Prairie State Beekeepers - Meeting July 6, 2023
The July 6, 2023, 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.
There will not be a Zoom link for the June 11, 2023 Summer outing at Nipper Wildlife Sanctuary,
We intend to provide a Zoom link for the July meeting
The July 6, 2023, 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.
There will not be a Zoom link for the June 11, 2023 Summer outing at Nipper Wildlife Sanctuary,
We intend to provide a Zoom link for the July meeting
Tentative Agenda
Items to check in June/July
**** Follow the label instructions!
- Business items to attend to (max time is 15 minutes).
- Different methods of putting supers on hives (top or bottom supering)
- Topics of interest such as the discussion and Q&A in the meeting indicate
- June 11, 2023 Summer Outing at Nipper Wildlife Sanctuary (see the Summary of Events Page)
- SBA Summer Meeting – July 14-15, 2023 - Quincy Illinois
Items to check in June/July
- Examine double brood box hives and ascertain where the bees and brood are (upper or lower box)
- If all brood is in upper box, then reverse the boxes so the brood box is now the lower most box. Take this opportunity to clean off your bottom board or exchange the existing bottom board with a cleaned replacement bottom board
- Check for signs of supercedure or swarm in each colony.
- If supercedure cell, do not remove it, the bees know best. Let the supercedure process complete, but be prepared to replace the new queen once she is mated (if needed)
- If swarm cells, decide what you want to do. If the swarm cells are not capped yet, you can take the existing queen and several frames of brood and put in a new hive (nuc or regular 10 frame or 8 frame box). You have the option of creating more than one hive split.
- Install or check the status of your Small Hive Beetle traps
- Feed your installed package bees until they have built comb out on all new frames.
- Feed existing overwintered colonies and new splits liquid feed until they are built up.
- Stop feeding when you put on honey supers.
- Check the status of the supers and manipulate the frames as needed or add additional supers
- Check upper brood box to make sure it does not become honey bound
- Formic Acid and Formic Acid pro is the only varroa control permitted once honey supers are on****
- ApiVar or Apiguard be used for varroa control before you put honey supers on****
- If/when you need to extract honey, and you do not have an extractor, contact Rich Ramsey to schedule the use of one of the Prairie State extractors (all are manual)
- Do not remove full honey supers until you are ready extract (SHB eggs will hatch within 3 days). You can also put the frames of honey in a freezer for several days to ensure any SHB eggs are neutralized.
- 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
- Deploy your swarm traps if you have not already done so. The cold/wet weather knocked the colonies back on their heels a tad, but with the warm weather forecast for our area in the first week of May, colonies with the urge to swarm will. Have seen scout bees checking out swarm traps and a few members have already hived swarms this week
**** Follow the label instructions!
Per Mel Disselkoen, queens mated after the Summer Solstice (June 21, 2023 10:58 am) will lay eggs more vigorously and longer into the year than queens mated before the Summer Solstice. So if you plan to re-queen your colonies by doing a walk away split, time it out so the emerging queen will be mated after the Summer Solstice.
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Membership dues:
Give your membership renewal or new membership form and payment to the Membership Secretary. The Membership Secretary will process it forward the payment to the Treasurer for deposit. New member applications will be reviewed by the officers before the membership is approved. You can mail in your renewal to Steve Petrilli (membership secretary), his contact information is below so you can email or call him to obtain his mailing address. It has also been 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 Apparel Committee Chairperson
Melissa Gerard Athens, IL 217.691.2223 melmels1999@yahoo.com |
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ISBA Vice President
Steve Petrilli Mechanicsburg, IL 217.638.7891 spetrilli45@gmail.com |
ISBA Legislative Liaison
Rich Ramsey Rochester, IL 217.691.9354 rramsey2@gmail.com |
State of Illinois Dept. of Agriculture Apiary Inspector
Illinois Bees and Apiaries Program
Arvin Pierce
Waverly, IL
217.638.6371
rvnpirc51@gmail.com
Illinois Bees and Apiaries Program
Arvin Pierce
Waverly, IL
217.638.6371
rvnpirc51@gmail.com