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Minutes from March 13, 2023
President Joseph Klingelhutz opened the meeting at 6:30.
New members were noticed and welcomed.
Joseph began by asking if people wanted to comment on winter survival. As usual, there were mixed results, with some members losing all bees and others with over 75% survival. Mice contributed to loss for some.
Treasurer’s report: $1400 in our account. It was mentioned that a proposal has been made to reduce the dues from the current $20 per individual/household to $10 per year. Discussion ensued as to what should be done with the funds we have. Joseph suggested we collect ideas for things to do with the money, as well as supporting members who attend conferences. Members are encouraged to send ideas to the secretary, Jim Davis (davisjk@southslope.net) for the officers to compile and discuss at future meetings. One suggestion is to buy equipment, such as used for wax dipping woodenware, that could be used by all members. According to by-laws, the proposed reduction in dues will be voted on at the next meeting.
Guest speaker—Julia McGuire, of Des Moines Backyard Beekeepers.
Julia spoke about two projects she has been involved with the past couple of years. The first, A Phenology Planner for Beekeepers, is a project Julia discussed with our group in March, 2021. She devoloped this project from a grant, the purpose of which was to survey Iowa beekeepers about phenological events, such as blooming times of plants and trees, to develop a planner beekeepers could use to help make management decisions for their colonies. Phenology is the study of cyclic and seasonal natural phenomena. This crowd-sourced project, which took place in 2021, resulted in the annual planner, which has been distributed to club members. Julie has since added a colored fold-out called A Beekeeper’s Year—The Prairie Edition, which is a graphical representation of phenological events through the year combined with typical beekeeping management. This project was supported through a grant from SARE (Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education). Both projects are intended to help beekeepers be more aware of events in nature and how they are tied to management practices. Julie also has pictures of various plants on her website, Juliecache.com that she intends to expand and eventually present in chronological order.
The second part of Julie’s presentation involved her work with Learning Circles. She sees this as filling a gap that may not be covered by viewing videos, reading, attending meetings or even working with a mentor. Learning Circles will focus on specific topics and be presented on the Zoom platform on a monthly basis, with occasional extended learning in-person. The schedule for 2023 thus far includes splits in April, grafting and queen rearing in June, doing cutouts in September and storytelling sessions at the IHPA conference in November. You can find updates on Learning Circles on Julie’s website.
Spring Management—Will Swain
Will focused on two areas—feeding and splitting. He talked about his experience this winter, when he found his colonies were much lower on resources going into winter than he had thought, so feeding sugar bricks was essential for keeping colonies alive this winter. Fortunately, winter provided enough breaks in temperature to allow additional feeding. He uses sugar bricks for feeding throughout the winter, to keep moisture low. (Sugar bricks—4 lbs of sugar to about 1/3 cup water, bakes at about 175 degrees for about ½ hour). He puts a shim on top of the hive to allow space for the sugar brick. After March feeding with sugar, when do people begin to use pollen patties or provide pollen substitute. He also typically waits until April 1 to begin syrup feeding but again, that is weather dependent so can happen earlier or later than that date. He usually waits on pollen until after St. Patrick’s day but again, weather dependent. James Miller said the rule of thumb is to not put pollen patties on until bees are bringing in pollen. Some begin feeding earlier. Global patties are a popular choice and Joseph indicated they come in two choices of pollen quantity.
Will also spoke about splits and suggested Bob Binnie videos are very good for demonstrating good splitting procedures. Will showed a double-screened board he uses with his splits, which can help increase chances of queen acceptance in the split colony. The board can also be used in a colony that swarms. Make the split, be sure to have queen cells in both boxes with the board between. The board prevents mandicular pheremone transfer, so the bees see themselves as being in discreet colonies. If one box does not produce a queen, they can be recombined and there is a higher percentage chance that the colony will have a mated queen.
Central Iowa Beekeepers hold their winter seminar Saturday, March 18. Rachel Vakulich plans to attend and will provide a summary of the conference.
Iowa Honey Producers 2023 Field Day will be held June 17th at the Red Shed in Clarinda, Iowa.
Some discussion was held regarding possibly having a field day ourselves in June. Look for more inforamation about that in May.
Randy Hahn talked about the trips he will be taking to pick up nucs in Illinois and Ohio and would take orders from others if they get in soon. An email was sent to members about this.
James Miller brought some pads that are recommended by Randy Oliver for using with extended release oxalic acid, and will sell them for $1.00 per square.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:15. Thanks to all for coming.
Submitted by Jim Davis, Secretary
Next meeting: (tentative depending on if we do a field day) June 12, 2023
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