Eastern Missouri Beekeepers Association

Transcription

1 March, 2009 Volume 1, Issue 4 Eastern Missouri Beekeepers Association The Waggle February Workshop A Great Success Inside this issue: EMBA Queens & Packages Programs March Meeting Agenda 3 EMBA Spring Calendar 4 Beekeeping Workshop Pictures Marketplace 5 Next meeting April 8th 6 Treasurer s Report Despite the early morning snow and bitter temperatures, nearly 300 people came to the EMBA beekeeping workshop at Maritz on Saturday, February 21st. The excellent presentations by Dr. Dewey Caron and Phil Craft, the informative panel discussions, the demonstrations, and President s Message I am looking forward to this spring more than any I can remember. I plan to build and use nucs for summer requeening, and see if I can get on the path to rearing my own hygienic queens. I am still in the glow of last week s workshop at Maritz. I cannot say enough about the incredible performance of our volunteer faculty and Board members who spent so many hours preparing so well for this successful event. Our special thanks go to Tim Hyde and the outstanding work of everyone who helped us at Maritz, and to Kelley and Dadant. Most of all, I am excited about helping our new members. As someone said at the workshop, what is most significant and impressive about the beginners is the on-site presence of hive equipment and all things bees from Dadant and Kelley made the day more than worthwhile. The added plus of being around people with a common interest and passion was icing on the cake. To see the day in pictures, go to page 5. how they seemed so much more interested and focused on honey bees and nature than in themselves. This selfless focus on the bees and nature is the common thread that makes us such a committed and cooperative group. It is the source of the good nature and fun we have as a Club. The spring will be busy! Thankfully, much of the planning and logistics are in place, based on last year s work. Our leadership circle is expanding rapidly as more people offer to help. We have programs that support the beginners and the intermediates and advanced alike. Every season brings surprises; they add to the joy of beekeeping. Are you ready for spring? Its here! Bob Sears

2 Page 2 The Waggle Volume 1, Issue 4 EMBA Queens and Packages Program Packages arrive in screened boxes, containing 3 lbs of bees. The Club has made arrangements for EMBA members to purchase packages and queens, and to learn how to install and feed them. Each package will contain about 3 lbs. of bees and a young, laying queen. Our supplier plans to remove the bees from the hives, and package them for shipping on Thursday, April 18 th. The Club will transport the packages to St. Louis the next day for delivery to members at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center on Saturday, April 18 th. Each package is $80. There is a limit of 2 packages per order placed between March 1 st and March 16th. If there are packages remaining from the Club s allotment after March 16 th, or if the Club is able to procure more, then members will be notified and ordering will reopen. Queens will be handled in the same fashion. The price of a queen is $20. There is a limit of 4 queens per order until March 16 th. If there are queens remaining from our allotment of 125, or if more are available, members will be notified and ordering will reopen. Queens not purchased by April 18 th will be sold on the open market. The colonies that are started from packages should be fed when they are installed, and continuously throughout the spring. Feeding requires a special syrup feeder for each hive. There are no feeders in the St. Louis Beginners Kits. Accordingly, the Club has obtained, and will furnish to members who order on the website, two items for feeding: i) a division board feeder by Mother Lode, and ii) a 2-gallon bucket of sugar syrup. The bucket can be converted to a gravity feeder. The division board feeder has a special cap and ladder system that minimizes bee losses. The feeders and buckets cost $5 each. There is a limit of two division board feeders per order, and one syrup bucket per order. The feeders may be picked up with the kits at the hive assembly workshop on March 28 th. The syrup will be available on April 18 th. ATTENTION Newsletter-by-Mail Recipients HEADS UP! If you have been receiving this Club newsletter in the mail because you do not have an address and have not yet paid your annual dues, this is the last newsletter you will receive. It costs the Club about $50 per month for coping and mailing the newsletter, which your dues help to offset. If you have not paid your dues by March 30, your name will be removed from the mailing list. DON T LET THAT HAPPEN! Send your $10 EMBA dues to Jane Sueme, 4931 Gemme Lane, St. Louis, MO Thank you.

3 The Waggle Volume 1, Issue 4 Page 3 EMBA March 11th Meeting Agenda This month s meeting will be held in two sections, one for beginners, and another for intermediate and advanced beekeepers. Bring your workshop materials! The beginners' will be in the auditorium. Members with overwintered colonies will be in the classroom. The groups will combine in the classroom to close the meeting over refreshments. The beginners section will feature demonstrations and discussions of fundamentals that were introduced at the short course, and discussed in the first four chapters of First Lessons in Beekeeping, the book included with the course materials. We will also review in detail the spring beginners' program and calendar, including how and when to select and set up a site, order and assemble hives, and get started with bees. Members with overwintered colonies will cover spring management topics. We will demonstrate and discuss the pros and cons of a range of approaches to spring feeding, reversing, equalizing, requeening, making divides, and swarm prevention. These topics are covered in detail in pp of Caron's Beekeeping Basics, Chapter 9 of Delaplane's Honey Bees and Beekeeping: A Year in the Life of an Apiary, and Chapter 16 of Caron's Honey Bee Biology and Beekeeping. Bring your workshop materials! The beginners will be in the auditorium. Members with overwintered colonies will be in the classroom. Winter Still Alive and Well So, you thought spring was really here? Maybe, maybe not. State College, Pa February According to Accu- Weather.com Chief Long-Range Forecaster and Expert Senior Meteorologist Joe Bastardi, it will be a "reluctant spring in areas that have had the hardest winter." More winter weather is on the way for the Northeast, as a negative North Atlantic Oscillation Pattern (NOA) is "notorious this time of year." A negative NAO leads to storminess along the Eastern Seaboard. March and April are predicted to be colder-than-normal months, but by May, the weather will warm above normal across much of the country as true spring finally starts. He added that several temporary warm-ups will happen for the East Coast in the next few weeks. "Each warm surge that we see in the next couple of weeks won't be the true end of winter," he said. It will be an early spring for western Texas into Arizona and the southern Rockies. As for the mid-atlantic, the region does not average much snow, and Washington, D.C., has had a relatively snowless winter. Kim Flottum, Catch the Buzz

4 Page 4 The Waggle Volume 1, Issue 4 EMBA SPRING CALENDAR March 3 Ordering opens online for packages, queens, and accessories. ( March 11, 6: 30 p.m. - members meeting at Powder Valley Nature Center (See meetings at for directions.) March 16 Last day for ordering: 1) EMBA hive kits by phone from Dadant and Kelley, and 2) packages, queens, and feeding accessories from EMBA, online. (See com/order.) March 28 Hive delivery and assembly workshop, Maritz, 10a.m. April 4, 10:30 a.m. Field Workshop at Club Apiary: Spring Management of Overwintered Colonies. Donald Danforth Plant Science Center. Attendance limited to beekeepers with overwintered colonies. April 8, 6:45 p.m. members meeting at Powder Valley. April 18 package and queen delivery and installation workshop, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, time to be announced. Don t Forget the State Meeting March 6-7! It s not too late to join us on Friday and Saturday, March 6-7, 2009, as a variety of entomologists, research scientists and other experts lecture on honeybee biology, disease prevention and beekeeping methods. The meeting location is: Overland Park Marriott Metcalf (I-435 & Exit 169) or For more information call Joli Winer at (913) or visit Missouri State Beekeepers website Programs and registration forms are found on the Northeast Kansas Beekeepers website,

5 The Waggle Volume 1, Issue 4 Page 5 Scenes from the Beekeeping Workshop Marketplace FOR SALE: Locally raised, productive, gentle queens, available around May l5 to 30, 2009 weather permitting. A 10% deposit required on all Queen orders. 1-3 $l $l $12.00 Contact: Bob Graham 9727 Morse Mill Rd. Dittmer, Mo Phone HELP WANTED Are you web savvy? Do you know how to maintain and manage content on a web site? EMBA needs you! We are seeking a webmaster for the EMBA site. This is a volunteer and Board of Directors position. Contact John Timmonsinfo@easternmobeekeepers.com, if you are interested.

6 Eastern Missouri Beekeepers Association President: Bob Sears Vice President/Treasurer: Jane Sueme Secretary: John Pashia Editor: Anna Roach Webmaster: John Timmons Mission Statement "To promote beekeeping generally; to broaden the knowledge of beekeeping among its members; and to foster the best practices and techniques in apiary management." TREASURER S REPORT As of March 1, 2009 Checking Account Balance: $3, Certificate of Deposit: $1, The Eastern Missouri Beekeepers Association meets on the Second Wednesday of each 6:30pm in the Powder Valley Conservation Nature Center (11715 Cragwold ) Enter from side doors to the left. This month s meeting is March 11th Next month s meeting is April 8th Founded in