WVBA
July 28th, 2025
7:03 Meeting called to order. Lots of new faces. Rich passed around attendance.
Rich called Dewey up to announce an upcoming conference in sept ember 2026 featuring sam Ramsey, Zac Lammas and becky masterman and priya c. It will be in Vancouver September 18-20 2026. It will be a can’t miss event!!!!!!
Rich announced that the bee research lab in beltsville will close due to budget cuts.
There is speculation that the facility will be moved to North Carolina, but much of the staff will be lost.
We are fortunate to have the local lab at OSU.
The beltsville lab is a disease and pest research lab and their work is vital to honeybee health. The lab was established in 1891.
Rich announced the OSBA conference oct 24-26th in Bend.
Todd took the podium to begin his talk “you gotta have a plan.”
Todd has been a beekeeper for “quite a while.” As a followup to his previous presentation he mentioned that one drawback to successful swarm control is that he doesn’t have any super comb building machines. So this year he used deeps as supers to get fresh comb.
Ok, on to varroa control strategies. We need a strategy because things in the beekeeping world have changed. Pre varroa queens lived a long time, didn’t have to worry about varroa. Later in his beekeeping career, varroa was straightforward. It is more challenging now and knockdowns are not as effective. We need To. Keep mite levels down year round.
Viruses are now more virulent and synthetic chemicals are failing due primarily to overuse. And the varroa season has lengthened. Colonies are under environmental and nutritional stress, in part due to commercial agriculture.
We need to adjust our varroa control strategies and adopt current best practices.
Task throughout the year “think about the big things while you take care of the small things”
Randy olivers IPM pyramid. Foundation must be preventative. Starting with cultural/biological control, then physical, monitoring, bioacaricides and lastly synthetics. The hope is resistant stock so we don’t need the other methods.
Best practices for varroa control
—treat proactively early in the year to keep numbers low. If numbers get high difficult to recover in the fall.
Test every colony via alcohol wash.
Test from June 15th through October. Use treatments appropriate to the season and rotate the treatments.
TO reduce selective pressure towards resistant mites, moderate efficacy treatments are better than 99% effective treatments.
Check out Honey bee health coalitions tools for varroa management.
An annual plan for varroa control.
—Broodless then buildup, swarming, honey flow, diminishing brood, last brood, broodles. Numbers will skyrocket in July august if not treated.
Minimum 3 treatments per year with 85-90% kill as the goal.
Takeaways
VARROA RESISTANT STOCK IS THE WAY TO GO
REMEMEMBER THE TASTE OF HONEY
- TEST AFTER SUMMER TREATMENTS EVERMORE
- AUGUST 1ST HONEY BEE NEW YEAR, TIME TO TREAT AND FEED
YOUR NEXT YEAR’S HIVES START RIGHT NOW
NUMBER OF MITES IS KEY TO HIVE HEALTH
EXPECT TO TEAT FOR MITES
WATCH OUT FOR ROBBING
YUGE FEEDINGS OF POLLEN SUB PATTIES
EGG ON THE QUEEN BY FEEDING SYRUP
ADD HONEY STORES TO LIGHT HIVES
REPEAT VARROA TREATMENTS IN SEPT OR OCT IF NEEDED
GREAT JOB TODD!!!!!!!!!!!!
DONT FORGET WATER FOR YOUR BEES
813 BREAKTIME!!
RICH Handed out a packet with descriptions and methods of treatments of miticides and went over them.
He showed to varroa mites to human scale
Stranger methods include urinating in front of hives or putting lavender sprigs in entrance, spraying mineral oil.
It is possible that essential oils may fight viruses.
Rich thinks that Apistan may be effective again.
Jeremy recommended doing an OA workshop on bee day to teach club members how to safely use vaporizer.
Recommended dosage for oa vapor is 4 grams per colony assuming double deep.
Minutes respectfully submitted by Elaine Timm