A representative of Bee Downtown will share information about their mission – building healthy, sustainable, honey bee communities in urban environments. Bee Downtown has a strong history of promoting beekeeping in urban business districts. They will discuss the challenges associated with beekeeping in cities and their success in doing so.
The Urban Beekeeper
On Monday, April 15, three OCBA beekeepers joined five beekeepers from 5 County Beekeepers and one from Caldwell County to tag newly hatched worker bees. The numbered tags are coupled with a painted abdomen to allow researchers to identify the age cohort of the bees. The research study is headed by Dan Charbonneau, a post doc at NCSU’s Apiculture Research Center. The study is investigating the role of worker bees in the selection and rearing of queen larvae.
900 newly emerged bees were tagged and painted by OCBA members Dawn Rogers, Tim Struttmann and John Rintoul. As the study progresses, several other OCBA beekeepers will participate in the study to help tag and paint bees.
Spring Splits Workshop
If your hives overwintered well and are busting the box with bees you may want to consider a spring split. OCBA has two demonstration hives at Carrboro High School. Both overwintered (as of February 15th) and one is busting at the seams with bees – 16 of the 20 frames in are covered edge-to-edge with bees. There is very little drone brood yet so there is time to plan one or more splits before the bees will be ready to swarm.
Spring splits can help you increase your colonies.
To help our second and third year beekeepers understand hive increase basics, OCBA is planning a Spring Split Workshop at the Carrboro High School demonstration hives. Randall Austin (OCBA Master Beekeeper and Director of Education) will demonstrate hive splitting techniques.
After several weather related delays for our weekend dates we will finally have good weather. Unfortunately the good weather is coming mid-week rather than on a weekend. But 19 members have indicated that they can be available even mid-week. So we are moving forward. The workshop will take place Thursday, March 29 at 1:00p at Carrboro High School. The hives are located to the left of the traffic circle. Parking is available in the parking lot south of the hives.
Points are awarded based on chapter activities across several different domains. Individual members can help OCBA earn points by: volunteering to staff information tables at community events; attending an NCSBA State Conference; becoming a Certified, Journeyman or Master Beekeeper; donating honey or honey proceeds to a non-profit organization; or helping with OCBA’s State Fair Exhibit. Other ideas to help OCBA earn points may occur to you as you read through the GAP program guidelines.
As you participate in GAP related activities, you may be asked to fill out an Individual GAP Form. The form is available here. The Individual GAP Form is interactive, so you should be able to fill it out on your computer. If not, handwritten is fine. Completed forms should be returned to Cynthia Speed or John Rintoul, the GAP Committee Co-Chairs.
This month’s educational topic is “Honey Bee Communication.” It will be presented by Chris Apple, past OCBA President and current OCBA Community Outreach Director. Chris will discuss the key honey bee pheromones that facilitate intra-hive communication. These pheromones allow the colony to function as a superorganism. She will also explain the navigational mysteries of the Nobel Prize winning waggle dance. These are important topics for all beekeepers who want to know what’s going on in the hive.
Orange County Beekeepers Association’s 2018 Bee School started January 16th. Once again the class was fully enrolled with 75 new and prospective beekeepers, including OCBA’s two apprentices, Catherine Trusky and Megan Talikoff. Randall Austin, OCBA’s Director of Education welcomed the new beekeepers and walked them through an overview of beekeeping as he introduced them to the syllabus for the 10 week session. This year’s class boasts a number of friends/family members of existing OCBA beekeepers, as well as a higher than usual number of students who are taking the class with a spouse, partner or other family member.
The cleaning behavior of hygienic bees help reduce the varroa load in our hives. This month Nancy Ruppert, NC State Bee Inspector for the Sandhills Region, will help us understand “The Value of Having/Raising Hygienic Queens in Your Apiary.” She will provide an overview of hygienic bee stocks and teach us how to identify hygienic behavior in our hives. She will also discuss the basics of raising hygienic queens.