June 14th Meeting: Greed in the Apiary: Robbing

Posted on June 6, 2018 by

As our nectar flow begins to slow, new management considerations come into play in our apiaries.  This month we will present a panel of veteran beekeepers who will discuss strategies on how to prevent the devastating phenomenon called “robbing”. There will be a video of robbing behavior for those who have never seen it and ideas on how to stop it if it does occur.  In addition the panel will give some insights into the growing problem of small hive beetles.

Please join us on Thursday 14th June 2018 at the Montgomery County Health and Human Services Building at 210 Pepper St., Christiansburg to hear this presentation.

NRVBA June 2018 Meeting Agenda

-Business:

  • Treasurer’s report
  • Apiary  report
  • Logo Committee: Announcement of winning logo
  • Picnic: Sunday July 29, 10am – dark @ Nellies Cave Park
  • Delivery of Tim Service queens (after meeting)

-What you should be doing with your bees

-Fred’s Follies:

What you should have learned at last month’s meeting had you been paying attention!

-Featured Speaker: Panel on Robbing/Small Hive Beetles

  1. Bob Whiton
  2. Mark Chorba
  3. Richard Reid

The Buffalo Jack Raffle: Note, there will be no intermission. Buy your tickets before the meeting or, quietly, any time during the meeting in the back of the room. Items will include:

  • 10 medium frames with plastic foundation; assembled
  • Nuc hive top feeder; plastic
  • Smoker (From Jack, almost new)
  • 10 frame deep box; unassembled
  • 10 frame queen excluder

Close of formal meeting and, for many, the beginning of the “real” meeting. Join in for socializing, refreshments, and a time for asking questions.  Please consider bringing a snack or beverage to share.

-Fred Jones, NRVBA President.

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May 10th Meeting – Yard Sale plus Jerry Borger on Cutouts

Posted on May 4, 2018 by

After one of the most extended winters in recent memory, we are finally beginning to see some warm days and our bees are responding robustly.  Many of us are rebuilding after heavy winter losses. The first group of packages have arrived. This is one of the most exciting times of the year for beekeepers.

Our May meeting will be a special event members will not want to miss.  While previous meeting topics this year have focused on colony management, the subject of this meeting will cover a specialized discipline in beekeeping: removing colonies of honey bees from structures and cavities where they have become nuisances.

Please join us on Thursday 10th May 2018 at the Montgomery County Health and Human Services Building at 210 Pepper St., Christiansburg to hear this presentation.

Spring is a time for yard sales. Imagine a yard sale tailored for beekeepers. Our May meeting will feature just such an event.  Upon his death, our treasurer Jack Price donated all of his beekeeping equipment to the NRVBA. Some of the equipment will be retained for our apiary and some for our meeting raffles. Beginning at 5 PM prior to our May 10th meeting  (which will start as usual at 6:30 pm) we will hold a sale of the remainder of his beekeeping supplies at rock bottom prices in the health department parking lot. Among the items will be many frames of drawn comb that should be of particular interest to new beekeepers with packages. A partial list of items will be posted to the Hive prior to the event.

NRVBA May 2018 Meeting Agenda

-Business:

  • Treasurer’s report
  • Apiary  report
  • Package Bees Report
  • Upcoming Beekeeping Meetings
  • Report From Logo Committee: unveiling the new NRVBA logo!

-What you should be doing with your bees

-Fred’s Follies:

What you should have learned at last month’s meeting had you been paying attention!

-Featured Speaker: Jerry Borger; Cutouts

Our speaker, Jerry Borger, has extensive experience in this area and is willing to share his methods and stories.  It is not everyday that people will invite you to rip open the walls of their homes and thank you for it!  After Jerry’s talk, you too may want to join in the fun by partnering with an experienced bee remover.

Jerry began beekeeping in 2006.  He is a two-year past president of the NRVBA and has managed the Association’s Beginning Beekeeper’s Course for the past eight years. In addition to removing honey bees from buildings,  he raises a few nucs and “mini-nucs” to sell each year, and sells products he makes from beeswax.

The Buffalo Jack Raffle: Note, there will be no intermission. Buy your tickets before the meeting or, quietly, any time during the meeting in the back of the room. Items will include:

  • Medium 10-frame super, unassembled
  • Frame grip
  • 10-frame plastic Hive Top Feeder
  • Plastic 9-frame spacer (for spacing 9 frames in a 10 frame box)
  • Cowhide gloves, size Medium

Close of formal meeting and, for many, the beginning of the “real” meeting. Join in for socializing, refreshments, and a time for asking questions.  Please consider bringing a snack or beverage to share.

-Fred Jones, NRVBA President.

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April 12th Meeting- Feeding Colonies

Posted on April 5, 2018 by

Feeding time at the zoo bee yard.
2018 is providing us with yet another cold, wet spring.  Snow is in the forecast for Saturday and Monday.  Eventually the nectar flow will begin, however, and packages will arrive at the end of the month.  Beekeepers can expect things to heat up both literally and figuratively very soon!

One of the most confusing management problems for beekeepers surrounds the feeding of colonies.  Until now the subject has been addressed through the NRVBA in bits and pieces and much uncertainty remains. Our speaker for this meeting is NRVBA member Sue Hossack who will tackle the topic head on. Please join us at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday 12th April 2018 at the Montgomery County Health and Human Services Building at 210 Pepper St., Christiansburg.

Primarily aimed at beginners, this talk will cover the details of feeding (or not feeding) colonies throughout the year, starting with packages, or nucs in the spring; discussing feeding needs in summer, fall and winter, then finally looking at the different criteria for feeding a thriving colony the following spring. Pros and cons of various feeding methods and feeders will be discussed and demonstrated, along with the Why, What and How of each season.

NRVBA April 2018 Meeting Agenda

  • Business:
    • The loss of our long time Treasurer Jack Price. Jim Hill has offered to take Jack’s position
    • Report From Logo Committee
    • Report From Mentor Program Committee
    • Apiary committee report
    • Updates on package bees delivery
    • 501 (c)  status for NRVBA
  • What you should be doing with your bees
  • Fred’s Follies: What you should have learned at last month’s meeting had you been paying attention!
  • Main Topic: “Feeding time at the zoo bee yard.” by Sue Hossack
  • Raffle: Note, there will be no intermission. Buy your tickets before the meeting or, quietly, any time during the meeting in the back of the room. Items will include:
    • 10-frame screened bottom board
    • Swarm Essentials – book
    • 5 Small hive beetle traps
    • 10 Deep frames with plasticell foundation, unassembled
    • Nuc hive-top feeder
  • Close of formal meeting and, for many, the beginning of the “real” meeting. Join in for socializing, refreshments, and a time for asking questions.  Please consider bringing a snack or beverage to share.

-Fred Jones, NRVBA President.

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March 8th Meeting: Splits and Nucs

Posted on February 28, 2018 by

Creating New Colonies: A Necessity for Successful Beekeeping Today

Please join us at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday 8th March 2018 at the Montgomery County Health and Human Services Building at 210 Pepper St., Christiansburg .

The heavy winter losses sustained this year by beekeepers across our region underscore the importance of raising our own colonies.  Aside from being a strategy for apiary sustainability, raising new colonies is one of the more rewarding aspects of beekeeping.  While this topic has become an annual event for our association, this year Richard Reid will direct the presentation toward beginning beekeepers.  His approach should enable even first year beekeepers to successfully start a nuc or full size colony with confidence.  Ultimately the NRVBA hopes to break the cycle of bringing in bees from distant states and, instead, replace them with bees successfully adapted to our region.

NRVBA March 2018 Meeting Agenda

  1. What you should be doing with your bees.
  2. Business:
    • Report From Logo Committee
    • Report From Mentor Program Committee
    • Updates on Package/Queen Sales
    • Report on BBC
    • Report on NRVBA Apiary
  3. Fred’s Follies:What you should have learned at last month’s meeting had you been paying attention!
  4. Main Topic: “Splits and Nucs: Expand and Sustain Your Beekeeping” by Richard Reid.
  5. Raffle: Note, there will be no intermission. Buy your tickets before the meeting or, quietly, any time during the meeting in the back of the room. Items will include:
    • 10-frame screened bottom board
    • Queen-rearing Essentials Book
    • 10-frame deep, unassembled
    • 10 deep frames with wax-coated plastic foundation, unassembled
    • Doublescreen
  6. Close of formal meeting and, for many, the beginning of the “real” meeting. Join in for socializing, refreshments, and a time for asking questions.  Please consider bringing a snack or beverage to share.

-Fred Jones, NRVBA President.

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February 8th Meeting: Understanding Swarms

Posted on January 31, 2018 by

As I write this announcement I am looking out the window at a forested mountainside and see that the buds on the soft maples are beginning to swell and turn red.  As difficult as this winter has been, spring is just around the corner and before long we will all have our hands full working our hives.

Continuing our objective to cover essential colony management topics this winter and early spring, this meeting will focus on understanding swarms. Swarming has become one of the main spring topics on the Hive message boards and a major source of frustration for many of us. A quick search on the internet yields a multitude of techniques for preventing swarms including the Pagdon, Heddon, Snelgrove, Demaree, Double Screen, and Checkerboard methods and that is just the tip of the iceberg.  Rather than a mind-numbing discussion on all these methods, this presentation will cover why colonies swarm, how the process occurs, how to recognize a colony in danger of swarming, and why it is important to prevent swarms.  Finally we will discuss what does and what does not work to stop or prevent swarms.

This talk will be aimed at beginning beekeepers, but should provide some fresh ideas for even advanced members.

-Fred Jones, NRVBA President.

Please join us at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday 8th February 2018 at the Montgomery County Health and Human Services Building at 210 Pepper St., Christiansburg .

NRVBA February 2018 Meeting Agenda

  1. What you should be doing with your bees
  2. Discussion of Winter Losses
  3. Business
    • Association queen purchase
    • Committee for NRVBA logo and t-shirt design
    • Committee for development of mentoring program
  4. Fred’s Follies: A brief recap of January’s requeening program
  5. Main Topic … “Swarms: What can go wrong when everything goes right”
  6. Raffle:Note, there will be no intermission. Buy your tickets before the meeting or, quietly, any time during the meeting in the back of the room. Items will include:
    • 10 deep frames w/ plasticell foundation (unassembled)
    • 1-10 frame deep (unassembled)
    • 1-10 frame medium (unassembled)
    • 7 between frame beetle traps
    • 1-10 frame plastic hive top feeder
  7. Close of formal meeting. This will be a time for refreshments, questions and  socializing. Please consider bringing something to eat or drink.

 

 

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Bee Packages 2018

Posted on January 4, 2018 by

The NRVBA will be selling package bees for $110 to members, $120 for non-members.  The member price is just a few dollars over our cost. Dadant is selling them for $105 if you pick them up at their facility in Chatham, VA . We have 125 packages on order.

These packages include an unmarked, Italian queen. Packages will tentatively be available for pick-up in the 8-10 April 2018 time frame in the parking lot of the Montgomery County Health and Human Services Building at 210 Pepper St., Christiansburg. A more precise pick-up date and time window will be provided as information becomes available. Point of contact for questions is Mark Chorba,  marco@vt.edu, 540-204-6882.

To purchase package bees go to https://secure.west-point.org/nrvba/

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January 11th 2018 meeting

Posted on January 2, 2018 by

bee-snow-665x320Please join us at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday 11th January 2018 at the Montgomery County Health and Human Services Building at 210 Pepper St., Christiansburg .  For our first meeting of 2018 we are fortunate to have Tim Service as our speaker. He will do a presentation covering requeening colonies as well as how to make a queenless colony queen-right. Tim is a former president of Mountain Empire Beekeepers Association and raises queens in Meadows of Dan.  A gifted speaker, Tim is anything but dry. Expect an entertaining and informative talk.

Our agenda is as follows:
1. What you should be doing with your bees.

2. Business:

  • Vote on revisions of the NRVBA by-laws
  • Comments from Jerry Borger regarding the Beginning Beekeepers Class
  • Treasurer’s report
  • NRVBA Apiary plan

3. Fred’s Follies: “What you should have learned at the last meeting had you been paying attention.”  This is a chance to blurt out answers and win fabulous prizes (or voluntarily embarrass yourself in front of your peers).

4.Presentation by Tim Service (Please hold your questions until the end of Tim’s talk)

5. Raffle. Note, there will be no intermission. Buy your tickets before the meeting or, quietly, any time during the meeting in the back of the room. Items will include:

  •  10-frame medium super, unassembled, w/ nails
  • 10 medium frames, unassembled w/ 10 sheets of cut comb foundation (no nails)
  • J-hook hive tool
  • Basic Candle Making (book)
  • Cowhide gloves (medium size)

6. Close of formal meeting. This will be a time for refreshments, questions and socializing. Please consider bringing something to eat or drink. It is a great time to find a home for those leftover holiday goodies.

img_4350Throw another log on the fire and mark your calendars!

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Introducing the NRVBA President for 2018: Fred Jones

Posted on December 9, 2017 by

President-elect Fred Jones would like to share with you his vision for the NRVBA in 2018:

As president-elect of the NRVBA I would like to introduce myself and give a brief summary of what to expect in 2018.

To begin, I believe there is much we can learn by taking a lesson from the honeybees we all know and love.  Perhaps the single most important decision bees make comes when a swarm must choose a new home.  Research has proven that in a honeybee democracy only 3% to 5% of the population participate in that decision. Following that model, it is one of my goals to minimize the business portion of general meetings and leave most of those aspects up to the Board of Directors. I hope to make the meetings informative, fast paced, fun and much shorter. My thanks go to Jim Hill, our current president, for overseeing a much needed rewrite of the bylaws that should streamline our association and allow for these changes

The programs for winter and spring 2018 will have an emphasis on fundamental aspects of hive management.  These will build on Jerry Borger’s excellent beekeeping class and I believe will be of benefit to even our most experienced members.  The summer/fall programs will tend toward more advanced topics and subjects related to honeybees, but not necessarily to hive management.

I will begin each meeting with, “What should you be doing with your bees?.” This will not be a session to cover the problems of individual beekeepers, but a short summary of what our more experienced beekeepers are doing that month. This should be a terrific guide for newer members.

The raffle will continue, but tickets will be available before and throughout the meeting at a table in the back of the room. By eliminating an intermission and shortening the meetings I envision a post-meeting social gathering wherein new beekeepers might ask questions to more experienced members and the old-timers can swap new ideas.

While public speaking is not my strong suit, I am a good listener.  Suggestions and comments are always welcome. Together we can move the NRVBA forward as one of the strongest honeybee associations in the state.

Happy holidays to you all,  

Fred Jones

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“So, You Want To Be A Beekeeper” Presentations, 2018

Posted on December 8, 2017 by

“So, You Want To Be A Beekeeper” Presentations, 2018 and Beginning Beekeeper’s Course, 2018

Members of the New River Valley Beekeepers’ Association (NRVBA) will present “So, You Want To Be  a Beekeeper” sessions at regional library branches in January 2018 (see dates and locations below) addressing all aspects of getting started in beekeeping (costs, equipment needed, time required, procedures for acquiring and keeping bees, expectations for honey harvest, etc.)  Presentations last approximately one hour and are free.  No sign-up or pre-registration required.  Address questions to Jerry Borger, 540-382-1798.

Schedule of presentations:

13 January at 1:30 pm                                     20 January at 1:30 pm
Blacksburg Library                                          Christiansburg  Library
200 Miller Street                                              125 Sheltman Street
Blacksburg                                                         Christiansburg

20 January at 1:30 pm                                     21 January at 1:30 pm
Jessie Peterman Library                                  Meadowbrook Public Library
321 West Main Street                                       267 Alleghany Spring Road
Floyd                                                                    Shawsville

Those interested will be able to sign up for a Beginning Beekeeper’s Course in person at one of the sessions described above or on-line at www.nrvba.org  or https://secure.west-point.org/nrvba.  The course lasts two Saturdays, 8:00 am to 4:30 pm, 10 February and 7 April 2018.  Cost is $60 per student and includes a beginner’s book, course materials, and lunch; $30 for additional family members who share the book and course materials. The course will be held at 220 Price Hall on the Virginia Tech Campus and will include (weather permitting) a hands-on session in the NRVBA apiary. Seating is limited and pre-registration not later than 31 January 2018 is mandatory.  Registration will close on 31 January or when the class is full.  Address questions to Jerry Borger, 540-382-1798.

 

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No December Meeting

Posted on December 7, 2017 by

As usual there will be no meeting of the New River Valley Beekeepers’ Association in December. The next meeting will be on Thursday January 11th at 6:30 pm

Don’t forget to renew your membership for 2018!  Only $10 for individuals, $15 for families, and free for students.  You can sign-up online at https://secure.west-point.org/nrvba/ or go to our webpage, https://nrvba.org and click on ‘Join/Renew’ on the menu bar. You may also pay at our monthly meetings. Dues paid now are good through 2018.

If you don’t renew you will miss out on benefits like the listserv, access to the Association’s commercial radial extractors and other honey harvesting equipment, and discounts on bee packages.

Visitors and guests are welcome at our meetings, held the second Thursday each month at 6:30 p.m. in the Community Room of the Montgomery County Health and Human Services Building, 210 W. Pepper St., Christiansburg, VA.

 

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