Informal Meeting and Fair Setup Session 
Sunday, August 3rd, noon to 2 PM

We will have a short meeting at Barn D on the Sunday before the fair - and then you can help us finish setting up the booth! Join us for the Pre-Fair SVBA Meeting and Set-up Day, August 3rd at Barn D, Skagit Valley Fairgrounds, Noon to 2 PM. There is free parking in the area that day, so find a spot and come on over.

September Meeting
Wednesday, September 10th at 7 PM

Our September meeting has been shifted to Wednesday, September 10th at 7 PM from our typical schedule, so please note the change. It and will include bee chat Q&A session before hand, beginning at 6 PM. The presentation will be by Dawn on winterizing - see more information in "Upcoming", below.

The Fair!
Don't miss it
August 7-10 (Thursday through Sunday)
Skagit County Fairgrounds, Mount Vernon

We hope to see you all at some point at the Skagit County Fair - entering honey, setting up the booth, staffing the booth ...or just coming to the fair. Rob Johnson is again our official superintendent this year, and will be orchestrating our participation.

• Pre-Fair SVBA Meeting and Set-up Day, August 3rd at Barn D, Noon to 2 PM - We will have a very brief meeting at fair before rolling up our sleeves and completing the exhibit. Join us if you can! There is no charge on the set-up day.
• Sign up and help staff the SVBA Booth - You can call Rob at 360-770-6170 and sign up for any open slots. If you choose to park inside the fair parking lots there is a charge, but you can also park away from the fair on streets with no charge. Fair passes can be free for booth volunteers, but you will need to check with Rob to see if they are available and pick them up at the Sunday meeting/booth set up.

• Help decorate the booth - Board member Heather Oates is our booth designer. You can contact Heather if you would like to help: hoates@gmail.com. We will be featuring the role that honeybees play, and are looking to decorate the booth with lots of flowering plants to help make the point that pollinators play an essential role in agriculture, gardens, and our environment - so Heather Oates would appreciate contribution of flowers to our show and that will last a few days. 
• Enter the Open Honey Class Judging Event - Your bees deserve the chance to win something for all of their efforts, and you too, as the beekeeper. The rules and categories are all described on the Skagit County Fair website at https://www.skagitcounty.net/Fair/Documents/book/Open%20Class%20Honey.pdf. Susan DeLawter has provided excellent coaching for those new to participating - see the article in "Recappings" in last month's newsletter for helpful tips.
• Drop off your entries for the Honey Judging Event - Drop off tine is Tuesday, August 5th from 4 PM – 7 PM. Contact Rob at 360-770-6170 if you have questions. Remember, you have to drop off the entry in person, and you can pay the entry fee and get your entry number assigned when you arrive.

Bees and Brews
Second Monday of each month
This month? August 11th
Terramar Brewstillery in Bow
6 PM to 7 PM

Join us for our monthly informal get together at the Brewstillery, which also hosts the SVBA Apiary. We start with a discussion of a beekeeping topic, after which the chatting can take whatever twists and turns that the participants want to pursue.

Hive Sides at the Apiary
No sessions August 2, 9 and 16.
But we will be back on Saturday, August 23rd
10 to Noon
SVBA Apiary
 

Our volunteers won't be available in early August, but the bees will be busy - and they deserve a break from the weekly interruptions. It will be really interesting to see what the end of August brings to our colonies, while we get them ready for their overwintering. Bring your bee suit to the apiary In the field behind the Terramar Brewstillery in Bow.

Winterizing: Keys to Colony Survival
Dawn helps us get prepared
Wednesday, September 10th at 7 PM
SVBA Meeting

Dawn Beck will share her tips and techniques on how to best winterize hives to get them through the cold months ahead. She stresses the importance of early action and ways to keep the bees warm, which turns out to be more important than keeping them dry. After following her advice last year, you editor had a solid survival rate. 
 
She will also talk about what to feed, when to feed, and how to manage mites in the months that lay ahead.

Dawn's Talk About Vitellogenin
Last month's online meeting

With everything else going on, we tried out an online meeting last month - thanks to those who could make it.
 
Dawn Beck has been delving into the role that the protein vitellogenin plays in the life cycle of bees and shared some of her findings in her slide presentation. As she explained, this protein is produced in a tissue called "fat bodies" which regulates a broad range of behaviors, health, and longevity. It is also a particular target of varroa mites; the loss of this protein will seiously compromise you colonies over time. So the hive management lesson is this: control those mites, or pay the price!

Summer Picnicking
A good time at our annual outing

It was a great combination of sunny weather, burgers, and dogs at the annual SVBA July potluck picnic at Hillcrest Park in Mount Vernon last month. The event is always a relaxing opportunity to get to know some of our newest members, and a chance for the older hands to share news about their summer adventures - beekeeping and otherwise. 

SVBA Auction Outcome
Brenda gets her limit of Dungeness crabs

When you purchase an event our outing at the annual SVBA auction in March, you may have to wait a while for the rewards. SVBA Secretary Brenda Crossley purchased a crabbing trip offered by Steve Cecil, your newsletter editor, and it paid off handsomely. They rowed out into Samish Bay in Steve's 16-foot traditional wooden boat, accompanied by her son Cory in a kayak. After setting the pots in the morning, they explored the cliffs and crannies of the Chuckanut shoreline. Coming back that same afternoon, 5 big "keeper" crabs appeared when they hauled up the pots for Brenda and Cory to take home.

It just goes to show the great values you can offer and purchase at the auction. Next year, think about offering a special outing or event. It is a fun way to support the SVBA and a wonderful opportunity to get to know your fellow beekeepers.

It seems like it has been a productive season for lots of our beekeepers, and August is the traditional month around here to harvest and bottle the honey surpluses that the bees have put away in the honey supers. It's a busy month with lots to do:

• Harvest and extract - Harvest the capped honey and remove the honey supers, then extract and bottle the honey.

• Feed the extra honey back to the bees - Stack the emptied honey supers back on top of the hives (above the inner cover and under the top cover) for a few days, until the bees clean out the cells and pull the residue down into their hives.
• Apply a heavy mite treatment - You should get a "hard core" treatment of your choice in your hives now. Typical treatments include formic acid administered through several products and Apiguard. If you use formic you can leave honey supers on while you run through the treatment, but have to remove the honey supers if you use Apiguard, so that is best if you apply it right after harvesting. A key to overwintering is having healthy nurse bees to help raise the fall brood, so that you will have lots of healthy bees all winter.
• Reduce ventillation - Reinsert sliding bottom boards (it will start getting cold in the evenings).
• Store - Get those honey supers stored for next year after the bees have emptied any residue.
• Requeen strategically - This is the last chance for re-queening of colonies if you have a weak queen or lost one, and there are plenty of bees in the hive to support her.

Membership in the SVBA
Get with the program...
 

If you forgot to pay your dues, annual membership payments are always welcome from past members. It is also the perfect time for new members to join and be part of our beekeeping colony. Annual dues are only $20 for an individual or $30 for a household. It's a high value investment and supports the wide range of programs and events that we offer. The membership form and payment instructions are found on our website or by clicking 

The membership form and payment instructions are found on our website or by clicking HERE.

The online payment option can be accessed by clicking HERE.

Skagit Valley Beekeepers Association

Brett DeLawter              President  brettdelawter@gmail.com
Dawn Beck                    Vice President   dawnrunner@live.com
Domie Bourgeois         Treasurer/Website Manager domie.bourgeois@gmail.com
Brenda Crossley          Secretary   brendacrossley49@gmail.com
Steve Cecil                    Newsletter  cecilbees121@gmail.com
Don Johnson                Board   homebrewtwo@gmail.com
Jim Kohl                        Board
Heather Oates               Board  hoates@gmail.com
Seth Smith.                   Board   seth_smith@live.com
Chris Zimmerman        Board  gocougs87@gmail.com
Matt and Nikki Jones   SVBA Equipment Managers  lamesican@gmail.com