November Meeting
Thursday, November 13th at 7 PM

We look forward to you joining us for our November 13th meeting. The meeting will be at our regular venue - the meeting room in the Central Skagit Valley Library in Sedro-Woolley.
 
Here's what's up this month:

• Annual election of SVBA Officers and Board Members - Participate!
• A Beeginners Q&A and Bee Chat beginning at 6:00 PM - We enjoy a pre-meeting get together to share tips and tales with a few refreshments to which everyone is invited.
• Bee talk - Our presentation this month will be by Abigail Chapman on "Queens: Lean, Mean, Laying Machines". She will talk about the astounding reproductive biology of honeybee queens, and share some of her recent research on the relationship between fertility and viral infections. See more on Abigail and her talk, below.
• Zoom option - If you can't come, but want to participate, you can join us by Zoom. An e-mail with the link will be sent to members before the meeting.

It's time for the annual election of the Officers and members of the Board of Directors of the SVBA. Several of our officers have signaled that they are interested in continuing their roles into next year. The Board has staggered terms, but there is one position open this year. Please join us and share your nominations and votes to set the lineup for next year. 

As part of our election process, we are looking for a new Secretary to fill the shoes of the post that Brenda Crossley has filled.
 
She has been a huge help, but needs to move on because of some personal priorities. Thanks for keeping us in good order, Brenda!!
 
The role of the Secretary consists of keeping our records and participating in the Board of Directors meetings and actions. If you want to help the SVBA by becoming its Secretary (or want to nominate somebody else), let us know. You can raise your (or their) hand at the November meeting, or get in touch with President Brett DeLawter, HERE. 

There is an open position on the SVBA Board of Directors. Susan DeLawter has stepped forward as a candidate, and others may want to raise their hand as part of the nomination and election process on Thursday.

We congratulate Dawn Beck on her recent election as Vice President of the Washington State Beekeepers Association. Her enthusiasm and knowledge will reach an even broader audience and can be a great liaison for us to a widening circle of beekeepers.

Your newsletter editor, Steve Cecil, has agreed to take on oversight of the SVBA website. Our treasurer, Domie Bourgeois has her hands full in her role as Treasurer and the many other things she does for our programs. Domie deserves many thanks for modernizing our website and adding her graphic flair.

Queens: Lean, Mean, Laying Machines
Thursday, November 13th
SVBA Meeting

Abigail Chapman will join us with an online presentation and discussion at our November meeting. As an entomologist and researcher, queens are her thing.

As beekeepers, we rely on the reproductive capabilities of healthy queens, but the variability of their fertility can be immense. She will fill us in on the biological basis of great queens that can lay up to 2,000 eggs in a single day. Then she will describe her research on the causes behind reduced fertility, including the role that infectious viruses can play.
 
Abigail is the Second Vice President of the British Columbia Beekeepers Association, which has over 750 beekeeping members spread across the Province. She has authored or been a contributor to over 20 published studies and reports as a Ph.D. candidate at University of British Columbia in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in Vancouver. Her research lab has been in the Michael Smith Laboratories, a noted center for innovative biotechnology research.

The Other Beekeeping Products
Brad Raspet
Thursday, December 11th
SVBA Meeting

Former SVBA President; Brad Raspet will share his know-how about creating useful (and saleable) side products of beekeeping.

Brad has combined his entrepreneurial talents with beekeeping skills for over a decade with his own brand, "Bingaling Bees". He expanded his line of Bingaling Honey to include Bingaling Handmade Soap and Bingaling Lip Balm Sticks. 
 
Brad has mastered how to make these products, and then market them. There are lots of choices to consider when venturing into these sidelights, including color, size, fragrance, texture, and composition. Join us, this will be interesting.

Holiday Celebration and
Annual Cookie Exchange
Thursday, December 11th
SVBA Meeting

Our annual cookie exchange is a great opportunity to stock up for the holidays, and show off your favorite recipes. Please bring a big bunch of cookies or other favorite holiday treats to share as part of the refreshments and as your contribution to the exchange. After sampling what looks most tempting to you among the gathered goodies, you can then pack a pile back home.

Bees + Brews
Not quite yet

Our informal get togethers at the Terramar Brewstillery are taking a seasonal break. But we anticipate resuming in either February or March. Stay tuned for details in the newsletter, our Facebook page, and the website.

Bri Battles Nosema
Presentation at the October Meeting

Bri Price from the WSU extension program provided a seminar on Nosema, that parasitic fungus that can dramatically damage bees when they settle into their digestive system and then multiply explosively. 
 
She stressed that there are normally some Nosema spores present in most colonies, but healthy colonies seem to keep it tolerable and have limited impacts. Serious rates of infection can cause the loss of colonies, particularly over winter. Infections can be spread through hive robbing or bees drifting among hives. 

It is a bit difficult to positively detect, but it can the source of chronic dysentery and bee diarrhea that stains hive entrances. She used her online lab microscope to show us how to look for spores, and there are some skills and experience involved. Here is a link to a WSU web site that explains how it's done: https://bees.wsu.edu/diagnostics/
 
She described how she uses the "quick squash" method to set up her microscopic investigations (no, it's not a winter dinner recipe). 

         Not this...

You crunch up 10 bees in a Ziploc bag, add 10 mL of water and smoosh that together. Put the squashed bee guts on a slide - if you can't find the tine spores, then you don't need to worry about Nosema. But if some show up, then smash 10 individual bees and put their innards on separate slides to look for spores. Randy Oliver's rule of thumb then works like this:
 
1 in 10 - tolerable level
3 in 10 - moderate infection level
4 in 10 - you have problems (serious infection level)
5 or more in 10 = yikes (very serious infection)
 
What to do to prevent or battle nosema? There are no easy cures, but there are products that can be helpful. Nosevit if a food supplement aimed at improving bee intestinal health. Fumidil-B and Fumagilin B are antifungal compound that can be added to sugar syrup feeding in fall and spring. Keeping equipment and hives clean is a basic strategy, and keeping your hives in sunny locations in the winter seems to help.

The cold, wet, and stormy weather is descending on the Skagit Valley and will last awhile. 
 
Here are beekeeping tips for managing you bees this month.

• Winterize - Add your moisture control and insulation if still needed.
• Supplement - For colonies without strong honey or pollen reserves, provide cane sugar, sugar patties and/or pollen patties to help tide them over.
• Reduce - Make sure that your opening reducers are in place, and mouse guards if you use them.
• Make stuff - If you have extra honey or lots of wax left over after harvesting, think about what you might do with them - candles, soaps, balms, mead, or...
• Prepare - Start thinking about next year, and obtaining the new gear you will need.

Membership in the SVBA
Get with the program...

Annual membership renewals are coming up after the first of the year, and feel free to sign up early. It is also theperfect 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 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