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The PNW honey bee survey is now open extending to end of April. WVBA members had been consistently participating but last year only 16 individuals reported on 88 fall hives. But those 16 had great news to report – the WVBA club report had the greatest survival of all the bee clubs with only a 19% loss.  I ASK PLEASE complete a survey again this year. Survey can be completed in only 5-10 minutes. Go to https://pnwhoneybeesurvey.com/survey To examine past survey results look f

Some WVBA beekeepers may remember Emily (Cross) Painter. She served as Secretary of WVBA for a couple of years, 2014-2016 while a West Salem High student. She left then to spend a gap year in England and for last four years has been an undergraduate student at the University of Vermont. You may be interested in her introduction to beekeeping, what she has given back at still a young age and where she is now. Emily Painter began with bees on the family farm outside of Dallas i

January is not a month for bee colony inspection. But that does not keep us from worrying about them. So what can we do with our bees this month (besides just worrying)? It is possible to roughly group our overwintered colonies into two groups per our last fall judgement/inspection. We sought to have mostly strong colonies with abundant honey stores. However, were the populations too large and our bees have already eaten most of their winter stores? Unfortunately, we likely a

PARASITIC MITE SYNDROME (PMS) Parasitic Mite Syndrome is a condition, not a specific disease whereby a honey bee colony dies rapidly in the fall months. The initial PMS field symptoms include reduced adult population and spotty brood pattern with dying larvae. These symptoms intensify over a short time as the colony gets close to dying.  Confusingly the symptoms may be independent of how heavy the Varroa mite infestation is in the colony. A similar syndrome is CCD, Colony Col

Doesn't this just say fall? Monarch Butterfly and Honey Bee on Sunflower Photo by Kathy Garvey