Colonies are generally below strength even though we had a particularly mild winter. To what is this attributable? Night temperatures have been fairly low.

Evidence of tracheal mites and losses from tracheal mites are up. I remember the year before mites were discovered on the island, colonies were in a similar condition in April, peaking only to swarming condition mid May onwards.

From our bees' point of view they are not interested in being shaken for packages, survival is all that matters.

At the time of writing this to you April 15 colonies have started to progress but have a way to go yet.

We have no major issues to discuss business wise so hopefully we can watch the rest of the video we were all enjoying last meeting when our time was up as well as another video in the series.

Mark your calendars, our next annual field day and pot luck is scheduled for Sunday June 3^rd

Do you have any good recipes to share? I would like to print them here. Contact Brenda.

Fourth Wednesday, April 25, 2001 at 7:30pm, at the Quennel School Annex - 420 Selby St., Nanaimo.

Entrance between the two buildings or if late, knock at the top door of the back fire escape stairs

This newsletter will give you an overview of what you should be doing now and hopefully some new ideas. I recommend many of the great photocopies provided at our meetings by our Bee Inspector Larry Lindahl. His copies or one of the many excellent books available will tell you everything you need to know. Except what Theo will teach you at his Saturday workshops.

The meetings will be moving. The current location is scheduled for demolition, so we are in search of a new meeting space for the fall.

Calling for information on the history of our Club. Does anyone know who started the club? How long has there been a newsletter? How many meeting locations there have been? I'd love to hear from you.

If you have not paid your current membership (insurance) fees, this is your last newsletter. Please send to Patricia Kvarv, 2346 Arbutus Cres., Nanoose Bay, V9P 9G1. Tel: 468-5539.

Calling all artists. Bring your best original black and white bee drawing to the next 2 meetings. (No colour!) Paper size 8 ½ by 11 or smaller. The best renderings will be published here in your newsletter. Multiple entries are allowed.

During your initial spring inspection look for:

• a good brood pattern all the way out to the edges of the frames - few missed cells
• brood in all stages. Is your queen still laying?
• are there swarm cells?
• are there symptoms of disease or mites?
• are there pests that need attention? – ants, skunks, bears?
• are there unusually large numbers of dead bees on the bottom board or hive entrance?
• does the colony have enough stored honey and pollen for spring dearth?
• is the brood nest congested – honey and pollen being stored where larva should be?
• are the bees restless and defensive, or are they quiet?

Feeding sugar syrup now will stimulate a nectar flow and get the queen laying eggs. Although the temperature and size of worker populations must rise before full egg laying capacity will occur. Cover most of the hive entrance with rolled newspaper to reduce cold airflow.

If you are going to medicate and treat for mites, you must do it now before it's time for honey supers. Treatment information and supplies are available from medication suppliers and at the bee meetings.

Once things warm up it's time to flip your brood boxes. The queen doesn't always like to move down, so placing the empty box on the top will encourage her to fill it. If when you get into the hive, the brood area is being filled with honey, you will need to add some empty frames, alternately, between the brood filled frames. This will ensure there is adequate space for the queen to lay and keep the workers busy.

The bees will begin building queen cells for three reasons:

• Emergency - the queen has died or is missing;
• Supersedure - there are insufficient larva (indicating an old or poor queen); or
• Swarming - there is not enough queen bee pheromone to coat all the bees in the hive (usually due to crowded conditions or a large population of bees).

As beekeepers we usually like to keep our bees at home. To prevent swarming, we need to reduce crowding and high populations. We can reduce crowding by adding more boxes, but in a strong colony that will only be a temporary solution. Rising populations also mean the spreading of the queen pheromone too thin. To reduce population we must divide the strong colonies.

Weak hives can be united with mid-strength or other weak hives. Or when you find one very strong colony and a weak one, wait for a day when many of the foragers are out working, and exchange the colony locations. The weak colony will receive the many foragers from the strong colony and the strong colony will decrease its population. Or you can move frames of capped brood from the strong to the weak colony.

If you have only a strong colony, you will need to divide its population. The colony can be split in half. Ensure both halves have eggs and young larva and the queenless half will raise its own queen. Or you can introduce a previously raised queen to one or both the halves.

To improve queen acceptance, it is suggested the divides sit 24 hours queenless before introducing new queens. (Be sure to remove old queens)

Another method is to make many nucleus colonies out of one hive. For example one strong hive may have twenty frames of brood. Potentially this could make five 4-frame nucs.

A third method is to remove only a few frames from one or more strong colonies and produce a nucleus colony. For instance 3 colonies might make 1 or 2 nucleus colonies and still be strong enough to collect full honey crops. If the nucleus hives are placed in a new location in the yard, they will grow relatively tracheal mite free. The older infected workers will go back to the parent colonies.

Be sure to include young bees, eggs, young larva and capped brood in the nucleus. The nucs can be used to increase the number of your hives or once they have raised a queen and she has proven laying capacity, you can reunite the nuc with a hive requiring a new queen. When done during the summer honey flow, few hives will swarm.

Requeening should be done at least every other year. Young queens lay better and are less susceptible to bee diseases. Most experts at the SFU Bee Masters Course suggest raising your own queens or buying locally. Environmental conditions differ everywhere and queens raised locally will prove to be more adapted to our conditions.

If you are planning to use formic acid as a treatment this year it would be better to do it in the spring. Formic acid has been known to kill queens, and it is better to loose a queen in the spring than in the fall.

You are invited to join Theo Fredrich every second Saturday of the month or a field day at his place. Theo will be working his (and the club) hives on these Saturday and encourages interested members to come. Meeting time is 10:00 am at 2798 Cedar Road. Theo's number is 245-4214.

There will be an informal seed swap at the next bee club meeting. Bring some of your saved seed from last year and trade for someone else's.

Do you need something? Do you have something for sale? Did you make too much lip-gloss and furniture polish? Members only - list here for free! Contact Brenda.

President Sol Nowitz 753-9619

Vice-President Linda Bruce 245-4570

Treasurer &
Membership Elaine Kuusisto 245-7297

Secretary Diana Prestidge 468-9576

Directors Cheryl Reist 390-4879

James Long 756-2353

Diana Prestidge 468-9576

Bee Inspector Larry Lindahl 721-0523

Bee Drugs James Long 756-2353

Outyards Paolo Benvin 722-3427

James Long 756-2353

Swarms Conrad Berube 754-2482

Coffee/Tea Ed Pyrz 754-4657

BCHPA Vancouver
Island Regional Rep. John Van Apeldoorn 724-6639

Newsletter Editor Brenda Jager Tel/Fax 247-2078
& Mailing jagreid@island.net