Topic: May 17, 2023 Monthly Meeting SnoKing Beekeepers

Time: May 17, 2023 06:30 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88119702455?pwd=MlRmRFR4YTM5dXJ4c1pUOWpOajN4UT09

Meeting ID: 881 1970 2455

Passcode: 964585

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Join us this Wednesday for a queen project update. Also, we can just “talk bees.” We can talk summer plans, share favorite stories about swarms and what else is going on with our bees. Please also bring your favorite ideas and have ready your pictures of swarms, traps, yellow jacket baits. Remember we can screen share one at a time on Zoom, so have your pictures ready.

Come join us if you have decided to sign up for the project or just want to hear how the project is proceeding. Here's hoping to talk bees with you all 6:30PM this Wed.

CONTENTS:

THE HIVE MIND Thursday May 11  – Gina Cuff

2023 NUC & PACKAGE SUPPLIER LIST

CLASSES

BEGINNER 7PM Monday July 10th

JOURNEYMAN 6:30PM Monday Sept. 11th

JOURNEYMAN LEVEL GROUP forming this Fall

HIVESIDES

CALENDAR on www.snokingbka.org

FEATURED ARTICLE:
Using Propolis Harvested from Your Hive, Vicky Turek

QUEEN PROJECT UPDATE

BEE TIPS & TRIVIA

THE HIVE MIND has started meeting online on 2nd Thursdays.

After Gina Cuff taught Beginner, she and her students had such a wonderful time, that they started a group to share their beekeeping experiences, ask questions and stay in touch throughout the beekeeping season.

If you are in your first years of beekeeping and interested in joining the group, contact Gina at ginacuff@gmail.com for the Zoom link.

2023 NUC & PACKAGE SUPPLIER LIST on Home page

At 9 pages, this must be the most comprehensive Western Washington list available. However, your local bee club and beekeepers can still be the best sources for late season bees and replacement queens, so keep in touch with them. 

CLASSES

Next BEGINNER BEEKEEPING CLASS starts 7PM Monday July 10, taught by Journeyman Candidate James Fuchs. Class includes manual, and WASBA certificate and 2023 WASBA dues gifted to the student upon completion of the course. More info at www.snokingbka.org/beginnerapplication . If you still have questions, call or text 206-859-7392 or email eliochel@snokingbka.org.

Next JOURNEYMAN class starts September 11, 2023. Registration is now open at www.snokingbka.org/journeymanapplication

Here our July 10 Beginner Class instructor introduces himself:

"Hi, my name is James Fuchs. I have been keeping bees almost every year since 2012 when one of my high school teachers gave me one of her hives after showing me some of the basics. I took a couple years off when I was at WSU Pullman as it was too hard trying to keep hives and go to school. I grew up between Lake Stevens and Snohomish and that is also the area where I currently have bee hives. I have always had an interest in the outdoors, plants and animals, gardening and animal husbandry. For the first 8 years or so of beekeeping I primary kept Langstroth hives and experimented with a top bar hive. The last two years I switched to keeping Layens hives, although this year I am planning on having a Langstroth hive or two again, as well as experimenting with that old top bar. I recently helped co-teach a beginner class and this next round will be my first time solo teaching the beginner class and am looking forward to it." James Fuchs, Journeyman Candidate.

CLASSES (cont.)

Note: If you have at least one year of beekeeping and did not complete Beginner yet, contact Eli to ask about challenging the Beginner exam in order to qualify to take Apprentice.

REQUIRED FOR JOURNEYMAN!

Interested in continuing your beekeeping journey with WASBA Journeyman certification? If you are doing club and community service this summer, don't forget that Apprentice certificate is to be earned BEFORE service counted towards the Journeyman requirement.

We encourage any beekeeper approaching 3 years of beekeeping to pursue Journeyman. For many of you, mentoring, teaching, volunteering in your local bee club, presenting about bees and pollinators, staffing booths at fairs and community events and more! is what you do without expecting compensation. However, recognizing that service is part of Journeyman. So,

JOURNEYMAN starting September 11, 2023 class registration is now open at www.snokingbka.or/journeymanapplication

Class includes manual, and WASBA certificate and 2023 WASBA dues gifted to the student upon completion of the course. Questions? Call or text 206-859-7392 or email eliochel@snokingbka.org.

SUGGESTIONS & IDEAS needed:

SnoKing Beekeepers will start an online Journeyman level discussion group/club this fall. Interested beekeepers in Western WA – Journeyman candidates, Journeyman or Master – will be invited to an organizational meeting on Zoom in September, time and date to be announced. We are looking for a venue to encourage beekeeper communication, education and networking after completion of the WASBA Beginner and Apprentice level. Such a group might also help prepare for Master, if a new in-state program does start in 2024. The topic of the first meeting will be the desired format for such a group. Possibilities include a Facebook group, a website forum/blog allowing members to start posts, comment and share profile information, use of online chat session software similar to zoom, or continue with regular Zoom meetings.

   Please watch for a time and date for this organizational meeting, and start thinking of how to set up and maintain communication for such a group. Any ideas are welcome!

HIVESIDES

the Hiveside at Maltby Saturdays 1PM to 3PM May 13th through July 1st will be focused on Queen Rearing with emphasis on grafting. The Wednesday 5/10 orientation recording explains the schedule and the use of those Hivesides to have mature, proven queens by July 1st for distribution to those who have participated in the workshop.

Recording link: https://youtu.be/3QcNVHl8YaQ

HiveSide Managers:

Granite Falls - Ron - beebuddy.skba@gmail.com 206-719-3604

Maltby - Eli - eliochel@snokingbka.org  206-859-7392

Email Hiveside Managers to confirm that there are no last minute changes to date and time, and to tell SnoKing that you are attending.

Hiveside schedules constantly change and we will try to update the website calendar as needed. At this time,

Maltby Hivesides are open in Saturdays 1 PM to 3 PM in May, June (except June 10), and July unless at a member’s home.

Granite Falls Hivesides will will generally be 2PM to 4PM 1st and 3rd Sundays until further notice.

FEATURED ARTICLE:
How to use Propolis Harvested from Your Hive:

 Journeyman candidate Vicky Turek has given us permission to include her article  on her propolis harvest and her use of it in a tincture she developed. This article was originally published in the May 2023 Cowlitz County Beekeepers newsletter:

How To's, Nifty Tricks and Recipes

By Vicky Turek

     As Beekeepers, we all have our opinions, tricks and recipes that have been experienced over time. I

mean, after all, what works one time may have a different result another time. Hence, I approach beekeeping as a perpetual grand experiment, understanding that the bees know how to do what they do better than I.

     We also understand that honeybees are super industrious. Nothing they do is without purpose or

benefit to the hive, and perhaps, though unintentional from a honeybee's perspective, beneficial and

necessary to our environment and to us. There is nothing a healthy hive produces that cannot be

used to create products that improve the quality of our lives and well being.

The first priority of a beekeeper is to assure that the hive and colony's needs and wellbeing are met. As stewards, it is our responsibility to supplement resources for them, if and when their natural resources are not easily available to them. Give them a "leg up to their bees knees" if you will, by way of nutrition and honeybee healthcare (pest management). When we do this, if we're lucky, those little workers can and do produce more than they need for themselves. This is the gift and reward to us for our labors of love tending the hives.

     I would like to suggest that a space be considered in the Cowlitz Beekeeper's monthly newsletter for anyone to have the opportunity to share their own "How To's, Nifty Tricks and Recipes etc. I'll start. Last season I harvested a significant amount of propolis as a result of working the hives...don't we all...! Bee glue, what to do with it? Propolis is nature's best antimicrobial. Honeybees have collective behavioral defenses called "social immunity" to help defend and protect the colony against pathogens and parasites. These microbial properties protect against bacteria, fungi and viruses and have been harvested from bee hives for use in human medicine since antiquity. 

     As an experiment, I decided to make propolis tincture. Here's a "how to recipe" that I am quite pleased with, as a first attempt. I began by collecting propolis while working hives and putting it in a sandwich size Tupperware and stored it in the freezer. Over the season, I accumulated enough to make a batch. The tincture ratio is 1 to 5, being one ounce of propolis to 5 ounces of high grade

alcohol (190 proof grain alcohol, Everclear, or 150 proof high grade Vodka).

I used two ounces of propolis to 10 ounces of Everclear. After having frozen the propolis in small clumps, put it into a

parchment paper homemade envelope and crushed it with a hammer into small particles. Put your crushed propolis into a quart canning jar and add your alcohol. Wish it well and cap it with your canning lid.

Place it in a cool dark place (cupboard). Shake it daily for at least two weeks, letting it rest between shakes. After a couple of weeks, you will notice particles that haven't dissolved, and won't. Strain it through a coffee filter or cheesecloth filter and back into the jar it goes. Continue daily

shaking and resting for an additional 4 to 6 weeks. Filter one more time before bottling, using one or two ounce dropper bottles. When bottling, it can be cut by fifty percent using a coconut oil that is liquid form, or bottled as is. VOI*LA!

      A suggestion for use is a few drops on top of the tongue at the back of the throat to coat the throat. This medicinal tincture can help with allergies, sinus and ear problems or sore throat, etc. It can also be used topically as an antimicrobial treatment on cuts and scratches.

     Thank you Bee's! Happy beekeeping this season everyone. Bee Well! Vicky Turek, Journeyman Candidate.

QUEEN PROJECT UPDATE

For the most up-to-date information, attend the meeting this Wed. 6:30PM. First queen project sessions are starting Saturdays with a few Tues/Wed dates at the Maltby Hiveside; Ron Robinson will repeat the project at the Granite Falls Hiveside on Sundays.

The queen rearing project had to wait on Western Washington weather. It is easiest to raise healthy, robust queens during a major nectar flow, so the delay is actually beneficial. There will be 2 types of queen raising classes: (1) a day or 2 that you can drop by and try your hand at grafting and (2) a class requiring several weeks of involvement from setting up the cell builder hive to grafting day, to setting up mating nucs, to moving queen cells into those mating nucs, to verifying the productivity of those queens. That full class started Saturday 5/13 and continues on Saturdays up to July 1st.

     The drop-by days to try your hand with grafting tools will be posted on the calendar for Hivesides.

BEE TIPS & TRIVIA

2023 is all about interesting tricks of the trade and bee facts, some outright weird!

     The bee jokes of 2022 are still there. If you select the category “Jokes” on the blog page, you can still chuckle your way to relaxation.

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES

If you have a talent to share or a project you would like to do for the club, let us know. We do need:

Class registrar

Videographers

Wix website technician

EVERGREEN STATE FAIR 8/24-9/4

Thank you for reading this newsletter. We hope to talk bees with you at the May 17, 2023 Monthly Meeting SnoKing Beekeepers

Time: May 17, 2023 06:30 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88119702455?pwd=MlRmRFR4YTM5dXJ4c1pUOWpOajN4UT09

Meeting ID: 881 1970 2455

Passcode: 964585

One tap mobile

+12532158782,,88119702455#,,,,*964585# US (Tacoma)

+12532050468,,88119702455#,,,,*964585# US

Dial by your location

        +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)

        +1 253 205 0468 US

HOPE YOU ARE ENJOYING THE WARMER WEATHER!