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PLEASE NOTE: Due to Easter in April, and Mother’s Day in May, we have changed the dates for our meetings:
Our April meeting date has moved to the THIRD Sunday of the month, now APRIL 19th.
Noon - Beginning Beekeepers Class, Installation of Packages and Feeding your Bees.
1:00 - Business meeting / Announcements / July Event Signups
1:30 - Presentation: Splitting a Colony
Our May meeting date has moved to the FIRST Sunday of the month, now May 3.
What: Science Day:
When: Saturday, March 14 from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM.
Where: Vern Burton Community Center in Port Angeles
Once again, the Feiro Marine Life Center will be hosting their annual Celebration of Science & Technology Day and have invited us to participate. This is our first public event of the year where we highlight local beekeeping (which is actually applied biology) and answer general questions. If you might be interested in helping out, we will appreciate it. At any rate, stop by and say hi. This year, the event will be held inside which will be much better than standing out on the pier.
Our March meeting date will meet on the second Sunday of the month, March 8 at the Port Angeles Library in the Carver Room:
Noon - Beginning Beekeepers Series continues with "Preparing for Your Bees & Honey Bee Biology"
1:00 - Business meeting / Announcements / July Event Signups
1:30 - Presentation: Prepping for splits, short refresher on colony reproduction and spring swarm behavior.
Mark Urnes will be presenting his annual Introduction to Beekeeping presentation, this weekend :
Saturday, February 29 from 9-12 at Sunny Farms (in the Plant Building).
If you are starting out, or know someone who is, Mark provides a great overview of the basics in order to get things off to good start. Usually a popular event, the seating is limited, so plan on arriving a little early. Also, Gee confirmed that they will be selling 3 lb. packages again this year but didn't know the cost yet.
Author: Gilles Fert
Publisher: Deep Snow Press, Ithaca NY, 2020
“Raise your own superior queens and you will never have to buy bees again! I was told this is the best queen-rearing book in the world, so I spent two years preparing the English edition, and it turned out awesome. I was able to triple the size of my apiaries in one season by following Fert’s invaluable guidance.” - Dr. Leo Sharashkin, Editor.
Detailed, easy to understand practical advice. Simple techniques clearly explained and illustrated. Multiple methods to choose from, whether you raise one queen or a thousand. Successful breeding, mating, and introduction. Multiply your honeybee colonies and overwinter them successfully in any climate. Make bee packages, and produce royal jelly.
Over 150 full-color photos, drawings, and diagrams. Internationally renowned author with over 30 years experience. Your beekeeping will never be the same after reading this book.
To avoid a conflict with Mothers’ Day, the meeting in May will be held on the FIRST Sunday of the month - May 3rd.
Later this summer, apiarist Dave Noble will returning to provide a full one day Saturday beekeeping workshop for us. In the morning classroom session, Dave will continue where he left off last year with a discussion of fall season beekeeping management tasks. Dave has also developed a very popular “Queen Finding” class he teaches at his local apiary. For our group, the afternoon Queen Finding session will accommodate up to 30 students who will work in pairs to practice skills, techniques, and protocols needed to become fast and efficient at finding the queen.
Costs for the field day event are included with your 2020 membership in good standing. Dave will be donating 15 queens, our beekeepers will provide the bees. Fifteen participants who volunteer to provide queenless nucs, will go home after the class with new queenright colonies. Dave’s queens will be arriving about 3 weeks prior to the event in mid-July, so if you want to participate by providing bees, you will have to plan ahead. You will provide a queenless nuc (either from a mid-summer split, or a colony you want to re-queen). If it’s been awhile, or you’ve never done a split before, we will have a refresher class at our April meeting.
Dave needs to limit the afternoon class size to 30, so if you want to attend, (or provide bees), we will have more details and sign-ups available at the MARCH meeting on March 8.
Many have already paid their 2020 dues (thank you), but if you haven’t this is another reminder. New annual memberships and renewals are $15 for individuals and $25 for a household of two or more.
A reminder that hives are required to be registered with the Washington State Dept of Agriculture to benefit from our new state provided beekeeper liability protection (useful if you have homeowners’ insurance).
2020 Apiary Registration Form: https://cms.agr.wa.gov/WSDAKentico/Documents/Forms/6116-Beekeeper-BrokerRegistration.pdf
Ordering Bees:
If you need bees and haven’t ordered them yet, you will need to get this done very soon !! There are a few listings below:
http://wildernessbees.com/prices/ < These bees are produced locally.
http://www.tarboovalleywoodenware.com/home.html
https://snohobeeco.com/collections/bees
https://woodsbeeco.com/2020-nucs/
Mann Lake has bees for delivery as well: https://www.mannlakeltd.com/shop-all-categories/hive-components/bees
I have no idea if Mike Radford (Northwest Bee Supply) is providing bees again. He hasn’t said, and I haven't checked …
Since the second Sunday in April is Easter, we are moving the meeting date to the third Sunday of the month on APRIL 19th.
Presentation: Swarm management and splits.
Beginning beekeeping classes resume March 8, beginning at 12:00 noon, with a business meeting at 1:00.
Great articles include:
Honey is Sunlight
Honey Bees Up Close
Asian Giant Hornet Confirmed
Bee Science Stuff
Tips Tricks & Tools
Essential Oils
NOPBA Welcomes Sue Cobey
Thanks to Greg Butler for another fun and informative newsletter!
WHAT: Saturday morning coffee, discuss bees, beekeeping activities & projects
WHERE: Common Grounds Cafe, 525 E. 8th St., PA
WHEN: Saturday mornings, 8:30 am
WHO: Everyone
Please join us every Saturday (until further notice), for informal discussions of bee related interest.
We need a new club logo. Be thinking about what you might like to see and create it yourself. Contest details will be discussed at an upcoming meeting.
For the time being, since the newsletter has now switched to a quarterly format, bulletins of immediate importance and more timely special interest club announcements will be emailed to members on a case by case basis as needed. For everyone to stay up to date, announcements are also posted on our webpage for review and re-review at anytime.
Over the past few years, the regular meeting sign-in sheet has proven to lack any useful information and is being eliminated.
Special events, swarm list sign-ups, apiary visits, mentor/mentee sign-ups, etc. will be handled in the customary way with dedicated sign-ups at meetings and/or email as appropriate.
The annual single membership rate of $15.00 has been implemented to help pay for upcoming planned events, more guest speakers, and upgrades to our public exhibits. As it was considered disadvantageous for families having to pay this amount for each member, a new FAMILY membership is being implemented of $25.00. So if you are a couple, or an entire family, your membership dues will be $25.00.
• Per our by-laws, the annual dues are payable at or before the first meeting of the year. After July 1 of any current year, a new member’s dues will be prorated at 50% of the regular annual dues for the remainder of that year.
• The board is cognizant that a few members have already paid for 2020 when the old rate was in effect. Under this circumstance, i.e., if you have already joined or paid for the 2020 calendar year, your dues will not be payable until January 2021. In accordance with our by-laws, and to greatly simplify our book-keeping going forward, we are reminded that membership dues are payable at the beginning of the year and run from January to January rather than random dates scattered across the calendar.
Treasurer Mark Urnes kindly requests that all dues being paid (new and renewal) be accompanied by the NOPBA Membership & Renewal form found here or on page 26 of the newsletter. Everyone’s help with this will be greatly appreciated. Forms will available at the meetings as well. Thanks in advance.
By-Laws: The NOPBA Board met on January 4 and reviewed several items relating to our current by- laws. Items being considered include establishment of a budget for upcoming guest speakers, maintaining a reserve for unanticipated expenses, and having the treasurer report budget items with the monthly report to membership.
• An additional item is proposed to be added to the by-laws that will help remedy the condition that arises when a board member becomes unable to fulfill their duties. In this case the board will take action to fill the vacancy which would subsequently be voted upon by a majority of the membership.
• The proposed amendments are finalized and available here for review. After discussion, it is anticipated that a vote of the general membership to incorporate the proposed amendments will occur at the MARCH 2020 regular meeting.
When NOPBA members Rob and Annaka Freeman began coordinating a rescue for a fully developed colony hanging out on a tree branch high up in a fir tree - little did they know their efforts would reach thousands of readers all over the world. As an experienced beekeeper and very accomplished writer, Annaka documented the rescue in her personal blog. Following the suggestion of Judy Harvey, she submitted her story to the American Bee Journal. Low and behold, her article has been published in the January 2020 issue!
This was far beyond an errant swarm recovery. We’re told that sometimes when a swarm can’t find a new home, or is unable to reach a consensus for their new location, they will simply begin building comb right where they are. This is evidently what may have happened because by the time Annaka found them, the colony had built 8 or 9 very large well developed combs high up, out in the open, up on the tree branch. This was a family of “survivor” bees whose mother was a local Dan Harvey queen that had evidently decided to just camp out where they were. With winter on the way, their nest location clearly made a compelling case for a rescue which Annaka has now shared with the world.
The story of the American Bee Journal, its origin, and Samuel Wagner, the first editor, is closely associated with the Rev. L.L. Langstroth. Wagner established the American Bee Journal and its first issue appeared in January 1861. And 160 years later, with her exciting account of a bee rescue operation, Annaka deservedly joins a very prestigious cadre of contributors. Congratulations, Annaka !