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!

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. 

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

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.

NEW 2018 Mentor Program!

favicon-96x96We invite you to join our Mentor Program.

Starting this year, we are excited to match mentors with mentees to spread as much beekeeping experience and knowledge as possible.

We have received an overwhelming amount of interest in this program and as of March 26, 2018 we are unlikely to be able to match new requests.  However, we will try!

To sign up, click here to add your name and choose how you’d like to participate!

As a mentee, you will have the opportunity to team up with a more experienced beekeeper who can share his/her knowledge and experiences in beekeeping.

As a mentor, you will be able to share what you’ve experienced while also being asked questions which will be sure to ignite additional perspective and research in your practices.

Here are the Hudson Valley Natural Beekeeper Mentor Guidelines for your review.  HVNB Mentor Mentee Guidelines

Sign up now!

Winter Beekeeping Activities

With the new year literally around the corner, it is most definitely time to plan for the upcoming beekeeping season.

In the northeast region, however, with the unseasonably warm weather, it is first essential to be taking stock of our existing hives.

When temperatures are more seasonable, that is “colder”, honeybees cluster and consume only about a third of the volume of food that they would otherwise consume.

Honeybees, Fondant and ShimGiven that temperatures have been well above normal, honeybees have been out flying much more frequently than in a typical winter.  In fact, they may be out looking for nectar and pollen sources that aren’t available.  While some people have reported that their crocuses started to come up in December, there’s nowhere near enough supply for the honeybees.  As a result, the bees may be consuming much more of their honey stores than they would ordinarily do.  This means that we beekeepers will most likely need to supplement their food supplies to help them get through the remainder of the winter — until new pollen and nectar become available in early spring.

Consider making fondant (hard sugar candy) and placing it above the supers and below the inner cover (and below any additional insulating supers or boards you may have in your hive).  You will need to use a shim, or spacer, so that there is enough room to place the fondant on the top of the frames.  You can make this out of wood by yourself or grab one for each hive from a bee supplies company.

Best of all, there is no downside to provide the fondant for them.  If they need it, it’s there.  If they don’t need it, you can discard it in the spring.

Need a recipe? Try this one:  Fondant_for_Winter_Feeding.

If you have other suggestions, please feel free to share them with us.

In the mean time, best wishes for a Hap-bee New Year!

Adding supers

The snow is [long] gone and the spring blossoms have been a welcomed arrival for the honeybees.  The hives seem to be finding abundant sources of pollen and nectar in the area and it’s a joy to see the different colors of the pollen being stored in the honeycomb.

Locust blossoms, ready to open

Locust blossoms, ready to open

It’s also wonderful to see that the bees are bringing in nectar and curing honey in their brood chambers to be consumed later.  It is a great sight when the frame has its arc of honey, followed by an arc of pollen followed by capped brood, larvae and eggs!  The queen is laying well and the workers are actively working the hive to its fullest.

So it’s no wonder that it’s time to add a super for the next brood chamber, and, if really lucky or off to an earlier start, a honey super!  This was my joy this week as I was able to add a second brood box to a hive that needed a little more time than the others and then a honey super on three hives that had already been working seven or eight frames in their second box.

I see that the locust trees are ready to burst open and I am hopeful that the bees will avail themselves of them as they are robust and really close to home.  I can’t wait to watch the hive continue to build its brood and its honey stores . . . with maybe a little extra for us!

-Karen