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

Thanks from Valley Outreach!

Despite the on again off again direction from the powers that be --Our club was able to provide some very lovely, nutritious, and surely delicious honey to our local food shelf. This is a treat these families rarely get. Thank you to all who offered honey. It seems we have now paved the way for future individual honey donations and future club honey drives.

December 2015 Newsletter

Beekeeping Talk and Gadgets

An amazing bunch of curious, smart and inventive beekeepers gathered together at our last meeting to discuss the latest news and to share ideas and home-made gadgets.  

Updates

The U of MN Beekeeping for Northern Climates classes continue to be very popular with the November Year 1 class drawing some 210 people.  You may still be able to register for the Year 1 Class and the Year 2 class that will be in February.  

The U of MN has updated their disease and pest booklet, and you can download it here.  They have lowered the threshold for treating mites.  Jim for Nature's Nectar reports of European Foulbrood around the state.  

The U of MN Bee and Pollinator Research Lab is fundraising with a Paver Campaign.  For $250 you can immortalize yourself and support this important research lab.  

Show-and-Tell

Bob showed us his stainless steel entrance reducer.  It's a beauty with slots that the bees can get through and the mice can't.  I used one this fall on a hive that I could not fit the regular entrance reducer. I just shut off about half of the holes to reduce cold winter winds with duct tape (what else?). Bob is selling these for $5.

Laurie shared her "flow hive" with the club.

Flow Hive Frame

The theory is that the bees fill the cells with honey, they are capped and then the beekeeper inserts a lever to "open" the cells so the honey flows out.  It will be interesting to get Laurie's report after she uses the flow hive.  A few questions raised about the flow hive were "how do you know the moisture level of the honey?" and "how does it work when gunked up with propolis?".  Stay tuned, we shall see!

DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME???

There was of talk on vaporizing oxalic acid with home made gadgets.

Steve's vaporizer

Liz's method

Steve made one based on this video.  Liz made one, the general consensus was that her customized charcoal briquette heater (gets up to 600 degrees) was perhaps a little scary.  Here is her video. 

A safer and easier method may be to visit Jim at Nature's Nectar.  

A treatment-free way to reduce your mite load is through brood break.   Here is the "gold standard" in splitting from Mel Disselkoen using nucs.  I use the "walk away split" to achieve a brood break, and to avoid spending money on a new queen.  You will sacrifice some honey for the season from that hive, but you should end up with a strong colony that will build up fast.

Walk-Away-Split

• Split a strong colony, and let the queenless split make its own queen.  
• You can use a nuc for this.  Make sure you have a frame of eggs and two frames of brood, capped and uncapped, and a couple frames of pollen and honey.  Remember brood in the center.  Have loads of nurse bees covering the frames.  Give them some sugar water, and leave it alone for 4 weeks.  When you check back, you should see eggs.
• It is important to have 2 weeks of 70 degree days before doing a walk-away-split.  This is to ensure drones are present.

Attention turned to wax melting. Adrian's shared his "Presto Pot" method.

Wax is melted in the Presto pot, then strained through old sweatshirts.  The wax comes out clean and yellow.  This is a good method because it is self contained and can be done in an outdoor building.  Remember, wax is extremely flammable, so it is best to avoid using your stovetop and oven.  I prefer the solar melter method.  The solar melter is limited because you need sunny, warm days to melt wax, but it works great with very little fuss.  I put my wax on top of a strong paper towel that is held to the top of a small bucket with a rubber band.  The bucket has a bit of water in the bottom.  The wax melts, and you remove it from the water and compost the paper towel.  No matter what kind of brown, burr wax you put in there, it comes out a beautiful bright yellow color.

What happens when you extract your honey and find that the water content is over 18.6%?  Quick make mead!  Or, you can use Tom's Bucket Honey Dryer!  Utilizing an aquarium air pump, some PVC with brass fasteners, and a fan, Tom showed us how we can make our own "honey volcano" to dry out your honey to an acceptable level.

Thank you for another great meeting and looking forward!

December 20th join us to hear Crystal Boyd from the MN Department of Natural Resources.  

January 2016 meeting Pesticides: What Beekeepers Need to Know

March 8 2016 People For Pollinators education day
~mf~