Whidbey Island Beekeepers

Our March 4th meeting went really well. We had lots of new faces and many returning members. Our original speaker Jerry Robnett was unable to attend due to health issues. We have  rescheduled and he will be presenting at our May meeting. We had a brief talk about introducing package bees and I will be showing new beekeepers how to do it with live bees on April 5th. Please contact me if you wish to reserve your spot. I will be installing packages in several different locations that day, so there should be one near you. anyone who will be attending will need to bring their veil.

We briefly went over top bar hives and langstroth hives and discussed different feeders. We also had our usual question and answer session and had a lot of participation from those attending.

We also had a vice president and a treasurer appointed at the meeting. Dan Maxwell agreed to take over the roll of Vice president and Ken Woogerd accepted the position of Treasurer. They are very excited about being involved in our ever growing club and I feel they will both be great assets to our group. Thanks Dan and Ken!

UPDATE! We have a secretary as well!!!!!      Christine Crowell has graciously accepted the post of secretary!  This completes the officers for the club and our by-laws will soon be finalized.

I have discovered that we still have some package bees available for purchase, so if you did not manage to get your order in contact me ASAP. The availability is limited, so it will be first come, first served. The packages will be $75 for a 3 pound package and $87 for a 4pound package. I will be going to California to pick up the packages myself. At this point we are scheduled to return late evening on April 4th, so packages will be available for pick up the morning of April 5th.

Next month our speaker will be Vince Carlson from Adytum Cellers in Woodinville. He will discuss mead-making. Mead is wine made from honey and Vince will have some sample for tasting. I will be envying all of you as I drive to California to get bees!

One thing I briefly touch on at the meeting was nosema monitoring. I have the equipment available to evaluate the nosema loads of you hives and will be bring it to future meetings. I have also purchased sample cups and have them available for the asking. Give me a call and I will give you a cup and instructions for obtaining a sample. WSU has also requested that smaller beekeepers in the state send in samples of hives that are failing. They have been getting lots of data from commercial beekeepers, but the data is lacking for the beekeepers who only have one or 2 hives and WSUis eager to add this information to their research. The sampling instructions I mentioned earlier has the address where you can send the samples for a more in depth analysis.

Thanks to all who attended the March meeting. We look forward to seeing you in April!