January 2024 survey: results and upcoming February meeting

Thanks to everyone who took part in our survey!

The next meeting in February 2024 will take place online and will be dedicated to the topics of emergency feeding and the bee calendar/ planning your 2024 bee season as a collaborative digital workshop.

We will comply with the request not to hold the upcoming meeting in February on a weekend in order to reach as many of you as possible.

By the way, there are several volunteers who can imagine mentoring “newbees”. Please “newbees” and mentors, get in touch with us and we will connect you.

Another pleasing point is that, according to the survey, we have a very balanced ratio of women to men. More information in our next newsletter (sign up here for the newsletter).

Enclosed is a survey for the topic of the next March meeting – what would you like to discuss in March – you can vote for it.

Link to survey: What are you up to in March 2024?

Thanks for your input!

Schedule for 2024

We’re hoping that you will join us for our meetings in 2024, please click here to receive our monthly newsletter.

Below you will find a rough schedule of our upcoming gatherings. These are suggestions that can be changed and directed by you. Therefore, please also take a look at our March survey linked below.

If you are interested in hosting a meeting or have specific topics you’d like (us) to cover, please let us know. Your involvement makes our bee community thrive! Looking forward to another buzzing year!

January: Mead Workshop – took place

February: Our community has voted to hold an online meeting about emergency feeding and the bee calendar. We look forward to seeing you there! More information in our newsletter.

March: Please take a look and vote Link to survey: What are you up to in March 2024?

April: Installation of packages/ starting with your bees

May:  Swarming signs, hive splits, queens

June:  Hive inspection, IPM Drone comb, mite check demo

July: Honey harvesting with Eric

August: Feeding, winter configuration, mites and robber screen

September: Winter hive preparation part 1, open/ closed hives

October: Winter hive preparation part 2, discussion

November: Oxalic Acid Treatment

December: Beeswax workshop

Mead Workshop January 2024

We were very excited to have Jody Hankins as our host to share her recipe and techniques for making mead for our January 2024 HVNB meeting.

Jody introduced us to two contrasting flavors, one very dry and one very sweet wine, which we were invited to taste to see what the extreme results might be. It was delicious.

We also learned that different batches of honey give the mead different flavors from year to year. So, it is likely that mead tastes different depending on the harvest and location.
During the workshop, Jody took us through the mead making process and explained how to control the sweetness or dryness of a wine. Now it just needs to sit and ferment.

If you make mead, please let us know how it turned out. My equipment just arrived and I’m ready to go. Anyone want to join in? Stay tuned, maybe we’ll be able to taste the first results this fall!

Below is a list of the equipment and Jody’s recipe.

Essential equipment

  • Buckets/carboys/other vessel for mixing and storing
  • Hydrometer – for measuring potential alcohol
  • Yeast
  • Sodium metabisulfite or Campden tablets (for sanitizing)
  • Any additives for the mead recipe you plan to use
  • Fermentation airlock
  • Auto siphon with a pinch clamp for racking off and bottling

Optional equipment

  • Wine thief (to move liquid for ease in sampling)
  • Clear graduated cylinder or tall glass for taking hydrometer measurements (you will need at least 5-6 inches height of liquid in order to take a proper measurement with the hydrometer – it needs to float)

Jody’s basic mead recipe 

It will take approximately 2-3 lbs of honey per gallon for the starting solution depending on the desired potential alcohol

For each gallon of honey/water at 11% potential alcohol, add to batch for fermentation

  • 1 tsp. yeast nutrient (I typically divide this and add half immediately, second half added 2 days after fermentation starts)
  • 1 tsp acid blend
  • 1 ½ tsp citric acid
  • ¼ tsp tannin
  • Yeast (1 package of yeast is sufficient for up to 5 gallons, my favorite yeast is a wine yeast Lalvin brand D47)

Optional: Prior to bottling/storing add ½ tsp potassium sorbate per gallon to inhibit further fermentation

Yield: 1 gallon batch of mead will yield approximately 5 bottles of wine (750 mL is the standard wine bottle volume)

Let’s stay connected and join our newsletter for more information.

Happy New Year, beekeepers!

You can have a say in what we will talk about in February.

As we embark on a new chapter with fresh leadership, we are eager to strengthen our connection with each of you.

To facilitate this, we’ve designed a survey covering diverse topics that could shape the structure of future meetings, workshops, or introduce new discussion themes for the upcoming year(s). We’re enthusiastic about uncovering the wealth of expertise within our community (which is one of the largest in NY state!) and warmly invite those willing to share their knowledge. Please take a minute to share your input with us.

January survey

Please, don’t be shy – your support is vital to keeping our meetings vibrant.
Your insights play a pivotal role in shaping the trajectory of our club.

Survey results will be highlighted in our next newsletter. Thank you for your active participation, and let’s collectively shape the future of HVNB together!

This survey will be closed by end of January 2024. 

Amazing Mead Workshop!

We were so lucky to have Jody Hankins, who hosted us and shared her recipe and techniques for mead making as our December 2022 HVNB meeting.

We got to taste several different batches of Jody’s home-made honey wine, which really brought the point home that different batches of honey from year to year yield a range of flavors for the mean they become. What a terrific treat!

If you want to watch the zoom meeting for the techniques, here’s the link.

And for the list of equipment and Jody’s recipe, read on. If you DO make some mead, please let us know how it turned out. We’d love to have a get together so we can all taste each other’s creations. Stay tuned to see if we can make that happen.

Essential equipment
Buckets/carboys/other vessel for mixing and storing
Hydrometer – for measuring potential alcohol
Yeast
Sodium metabisulfite or Campden tablets (for sanitizing)
Any additives for the mead recipe you plan to use
Fermentation airlock
Auto siphon with a pinch clamp for racking off and bottling

Optional equipment
Wine thief (for move liquid for ease in sampling)
Clear graduated cylinder or tall glass for taking hydrometer measurements (you will need at least 5-6 inches height of liquid in order to take a proper measurement with the hydrometer – it needs to float)

Jody’s Basic Mead Recipe

Note: It will take approximately 2-3 lbs of honey per gallon for the starting solution depending on the desired potential alcohol

For each gallon of honey/water at 11% potential alcohol, add to batch for fermentation:
1 tsp. yeast nutrient (I typically divide this and add half immediately, second half added 2 days after fermentation starts)
1 tsp acid blend
1 ½ tsp citric acid
¼ tsp tannin
Yeast (1 package of yeast is sufficient for up to 5 gallons, my favorite yeast is a wine yeast Lalvin brand D47)

Optional: Prior to bottling/storing add ½ tsp potassium sorbate per gallon to inhibit further fermentation

Yield: 1 gallon batch of mead will yield approximately 5 bottles of wine (750 mL is the standard wine bottle volume)

March “Virtual” Beekeepers Meeting

While we are very concerned about everyone’s health during this time of COVID-19, we tried to make the best of things by hosting our first ever virtual beekeepers meeting.

We were able to record the session.

Here is a link to the audio for the meeting.

We hope we will be able to get together in person soon, but until then, we will do our best to communicate digitally, as best as possible.

Stay healthy!

Best Laid Plans . . .

So we tried to be all organized and set up the year’s worth of Beekeeper meetings in advance.

We all know how that worked out!

Not to be deterred, we are going to have a ‘virtual’ beekeepers meeting using the Zoom platform.

See the details here.

We hope to ‘see you there’!

To get the full details, be sure to sign up for our email list and we’ll send out all of the information towards the end of the week.

Highlights from 2019 HVNB Meetings

We hope you were able to join us for one or more of our meetings in 2019.

We had a great range of timely topics and discussion among our members and special guests.

Here are some photo highlights from this past year.

Enjoy!

 

2020 Kickoff Meeting: Grai St. Clair Rice

We are very pleased to announce that Grai St. Clair Rice of Honeybeelives.org in New Paltz and NYC will be kicking off our 2020 program of educational sessions on Saturday, January 11 with her presentation entitled: “Honeybees in the Garden: A Dance with Evolution.”

Grai is an organic beekeeper, as well as a writer/ photographer/ filmmaker. Grai is also founder of the contemporary Ulster County Beekeeping Association.

Her talk on Honeybees in the Garden was selected by scientists at the September 2019 Apimondia Conference in Montreal. Grai prepared a poster display for this biannual international congress, which she will share with us along with her talk.

Grai says that she adapted this talk to follow her interest in supporting a deeper understanding and appreciation of the importance of honeybees, and the fascinating way that flowers and bees have co-evolved over millions of years.

Kick-off 2019 with HVNB!

Hives in WinterWe are excited to announce our first meeting of the Hudson Valley Natural Beekeepers group on Saturday, March 9th (rescheduled from March 2nd due to snow).

Please join us at Rainbeau Ridge in Bedford Hills from 10:30am until noon.

More details are available here.