JANUARY 23RD CLUB MEETING MINUTES

The meeting was called to order at 9:38 by Presdient Jeff Champeau.

New members: Justin introduced himself.

VP Fred Ransome and Treasurer George Wigall were not present due to scheduling conflicts.

OLD BUSINESS

Discussed the proposed club brochure/flyer.  Patti Igram had previously been authorized to make a prototype.

NEW BUSINESS

a) The annual $200 allocation for additional books was discussed.  The decision was to hold off on additional purchases for now.  NOTE: All club books have been donated to local libraries.  A list of the books is in the club blog.

b) The Green Lake County Fair is August 4-7.  There was a discussion of whether we want a presence at this or other fairs.  Jack Bremmer will follow up with the Green Lake County Fair organizers for details.

VOTING FOR CLUB OFFICERS

This year the club President and Secretary positions are to be filled for a 2 year term.  Patti Igram was nominated for the Secretary's position.  She accepted the nomination and was unanimously voted in.    As stated previously Jeff Champeau was not standing for re-election as club President.  Thanks Jeff for your service in heading the club as President for roughly the past 8 years.  The potential replacements for President were not able to attend this meeting.  Nominations and the voting for President was deferred until the March meeting.

ANNOUCEMENTS

1) The next club meeting is tentatively scheduled for March 12th in Ripon.  Watch the blog for when this is finalized.

2) The time, topic and location of the spring field day was discussed, but nothing was finalized.  This will be a topic of the March meeting.

3) The Wisconsin Honey Producers Association annual convention will be in Fond du Lac this November.   They have asked ECWBA if we would like to help out.


OPEN DISCUSSION

1) Club members were invited to discuss hive survival in light of our mild winter.  It was brought up that the warmer weather would increase bee activity and therefore the bees would consume their winter stores faster.  Emergency feeding may be in order.

2) There were questions on where to buy northern  queens.  NOTE: The blog lists a few suppliers.

3) There was a discussion about providing speakers for other clubs, schools, nature centers, etc in return for a donation to the club treasury.

4) Is anyone interested in donating land for a fenced club bee yard where demonstrations for beginners could be hosted?

5) Should the club procure observation hives for nature centers or schools?  This lead to the discussion on who would do the periodic maintenance of these hives.

6) How about creating a HOST A HIVE PROGRAM.  What kind of outreach can the club do to find landowners willing to do host a hive in return for some honey rent?

7) Several suggestions on how to improve the blog were offered.
a) Add a BEE FACTS PAGE
b) Add the club's mission statement to the home page.  (The current primary goal of the club is education of current and new beekeepers).
c) Add a CONTACT page with phone numbers and email addresses.

JANUARY MEETING REMINDER

The January club meeting is on January 23rd at the Ripon Public Library.  See the calendar for time and additional details.  The business portion of the meeting will be centered on conducting elections for the positions of club President and club Secretary.  Follow on discussion will probably center on winter survival and spring preparations

PACKAGES AND WINTER HIVE CHECKS

After last week's below zero weather I decided to check my hives.  The check is simply listening for the buzz of the bees with a stethoscope.  Luckily in the past two weeks I have not lost any additional hives.

One reason to do these checks is to provide more data prior to making a decision on whether to order spring packages and if so, how many.  The "how many" question is important since package prices have risen again.  Here are the prices quoted by a few suppliers.  Please note that ECWBA does not endorse any suppliers.

Dadant                                    $118 for a 3 lb package with Carni queen only

Fleet Farm                              $120 for 3 lb package  Queen type?  Appleton and Fond du lac only

HoneybeeWare                      $125 for 3 lb package.  Carni or Italian queen

Kelly's                                   $140 for 3 lb package with Russian queen shipped to you & insured

For educational purposes I popped the cover on one hive and took a few photos of the bees in cluster.

 This hive has Primorski Russian stock bees.  This strain of bees winters with a cluster about half the size of an Italian cluster.  The advantage being that they are less likely to run out of stored honey.

NOTE: The Dadant's listed above is the Dadant compnay, not Lee Hiene.  At this point no one I know has heard if Lee will be selling packages this year.  If you know the answer please reply to this post.

LAYING WORKERS

Here is a good educational article about how the genes of the queen and drones actually compete.

http://www.sciencecodex.com/conflict_among_honey_bee_genes_supports_theory_of_altruism-173152

BEES THAT FIGHT BACK

Here is an article on a bee strain that actually bites the legs off varroa mites.  This article is from Pennsylvania.  I've also heard of similar bees in Indiana.  There they call the strain "ankles biters".

http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/01/11/462391470/a-hardier-honeybee-that-fights-back-by-biting-back

Here is a second article on the subject.

http://www.kalamazoobeeclub.com/2015/05/breeding-better-bees/