September CSBA Newsletter

Events of interest to BCBA members.
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kristinahoney
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September CSBA Newsletter

Post by kristinahoney » Wed Sep 04, 2019 7:58 am

By being a member of BCBA you're also a member of the Colorado State Beekeepers Associatiion.
Cheers,
Kristina
BCBA President


High Country Bee
Greetings from your president:
Aug. 30, 2019
Greetings from your president!
I’ve been buried this big honey year. This is a burden but a good one to have. I hope your summer has been as fruitful.
Our winter meeting will be Nov. 2 at the Douglas County Fairgrounds in Castle Rock. Keynote speaker be Elizabeth Walsh from Texas A&M. Liz talks in the morning on Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and in the afternoon on her research into the effects of chemical Varroa-mite treatments on queen viability.
I’ve been corresponding with Liz. She’s a grad student, not a department head, and she’s all fired up come to Colorado. When I initially addressed her as “Dr. Walsh,” she was quick to correct me, and even asked if CSBA still wanted her, without her doctorate. I said, “We like to bring in rising stars, before they get too famous!”
We’ll also have our own Dr. Amy Franklin, DVM, who promises to bring us up to date on treatments for American Foulbrood (AFB), including phage treatments, which show promise and do not require a veterinary prescription.
Mario Padilla from the Butterfly Pavilion entertains us with pictures and stories from his beekeeping adventures in Nepal and Tanzania. Charming guy, captivating speaker, knows bees.
We’ll have our traditional Big Money Honey Contest -- which you could win -- and of course our always scintillating general meeting.
Plan on making the meet-and-greet with Liz, Mario and Amy the evening before. All this education and fun is not to be missed. As long as you’ve decided to become a beekeeper, why not become a really good one? Our summer and winter meetings are a great way to gain the information you need to hone your skills, as well as meet interesting people who share your passion for bees. (Big hint here, all you singles!)
We’ll have pre-registration signup and all the winter meeting details on the CSBA website, Coloradobeekeepers.org, next week.
The state fair in Pueblo runs through Wed., Sept 4. There’s still time for you to man the CSBA booth. Contact Apple at [email protected] or Ray at [email protected]. Here’s an update from the indefatigable Ray.

State Fair Report from Ray Story

The State Fair CSBA booth is off to a great start. We have close to 50 volunteers signed up this year to help at the booth. It seems every fair goer has a question to ask or a story to tell us about their experience with some type of bees-wasps. If you haven't worked an outreach booth like this before, you should consider volunteering. The kids listen to every word you say and the adults are asking questions about how to best help the pollinators. You can share your knowledge and at the same time enjoy the State Fair. Hats off to Apple Gibson on managing the booth(endless hours) and Dru Spinuzzi on doing a great job on organizing the online volunteer signup calendar. They both have done an excellent job in making the booth possible. Can't forget to do a shout out to the small but mighty Pueblo Club for all their help in making this event a huge success. If you would still like to volunteer for this weekend, please pay for your gate admission then text me that you have done so. I'll send you a check using CSBA funds to reimburse you. Lastly, if you would like to help in outreach or need help with a project you're doing, feel free to call or text me at 303-596-8643. Currently, we're doing 24 plus events this year and the requests keep coming in. Ray Story

Last but not least, it’s time for the national Varroa mite count, the Mite-A-Thon! The Pollinator Partnership shows you how easy it is to participate and inspires you to get out there and do it. You get an accurate tally of the number of mites in your hives – which you need -- and the Partnership gets to use your data to track Varroa infestation nationwide. Here’s the link:

Mite-A-Thon Monday!
Resources for Beekeepers

Our third annual Mite-A-Thon will be taking place from September 7-21st! We will be sending out beekeeping resources every Monday leading up to the start of the Mite-A-Thon to raise awareness for honey bee colony Varroa infestations. The Mite-A-thon is a tri-national effort to collect mite infestation data and visualize Varroa infestations in honey bee colonies across North America within a one week window. All beekeepers can participate, creating a rich distribution of sampling sites in Canada, the United States, and Mexico.

Join the Count!

Gotta run! Bees to move, honey to harvest, mites to count. Marilyn and I are flying to Montreal for the Apimondia bee conference on Thursday. Life can be good.
God bless each and every one of you, and see you in Castle Rock!
Ed

As always,
Thank you for being a member.

Ed Colby
President
[email protected]
970-984-0419

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Our mailing address is:
Colorado State Beekeepers Association
6765 County Rd. 214
New Castle, CO 81647

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