March 25, 2019 Minutes

Willamette Valley Beekeepers Association

General Meeting Minutes

March 25, 2019

The meeting was called to order at 7:02 by President Richard Farrier. He handed around more American Bee Journal discount coupons. The discounted subscription price is $23.50 per year instead of $28.00 per year.

Rich also passed around Bee Line Apiaries and Woodenware catalogs.

News item 1. There was a silent auction of an old extractor and a cappings tank. Both items need to be thoroughly cleaned, but appear to be in working order.

News item 2. The club is putting together a nuc buy, (for current paid members only), from Joe Hansen of Foothills Honey in Colton. They will be 5-frame nucs, been through mite treatment, no choice between Italian or Carniolan. The price is $120 each. The cost to the group is $110 each. Rich will receive $40 for gas and time then any money left over above the $110 each nuc, will be donated to the OSU Honey Bee Lab. They will be ready in late April for pickup in the parking lot of Chemeketa Community College.

Questions:

What to do with uncapped “nectar” from a last fall deadout? Wash it out, let it drip dry, and then give it to a new colony.

Is there any news on the free sugar? No.

What is the bright red pollen coming into hive? It’s from Lamium purpureum, common name Purple (or Red) Deadnettle. This is a winter annual weed that is blooming now. So you have justification for putting off weeding!

How to prepare deadout boxes for nucs? Paint exterior of boxes, scrape tops and bottoms of frames, verify lack of wax moth infestation, store in light until picking up new bees.

Is it too early to check for mites? What meds can be used now? Not too early, can use Apivar or formic acid.

Will small clusters make it now? Hard to tell, as it is weather dependent. Three options, combine with another weak hive, put the colony in a nuc box, or wait and see.

How to move colony 20 yards all at once? Move it in evening, place queen excluder in front of the entrance to force foragers to re-orient. It is easier to simply move the colonies in Jan/Feb, when bees are cluster.

Is it too early to reverse boxes? It depends on weather. It is still getting cold at night.

Dewey Caron News:

There was a public hearing on 2 bills in the Oregon Legislature, House Bill 3058 and Senate Bill 853 that would ban the use of chlorpyrifos, a toxic nerve agent pesticide, and neonicotinoids on Tuesday, March 26th.

The annual PNW Honey Bee Survey is open now through April 30th. Please take 5 -10 minutes to complete the survey to add your numbers to give a clearer snapshot of the health of honey bees in Oregon.

Honey Bee Health Coalition has two free downloadable resources for beekeepers; Tools for Varroa Management and Best Management Practices for Bee Health. Dewey presented a spiral bound copy of the Best Management Practices to the club library.

The Western Apicultural Society annual conference will be held in Ashland, July 12-14th. Registration is now open.

The 46th Apimondia International Apicultural Congress will be held in Montreal, September 8-12th. Registration is now open.

Speaker Morris Ostrofsky – “Walk Away Splits+ : Steps you can take for Stress-free Queen Rearing”.

Morris spoke from his 50 years of beekeeping experience to show us how to make walk away splits. These queens have a better acceptance rate, a better chance of winter survival, can be selected for desirable traits, its cost effective, it doesn’t require special equipment, and one can “bank” a queen in a nuc over winter. He made the process seem simple and even had a handout that walked us through day by day and what to do. It was an interesting presentation that generated quite a few questions as members clarified various points in the procedure.

The meeting ended with the regular raffle, the sought after prizes were Clerodendrum trichotomum , (Common names are Harlequin Glorybower or Peanut Butter tree.), starts provided by Maryann Beirne.

Meeting adjourned at 9:05.

Respectfully submitted,

Anna Ashby

WVBA Secretary

March 29, 2019