Naomi Price wrote:

Tim: I don’t manage honey bees in your area, but I do experience all of your observations without Vector Control. The beekeeper friend in the Spring River area usually covered her hives with a bedsheet drenched with water during application times. Vector wasn’t always good about notification, but neighbors were best notifiers upon sight of seeing approaching fogging; not a great system for sure.   

Pollinators love cilantro and raspberry blossoms. The fact that you are seeing honey bees and other pollinators, tells you they are quite capable of living in south Deschutes. Do an internet search for Bees in Oregon to view excellent identifying bee photos.

Perhaps a good starter question is, “Why do I want to hive a colony of honey bees?”  

Thanks for the reply, Naomi.

I am encouraged to find bees in the garden, even if they turn out to be some sort of miner or sweat bee. At least they're surviving here.

I'm not 100% sure. According to this source they do appear to be honey bees, but I'd like to confirm . . . in case that's wishful thinking.

https://www.oregon.gov/oda/shared/Documents/Publications/IPPM/ODABeeGuide.pdf

I did contact the operator at vector control, and he told me they can call me when they plan to fog the area, so I can cover the hives. I'm concerned that wouldn't be enough, or I'd miss it, or the Permethrin on the plants would poison the bees.

If you have a contact keeping bees in Spring River, I would love to contact them. Can email me at hoss.6@hotmail.com

Best wish, TR

Anonymous wrote:

Well no replies to that in two months. Maybe the board is inactive or maybe there are no bee keepers in south county.

Let's see can I get a reply to this one. I have bees in my garden. Today they're all over the cilantro and the raspberries. I'm ignoring the bumbles, but there is an orange-ish colored forager and a smaller black one.

The black ones are small and fast, hard to get a snap of. I'm guessing they're a type of wild or feral honey bee, but I don't know for sure.

They orange ones look like a honey bee to me, but I could use some help identifying them.  Are these some type of non-honey bee? Link:

https://www.advrider.com/f/threads/british-columbia-and-washington-2022.1594555/page-3#post-48787335 

I'm guessing its late in the year to set up a swarm trap and try to capture some of these. What does the hive mind say about that?

That wasn't supposed to be anonymous, that was my post.

.

I would like to start a colony here in South Deschutes County. I wonder if there are some beekeepers on the board who have experience with the challenges we have here in the Sunriver, Three Rivers, Fall River, La Pine area.

1. We usually get a cold snap for a week of so every winter that goes as low as minus 5 or 10 degrees F.

How are you dealing with these temperatures?

2. Spring comes late. Cool temperatures and no blooms till late April makes me wonder if we have enough forage for honeybees.

Also native flowering plants are few. There are some currants and bitterbrush, two main species of pine tree . . . is there enough pollen and nectar in the environment here? What are your bees finding?

We do live along the river, so water is not a problem.

3. We are inside the Four Rivers Vector Control District. 

https://www.fourriversvectorcontroldistrict.com/

They use the larvicide BTI extensively. When mosquito numbers get high enough, they fog the area with Permethrin. Permethrin is known to be toxic to bees.

This is my bigger worry, that just like we've seen the natural populations of insects crash since they started fogging, bee hives will die or do poorly in the presence of this insecticide.

Does anyone here live inside the FRVCD and can contribute from experience . . . are your bees able to live inside the treated zone?