First, a warm welcome to all our new members, who are now in the process of taking the Short Course and will soon be operating their very own hives.  Great to have you as new members of the MCBA.  Opening your first hive, installing your first package of bees, the first time you find your own queen running around on a frame, these are some of the best memories that we have as beekeepers.  You newbies are stepping into a new world of experiences that hopefully will influence your entire life.  I truly enjoy the increased sense of which trees and plants are blooming when and where.  I see insects buzzing about that most people have shut off from their conscious thoughts.  I’ve also been able to teach others about the importance of bees and other pollinators in our lives.  I’ve even been able to teach my 9-year-old godson, Tristen, to recognize a blooming black locust tree as we are driving down the road.  Again, newbies, welcome and the best of luck to you.

I would also like to thank everyone who came out to the February meeting just before the snow storm. We met on the Wednesday night as the snow was just starting to fall.  We had a great conversation on how to treat our bees and Jim Fraser gave a truly impressive talk on producing your own cut-comb honey.  Jim went into great detail on how you could set up your equipment and what materials to use.  Jim also covered all the little steps one needs to do to insure a great looking product from the comb honey.  More of us should give this a try and it’s a great thing to enter into the Montgomery County Fair, and even the Maryland State Fair.

Well another month and another snow storm!  I love this weather, it looks so nice from the inside of my house.  I just hope that my bees are enjoying it as much as I am.  This is the time of year that we all get ready to start a new season with our bees and hope that everything goes well.  It’s also a time to reflect on what you think you did right or wrong this past year.  This coming year, I hope to make splits from about half my hives early in the nectar flow and take a try at something completely new for me, trying to make some cut comb honey from my other hives.  These past two winters have been hard on the bees and many of us are thinking about drastically, or at least marginally, changing our managing practices when it comes to our hives.  Last year, I went with some of the minimalist preventative measures against Varroa mites: using screened bottom boards, drone brood trapping and the food grade treatment product HopGuard.  To say the least, my management practice did not yield acceptable results.  As we go into this new year, I hope you all take some time to think about what you hope to accomplish and the plan that will get you there.

With that said, I hope that all of you are making some of the same resolutions that I make almost every year.  First, I will keep better records this year.  Keeping records is always fun, but it gets to be a little too time-consuming and seems to be the first thing that gets dropped from my “To-Do-List”.  I’ve used HiveTracks in the past, but did not last year and want to get back to keeping better records!  Second, test for Varroa mites more often and more consistently.  In the past, I’ve really only tested in early spring, after the nectar flow and then going into the fall, which maybe enough but more data just before and just after treatments would be helpful and interesting data to have.  Only time will tell if the steps we are taking we have a positive effect or not.  Here hoping for the best!

Hope to see everyone at the March 12 meeting.  We will have Izzy Hill, a DC beekeeper speak on raising your own nematodes at home (SOUNDS LIKE FUN!!!).

 

(\           (\

{lll8-      {lll8-

(/           (/