This month we have a special treat! Calvin and Hillary Sphuler will be hosting the March meeting Tuesday, the 25th at 6:30 pm at the Flathead County Health Department 1035 1st Ave W in Kalispell (second floor). Calvin and Hillary are experienced sideliner and queen rearers with over 75% winter success rates most years with their 20+ hives. They will be there to answer questions and pass on his tips and tricks! Please joins us Tuesday! Our April meeting will feature Christine Lambert from USDA Wildlife Services to talk to us about bear fencing.

Happy First False Spring Everyone! Some important annoucements if you missed our monthly meeting:

1. Buy your bees NOW if you haven’t. There has been a country-wide decimation of bees with commerical companies and stock may run out very fast this year.
2. Volunteer’s Needed for our club’s vendor table at Free The Seeds this Saturday, March 1st, from 9-am – 2:30 pm at FVCC Arts & Technology building. Angela needs help greeting the general public who stop by the table to ask questions about beekeeping. Please stop by at any point and offer to help stand there and answer questions and talk about bees! She’s doing a talk about beekeeping at the event from 1:30 – 2:30 pm.
3. It’s a good time to QUICKLY open up your hives and give the bees protein/sugar patties. Without substitue protein your bees from last year will not be able to feed their replacement brood while Montana has no pollen. Please see the March Feeding Recipe for Crabby Patties on this page . Do not do inspections yet unless the temperature is 55 degrees.
4. The only 2 local (Kalispell) bee drop offs are from Great Northern Honey and Rod Smith. If you are purchasing bees within the state that require a longer drive, PLEASE text Angela at 406-871-6551 to volunteer or ask about bee car-pooling for a specific seller. We are gathering a list of drivers willing to pick up everyone’s bees at a given location for gas money to distribute back here in Kalispell. It requires some coordination and sometimes money exchange so please inquire early.

Welcome back everyone! Our first in person meeting of the year will be Tuesday, Feb 25th at 6:30 pm at the Flathead County Health Department (second floor). We’ll be discussing ordering bees, March feeding, and hive autopsies. See you then!

The Beginning beekeeping class taught by Angela Tollerson can now be registered for at FVCC continuing education website.

February: Beginning Beekeeping

May: Advanced Beekeeping

We will not be meeting at the Health Department August 27th nor September 24th. Instead, we will go visit the Slovinian Apiary created by our member, Lowell, in Polson, Montana on Sunday, Sept. 8th. We will also be covering basic winterizing tips and it will be a Potluck Lunch. Here are the details:

Location: Lowell’s Apiary
39085 Cimarron Lane, Polson
Date: Sunday, September 8th
Time: 11:30am (Potluck first, then tour and bee winterizing meeting)
Required: Bee Veil at least
Potluck: Bring what you want; but if you want to make sure we have all dishes covered, follow the general
rule of Last name starts with A-M: Sides or Deserts. Last Name starts with N-Z: Main Dishes

Don’t forget about our meeting Tuesday night at the Flathead County Health Department, Second floor at 6:30 pm! See you then!

We’ll see you at 6:30 pm on the second floor Tuesday night this month! We’ll be talking about your July To-Dos and planning for our apiary visit this summer to a club member’s Scandinavian hives.

Due to influenza illness, Angela is unable to run the beekeeping meeting tonight, Tuesday 5/28. My apologies for the late notice. Please watch this page for news about our June meeting. If you have any beekeeping questions that were dependent on answers at tonight’s meeting, please feel free to email or call. Angela won’t be able to respond for a few days when her voice is back. Thanks for your understanding!

Dear Beekeepers,

Auburn University, with the support of the AIA, has worked hard to get a US colony loss and management survey up and running given that BIP is no longer administering one. The survey can be found at https://aub.ie/colonysurvey [aub.ie]

It is now live and inviting beekeeper participation until midnight on May 31^st.  Beekeeping operations of any size can fill out the survey!

An announcement blog can be found on the AIA website here: https://apiaryinspectors.org/Blog-US-Beekeeping-Survey-Live [apiaryinspectors.org]

Additionally, Auburn has made an initial announcement about the survey on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/auburnbees [facebook.com]) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/auburnbees/ [instagram.com]). The handle for both is @auburnbees and the pages are called Auburn University Bees.

Thank you so much for your assistance! Participating in this survey helps inspectors better understand what is driving colony losses across the US. All information on beekeeper information is kept confidential.

Best,
Alyssa Piccolomini, State Entomologist   
Montana Department of Agriculture   
Secretary, Apiary Inspectors of America (AIA)     
Office 406-444-3790  Mobile 406-417-1246    Web www.agr.mt.gov/beeprogram 
Email apiccolomini@mt.gov    302 N Roberts St | Helena, MT 59601