The registration period for the 6 Week Introduction to Beekeeping Class is closed.
If you missed the registration and are local (meaning you can attend in person) call the below number to see if there is a spot available.
call the Extension office at (217) 782-4617 and ask for Jennifer
If you missed the registration and are local (meaning you can attend in person) call the below number to see if there is a spot available.
call the Extension office at (217) 782-4617 and ask for Jennifer
Prairie State Beekeepers Meeting - March 5, 2025
The March 5, 2025, Prairie State Beekeepers meeting will be at the Sangamon County Farm Bureau Building. Start time is 7 PM. Please note the meeting for March is on a Wednesday to avoid conflict with the 6 week Intro To Beekeeping Class. The class attendees will also be invited to attend the March meeting.
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. If you are a member and did not get the meeting email notice, contact Steve Petrilli at [email protected]
The March 5, 2025, Prairie State Beekeepers meeting will be at the Sangamon County Farm Bureau Building. Start time is 7 PM. Please note the meeting for March is on a Wednesday to avoid conflict with the 6 week Intro To Beekeeping Class. The class attendees will also be invited to attend the March meeting.
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. If you are a member and did not get the meeting email notice, contact Steve Petrilli at [email protected]
Tentative Agenda
- Business items to attend to (max time is 15 minutes).
- Membership Renewal for 2025 due by close of March 2025 meeting
- Direct Link to Bee Package Request Form
- Link to Steamship Bee Company for Spring Splits and Overwintered nucs
- Expected availability of overwintered nucleus hives and spring splits
- Topics of interest such as the discussion and Q&A in the meeting indicate.
Items to check in February/March
- Check and refresh as needed, solid form of sugar such as cook sugar bricks, mountain camp dry sugar method, Missouri Krabby Patty, commercial winter patties or a candy board.
- In our area, the queens should be laying at this time. There are winter pollen sources starting in late January and even more in February which the honey bees will work providing there is suitable weather for flying.
- On flying days without rain, you can put some dry protein supplement out (such as AP23 or another commercial supplement). The foraging honey bees should find it in a short amount of time if they are not working a natural pollen source.
- If you have hives which did not make it through winter to this point, clean them up and seal off the entrances until you are ready to repopulate the hives.
- Now is the time to be working on rehab of frames and hive boxes to be deployed in March or ordering new equipment
- Decide what you are going to do with overwintered colonies in late March or April (i.e. nothing, create a split or let swarm, or manually re-queen)
- Get honey supers and extra deep brood boxes to deploy for strong overwintered colonies
- 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 been some 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.
2025 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 Kathy Kaesebier (Treasurer). Her contact information is below so you can email or call her to obtain her 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 |
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:
Prairie State
Beekeeping Presentation Committee Chairperson & Apparel Committee Chairperson Melissa Gerard Athens, IL 217.691.2223 [email protected] |
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] |