General Meeting (November 2021)

The Capital Regional Beekeepers Association (CRBA) meets on the second Thursday of every month.

This meeting usually starts with a beginners/intermediate beekeeper corner 30 minutes before the regular club proceedings start around 7pm.

Minutes

Bill started the meeting at 7:04pm

• Bill welcomes everyone
  • Indicates November meeting is typically a social.
  • Apologizes for the short length of our previous meeting.
  • Paul Van Westendorp – will be online sessions in 2022. https://Gov.bc.ca/apiculture
  • Good to see there is some interest in joining the executive next year.
  • Club has been going since the 1880s.
• Larry (What you should be doing in Nov/Dec.)
  • Story
  • Do your hives have sufficient stores?
  • Do your hives have ventilation
  • Complete extracting
  • Feed on hive
  • Good time for oxalic acid vapourization
  • Yellow jackets should be gone
  • Keep bottom entrance clear
  • Upper entrance for getting rid of moisture?
  • Insulate the colony (optional) – mainly want to keep them dry
  • Check mouse guards regularly
  • Clean up around apiary
  • Plan what you need for next year
  • Replace brood-comb with foundation
  • Catch up on reading.
  • Bill asks – for extracting – chilled honey?
    • Larry uses a car warmer.
    • For just a few frames, bring them into the house for a while. If you have a box that can bring them up to 90+F that will help.
• Kate Fraser – Apipasta
  • Kg of bee food. Comes from Spain
  • Urban Bee has something similar
  • Kate will be the new lower island rep for the BCHPA. Ladysmith and South?
  • Anyone affected by flooding should email Kate.
• Carolyn
  • Dump run
  • Not much fun to go up on face of landfill
  • $20 min fee for a truck
  • Great response
  • Have to have a special trench dug for AFB contaminated equipment
  • Made 2 trips
  • About 5 people participated
  • It was by donation
  • Cost to club was about $2 per bag
• Book Reviews
  • Bill – The Honey Connoisseur
    • Describes vessels in Tutankhamen’s tomb
    • Honey will certainly keep
    • Terroir – honey can be affected by the environment similar to wine.
    • How to enjoy what you’ve been working on for the last 10 years.
  • Simon – The Lives of Bees
    • Lessons for beekeepers based on the way they live in the wild.
• Harlow asking about packages and nucs for next year
  • Short answer – we will be posting notices as information becomes available – packages are a big question mark due to transportation issues.
• Ancestral Bees in Blenheim Palace.
  • Article about ancestral British bees found there. 3-4 min read.
    • https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/07/no-one-knew-they-existed-wild-heirs-of-lost-british-honeybee-found-at-blenheim
• Rinah – Beeconomy
• Carolyn – The Bee Manual
  • Black Friday sale at Dancing Bee
  • Laid out like a textbook
  • Lot of the information you’ll get in a course
  • Not specific to Pacific Northwest
  • When a new beekeeper – more information you can get the better.
• Nicole
  • Honeybee – Lessons from an Accidental Beekeeper
    • Sort of a story, but valuable information too.
  • Novel – The Bees by Paul
    • Dystopian beehive
• Mark – Youtube videos from Etienne Tardif on keeping bees in Northern climes. Mark keeping half his hives based on this technique this winter.
• Larry – The Beekeeper’s Handbook – Diana Samitaro
• Bob Lucy has the club library and list of titles available is on the website.
• 1st United Church on Balmoral hosts 40 people a night and is without power tonight. Anyone who can drop off a blanket, it would be appreciated.
• Bill wishes everyone the best of the season and looks forward to a January meeting in a new hall.
• Meeting concluded at 7:59pm