The Diablo Bee

April 2016

Next Meeting: April 14, 7:00 pm @ The Pleasant Hill Community Center, Perera Pavillion.

320 Civic Center Drive, Pleasant Hill, CA Bee Chat 7:00-7:15, Business/General Meeting 7:15-7:30, Program 7:30-- 8:30, April Raffle 8:30-9:00

President’s Message

by Judy Weatherly

The bee year is alive and well and bursting forward with gusto! Now, it’s up to us to keep the hives as healthy as possible in our backyards and our . MDBA is such a great resource to beekeepers and the MDBA Board is working hard to create a successful year for beekeepers and, in turn, for honey bees in our area.

As I write this, the Spring Bee Workshop has not yet happened, but I know that many of you enjoyed the day and I know that I had a great time! The Spring Bee Workshop has been a favorite of mine each of my years with MDBA. I never lose the complete awe that I feel when I gaze upon the hundreds of packages stacked in Gary’s garage or the packages stacked around Mike in the yard--hundreds of thousands of honey bees awaiting pick-up by their new guardians. I hope you all had successful installations and that you enjoyed the bees orienting to their new terrain.

Now we get to watch as the colony begins anew. Watching a package turn into a colony and begin the life of a gracious and grand superorganism is magnificent. Take time to enjoy the process and to get to know the rhythm of each colony. They have so much to teach us!

The MDBA Board continues to work to keep each month meaningful for members and to encourage connection between members. The Focus Groups have proven to be a welcomed addition to our meeting format and we’re hoping they continue to grow and develop over the year(s). We’re excited about expanding our Member Education program to include workshops by leading experts in the field of like the Randy Oliver workshop coming up in June. Nancy Burke, VP Member Education has already scheduled with Michael Bush for next year.

MDBA’s commitment to providing education about beekeeping and honey bees to the greater community continues to flourish. We’re hoping to grow the MDBA Community Education Program. Jan Spieth, VP Community Education, is scheduling training workshops/orientations to build a strong and dedicated team of volunteers to participate in science fairs, Earth Days, community events, and schools. Volunteering is a great way to build on your knowledge of honey bees, form new relationships, and be a part of MDBA’s impact in the greater community.

MDBA has grown so large over the last few years. The Board is working to create a structure for MDBA that continues to support beekeepers and members and broadens our impact in the larger community. The Board is committed to working to create a sustainable path of growth for MDBA while maintaining the principal purpose of our association which is to promote education about beekeeping to members and the community. Personally, I think our purpose is to ensure that we have as much fun as possible sharing our many bee foibles with other beekeepers as we grow older and wiser at the feet, proboscis, and wings of honey bees! Happy Spring to you and your bees!

"The Earth laughs in In this Issue

flowers." • Message from the President --Ralph Waldo Emerson • April Speaker Bio • Recap of February Meeting with Mike Stephanos

• Plant(s) of the Month

• Hive Tips • Member Education Corner

• Community Education Corner • MDBA Library Update and Book Reviews • MDBA Financials • Editor's Corner • Regional Bee News/Events • Club Classifieds

Open this up on your biggest screen and enjoy.

April Speaker: Bill Cervanka

"Practical Tips for Beekeeping throughout the Year"

Our April speaker will be Bill Cervanka, owner of Cervanka Apiaries. Bill is a long time member of MDBA and keeps his pulse on the beekeeping activities throughout the Bay Area. He is a native Californian, but has “lived and traveled in half the world” and extensively throughout the Caribbean and in the South and Central Americas. He says he’s “been keeping bees for ages” which means it’s been too many years to count!

In his presentation, Bill plans to give some facts that beekeepers need to know to understand the life of honeybees “in order to be successful beekeepers, not bee havers.” He’ll be giving us an overview of the beekeeping year and what happens at each point as we move through the stages of the year. At the end of the presentation, Bill will emphasize what each of us should be doing RIGHT NOW with our bees. In ending, Bill plans to give his “5 question quiz to see if the boys and girls have been paying attention. Correct answers deserve a prize! So do take notes.” (Once a teacher, always a teacher!

Summary of February Program with Mike

Stephanos

The Takeaway Message: Be as prepared as possible during swarm retrievals

During Mike's lively and informative talk we learned about the hardware used to retrieve swarms (from a simple bucket to mechanical "scissor catcher") and how to use our tools properly.

Stephanos explained that Swarm Retrieval is the primary way in which the MDBA helps out and interacts with our local communities. As such, we should all be best-prepared during swarm calls.

"The first thing to do when you get a call about a beeswarm," Stephanos said, " is ask for more information. Do it repeatedly. Ask in terminology that they would understand. Our job is to keep people calm, especially the person that called in the swarm."

Examples of good questions include: When did they arrive? Do I need a ladder to reach the swarm? Is the swarm volleyball sized? Beach ball sized? Do I need/am I allowed to cut this tree/bush/whatever that they are on? Are you aware that the MDBA asks for a monetary donation for swarm removal services? Are you aware that, yes, this donation is tax-deductible? Where are the bees again?

Stephanos urged us all to consider safety first during swarm retrievals--our personal safety, safety of the people we are trying to help, our club's reputation, and the safety of the bees. He told of how he hangs bait hives near his apiaries in order to lure in the swarms that always choose the highest, hardest to reach roosting spots. No bees are worth a trip to the ER.

2015 Future Meetings and Programs

Some programs and speakers may be changed as the dates come nearer

April 14 Practical Beekeeping Tips for Throughout the Year -Bill Cervanka April's Featured Plant(s) May 12 From Grassroots to Government: Who's Doing What Ceonothus, Ceonothus spp. for the Bees and How It Can Matter - Mea McNeil Ceonothus is a genus of plant species June 9 On Biologic Beekeeping with many dozen native species and and Husbandry - Scott varieties in California. It is a Jorgensen evergreen perennial that is valued by June 25 and 26 Beekeeping many insect pollinators for pollen and Workshop with Randy Oliver nectar. These plants started blooming July 14 Making Splits and Nucs; in March and are continuing through Overwintering- Doug Vincent April. They are mildly fragrant. The August 11 Honey Tasting and shrub is drought-tolerant, which is Beekeeper Gadget Sharing - important during our current Membership conditions. Though the plant is a August 15 Mini Bee Workday-- shrub in it's natural form, it is possible Honey Extracting 10am-12pm @ to prune and train this plant to form a Lois Kail's small tree with a central trunk. The September 8 Bee Health - Claire main flower color of this genus is Kremen blue. White is a less common flower October 13 MDBA Member BBQ color.

Bees seem to really like pollen from it, which is a indication that ceonothus There are no meetings in genus species are an important November and December. nutrition source.

2016 MDBA Board of Directors

President - Judy Weatherly Vice President - Stacey Bauer Secretary - Lois Kail Treasurer - Ann Moser Membership - Janet Kaidantzis Member Education - Nancy Photo Credit to MDBA member Scott Ball Burke

Community Education - Jan Pride of Madeira, Echium candicans Spieth

Webmaster - Andy Scheck From Wikipedia-- Newsletter Editor - Scott Jorgensen Echium candicans is cultivated in the Ex Officio - Gary Lawrence horticulture trade and widely available Past President - Sylvia throughout the world as an ornamental Goemmel plant for traditional and drought tolerant water conserving gardens. It is Don't be shy, introduce particularly suitable for coastal yourselves to us! We like to talk planting, and is a popular ornamental about bees. We'll be wearing in coastal California. With a minimum nametags at the meetings. temperature requirement of 5–7 °C (41–45 °F), in frost-prone areas it needs some winter protection. It has gained the Royal Horticultural

Society's Award of Garden Merit.

In California, it is also an invasive species. It is removed from native plant communities as part of habitat restoration efforts in coastal parks such as the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

In New Zealand it is a common garden escape onto road-side verges and shingle banks throughout the drier parts of the two principal islands.

In the state of Victoria, Australia, it is considered to be a high weed risk and an alert has been posted by the Department of Primary Industries.

And the bees love it.

This photo was taken during evening hours of March, last year. The bees are "bearding" on the outside of the hive because of their high population. In order to keep the broodnest at the right temperature (92 F) bees will portion the colony population inside/outside as necessary.

When bees beard the entrance of your hives it is a indication that they are strong enough to be split into multiple smaller colonies. The next day I did look into these boxes and I found queen cells in the making. I promptly split the hives in order to keep my bees from away. --Scott Jorgensen

April Hive Tips

Keep Track of the Broodnest! -- Colony population continues to spike in April. Just like in March, be aware of how quickly the bees are filling the broodnest so that you can give them the opportunity to draw more comb. Enlarging and creating space in the broodnest can delay swarming. Some colonies get big enough to fill five or six honey supers, so give them the room to do it.

Explore the !-- April is a wonderful month to be a bee in California. There is plenty of food and low stress on the bees. Fire up the smoker for a lengthier apiary session in which you can practice using your tools, identifying things in the hive (drones, pollen, disease, etc), and observing bee behavior. Take advantage of their friendly dispositions.

Consider Splitting-- Splitting your beehive into daughter colonies is a great way to make increase and hedge against winter losses. Many experienced beekeepers recommend to split every colony at least once per year as a form of Integrated Pest Management. This action performed as a swarm preventative measure keeps your bees in your boxes.

Take Notes! -- Dust off your notebook and start writing down what you see. Keeping good notes can help you troubleshoot any problems that may arise in the season. Record what is blooming, how the weather has been lately, conditions of the brood pattern, etc. The more that you record, the more that you will be able to see and understand.

Only Harvest Capped Honey!-- April begins the main season of honey harvesting. When you are inspecting your beehive and choosing which frames of honey to harvest, only take those which have fully capped cells. If the honey isn't capped then the bees are still processing it. If the honey isn't capped then it is possible that there is too much water in the honey. Too much water means the possibility for the honey to ferment and spoil. Yuck!

Seek Information! -- There is a wealth of information for beginning beekeepers on the internet, but sometimes knowing where to look can be hard. For beginning beekeepers who want a thorough primer on keeping honey bees in contemporary America, the MDBA Board recommends reading the Beginner's Pages on Randy Oliver's website, www.scientificbeekeping.com. Another good resource to browse is www.beesource.com which is an interactive forum for beekeeping questions. Give it a look!

Member Education Corner -- Splitting Hives

By Nancy Burke

We are moving along in our bee year. Spring is upon us and so far we have learned about catching swarms and swarm prevention. One of the important ways to prevent swarming is to divide or split your colonies. This method also provides an increase in your apiary. There are many ways to split a hive. I will mention some of the methods that you can consider.

The first is to simply distribute the contents of the hive by setting up enough equipment to possibly divide the hive into several parts. Arrange the brood, stores and empty comb to recreate well organized brood nests. Make sure you add enough nurse bees.Fan division requires that you find the queen when dividing the colony. You can leave the queenless split at the original location. This divide can build some good queen cells. Then you can divide this colony one week later as the contents permit. The original queen is placed into a super with stores, empty cells and up to three pounds of bees. Include some frames to be built out.

You can also do an even split. Take half of everything and split it up. Face both new hives on either side of the old hive so that the foragers go into either hive. You can move them in a week so that you equalize the hives.

A walk away split is where you take a frame of eggs, two frames of emerging brood, and two frames of pollen and honey into a nuc. Shake in nurse bees, put on the lid and walk away. Check the nuc in about a month to see if the queen is laying.

Lastly a cut down split is where you put almost all the open brood, honey, pollen and the queen into a new hive configuration. Leave all the capped brood, some of the honey and a frame of eggs with the old hive with less brood boxes and more honey supers. This hive will be the production hive.

These are some ideas of how to divide your hives, increase your apiary and prevent swarming. This is where the art of beekeeping truly comes in. There are many great books and beekeepers who have written about divides. Do your reading and studying so that you can make an informed decision about the best approach to take. You might want to take a look at Michael Bush’s website at www.bushfarms.com/bees and Randy Oliver’s website; www.scientificbeekeeping.com.

From Nils Kauffman

A bit of Trivia

Although the bee serves a very important role in the hive, much of the time the male bee is appears superfluous. Although it appears that thIt is true that drone bees can temporarily hold an etreme nectar flow in their honey stomach until the workers can process the water out later that evening. In fact, in times of scarcity the workers will kill off most of the drones. Due to the often uselessness of drones, the term has become something of an insult in Romanian. Trintor is the Romanian word for drone. If you want a illustrative way to call someone lazy, you could simply refer to them as a trintor. El este trintor or he is a drone, indicates the belief that the person in question is lazy.

As an aside, just as “bee” is used to name newspapers in the United States, In Romania, albina, the word for bee, is also used to name newspapers. I can think of the entomological reasons for such a name, but I wonder if there are interesting etymological roots as well. If you know of anything about this, please let me know.

Developing a Strategy to Treat for

In July 2015, I made a split with four frames of brood and a frame of honey. Within 24 days, there was a laying queen. Norm Lott has since told me that I should have killed the first few capped queen cells. These are the emergency cells that the bees desperately create and do not necessarily make the best queens. Perhaps because of this, the bees soon rejected the queen, and they started raising a queen again in September. I was concerned about the weakness of this hive, but on the advice of Gary Lawrence, I decided to let it be.

To my surprise, this was my strongest hive in February when I opened the hives again. I wondered why. (Of course, Joan Lott predicted this outcome the previous fall.)So far, I can only think that after two rounds of queen raising, and the two periods without brood, the mite load had decreased significantly and allowed the few bees in the hive to overwinter without the stress caused by large numbers of mites. I had only fed the colonies patties of sugar, shortening, and sea salt with wintergreen oil.

Given that success, I wonder if and how I could duplicate it without the risk of going into winter with a small hive.

We know that mites reproduce in capped cells, and with no queen laying new eggs, there are no cells being capped and no place for the mites to reproduce. What I recently read (“Varroa Mite Reproductive Biology” by Zachary Huang) was that during the mites’ phoretic phase, when the suck the blood of honey bees like little vampires, they often change hosts and fall off. This is the theory of how screened bottom boards can be useful. The bees also groom one another and remove mites in this manner as well. Also noted in the article is that the age of the host influences the fertility of the mites. Ten day old bees are the best hosts for mite fertility. As the bee hosts get older, the fertility of the mites decreases. (Newly emerged bees do not provide strong hosts either.) Without a laying queen the average age of bees in the hive increased limiting the fertility of the mites.

Requeening disrupts the reproduction of mites in three ways. First, by limiting bee pupae in cells, which mites use for reproduction; second, by providing more time for grooming and the natural fall of the mites; and, third, by limiting the availability of younger bees that provide the best hosts for the mites.

Where does this leave me for the coming year? Although I would like to pierce the heart of every mite with a toothpick, I think this would become tedious.Experience has shown, and I have heard from other beekeepers, that medicating with formic acid, Mite-a-Way Quick Strips, can cause a great deal of stress on the bees. The full dosage of these strips, can overpower weak colonies. Half treatments could be a way for small colonies. I have ready that when treating for mites when no capped brood exists, an oxalic acid dribble is the most effective, "cleanest" chemical to use. According to the article noted above, the mites can survive in the phase for 2-3 months, so stopping the queen from laying is not a feasible way to completely eliminate mites from the hive.

Another possible treatment is with powdered sugar. Research has shown that the powdered sugar causes the mites to lose their grip on their hosts and promotes grooming as the bees clean each other. This has not been shown to be an effective control of mites so long as there is capped brood in the hive. (scientificbeekeeping.com) Repeated dusting, 3-4 times, may reduce mite loads significantly. Also, the powdered sugar may interfere with egg laying if the sugar gets into the cells.

My strategy this year is to make splits or cage the queen around July, when there is little nectar and egg laying decreases anyway. (Russian queens, known for their mite resistance stop laying eggs when nectar flows slow.) After about three weeks I will treat with formic acid, oxalic acid, and/or powdered sugar. After this, I will let the queens free and start laying again in preparation for winter.

Photos of Bee Day 2016

APRIL IS RAFFLE MONTH!

Our 2nd raffle of the year is happening this month and portends to be a great one. Marcin & Ella (Elzbieta) of MarElla Honey Bees (950 Detroit Ave., Ste. 12, Concord) have graciously donated bee equipment for the raffle. When Elzbieta announced MarElla wanted to donate the equipment to MDBA for the April raffle, she quipped, “Why not? We know bees and we know bee equipment!” And, that they do.

The MDBA board wants to thank MarElla Honey Bees for their generosity, for being a part of this wonderful organization, and for taking the initiative to bring a beekeeping supply store to Contra Costa County. We encourage member support of local businesses. It makes such a difference having supplies available without having to travel miles to get them or ordering online and waiting for delivery. Thank you, Marcin and Elzbieta!

FOCUS GROUPS ARE BACK IN MAY!

The Focus Groups are turning out to be a valuable way of getting to know each other and sharing information. We’ll be meeting again in our geographical focus groups in May. Most of our hives should be in full “bloom” by then and I’m sure there will be lots to talk about with each other. Packages and nucs should be well on their way and I’m sure more than one member will have experienced a swarm or two (either of their own hive(s) or perhaps in catching one).

Hopefully, you are organizing yourselves within your group so that you can have a support system within your nearby area. Please don’t hesitate to take a leadership role in your group. You can help make the group be a real support to you in your beekeeping endeavors. Don’t be shy; speak up; get to know each other; reach out to each other.

Beekeepers are perhaps the most generous group of people I’ve ever worked with—let’s be there for each other as we develop our skills in sustainable beekeeping! In June, we’ll be adding areas of interest for Focus Groups. It may be good to have a group for “newbies”, maybe an “intermediate” & “advanced” group. Or perhaps you have specific area of interest, i.e. using “bi-products” of the hive, gardening for bees, getting your town to allow beekeeping, queen-rearing, making splits/nucs, etc. If you have an interest that you’d like to organize a group around, please email us and let us know.

We’ll have Focus Groups in May, June, July, and September. This is a great opportunity to maximize your learning experience and make new beekeeping friends in the process!

From the Treasurer's Desk

Revenue and Expenses 2016

January - March

Income

Donations 530.00 Extractor Rental 70.00 Membership Dues 5,755.00 Raffle Sales 245.00 Speaker/Education Revenu 450.00 Swarm Fees 100.00

Total Income 7,150.00

Expense

Bank and P.O. Box fees (52.45) BBQ Board meetings 100.00 Business Licenses & Permits 20.00 Dues & Subscriptions Education Expenses/Supplies 129.49 Extractor Repairs Insurance Expense 975.00 Nametags (38.00) Library 30.00 Newsletter/Postage/Forms 109.59 Raffle Supplies 359.20 Rent Expense 495.00 Speaker Expenses 300.00 Supplies 111.12

Total Expense 2,538.95

Net Increase 4,611.05

Community Education Corner

March was busy as Community Ed volunteers Janet Kaidantzis, Mike Vigo, Nils Kauffman and Jan Spieth attended Science Fairs at local schools. In Lafayette, the following elementary schools hosted Science Fairs: Springhill Elementary on March 3rd; Happy Valley Elementary on March 22nd; and Burton Valley Elementary on March 24th. Also on March 22nd, in Walnut Creek, MDBA attended Buena Vista Elementary School’s Science Fair. In Orinda, Glorietta Elementary held its Science Fair on March 23rd and MDBA was there. In Moraga, Joaquin Moraga Middle School held a Science Fair on March 16th and the bees were a big hit. And on March 30th in Alamo, Rancho Romero Elementary held a Family Science Night Eco-Fair with MDBA in attendance. Presentations on honeybees were made to the Clayton Valley Sunrise Rotary on March 3rd and at Rodgers Ranch on March 8th. On March 6th, Ellen Walters and Jan Spieth presented a honeybee class to cub scouts in Lafayette; Marjorie Cook, Russ Kettering and Jan presented a bee class to girl scouts at their Bee Hive Jive in Clayton on March 11th; and Marjorie and Jan taught preschoolers about honeybees at St. Stephen’s Preschool in Orinda on March 30th.

A second Community Education informal orientation, hosted by MDBA member Marjorie Cook, was offered in March to interested volunteers. Another session will be scheduled in April.

April is a big month for MDBA Community Education and you are invited to become a Community Education volunteer and share your knowledge and love of honeybees with the community. April is Earth Day month and MDBA has been invited to attend Rossmoor Earth Day; Diablo Valley College Earth Day and Los Medanos College Earth Day. Rodgers Ranch Expo and Wild Birds Unlimited both have invited MDBA to attend. There are also a number of elementary school classes scheduled for honeybee education.

BEEKEEPERS NEEDED! Rodgers Ranch Urban Farm Plant Expo Sat April 9 10am-4pm

Rossmoor Earth Day Celebration Friday April 12, 12 noon-5pm

Los Medanos College Earth Day Festival Pittsburg, Wednesday April 20 10am-2pm

2-hour slots available, contact Jan.

Interested in participating in Community Ed? Curious about how much time it takes and what it involves? Chat with Janet or Marjorie, Mike or Nils, Ellen or Russ---or email me at [email protected].

--Jan Pinkerton Spieth

READ A BOOK!

Have you ever used the club's AMAZING library to further your beekeeping curiosity?

Some of the most valuable beekeeping lessons occur outside of the apiary and within pages of writing.

Barbara Vigil and Russ Kettering maintain our books and would be very happy to direct you towards more information. Members in good standing are invited to check out books for one month per check-out. Remember to bring a $40 deposit in order to check out books (sorry, we've had bad experiences in the past).

The Board hopes that members will submit more book reviews to be featured in future newsletters. If you have a book to review, please send your review to [email protected]

Book Review of Beekeeping in Coastal California Jeremy R. Rose www.calbeebook.com

This book is the most thorough book about beekeeping in coastal California that I have yet read. Mr. Rose talks about current issues that beekeepers here face no matter their operation size, the language is easy and straightforward, and the pictures are fantastic. Mr. Rose anaylzes the beekeeping year month by month and provides information on what both bees are doing and what beekeepers can do. I encourage you to use the link above to go to the website to read a sample chapter of the book.

--Scott Jorgensen

Book Review of Top-Bar Beekeeping: Organic Practices for Honeybee Health by Les Crowder and Heather Harrell

Reviewed by Janet Kaidantzis

This useful and thoughtfully written book is not the first one you should read as a beginner, but it is an excellent choice once you have determined to deepen your connection with bees. Published in 2011, the book contains just one chapter exclusively aimed at top-bar beekeeping (hive management). That chapter provides useful diagrams showing how to move combs to promote (colony expansion, divides, queen raising) or inhibit (swarming, cross combing) activities. The other chapters focus on the book’s subtitle, that being organic, least-invasive techniques of caring for bees. This theme weaves through the chapters on basic beekeeping, evaluating and raising queens, harvesting products from the hive, and working with the seasons. The authors have been keeping, inspecting, and teaching others about bees for 40 years in the Southwest so they have had plenty of time to reflect on beekeeping. They write, “The door to a beehive has to be open in order for the hive to live through a day. We don’t keep our bees; we give them a place to live and do our best to protect them, and they do the same for us.”

MDBA Randy Oliver Workshop

June 25th and 26th

MDBA is excited to present a workshop by Randy Oliver. Randy started keeping bees as a hobbyist in 1966 and went on to get university degrees in biological sciences specializing in entomology. In 1980 he began to build a migratory beekeeping operation in California and currently runs about 1000 hives with his two sons. Through his scientific background and practical experience, Randy offers accurate information to beekeepers through his website, speaking at conventions and writing articles for various bee journals. His website is a major resource to beekeepers in California and beyond; his website link is www.scientificbeekeeping.com .

Randy will lead a two day workshop on Saturday June 25th and Sunday June 26th. On Saturday Randy will be doing a six hour lecture at the Church of the Resurrection Community Room in Pleasant Hill. The fee for the lecture will be $40.00 for MDBA members which includes a box lunch and $50.00 for non-members.

On Sunday, Randy will do two three hour workshops for intermediate to advanced beekeepers who have minimum of three years or more beekeeping experience. Attendees must be MDBA members. As we are anticipating great interest in these workshops, the board will be using a lottery system to fill the workshops. The workshops will be held at Gary Lawrence’s apiary in Pleasant Hill. The three hour workshop will cost $40.00 and will not include lunch.

Please click through this link to print a copy of the registration form. You can mail the form to MDBA or bring it to the April and May meetings. We are very excited about Randy coming to share his wealth of experience and knowledge with our club and hope you are too!

Lawn no more! Many Cities offer turf-to-garden rebates.

Editor's Corner

Attention to individuals or groups with 8 or more be colonies: Have you heard about the Bee-Informed Partnership?

"Applications are now available for 2016 and we are seeking beekeeping groups that manage 8 or more stationary colonies. We will arm you with data from Disease Load Monitoring and a Hive Scale so you may combat the challenges of beekeeping. To aid in this effort we’ve acquired funding to subsidize $300 toward the cost of a hive scale purchased for your beekeeping group. "Join the science team that is helping beekeepers across the country!

As serious hobbyist beekeepers and beyond, we are aware of the bee's health with long term observations. We can help them and further our own understanding of the bees at the same time. Click the link to learn more.

Also

I wish to comment about the year ahead that our honeybees (and all pollinators) face.

First, the facts:

• Although this year should be more forgiving, remember that we are still in a long- term drought. • Successive drought years have a compounding effect • When plants have less water in their roots, they allow less nectar and pollen through their flowers. Plant sex is a very water-intensive process.

Then we think about package day coming up, and how our bees must build enough comb, hatch enough bees, and collect enough honey to make it through winter. We want the bees that we bought to survive! How can we help them? How can we help them in a sustainable fashion?

At the level of animal care we can help recently installed packages through feeding to provide enough calories and nutrition to get their numbers up. In the spring and early summer this means sugar. Lots of sugar syrup. 30-50 pounds of sugar per colony is not unreasonable to feed starting packages throughout the year. For their first year, if they take it, feed it to them. The idea is that you want to get the packages to grow as big as possible as fast as possible. Worry about developing mite resistance and breeding goals for next year. Right now, package buyers just want their bees to live, and gaining critical size is most important to the bees.

In late summer in CA there is a severe pollen dearth. At that time the feeding regimen begins to include pollen substitute so that the bees can have enough protein in their diet. Patty form is good, some dry formulas work. And again, feed them as much as they will take. A full size colony that is rearing brood can eat about 0.5 pounds of pollen a day. A one-pound patty is nothing more than a snack to them. Stay on top of the feeding and you will have more bees. In general, many bee-problems can be solved by having strong (populous) colonies.

Our goal in all of this is to get out bees to be able to greet next February. Chances are that if they make it to February then they will pull through strong into 2016. Once colonies have attained their second year of life they have a much easier year ahead of them-comb is already built to stockpile food and queens often perform better in their second year. It is easier for them to maintain health. In the second year the feeding requirement of our bees goes way down. Many beekeepers stop feeding their colonies in the second year so that the bees can become most acclimated to the natural pollen and nectar flows of their environment.

Regarding the packages: to ensure survival for your bees, do your homework and study what miticides are on the market and how they work. The bees that you ordered are from a large commericial operation and will have a much different set of selection pressures in your backyard than compared to the holding apiary. New beekeepers are wise to learn how to keep bees first with some treatment (this author recommends formic acid or oxalic acid treatments for mite control although he doesn't use chemical treatments in his operation), and then to reduce treatment until their operation is treatment free. Remember, do die. Any dead-out is an opportunity to learn from. No one wants to keep buying bees every year, so if your bees die, get out the camera and the notepad.

Good luck with your packages, everyone. Remember to do a little garden improvement to help them out!

--Scott Jorgensen

And now for a fun insect video. Turn up the volume so the bees can hear too.

UC Davis Bee Symposium: Keeping Bees Healthy

Saturday May 7, 2015. 8:00 am-6:00 pm UC Davis Conference Center 550 Alumni Lane General Admission $80, Students $20

https://registration.ucdavis.edu/Item/Details/231

The Diablo Bee Classifieds

WANTED Cappings Requested If you have unwanted cappings I will melt and clean them for the . AND: Bee Suit Repairs Please contact Lois Kail [email protected] or 925.356.2602

WANTED: Help in the kitchen before and after the monthly meetings! We are a volunteer-run organization.

WANTED: OUR OLD CLUB

BANNER If you know where it is please contact Lois Kail at [email protected] or 925.356.2602

GLASSES FOUND At the April 2 Bee Day Wire Rim Glasses Please Contact Lois Kail [email protected] or 925.356.2602

FOR RENT The MDBA honey extractors (electric) $10 for 1st day and $5 for days 2-5 $10 per day thereafter For Concord area contact Lois Kail 925.356.2602 [email protected] For Alamo area contact Leo Tscharner 925.838.5600 [email protected]

FOR SALE Grafted Queen Cells from a cell builder colony (my best stock) Cells available in April. Pick-up only, in Livermore. $10/cell, Place order ASAP so that know when to make the next batch My operation uses organic miticides and IPM only Contact Scott Ball 925.997.0336 or [email protected]

FOR SALE 4-deep Hand Crank Honey Extractor $250, very good condition Contact Margarito Leon 925.395.3776

FOR SALE Extractor 18/9 Frame For Sale. Used Once in Concord $1,000.00. Viktor Yusupov 415 706-1843

FOR SALE BEESWAX WANTED Lemon-yellow, candle grade The MDBA is searching for a volunteer with $7/lb or $6/lb if 20lbs or more graphic design skills to help update and Bill Cervanka, Cervanka Apiaries coordinate our club's look. If you would like to 650.365.5548 or [email protected] help, please see Janet Kaidantzis at the Membership table or email [email protected].

FOR YOUR CURIOSITY Steve Etheridge and Leo Tscharner have offered FOR SALE instructions on how to make your own bee vaccuum. Approx. 500 back issues of American Bee Follow up with them at the meetings if this interests Journal and Bee Culture you. $200 for the lot Contact Major Branzel 707.643.9433

FOR SALE

FOR SALE Used 10-frame deep boxes Thought to be Mann Lake Ltd-made $8/each, 50 available Also 10-frame super boxes (6 and 5/8") with 10 frames w/o foundation. $8/each Various conditions, come take your pick Contact Debbe Holeman 925.634.4584 or [email protected]

Hercules Bees Top Bar Beehives and Top Bar NUCS Nucleus colonies to be available beginning in May Register for May 9 and May 23 Top Bar beekeeping classes! www.herculesbees.biz 510.421.3671

MarElla Honey B's Beekeeping Supplies and Honey Authorized Dealer on Mann Lake Ltd. Supplies! 950 Detroti Ave, Suite 12, Concord, 94518 www.marellahoneybs.com http://www.marellahoneybs.com/Bees-for-sale--- 2016.html 925.575.7444

Bee Happy Solutions Attractant/Swarm Attractant Great for marking bait hives. Many local testimonials $22 for a 0.5 oz bottle 415.272.0596 or [email protected]

Rodgers Ranch Urban Farm EXPO AND PLANT SALE Saturday April 9 10am-4pm 315 Cortsen Road, Pleasant Hill 1000's of plants to choose from and gardening classes. BBQ by DVC Culinary School Wood planter box building and pottery making www.rodgersranchurbanfarm.org

To Submit Articles or Classified Ads Have you got something to share about bees? Contact Scott Jorgensen at [email protected] Deadline for submission is the 25th of each month

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