Beekeepers of the Northern Shenandoah

Wishing you and yours a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous 2012.

Well yes, I did sort of goof-off and take a Christmas break from posting and emailing. So you have not heard of the great fun we had at the informal December meeting with an enormous potluck and 12 jars of honey to sample. All were different but most were somewhat the same. The ringer in the group was a commercial honey that was very different. In my opinion, rather harsh in flavor missing the delicate and complex tastes of the members’ honeys. And now for 2012, I have received an interesting link on local queen rearing that I will post on our website http://valleybees.org/ that will eventually appear in your newsletter if you are registered on that website.

BONS Meeting January 12, 2012: Apiary Inspector Presents “Pests and Diseases”

Bob Wellemeyer, Agriculture Inspector from the Warrenton Office has agreed to give us a presentation on bee pests and diseases. One of Bob’s professional tasks is to inspect existing colonies for diseases before they are presented for sale, for example, in the case of a beekeeper retiring or dying and his/her apiary being sold off. Also, if a beekeeper suspects he/she has a hive with problems, then Bob can be called upon to inspect the hive and make a recommendation.

Come hear the facts from a person that actually deals with honeybee pests and diseases regularly and find out what to look for and how to react.

Incidentally, BONS buys our packages from Bob.

I copied the following paragraphs from http://www.vdacs.virginia.gov/plant&pest/apiary.shtml just for your information.

Apiary Inspection
The Virginia Bee Law regulates the movement of honey bees into the state, the sale of bees, queens, used bee equipment; and provides a means for dispatching bee disease reservoirs.

Virginia utilizes a Uniform Inspection Certificate approved by the Apiary Inspectors of America for interstate movement of colonies.

Virginia also participates in the Mid-Atlantic States Agreement which specifies inspection requirements for bee diseases and pests and allows for partial (random) inspection of apiaries that meet certain disease-free criteria.

The agreement alleviates problems of reduced personnel and budgets while maintaining control over apiaries with disease histories.