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Establishing pollinator-friendly habitats and food sources for bees, butterflies and birds www.pollinator-pathway.org
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Connie Axelrod, 2021 COBKA Haiku Contest Winner
September in your
Central Oregon apiary
Aaaah, what a summer.....and not much smoke in central Oregon (Yay). Time to start thinking about how you’re going to cover your delicate plants.
With your honeybees you generally need to get started with, or continue your winter preparations. Most of us have already pulled our supers (langstroth) or pulled individual frames/combs (top bar or long hives). The rest of this month it’s a good idea to let your bees keep any nectar they bring in either to fill out the hive, or to backfill as brood production decreases. Your goal should be to have they hive as full as possible when going into winter. One measure would be at least 18 frames on a two box langstroth, 10 frames on a 1 box Langstroth, 15 frames on a top bar or long hive. Goals, not requirements. If you’re not there yet start supplemental feeding with 1:1 or 2:1 syrup (ratio dependent on your philosophy).
If your mites aren’t under control this needs to be done ASAP as you need healthy bees to make Winter bees.
If you queen is weak, starting to have problems or is more than 2 years old consider requeening now while they are still available.
Finally, for your weaker colonies, at this point they are quite unlikely to recover from their issues before winter. They should be either combined (if no diseases and low mites) with another colony or bolstered with brood from a donor colony or preferably nuke (keeping in mind the donor shouldn’t be weakened either.
Are YOU looking forward to pumpkin pie spiced everything?
Allen Engle
COBKA Meeting Slide/Video Archives
OSU Citizen Science Project: Swarm Study
Attention beekeepers who would like to participate in a study on swarms!
A message from Dr. Ramesh Sagili - OSU Apiculture Professor
Oregon Beekeepers:
The OSU Honey Bee Lab is opening its doors for an exciting opportunity to view experiments, lab equipment, pest/disease diagnostics, and to meet lab personnel! The lab is located on the OSU campus in Corvallis (this is not the apiary lab site). Due to limited lab space, attendance is limited to 25 people. If over 25 register, the lab will do a lottery and notify you if your name was drawn. Please fill out the form by accessing the following and they will get back to you with more information: https://beav.es/iAq
OUR MISSION
The Mission of the Central Oregon Beekeeping Association (COBKA) is to promote effective, economic and successful regional beekeeping through education, collaboration, communication and research in the spirit of friendship.
ABOUT US
We are a diverse bunch of individuals who share a fascination for the honey bee and its workings. Our members range from full-time beekeepers and pollinators with hundreds of hives to hobbyists involved in backyard beekeeping.
Some members do not even keep bees, but are fascinated by the six legs and four wings of Apis mellifera.
