Program Update for the Michael Bush Event
31 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in Announcement
The Beekeepers of Northern Virginia (BANV) with support from the Prince William Regional Beekeepers Association (PWRBA) will be hosting Michael Bush – author of “The Practical Beekeeper” and well known internet personality http://www.bushfarms.com/bees.htm
The event will be repeated on two days: July 30th and 31st, 2012.
Field Presentation – Venue T.B.D: this will be an outdoor event with limited attendance
Dinner – Restaurant T.B.D: a local restaurant will be selected for those who would like to meet before the main presentation – yes Michael will be at the dinner!
Main Presentation – Manassas Church of the Brethren (http://www.manassasbrethren.org/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=46)
Program:
Monday July 30th 2pm – 4pm Field Presentation (limited to 25 attendees)
Monday July 30th 5:30 – 6:45 Dinner and informal Q&A
Monday July 30th 7pm – 9pm Main Presentation
Tuesday July 31th 2pm – 4pm Field Presentation (limited to 25 attendees)
Tuesday July 31th 5:30 – 6:45 Dinner and informal Q&A
Tuesday July 31th 7pm – 9pm Main Presentation
- Organic/sustainable beekeeping
- Queens – rearing, maintaining, selecting
- Trends and thoughts on the evolution of beekeeping especially in the face of current challenge
Poll for selecting email preference in BANY Yahoo Group
25 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in Announcement
Current BAN YahooGroup settings are configured to make “reply-to” result in email going to the entire group. The benefit of this has been that many of our group messages are questions posed and the reply is valuable to all. The other option is to make “reply-to” go to the sender’s email and “reply-all” go to the entire group. Changing the setting, will potentially prevent the responses that are intended to be between individuals from going out to the group.
BANV Newsletter: May-June 2012
10 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in Announcement
Please find the below, the link to the May-June issue of the BANV newsletter.
http://beekeepersnova.wordpress.com/news-letters/current-issue/
Direct download: http://www.scribd.com/document_downloads/93062507?extension=pdf&from=embed
If you have a problem with this link, or any other aspect of receiving the newsletter electronically, please let us know.
Contact beekeepersnova+editor@gmail.com
BANV Newsletter Team
Special Program: Michael Bush – “The Practical Beekeeper” (RSVP encouraged)
09 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in Announcement
Beekeepers of Northern Virginia (BANV), with the support of Prince William Regional Beekeepers (PWRBA), will be hosting Michael Bush – author of “The Practical Beekeeper” and well known internet personality - http://www.bushfarms.com/bees.htm
The event will span two days: July 30th and 31st 2012. The exact location is being determined and will be updated here when it is finalized - locations in Arlington, Fairfax and Prince William/Loudon are being considered.
There will be afternoon and evening session both days. After each session there will be ample time for Q&A with Mr. Bush. He will also be selling and signing his book.
Session topics to include:
- Organic/sustainable beekeeping
- Queens – rearing, maintaining, selecting
- Trends and thoughts on the evolution of beekeeping especially in the face of current challenges
IMPORTANT – Attendance will be limited due to location size restrictions. All those interested in attending are encouraged to RSVP – please e-mail beekeepersnova+rsvp@gmail.com to indicate your interest.
Making Nucs !
23 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment
in Announcement
Here are three 1-page PDF’s on how to make mating nucs, spring, nucs, & nucs for overwintering. All are relevant for the refresher course on making splits & nucs. They are provided here as references for everyone making nucs now, next month, and in the summer….
Joining BANV Yahoo! Group
17 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment
in Announcement
There are two options to join the BANV Yahoo! mailing list:
- With a Yahoo user id: If you already have a yahoo user id, or are willing to create one, login with that id and go to “http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/BANV/”. Then click “Join This Group!”. This will give you an application that will need to be approved by the moderator. Please include information your beekeeping experience, if and when you took the beekeeping class, etc.
- Without a Yahoo user id: If you don’t want to sign up for a new yahoo user id, you can join the mailing list by sending an email to: BANV-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
The advantage of using a yahoo user id (or creating a dummy id just for BANV list serve) is that you can modify your mailing list configuration, use the Yahoo groups website, and search the archive of messages that have been sent on the mailing list in the past.
You can link your real email address to the dummy address for yahoo mailing list, so that all email that comes to the BANV list serve will automatically come to you real email. So it is recommended that you create a yahoo user id and join BANV mailing list via option 1 above.
Regarding Volume of Emails: There is a perception that joining the Yahoo! listserve results in a LOT of email traffic into your mailbox. As far as BANV Yahoo! list is concerned, on average you should expect to receive between 3 – 5 emails per day. In addition, here are a few options that you can use to address this:
- Within your Yahoo ! group settings you can choose to receive “daily-digest” emails — this means, you will receive only 1 email for every 25 emails that are posted to the listserve. Therefor you will only get 1 email in 5 days on average.
- A lot of folks on BANV listserve, simply create an email filter that re-directs the listserve email to a special folder and it does not clog up their regular Inbox.
- Another option is to create a new beekeeping related email address and use that for BANV listserve.
Using these options, it is easy to overcome any apprehension of BANV listserve email flooding your Inbox.
Regarding privacy of email address on listserve: BANV listserve is hosted on Yahoo! groups. The group settings are such that general public cannot post to the listserve or harvest your email address from the group roster. In addition, we do not allow any pictures/attachments to be posted (to avoid viruses or inappropriate content), and there is a spam filter turned on that attempts to flag any unsolicited emails coming from the mail box of a legitimate group member.
Please email beekeepersnova+webmaster@gmail.com if you need help with this or have any questions about the BANV mailing list.
Congratulations Class of 2012 !
07 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment
in Announcement
We are pleased to announce the successful completion of the 2012 Beginner Beekeeping Class.
Thank you Teachers/Assistants for conducting the class.
Thank you BANV members who showed up to help answer questions.
Thank you Mentors for helping the “new-bees” get started on their journey to become beekeepers.
Here are some pictures …
Tuesday Class
TEACHERS: Julie Waser & Pat Haskell
Wednesday Class
TEACHERS: Todd Harding & Rob McKinney
Saturday
TEACHERS: Pat & Jim Haskell
!! EXTRA !! BANV Queen Producing Program
21 Mar 2012 Leave a Comment
in Announcement
As you may have heard by now, BANV is launching a new effort this year to produce queens for colony expansion, re-queening and for those making nucleus hives for the club’s Nuc Program. Several members have taken Larry Connor’s queen grafting course and plan to use the knowledge gained to graft queen cells. These cells will be available to club members free of charge, but we will request feedback from the recipient. Grafting should start in April and continue through much of May, depending upon many variables including weather. The queen cells should be available to club members starting late April-early May timeframe. If you are interested and have questions or would like to be placed on the list (first come, first served), please email Norma Epley: beekeepersnova+queenprogram@gmail.com.
BANV March Meeting
14 Mar 2012 Leave a Comment
in Announcement
Message from the President of the club
We have three main agenda items for the first meeting under the newly elected officers. First, we will be privileged to recognize Bennie Liles for his years of service to BANV as a club officer and mentor. Then, as required by the Constitution and ByLaws, you will vote on the club’s budget for the next fiscal year. After the business session and the usual announcements and a break, we can enjoy a presentation from Denise Shreeve who’ll share her passion for native bees. See her website at www.OurNativeBees.com.
We’ll meet at the usual time and place: Tuesday, 27 March, 7pm at the Mason District Government Center. Mentors, bring your “newbees”! Please bring snacks to share during the break, coffee will be provided.
BANV Queen Survival Survey Results
19 Feb 2012 1 Comment
in Announcement
Here are the results of the BANV survey to assess Queen survival from different source (3 years, weighted average) - thanks to Jim Haskell.
1. Locally produced nucs with resistant queens (LNQr) 87%
2. Locally produced resistant queens (LQr) 70%
3. Bee raised queens – emergency, supercedure and swarm (BQ) 65%
4. Beekeeper produced queens, not selected for resistance (BkQ-nr) 60%
5. Queens from GA (Q-GA)35%
6. Locally produced nucs with GA queens (LNQ-GA) 25%
7. Packages with queen from GA (PkgQ-GA) 20%
Chart Below
