Friday, March 15, 2024

 March Meeting 3/21/24 to feature Dan Conlon as guest speaker

The Bennington Beekeepers' Club is glad to announce that our March meeting, hosting Dan Conlon of Warm Colors Apiary, will take place Thursday, March 21, from 6:30--9:00 p.m., in the Rotary Room of the Bennington Free Library. The library is located at 101 Silver Street in Bennington, and on-street parking is available.Our guest speaker this month will be Dan Conlon, a commercial beekeeper in western Massachusetts who, together with his wife Bonita, runs Warm Colors Apiary. Warm Colors specializes in Russian Queens and spring Nucs as members of the Russian Honeybee Breeders Association, and was founded in 2000 to produce regional honey from flowers on its eighty acres of woodland, open fields, and wetlands. Warm Colors' mission is to develop, test, and use beekeeping methods that improve the health of the honeybee. Through selective breeding, they endeavor to create and manage a sustainable apiary system that minimizes the use of harmful chemicals and employs the natural defenses an heritable behaviors shown to improve the honeybee's mite tolerance and resistance to disease. For more information on Warm Colors Apiary, please see their website ( https://www.warmcolorsapiary.com/ ). The title of Thursday's presentation will be 'Honeybee Health and Genetic Selection: Defensive Mechanisms of Honeybees', and it will describe and review Warm Colors' strategy for keeping healthy colonies, improving Queen resistance to disease and pests, as well as suggest management strategies that helps bees. Emphasis will also be placed on how this works for the Russian Breeders' Association. We are fortunate to host Dan, and hope that you will come listen to his talk with us, where beekeepers of all levels will learn.

The meeting will consist of a potluck and chat from 6:30--7:00, a business meeting from 7:00--7:30, and the talk by Dan Conlon will follow until the raffle commences at 8:45. Donated items will be welcome. For details, please see the attached agenda.In hopes of seeing you next Thursday---Erin Kiley

Thursday, March 14, 2024

 Bennington County Beekeepers Meeting - March 21, 2024  6:30-9:00 PM

Bennington Free Library, upstairs

Our next meeting will begin with a 6:30 Potluck Supper and a Business Meeting at 7:00.  If you arrive after 7:00 the library doors will be locked but there will be a sign on the left hand door with a number to call.  Then one of us will come down and let you in!

Our speaker will be Dan Conlon of Warm Colors Apiary in Deerfield MA.  Dan and his wife Bonita are commercial beekeepers in western Massachusetts specializing in certified Russian queens and spring nucs.  They are members of the Russian Honey Bee Breeders Association. Dan is a past president of the Massachusetts Beekeepers Association.  He has worked to develop, test and use beekeeping methods that imporve the health of honey bees through selective breeding and sustainable apiary work that minimizes the use of harmful inputs.  https://www.warmcolorsapiary.com



Sunday, February 25, 2024

 February 22, 2024 Meeting Newsletter

Location: Rotary Room of the Bennington Free Library, 101 Silver Street, Bennington VT

Upcoming Events 

• “Swarm the Statehouse” Tuesday, February 27 10:30am—12pm at the Vermont State House in Montpelier. 

Organized by Franklin County Beekeepers’ Club. Bring your veils & jackets and draw attention to H.706, the anti-nicotinoid bill, as it hopefully passes from committee. For more information on H.706: https://legislature.vermont.gov/bill/status/2024/H.706 . 

Find your representative at https://legislature.vermont.gov/people , and call them to find out if they support H.706 

Bennington County Reps: 

Bennington-1: Nelson Brownell (Pownal) 

Bennington-2: Timothy Corcoran (Bennington) 

Bennington-2: Dane Whitman (N Bennington) 

Bennington-3: David Durfee (Shaftsbury) 

Bennington-4: Kathleen James (Manchester Ctr) 

Bennington-4: Seth Bongartz (Manchester Ctr) 

Bennington-5: James Carroll (Bennington) 

Bennington-5: Mary Morrissey (Bennington) 

Windham-Windsor-Bennington: Kelly Pajala (S Londonderry) 

Bennington-Rutland: Mike Rice (Dorset) 

Windham-2: Laura Sibilia (W Dover) 


• BennBee Microscopy Workshop: Tentatively on Saturday, March 2 in North Adams at MCLA 

 Registration not required, but welcome (details to come) 

Sydney Miller of Vermont Bee Lab will teach workshop about pests & pathogens 

• SABA Spring Seminar: March 23 ($45/$60). Speakers include Grai St. Clair Rice, Larry Connor, & Paul Kelly. Also have vendors, raffle, and networking. Must register online: sababees.org 

• Vermont Bee Lab: Community Science Project on pesticide residues present in bee-collected pollen. To participate, need a pollen trap (can buy from VBL at $55/trap, or use your own). Pesticide residue screening is free of charge. Must register by filling out the form: https://www.vermontbeekeepers.org/index.php?option=com_acym&ctrl=fronturl&task=click& urlid=634&userid=10771&mailid=319 . 

• Vermont Bee Lab: submit samples from live colonies or deadouts free of charge (see information on table)

 Vermont Beekeepers’ Association news 

 March 7, from 7—8:30pm via Zoom: “Prospective Beekeeper Workshop: Stop Here Before you Buy!”, a workshop for learning the basics of housing and managing your first colonies. For new beekeepers. Speakers are Robin Foldesy, Fred Putnam, and others. Must register; see VBA website for details. 

• VBA is promoting the sale of Vermont Honey via a searchable directory of VT honey producers; to opt-in and be listed, please see the VBA website 

• Advisors wanted for “new beekeepers helpline”, see VBA website for details. 

• Honey Bee Health Coalition has released its latest comprehensive ‘Honey Bee Nutrition Guide’, a guide to honeybee nutrition for those who provide their colonies with supplemental feed: https://www.vermontbeekeepers.org/files/94/Workshop-Files/140/HBHC-Honey-BeeNutrition-Supplemental-FeedingGuid.HBHC%20Honey%20Bee%20Nutrition%20Supplemental%20Feeding%20Guide . 

In the Apiary… 

• Do not ‘fully’ open a hive in cold weather---don’t pull frames, don’t look for queens---if you have to get in at all, then just get in and get out quickly! 

Why might you have to get in? 

Are they out of food? 

That is one of a very-very few good reasons 

• How do you know how your bees are doing?  

Don’t “trust” the piles of dead in front of the hive: do a “knock check”  

Try to lift the hive: is it heavy, or light? (Indicates how much food they’ve gone through)  

Is the cluster at the top? (peek in very quickly on a warm afternoon to look) 

• If hive is light and cluster is at top, it is an emergency and you need to feed them 

Solid feed only, like sugar bricks, loose sugar (sprayed with water on the surface and allowed to dry), winter patties or fondant (both available commercially)  

Opening the hive when it’s cold may kill your bees, but starvation will kill your bees 

Pollen patties are probably best for later in season: encourages brood rearing Club events and discussion items 

• In lieu of offering our own short course this year, we encourage you to join the short course offered by the nearby Northern Berkshire Beekeepers' Association, which will take place in North Adams on Thursday nights from February 29 to March 28th from 7-8:30 PM. The course will cover basic beekeeping principles, honeybee biology and health. Attendees will receive a course book and each class will be preceded with reading assignments. The cost of the course is $55 which includes the text and a one year membership in the Northern Berkshire Beekeepers Association. To sign up or for more information contact Jeanne at northernberkshirebeekeepers@gmail.com . 

• BennBee’s own Short Course: Looking ahead to 2025---seeking volunteers to form a committee to standardize curriculum and materials. Will meet less than once per month. Sign up by e-mailing benningtonbees@gmail.com . 

• Mentor and mentee program: Matching up mentors with mentees, and sending a monthly newsletter of questions asked/answered, topical to-do and to-ask lists that mentors & mentees can review together, etc. Seeking volunteers to help organize the program, and seeking mentors/mentees. Sign up by e-mailing benningtonbees@gmail.com . 

• Website and social media presence---also seeking volunteers to meet infrequently and discuss best strategies for revamping and maintaining our web presence. Sign up by e-mailing benningtonbees@gmail.com . 

• Swarm and Cutout list: a publicly viewable list of members who are available to collect swarms and do cutouts. First priority for Club officers and committee members. Sign up by e-mailing benningtonbees@gmail.com . 

Wednesday, September 13, 2023

September 14, 2023 In Person Meeting

 The Bennington County Beekeepers Club will meet Sept. 14, 2023 at the Rotary room of the Bennington Free Library from 6:30-9:00.  The first half hour will be a potluck supper.  Bring a dish to share and your own plate, utensils and drink.  After a business meeting we will have a presentation by Amy Musante about American Foul Brood Disease and it's spread in Massachusetts.  Looking forward to seeing you!

Thursday, May 11, 2023

 

BCBC May meeting,  “Spring Hive Management”   Thursday, 5/11 @ 7 pm. 

If you need a ZOOM invite, email benncbeekeepersclub@gmail.com

This is very helpful information, if you are new to beekeeping and a great refresher for everyone else.

 

Some of the subjects being discussed are:

 

1.Type of equipment and foundation

2. Burr comb

3. Weather impacts on production and health

4. Inspections and documentation

·  How to... and frequency

·  Removing frames

·  Knowing the biology

·  Brood and population

·  Queen cells

·  Signs of swarming

5. Swarm prevention

6 Swarm control methods

7. Encouraging comb production

8. Mite monitoring and control - some details

 

BCBC May meeting,  “Spring Hive Management”   Thursday, 5/11 @ 7 pm. 

If you need a ZOOM invite, email benncbeekeepersclub@gmail.com

This is very helpful information, if you are new to beekeeping and a great refresher for everyone else.

 

Some of the subjects being discussed are:

 

1.Type of equipment and foundation

2. Burr comb

3. Weather impacts on production and health

4. Inspections and documentation

·  How to... and frequency

·  Removing frames

·  Knowing the biology

·  Brood and population

·  Queen cells

·  Signs of swarming

5. Swarm prevention

6 Swarm control methods

7. Encouraging comb production

8. Mite monitoring and control - some details

 


Friday, April 7, 2023

  There will be a Bennington County Beekeepers Club zoom meeting, Thursday, April 13th with an educational seminar on Effective and simple deterrent electric fencing to protect your apiary from bears and skunks - avoiding common pitfalls. What you need (and don’t need.)

 If you'd like to join this meeting contact us for a ZOOM invite at benncbeekeepersclub@gmail.com.


Our speaker at this meeting will be Fred Putnam. Fred is a club member and Vermont Certified Beekeeper located in Brandon. He owns a small beekeeping business and is actively helping beekeepers through VBA workshops. He grew up on a dairy farm, so he knows fencing since maintaining the farm’s many miles of fencing was his job. He maintains three electric fence systems now.

This will be very informative, trust me.  Dana and I have had firsthand experience getting our hives attacked by a bear.  An electric fence is a must for keeping your bees safe.

This year is shaping up with some exciting announcements and hive visits.  Brooke Decker, Pollinator Health Specialist/ State Apiculturist, has shown interest in coming to Bennington County to look at some of BCBC member’s hives.  In October, the club is trying to get a special speaker to share their beekeeping wisdom and we are planning a big BCBC picnic and apiary visit for August. Plus, there will be some  Ask Me Anything, seasonal presentation and open question ZOOMs.

So please support the Bennington County Beekeepers Club. It is a great way to keep in touch with what is happening in our county and with other area beekeepers.  BCBC memberships run from January 1 to December 31 and are due in January.  Dues for individuals are $15.00. Family memberships are $20. Please remit your dues to

 Bennington County Beekeepers Club

c/o Jeanne Davis at

173 Pratt Rd. Pownal VT 05261.