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Greetings Hello,



TRUST THE BEES!

We are meeting, in person, at the Olivebridge Library! Tuesday February 15th, 5:45 pm. Note this is Tuesday, not Monday.

Come one, come all! Yes, at the Library. And you want to come, because your bees are not sleeping. They are active, fighting the cold. Let's trade secrets on how to get them through the rest of the winter alive. I look forward to seeing everyone, both veteran and beginning beekeepers.

This is an action packed newsletter, so keep on scrollin'...



MUSIC
Not Honey Bee music, but relaxing to listen to. Opens a new window. You won't Bee disappointed. Listen while you read...

Some Relaxing Jazz...



TAKE NOTE
***Send us photos, equipment you are selling, or anything bee related for the next newsletter.

***We are looking for people willing to have Bee Group meetings in their apiary this summer. Hoping to start in April if weather permits. Please sign up for a month now. The meetings really are wonderful in an apiary. Plus an experienced beekeeper will look at your bees. ;-)



CLASSES

Rob Overton rob@bushkillventures.com
Please sign up quickly as this will fill in fast and space is limited. It takes years to learn about keeping bees, and the season long program moved my personal knowledge ahead by 2-3 years. Rob has been keeping bees all his life and his knowledge is deep.

1. Season Long Master Class Apprenticeship -> https://hvhives.com/season-long-master-class-apprenticeship/
2. Hands-on Full Day Beginner Workshop -> https://hvhives.com/hands-on-full-day-beginner-course-51615/
3. If you attended the Intro to Beekeeping Seminar we would appreciate it if you could leave a POSITIVE (lol) comment -> https://hvhives.com/intro-to-beekeeping-seminar/


Tom Sotiridy 914 213 2303
Apicultural Intensives for 2022

We have 3 options for expanding your Beekeeping experience:

1. I can teach you one on one, I decided to do this because of the current climate, some people aren’t comfortable being in close proximity with others.
2. You can attend the 4 intensives (1 or more), which are designed around the key points of our season, and the behaviors and activities of the bees. I can’t explain all that goes into these classes, but the most important is you are learning from a master beekeeper and getting into a lot of hives. You will see things you would not otherwise get to see with just a hive or three in your back yard. You will learn to evaluate and inspect colonies very quickly see what it is needed. This is a rare way to teach in America. The classes are designed upon what I consider the four major mile stones of the season Pre Honey, Honey, Post Honey, Winter Preparation. It is recommended to take all four, and if you so choose to, there is a discount. The 1 day intensives are generally 4-5 hours and are limited in size to 8. These are on Saturdays with the immediate following Sunday the rain date. The start times are 1 pm and run till 6pm. can take our season long class which goes from March 2022 to June 2023. During the season we meet 2x a month for half a day, and during the off season we remote our biology and disease classes. There is a hands on for equipment building and for honey extracting.
3. The 15th month program has 60 hours of apiary time and 20 hours of classroom time. You get 2 hives, that you make from our hives, 2 text books, my charts, and whatever discounts we get for equipment you will get at our cost. We also will have some friends drop in from time to time for guest lectures or even field time. I won’t say who just yet but they are very well known in the beekeeping community. You also have access to working with us in other apiaries and can help with our testing and other advanced processes.
This will start in late March with our first Class “How the Bees view the Season” and how we can be more helpful if we see it through their eyes. You will receive your text book and my handouts for the early season management. Depending on temperatures we will start the 2 week cycle in Mid April.

This is farming and nature, which is a scheduling paradox, so please plan on being slightly flexible on the dates.

If you would like more information about purchasing Honey Bees, taking our classes, Estate Apiaries, or anything else please feel free to call. --Tom



REFERENCES

See links at end of newsletter.



AND FOR THOSE OF US who lose bees this winter, send the bees to the Beltsville Lab for a free analysis. They will tell you if your bees were overrun by mites or done in by Nosema. Let's you know what you might need to manage to in the coming year. Link is in the Resources section below.

Please grow our list, forward this newsletter to a friend. Thanks!

Bzzz...

Queen 16 Days, Worker 21 Days, Drone 24 Days...Capped at 9th Day...



Pls check the Resources section below...


For more information:
www.beeimprovement.com
914.213.2303

If you have any topics, ideas, selling bee equipment, or questions, feel free to contact us at BeeGroup@HVHiives.com.

Keep on BZZZzzz'n...

Photos of the Month...

Thanks to Sharon Fletcher for photos of her apiary...Very Nice! Please send us your photos.... :-)
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Bees in the News...

Lithuanian, the most conservative of all Indo-European languages, is riddled with references to bees.

In mid-January, the snow made the little coastal town of Šventoji in north-west Lithuania feel like a film set. Restaurants, shops and wooden holiday cabins all sat silently with their lights off, waiting for the arrival of spring.
Click Here for the more.
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Baltic honey and beekeeping traditions - 5 fun facts about bees in Lithuania

Raw honey and sustainable beekeeping traditions date back to 1st century in the Baltic region. Baltic honey is blessed by the long history and traditions of the rich beekeeping culture and the vast landscapes of wildflowers that are terrific for bees and other pollinators. Not many nations has such deep beekeeping roots as Lithuania and Latvia. Let’s immerse into it at least for a moment.
CLICK HERE for more.

The Different Types of Honey Bees

Honey bees, like all other living things, vary among themselves in traits such as temperament, disease resistance, and productivity. The environment has a large effect on differences among bee colonies (for example, plants in different areas yield different honey crops), but the genetic makeup of a colony can also impact the characteristics that define a particular group. Beekeepers have long known that different genetic stocks have distinctive characteristics, so they have utilized different strains to suit their particular purpose, whether it be pollination, a honey crop, or bee production.
CLICK HERE for more.
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THE BENEFITS OF POLLEN TO HONEY BEES

What can a beekeeper do to ensure that the nutritional requirements of the colony are met? A beekeeper should make certain that plants in the area actually provide pollen. For example, bees do not forage on many ornamental plants, so not all blooming flowers are attractive to bees. Also, the volume of pollen produced by a plant is not correlated necessarily to a bee's use of that plant's pollen. Pine trees, for example, produce copious amounts of protein-poor pollen but typically are not visited by honey bees. Additionally, plants that produce large amounts of nectar do not always also provide pollen for bees. When considering the nutritional requirements of honey bees, it is important to remember "variety, variety, variety." No single pollen meets all the nutritional needs of a colony so a variety of pollens from different plant sources will help ensure that these needs are met. Just like humans, bees need well-rounded diets. When inspecting a honey bee colony, one should see frames with a rainbow of pollen colors (orange, yellow, red, white, green, etc.) present in the cells. Additionally, pollen quality is more important than quantity.
CLICK HERE for more.

Webinar: A Year in the Life of a Colony

    "Jamie Ellis Discusses the Yearly Lifecycle of a Honeybee Colony"

    This is an external webinar. The cost is free, but you must register for the event at Webinar Registration to get the webinar link.

    About the Event

    Honeybees live in perennial colonies. Survival and reproduction are the ultimate goals of any organism and honeybee colonies are no different. Jamie will discuss the yearly lifecycle of a colony and what it does to survive the fluctuations in temperature, rainfall, forage availability, and other stressors that it faces through the course of a year
    CLICK HERE to read on...
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    Resources:

    A SAD DAY IN THE BEE YARD...
    Very good Case Study on the Collapse of a Hive and what the signs are. You need to see this. Very good photos. Opens a PDF in a new window .... https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NvP-olm7vwMxPVH-Oi1CNHH70Wq913ym/view

    Bee Biology
    Basic Bee Biology from the University of Georgia
    Pictures of Bee Anatomy
    Honey Bees Identification, Biology, and Lifecycle
    Honey Bee Biology, Part 1: The Digestive System

    NY Bee Wellness: https://nybeewellness.org/

    Beltsville Lab: If your bees die, God Forbid!, please send a sample to the Beltsville Lab in Maryland. The analysis is free and they will email you the results. They check for Nosema and Mites. I sent a sample down a month ago and my hive was loaded with mites -- in December! Please share results with Rob,Tom and the BeeGroup so we can help keep tabs on what is happening in the 'hood. Thanks! CLICK HERE for details on how to submit a sample.

    Fat Bees Skinny Bees
    Talks about nutrition for your bees. This will impact how your bees can fight off disease and ultimately survive.
    Click Here for the Powerpoint.
    Click Here for the Manual.



    For Honeybee information, videos, podcasts and workshops please visit the links below. Workshops are being updated as we speak!
    HVHIVES.com
    BeeImprovement.com

    Dave Cushman Beekeeping Website maintained by Roger Patterson.
    Go to Dave-Cushman.net

    With Special Thanks for providing the Venue: Olive Free Library

    A Quick Reference Guide to Honey Bee Parasites, Pests, Predators, and Diseases https://extension.psu.edu/a-quick-reference-guide-to-honey-bee-parasites-pests-predators-and-diseases

    Welsh Beekeepers Association Bee Disease Guide: It is important for all beekeepers to be familiar with the appearance of healthy worker brood, in order to recognise abnormalities which may indicate the presence of disease.

    Honey Bee Healthy Recipe

    NOSEMA: Treatment Procedure. Don't forget to treat for Nosema! Click Here for procedure.

    HONEYBEE LIFE CYCLE - Very Important to know. This is the building block of understanding your hives.
    Click Here for video...
    Click here for chart and discussion.

    Queen 16 Days, Worker 21 Days, Drone 24 Days...

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    Bee Group Meeting

    What: Bee Group
    Where: Olive Free Library, West Shokan - check details above for location
    When: Looks like 3rd Tuesday of the month for now.

    Hudson Valley Hives is a beekeeping group that meets at the Olive Free Library on a monthly basis and discuss all things beekeeping. The meeting is driven by members questions and sharing experiences with the goal of spreading timely knowledge among fellow beekeepers. It is very informal and we welcome anyone interested to participate. If you are just thinking about getting started in beekeeping, a new beekeeper, or a seasoned beekeeper, you will benefit from the group discussions. There is no membership fee. The Olive Free Library graciously provides a meeting place for our group and we encourage you to make a donation to the library if you find the BeeGroup helpful.

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