives this year.
Anna presented on plants for bees.
What is dearth?
Landscape Changes
Anna had a powerpoint showing Honeybee forage and feeding cycles in the willamette valley. what can we encourage to grow in late winter? Our plants are mostly done flowering by August. Some possibilities for late forage are Douglas Aster, crepe myrtle, Tickseed, goldenrod, yarrow , also borage and willamette valley guwood. and Sedum. Anna gave a lot of information concerning different aspects of each. She also presented info on books to consider. They are
Native plants for Willamette valley yards
Gardening with Oregon native plants west of the cascades
Native plants for pollinators and beneficial insects.
Breaktime
Rich opened the second half of the meeting at 8:10
Considerations for now
Switch out or clean bottom boards
Look for eggs and larva
if considering raising queens, figure out your best hives for production
when to put supers on? Not before April usually and make sure those colonies are good and strong.
Brood pattern observation
Equalizing colonies to steal from large hives to help out weak hives.
Mite treatments, or at least check for mites in March
8:30
Raffle time
Meeting ended at 8:35
Notes taken by Nathan Richards