January 2025 Newsletter
President's Hive
Dear Members,
Winter. As we hunker down in our 70 degree homes, imagine what our bees are doing in their hives. When temperatures drop, honey bees huddle together to make a cluster and shiver their wings. Shivering provides warmth for the hive. Their main goal is to keep the queen warm so the colony can survive. The core temperature in a honey bee hive during winter can be as high as 91 degrees Fahrenheit. Amazing!
We have a great opportunity to “huddle” together at our annual MHBA Banquet and Fundraiser on Saturday, March 1, 2025, at Keller Golf Course in Maplewood. Registration is still open (information about the banquet can be found elsewhere in this newsletter). Please consider bringing items for our live and silent auctions. Don’t forget to bring your favorite honey for the honey tasting station. This will be a fun evening of socializing with beekeepers.
Here are some important things to know for this month:
February Member Meeting
Our first member meeting of the year is “Minding Your Bees and Cues” with speaker Becky Masterman, who will help us tune into our bees’ cues and improve our beekeeping skills and success. Becky will share biology-based beekeeping tips and tricks for new and experienced beekeepers. From pheromones to polyethism, tuning into honey bee behavior will make you a better beekeeper. Please join us on Tuesday, February 11th at 7:00 PM, at the University of Minnesota St. Paul Campus in Room 335 in Borlaug Hall. Treats served! Directions to the meeting are found elsewhere in this newsletter.
New Board Members
The Board of Directors appointed Jessica Marshall-Kurysh and Mike Paskeuric to fill the vacant seats on the board. These are one year appointments. Welcome Jessica and Mike!
Library Reminder
Don’t forget to return your library items that you might have borrowed in November.
Kate Winsor
MHBA President
Better Beekeeping Through Education
Next Meeting
Member Meeting
Tuesday, February 11th, 7:00 PM
Hybrid meeting:
In-Person: Borlaug Hall, Room 335
Via Zoom: Meeting Link
Hive Demo
No Hive Demo
Click here for directions.
Upcoming Events
2/11/2025
3/1/2025
MHBA Banquet
Keller Golf Course, Maplewood
February 2025 Management
There is talk of beekeepers getting ready to feed pollen and/or sugar to their bees. This is NOT in Minnesota. If your bees are in the southern US then it may be time to think about that, recent snow storm excepted. Gardeners in the south are also thinking about planting peas. Up in the northern climates we are a long way from that. REMINDER, when looking at advice (especially online), consider the climate the advisor is from.
Sooooo. Having said all that now is a time for you to sit back and let the bees alone. There is really nothing to do to the colonies right now. It may be useful to just check to see if they are alive. Please resist the urge to open them up. If you just have to go check then listen in or use the heat sensing camera. You can also lift the moisture board and peek through the hole in the inner cover.
If you see some dead bees in the snow around the hive 2-50 feet away, this is normal. They are bees that decided to come out and fly for whatever reason, usually for a cleansing flight (to defecate - poop) and it was colder than they thought. Bees are not able to keep their body temperature up if it is too cold. This is common and should not be something to be concerned about.
Refrain from adding sucrose to your bees at this time. Adding candy boards, winter patties or dry sugar this time should only be done if they absolutely need it. If they have a couple frames of honey, they are OK. Adding sucrose will stimulate excess brood rearing. The extra brood will require them to make more heat, thus use more honey. In addition, the brood takes up space in the cluster that could be used for honey storage and if it gets cold and they cannot move the cluster (which they now won’t do because they don’t want to leave the brood) they can starve even with honey outside the cluster.
Toward the end of February or the first of March give them a pollen patty (6-8 oz). This is especially important if you did not get a full reversal done last spring/summer. Do this on a day that the temperature is above 45ºF. When you put the pollen patty in be sure it is in contact with the cluster so they can get to it even on a cold day. If the bees are up between the frames and the inner cover, you can put it up there. If the cluster is between 2 boxes, do not put it between the cluster and divide the cluster. This will make it harder for the bees to regulate temperature. Place it off to one side but in contact with the cluster between the 2 boxes.
If you find they are dead seal up the holes in the boxes to keep out mice and robbers. Bring it in to clean it out or wait until the weather warms. When you try to clean it when it is cold you do a lot of damage to the wax comb.
Gary
Reproduction of all or part of this article without the author’s permission is prohibited.
Classifieds
Bees for splits, overwintered and under-wintered colonies, queen cells by arrangement, and pails of honey for sale.
Prices vary by season.
Contact Adrian - [email protected]
Your Classified Here
Did you know your membership allows you to place classified ads in the MHBA Newsletter?
February Speaker Topic "Minding your Bees and Cues"
Tune into your bees’ cues and improve your beekeeping skills and success. Becky Masterman will share biology-based beekeeping tips and tricks for new and experienced beekeepers. From pheromones to polyethism, tuning into honey bee behavior will make you a better beekeeper.
Bio:
Becky Masterman received a PhD studying hygienic behavior in Marla Spivak's UMN Bee Lab. Masterman led the University of Minnesota Bee Squad from 2013–2020 and helps out the Minnesota Extension Apiculture Program when Katie Lee needs her. She writes monthly for Bee Culture Magazine and is the co-host of the Beekeeping Today Podcast. Active in the Minnesota Honey Producers Association, she is a former board member and currently chairs their Habitat Committee. Becky manages 50 honey bee colonies in the Twin Cities area.
Deep Understanding of Drone Education
Dooooooode ...
No, not that dude ... DUDE ... Deep Understanding of Drone Education.
I joined this program and will be writing a monthly article about what I learn. I will also pass along the resources we are learning from.
DUDE is a program put on by PennState to educate beekeepers on drones. The program statement of purpose reads:
“Deep Understanding of Drone Education Program aims to empower beekeepers to improve their practices and enhance their operations. By exploring topics of biology, management, nutrition, and honeybee behavior with a focus on drones, beekeepers can make more informed decisions, integrate methods, and innovate honeybee breeding and husbandry to meet the needs of their business, adapt to a changing world, and share their knowledge with others.”
I heard about his program and immediately applied to join. I’ve been rearing my own queens for many years now. I have always felt the drone population in my area was weak. I was very happy when I was accepted to the program as I see drones as an important link in my breeding operation.
At this point, we have only had our initial class where we review the syllabus, received an overview of the people, and learned details about the course structure. We meet every other week.
Our instructors for this course are ...
Robyn Underwood ...
Dr. Robyn Underwood is the Apiculture Extension Educator for PA and is based in the Lehigh County Extension Office. She has been learning about bees since her days as an undergraduate at the University of Delaware almost 30 years ago. For her PhD, she studied the use of formic acid for controlling varroa mites in colonies that were kept indoors for the winter in Manitoba, Canada. Since returning to PA in 2005, she has kept bees in various parts of the state and has been conducting research on the impacts of a beekeeper's management system on honey bee colony health, differences between queen lines, impacts of various feeds on overwintering survival, the effects of humidity on formic acid fumigation, the properties of spotted lanternfly honeydew honey, and more. Robyn is passionate about beekeeping and considers herself to be a lifelong learner, constantly seeking knowledge about the colony's inner workings.
Kate Anton ...
Kate Anton is the apiary and lab manager for the Grozinger Lab at Penn State. She started as a hobby beekeeper 12 years ago and began a career as a research beekeeper in 2017. Working in research has given Kate unique opportunities to learn, refine, and develop beekeeping techniques to facilitate experiments to study nutrition, behavior, genomics, and other aspects of honey bee health. Kate specializes in honey bee queen production and selective breeding. She enjoys sharing and learning with others and is always excited to discover new methods for improving management.
We will also be visited by a variety of guest speakers for more expertise in specific areas.
Our text for this course will be Mating Biology of Honey Bees (Apis mellifera) (a book that has been on my reading list for some time) as well as many research articles assigned each week.
Is this a program that interests you? Unfortunately, the course is full for this round. However, they have provided the following for those who want to join a future course.
“Do you know someone that would have loved to be part of this program but missed the deadline to apply? Please have them enter their name and contact info here - https://forms.gle/Wj4KPAKymT12kHY66Links to an external site. - and we'll notify them when they can apply for DUDE 2026. We'll be repeating the program for another set of beekeepers.”
Quintin Holmberg
A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words
Email a photo to Gary Reuter at [email protected] before noon on the day of the member's meeting so he can project it on the screen during “Ask the Expert.” We will all learn from you what you see in your hive.
Online Resources
Please visit our website!
https://mnbeekeepers.com/
We continue to make updates and changes to our website. Recently, we reorganized the Education page.
https://mnbeekeepers.com/ed/
Stay tuned for no-cost Community-based beekeeping classes & events in the new calendar:
https://mnbeekeepers.com/events/
If you are offering a class/event, you may submit the details to have it listed on our website:
https://mnbeekeepers.com/add-a-community-event/
Join Us On Facebook
Join our members only Facebook group:
https://mnbeekeepers.com/facebook-group/
This is a place for members to ask questions, share answers, share photos and videos, and socialize online.
MHBA Board Minutes
Please check the website for the latest, approved Board meeting minutes.
More Announcements
Membership Renewal
There are three ways to renew your membership today!
- Renew your membership online with a credit card (preferred).
- Mail the membership renewal form to our treasurer at the address provided
- Renew in person by bringing your completed form and check to the next meeting.
Our Renewal Form can be found at our Become a Member page:
https://www.mnbeekeepers.com/become_member
Newsletter Submissions
The MHBA newsletter welcomes articles, photos, recipes, etc. from members. Please send them to the editor:
[email protected]
If an article is a reprint from another source, permission must be gained if required. The due date for newsletter submission is the 25th of the month for the next month's newsletter.
MHBA Board
| Position | Member |
|---|---|
| President | Kate Winsor |
| Vice President | Bill Thompson |
| Secretary | Michelle Maas |
| Treasurer | Bob Hinschberger |
| Directors | |
| Peg DeSanto | |
| Willie Gabberd | |
| Quintin Holmberg | |
| Charlie Kundinger | |
| Katie Lee, PhD. (appointed) | |
| Jessica Marshall-Kurysh | |
| Mike Paskeuric | |
| Liz Pepin | |
| Gary Reuter | |
| Christine Shoemaker | |
| Karen Voy | |
| Membership | Steve Buck |
| Newsletter Editor | Quintin Holmberg |
| Technology Committee | Quintin Holmberg |
| Gary Reuter | |
| Librarian | Gail Dramen |
| Outreach | Susan Bornstein |
| Ask Buzz | JoAnne Sabin |
| Swarm Chasers | Bob Sitko |
| Hospitality | Mark & Cathy Lee |
| Banquet | Jessica Minser |
Get Involved
Make this the year to get more involved in your club! To become a Community Outreach volunteer or a Swarm Chaser please complete and submit the appropriate form by visiting:
https://mnbeekeepers.com/get-involved/
NOTE: The contents of this Newsletter are the sole property of the Minnesota Hobby Beekeepers Association (MHBA). NO REPUBLICATION OR USE in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, by any other person or entity without the prior express written permission from MHBA’s Board of Directors is permitted. MHBA may be contacted at [email protected]