honey bees

An Ounce of Prevention

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The time to fix Varroa problems is now.

With the season well underway it’s our job as beekeepers to keep an eye on the Varroa mite population and plan to treat the bees when it becomes necessary. To that end the next meeting of the Leatherstocking Beekeepers’ Association will feature a discussion session among the members about our Varroa mite counts and our plans on how to deal with this.

The homework for the meeting is to perform a test for Varroa mites on your colonies.

The evening will begin at 6:30 p.m. with snacks and the meeting will be called to order at 7 p.m. on Thursday, June 25, in the Louis C. Jones Center at the Fenimore Farm and Country Village (formerly The Farmers’ Museum), 5775 State Highway 80, Cooperstown.

The discussion will be followed by Q&A, a discussion of monthly activities, and the business meeting.

We’ll Bee seeing you there.

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.