We will start the meeting with an open discussion of, followed by voting on, the proposed updates to the NCBA Constitution and Bylaws that have been tabled since our October business meeting.  These updates are intended to clarify the mission of the NCBA as well as the roles of the Executive Committee and its members; provide members more flexibility in matters brought to Membership for a vote; and address ways to handle changing circumstances that call for a response.

We believe strongly that these updates need to be approved, and will help protect the interests of Membership and promote the highly effective Association that you, our members, deserve.

Below you’ll find links to a more detailed summary of the changes and to the revised Constitution and Bylaws themselves.

The next topic is Spring Beekeeping Activities – with a discussion and open Question and Answer session.  We know this is a busy Beekeeping time of year, and want to help you be successful.

We are using a new venue in northeast Greeley, the Jesus Rodarte Community Center, 920 A Street, (click here for a map) – and look forward to seeing you all there!

Summary of proposed updates to the NCBA Constitution and Bylaws
Proposed updated NCBA Constitution
Proposed updated NCBA Bylaws

You may be interested to check out the new postings on the Education – Articles page:

USDA Report on Honey Bee Health, published May 2013

Wednesday April 23rd Woodenware Back Order UpdateThe woodenware back order has been received and is being checked in.  It will be available at Greg Bowdish’s home after 7:00 PM this evening, the same location bees were distributed from.  He can be reached at 970-590-6059 if you have questions.

Directions to Greg Bowdish’s home in Severance.  From I-25 take the Harmony Exit AKA CR 74, East into Severance about 6 miles.  At the Conoco gas station in town turn north into Settlers Landing subdivision on Immigrant Trail. His home, 404 Immigrant Trail, is the third house on the right.  Click here for a map.  

April 18th Woodenware Order Update – Back ordered items have been delayed, and now we have heard they will not arrive until next week.

Need Large Crimp Wire Foundation?  Due to an order glitch, we have an extra 1500 sheets.  Let us know right away if you want some of that, or we’ll be sending it back.  Email Ken at ncbaprespt@nocobees.org.

Sunday April 14 Update: Some woodenware back order items have not yet arrived.  They are expected early this week, and we will post more information as it is available.

Wednesday April 10 Update:
Assembly Demonstration Schedule: Saturday April 13, 9-11:30 A.M.  and Sunday April 14, 10 A.M.-noon.
Woodenware: Some items are still on back order, but expected for weekend pickup.  For example, we were shorted a quantity of 8-frame equipment, so only some 8-frame orders are complete; folding veils, other stuff on back order.  Call Ken Nichols at 970-988-4416 if you need to know whether your order is complete.

An early order pickup opportunity will occur this coming Wednesday, April 10th from 5:30 PM to 7:00 PM.  Inventorying of the items received has been completed, and volunteers are sorting the shipment into individual orders.  A few items were missing or back ordered, and should be on their way now.  Most, but not all orders will be complete on Wednesday evening, but should be complete for weekend pickup.  Order pickup has been set for Saturday and Sunday April 13 – 14, 7 AM to Noon each day.

We will use the same location we have used in the recent past – Hoff Construction, 1815 W 12th St  Loveland, CO 80537.  Contact Ken if these dates won’t work for you – email ncbaprespt@nocobees.org.

Tuesday, April 23rd Bee Package Recommendations

1. We are recommending that everyone install their packages at the first opportunity when the temperature is up in the 50′s.  We understand that some people wish to wait until the weekend to install – which we are recommending against.  The forecast is that Thursday will be a good day to install.
2. Please do not spray the bees when installing them – the nights are still too cold, and the moisture will do more harm than good.
3. Beth Conrey will have the spare queens.  If you find that your queen is DOA, retain it and call Beth at 970-213-3099 as soon as possible.  We need to know on Friday if you need a replacement queen – we will start selling them on Saturday, so the availability of replacement queens after Friday is questionable.

Monday April 22nd Bee Package Order Update – The bee packages are available for pickup on Tuesday, April 23rd, from 8:00 AM to 7:00 PM.  We could really use a few extra hands to help for a couple of hours with the distribution throughout the day – especially early when distribution begins, and late – what we suspect may well be the busiest time, from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm.  We hope all packages will be picked up on Tuesday, but if you can’t make that pickup window, please contact Greg (number below) to make arrangements.

The pickup location is Greg Bowdish’s home in Severance.  From I-25 take the Harmony Exit AKA CR 74, East into Severance about 6 miles.  At the gas station in town turn left into Settlers Landing subdivision on Immigrant Trail. His home, 404 Immigrant Trail, is the third house on the right.  Click here for a map.  

The weather is not looking to be promising for bee work Tuesday and Wednesday, so you should be prepared to hold your packages for a couple of days if necessary.  The forecast is for a warming trend Thursday through the weekend. A dark, cool, not cold, location like a basement generally works well.  The syrup in the can should last for several days.  Beyond that, you can also spray a light mist of sugar water on the outside screen to provide additional nourishment. “Light” and “screen” are the key words.  If you wet the girls in this cold weather, they will die, and it is not always easy to see the difference between “misting” the bees and wetting them.

This might well be a year to use a gentler installation technique.  When hanging the queen cage between frames of the starter super, be sure the screen faces the space between the frames so attendant bees have ready access.  If you have an extra empty medium or large super, you can place the bee package box full of bees (inverted or on its side) and the inverted sugar water can (if it isn’t empty) on top of the frames inside the empty super. Spill a few bees over the queen, and the bees will find their way down to the queen.  Place your feeder on top – you will need to feed.  Come back the next day or after a few days and remove the extra super, bee box and can.  If you plan to manually release your queen after 2-3 days instead of using a marshmallow plug, this would be a good time to remove the bee box.

A reminder: DO NOT BOIL SUGAR WATER – THE HEAT CARAMELIZES THE SUGAR AND WILL KILL YOUR BEES.  Temperatures of about 150 degrees kill the yeasts that can shorten the life of sugar water.  If you are concerned about that, you can heat your sugar solution to 160-170 degrees.

A few of you will find that your queen is DOA in her cage – this happens, and we have extra queens for this contingency.  Call Greg at 970-590-6059 ASAP when you see this for a replacement.

Sunday April 21st Bee Package Order Update – We have confirmation that the bees are shipping.  Barring something unforeseen, bee packages will be available for pickup on Tuesday, April 23rd, from 8:00 AM to 7:00 PM.  We hope all packages will be picked up on Tuesday, but if you can’t make that pickup window, please contact Greg at 970-590-6059 to make arrangements.

We will post updated information here when the packages are confirmed ready for pickup at Greg’s, (directions and map below), or if the bees are delayed in transit.The pickup location is Greg Bowdish’s home in Severance.  From I-25 take the Harmony Exit AKA CR 74, East into Severance about 6 miles.  At the gas station in town turn left into Settlers Landing subdivision on Immigrant Trail. His home, 404 Immigrant Trail, is the third house on the right.  Click here for a map.  

The weather is not looking to be promising for bee work early in the week, so you should be prepared to hold your packages for a couple of days if necessary.  A cool, not cold, location like a basement generally works well.  The syrup in the can should last for several days.  Beyond that, you can also spray a light mist of sugar water on the outside screen to provide additional nourishment. “Light” and “screen” are the key words.  If you wet the girls, they will die.  A reminder: DO NOT BOIL SUGAR WATER – THE HEAT CARAMELIZES THE SUGAR AND WILL KILL YOUR BEES.  Temperatures of about 150 degrees kill the yeasts that can shorten the life of sugar water.  If you are concerned about that, you can heat your sugar solution to 160-170 degrees.

Friday April 19th Bee Package Order Update – The bee packages will be in transit on Monday, April 22nd, and be available for pickup on Tuesday, April 23rd, perhaps as early as 7 AM.  We will post updated information here when the packages are confirmed ready for pickup at Greg’s, (directions and map below), or if the bees are delayed in transit.

The weather is not looking to be promising for bee work early in the week, so you should be prepared to hold your packages for a couple of days if necessary.  A cool, not cold, location like a basement generally works well.  The syrup in the can should last for several days.  You can also spray a light mist of sugar water on the outside screen to provide additional nourishment. “Light” and “screen” are the key words.  If you wet the girls, they will die.

April 18th Bee Package Order Update – As currently planned Bee packages will leave California this weekend sometime between Saturday morning and Sunday evening.  The trip should take about 18 hours, meaning we’ll meet the truck sometime between midnight Saturday night and noon on Monday.  Allow us 6 hours to pick up the bees and stage them.  Then pick up will be available.

Our order this year totals about 450 packages of bees, and we could really use 2-3 more people to help with the pickup of the bees.  This involves meeting the Olivarez truck, helping offload our empty bee boxes and load our bee packages into the trailer for the trip to Severance. Being in the midst of this many bees – and their intoxicating scent – is a truly unique experience, and one that you’ll value for a long time.  If you can spare the time, we could use the help.  Call Ken Nichols at 970-988-4416.  Extra hands will also be welcome in Severance to help with distribution.

Everyone should plan on feeding their bees as weather is not forecast to be the best next week.  More on this later.

The pickup location is Greg Bowdish’s home in Severance.  From I25 take the Harmony Exit AKA CR 74, East into Severance about 6 miles.  At the gas station in town turn left into Settlers Landing subdivision on Immigrant Trail. His home, 404 Immigrant Trail, is the third house on the right.  Click here for a map.   You can also drop off empty bee boxes here any time before the bees ship – leave them to the left of the building in back.

Prior Info:

Per our supplier, the current estimated delivery date is Monday, April 22nd.  This is subject to change.  The Bee Package Order delivery date is always somewhat uncertain, because weather and queen rearing can impact order preparation.  We are planning to distribute bees from Greg Bowdish’s location in Severance.

If you ordered bees and did not receive the NCBA Bee Order Status Update email sent on Saturday April 6th, email NCBA Secretary John Green at ncbasecretary@nocobees.org to make sure you are on the order status email list.

We have been assured by our supplier that we will receive full three pound packages with a queen, in spite of the difficulties you may have heard some suppliers are having.  Olivarez Honey Bees (http://www.ohbees.com) is one of the largest producers of package bees in northern California, and has been a reliable supplier for us.

April 15th is the survey deadline – to be reported separately, Colorado needs 200 beekeepers to complete the survey!
Please participate!  The first part, the Winter Loss Survey takes about ten minutes; continuing on to complete the Management Survey takes about 20 minutes more.

(The following is from the Bee Informed Partnership)
Dear Beekeeper,

The Bee Informed Partnership, a joint project among numerous universities and laboratories, is a project whose aim is to help beekeepers make better management decisions and thus reduce colony losses.  To do this effectively, we need beekeepers, lots of beekeepers, to participate in our survey. We are asking you to please participate in two surveys.  Both surveys are open only from 29 March through 15 April 2013.
You can learn more about the Bee Informed Partnership at beeinformed.org.

Please click on the link below or paste it into your browser to participate in the National Winter Loss and Management Survey:

http://10.selectsurvey.net/beeinformed/TakeSurvey.aspx?SurveyID=BIP2012

The winter loss survey should take less than 10 minutes and the management survey should take less than 20 minutes.

The purpose of the Bee Informed Partnership is to use beekeepers’ real world experiences to help solve beekeepers’ real world problems. We will use the data generated from these two surveys to help you decide which management practices are best for beekeepers like you, who live where you do and have operations similar to yours.  For this to work, we need as many participants as possible…so please take the time to fill out the questionnaire and SEND THIS EMAIL TO ALL THE BEEKEEPERS YOU KNOW asking them to fill out these questionnaires too.

You can see what type of results we will generate by visiting the Beeinformed.org website and browsing through our results section. Currently we are in the process of posting last year’s management results, so visit the site often to see these results as they are posted and discussed in our BLOG section.

Depending on the number of participants we hope to have the results from this year’s survey broken down by region and should have those results posted within months of the survey close date now that we have built the infrastructure needed to automate report generation.

Should you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact us at askbeeinformed@gmail.com or call us at 443.296.2470.

You can learn more about the Bee Informed Partnership at beeinformed.org.

BE INVOLVED, BE INCLUDED, BEE INFORMED.

Thank you,
Karen Rennich
Project Manager, The Bee Informed Partnership