BEELINES. September NORTHWEST DISTRICT BEEKEEPERS ASSOCIATION

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1 NORTHWEST DISTRICT BEEKEEPERS ASSOCIATION September 2016 BEELINES Our mission: to promote interest in honey bees and beekeeping through the Northwest District of Western Washington, and, in particular, Snohomish County. Regularly scheduled meetings are held on the second Tuesday of each month at: September 13th Meeting: Announcing Sue Cobey Susan Cobey is an international authority in the field of honey bee breeding. Researchers and beekeepers worldwide are eager to learn from her the skills necessary for the selection and maintenance of honey bee stock. She is the co-founder of a commercial queen production business, Vaca Valley Apiaries in California. She also teaches, does presentations and publications for scientific and industry audiences. On Tuesday evening she will be talking about her work with Steve Sheppard at WSU and their efforts to import new honey bee genetic material from Europe and the Caucuses in order to improve genetic diversity of the honey bee population in America. Previously, import restrictions were put in place to prevent diseases and pests from entering into the US, but because of the lack of diversity in the breeding pool it actually may have weakened the bee population. Come and learn from Susan about honey bee colonies and the potential for bringing genetic diversity to our bees. Christ the King Lutheran Church 1305 Pine Avenue Snohomish, WA 6:00 Bee Talk A Buzz Session for NewBees and Experienced Beekeepers to interact and share questions and experiences. 7:00 Meeting Business meeting and guest speaker.

2 PAGE 2 BEELINES NORTHWEST DISTRICT BEEKEEPERS ASSOCIATION NUCS for Sale Proud sponsor of NWDBA Over-Wintered Survivor Bees Local and Queens Larvae should be 5 available Drawn Frames in June! Young Mated Queen CONTACT: CONTACT, Larry Brainard Tel: Tel: l.brainard08@gmail.com Larrybrainard@comcast.net Our outdoor booth at the fair was a great success! We had many people help set-up, take-down and man the booth this year. It s fun to meet people from all over who share or have an interest in the beekeeping world. Hundreds of honey sticks and brochures were handed out along with a verbal invitation to join our club s meeting. So watch for visitors and welcome them! This year we were awarded with a special ribbon for the best agricultural display! (Notice the red, white and blue ribbon in the picture.) There were also many individual ribbons won for honey, wax and frame entries. Congratulations!!! We learned something new Plantain (grows almost everywhere) can be used to treat bee stings. Take a leaf and chew it in your mouth, then apply the green mush to the sting. It neutralizes the toxin and helps pull it out. Important...we don t know how it would affect someone allergic to bees so check with a medical dr. in that situation.

3 Page 3 BEELINES NORTHWEST DISTRICT BEEKEEPERS Northwest District Beekeepers Assn. September-October To-Do List for the Puget Sound Calendar vs Weather: It is important to keep in mind that decisions are more dependent on prevailing weather conditions than on specific calendar dates! Honey Harvest (secondary harvest): Fall-time can bring a great second honey harvest. Some of the more common nectar plants are clover, knotweed, fireweed, etc. After harvesting honey from the blackberry flow, place the extracted supers back onto your hive for the colony to clean for you. Leave a super on the hive for the possibility of a second Fall-time harvest (unless you need to begin feeding your hives). To reduce the propensity of robbing, consider removing honey supers in the early morning or evenings. Note: Avoid using frames from the brood nest in your honey supers so that frames that have been exposed to miticides and other chemicals are not used to collect surplus honey. Food Stores: Check the amount of stores in each hive. Not all hives will have brought in surplus nectar and pollen, and possibly not a sufficient amount to carry the colony through August/ September if your area experiences a dearth, which has happened several times in recent years. Going into Winter, optimal stores should have the equivalent of 10 frames of honey in the upper brood box and arches of honey and pollen around the brood in the bottom brood chamber. If stores are too low, consider feeding syrup(2:1) or if the colony is small, consider combining with another colony. Use hive-top feeders or frame feeders to reduce the amount of robbing that can occur during this time of year. Remove all honey supers before feeding syrup to your colonies. Pollen Patties: Some beekeepers choose to add pollen patties during this season. There are indications that supplemental pollen patties help inspire the Queen to continue laying more eggs at this time. Robbing: September, in our Puget Sound area, often experiences a dearth of available nectar for bees to continue strengthening their colony and building stores for winter needs. Without sufficient nectar coming into the hive, colonies will begin slowing down the Queen s egg laying productivity. During this time, it is common to experience colonies becoming more aggressively defensive and robbing to occur. Weak colonies are especially vulnerable to robbing. In addition to supplemental feeding and combining weak colonies (see Food Stores above), placing entrance reducers onto colonies can assist guard bees in their effort to repel robbing. Colony Status: During your inspection, check the following: 1) Population size 2) Are there eggs & young larvae? (it s not always necessary to find the Queen if you see young larvae) 3) Brood Pattern 4) Stores 5) Evidence of pests or disease 6) Swarm cells (swarms can occur in August-September). Ventilation: September can be among the hotter months in the Puget Sound. It is important to assure good ventilation through the hive to assist the colony s ability to maintain optimal conditions inside the hive. The following are a couple of symptoms where added ventilation is needed: if one observes many bees fanning at the entrance, or a large portion of the colony bearding outside of the hive.

4 Page 4 BEELINES NORTHWEST DISTRICT BEEKEEPERS Treatment for Mites: If one did not test for mites in August, investigate for evidence of Mites (both Tracheal and Varroa) and Mite Loads in September. Many Beekeepers routinely treat for mites in early August, but it is not too late to test and treat in early September. The strategy centers on keeping Mite loads as low as possible as the colonies head into fall and winter. Treatment for Nosema: There are some who believe that colonies should be treated with Fumagilin-B to treat for Nosema. This treatment should be administered BEFORE the end of September because it is administered in one gallon of sugar syrup. Yellow Jackets: The best time to treat for Yellow Jackets begins in the Spring, but it does pay to have active traps out through summer and into fall. Consider re-baiting your traps! Yellow Jackets are meat eaters, especially in late summer and fall. Bait your traps with ham or some other type of meat. Placing entrance reducers can assist the colony (guard bees) in protecting their hive from these predators. Preparation for Winter Survival: Colonies should be building towards winter survival. Queens should still be producing good brood patterns and workers should be building strong nectar and pollen stores in the brood chambers. Consider adding an entrance reducer or mouse guard to your hives to assist guard bees in preventing yellow jackets, rodents, etc. Weak colonies or colonies that aren t still producing strong brood patterns and stores should be combined with a stronger colony. It is not recommended to combine two (or more) weak colonies, unless you have a young healthy queen to introduce into the combined colony. Larry Brainard, Northwest District Beekeepers Assoc. August, 2014, with assistance from his Journeymen Study Mates When you shop at AmazonSmile, Amazon will donate 0.5% of your purchase to the Northwest District Beekeepers Association. There are no extra fees for this service and you pay the same prices on Amazon that you normally would. You can reach our AmazonSmile page at

5 PAGE 5 BEELINES NORTHWEST DISTRICT BEEKEEPERS ASSOCIATION Mark Your Calendars! September 13-Monthly Bee Meeting-Sue Cobey October 1 and October 8-Apprentice Level Beekeeping Class October 11-Monthly meeting- Denice Ingalls of the Sky River Meadery Wine tasting-the history of mead-the different varieties of mead 2017 Calendars: A Fund Raising Event! Help NWDBA create a calendar for 2017 by submitting original bee themed photos to helhil@msn.com. Profits from the sales of calendars will benefit our club, and we all benefit by having fabulous photos with monthly to-do lists for our wall NWBDA Board Members Mark Salser, President president@nwdba.org Mike Kossian, V-President vice_president@nwdba.org Lori McConnell, Secretary secretary@nwdba.org Mary Rider, Treasurer treasurer@nwdba.org Tim Ade, Board Member...mbesnohomish@yahoo.com Helen Crozier, Board Member...helhil@msn.com Joe Canfield, Board Member...tjnr@comcast.net We are always looking for ideas or articles to publish in the Beelines newsletter. Please us at mbesnohomish@yahoo.com with ideas or articles to be submitted. Please direct corrections or additions to Debbie Ade; Beelines Editor at mbesnohomish@yahoo.com Visit Us nwdba.org and Like us on Facebook!