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2022 Beekeeping Surveys (BIP & PNW) will be available and posted here April 1st! For now, you can get started with the PNW Honey Bee Survey Notesheet: Notesheet | PNW Honey Bee Survey Establishing pollinator-friendly habitats and food sources for bees, butterflies and birds www.pollinator-pathway.orgAre you interested in learning about bees and beekeeping?If you have little or no experience, the 'Getting Started with Bees' Certificate Program is a great place to start. It is a stand-alone program that satisfies the curiosity of those who want to know more about bee biology and backyard beekeeping through online learning and discussion forums. No waiting list - join at any time! Take your beekeeping to the next level!Are you interested in learning how to become a better beekeeper? Have you experienced problems in the past that you'd like to remedy? Do you want to help others learn about bees? The Oregon Master Beekeeper program is for you! Participating beekeepers gain experience at three successive levels: Apprentice, Journey, and Master. Each level provides opportunities and support for additional learning, practice in the field, and community service. All of our beekeeping programs represent a cooperative effort between the Oregon State University Honey Bee Lab and the Oregon State Beekeepers Association to contribute to both the health of honey bee colonies and the integrity of the practice of beekeeping.
| March in your Central Oregon Apiary It’s not getting as cold at night. We’re actually seeing some sunlight before and after work. We’re starting to see some of the very early bulbs blooming……Spring must almost (or later in the month now) be here. This is a fun and forward looking month for we beekeepers. Our colonies, from the outside, still seem pretty inert, except for those ever increasing number of warm days where we’re seeing cleansing flights and water collection and occasional pollen baskets. We need to keep in mind that on the inside, the activity level might be picking up even before we notice it. As the days warm up later in the month, and especially when some natural (or beekeeper provided) forage is available, our colonies can start raising brood. This early brood activity can be both positive and negative. Positive in that your colony will get a head start on the summer, maybe 2 weeks or more of seasonal growth. Negative in that if there is no natural forage, you can get a brood die off, or worse, starvation. As the month goes on, continue checking the food levels of your colonies. If it’s too cold, by hefting one side of the colony, if there’s a particularly long warm stretch, I’ll sneak a quick look inside to verify there’s food in the close vicinity of the cluster. If you’re not seeing enough food, do an emergency feeding of solid sugar of one sort or another if it’s still consistently cold, and start feeding syrup if the temps are getting warm enough every day for flight. Remember to finish up putting together all the new woodenware (or fixing the older stuff) and painting it to protect it from the elements if that’s your plan. Also, For the gardeners, this might be a good time to start new plants indoors and clean the garden patch. Remember, April is the start of “boom time”. Allen Engle COBKA Meeting Slide/Video Archives |