More interesting news on Pollenation.
http://sz0047.wc.mail.comcast.net/service/home/~/JanFeb2010.pdf?auth=co&loc=en_US&id=131380&part=2
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“The reports that I have gotten from beekeepers is that See http://www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1672&category=Environment
President’s Message: Spring is coming – saw the bees out taking “cleansing flights” several times in the last week or two. Only beekeepers are happy with yellow spots in the snow. Took the usual walk to the cranberry bogs behind the house with the dog today. Pussy willows are swelling – an early pollen source when they bloom. We also saw large coyote tracks and some river otter sliding marks. They move from pond to bog – we could see marks in the snow where they slid down from the tops of the culverts onto the pond ice. The pond had some open water with Canada geese there. Another sign of spring is a good bee school starting- nice turnout this year. Everett gave a excellent introduction and let the class know what they were getting into. The rest of you should be done with planning for this year. It’s time to get started. Before you know it you’ll be busy with your hives. Order your catalogs or look on-line to get new equipment and supplies. Even more important, order your packages or nucs very soon. There are several sources for both listed on the web at www.bristolbee.com Everett has a great package price and will drop them off at Bristol Aggie, with a hiving demonstration thrown in. If you want to wait until later, think about getting a local nuc or queen or two. I really think we should try to get some northern queens going. According to an informal survey at the last meeting, most of us are thinking about increases (or replacements) this year. The last set of officers and the executive board did a great job; the bee school has been back for a few years- insuring new blood and enthusiasm. The fairs are being worked – another way of educating the public. The treasury is healthy, so if the club can use something, we can think about getting it. The website is revamped and attractive. It’s your website, contribution are encouraged. Use the e-mail links too. Greg and the 2009 board members deserve thanks for what has been done – as well as for the direction we are heading for 2010. Our next meeting is Feb 23 in the Library at Bristol Aggie. We will have the officer reports and then some talk about how everyone is doing with their bees. The bee school will be in session downstairs. We are hoping they can come up at 7:45 to say hello. Roger Robitaille will speak at 8. Roger has been keeping bees for 30 years, He is the regional dealer of Willbanks Apiaries for package bees and queens. He is also a fourth generation carpenter, specializing in removing bees from buildings and landscapes. He sells honey, wax, nucs, and fresh royal jelly. It should be an interesting talk. Look at your hives on a nice day, but don’t disturb the cluster. Add fondant or sugar if needed and around March 1st, think about adding some pollen to help with the brood.
WORRIED ABOUT PESTICIDES IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD?
Beekeepers may be concerned about pesticide applications. You can apply to have your property excluded from spray programs. The deadline for you to contact your Town Clerk is March 1. The Bristol County Mosquito Control Project is gathering names of property owners who want their property excluded from pesticide spraying. Owners must provide the town or city clerk of the community in which the land is located with a certified letter providing the name, address, telephone number and define spraying programs from which the exclusion is requested. Designations need to be made before March 1 of each year, and are effective from April 1 of that year through March 31 of the following year. Under the regulations, the person requesting an exclusion must mark the boundaries or areas to be excluded at least every 50 feet with orange surveyor’s tape, or another department-approved marking device which clearly defines the area of exclusion. For more information, call your Town Clerk’s office. (many thanks to Mary Anne for sending this along!)
Help Keep Our Files Current
If you move or change any contact information, please tell us. This is especially true of e-mail addresses. A quick note will save many emails from the internet postmaster.
ITEMS FOR SALE
Beehavin’ Apiary packages (that is Everett Zurlinden’s company) will be $69 each. All queens are marked; they are all Italian. Pickup dates are 4/10 and 4/24. Pickup location is at the Bristol Agricultural School in Dighton, MA. Beehavin’ also has nucs for sale for $100; pickup is in North Smithfield, RI only. They will be available in May. Queens are marked! Please call 401-885-5127, 800-431-6747 or go to www.beehavin to order online.
Please see the website, bristolbee.com, for lists of other sellers and items for sale.
If anyone has anything bee related that they would like to advertise in this newsletter, please email me at bluidshay@aol.com
UNLESS OTHERWISE ANNOUNCED, ALL GENERAL MEETINGS ARE HELD ON THE 4TH TUESDAY OF THE MONTH AT THE BRISTOL COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SCHOOL AND BEGIN AT 7 PM.
PLEASE WEAR YOUR NAME TAG TO THE MEETING TO HELP OUR NEWER MEMBERS LEARN WHO YOU ARE. IF YOU HAVE MISPLACED YOURS, PLEASE SEE JEANI WARISH FOR A REPLACEMENT.
BrCBA Yearly Calendar 2010
Mentor Program
Bristol County Beekeepers Association has members who are willing to answer questions you may have about something you come across in your hive or to discuss beekeeping techniques. Take advantage of their experience and willingness to help make your beekeeping experience better. Email mentor@bristolbee.com
FYI…FYI…FYI
When renewing/or beginning a subscription to Bee Culture magazine, don’t forget to mention that you belong to Bristol County Beekeeper’s Association. Members get a 20% discount off subscription prices! Thanks to Joe Tardif for the heads up! We have a variety of articles, photographs, beekeeping timelines, items for sale, meeting minutes, and other useful information on our website. Check us out at Bristolbee.com.
Beekeeper’s Calendar for February
UPCOMING EVENTS
Massachusetts Beekeepers’ Association 2010 Spring Meeting Who: Nick Calderone, PhD, Cornell University, speaking on American Foulbrood, and Varroa Mites. Phillip Starks, PhD, Tufts University, speaking on Honeybee immunities and Disease defenses. Dave Meldrum, Essex County: Celebrating the 200th birthday of Lorenzo Langstroth.
When: Saturday, March 27, 2010 at 9:00AM; Registration starts at 8:30 AM.
Where: Coolidge Hall, Topsfield Fairgrounds, Topsfield, MA. Take Route 95 North to Exit 50. (Rte 1). Follow Route 1 north to the Fairgrounds on right.
MINUTES TO GENERAL MEETING JANUARY 26, 2010
5 frame nucs are thought to be priced at around $95. Nucs are delivered later in the season, May or June, and give you a good jump-start.
Bee packages are also available from other vendors; several are listed on the website and in the newsletters.
President ~ Fred Sterner VICE PRESIDENT ~ Bob Peckham TREASURER ~ Doreen Laboa SECRETARY ~ Beth Buvarsky & Sarah Murray ~ Newsletter EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE ~ Celeste Turner, Jeani Warish, Norma York
“The happiness of the bee and the dolphin is to exist. For man it is to know that and to wonder at it.” –Jacques Yves Cousteau Hi everyone, The Bee School is a go tonight. We will meet at 6:30 to register and then start class at 7:00. The classroom is B-2. Just come in the main entrance and you will easily find us. Hello Bristol County bee keepers!
We'd like to cordially invite bee keepers of every stripe to Boone,
North Carolina August 2 -6, 2010 for the Eastern Apicultural conference.
North Carolina is honored to host EAS once again, and Boone is the
perfect spot for it. Part of the "high country" of the state, Boone
offers countless fun outdoor activities and a perfect climate for our
conference. We are diligently assembling our schedule for the short
course, workshops, social events and the for conference itself.
The theme for this year's conference is "Back to Basics" and we will be
focusing on scientific research WITH practical experience to bring bee
keepers information from four areas of interest, queens, healthy bees,
pollination, honey production and a little on africanized honey bees.
Our speaker's list continues to grow as does our entertainment agenda.
Please visit our website at http://www.easternapiculture.org/ to see the
latest updates.
This should be a fantastic week for everyone. We look forward to seeing
everyone in Boone in 2010!
Sincerely,
Will Hicks, 2010 President, Eastern Apicultural Society
Beekeepers may be concerned about pesticide applications. You can apply to have your property excluded from spray programs. The deadline for you to contact your Town Clerk is March 1. Owners must provide the town or city clerk of the community in which the land is located with a certified letter providing the name, address, telephone number and define spraying programs from which the exclusion is requested. Designations need to be made before March 1 of each year, and are effective from April 1 of that year through March 31 of the following year. Under the regulations, the person requesting an exclusion must mark the boundaries or areas to be excluded at least every 50 feet with orange surveyor’s tape, or another department-approved marking device which clearly defines the area of exclusion. For more information, call your Town Clerk’s office. Ray found an interesting web page about raising queens. I posted it under the how to section on the top line of the website. You can also use this link. President’s Message
Hello People, Well, this is my final message as president. As has been wisely said it’s a good idea to pass the torch to ‘get some new blood.’ Well, at this Tuesday’s Club meeting, it’s time for our biannual elections and the torch will be passed. Please know how much I’ve enjoyed working with various Club members, be it board or general, to help fulfill the Club’s charter. On a personal note, there’s a certain amount of satisfaction to have helped so that as I move along, the Club is in a decent place. There are various committees in place, such as the Fair, Education, web site and Bee School groups, which address those areas of the Club’s charter. It’s been fun working with members and being involved with the fairs, finding speakers, helping with the bee school and workshops. And, for icing a really neat part of all this activity of outreach and promoting bees and beekeeping to the general public is our bank account has some more breathing room now. Pretty neat in my book. As mentioned earlier, this month’s meeting is Election night. Most positions are filled. However we are still looking for a Secretary. The general requirements are show up and take minutes for the Club and Executive Committee meetings, help keep the membership list in sync with the Treasurer and take care of Club correspondence, both via e-mail and snail mail. Oh yes, and one other big nut, taking care of the newsletter has also been part of the duties. If you are decent with a computer and like details, people and bees please consider helping out. Well, it’s getting to be Spring-y out; the sun is setting later, we’re getting through January, February is short, the queen is or will soon begin laying this year’s brood. It’s a good idea to check your apiary, bees, equipment. Order bees if needed, repair equipment, order something if need be; because as you know, soon the days will be warm, the bees will be flying and the season will be in full stride. It’s coming and it will be wonderful. Good for now. Thank you to the many Board and Club members with whom I’ve worked and talked with along the way. You’ve taught me some very valuable lessons; I appreciate your time and patience. Thank YOU very much. It’s been excellent. Very well. It’s time to head along. Thank you, Good Day and see you around. Greg
PLEASE REMEMBER
Fellow club members to remember in your prayers: Pam, Ray, Dick B., Chris, Joe, and Fred; and little John P. seems to be doing well! These people are in, or have just gone through a ‘rapids’ portion of their life journey, so any help or kindness directed their way would go a long way.
Help Keep Our Files Current If you move or change any contact information, please tell us. This is especially true of e-mail addresses. A quick note will save many emails from the internet postmaster. ITEMS FOR SALE If anyone has anything bee related that they would like to advertise in this newsletter, please email me at weeacresii at comcast.net
CLUB MEETINGS
UNLESS OTHERWISE ANNOUNCED, ALL GENERAL MEETINGS ARE HELD ON THE 4TH TUESDAY OF THE MONTH AT THE BRISTOL COUNTY AGRICULTURAL HIGH SCHOOL AND BEGIN AT 7 PM PLEASE WEAR YOUR NAME TAG TO THE MEETING TO HELP OUR NEWER MEMBERS LEARN WHO YOU ARE. IF YOU HAVE MISPLACED YOURS, PLEASE SEE JEANI WARISH FOR A REPLACEMENT.
If there is a topic you would like to see covered or a particular speaker you are interested in for future meetings, please contact President Greg Boyd. BrCBA Yearly Calendar 2010
January 26th ~ Video from the club library ELECTION OF NEW OFFICERS AND BOARD MEMBERS February 23rd ~ Topic TBA March 23rd ~ Topic TBA April 27th ~ Topic TBA May 25th ~ Topic TBA
Mentor Program
JANUARY BEEKEEPER’S SCHEDULE Attend the January Club meeting. Sign up for bee school. Go to school or teach a class. Clear snow from hive entrances. Build new frames and hives as required. Order bee packages. Feed bees if needed. Make sure the hive is pointing South-ish to shelter it from the North-ish winds. Consider wrapping the hive with tarpaper. This will help keep the hive warm and reduce wind infiltration. Consider adding a top insulation board. Make sure the slot is facing the frames, and the outlet is facing the front of the hive. Ensure the top extension cover is pulled forward to allow the bees to enter/exit. Put weights on the top cover to weigh it down.
IF YOU’RE PLANNING ON ORDERING PACKAGES/NUCS/QUEENS, BELOW IS A LIST OF PEOPLE TO CONTACT PACKAGE BEES Package & nuc pick-up locations in Smithfield, RI, Freetown, MA and Thompson, CT http://www.beehavin’ 1-800-431-6747 Fred Magee West Bridgewater, MA 508-583-4270 Roger Robitiaille 88 Lewis St. Warwick, RI 02886 401-732-6599 or 401-378-3578 Trails End Farm Call (508) 763-5280 to place order or go to http://www.tefarm.com/
QUEEN BREEDERS Bob Brachmann , Cold Weather Queens 7590 Maples Rd. Little Valley, NY 14755 Billerica, MA, 798-667-5380 Rollin Hannan Jr., Hannan Honey LLC 480 Hulls Hill Rd., Southbury, CT 06488 Ware, MA, 413-967-5064 Michael Palmer, French Hill Apiaries 505 French Hill Rd., St. Albans, VT 05478 Holliston, MA, 508-429-6872 Kirk Webster Champlain Valley Bees and Queens Box 381, Middlebury, VT 05723 802-758-2501
Bristol County Beekeepers Association Bee Library
DUES ARE DUE DUES ARE DUE DUES ARE DUE Dues are $15 per year. As the bylaws state, notices shall be made in the newsletter for November, December, and January. Well, here’s the November notice! Dues are due. Please make your check out to Bristol County Beekeepers Association and send it to Doreen Laboa, 180 New Bedford Rd. Rochester, Ma 02770. Please fill out the Member Renewal Form for 2010 sheet below and mail it or bring it to a Club meeting. PLEASE PRINT all information legibly.
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MINUTES TO GENERAL MEETING NOVEMBER 24,2009
The evening began with an open discussion about various problems and solutions in member hives. Then the attending members were treated to a talk by Don Adams about how to build a wax melter, how to melt and strain impurities from your wax, and how to make use of your wax. The meeting began at 8:45 PM. A thank you card was received from Ray and Eunice Michaud for the plaque and gift certificate. Thanks to Bob P. and Jeani for getting things organized. And thanks to Everett for delivering them. A motion was made to accept the secretary’s minutes as written in the last newsletter. Motion was seconded and passed. Treasurer’s report read by Fred Sterner was accepted as read. The club Christmas party will be December 22, in room B2. It will be a pot luck with a Yankee swap. Children are welcome. Festivities will start at 6:60 PM. A separate flyer will be sent out. Elections are being held at the January meeting. We still need someone for the secretary position, and someone for the executive board. The club will be donating $250 to RIBA to help with the expense of having Randy Oliver here this past summer. Meeting adjourned 8:55 PM.
“Count your blessings. Once you realize how valuable you are and how much you have going for you, the smiles will return, the sun will break out, the music will play, and you will finally be able to move forward the life that God intended for you with grace, strength, courage, and confidence.”
We saw Jeff at a conference and he mentioned that if there was a single cause of CCD, anyone could have figured it out - Here is an article. No one villain behind honey-bee colony collapse
Many factors may interact to bring on mysterious disorder
By Susan Milius
Web edition : Tuesday, December 15th, 2009
INDIANAPOLIS, IND — Jeff Pettis continues to break the hearts of mystery lovers. Two years ago he and other entomologists went to work on what sounded like the scenario for rip-roaring fiction: widespread, unexplained disappearances of honey bee workers that left the youngsters and queen behind for no obvious reason. His progress report to the national meeting of the Entomological Society of America, however, isn’t pointing toward a fictional crescendo. Pettis argues that there may not be a Colonel Mustard in the kitchen with the candlestick, but a web of subtly interacting factors. At his presentation December 12, he might have been an epidemiologist chiding humans about the need for life style changes: … multiple stresses … subtle interactions … importance of nutrition. Pettis is an entomologist though, the research leader at the USDA Agricultural Research Service’s Bee Research Laboratory in Beltsville, Md. For at least a year, he has been talking about the interaction hypothesis. He points out that a working honey bee leads a tough life in today’s landscape of imported parasites and long-distance road trips to agricultural fields that may have low nutritional value but considerable pesticide residues. He proposes that such stresses weaken the bees and interact with other menaces, such as viruses, which can massacre a colony. Other research, which he didn’t review, has identified viruses that lead bees to expire when they have ventured beyond their hives. That quirk might explain the syndrome’s illusion of vanishing workers. As examples of worrisome stresses, Pettis described sublethal doses of pesticides, under study in cooperative research with Galen Dively of the University of Maryland in College Park. In this work, bees didn’t die from weeks of exposure to a neonicotinoid pesticide. But when the same bees faced a later challenge, the nasty fungal pathogen Nosema ceranae, they developed worrisome infections. Pesticide-exposed bees ended up with three to four times as many Nosema spores in their body as did bees without the pesticide preview. “It’s a very subtle interaction we wouldn’t have detected” without the specific test, Pettis said. Hauling bees across the country adds more stress, although Pettis says he’s not betting that the long-standing problems of transportation will prove a major factor in the recent colony collapses. Nevertheless, ARS and other institutions are looking into the stress. A comparison of hives shipped away versus ones left in place found higher egg and larval losses in the transported colonies, he said. Also, bees on the road failed to manage their hive temperature as well as the stationary ones do, Pettis said. Hives sitting in California stayed near 34 degrees Celsius even though day and night outdoor temperatures zigged and zagged during the same period. When traveling on a truck though, hive temperatures lost their relatively even control and began spiking and dipping. This multiple-stress approach to the bee dilemma doesn’t grab public imagination the way a classic mystery villain does. Yet it’s just as worrisome. Adding colony collapse disorder to the other perils honeybees face has raised winter losses to around 30 percent, Pettis said. Beekeepers have divided hives and compensated to some extent so far, but “this is becoming unsustainable,” he said. At one point in his talk, Pettis showed what might have been taken as a sign of stress himself under other circumstances. He volunteered that approaching the presentation room, he began to wonder whether he should have tied a large pink bow in his hair. The audience merely nodded in understanding. The entomology meeting shared the convention center with the World Sprit Federation’s cheerleading competition. Reaching any scientific talk involved dodging through throngs of young girls in spangled outfits, face paint and big, glittering hair bows. |
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