Summer and the Bees

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Summer has arrived and with it the sunshine, temperatures, and flowers that the bees and all the other pollinators love.

There are a few ways to help our bees through this heatwave. Take your entrance reducers off if you haven’t already, put spacer between the top cover and the first box to open the top just a little to allow for more airflow, and provide a source of fresh water (with something for the bees to land on).

Bring your questions and stories for the Q&A session at the upcoming meeting of the Leatherstocking Beekeepers’ Association.

For the educational portion of the meeting, we will be welcoming Professor Jeffrey Heilveil, Entomology professor and Chair of the Biology Department at SUNY Oneonta. He will be discussing the various bee species found in our county. He’ll share insights on their vital roles and functions in the environment, along with tips on how we can enhance our interactions with these amazing pollinators!

The presentation will be followed by our own Mike Hoyt giving a practical demonstration of how to perform a mite check on a sample of bees from his own hives.

Finally, Mike will present on his trip to Denver, Colorado, and the bees that are kept on the roof of the Brown Palace Hotel. There will be a jar available to sample with the refreshments at the end of the meeting.

The next meeting of the Leatherstocking Beekeepers’ Association will be held Thursday, June 26 at 7 p.m. at the Fenimore Farm and Country Village (formerly the Farmers’ Museum) at 5775 State Highway 80, Cooperstown.

Honeybee pests and record keeping

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May flowers are up, trees are green, and the hills are alive with the sound of bees hard at work. If we’re lucky.

The work of keeping bees is part anxiously watching the activity of nature around us for what our bees are experiencing, the blooms, the cold snaps; and part watching the horizon for what challenges await.

One perennial challenge that has dogged the inspections of beekeepers around the world has been the Varroa Mite. This ever present parasite, since the 80s in the US, has caused the decimation of many a colony and it’s not likely to stop soon.

The May meeting will be about managing pests like this. We will have a presentation by our own Richard Burroughs on this particular pest as well as treatment options, focusing on the newly approved treatment VarroxSan. The spring is a particularly important time to begin the management to keep the numbers of this unwanted insect low and we aim to assist our fellow beekeepers in this endeavor.

Following will be a workshop presided over by our own Stephanie Wardwell. As the season progresses, we all often find ourselves looking at our hives and asking ourselves ‘How did we get here?’ Keeping a record of observations and actions we took in our hives can help to answer some of our questions when that time rolls around. Together we will work together to make a custom worksheet to help us record what we see in the hive.

The educational program will be followed by our business meeting and then we will have light refreshments courtesy of Mike Hoyt.

Mike recently traveled to Colorado where he stayed at a hotel that hosted 7 beehives on its roof and sold the honey. Attendees to the meeting will have the chance to have a taste.

The Leatherstocking Beekeepers’ Assocation meets this month at 7 p.m. on May 22, at the Fenimore Farm and Country Village, 5775 State Highway 80, Cooperstown.

Honey Bees kept on the roof of the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver Colorado.

Get ready to spring on the swarms

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Spring has finally sprung. Make sure you’re ready to spring when your bees decide that swarming season has arrived.

At the next meeting of the Leatherstocking Beekeepers’ Association we will learn about Honey Bee swarming and how to capture them with Cliff Herring; followed by setting up a new colony and building the hive for your bees with Mike Hoyt. Rounding out the night will be Steven Davis presenting an education committee recap of 2024-2025.

That will be followed by the month by month preparations with group discussion and Q&A.

After that we will be raffling off a nucleus courtesy of Kutick’s Everything Bees.
You must be a member of the club in good standing to participate so make sure your dues are paid!

This month light refreshments will be available after the meeting with local honey for tasting.

In other news, we will be passing a sign up sheets for tabling at the Earth Day Festival on Saturday, April 26 in Milford. This is a great time to hangout with fellow members and talk to the public about the bees.
Education Committee Director will be attending a workshop on observation hives at BetterBee in July and has offered to carpool with up to 3 people. A sign-up sheet will be available at the meeting.

We will also be holding club elections at this coming meeting for Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer. Thank you Stephanie Wardwell, Emma Wallace, and Richard Burroughs for accepting nominations for these roles.

The Leatherstocking Beekeepers’ Association will meet Thursday, April 24, at 7 p.m. at the Fenimore Farm & Country Village.