This months speaker is Andony Melathopoulos, Assistant Professor, OSU Department of Horticulture.

His topic is:  Is Your Comb Drawing You Down?

The costs and benefits of comb replacement. Everyone knows that new comb helps decrease diseases and reduce colony pesticide load. But what are the specific benefits of comb replacement, what kind of boost might it present and how do you fit comb replacement into your beekeeping cycle – this talk deals with all these questions.

This months speaker will be Carolyn Breece from the OSU Honey Bee Lab.

Your bees are likely at their strongest and healthiest right now. Now is your golden opportunity to take action to keep them strong all the way through winter. We’ll talk about what you can do for mite management, queen issues, nutrition, and diseases. I’ll also give a short overview of the Oregon Master Beekeeper Program as we will soon be enrolling students for 2018.

Summer Solstice: The Beginning of the End

This months speaker will be Karen Finley from Queen Bee Honey.

Mid summer marks change in the beekeepers’ year.  She’ll talk about changes in the hive and how we can prepare for the second half of the season.

UPDATE:  FIELD DAY IS FULL

We will be having a joint field day with Lane County Beekeepers Association and Linn-Benton Beekeepers Association on Saturday, June 3rd from 10:00-2:30 at the OSU Apiary located at the Oak Creek Center for Urban Horticulture.  The address is 844 SW 35th St in Corvallis.  Please follow the signs for parking across the street from the apiary.  Check-in starts at 9:00 am.

Space is limited because of the number of hives available for inspection, so sign up early to get one of the spaces.

UPDATE:  FIELD DAY IS FULL.  (Sorry)

In the morning we will have multiple talks that you can choose from and we will rotate through them.  We will then take a short lunch break (lunch boxes available for purchase when you sign up).  After the lunch break, we will split into groups and get into the hives at the apiary.  You will be led by an experienced beekeeper, who will show you the things you should be looking for while inspecting your hives.  Experienced beekeepers attending will be getting into hives that are having issues.

To attend, each person will be required to sign an OSU Waiver and Assumption of Risks Agreement OSU OSBA 2017.  Please print it out, sign it and bring it the day of the event.

Things to bring: Veil, jacket or suit, gloves and a lawn chair.

Morris Ostrofsky from Eugene will be our speaker this month.  The theme of his talk is “Swarms are coming – Are your bait boxes ready?”.

Learn from his expertise on trapping swarms and options for mite treatments to start out with low mite levels.  FYI, he is currently published in the March issue of Bee Culture.