Prairie State Beekeepers - Meeting April 6, 2023
The April 6, 2023, Prairie State Beekeepers meeting will be at the Sangamon County Farm Bureau Building. Start time is 7 PM.
The meeting Zoom Link will be sent to all members via the Prairie State Google Group by 4/5/23.
If it does not appear in your email inbox, check your spam or junk folders. If it is in your junk/spam folder, indicate to your email client (Gmail/Yahoo/Outlook, etc it is not spam/junk
For Gmail based users it may end up in the Forums tab or Promotions tab of your email instead of the inbox or primary folder. you will need to tell Gmail to send it to your inbox/primary folder by moving it from the Promotions or Forum folder to the inbox or primary folder.
The April 6, 2023, Prairie State Beekeepers meeting will be at the Sangamon County Farm Bureau Building. Start time is 7 PM.
The meeting Zoom Link will be sent to all members via the Prairie State Google Group by 4/5/23.
If it does not appear in your email inbox, check your spam or junk folders. If it is in your junk/spam folder, indicate to your email client (Gmail/Yahoo/Outlook, etc it is not spam/junk
For Gmail based users it may end up in the Forums tab or Promotions tab of your email instead of the inbox or primary folder. you will need to tell Gmail to send it to your inbox/primary folder by moving it from the Promotions or Forum folder to the inbox or primary folder.
Tentative Agenda
The sign up form for 2023 bee packages is online via Google Forms.
Please note the time window to order packages for 2023 will be closing soon
If you are interested in 1 or more bee packages, see the link below
Instructions and additional information are in the request form.
Package price is $135 for PSBA members and attendees of the PSBA 2023 Intro to Beekeeping Class. For everyone else the price is $145. You pay at time of package pickup.
Link to 2023 Bee Package Request Form
Due to the inclement weather which has been occurring in California, it may be the 2nd week of April before the packages will be delivered to Illinois. The extreme wet weather has delayed the package producers and the companies which produce and provide the mated queens to the package producers.
Items to check in March & April
**** Follow the label instructions!
- Business items to attend to (max time is 15 minutes).
- Do a hive split or not?
- Remove swarm cells or not?
- Deploy your swarm traps now if you have any.
- If not already announced - Bee Package Pick Up date and instructions
- Other topics of interest such as the discussion and Q&A in the meeting indicate
The sign up form for 2023 bee packages is online via Google Forms.
Please note the time window to order packages for 2023 will be closing soon
If you are interested in 1 or more bee packages, see the link below
Instructions and additional information are in the request form.
Package price is $135 for PSBA members and attendees of the PSBA 2023 Intro to Beekeeping Class. For everyone else the price is $145. You pay at time of package pickup.
Link to 2023 Bee Package Request Form
Due to the inclement weather which has been occurring in California, it may be the 2nd week of April before the packages will be delivered to Illinois. The extreme wet weather has delayed the package producers and the companies which produce and provide the mated queens to the package producers.
Items to check in March & April
- Temperature permitting, you should be able to switch to liquid feed (1:1) sugar syrup or HFCS-55 or a commercial feed such as Pro Sweet) by the 2nd week in March. Feed inside a spacer box on top of upper brood box. Do not use a board man type feeder on front entrance.
- 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. We will go into more detail at the April meeting,.
- Install Small Hive Beetle traps
- The thermal break (barrier) at the top of the hive can be removed once you begin liquid feed.
- 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
- 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****
- 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
**** 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