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Dates to Remember
May 11: May NWDBA Meeting
June 4-5: WSU Picnic
June 8: June NWDBA Meeting
Oct 14-16: WSBA Fall Conference (Spokane)
May
Program
At the may program we'll run thru and discuss tracheal mite
testing procedures.
Beekeeper Freaks Out
Have you noticed the blackberries? They are already
forming buds and it looks like we may see an even earlier blackberry
crop than we did last year. One beekeeper commented to the editor
she was "freaked out" by this as the bees aren't ready! My bees
sure aren't ready but maybe the weather we've been having will get the
bees going earlier too so we won't miss our great blackberry harvest
this year. Keep your fingers crossed!
MyBeeHives.com
I've had continued interest in the beekeeping site I set up for
online beekeeping notebook entry. Part of the site is also a forum
where folks have been great about helping other beekeepers with
questions. The site is nearing it's 6 month birthday with more
than 300 users who have entered data on more than 700 hives! Last
month was the biggest yet with over 55000 hits. This is much more
than I imagined so I'm going to have to add some more analysis to the
site to glean some interesting metrics from all the data. Thanks
to those of you who have sent suggestions!
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WSU Picnic June 4-5
Join Dr. Steve
Sheppard and his staff in this 2-day program. Last year was the first time this
event was held as a 2-day short course, and was well received. This year the
event will be held on June 4th and 5th 2004, and will feature an excellent
program including queen rearing, hive management, pest & disease control, and of
course research currently being conducted. You can get the full
agenda including registration forms from our website:
http://www.nwdba.org/forms/WSU-picnic.pdf
May Beekeeping
If you need
more drawn comb, give the bees full sheets of foundation to draw out.
Add no more than two or three frames of foundation at a time to the
center of the upper hive body. Never divide the brood nest with
foundation, alternate foundation between combs of brood. Queens should
now be laying at full capacity. Honey yields will be greater if
swarming is controlled by removing swarm cells that contain eggs or
larvae on the bottom or any edges of the comb.
June Beekeeping
Blueberries
are in bloom the first week; Blackberries in bloom the second week; Black Locust
the last week. Remove the queen excluder when there is one box (deep or
western) mostly full of honey over the brood nest. Continue to monitor
brood nest crowding. Bees sometimes store honey close to and in the brood
nest causing crowding. There should be one or two empty brood combs for
the queen to lay in.
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