President’s message (July 2024)

There are quite a few things to mention to you this month.

First, our monthly meeting will be this Thursday. Hope to see you there!

• When: Thursday, July 11th
• Where: Brentwood Seniors Citizen Association, 1229 Clarke Rd, Brentwood Bay, BC V8M 1E2 ^[1]
• Agenda
  • 6:30-7:00: Beginners’ Corner, Downstairs
    • Mite control – Don L
  • 6:30-7:00: Intermediates’ Corner, Upstairs in kitchen area
    • Open discussion – Bill H
  • 7:00-8:15: Main meeting
    • Honey extraction and wax rendering – Bill C
    • What to do this month – Larry L
    • Club Business
  • 8:15-8:45: Social Time with colleagues, cookies and coffee (decaf available!); bring your own mug!

2023-2024 Hive Survival

For those of you who were not at our June 13th meeting, here are the results of Shirley Richardson’s Hive Survival Survey:

Notes:

• The main causes of hive death were (1) mites, (2) January’s cold snap, and (3) bears – a new one!
• It is good to see such good success with those members with 1-3 hives, as they are often newbees and are the future of the club.
• Many of our members tried new things:
  • One member is using small cell foundation for mite control; though this a disputed benefit, that member has been experiencing some success.
  • Some members are adopting Heinz’s Bee Sauna for mite control; elevating the temperature for a long enough period of time that it is above mite survival tolerance but still within bee tolerance
  • Natural moss in a dish inside the hive as a water source
  • Member Chris Koblun is successfully keeping a flow hive and has volunteered to share his phone number (250-514-1222) for those wishing more information.

The future of the Hive Survival Survey

We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Shirley for many years of running this survey – and for doing it manually by reaching out to every member and talking to all that responded. Sadly, she has indicated that this has been her last year, so:

• if we are to keep doing it manually, we will need a volunteer to take on Shirley’s role and run the Hive Survival Survey
• if we don’t get a volunteer, we will need to shift to an online survey format

Small Groups

Small groups are getting up and running! If you have not heard from a small group leader inviting you to join, please let me know at the meeting or through president@capitalregionbeekeers.ca ^[2].

Bill Hadden has asked me to let those members living in Saanich that the Small Group will be meeting Thursday July 18th 6:30 – 8:30 pm at the NW corner of Sierra Park, near the corner of San Juan Ave and Francisco Terrace in Gordon Head.

Search for new location for Outyards

Forests go through succession, and the growth of new trees in the areas around our current outyards will be impacting the amount of fireweed available. Janet Fontaine, our Outyard Manager, is currently in contact with Queesto, the company that has the timber rights to the land around our outyards, to see if there is a newer and better area to locate them. More on that to follow…

Greek Fest Swarming

The annual Greek Fest happens this year Aug 25-27 and again Sep 1–4 at 4648 Elk Lake Drive.

I received an email from the office of MLA Lana Popham; last year a horde of bees descended upon some vendors, causing severe alarm and disruption to them and the attendees in the area. I’ve been asked to alert club members that this happened, to endeavour to prevent this from happening again. It is believed it was a swarm. I conveyed that it’s highly unlikely to have a swarm at this that time of year and that it’s more likely that it was raiding, but that we would be happy to do anything we can; making sure your colonies are not on the brink of swarming, maybe giving them some syrup in that timeframe so they’re not as ravenous, talking to your colonies to advise them of the dates and location of Greek Fest, and the dangers to them of being in crowds. If you truly care for your bees, you would take the baklava to them, so they didn’t have to fly all the way over there…