Door County Beekeepers Club

OCTOBER AND THE BEEKEEPER: The goal is to have the bees fill the upper brood chamber during the fall flow, forcing the queen down into the bottom brood chamber. If you do not have enough room, the bees will fill the upper AND lower brood chambers with honey and deprive the colony of space for brood rearing. If this happens, instead of having lots of young bees for the winter, you will have lots of older bees, and the colony will not successfully winter. Always err on the side of too much room, rather than too little.

Prepare your hives for winter. A wind break should be considered. Entrance cleats should be placed in the front opening, along with a mouse guard, to restrict mice from entering the hive. A word about bees and winter. A large, healthy hive will not die from cold weather. They stay warm by clustering in the hive. They keep each other warm. The temperature in the hive is only warm within the cluster. They do not warm the entire inside of their hive, only the cluster. They can survive extreme cold weather. But, moisture can develop within the hive as bees do give off moisture like we do. If this moisture gathers above them, it can drip onto the cluster. This is what can kill bees during the winter. They are much like us. We can be cold and get by. But, we cannot stay alive long if we become wet and cold. Bees can get wet in the summer and it is not a problem. But you must prevent your hive from becoming cold and wet from condensation developing within the hive.

Door County Beekeepers Club Meeting
August 24th, 2021

5:15 pm – Hive Dive – Weather permitting, we will open up the hive at Crossroads and do a mite check.
6:30 p.m. – Meeting – Collins Learning Center at Crossroads

Honey harvest is either done or going to be done soon, time to start thinking about raising fat bees for the long winter ahead.

Speaker: Max Martin and Seasoned club beekeepers
• fat bees!! • Mite control • Strong Queens • Pollen storages • Honey storages • Wrapping hives • Polystyrene tops • Mouse guards • Ventilation • Screened bottoms

BEE CLUB MEETING – July 27, 2021

5:30 pm – Hive Dive @ Gretchen Schmelzer’s Hives
6:30 p.m. – Meeting @ Collins Learning Center at Crossroads

Mid-summer is here and your bees are likely very active gathering pollen and filling your supers. If you plan to harvest honey, this will be an informative meeting for you to attend.

Guest Speaker: Dennis Marquardt and Mark Lentz will demonstrate and discuss their honey harvesting techniques and answer questions.

For more meeting info, visit the Event Page.

June 23rd and 24th will be especially helpful for Door County Beekeepers! The new State Bee Inspector Donna Stine, will be in Door County visiting hives and helping with your questions. For the new beekeepers, the Inspector is not regulatory, rather, her role is to help educate and advise. If you are interested in having Donna visit your hives, please contact Dennis Marquardt at (262) 751-7239 or dennismarquardt1929@gmail.com. Dennis will be coordinating the visits with Donna to make her travels around the peninsula efficient.

On Thursday evening. Donna will be our guest speaker at the DCBC Club meeting. She will talk about what she saw during her inspections and offer advice to help you be a successful beekeeper.

6:00 pm – Hive Dive @ Club Hives at the Crossroads
6:30 p.m. – Meeting @ Collins Learning Center at Crossroads

Door County Beekeepers: Welcome to Spring in Door County and the start of another active beekeeping season. While we are not clear of the pandemic, we are going to resume regular meetings and return to the mission of our club – Helping Beekeepers. Our first meeting will be a general discussion and Q&A session. Spring and new bees always generate lots of questions and we’ll do our best to answer them.

Door County Beekeepers Club Meeting
Tuesday; May 18, 2021 @ 6:30 pm
Collins Learning Center at Crossroads
Masks and Social Distancing will be required

Tim Wilbanks of Heritage Honeybee, LLC in Sullivan, WI is offering a FREE, 2 day, in-person, beginners beekeeping class. If anyone is interested, check out the link below for more information.

Beekeeping 101: Two Part Course March 20th & 27th, 2021 at 9:00 AM

Program: Making Mead with the Marquardts
This year, Dennis and Lynn Marquardt will be making pear mead using some of the honey extracted from the club’s Flowhive and Langstroth hives, and pears from the Marquardt’s farm. Join us to learn how to make your own mead and to enjoy tasting some of last year’s plum mead.

Due to pandemic restrictions, we are still limited on our meetings being held in the Collin’s Learning Center. However, since the weather remains nice, we want to continue our monthly meetings and fulfill our mission of education and assistance to beekeepers. This month, we will meet outside around the campfire. Look for the yellow club banner and bring your lawn chair.

Program: Prepping for Fall and Winter – Paul Kenyon will present suggestions and tasks you should consider for getting your hive(s) ready for cold weather and insuring winter survival. Topics will include:

a. Hive inspection
b. Honey storage
c. Feeding the hive
d. Ventilation
e. Insulation and wind break
f. Equipment storage and cleaning

Members of the Door County Beekeepers Club and fellow beekeepers: Due to pandemic restrictions, we are still limited on our meetings being held in the Collin’s Learning Center. However, since the weather remains nice, we want to continue our monthly meetings and fulfill our mission of education and assistance to beekeepers. This month, we will again meet outside in the lawn area. Look for the yellow club banner and bring your lawn chair.

Program: Honey Harvesting – Mark Lentz will discuss fall honey harvesting, recognizing which frames you can harvest, various techniques, and equipment that you will find helpful to insure a successful harvest. Equipment demonstrations used to extract, filter, and bottle your product. Open discussion on other member’s methods and techniques will be encouraged.

After the Harvest – Now that the honey is the jars, what should I do?
1. Suggestions for storing your honey
2. How to clean your supers after harvesting honey
3. Checking for Mites and fall treatment options
4. Sugar feeding (heavy syrup)
5. Winter pollen feeding