Category Archives: Natural Beekeeping

2024 | April Meeting – Hive Split

We had a wonderful in-person meeting on April 27. Sante invited us to participate in a hive split at his apiary. There were two beekeepers present who were 9 and 10 years old, great job!

Unfortunately, the participants were not able to follow the meeting online, as the reception was simply too poor. What was left of the data is attached with a revision and additional information.

Beekeepers are having a very busy time at the moment. The swarming season has just started. Please check your colonies weekly for swarm cells (usually at the bottom of the frames). Give the colonies space so that they can have other things on their minds than looking for a new place to stay…

Here is a useful link if you want to report a swarm and need assistance  https://nocobees.org/report-swarm/ .

2024 | February and March Meetings – Online

Since the bee season had not yet started, we met digitally in 2 online workshops in February and March and brought our knowledge together.

Winter prep

The final treatment against Varroa around Thanksgiving seems to be particularly important for the survival of bees in winter, as is feeding.

If you want to take an academic approach, weigh your equipment – I have also started doing this and will add my work-in-progress-list in the photo galery.

If the bees consumed around 6.6pd per month, you should feed 5.2gal from August to October. On warm winter days, you can use the weight check (tilt check) to determine how much feed has been consumed and feed more if it is really necessary.

Perhaps there is someone who would like to do this with me next winter. I’ll keep you posted.

Spring Clean-Up

Last but not least we talked about spring clean-up, especially removing old dark combs and varroa control with drone frames.

To do this, place an empty frame with a bar in the middle in position 3 (see picture) in the hive. This division will allow you to cut out the more developed comb sooner. Remember that mites prefer drone brood for egg laying. Forgetting to cut out the drone combs can significantly increase the Varroa population.

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? (survey closed)

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. If you want to host a meeting do not hesitate to contact us here.

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 – took place

March: online meeting – took place

April: Hive Split, in person meeting – took place

May:  Hive inspection, swarming signs, hive split (on the go) – took place

June:  Hive inspection, mite check demo – took place

July: Honey extraction with Eric – took place

August: Hive inspection, dead out, mite treatment Gabriella – took place

September: Winter hive preparation: one or two brood boxes, feeding, inspection, alcohol wash, mite treatment

October: Winter hive preparation, discussion

November: Oxalic Acid Treatment

December: Year end get together

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!