OCBA Meeting Minutes 6/12/2008

The meeting was brought to order by Becky at 7:34 p.m.

She announced that next time would be honey tasting. Bring a honey dish and recipe.

We need volunteers for the State Zoo on the weekends. Contact Pat Jones. We have 2 observation hives if you need one. David Langham has one and Jack Tapp may have the other.

May 31 was the field day. We had a great crowd and great time!

July 10-12 - State Beekeepers meeting at Sandhills Community College. The agenda is up on the NCSBA website. The schedule is also in the bee buzz.

Next meeting will be on extracting –bring honey. Bring pictures also. We will vote on the best 12 pictures for next year’s calendar. Think about being on the committee.

Our state bee inspectors, Will Hicks and Don Hopkins gave our meetings presentation.

The state inspectors are there for both the small beekeeper/hobbyist and the commercial beekeeper. Just call if you have a problem and they can help. Most of their calls are to beekeepers with just a few hives.

It has been a good year for bees – and for swarms.
CCD is still going on – no North Carolina beekeepers have reported being effected this year. Now there is a more strict definition of what CCD is and there have been no cases yet.

We talked some on Africanized Honey Bees. Monitoring is the best defense. Africanized bees are small, aggressive and swarm in odd places. But, just because there is a swarm in an odd place doesn’t mean that they are Africanized honeybees. All suspected cases so far in North Carolina have been European Honey Bees. Be aware that when there is little nectar about (late June and July), the European honey bees get more grumpy.

Spring is the best time for splits. If you want splits now, you will need to feed them. They will do better if you have queens already mated and ready to go.

For most colonies around this time of year the honey flow has ended. Monitor your hives. Go to the back and lift. Feed if there are no reserves.

Monitor for varroa. Varroa populations will increase continually throughout the summer. June, July, and August are the months with the biggest mite problems. Check for varroa by a sugar shake or sticky board from now through the fall.

Treatments list in order of least toxicity to greatest toxicity are:
Sucroside (an esterized sugar compound),

ApiLife Var or Api Guard (Thymol compounds) – more effective than Sucroside.

Mite Away II (Formic Acid) – fumagent, use goggles, has temperature restrictions – use in spring and fall

ApiStan (fluvalinate) – Stays in honey comb so be sure to take off supers before treatment

Check Mite (Coumaphos)- quicker mite resistance

Integrated Pest Management – use screen bottom boards between treatments.
Management practices can help too. Any time you interrupt the brood cycle, this helps decrease the varroa mite population. Drone foundation is also a good management tool since the varroa mites prefer drone brood. Be sure to freeze the drone frames before they hatch.

If monitored by sugar shake of 300 bees
3-5 mites in March, April or May – treat
15 mites in July through September –treat

Test as soon as you take supers off and check every 3-5 weeks. Test in August and September so you can treat before the end of fall.

Thanks Will and Don for a very informative meeting.