Attention Members: You can now reserve the oxalic acid vaporizer. Go to this link to get started.
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Minutes of East Central Iowa Beekeepers Association
April 15th, 2024
The meeting was called to order at 6:30 by President Joseph Klingelhutz.
Joseph welcomed new members and asked them to introduce themselves and tell a little about their experience with bees. Welcome to the new folks!
--Treasury report. Joseph indicated that we have approximately $1400 in our account. He explained briefly what dues are and what our funds are used for: insurance costs, county fair expenses, speaker honorarium, reimbursement for members attending events, field day expenses and purchases for the club apiary as well as general operating expenses.
--Election of secretary. Rachel Vakulich has offered to take the position of secretary. She was voted in unanimously. Thanks, Rachel!
--Club apiary update. Joseph reviewed what is currently happening with plans to develop a club apiary. A location south of Iowa City, near Hills, has been established on property owned by Michael and Anne Welsh who have graciously offered to let us keep and maintain an apiary on land that is a mix of prairie and woods. The property is off a dirt road so travel to it is not recommended after a rain. Thanks to fellow member Robert Blount for making the connection with the Welsh family. The club apiary will be used for training and educational purposes by members, who will be required to provide their own protective wear, though James Miller indicated there will likely be some available. All who enter the property to access the apiary will be required to sign a liability waiver which is graciously being drafted pro bono by an attorney who is an acquaintance of Rob McCain. Various members have indicated they will provide bees and/or hive components. It is hoped that the apiary will be at least begun to be set up by mid-May. The landowners would like to be notified whenever anyone will be going on to the property and a system will be set up to accomplish that, probably via texts. Jim Davis suggested an online service like groups.io, which Craig Aldrich had recommended, could be used to coordinate activities at the apiary.
--June Field Day. A date in June to hold a field day was discussed. Approximately ten a.m. to noon June 1st was decided upon with June 8th as a rain date. Shaun Webb has volunteered his property to be used for the event, which is about 7 miles south of Iowa City on Black Diamond Road. Activities will include a short meeting, hive inspections, mite testing, applying oxalic acid vaporizer treatment and general talk about bees! Kathy Davis reminded that last year we had refreshments at the end. Members will be asked to bring protective bee gear. Members should look for updated letters or emails later in May.
--County Fair 2024? Discussion centered around whether or not to host a booth at the Johnson County Fair again this July. Cons included time involved and approximately $250 in costs now for the 4 day event, and the fact that we have not seen new members attend as a result. It does support one of the missions of our club, that being educational outreach in the community. Joseph suggested as an alternative we perhaps look at setting up a booth a couple days at the Iowa City Farmer’s market. This would involve fewer hours and the market draws a fairly large crowd. Joseph will look into costs and other considerations with that.
--Winter survival and spring management. A few members shared their winter survival experiences. Some lost all their colonies, from disease or starvation while others had minimal losses. Some noticed very few bees remaining in the hive even in early winter.
Talk turned to swarms. Don Kirchner said he has already captured a swarm and others indicated the swarm season has begun early. Will Swain said he typically looks at May 15 as swarm day, as most years many swarms occur right around that time. Here are several main points made about swarms. Often, repeated swarms will go to the same area due to pheremones that remain in that location. Swarms may temporarily stay in one location, such as a tree branch or a pole, for as little as an hour or for a couple days if the weather is cool while the scout bees look for a new home. Typically, a swarm may take up to half the bees in the colony. Floyd Otdoerfer noted that swarms may contain multiple queens. Swarms can be captured by using a swarm trap. Will Swain showed a trap he has used. This trap is made of thin plywood, with holes and a screen for ventilation. Traps should be placed in the area where swarms have occurred in the past if possible. Ideally, place the trap as high as you can reach. Will talked about the behavior of scout bees and recommend the book by Tom Seeley, Honeybee Democracy in which Seeley suggests it isn’t the queen making all the decisions in the colony but a group of “alpha” bees who direct the behavior. Will uses a spacious trap because the bees are very much in a mode for drawing out comb after they have swarmed, so puts in a frame the bees can draw out. He also uses a frame with older dark comb, which the bees seem to prefer. A very little amount of lemongrass oil applied to the inside of the trap can serve as a lure but cautions against using too much oil because it can then serve as a deterrent to the bees. Floyd also mentioned that if one puts a frame with brood on it in the trap, the bees will be more likely to stay. Will likes to keep his swarms in the trap, out of the sun, for about a week to help guarantee they will stay. Now would be an ok time to put out swarm traps. It also would be good practice to put up another trap immediately after capturing a swarm since there may be multiple swarms in the same location. Joseph noted that swarms are “free bees” and fair game to those who find them. Tom Long mentioned the Russian scion, which is a special type of swarm trap that requires regular checking since it doesn’t include a box.
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| Will demonstrating a swarm box he uses. |
Swarm prevention was the next item mentioned. Again, some key points: To hope to prevent a swarm, the beekeeper needs to do a split before queen cups contain larva. At that point, they will develop a queen cell. A split can be done in many ways, and can be as large as a full box or a nuc. The split should contain several frames with a mix of brood at various developmental stages and at least a couple frames with resources (honey and pollen). If queen cells are found in the mother colony, some can be moved into the split but don’t remove all the queen cells from the original colony. Some prefer to move the old queen into the split. In that case, there needs to be space for the queen to lay eggs. Extra bees should be shaken into the split since many will return to the original box. There are various techniques to keep bees from returning to the original box that includes putting something at the entrance to the split, such as a branch, that forces the bees leaving the split to have to reorient.
Open discussion: Paul Young asked about availability of terramycin. Joseph indicated it is now required by law to have a relationship with a pharmacist who will work with beekeepers. In the past, terramycin has been used as a preventative for American foulbrood. Paul is concerned his colonies have had AFB. Joseph encouraged him to contact Andy Joseph, the state apiarist, to consult about this. AFB has been seen very little in Iowa in the past several years and is a serious disease that can be spread.
Tom Long talked about a great source that he recommends: Sustainable Beekeepers Guild of Michigan (https://sbgmi.org/) There is much information to be harvested from the site and membership in this group.
Thanks again as always to Rob McCain and Urban Acres Realty for hosting our meetings.
Look for information coming in the near future about the June Field Day.
Please send any comments/corrections/additions or deletions to Jim Davis
Hope to see you in June!
Keep up to date on club news and events on the web:
http://eastcentraliowabeekeepers.blogspot.com
