Prairie State Beekeepers Meeting - March 4, 2026
The March 4, 2026, Prairie State Beekeepers meeting will be at the Sangamon County Farm Bureau Building. Start time is 7 PM.
Please note the meeting night is on a Wednesday, not Thursday for March to avoid conflict with the 6 week Intro to Beekeeping Class. The 2026 class attendees will be invited to attend the meeting so they can see first hand what Prairie State Beekeepers is about (honey bees and beekeeping).
The March 4, 2026 meeting is the deadline for existing members to renew their yearly membership for $15. If you do not renew by the close of the meeting, the renewal fee for 2026 will be assessed a $5 late fee and your renewal fee for 2026 will be $20.
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 Michael Mitchell at [email protected]
The March 4, 2026, Prairie State Beekeepers meeting will be at the Sangamon County Farm Bureau Building. Start time is 7 PM.
Please note the meeting night is on a Wednesday, not Thursday for March to avoid conflict with the 6 week Intro to Beekeeping Class. The 2026 class attendees will be invited to attend the meeting so they can see first hand what Prairie State Beekeepers is about (honey bees and beekeeping).
The March 4, 2026 meeting is the deadline for existing members to renew their yearly membership for $15. If you do not renew by the close of the meeting, the renewal fee for 2026 will be assessed a $5 late fee and your renewal fee for 2026 will be $20.
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 Michael Mitchell at [email protected]
Tentative Agenda
- Cold weather
- Feeding and brooding
- Hive weight
- Losses from cold
- Summer meeting update
- Introduction to Beekeeping - 6 week class at U of I Extension Office
- Shirt Orders and extras
The registration for the 6 week Introduction to Beekeeping Class is active.
See the Summary of Events page for full details and how to register.
OR
If you already know you want to register, click on this direct link to the Registration Page
In person attendance will limited to the first 40 persons to register. Zoom attendees will be limited to the first 25.
If you have questions or problems in registering for the Introduction to Beekeeping class,
call the Extension office at (217) 782-4617
See the Summary of Events page for full details and how to register.
OR
If you already know you want to register, click on this direct link to the Registration Page
In person attendance will limited to the first 40 persons to register. Zoom attendees will be limited to the first 25.
If you have questions or problems in registering for the Introduction to Beekeeping class,
call the Extension office at (217) 782-4617
Items to check February/March
- Varroa mite treatments (OA Vapor and Extended release) Follow label instruction.
- Get your non occupied equipment cleaned up.
- Order any extra boxes and frames and equipment you need for 2026 now.
- Get swarm traps ready to be deployed by the first of March. Colonies which have decided to propagate (swarm) instead of survive (remain) in the existing colony will have already made their decision at some point in March (before they even start building queen cups or queen cells later on).
- Use of the modified snelgrove boards and queen excluders and using 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.
- 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.
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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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Vertical Divider
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Local Commercial Beekeeper - Honey & Queen Producer
Steamship Bee Company Andy O'Connell Springfield, IL 217.299.4892 [email protected] |