Save the Dates:
The March 2026 Stanly County Beekeepers Association meeting will be held this Thursday, March 12 at 6 p.m. in the Stanly County Farm Bureau Livestock Aren Our meal is being catered by Joe Smith and will include his delicious chicken stew with crackers, cheese, pickles, tea, and water. Bring a desert if you like and $5 per person for the meal. The program will be presented by yours truly, Anne Houch, who will be discussing all you ever needed to know but were afraid to ask about how to prevent and control swarms. We may still have some association T-shirts available, and they are being sold for $20 each at the meeting. Bring a door prize to share with the crowd! Below are things to do in March: March NCSBA annual Spring Meeting (usually first weekend in March)—great learning opportunity! Swarming under way – implement prevention measures (make splits, remove queen cells, “checker – board”, temporarily or permanently remove current mother queen); set up “bait” hives. Reverse bottom two or three boxes on hive to give queen more room to lay: most hives have moved up above the bottom hive body, leaving it virtually empty. This measure also helps reduce swarming. Caution: be careful not to split up clusters of brood when you do this. Two to three weeks after this reversal, it’s likely that you’ll need to reverse them again. (An alternative to reversal: simply add another hive body or super.) Assess for pest and/or disease problems (especially varroa mites, American foulbrood, and European foulbrood) and treat if needed. Treatments should be completed by early April to limit risk of contaminating honey. Check honey stores; feed (1:1 or thinner syrup) if needed. Look closely at the brood pattern; order new queen if current one failing. Continue to replace few frames of old/undesirable comb, if needed. Near end of the month, add at least one honey super; remove entrance reducers; equalize hives. |
Stanly County Beekeepers Association - SCBA 