WASBA Education Report
By Ellen Miller, WASBA VP
|
|
|
The Education Program in 2022 will be evolving. As part of the 2022 budget process all of WASBA’s programs were reviewed with plans for some updating, expanding, and refocusing so this will be an exciting year for WASBA! The proposed changes, spearheaded by our new WASBA President, Alan Woods, and directed by comments and suggestions from our beekeeping community, will help WASBA be a more proactive advocate for local beekeepers.
Plans are in place to upgrade the Journeyman, Craftsman, and Master level courses. A new committee has been formed to work on this project. The members of the committee are all WASBA certified Master beekeepers. They will be working with Alan to intensify the three higher level education courses, making them more in-depth and having them taught by Master level instructors. The current Journeyman Manual will still be the foundation of the Journeyman course, but the instruction provided will go into more depth. We expect the details of the course will be completed by the end of this year and in the meantime our current Journeyman course work will still be provided. Another requirement in the Journeyman program of 9 years of beekeeping experience will also be reduced. This too is under discussion by the Masters Committee.
The Beginning and Apprentice level courses will continue as they are currently since the feedback from these introductory classes has been positive and seems to be meeting the needs of our first and second year students. The goal of the Masters Committee, as Alan states, is to match that of any of the academic courses that are currently being offered by university programs. And to add to our excitement, we have gotten agreement from staff at WSU to work with WASBA on developing the course content and reviewing what exists.
We are very enthused to see the WASBA Education Program take a major step forward. Stay tuned for updates as progress is made.
Also, as part of the budget review process, and based on comments from some of our local associations offering classes, we will be offering local member associations the option of printing their own manuals from an electronic copy provided by WASBA or allowing their students access to a pdf copy. Once our current print copies of the Beginning, Apprentice, and Journeyman manuals are used up, we will offer the following choices listed below. Martina will be contacting all local instructors with the details but if you have any questions, please contact her. Instructors will have three options when it comes to how you want to order manuals:
1. Provide your students with the electronic manuals (PDF)
2. Print the manuals for your students yourself using the PDF
3. Arrange with WASBA to order printed manuals (at least 3 weeks lead time)
We hope these options will be helpful and provide flexibility to our local associations.
Ellen Miller,
Vice President
|
|
The Beginner Beekeeper Corner
By Dr. Jennifer Short, DVM
|
|
|
Weak Colony Fixes
How to Make Up for Lost Ground
What’s it look like out there in the boxes right now? Most everyone at this point has broken open their hives to get a sense of what’s left and what isn’t. Now that the pollen flow is on and they’re bringing in a bit of nectar, we can relax a little on the pollen sub, but not so much on the carbohydrates until the maple comes in (by the time this reaches you it’ll probably be here on the coast)! What to do with the wee ones that are too weak to bring in their own groceries? Let’s see if we can fix that!
 Here's the big picture position. You strengthen the weak colonies if you want to save the genetics. Big money players will tell you it’s not worth the time, and that they’re weak for a reason. I’d agree with the valid point that they’re weak for a reason, but was that reason the beekeeper? We manage these bees with good intentions; however, sometimes not as well or as correctly as we should. But at the end of the day, they are YOUR bees, and you do with them what you like and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise! What if you split them too hard, or didn’t treat for mites enough, or kept taking brood and bees from them to strengthen other colonies? Hard to make an objective analysis of your “bee team” when you handicapped them. So, if you want to save them here are 4 ways to strengthen a weak colony in the spring. How to know if they’re weak without opening the boxes and creating more problems that you started with? Here’s some tips for that as well!
Monitoring
- Watching the colonies for activity just a few minutes during the most active part of the day will tell you how they’re doing.
- Watch what they’re bringing in. Look for pollen colors and know what plants produce what color pollen so you know what’s coming in (and how much nectar is associated with that forage).
- How many foragers do they have to collect resources? If they’re not piling up at the front door during the heat of the day on a sunny afternoon, you may have a weak colony.
Always a bonus for data collection is to have screened bottom boards. I tell all beginners to start with a screened bottom board just for this very reason. Because you can collect an immeasurable amount of bee data just by looking at the insert and counting seams of debris (strength), types of debris (resource utilization), amount of debris (brood rearing data), mites (mite load in spring is a red flag!), etc. Lots of data on that little piece of plastic if you use it right. So, let’s look at Ways to Strengthen a Weak Colony.
Cold Weather Options
- The Bee Transfusion
In a pinch you can swap out a strong hive location for a weak one. If you do it during the heat of the day it will ensure that the foragers that are out during the day, come back to the weak unit and repopulate it. This is great for adding numbers to a weak unit just enough to push the brood rearing and get it to build so it can make it around the corner to a warmer temperature that supports a frame of brood and bees injection – and that’s next! These bees are foragers, you don’t get nurse bees with this. It’s just a stop gap and won’t help for very long – eventually you’ll have to get them some brood and bees. So, know that this will only buy you some time and not solve the problem long term. They only have a week or two of life left and then you’re back to where you started. If your temps still aren’t adequate to do a full frame bee infusion, then you may have to wash, rinse, repeat once more.
- "Just Keep Them Warm" Strategy
In a pinch in the colder weather, you can take a weak unit and put it over a strong one with a double screen board so that the bees just stay put but stay warm. The weak cluster will retain its bees and the temps from the strong unit below will keep the brood and queen safe. You do have to maintain good food resources in that unit still and an entrance opposite the lower unit. They’ll still need bees but will survive until the temps support that option.
Cold Weather Options
- The Whole Frame Injection
Infusing more population can be easier done with adding entire frames of brood and bees into a weak unit. The trick is you really must be careful about when you do that – the new frames of brood need to come with enough bees to cover that brood just in case the temps dip at night. If you don’t have an effective population to cover them all – you’ll lose some. The good news is that you’ll still gain a lot no matter what!! I have had pretty good success just spraying them down in spring with a bit of 1:1 syrup with Honey Bee Healthy in it to mask any transitional pheromone issues, but I’ve been told by “gray hairs” that it’s not necessary – so suit yourself! I also put them in a nuc box for about 20-30 minutes before I inject them into the new colony – again, necessary? Who knows? Just know that this is a more permanent solution to the “forager only” infusion since these bees are going to be longer lived.
- Killing 2 Birds with 1 Stone
Combine over a stronger hive with a queen excluder and newspaper (I like to spray mine down with a little Honey Bee Healthy syrup again to mask the mismatched pheromones – and some will tell you the newspaper is optional during a strong nectar flow). I also have a medium between them, just because that’s how I overwinter in a deep and a medium. This is a riskier option, due to the ability of any workers from the weaker unit to drift to the more populated cluster (and I have had that happen, leaving a queen behind – although maybe they knew she wasn’t worth saving?). I’ve also been told that a second excluder is required so the queens can’t get at each other, although I’ve never had that problem – but you decide. So, the rule of thumb is that the stronger unit needs to  be full of bees (not a medium strength colony, but a really strong one!) OR another option is just to recombine them with a queenless colony or split if available.
Nothing short of infusing bees in a weak unit will get them boosted and moving forward quickly, so don’t mess around once the temps will support it. The first options are only to keep them alive long enough to salvage the queen. If it looks like the queen is the problem (drone layer, etc.) don’t bother, let it go!
|
|
 So, I hope this gives beginners a little confidence that you CAN really make a difference in recovery and relaunch of colonies who are at risk coming out of winter. Try one of these and experiment with what works for you. The key is that you need more than one colony, so you have spare resources to use!
Good luck & welcome to a new season!
Dr. J
doubleddoc@gmail.com
|
|
SnoKing Beekeepers Beekeeping Classes
available year-round!
SnoKing Beekeepers offers online classes year-round for Beginner, a half-dozen times per year for Apprentice and at least once per year for Journeyman.
Please visit www.snokingbka.org/classes for information on upcoming classes, registration, and payment.
Information for outdoor hands-on mini-classes can also be found at www.snokingbka.org/hivesides
|
|
|
We are excited to announce our new Online Classifieds page - For Sale! WASBA Members will be able to list equipment, gear, and other items for sale on our website for free, as a benefit of membership. All you have to do is visit our website, complete the For Sale Form and we will post your listing for 2 month increments, until you sell your item or wish to remove it. WASBA is NOT responsible for payments, or any interactions between seller and buyer, we are simply offering our website as a platform for your listings.
If you are interested in creating a For Sale Listing please contact us so we can get your listing added before we launch. Stay tuned on our Facebook & Website to see when the new WASBA "For Sale" page will be up and ready for browsing!
|
|
|
|
|
My name is Alan Woods and I am the new President of WASBA. First, I would like to give thanks and honor to God, for without Him none of this would be possible. And then I would like to thank everyone on the board for having faith in my ability to do this job. I would also like to give a special thanks to Kevin Oldenburg for leaving WASBA in such good shape. Because of the state of this organization, I can now focus my attention in other areas that will only make WASBA better.
