Saturday, February 25, 2017

FEBRUARY 25TH MEETING NOTES

There were three (3) new attendees at the February club meeting.

The first portion of the meeting was devoted to club business topics.
-The club voted to approve spending money to allow two (2) club members to attend the Marathon County Bee Seminar in Wausau, March 16th.  The attendees were chosen by a raffle.  Jack Bremmer and Fred Ransome won the raffle for the two places.  Gerard and Larry are also planning on attending.
-Mark Ingram volunteered to be the "Events equipment coordinator".  Initially this job will be to inventory (type, quantity and location) of all club equipment used for public events.
-The position of "Events Coordinator" is still looking for a volunteer.
-Anyone wanting to order apparel (T-shirts, hats, sweatshirts) with club logo should contact Laurie Koeck.
-Any volunteers willing to be "mentors" should email Fred to have their name added to the blog listing of mentors.
-Also contact Fred to be added to the blog's swarm catcher list.
-The next meeting will be April 8th in Ripon.  The primary topics will be "Hive Reversals" and "The Bailey Method of Comb Changing".

The second portion of the meeting was an open discussion on winter and spring bee experiences.  Topics were:
-Hive survival for club members ranged from 0 to 100%.
-Tips for improving winter survival were freely passed among members.
-Jack B will be trying the oxalic acid/glycerin/shop towel method for treating for mites this summer.
-Poor experiences with last year's package queens were discussed.  Members were cautioned to watch for package queen supercedure this spring and to possibly have a nuc with a replacement northern bred  or mite resistant queen ready for use.

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