LANE COUNTY BEEKEEPERS ASSOCIATION 130 HANSEN LANE, EUGENE, OR 97404 Website: lcbaor.org Email: [email protected] President: Katharine Hunt 541-607-0106 Vice-President: Pam Leavitt 541-344-4228 Treasurer: Polly Habliston 541-461-0339 Secretary: Jodi Wiktorowski 541-543-1737 Past President: Judy Scher 541-344-2114 Board of Directors: Kelly Goodwin 541-925-3028

October 2014 NEWSLETTER President’s Message

Max Kuhn 541-997-7390 Francis Rothauge 541-520-8391

NEXT MEETING:

Katharine Hunt, LCBA President

October 21, 2014 Program - 7:30 pm

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Dr. Ramesh Sagili, Ph.D., Department of Horticulture at Oregon State University gave a very informative talk at our September meeting. The title of his presentation was: “Current and Future Management Strategies for Varroa Mites”. We are fortunate to have him share his latest research with us. At the October meeting a number of our club members will be sharing how to utilize different “Products of the Hive”. We will have three different stations and those in attendance will divide up into groups that will visit each station for about 20 minutes. The topics include candle making, mead, and propolis. Those sharing will be Judy Scher, Katharine Hunt and Scott Timms. We will also be drawing for a second scholarship to cover the single registration for the OSBA Conference, November 6th – 8th in Seaside. Last month Francis Rothauge was the lucky winner of the OSBA free conference registration. If you would like to attend the conference, consider entering your name in this drawing. Remember you will be responsible for travel, lodging and meals. Those people that entered their names last month are still valid. See our September newsletter for details about registering for the conference. OSBA is also encouraging those that attend the conference to enter their honey, beeswax and bee photographs in the Annual Honey Show held in conjunction with the Fall Conference. Hive products produced since this time last year are eligible. If you have previously entered honey/beeswax in another show you are welcome to re-enter it in this show. Please review the competition rules and categories. They can be found at http://osba2014.orsba.org/wp-content/ uploads/2014/10/2014OSBAHoneyCompetitionRules.pdf Standardized judging rules will be used: http://osba2014.orsba.org/wp-content/ uploads/2014/10/2014OSBAHoneyJudgingStandards.pdf continued on page 2

Come early to socialize and share your questions with experienced beekeepers.

Hall opens at 7:00 pm Products of the Hive Demonstrations Mead, Candles, Propolis Trinity United Methodist Church 440 Maxwell Road Turn West off River Road

in Eugene (South of Beltline)

Inside this Issue: Physical Challenges Busy Bee Sept Meeting Recap Varroa Mite Cycle WAS Conference New Members Bee Fondant Beekeeping Tips Events & Announcements Nov. Honey Tasting Elections “Hive Check” Healthy Bees-Healthy Gardens Event Classified Ads

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President’s Message continued

How was your honey harvest this year? We will be accepting donations of honey at our monthly meeting. The club is collecting it now as we will be hosting a booth at the Good Earth Home & Garden Show in January. Please contact me at 541-607-0106 if you would like to arrange to donate some honey or bring it to the next club meeting. Elections for the Board of Directors and Executive for 2015 will take place at our November meeting. Please consider letting your name stand for a position. If you are interested please contact me. The nominating committee will be presenting more information at the October meeting. Also in November we will be having our annual “Honey Tasting” meeting led by Past President Judy Scher.

How do you deal with the physical challenges when keeping bees? by Rita & Morris Ostrofsky They say death and taxes are unavoidable. There is a third item that can be added to this list; physical changes whether due to aging or something else. Barriers to beekeeping can come in the form of immobility, arthritis, back pain, eyesight issues or other challenges. But beekeepers are resourceful and find creative ways to continue doing what they love. We are working on a program that will share methods used by beekeepers to overcome these hurdles. Have you faced obstacles getting in the way of your beekeeping? What have you done that allows you to continue keeping bees? Share your story. Please contact Morris and Rita Ostrofsky at [email protected] or 541-685-2875.

Busy Bee - Giving Back to the Hive Last month I noted that the club has 9 members that take care of our extracting equipment. They are Peggy Jilson, Maggie & George Karabinis, Justin Boe, Mark Hogle, Kev Ashley, Ken Ograin, Kaylene Stewart, and Amy Sierzega. I asked them how the extracting season went this year. Watch our November newsletter for a report as to how this club service played out this year. by President Katharine Hunt

Thank you to our members who staffed our club table at The Lane County Master Gardener Association Annual Fall Festival , September 27 at the Emerald Park Recreation Center. Members who helped included: Maggie Matoba, Frank Feville, Jenny Buckley, Ray Krass, Max Kuhn, and Rebecca Hale. Jim Rundall also gave a talk on “Urban Beekeeping” at the festival. Thank you for helping out. As mentioned in my President’s Note there is another opportunity to volunteer coming up in November. That is when we will have our election for the club executive and board for 2015. This is an important service to the club and community. See the September newsletter for details about duties.

Jim Rundall (right) - group is looking at mason bees.

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August Meeting Highlights by Jodi Wiktorowski, LCBA Secretary

Announcements: x T-shirts that were ordered will be available at our November meeting.

x

Elections for board members will take place in November. If you would like to run for a position, please contact Katherine.

x

Francis Rothauge is looking at having a beekeeping class at LCC in Cottage Grove. If you are interested, please contact him at 541-520-8391.

Speaker: Dr. Ramesh Sagili, from OSU bee lab, discussed current research topics at the lab. He followed with a great overview of the number one threat to honey bees, Varroa mites! Current research topics at the bee lab include: x

Honey bee nutrition- each crop is nutritionally different for bees

x

Nosema ceranae- a microsporidium parasite of the gut of bees

x

The effects of pesticides including neonicotinoids and fungicides on honey bee colony health

x

Applied studies of Varroa control- testing the efficiency of products for control of the mites in hives

Dr. Sagili began his discussion of Varroa with a brief overview of the mite life cycle. A fertile female mite will enter the cell of a larval bee at around three and one half days. The female mite is able to use the pheromones from the larva in order to time the entry into the cell just prior to the cell being capped. Pheromones of one species used by another species are termed kairomones. The female mite will lay an egg around 60 hours after the cell is capped, and then continue to lay an egg every ten hours. The first egg will be a male, and the subsequent eggs will be female mites. After about a week, the young mites will mate. When the young bee exits the cell, the original female and any mature young female mites will also exit. In 1987, Varroa mites were introduced to the United States. The mites originally evolved with the Asian honey bee, Apis cerana. Because of this co-evolution, the Asian honey bee and varroa have a host-parasite relationship. The mite is unable to reproduce in worker brood, only in the drone cells, of the Asian honey bee, so the bees are not affected by varroa mites; they are resistant. Russian bees have some degree of tolerance to varroa also. Tolerance means that the mite will cause damage to the bee, but the bee is able to live with the damage caused. Resistance is different in that there is no damage caused at all. The Russian bees, unlike the other races of Apis mellifera, will likely have some degree of tolerance to varroa mites because they were exposed to the mites in the 1950’s, therefore having 30 to 40 years of natural selection pressures. Dr. Sagili went on to discuss the importance and methods of varroa mite control. He emphasized the importance of IPM, integrated pest management strategies, including chemical and non-chemical means to control varroa populations. There is an economic threshold beyond which the varroa mite levels will cause irreversible damage to a hive. This threshold is not universal; it will vary from region to region and among colonies and breeds of bees. In our area, the threshold is measured with the sticky board and it is accepted to be approximately 24 mites over 24 hours in the fall. Dr. Sagili emphasized that treatment for varroa should not be solely based on calendar timing, but should be based on the realistic mite population. He strongly encouraged mite counts year round! There are numerous treatments available for varroa control. Dr. Sagili discussed the following: 1. Apivar- amitraz is a contact miticide, meaning that in order for it to be effective, the bees must come into contact with the strips. This works best when applied in the spring. It causes a slow decrease in the mite population over six to eight weeks. It is important to follow instructions closely with this product as development of resistance is a concern. 2. Apiguard- thymol is temperature dependent. Ambient temperature must be above 60 degrees for this to be effective. This will also control tracheal mites to some degree. This product has shown to be approximately 86% effective at varroa control. continued on page 4

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September Meeting Recap Continued

3. Mite-Away Quickstrips (MAQS)- formic acid may be toxic to queens. Use of this product requires good ventilation. This is the only product that will kill mites within cells.

4. Hopguard– This unique miticide is derived from natural hop compounds, providing the beekeeper with a natural product. It is only effective during periods when hive is broodless. It is effective for swarms and when installing package bees. 5. Oxalic acid- this is not registered for use in the US. This will kill brood, so it must be used late in the fall. A 3% solution is sprayed on the hive. 6. Cultural control- these include using drone comb, screened bottom boards, and powdered sugar dusting. 7. Biological control- Stratiolaelaps scimitus is a predatory mite that typically lives in soil. Dr. Sagili began to study this mite in July this year. So far it has been shown to chew off the legs of varroa mites. This research is ongoing. 8. RNAi- this may be a useful control strategy in the future. This is a process by which gene expression is inhibited thereby causing viral replication to be reduced. We thank Dr. Sagili for his time in attending our meeting and for his informative presentation. President Katharine Hunt presented him with LCBA honey and a donation to his Bee Research Lab. View Dr. Sagili’s slide presentation on our website on the ReferKatharine Hunt & Dr. Ramesh Sagili ence tab http://www.lcbaor.org/Reference.htm. There are also some great pictures of mites and other information.

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Varroa Mite Life Cycle

Chart from Dr. Sagili’s presentation. View slides at http://www.lcbaor.org/

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Western Apiculture Society Conference 2014 Missoula, Montana USA by Max Kuhn, LCBA Board Member Those folks fortunate enough to attend the 2014 Western Apiculture Society’s annual conference were rewarded with a true gem of entertainment and enlightenment. The conference was held this year in beautiful Missoula, Montana on the campus of the University of Montana. In this beautiful setting, the award winning slate of speakers were welcomed by a large enthusiastic group of conference attendees. The list of speakers included some of the beekeeping industry’s most familiar and respected names. Eric Mussen, Randy Oliver, Jerry Hayes, Sarah Red-Laird, Kim Flottum and 2014 American Honey Princess Elena Hoffman, to name a few. Not to mention an even longer and equally impressive list of speakers presenting information at the 2nd International Workshop on Hive and Bee Monitoring. This workshop being held one day prior to the WAS conference itself. I brought back too much information to mention here, but I summarize my “take home” with these two comments; First, Electronic Hive Monitoring is available now in a variety of formats. All of which are improving daily in performance, as they are being reduced in cost. In my opinion, in just a few years, many back yard beekeepers will monitor their hives electronically by computer and/or telephone. We will be predicting swarms and diseases accurately from reading graphs of hive noises, temperatures, weight, humidity, etc. The possibilities in this field are almost endless and the forward momentum of this science is unfettered. Get ready, it is coming. Secondly, we as an industry, have a problem. A big problem. But a problem we can overcome with an adjustment in our recruitment efforts. Our industry is overloaded with beekeepers from the “Baby boomer” generation. From the commercial beekeeping side of our industry to the back yarders, we are over run with beekeepers who will not be here in 20 years. For the sake of the bees, and our food chain, we need to concentrate our efforts on recruiting and training new, young, enthusiastic, beekeepers. I congratulate Dr. Jerry Bromenshenk, WAS President 2014, the entire cadre of WAS officers and the University of Montana staff involved in putting this conference together. They did an excellent job of providing the very best information, entertainment, and accommodations available. Thank you all from this back yarder. Over run Max Kuhn

Welcome New Members Mike France Cheri Smith Timothy Gurton

Conference registration table. Speaker Randy Oliver with the hat on.

Eugene Eugene Eugene

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Bee Fondant Recipe

One of the most important winter chores is to lift the hive body to check if it’s light in weight. If so, it is low in honey stores. In the winter and early spring your bees will starve by Judy Scher if they consume all of their honey reserves or they move to the edge of the hive where they no longer contact honey frames. If I have a light hive when the bees are too cold to fly, I feed a solid source of pure carbohydrate in the form of fondant candy. It is very easy to apply on one of those 50 degree days where you can quickly lift the hive cover and place the candy directly on the frames or inner cover. My bees love fondant more than anything else I provide at this time of year. It’s soft and, if they decide to store it, they don’t have to spend energy evaporating water from it. It’s fun to make – just be sure you don’t eat it before you get it to your hives!

BEE FONDANT (Note: Make small batches. 4 cups sugar to 1 cup water is a good amount) 1 part water: 4 parts sugar (by volume or weight - I find that it doesn't matter which, in this case.) 1/4 teaspoon vinegar per cup of sugar (If using 4 cups sugar, use 1 tsp vinegar.) Put in pan and heat and stir until it comes to a boil. Don’t let sugar burn! If it turns brown or dark tan, it will make the bees sick. Boil for 3 minutes with cover on pan. Boil uncovered until soft ball stage* (starts at 234 degrees F, ends at 243 degrees F). Turn off heat and cool to 200 degrees F. Whip with a whisk until white (give it 5 – 10 minutes). Pour onto waxed paper on cookie sheets. Cool undisturbed. Cut up into squares, separate with waxed paper, store in plastic bag in freezer. When feeding bees, warm fondant to room temp and put on top of frames or around hole in inner cover. Do not expose bees to cold for more than several seconds. * The “soft ball” sugar stage is described in wonderful web site, “The Science of Candy”. It describes the sugar stages with videos: http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/candy/sugar-stages.html

This Glory Bee ad was in the Market of Choice flyer a couple week ago. Note: their “Save the Bee” program supports the Oregon Master Beekeeper Program, OSU Bee Lab, and LCBA..

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September Beekeeping Tips

Upcoming Events & Announcements

by Chuck Hunt, LCBA Member 1. All mite strips should be removed some time in October, depending on which type of mite strip was used and when it was placed in the hive. Grease patties will help to control tracheal mites over the winter and can be kept on your hive all the time.

Nov 6th –8th: Oregon State Beekeepers Conference

2. Entrance reducers, if used, should be on the hives. All hives need to be tipped forward slightly to shed rain over the winter. Hives should also be placed off the ground and be provided with wind shelter.

ing a bee event with bee education, silent auction, & live music at Cozmic Pizza, 1:00pm to 4:00 pm on Saturday, Dec. 13th. See Flyer on page 10.

3. Late feeding can sometimes continue until mid or late October. Feed light hives a mixture of 2:1 sugar and water. Bees should have 50 to 60 pounds of honey for the winter. 4. Late October may be the last chance to add protein patties and moisture control methods if used. 5. Successful wintering depends on a good hive population with good health, a good and productive queen, and adequate stores of honey for the winter. Make sure your hive has these requirements and next spring you can watch the bees burst from the hive ready for the new season.

Schedule and all the information is posted on their website. http://www.orsba.org/bee_schools_and_events.php

Dec 13th - Partners for Sustainable Schools will be host-

Healthy Bees Healthy Gardens is helping to organize this event and is looking for help with soliciting in kind donations, PSA & advertising, web & face book help, and also help on event day. If you can help out contact Jen at: [email protected] Ohio State University Bee Lab Final Webinars 2014 The webinars are over for this year, but you review any of them as they ar posted on their website. https://u.osu.edu/beelab/courses/

Kelly’s Beekeeping Website: “Lane County Hiveways” Follow Kelly as she does her inspections, observations, and other beekeeping activities. http://lanecountyhiveways.com/

LCBA Elections Elections for the 2015 year will take place at our November meeting. Duties of the officers and directors were published in our September newsletter. It is not too late to add your name to the slate. Please contact one of the nominating committee members if you would like to run for an office or have any questions about a position. The following members have volunteered to run for an office. President: Vice President: Secretary: Treasurer: Board of Directors (3): Larry Scoville

Pam Leavitt Jodi Wiktorowski Polly Habliston Max Kuhn, Francis Rothauge,

Candidate statements will be published in next months newsletter. Thank you, Nominating Committee Katharine Hunt 541-607-0106 [email protected] Nancy Ograin 541-935-7065 [email protected] Francis Rothauge 541-520-8391 [email protected]

November Honey Tasting at LCBA by Judy Scher, Past President The November meeting will be devoted to tasting, comparing and judging honey produced by all of our hard working bees. This fun filled and educational evening can’t be missed! It’s amazing to see how many different flavors and varieties our bees produce. Set aside 1 or 2 jars of your 2014 honey. If you have 2 jars of honey they must be from different nectar sources (e.g. honey from maple trees and honey from blackberries). The maximum is 2 jars per household. Do not label the jar; we will do this when you enter it. We will all vote on our favorite honey in each category (light, medium, dark). Ribbons will be awarded to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.

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Check out “HIVE CHECK” By Dr. Dewey M. Caron The Bee Informed Partnership (BIP) has a new feature on their website that you need to check out. Hive Check is a new initiative to report the management practices beekeepers are doing. Hive Check will be taking the pulse of beekeeping activities with more frequent surveying, over and above the annual BIP loss survey. The bi-weekly survey of 10 questions is quick and simple and feedback is rapid. The goal of Hive Check is for beekeepers to share with fellow beekeepers what they are doing by summering answers to simple questions like, “Did you inspect your hives?” or “Did you see swarm activity in your area?” We obtained data from 477 participants in mid-September, of which 48 were from the Pacific Northwest (PNW-OR, DI & WA). We feel the data can help everyone understand what others are doing. The questions will change to be relevant throughout the year. Those that participate in the survey group will receive regional results. I will be sorting PNW data to further snapshot the PNW region. The first such report (all viewable on BIP website www.beeinformed.org ) was for the 1st part of August. The September 15th report started “it’s getting cold out there and the nation’s beekeepers are feeling it! This week’s report shows regular fall inspections and feeding as primary activities”.

100%

Did Did Not

75% 50% 25% 0% Inspect

Treat

Pull Honey

Add Supers

Fed Hives

See Swarms See Nectar Flow

By drilling down, I can report that 87.5% of PNW beekeepers managed their bees during this 2-week period (compared to 83% nationwide); 60% treated (compared to 33.6% nationally); 43% pulled supers (compared to 35.7% nationally); 69% fed their bees (compared to 56% nationally). Of those 60% treating (24 of 40), 8 reported use of Apiguard (thymol), 7 used Apivar, 4 each used Api Life Var and Formic and 1 used powdered sugar. 40% of experienced beekeepers (see paragraph below) did not treat. Hive Check is checking if there are differences between new and more seasoned beekeepers with a feature called “HiveYears”. This is calculated by multiplying the number of years a beekeeper has been beekeeping by the number of hives they manage. A beekeeper with 6 hives and 3 years of experience has 18 hive years as would a beekeeper with 2 hives and 9 years’ experience. The hive years range from 1 to over 100,000. Arbitrarily using a base of 5 years and 5 hives; i.e. 25 or more hive years, we feel categorizes experience. The national response pool so far is predominantly in the “Experienced” category with approximately 60% of respondents with more than 25 HiveYears. For the PNW it is the opposite -- 60% have fewer than 25 HiveYears. We currently have only a few Oregon participants in Hive Check (the last BIP national loss survey included over 200 OR beekeepers). I ask LCBA members to check out Hive Check and consider joining this new effort. The survey every two weeks is quick and easy to do and you will be sent a report of results. Larger participation will allow me to come up with some specific PNW comments that will allow us to use to compare to the regional and national reports. Thank you – let’s keep in touch.

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Bee-related classified ads cost $5.00 for non-members and are free to members. Classified ads run for three issues and may be renewed by contacting the editor. Bee-related business ads cost $35 a year. To place an ad, contact Nancy Ograin by the 1st of the month via e-mail [email protected] or phone 541-935-7065.

Classified Ads

For Sale High Quality Woodenware for Beekeepers, Fiber Enthusiasts and Artists Custom Observation Hives, Beeswax Candles and Gifts Greg Long Corvallis, OR [email protected] www.gslongwoodworking.com 541-231-3480 GSLongWoodWorking

For discounts on American Bee Journal and Bee Culture magazine subscriptions contact Nancy Ograin for discount forms.

For Sale Warré Beehives I sell complete kits for Warré topbar beehives and also fully assembled hives. See the details at www.beeologique.com (under products) I also offer free guidance in Warré top-bar beekeeping. Bill Wood ~ (541) 687-8211 ~ [email protected]

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LCBA MEMBERSHIP New Memberships & Renwals for 2015 per household - $25/year. Remit to: LCBA Treasurer Polly Habliston 1258 Dalton Dr. Eugene, OR 97404 [email protected] Membership forms for new members and renewals are available on LCBA website. Click here to access.

NEWSLETTER CONTACT INFORMATION The LCBA newsletter is published eleven times a year by the Lane County Beekeepers Association, 130 Hansen Lane, Eugene, OR 97404. Sample copies may be requested from the editor. Copyright resides with individual contributors. If you would like to reprint anything you see here, please contact the editor. Permission is normally granted freely for non-profit use. For advertisements, please contact the editor or the association treasurer by the first of the month. Editor: Nancy Ograin 88632 Faulhaber Rd. Elmira, OR 97437 (541) 935-7065 [email protected]