Prairie State Beekeepers Meeting - November 5, 2026 7 PM
The November 5, 2026, Prairie State Beekeepers meeting will be at the Sangamon County Farm Bureau Building. Start time is 7 PM.
A map to the location of the Farm Bureau Building can be found on the Summary of Events Page.
A zoom link for the meeting will be sent to all members via the Google Group forum for those who cannot attend the meeting in person. Just scroll down in the email until you find the link.
If you are a member and did not get the meeting email notice, contact Michael Mitchell at [email protected]
The November 5, 2026, Prairie State Beekeepers meeting will be at the Sangamon County Farm Bureau Building. Start time is 7 PM.
A map to the location of the Farm Bureau Building can be found on the Summary of Events Page.
A zoom link for the meeting will be sent to all members via the Google Group forum for those who cannot attend the meeting in person. Just scroll down in the email until you find the link.
If you are a member and did not get the meeting email notice, contact Michael Mitchell at [email protected]
Tentative Agenda
- New or inexperienced beekeeper discussion of what your hive should look like for fall.
- Preparing bees for fall/winter
- Treatments
- Feeding
- Hive Weight
- As usual we will have open discussion of issues members are encountering.
Items to check October/November
- Stock up on sugar to make syrup for fall feeding and to make sugar cakes for winter feeding, whether it be the 1:1 ratio or the heavy syrup (a 2:1) ratio of sugar to water (1 part sugar to 1 part water or 2 parts sugar to 1 part water). Feed until temps are too cold to do so and then switch to a solid form of feed such as sugar cakes, mountain camp method, candy board or commercially purchased sugar patties.
- Varroa mite treatments (OA Vapor and Extended release) and Formic Acid Pro- Follow label instruction.
- It is too late in the year for using the OTS method to produce a mated queen of your on. However, to get ready for next year, see the On The Spot (OTS) method devised by Mel Disselkoen as presented by Andy O'Connell at the February meeting can help reduce swarms in done in time or at least provide you with additional queens of your own. If you want to view and or download the video, you can click here
- Wondering where the bees are finding the pollen they are bringing in? Check the pollen sources by time of year on the documents page of our website.
- NASA has also produced an online map of honey bee forage sources by region
There have a few reported issues concerning the PSBA Google Group forum with members who have non Gmail based email addresses. Some but not all Yahoo and Outlook based email addresses have encountered the problem.
A few have been unexplainably removed from the group by Google. When we try to add the non Gmail based email address to the group, an error message states, the person cannot be directly added to the group, but must be invited.
If you have not been receiving the monthly zoom invites via the google group or have not seen any google group emails for a month, then...
A few have been unexplainably removed from the group by Google. When we try to add the non Gmail based email address to the group, an error message states, the person cannot be directly added to the group, but must be invited.
If you have not been receiving the monthly zoom invites via the google group or have not seen any google group emails for a month, then...
- Check your spam/junk folder and tell your email client the email from the PSBA group is not spam. We have noticed even Gmail will occasionally mark the PSBA google group emails as spam.
- Try to add yourself back to the PSBA Google group. Go to the Google Group tab of the PSBA website and click the blue icon.
- If you are already a PSBA Google group member it should take you to the group. If you are not already a PSBA Google Group member, it should allow you to be requested to be added to the group. Be sure to use your name and email address you used to join PSBA.
- If you accidentally click on the link and unsubscribe yourself from the PSBA Google group you can use the above stated procedure to get yourself added back to the group.
- If the email address does not appear on the PSBA membership list, the add request will not be approved. See the below screenshot of the Google Group page tab.
- If your email address is non gmail based and still do not get the Google Group messages from Prairie State Beekeepers your last alternative is to create a gmail account (it is free to do so) and then send your gmail based email address to Steve Petrilli and he will add it to the PSBA google group.
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2026 PSBA Membership dues:
The membership application/renewal form can be found on the Documents page tab of the website. Bring it to the next meeting you can attend. Give your membership renewal or new membership form and payment to the Treasurer. The Treasurer will notify the Membership Secretary to renew the member for Prairie State and to advise the ISBA of the renewal. New member applications will be reviewed by the officers before the membership is approved. You can mail in your renewal to Ben Reynolds (Treasurer). His contact information is below so you can email or call him to obtain his mailing address. The mailing address is also posted on the Prairie State Google Group. |
Our thanks to Jefferies Orchard
for their continued support of Prairie State Beekeepers 
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Your membership entitles you to a discounted subscription rate for the American Bee Journal magazine. Bee Culture is also an excellent publication, but it does not offer a discounted subscription.
Contact Information & Officers:
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Prairie State Beekeeping Presentation Committee Chairperson & Apparel Committee Chairperson
Melissa Gerard 447.910.6500 [email protected] |
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ISBA Vice President
Steve Petrilli Mechanicsburg, IL 217.638.7891 [email protected] |
ISBA Legislative Liaison
Rich Ramsey Rochester, IL 217.691.9354 [email protected] |
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Local Commercial Beekeeper - Honey & Queen Producer
Steamship Bee Company Andy O'Connell Springfield, IL 217.299.4892 [email protected] |