Last NOBPA meeting of 2022 - Nov. 13

We will hold our final meeting of 2022 in the Carver room at the Port Angeles Main Library next Sunday, November 13 at noon. Highlights include our annual election of officers, open question period and a presentation by Mark Urnes on the good and the bad of wax rendering and candle making.

Big predator's new moniker: Northern Giant Hornet

OLYMPIA – The Entomological Society of America (ESA) has adopted “northern giant hornet” for the species Vespa mandarinia in its Common Names of Insects and Related Organisms List. While there was no official ESA common name until now, the hornet has been most often referred to as “Asian giant hornet” or “murder hornet” since its introduction in North America became widely known in 2020.


The Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) is following ESA’s recommendation and will begin referring to V. mandarinia as “northern giant hornet” and will also update its website and printed materials to reflect the newly established ESA common name in the coming weeks.

Read more

Presentation: Managing Hive Insulation and Ventilation

Greetings NOPBA Members and Guests

In August of 2021, we hosted a presentation by Bill Hesbach where he discussed topics related to hive insulation. Bill's talk included honey bee thermoregulation and how the cluster reacts to winter temperatures. We heard how hive insulation dictates critical characteristics of internal hive atmospheres and Bill compared the condensing colony concept versus that of ventilated colonies.

The meeting was recorded on Zoom and is available to watch <HERE>

Bill Hesbach is an Eastern Apiculture Society Certified Master Beekeeper and a graduate of the University of Montana's master beekeeping program. He is active in local bee communities and contributes to Bee Culture and American Bee Journal.

ZOOM presentation: An Alternative Varroa Management Strategy

Greetings NOPBA Beekeepers -

Coming up this Wednesday evening, June 23, at 6:30pm, please join us for Rex Roberton (Vice President, NOPBA) presenting the successful results of his work involving an alternative Varroa management strategy. His presentation will be presented on ZOOM, and will be recorded.

Rex has been studying and experimenting with the summer brood break and trapping comb methods that have been used in Europe for many years to control varroa mites and has closely followed the research of Dr. Ralph Büchler at the Bee Institute in Kirchhain, Germany.

In April 2020, Rex was granted an Experimental Use Permit from the Washington State Department of Agriculture, Pesticide Management Division, and did several research projects on the use of oxalic acid extended-release based on the research that Randy Oliver has been doing for the last five years.

In this presentation, Rex will speak about one of the research projects he did with the Experimental Use Permit which combined extended-release oxalic acid with a Varroa trapping comb brood break.

Topic: Extended Release Oxalic Acid Combined with an Induced Brood Break

Time: Wednesday Evening, June 23, 2021 06:30 PM

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89711921845?pwd=RXg2dGxjbHhwWU9TVUxUdVowTXZYUT09

Meeting ID: 897 1192 1845

Passcode: 154262

Reference Material:

A. Uzunov, R. Büchler (2020): Handbook, Alternative Methods for Varroa Control in Honey Bee Colonies, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation

R. Büchler, A. Uzunov, et.al (2020): Summer brood interruption as integrated management strategy for effective Varroa control in Europe, Journal of Apicultural Research, DOI: 10.1080/00218839.2020.1793278

Sustainable Varroa Management, Part 3 of 4, National Honey Show video, R. Büchler

Rex Roberton is a member of the North Olympic Peninsula Beekeepers Association where he has been an officer for the last three years. He is currently participating in the Journeyman Program with the Washington State Beekeepers Association. Rex kept bees back in the 1970s when he was farming and ranching with his father in Northeastern Montana and has recently returned to beekeeping and manages an apiary which currently has 14 colonies. Rex has been practicing organic gardening for over 45 years and presently has a one-acre homestead in the foothills above Port Angeles, Washington, where he has a vegetable garden, apple trees, various berries, and 70 blueberry plants consisting of 25 different cultivars. He also uses organic and bio-technical methods in managing his apiary.

Thanks Everyone,

Greg

Time Sensitive: Asian Giant Hornets

Asian Giant Hornet Monitoring/Trapping -2021

This is our chance to make a difference:  

Background:  This year, Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) will once again be providing materials for cooperating Beekeeping Associations to assist with their regional AGH Trapping Program to run from July to November, which is aimed at detecting and capturing foraging AGH workers from established colonies.  For the NOPBA to qualify as a cooperating association to receive the state sponsored trapping materials, we need a minimum of five volunteers willing to make the commitment to hang and monitor even one or two traps for the duration of the summer. 

 What the WSDA is doing:    As with other hornets and wasps, any AGH queens that may have overwintered will be emerging soon to seek out and locate a carbohydrate source as her first step in establishing a nest later in the year.  Because of this, WSDA will also be conducting a preemptive “AGH Emerging Queen Trapping Program” in Whatcom County.  Because of their limited funding, it makes sense that they must concentrate their resources to the area where they have been previously found, but  they do not have the resources to extend that program into other areas.

 How local beekeepers can help NOW

While we do not know if the AGH is here on the Peninsula yet, we do know we offer a favorable habitat, and that we are within their migratory flight range. Even though the probability of finding AGH may be quite low…

We believe we have a very unique and time sensitive opportunity to potentially make a huge difference.  The Pacific Northwest is the gateway to preventing this Apex predator from establishing a permanent presence in North America.

 As discussed at our meeting, Dan and Judy Harvey ofOlympic Wilderness Apiary  are spearheading an early jump on the WSDA program by making preparations for a trap line from the Elwha  River, to Neah Bay along  HWY. 112, which will cover the west end of the peninsula.   Dan and Judy have targeted April 1 as the date to have their own early queen traps in service. That leaves the east end of the peninsula still vulnerable.This is where we need your help.  We are looking for additional early coverage in the Sequim and Port Angeles areas.

Please consider participating in this valuable effort…even setting up and monitoring just one or two traps will make a huge difference down the road.

 Traps are very simple:   The Olympic Wilderness Apiary is donating 5 gallons of rice wine for our beekeepers to begin immediately trapping now (April ) until the WSDA program begins in July.  Anyone willing to begin participating with the early season trapping efforts will receive enough rice wine to last until July.  1/2 cup of the rice wine mixed with 1/2 cup of orange juice has been proven to be an effective lure for the hornets.  The mixture is simply exchanged weekly.  Revised instructions to make an AGH trap with the new and simplified “star" shaped entrance are here: TO MAKE A TRAP

 This is really our chance to make a difference:  Even though the probability of finding AGH may be quite low at this point, our region is after all very much the front line for an entire continent.  We do not want to accept the fate being suffered in large regions of Europe.  This is clearly another mistakenly introduced invasive species and this may be our only opportunity to hold the line here.  Last year, the first AGH in North America captured in a citizen’s bottle trap was a virgin queen, so it seems reasonable to assume that a mated queen would also be attracted to this bait.  We also know that yellow jackets were very attracted to the bait.

 We will distribute the rice wine at the Port Angeles Library parking lot this Sunday, March 21 from 1:00 until 2:00 pm. After this date, special arrangements will need to be made.  Individuals will need to bring one  liquid-tight    ½ gallon storage container for each trap you intend to set up. (each trap will use 48 oz.  of rice wine over the 12 week time frame)  

 Thanks everyone,

Greg Butler

Secretary, NOPBA

bcc: General Membership and Announcement Requests

Please RSVP by simply emailing info@nopba.org to reserve your half-gallon of rice wine.

WSDA AGH March 17 Media News Conference in real time …

https://www.tvw.org/watch/?eventID=2021031218

Direct Link: https://www.tvw.org/watch/?clientID=9375922947&eventID=2021031218&autoStartStream=true

(Other Video references)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPdeqwKbTCI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7j1VeCruohQ&t=821s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_8B4bcrSs8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=022Y0MZTIj4

Other Items of Interest

Beekeeping in a Nutshell

Randy Oliver has recently updated his short set of instructions for beginning with bees.  Even though the information is written for his location in the the Sierra Foothills of California, a vast majority of the basics are still applicable for our local beekeepers on the Peninsula.  Randy distills about 50 years of beekeeping experience into this writeup.  He provides an overall step-by-step with notes written specifically for those starting with a nucleus hive or package bees.  

*********************

Free Issue of the ABJ

Get it here. The staff at the American Bee Journal has made the December 2020 issue available as a free download.

*********************

Asian Giant Hornet Updates

Evidently, a Discovery Channel Documentary on the AGH is scheduled to be televised on February 20th. Attack of the Murder Hornets sounds like a horror movie from the 60’s. Perhaps the title may engage more non-beekeepers to watch it and to report any siting’s in 2021 kind of like the New York Times article did last year.

WSDA is continuing to formalize the plans for the 2021 AGH trapping efforts. This is what we know so far….

  1.  Even though the focus area for the WSDA 2021 trapping program are apiaries in Whatcom, Skagit, Island and San Juan counties, general trapping is still most needed in Clallam and Jefferson Counties due to our close proximity to Vancouver Island within the flight range of these hornets. Dan & Judy are monitoring a trapline along the north coast, but we need additional traps all throughout our areas.

  2. WSDA is continuing the operational planning meetings this week for the 2021 AGH program.

  3. The scientists have not finalized the trap design yet, or the bait medium, but they are close to making the final decision.

  4. The bulk of the trapping program will start July 1.

  5. No decision has been made yet on the queen trapping program which beekeepers in Whatcom County did last year starting in April.

  6. They have indicated they may again ask beekeepers to support some experimentation, similar to what Whatcom beekeepers did last year.

  7. In 2021 there will be no need to send in our trap contents of other insects.

    Last year’s trapping programs shown as yellow squares with very sparse coverage for our area:

Screen Shot 2021-01-14 at 11.34.39 AM.png

Resource Checks

On a few of the warmer sunny days recently, we are seeing our bees quite eager to get the season rolling. We’re entering a critical time of year now for hive resources. It’s still too early for frame inspections, but it’s fine to take a quick peek for a few minutes as long as it remains warm enough for them to re-cluster. Generally, if they are out flying, that’s our clue. One indicator of a potential food shortage is seeing a majority of the bees high up on the tops of the frames right below the lid. If you see this, consider it an emergency and give them a some dry table sugar right away. These bigger colonies can run out of resources very quickly this time of year.

IMG_2819+2.jpg
IMG_2820 3.jpeg

*********************
Norm Hieger shares a fantastic photo from his yard in late January (hazelnut):

NormsHazelnut.jpeg

Field Event Follow Up

Thanks to everyone who made it to our varroa management field event today!  The weather could have been a lot better, but things turned out pretty well regardless.  There were a few unable to attend due to Father’s Day.  If you had to miss the event today, we’ll have another opportunity later in the year.

As promised, more information for the queen sequestration cage that was demonstrated today is available here:
Varroa Control Cage Instructions

The cages are available to purchase from a Seattle supplier:  queen-sequestration-cage

Finally, a writeup by Dr Hopkins of WSU provides another overview of their use: 
Put Your Queens in “Time Out”

New Book: Russian Honey Bees

Providing some information on a new book that has been recently published called Russian Honey Bees by by Thomas Rinderer and Steven Coy:

Russian honey bees were bred to be resistant to Varroa mites and good honey production and pollination. This book describes the project conducted over 20 years of work by the combined efforts of scientists and beekeepers. Practical information on the management of Russian honey bees is combined with understandable summaries of the scientific literature on Russian honey bees from a variety of scientific journals. Chapter headings include: Basic Varroa Biology, Early History of the Russian Honey Bee Stock, Stock Formation, Resistance to Varroa, Stock Certification, Management of Russian Honey Bees, The Russian Honey Bee Breeders Association and A Beekeeper’s Perspective.

If you are looking for a thorough overview of scientific aspects of Russian honey bees or guidelines for the practical management of Russian honey bees, you will find it in this great new book.

Beginning Beekeeping Webinar for May 3rd has been cancelled

Greetings NOPBA Members and Guests -

We are disappointed to announce that the on-line beginning beekeeping webinar that was scheduled for Sunday May 3rd had to be cancelled.  Sorry for this inconvenience.

Thanks to Kristine Roberton, we do have two video recordings available on our website for paid members (please contact info@nopba.org for the password).  The recordings were for beginning beekeepers covering the topics of Welcoming Your Bees (Installation of Packages and Nucs), and another on Feeding and Nutrition. The videos were recorded from our Zoom class on April 19th.  We are still hoping to be able to continue the beginning classes on line, but for now everything is on hold.  We will do our best to keep everyone updated.

With swarm season upon us, and as a reminder, your paid membership also entitles you to be on our swarm callout list.  In the interest of fairness, names are being rotated weekly to be at the top of list.  Again, please contact us if you are interested in being on the list.

If you need any assistance getting your bees established, or have questions about on-going inspections, please don’t hesitate to contact us.  We will make every effort to see you have the help you want or need.

Thanks everyone,

Greg

Some Orders Cancelled for Nucs & Packages

It has been reported that some orders for honeybee packages and nucs have been cancelled by the suppliers and/or by the person ordering.  Please check with your supplier if you are expecting delivery this spring.  It may still be possible to order packages from other sources if yours have been cancelled.  If you have packages that are confirmed and you need some assistance installing your bees or performing first inspections please contact info@nopba.org as soon as possible.  We need to know who, where, and when. 

On-line Beginning Beekeeper class, April 19th

Beginning beekeeper classes will continue online via Zoom Meetings at noon on the original General Meeting dates to allow new students and any members to participate without interruption.  

The on-line beginning beekeeper class for April 19th will begin at noon.  Topics will include:

1. Installation of Bees (30 minutes, targeting first time beekeepers)

2. Feeding & Nutrition (15-20 minutes).

Login to https://zoom.us/signin and look near the top of the page for “Join A Meeting”.  You will not need to register an account to participate.

When prompted use Meeting ID:  447-370-561 with Password 043348

Stay at Home Beekeeping Series! April 30th & May 15th

NOPBA Members:

These seminars might be interesting.

Stay at Home Beekeeping Series! A FREE online alternative to club meeting. 

Experts will present on timely topics & presentations will be followed by Q&A.

This series was created by the apiculture research/extension programs at various SEC Universities including Alabama Extension, Auburn University, University of Florida, University of Georgia, The University of Tennessee Knoxville, and Texas A&M University.

Link for Registration: https://auburn.zoom.us/meeting/register/vJ0lcu6prjkt_Px1BsAR8Gf-2dY_FolvJQ?timezone_id=America%2FNew_York

Bee Safe,

Greg

USDA Guidelines for Asian Giant Hornet

On December 8, 2019, a Blaine, Washington resident reported finding a large, dead hornet on his property. The Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) identified this specimen as Vespa mandarinia, the Asian giant hornet, and the National Identification Services (NIS) confirmed the identification. The Washington detection followed the eradication of a V. mandarinia nest in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada on September 18, 2019. These were the first detections of the Asian giant hornet in North America. Beekeepers have reported other observations dating back to October through public outreach campaigns by Washington State and British Columbia. 

Vespa mandarinia Smith (Hymenoptera: Vespidae), the Asian giant hornet, is the world’s largest hornet and is a social insect native to Asia. The hornet is a pest of Apis mellifera L., the European honey bee, and causes losses to beekeepers in its native range. Vespa mandarinia is a social insect, with a large colony containing one queen and many workers. 

  • Vespa mandarinia is a large hornet that is primarily a pest of honey bees. 

  • Population dispersal is restricted to the spread of queens. 

  • Eradication of this species focuses on eliminating queens. Strategies to achieve this vary depending on the time of season. Queens can be directly trapped and killed in the early spring and late fall. During the summer, nests can be located and destroyed. 

  • Nests are formed in the ground and are challenging to locate. Methods for locating nests involve labor intensive strategies. 

  • Some traps and baits for surveying V. mandarinia already exist. Other traps and baits have been used for closely related species. We recommend using traps and baits that have been previously successful for trapping V. mandarinia. However, we anticipate that resource constraints might dictate the best trap and bait combination. 

  • Typical protective clothing worn by beekeepers will not prevent V. mandarinia sting injuries. The material must be much thicker to protect the wearer from V. mandarinia stings. 

Beekeepers in the Bellingham area (Whatcom County - ground zero) have begun coordinating with WSDA to distribute traps in a grid pattern they are developing. 

For those of you who want to put out traps (which may also work well for our native yellowjackets) the publication "USDA Pest Response Guidelines for Vespa mandarinia” has some diagrams of home-made traps that have been used successfully in Japan to help control the pest. The link to this document is shown below:

https://cms.agr.wa.gov/WSDAKentico/Documents/PP/PestProgram/Vespa_mandarinia_NPRG_10Feb2020-(002).pdf

Want Ads

Send in your bee / beekeeping related want ads for the Spring Newsletter coming out in April.  This can include anything related to beekeeping... queens, nucs, hives, equipment, services, etc. 

Simply, email your items with name, contact method, price and description to greg.butler@icloud.com.