Cafeteria, Falls Church High School 7521 Jaguar Trail Falls Church, VA 22042 President Vice Pres.

Editor Pat Haskell 703-560-3484 Tom Merz 703-830-2624 Alan Fiala 703-790-8044 Secretary Kathy Heslep 703-549-6749 Treasurer Bennie Liles 703-671-1010 http: //www.beekeepersnova.org/

Jan. 04 Mar. 04 Next Meeting is Tuesday, March 23, 2004 7:30 p.m.

In This Issue
BANV Meetings and news State Winter Loss Survey State Legislative Update Highlights of the MD SBA meeting Minutes of last business meeting 1 2 3 3 5

March 23 Meeting: New Format* George Imirie Featured Speaker

*From 7:00-7:30 one of our beekeepers will present a tutorial on some important current topic for our newer beekeepers. All members are welcome. This meeting Dane Hannum will demonstrate how to hive a package. George Imirie will give us his opinions on why and how we should be beeKEEPERS and not just beeHAVERS. He is passionate about this and pulls no punches. George is 84 years old and has been keeping bees for 72 years. A Ph.D. in nuclear physics, he believes in scientific method and provable results, and George Imirie deplores those who keep bees the way Daddy used to do it. He is the author of Georges Pink Pages, and the inventor of the Imirie Shim. EAS has bestowed upon him their prestigious award for promoting education in beekeeping.

Future BANV Meetings

Falls Church High School. Check directory at entrance for room we are frequently changed without previous notice March 23, 2004 George Imirie Cafeteria

May 25, 2004 Little Theater Barry Thompson Stings in the Beeyard

Other Meetings of Interest

May 21-22, 2004 South Boston, VA VSBA Summer Meeting

BANV News Notes

Short Courses. Pat Haskell has put together a group of members of BANV, Loudoun, and PWS clubs and started a set of short courses (9-weeks) for people wishing to start keeping bees. Five classes with more than 80 students are meeting weekly in Fairfax, Prince William, Lodoun, Clark, and Page Counties. Website. The BANV website is a work in progress. Please make suggestions to Don MacIntyre, or Alan Fiala. Would anyone be immediately interested in a marketplace page for members only and beekeeping only? Packages. Dane says pickup is on schedule. Packages will arrive Wednesday, March 31. Bring your empty package boxes (last years) back to the meeting on March 23.
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Scenes from the February BANV Meeting.

Doug Eisemann and Alan Fiala discuss mead Old, New Officers: Ted Merz, Alan Fiala, Bennie Liles, Kathy Heslep

Annual State Winter Loss Survey

The following is an excerpt from the cover letter from Keith Tignor, State Apiarist. As in past years, I am asking beekeepers to report their winter losses. This will give us a better idea of our beekeepers needs. I am asking local association to survey their members for hive losses. Enclosed is a copy of the survey form asking beekeepers the number of hives they lost and their management practices. In completing the survey, your members should write in the number of hives they had last fall, how many they lost over the winter, and check all appropriate boxes for hive treatment and requeening practices. Please, use your meeting in March or April to have your members complete the survey. I will make the results available as soon as possible. This years winter loss survey is a little different. A number of beekeepers were reluctant to participate in last years survey. Reporting of high losses, such as were experienced throughout the state last winter, may be viewed by some as an indication of poor management. Such a misplaced attitude could be detrimental to the credibility for a beekeeper. There were also concerns regarding revealing illegal management practices. Therefore, some beekeepers did not wish to have their name included; and, did not participate in the survey. As a result, last winters hive losses were underreported. It is important that our office obtain an accurate assessment of honey bee problems in the state. As the latest General Assembly session illustrated, the information can provide support for initiation of needed programs. To accommodate the concerns of our beekeepers, I am listing the beekeepers name on the survey as optional. While such information is useful for tracking individual changes in management practices and hive losses; it is more important to have reliable data. Also, please, let your members know that any personal information, such as a beekeepers name, is withheld in strict confidentiality by my office. I encourage local associations to observe the same discretion in any analysis of similar member surveys. Another change to this years survey is the recording of requeening practices. The wording on past surveys has been confusing. I am seeking information on when beekeepers typically requeen their hives, if ever. Some hives may be requeened annually, while others are requeened every other year. Respondents should mark the time period they requeen the majority of their hives.

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The form will be available at the meeting on March 23. If you belong to more than one association, please report your information only once. If you do not fill out the form at the meeting, but wish to participate, report the following items to Alan Fiala to be added to the list: Name (optional), Number of hives last fall, and number of hives lost during the winter. As instructed in the letter above, report the following as yes or no for each. Fall/Winter Hive Treatments: None, Sugar Feed, Pollen Feed, Terramyacin, Fumadil, Grease Patty, Menthol, Apistan, Check Mite, Formic Acid, ApiLife Var, Other. Typical Requeening Period: 1 Year, 2 Years, 3 Years, 4 or more Years, Never. Do NOT SEND AN ESSAY! The assumption is that all hives were treated the same.

State Legislative Update, by Alan Fiala

The VSBA President, Jack Hill, and Lannie Ballard, VSBA legislative liaison, working with their local state legislators, got three bills introduced at the current session. These bills are modeled after programs in West Virginia. One, SB199 and HB1069, was to extend the existing damage program that reimburses farmers for damage caused by wildlife and hunters to beekeepers. The second, SB198, was to raise the cost of a bear-hunting stamp by $4 to boost funds for the program. The third, SB200, was to develop, in consultation with the Plant Pollination Advisory Board, a beekeeper assistance program designed to assist Virginia beekeepers in maintaining healthy, productive colonies. Specifically, there was to be provision of miticides, a queen production program, and assistance in setting up co-ops for purchase of equipment, extraction of honey, and wholesale of products. As of March 15, SB198 had been set over to the session next year and is thus likely dead; SB199 and HB1069 had been combined into one bill that passed and has been signed by the Governor to go into effect on July 1; and SB200 had been amended to strip out the specifics to avoid fatal cost estimates, whereupon it has passed both Houses but not yet been sent to the Governor.

Highlights of the Maryland State Beekeepers Association Meeting

By Alan Fiala An overflow crowd exceeding 200 gathered at the Howard County Fairgrounds on Saturday, February 21, to hear Marla Spivak, Rick Fell, and Steve McDaniel. A contingent of nearly 20 Virginians attended.

Some of the Virginians at the MSBA meeting: L to R Keith Tignor, Brenda Kiessling, Dan Jackson, Bill Bundy, Betty Jackson, Rick Fell, Theresa Chick, Pat Haskell, Alan Fiala, Michael Chick, Laszlo Pentek, Billie Davis.

Jerry Fischer led off with the state beekeeping report for 2003. In Maryland, AFB was found in 1.3% of colonies inspected (low). Varroa and tracheal mites are a continuing problem. SHB was found in 12 instances, all were successfully treated. Overall, it was not a good year. The last three years were the worst three in succession in a very long time: drought, mild, wet excess. In addition to being a wet year, bear problems were prominent. Bill Troup, inspector for western Maryland, reported that 40% of hives examined recently were either strong or dead.

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Rick Fell presented two talks that he had given at the joint state meeting in Manassas: Basic Hive Evaluation; and, Pheromones: Why They Are Important. Marla Spivak, researcher at the University of Minnesota, spoke on the general and technical aspects of her queen breeding and research programs. After those four talks, a panel took questions. The finale was another spectacular photographic show and tell by Steve McDaniel. Highlights of Evaluating a Colony - Fell. Why inspect a hive at all? More often than not, bees do better without intervention. The effect of the disturbance may last for days. For proper management, inspection should occur 5-6, maybe 9, times per year depending on conditions. The purpose is to determine the strength and health of the colony, the quality of the queen, and management needs. He then fleshed out how to go about each of these four evaluations. Some major points that I picked up included the following. Every time you open a colony, inspect the brood area for disease and pests, and the condition of the queen. Considering the time of year, observe the location in the hive and quantity of brood, bees, and stores. Questions and Qualms About Queens Spivak. This presentation covered a wide range of topics about queens. -What kind of queen do you want and why? comparison of qualities of different races of bees. -The mating process. -How to find her in a strong colony. -How to introduce a queen. Its important always to release the queen yourself, not let it occur freely, nor at less than three days in the cage. Practice picking up drones, and always mark the queen with Testors paint, not a paint pen (it wears off).
Marla Spivak

-She encourages beekeepers to try raising their own queens just to know what is involved. There was a discussion of the importance of drones on the outcome, as well as the many unknowns.

-Description of desirable traits: hygienic and SMR (suppression of mite reproduction). How to test for them. -Ascertaining quality of queens from a supplier, questions to ask. Pheromones: Why They Are Important Fell. A pheromone is a chemical substance secreted by an animal to the outside that affects the behavior or physiology of other animals of the same species. A release triggers an immediate response. He then described in detail what is known about pheromones in honey bees: how many there are, their chemical composition, how they are produced and distributed and detected, and known effects on activity in the colony or individuals. The catalogue is extensive, but not everything is known. Breeding for Resistance to Diseases and Mites Spivak. This was a very technical talk describing in detail her experiments in breeding queens for hygienic and SMR traits. The goal: to maintain good disease resistance, honey production, good brood patterns, gentleness of hygienic line AND increase resistance to varroa mites by incorporating the SMR trait, but not to the point that treatment isnt required. If this is achieved, chalkbrood will go away and there will be resistance to AFB. In the current status, bees can tolerate some mites, and we try to use treatments such that mites cannot develop resistance. In questions, her opinion on small cell foundation is that it is a natural size for Africanized honey bees, not European.

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This was a make-up meeting for the January meeting cancelled for snow. President Alan Fiala called the meeting to order at 1 pm and announced that we would have the program on mead making first, with our business meeting to follow. Thereafter, Doug Eisemann, Mead Maker, gave a very interesting program, with samples, on the history and process of mead making. If you would like to ask him questions, his email address is Deisemann@cox.net and his phone number is 703/764-0857. The business meeting began with a determination that we had a quorum to conduct the necessary business of the club: 15+ members. The minutes of the previous meeting were approved. Benny Liles announced that we had $1180 in the treasury. There was some discussion of the membership dues and the magazine subscriptions that we get discounted. BANV now has an operational website, thanks to Don MacIntyre: http://www.beekeepersnova.org Some of the features are that there will be a form to change your personal information for membership and this is not available to the public. Emails to the members from the website will come from archive as a blind copy. Check your spam folder. Association messages may be considered spam since they dont have a return address. If you dont look at your email with regularity, it was suggested that you not check the box on the membership form about receiving information by PDF file. There was discussion of weather related cancellations of meetings, classes, etc. Generally, if school closes, we will not have a meeting. Upcoming activities announced included The new classes for beginning (or renewing) beekeepers held in 5 locations for 9 weeks. More information about this was on the website. The Maryland State Beekeepers Association winter meeting is 2-21-04 at the Howard County Fairgrounds. The speakers include Marla Spivak, Rick Fell, Steve McDaniel. The meeting is free and all are welcome. The Virginia State Beekeepers Association summer meeting will be held 5-21-22-04 in South Boston, VA. The Halifax association will host it. South Boston is near Danville, VA. The theme for the meeting is expected to be Products of the Hive and to include demos and workshops. This is an excellent opportunity to learn about getting more from your beekeeping efforts. Our next meeting will be 3-23-04 at Falls Church High School. Our speaker will be George Imirie, 85 years young. Hes been keeping bees for 71 years and is very knowledgeable. Our May meeting speaker will be Barry Thompson, immediate past president of the Maryland State Beekeepers Association, a Master Beekeeper, and on the board of EAS. His topic will be stings, a workshop presented at EAS Salisbury. Seasonal activity now should include checking colonies to see if they need feeding and checking equipment for repairs. Dane Hannum cannot take any more orders for packages of bees. He has a waiting list already. The $44. per pkg. is due NOW. March 30 is the anticipated pick up date, with distribution on 331-04. Bob Wellemeyer may have some packages from Shuman that he will sell for $44.00 each. Larry Kelley notes that Rossman may sell packages to someone willing to drive to Moultrie, GA in mid-April. Larry further reported on the American Bee Federation meeting. The new Honey Board members were there. The new order of the Board should be in the Federal Register. The Secretary of Agriculture approved the central mission of ABF. Dumping of ultra-filtered sweetener by China (where they tried to label it as honey after cleaning out the contaminants) was discussed. Europe has banned imports of U.S. honey over our inadequate or non-existent testing standards.
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Minutes of the BANV Meeting held February 7, 2004, at Ft. Smith, a Civil War site in the Arlington County Park System.

Paul Diehl introduced Scott Liebert, the park manager. We thanked him for use of the site. Old Business: Bio-terrorism Registration ActQuestions remain over how to interpret it and how to register. Much confusion remains. We will check with Larry again, for more clarification. The Constitution and By-laws need review. Fiala appointed a committee to do it. Members are Alan Fiala, Larry Kelley, Benny Liles, treasurer, and Laszlo Pentek chair. They will look into the issues of dues, terms of office, executive committee composition, notification, and need for an advisory committee. They were tasked to report back at the May meeting. New Business The Virginia State Association, at the winter business meeting, voted to establish a Beekeeper of the Year award. Rick Fell proposed this. It is intended as a lifetime achievement award. Alan has the procedure by which one is nominated. The VSBA hopes that each club in the state will nominate someone. There were 3 bills introduced in the state legislature this year. One was for compensation to beekeepers for bear damage. Another was for state support for beekeeping for queen raising and miticides and for assistance with a cooperative effort such as purchase of supplies, extraction at approved facilities, etc. It was noted that a program already exists to compensate for bear damage in the bear stamp purchased by hunters. All the bills were referred back to committee and no money was earmarked for them. To support these bills or to learn more about them, contact state Senators Janet Howell or Whipple (Arl.) or Representatives Jim Scott (Vienna , F.C.) or Kuccinelli (Reston) Alan Fiala made a State of the Club address upon ending his term as President. ments included: Hosting 2 extension workshops (one begun by Brenda) Getting a working website up and running Having outside speakers at the meetings Hosting the 2-state State Association meeting Having a 4-H link (thanks to Brenda) Developing short courses (2) Working to head off anti-beekeeper legislation locally. Alan also thanked Pat Haskell, the vice president; Brenda Kiessling, as immediate past president; John Ferre for membership, newsletter and coordination of the Arlington County Fair; Benny and Pearl Liles for treasurers work and the reduced-cost subscriptions and refreshments. Brenda Kiessling, Chair of the Nominating Committee, presented the slate for the new officers: President: Pat Haskell Vice President: Tom Merz Secretary: Kathy Heslep Treasurer: Benny Lilies John Ferree made a motion to close the nominations and accept the slate as proposed by the Nominating Committee. Paul Diehl seconded that motion. The vote carried and the proposed slate was elected. Larry Kelly made a motion to adjourn the meeting and Don MacIntyre seconded it. The meeting was adjourned at approximately 4 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Kathy Heslep, Secretary pro tem Achieve-

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