59 members attended. Dues
collected from 51 families. New members: Paul Baker, Janet McKee, James
Miller, Mickey Motyko, Terri O’Berry, Claudia Ternes, Max Trimpe.
Announcements:
(a) Thanks to those who paid this
year’s ECIBA dues, $5 per family. (“Family”=all those at the same
address.) New members should note that belonging to ECIBA does NOT
automatically enroll them in Iowa Honey Producers Association. To join
IHPA check out www.ABuzzAboutBees.com. IHPA dues are $20/year.
(b) IHPA Conference this fall (Nov 12-14) will be held at Clarion Inn, Cedar
Rapids. This is a change—up to now we met in Marshalltown.
(c)
Central Iowa Beekeepers auction—April 18 in Perry IA. Submit or buy
cleaned-up used equipment.
(d) Tri-State (IA-WI-MN) beekeepers meeting is
being planned for summer 2016 in Minneapolis.
(e) One-time ECIBA member
Jeralyn Westercamp is 2014 IHPA Honey Princess. Jeralyn is available to
promote honey at fairs and meetings.
(f) Jim Clark has stopped
beekeeping, and has 28 hives worth of equipment to sell. Contact Bob
Wolff at Indian Creek Nature Center.
(g) Dave Hayes is starting a new
beekeepers club for folks in the Maquoketa area. Another new club may be
starting in the Quad Cities.
(h) Practical Farmers of Iowa is holding a
webinar on spray drift, March 24, 7:00 p.m., led by the folks at Grinnell
Organic Farm.
ECIBA business: we voted to offer a $25 prize again
this year to the best beekeeping project at the Johnson County 4- Fair.
Winter Survival Rates: More of our colonies seemed to
have survived this winter than last: a rough count among members present
suggested a survival rate perhaps as high as 75%.
Swarm Catching: Floyd Otdoerfer pointed out that we
must expect colonies to swarm late April through mid-June. To inhibit
swarming, be sure colonies have enough space (supers with some drawn
foundation) for egg laying. Nevertheless, hives may start new queens in
preparation for swarming. Every 10 days or so, check for that by tipping
up the lower hive body to inspect for queen cells hanging down. You can scrape
off the queen cells to keep new queens from hatching; in this case, be sure to
add more foundation space immediately. (As old ECIBA member Myron Sorensen
used to say, “ Always give your bees something to do. Keep them busy!”)
Alternately, use frames with queen cells to put in splits. A good time to
make splits: first week in May. Despite these precautions, there may be
swarms anyway. New swarms sometimes settle in an empty hive body left
near your apiary. Bait the lure trap with frames of comb. It may
help to drip a few drops of lemon grass essential oil inside. Another
possibility is to mount lure traps in shaded locations beside a bee flyway (along
the edge of a woodlot, ideally ~8-12’ above ground). The March 2015 issue of American
Bee Journal discusses this, giving plans for building bee trap boxes.
The author says optimal size/shape seems to be similar to 5-frame nuc boxes
stacked two-high. Only a few frames are needed to lure in the scout bees;
use old frames with lots of propolis, including at least one old frame with
dark wax if you have it. In any case, check lure boxes frequently.
Wax moths will take over unattended frames with wax..
Floyd showed his rig to catch a swarm
that has settled in a tree. This consists of a big hoop net on the end of
a long telescoping pole. Using that, he seldom has to climb up
ladders. Instead, he baits the net with a fresh frame of brood, and
jiggles it under the swarm. The brood frame lures the swarm down into the
net. The queen will usually be low in the swarm cluster, and if you can jiggle
her into the net the whole swarm will soon follow.
General Discussions: (a) What about these Australian flow
hives, with self-draining comb foundation? Interesting, but can they
handle cold and propolis build-up?
(b) Now is time to start feeding protein, so
queens will lay eggs. If colonies are low on honey, start feeding heavy
syrup (2:1 sugar:water), too. But once started, don’t stop. Hungry bees
will cannibalize brood. Leave insulation on top of hives until cold weather is
clearly over.
(c) FDA will soon approve oxalic acid (wood bleach) in USA for
killing varroa mites. There will have to be strict guidelines to keep honey
safe. An alternative is formic acid, the only mite-killer generally
considered to be “organic”. (Note, however, that there are no clear rules
for organic honey. There are suggested guidelines only, not yet included
in official National Organic Program regulations.) To apply either oxalic
or formic acid, you need a vaporizer with good temperature controls: expensive!
BBKA Record Cards: I gave out samples of my version of
the British Beekeepers record cards described in the Feb 2015 issue of Bee
Culture. I printed them on 5”x8” cards that can be taped on the inner cover
of each hive to keep track of feeding, honey harvested, and other useful
observations. The cards should have had an extensive legend printed on the back
suggesting abbreviations to use in filling them out, but some did not. I have
asked our webmaster, Jim Davis, to post the Excel file for these cards (which
includes the complete legend) on our website (http://eastcentraliowabeekeepers.blogspot.com/) for those who may want to print up
more copies for themselves. You will find this on the Resources page.
==Dave Campbell, ECIBA Secretary
