SnoKing Beekeepers April 19, 2023 meeting

Time: Apr 19, 2023 06:30 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89512833215?pwd=RHE2UUxoSTV3Um90cjVJeTFxS2QyQT09

Meeting ID: 895 1283 3215

Passcode: 920306

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Photo credit: Ellen Miller, Journeyman Manual

Join us this Wednesday to "talk bees", plan the queen raising project timeline and view the premiere of a nuc installation video by Joe Dunsire.

CONTENTS:

THE HIVE MIND fellowship and discussion  – Gina Cuff

MANUALS UPDATED

WASBA RENEWAL notices

SAVE THE TREES!

SECURITY & PRIVACY

RESOURCES

2023 NUC SUPPLIER LIST

NUC PACKAGE INSTALLATION PROCEDURE

CLASSES

BEGINNER 7PM Monday July 10th

- prerequisite for Apprentice

    APPRENTICE 6:30PM Thursday April 13th

- prerequisite for Journeyman

JOURNEYMAN 6:30PM Monday Sept. 11th

CALENDAR

NEWSLETTERS

HIVESIDES

SPRING HIVE CARE

    DRY, FED, TREATED and DO NO HARM!

Non-invasive, minimal hive inspection

BEE TIPS & TRIVIA

QUEEN PROJECT - timeline at meeting

THE HIVE MIND started 6PM April 13th, meeting online on 2nd Thursdays!

A huge thank you to Gina Cuff who just finished teaching Beginner. Gina and her students had such a wonderful time that they have decided to start a group to share their beekeeping experiences, ask questions and stay in touch throughout the beekeeping season. Gina is scheduling “The Hive Mind” discussion group to meet on Zoom the second Thursday of each month from 6-7pm.

If interested in joining the group, contact Gina at ginacuff@gmail.com for the meeting link.

MANUALS UPDATED

New digital manuals are now available for all 3 levels. If you already took a class and have the old manual, let us know and we can send you the updated 2023 digital version, hot off the press!

SAVE THE TREES!

Manuals for classes are now available in 2 identical formats: a digital (.pdf) manual as email attachment  and a print version mailed via USPS.

However:

SnoKing has received requests for a “Save Trees!” option, allowing students to receive ONLY the digital version and to NOT receive the print manual.

Please select your option each time you register for a class:

A digital manual only in order to  “Save Trees!”

with updates emailed to you

or

Both a digital and a print manual

WASBA RENEWAL notices

Some of you may have received WASBA renewal notices, although your dues are already paid for 2023. If you received a certificate from WASBA since last October, your 2023 dues were gifted to you with the certificate. Your membership dues support them, although the only significant direct benefit to you is the excellent curriculum we purchase from them and teach for them.

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. 

SECURITY & PRIVACY

More than one WASBA member bee club has had their website hacked in the past year. For that reason, SnoKing wishes to reassure all of you that we share your personal information only as required to request your certificates with WASBA. This is also why you must exit our website to use paypal to pay for a class. If we don't have any financial information, we hope to escape the notice of hackers. We are also relying on our website provider's internal security.

CLASSES

LAST CALL! for APPRENTICE class starting 6:30PM Thursday April 13th for 7 consecutive Thursdays. It is timed to finish May 25th -- before school is out and we rush to get everything possible done during our all too brief summer weather.

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.

Prerequisites: 1 year beekeeping experience and completion of Beginner.

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.

Next BEGINNER BEEKEEPING CLASS starts 7PM Monday July 10. More info at www.snokingbka.org/beginnerapplication

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.

Next JOURNEYMAN class is starting September 11, 2023. 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. 

HIVESIDES

Next Hiveside is a nuc installation at a member's home this Saturday, April 22nd in Woodinville. Email or call eliochel@snokingbka.org, 206-859-7392, to find out if there is still room for more attendees.

The following Saturday April 29th, the Hiveside at Maltby 11AM to 1PM will cover lighting and keeping smokers lit and producing that cool, white smoke as needed. If the weather allows, we will open hives for inspection; if not we will discuss the challenges of spring management and hive accessories used. We can talk different types of hive setups and equipment, feeders, vertical and long hives, etc. An email to eliochel@snokingbka.org with number attending is a good idea, even last minute notice is okay. Wear your PPE if you have it; if not we have some spare bee jackets and veils. Even if the cold damp keeps these first hivesides short in length, they can still be long on information that can be shared.

Smoker illustration from "The Beekeeper's Handbook," Sammataro and Avitabile.

HiveSide Managers:

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

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

Email eliochel@snokingbka.org for exact address for each Hiveside, 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. At this time,

Maltby Hivesides are open in Saturdays 11 AM to 1 PM in April, unless at a member’s home (April 22nd).

Granite Falls Hivesides will open with 1st Sunday in May, May 7th, possibly with nuc installation at the apiary.

CALENDAR page shows classes online (Beginner, Apprentice, Journeyman) and - (Hivesides) already scheduled.

NEWSLETTERS on the SnoKing Home page  - has links to all past newsletters.

Resources – coming soon – Those helpful resources that are currently found on the “Files” section of our FB group page but will become more accessible at www.snokingbka.org .

WINTER TO SPRING CHANGEOVER

Whatever spring management techniques a beekeeper is using, the “Do No Harm” rule applies.  Right now, hives are in the winter bee to spring bee changeover. This means that the old winter bees that lived months longer than summer bees do are now dying. Further population loss or setback due to chilled brood or inadequate feed or forage at this critical time of spring changeover could reduce chances of hive survival. Rain dearth (inability to forage in inclement weather) and late season drops to freezing at nights also stress hives by threatening an expanding broodnest.

So, remember "KISS"  - Keep IT Simple in Spring!

All we have to do is keep our hives dry, fed, treated and “do no harm.”

FEED:

No matter how excellent the sources of pollen and some of nectar in Western WA at this time of year, remember that bees were not meant to fly in the rain. More than a few days of rain stresses a colony.

Also, individual bees are cold-blooded; only the colony as a whole is warm-blooded surviving winter temperatures by clustering. At 45F and below, honey bees chill to a stop. Even up to 57 degrees F, they cluster inside the hive or must stay in motion to survive outside. Here's the temperature chart from "The Beekeeper's Handbook," by Sammataro and Avitabile.

DRY OR LIQUID?

Is it warm enough to switch from dry to liquid feed in Western Washington? This spring is remaining colder than usual in many areas. Here’s one possible solution: let the bees decide. In the photo above/below, see how the bees have access on the inner cover to both solid and liquid. That's what I found worked last year. The bees decide which they want to use, depending each day on average ambient temperature The bees can get through the inner cover hole to the granulated sugar and to the syrup jars. Outer cover to one side and insulation go right back on top of this feed setup. I don't use in-frame feeders for fear of chilling brood each time I have to get into hives to refill or change out feeder for a clean feeder, but in-frame feed should stay warmer inside the hive and that would also help the bees take syrup.

Photo below of Maltby Hiveside bees enjoying feed "a la carte" -- they prefer dry granulated sugar on colder days and 1:1 syrup on warmer days. Pollen sub patty is not visible under the inner cover but crumbs are showing up on the slideout board, so the bees are also eating that, a la carte!

     Keep pollen sub patty on top of brood frames if you can place it there without chilling brood. If ambient temp is still too low to enter hives, place it just under inner cover not blocking the ventilation hole in the cover.

HOW DEEP CAN WE INSPECT THE HIVE?

Every beekeeper has to decide how invasive a hive inspection the weather will allow. Pictured are some hive checklists/logs listing hive inspection steps in the order that we usually take them. We stop when we feel that the stress will be too much for our colonies. First, we judge the weather. Then we check ground in front, the sticky board and whether the traffic at the entrance fits the weather conditions. Next, we raise the outer cover to check condensation and feed, then the sound, smell & temperaments of the hive. If it’s windy and damp, we may be curious but have seen all we really needed to see. We can let the bees “bee” until the weather improves.

Cleansing flights and pollen foraging are fun to watch but a nectar flow sufficient to support the growing spring population is still months away, so keep checking those stores. Heft, weigh, peek at the frame tops in the topmost box but . . .

A inspection on a 50 degree F high one day may be tempting, but freezing nights before and after stress the hive. Bees need to be able to reform the cluster around the queen to keep her about 68-70 F, and now most -- if not all! -- colonies are already raising brood and must keep those young bees at 92-94 F. Be sure your bees can regroup and rewarm the brood you are chilling with an inspection.

YELLOW JACKET TRAPS

Protection from robbing by overwintering, mated yellow jacket queens coming out of dormancy will be critical this spring. A warm, sunny extended Fall such as we just had is predicted to result in more queens overwintering than usual. We can hope that the below freezing temps last winter will keep their numbers down, but Facebook groups are already reporting sightings. Those queens are proving that they can fly at 10 degrees F lower than our sweet bees. Time to get those traps baited and out!

ROBBING SCREENS

Also, some of our hives need protection from each other! Time to get robbing screens on! Stronger hives “wake up” and become active earlier than weaker “sleepy” hives. Despite availability of pollen at this time of year, there is no significant nectar flow, so as the foragers start to fly, they perceive dearth. Dearth leads to robbing and bees are efficiency experts, not moralists. Robbing is more efficient than desperate searches for enough nectar to feed a growing population.

QUEEN PROJECT - delayed

The queen rearing project is waiting on unreliable Western Washington weather. At this point, we will present the timeline as best we can at the 3rd Wednesday April 19th meeting. It is easiest to raise healthy, robust queens during a major nectar flow, so we may wait for the main flow in June. 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.

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

BEE TIPS & TRIVIA is up and running again after a pause.

The bee jokes of 2022 are still there but 2023 is all about interesting bee facts, some outright weird!

     If you select the category “Jokes” on the blog page, you can still chuckle your way to relaxation with the 2022 entries.

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

Thank you for reading this newsletter. We hope to talk bees with you at:

SnoKing Beekeepers April 19, 2023 meeting

Time: Apr 19, 2023 06:30 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89512833215?pwd=RHE2UUxoSTV3Um90cjVJeTFxS2QyQT09

Meeting ID: 895 1283 3215

Passcode: 920306

One tap mobile

+12532158782,,89512833215#,,,,*920306# US (Tacoma)

+12532050468,,89512833215#,,,,*920306# US

Dial by your location

+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)

+1 253 205 0468 US

HERE'S HOPING FOR WARMER WEATHER!