What's New
01/21-NJ Apiarist Winter Feeding Advisory
01/15-Feeding Insight for Winter
01/15-Movie Meeting Announcement
01/15-NJBA Meeting Info

Who We Are
The NORTHWEST branch of the New Jersey Beekeepers Association is a regional organization of anywhere from 40 to 60 bee hobbyist and sideliners (less than 300 hives). Our members generally reside in the Hunterdon, Warren and Somerset counties but membership is not limited to this region of the state.

NWNJBA Scholarships Scholarship funds are available through the NWNJBA for youths interested in the Rutgers Extension Bee-ginner's beekeeping class. If you are interested in submitting a request, or know of a youth with an interest in beekeeping who would like to be considered, submit a two to three paragraph stating your general interest in beekeeping. Submissions can be sent to the NWNJBA President Charles Ilsley by clicking this link. If you have any questions, about the scholarship program please reach out to Charles via phone (on our contact page) or e-mail. s

NWNJBA Newsletters

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2011 Spring Newsletter
Fall 2010
Spring 2010
May-June 2009
Jan-March 2009
May-June 2008
March-April 2008

Club Hive Photos 2/27/11
NWNJBA VP Bob Kloss checked in on the club's mentoring hive and gave them a little sugar.

Welcome to the Northwest New Jersey Beekeepers Association (NWNJBA)

We would like to welcome you to the home page of the NORTHWEST branch of the New Jersey Beekeepers Association. We maintain this website to share information with both the public and our membership on the topic of beekeeping. Here you can find the clubs schedule of events, educational resources, and how to contact the NWNJBA among other things. We thank you for taking the time visit our website and we hope that you find it a useful resource.

Time to be busy in the workshop

It is time for a welcome respite to the busy beekeeper season during the warmer months as December churns on and January comes crashing in. Roger Gares Nucs

For some the time means a shift to the workshop for some spring preparations or building some new equipment. In the featured picture, NWNJBA member Roger Gares has been hard at work creating some swarm traps / Nuc boxes.

It's a good time to repaint some old equipment, repair frames, melt some old comb, and generally get some housekeeping done.

Nicely done Roger.

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Feeding Advisory

This message was posted on behalf of State Apiarist Tim Schuler:

I have received some reports of scale hives that are losing a lot of weight. I am seeing a lot of colonies that are running out of food. I suspect this is caused by the warm winter and poor fall honey flow. I would advise you to check your colonies and try to determine if they need extra food. This can be done by lifting the whole colony, or by gently tipping it forward. If your colony is light, you can feed them by putting granulated sugar on top of the inner cover around the center hole. You can put it under the inner cover if you place a sheet of newspaper on top of the top bars to hold the sugar. Some beekeepers feed a candy they make from recipes they find on line. Others feed a commercial fondant used in the baking industry. Make sure there is no starch in the fondant as it could harm the bees. If the weather warms for several days up into the 50- 60 degree range you can feed some syrup. Be careful as you don’t want to add a lot of moisture in the colony. Starvation is readily observable in colonies where the bees are dead head first in the cells.

It is very important to remember that feeding dry sugar or candy is an emergency action only to prevent hives that have inadequate stores to make it through the winter. Feeding hives that do not need it may lead to swarming in the spring. click here for a recipe for making sugar candy. Please do not forget to participate in the winter loss survey*.

*NWNJA Note - the survey will be distributed by NJBA to beekeepers on a later date. Do note that the response should be sent back whether you lose bees or not as both sides of this data are important to get an accurate representation of lossess in the state.

Winter Feeding Insight

We’ve had some warm days in December and outright balmy days on the week of Jan 1. Most report that bees were flying and some were outright active – not just cleansing flights. Hopefully your bees had plenty of stores for winter and spring but if you feel you were a little light you could consider a feeding plan. Options include loose sugar in the hive and/or some candy boards. Other ideas are grease patties (Crisco, sugar, perhaps some wintergreen), Fondant, and of course pollen patties for protein. One should be careful not to be intrusive and chill the brood. It is also advisable not to break all of the propolis seals in the hive so feed from the top if you must. This is provided as food for thought (pun intended) and if you have outright questions do consider some posts on the NWNJBA Yahoo forum – you’ll get a preview and answers there from some of the more seasoned beekeepers in the organization. http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/northwestnewjerseybeekeepers/
Source for some beekeeping recipes: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Beekeeping/Recipes_for_the_Bees

NWNJBA Winter Movie Meeting

NWNJBA is planning a screen of a video on Thursday night, February 9th.* The location is to be determined. We’ll serve refreshments and popcorn/goodies so come on out. We’ll watch a movie projected on a screen and then do some Q&A discussion afterwards. We’re still contemplating the selection for the screening but have narrowed it down to an interesting video of Michael Palmer, a video about splitting colonies in the spring, or a video on Hive Beetles – which are migrating to our area and becoming more prevalent. If you have a preference for which one you’d like to see send us a note.

NJBA Winter Meeting

The NJBA Winter Meeting is posted on their website. 2/25 is the date and it will be hosted at the Rutgers Eco Complex. Debora Delaney, the Assistant Professor of Entomology & Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware will be the featured speaker. Cost is $20 in advance (Deadline 1/21) or $25 at the door. The meeting will also include election of officers and a review of the annual honey show awards announcements.

NJBA Website Information: Link

Hive Insulation Box Construction and Design - "Mountain Camp" Style Feeder Candy Board.ll Management Hive Arrangement (15:48) - January 12th, 2011 - NWNJBA members Roger Gares and Kevin Inglin feature.

Maryann Frazier Pesticide Talk

Kevin recorded a session recently hosted with via the Bucks County Beekeepers Association with Maryann Frazier. Maryann spoke on the topic of Pesticides and Pollinators along with how to protect your colonies. The audio was produced for the Beekeeper's Corner Podcast and be obtained here.

During the podcast episode a recent article on the topic is mentioned. It is here:

Article Link: Pesticides and their involvement in colony collapse disorder

NWNJBA YouTube Channel

YouTube Channel - http://www.youtube.com/nwnjba

We've been hard at work placing our video collection in YouTube for consumption. Using YouTube makes the video access more viable for mobile consumption and more compatible with computing platform differences from Microsoft and Apple.

We'll continue to move our videos up and use this as a resource to get some quick hit videos up of timely activities that pop up.

NWNJBA Fall Meeting Follow Ups

Thanks to all in attendance for the NWNJBA Fall meeting. Here are a few follow up links related to some of the topics mentioned in the meeting:

Scientific Beekeeping Bee Nutrition - Link
Ventilation/Insulation Box Plans from Honey Run Apiaries - Link .

Bear Fence Seminar Coverage

NJBA member Cathy Blumig hosted a clinic on how to deter damage to beehives by bears and other wildlife using electric fencing on Wednesday, June 1, 2011. NWNJBA member Kevin Inglin attended the session and captured video for those unable to attend. Thanks to Cathy for hosting!

Video | Bear Fence Seminar (60:00) - June 1st, 2011 - 2 part presentation from Greg Miller of Gallagher Fence Company.
Small Size Video (Smaller Download - 320x240)

Varroa Management Using Drone Brood Removal

First Vice President Bob Kloss presented the use of drone brood frames at the late spring meeting on May 21st. We have the audio along with the PDF Version of the PowerPoint Presentation shown that day.

Audio Recording - Click to Play or Right Click to Download (choose Save Target As and save to a location on your computer.

Where is the Yahoo List/Forum started by Roger Gares?

One member asked at the 2011 late spring meeting, where the heck is the NWNJBA Yahoo forum that Roger manages anyway? For those who are new or not aware, the NWNJBA and now some of our closest friends participate in web based freeform online forum. Announcements, updates, pictures, just about anything goes (and often does!) on the forum. So what is the web address. Before we tell you that, remember this... Look at the navigation for this website across the top of the page. There's a FORUM button there. Come here and you can always get there! The real address is http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/northwestnewjerseybeekeepers/

Tip! Now don't get confused if you go there and you don't see the list of posts. Yahoo wants you to be logged in. If you are not logged in, do that and then click on My Groups in the upper right hand corner of Yahoos page to see the group and participate. Now, go on over and post something!

Would you know what to do with a swarm?

Honey Bee Swarm NWBA Webmaster Kevin Inglin was faced with that question first hand. Kevin took the opportunity to shoot video of the swarm capture and offered narration along the way.

You can check out that video and some of our others on our video page or you can click here to access it directly.

The video shows capturing a swarm in a hive box and the iterations it took to get the whole swarm settled into a new hive body.

Having trouble keeping that Smoker Lit?

Honey Bee Swarm Sometimes keeping a smoker lit is a little more challenging that one might think. We have a video that gives a quick tutorial on how to start a smoker and keep it going.

The key tips are:
- Get a good fire in the bottom
- Add the fuel and let some of it light too.
- Tamp down some additional fuel until it is packed down.
Check out the video tutorial here.