Nelson County Beekeepers
What’s The Buzz ATTENTION:
Nelson County February 2020
Volume 6 Issue 2
MEMBERSHIP DUES NEED TO BE PAID BY MARCH 19TH , 2020. This will insure your access to Facebook and the Newsletter. If you want to mail your dues send them to:
Officers President-Steve Hutchins Vice President-Darrell Hester Secretary-Carolyn Hurd Treasurer & Editor-Susan Zhunga Hospitality-Monthly Volunteers
Susan E Zhunga, 555 King Road, Cox's Creek, KY 40013. Make check payable to: Nelson County Soil Labs.
Newsletter Publisher– Georganne Collins
POT LUCK SUPPER: Inside this issue: Financials & Minutes
2
Items Available for Sale 3
We will need mains, sides and desserts. Set up and clean up is done by volunteers. Please help with this service. We all love the pot luck.
Items Available for Sale 4
Beekeepers School
6
Robbie Smith County Extension Agent for Horticulture
Page 2 Financials & Minutes FINANCIAL STATEMENT March Opening balance
3/1/2020
1st 2020
$2,365.33
Gross Income
$1,328.00
Net Expense
$999.25 School Supplies/ Door Prizes
Bank Balance
$2,694.08
Previous Meetings Minutes February Nelson County Beekeepers February 20th, 2020 Meeting Steering Committee Meeting Attending: Darrell Hester, Benny Hite, Ricky Humphrey, Steve Hutchins, Henry Wilkerson, Susan Zhunga, Gene Englert, Pat Swartz. Discussed: Talked about bee school this Saturday, organized workers. Ordering of Nucs. Bee Meeting: We had our Chili Cook-Off and the winners were: 3rd Place was Harley Blankenship. 2nd Place was Darrell Hester and the 1st place winners were Randy and Shari Weber. Thank you to all who participated. Our Free Nuc drawing was won by our new member Mike Mills. Nice going Mike. Announcement was made the all Nucs need to be paid in full by or at the March meeting. We will inform everyone of the expected arrival date as soon as information becomes available.
We want to welcome our newest members, Mike Mills, John Straub & Richie Lowe.
Page 3 (Continued from page 2)
The meeting continued with a “Round Table” discussion. Problems with hives, feed heavily, ventiation, maple and elm are now blooming. There were 43 people in attendance. Carolyn Hurd Secretary
MEETING AGENDA March 19th @ 6:30 pm We are happy to welcome back Kevin Hale, from Hale Honey Farms. It's spring ?? What should we be doing to prepair. Kevin is always a wealth of knowledge. He's will be happy to answer your questions after his presentation.
Up Coming events: Kent Williams – Master Beekeeper 4/16/2020 – to be determined.
Page 4 BEEKEEPING ITEMS FOR SALE Test kits for American Foul Brood (AFB) and European Foul Brood (EFB) are available for purchase from Extension Office for $14.00 each. Please call me (Susan 507-8789) for availability. Mike Johnson – Will make wooden ware to order. Boxes, frames and wax dipping. Contact Mike for information and pricing @ 502-249-2007. The Club - has NCB T - Shirts Prices are: $8.00 for children $10.00 for Adults and $12.00 for Adults 2x & 3x.
ATTENTION ATTENTION There are 2 extractors complete with all that you need to extract honey. It comes with a refractometer to test you honey. $10.00 for useage, with a 3 day maximum. All members are encouraged to join us on Facebook. Ask questions, show your progress, and share your pictures. “Nelson County Beekeepers”. We would love to hear from you.
Page 5 BEEKEEPERS CALENDAR March If you’re lucky, you’ll get a few warm days here and there during February. If not, you may need to hold off until March to begin inspecting your hives. No matter what month it is, wait until the temperature rises to around 50 degrees and you see bees begin taking flights, but keep your hive checks brief (30 seconds or less). Remove the cover to check for sealed honey in the top bars but leave the frames where they are. If you don’t see a good supply, we suggest adding Winter Patties to help supplement the colony’s remaining honey stores. Continue checking on the hives on warm days and feeding them until the first bloom April In most areas, April in the beekeeper’s calendar means spring is finally here. As daytime temps reach the upper 50s, your bees continue to clear out the hive and begin bringing in new pollen from the first blooms while the queen is rearing brood. This is the time to begin testing and treatments for Varroa mites. Thankfully, there are a number of new options for Varroa treatments that weren’t available in years past.
When deciding on treatments in the spring, watch the temperature for a number of days before the first honey flow in your area. We’ve covered several of these treatments such as formic acid, Apiguard, oxalic acid and Apivar in our article. Be sure to have plenty of spare hives and supers on hand for the upcoming season, too. If you plan on picking up package bees or catching a swarm or two, it’s always best to be prepared ahead of time.
Page 6 Common Spring Errors
Dadant
Not Feeding Enough in Early Spring The first of the spring mistakes I learned to avoid is starvation, caused by not feeding enough early in the season. As a new beekeeper, I figured the bees had plenty of resources to make it through until the first black locust trees came into bloom. Boy, was I wrong. Instead of catching my limit of largemouth up the creek on the backwaters of the old Mississippi, I should have spent my time feeding a mixture of 1:1 syrup and pollen substitute. Not Testing for or Treating Varroa The second mistake that comes to mind is not testing or treating early enough in the season for Varroa mites. Black locust is our first flow here in the midwestern part of the state and one of my favorite honeys. In the past, trying to catch this flow while properly timing mite treatments proved difficult. Modern Varroa Treatment Options Fortunately, two springtime treatments are now available that can be used in conjunction with the nectar flow. Mite Away Quick Strips and the newer Formic Pro are formic acid treatments manufactured by NOD Apiaries out of Canada. While both can be used once daytime highs are steadily in the 50’s, Mite Away Quick Strips are a 7-day treatment and Formic Pro takes 14 days. Simply place two pads between the brood boxes. After treatment, if the bees haven’t carried the delivery pads out the front entrance, you can remove them by hand. If you still have a few weeks until the first flow in your area, another option is using a half dose of Apiguard. By cutting the full 50-gram dose down to 25 grams, you can treat two or three times before the flow gets going. Apiguard works best when temps are in the low 60’s up to 100 degrees. Another treatment beekeepers report works well is oxalic acid, using either the vaporization or dribble method. Treatments with
Page 7 oxalic acid are applied when temperatures are above 50 degrees and the bees are active. For those who want to really hammer the mites Apivar, an amitraz treatment, works very well. However, the downside to using this method in the spring is the duration: treatment takes 42 days with no supers in place.
Spring Beekeeping Inspection Spring is a busy time for bees and beekeepers. Your spring beekeeping inspection is the first of the season. Here’s your spring inspection chores list:
As winter crawls to an end, pick the first mild sunny day with little or no wind to inspect your bees (50 degrees Fahrenheit or warmer).
Observe the hive entrance. Are there many dead bees around the entrance? A few dead bees are normal, but finding more casualties than that may indicate a problem.
Lightly smoke and open the hive. Do you see the cluster of bees? Can you hear the cluster?
Look through some of the comb. Do you see any brood? Look for eggs (eggs mean you have a queen). If you see no eggs or brood, consider ordering a new queen from your supplier.
Does the colony have honey? If not, or if it’s getting low, immediately begin feeding syrup to the bees.
Feed your colony a pollen substitute to boost brood production.
If you are using a Langstroth hive, reverse the deephive bodies to better distribute the brood pattern. Use this opportunity to clean the bottom board.
RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED
Bardstown KY 40004
317 S Third St
Nelson County