Two for One newsletters!

May 2016:

April 2016:

Bob Sitko's Overnight Split Method

OVERNIGHT SPLITS

An excellent method of splitting spring colonies which is fast, avoids looking for the old queen, and ends with all young bees which easily accept a new queen.

1 – Place an upside down outer cover and empty hive body next to the hive to be split (the parent).

2 – Open the parent hive and remove 5 frames of brood, one frame at a time, shaking (and brushing) the bees back into the parent.

3 – Place the now bee-less brood frames into the middle of the empty hive body, sealed brood in the center, open brood next to them.

4 – Remove two combs of pollen; shake off all the bees, and place them next to the open brood , one on each side.

5 – Repeat with two frames of honey, removed from the parent, shaken, and placed out side of the pollen frames.

6 – Place the inner cover on the split to conserve heat.

7 – Any brood remaining in the parent colony should be moved to the center and empty frames given on each side.

8 – Put an excluder on top of the parent colony, the new split on top of the excluder, outer cover and you are done.

Here is how it works: Overnight, the bees (mostly nurse bees) move up to cover and care for the brood while the queen remains below the excluder. The following morning, move the split to a new stand and give them a new queen using the slow release method.

Bob Sitko

March 2016 newsletter

Caucus for Pollinators March 1st, 2016

This is information from the League of Women Voters Minnesota:

What is a precinct caucus?

Precinct caucuses are meetings run by Minnesota’s political parties. They are the first in a series of meetings where parties endorse candidates and set goals and values (called the party platform). In 2016, a major part of precinct caucuses will be to vote for the person you want your political party to support for President in the presidential preference ballot.

Date and locations

Minnesota Republican Party and Minnesota DFL Party 

Tuesday, March 1 starting at 7:00 PM. 

Find your caucus location online http://mnvotesinfo.sos.state.mn.us/voters/precinct-caucus/ 

Here follows one pollinator resolution prepared by the LWVMN voters that you can bring to your caucus. Ask that it be included in your party platform. You'll be asked to read it to your group, perhaps discuss it or vote on its inclusion and leave a hard copy with your organizer, I think. If many groups ask for the same language it has a better chance of being included in the official party platform.

Agriculture and Food – Pollinators

Whereas: Bees and other pollinators are responsible for at least a third of the food we eat; and,

Whereas: Bees and other pollinators are in deep trouble –honey bee colonies are collapsing at an unprecedented rate, a problem known as Colony Collapse Disorder; and,

Whereas: Pesticides, especially systemic pesticides, are a key contributor to Colony Collapse Disorder, and they are unavoidable for foraging bees; and,

Whereas: In fall of 2013, several hives in Minneapolis were killed by a legal pesticide application; and,

Whereas: The Cities in Minnesota cannot help protect bees, pets, or kids from pesticides because the State has preempted local laws regulating “any matter relating to the registration, labeling, distribution, sale, handling, use, application, or disposal of pesticides” (Statute 18b.02); and,

Whereas: Systemic pesticides are not consistent with Integrated Pest Management best practices, and pose particular risks by their chronic exposure to bees and other beneficial insects; and,

Whereas: Though the State requires licensed pesticide applicators to inform them of every application, this information is not available to the public,

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the ____________ Party supports addressing the crisis facing pollinators through three statute changes:

1) Give municipalities the authority to regulate some aspects of the sale and use of pesticides for non-agricultural purposes, and

2) Make the information the State of Minnesota already receives about pesticide applications available to the public, and

3) Require all nurseries, garden shops, hardware stores and any business selling plants, to let the public know whether or not the plant has been treated in any way with systemic pesticides from the neonicotinoid family. 

see: https://www.lwvmn.org/sites/default/files/downloads/2016%20Caucus%20Resolutions%20Final.pdf for all of the League of Women Voters prepared resolutions if interested.

Elizabeth Welty

Executive Director

Honey Bee Club of Stillwater

February 2016 Newsletter

Club Fundraiser to help University of MN Bee and Pollinator Research Lab

If I knew how to get rid of those pantone or whatever printer colors I would. :-)

January 2016 Newsletter