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Sunday, June 5, 2016

2016 ECWBA FIELD DAY

The June 4th 2016 ECWBA Field Day has come and gone.  The day started out with a little very light rain, but things cleared up from starting time to when we adjourned.   Highlights were:

1     We demonstrated use of MAQS and an oxalic vaporizer.   We were showing the” live and let die” beekeepers how easy it is to treat for varroa mites.  We also discussed the current recommendation to treat 2 to 3 times per season.
   
2    Our new President, Gerard, lead a team of new beekeepers through standard hive inspection techniques.  Things covered were looking for the presence of a laying queen, how to determine if a hive has laying workers, the difference in swarm and supercedure queen cells, release of a newly introduced queen, and hive reversal.

3    Fred and Jon lead a second group through the process of raising queens.  Most of the attendees decided it’s worth the money to purchase a queen rather than working through the queen raising process. 

4    The club’s new observation hive had its first outing.  The hive is only booked for 2 weekends so far this summer.  Any club member is welcome to use it.  The only caveat is that you must populate it with you own bees.  We figure if you are using your own bees you will be much more careful and not let the hive overheat or starve if the bees are left in too long.
 
Attendance was about 20 beekeepers; split evenly between club members and walk-ins.
 
Here are a few pictures.

                                           The new club observation hive for public events
                                          The queen (marked with white dot) and her court


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