Minutes for Tuesday, February 12/2013
Meeting held in Kinsmen Pavilion at Richmond Nature Park, 7:30 PM

There were 62 people (including 8 ‘new bees’) present.
The president, Brian Campbell, welcomed everyone and called the meeting to order at 7:36 pm

• Hugh Mawby made a motion to adopt the January 8^{t h}  minutes and it was seconded by Eric Crosby.
• Jaquie Bunse announced that she will have be having hip replacement surgery in April and Scott Gordon will be taking over from her.
• She also said, there seems to be a new virus out there similar to Nosema, but testing is required to determine what it is.  If you have been treating your bees with Fumigellan but are still getting fecal staining send samples to:
  • Paul van Westendorp
    1767 Angus Campbell Road,
    Abbotsford, BC, V3G 2M3.
• Jeff Lee said that he is trying to organize an Iotron order for February 22^nd . They require an order of 84 boxes minimum and the cost will be $5 per box. Cash is required in advance and no honey frames. Cover your boxes with heavy plastic and duct tape thoroughly. Heated honey could leak out onto Iotron equipment and be hard to clean up. Instructions will also be posted in the website.
• Eric Crosby briefly talked about the Skookim project and passed around a sign up sheet  for four possible workshops. He asked  to let Stephanie know if you are not on the RBA list.
• Eric said that he has some local bee nucs for sale.
• Bob Fisher said that he has some New Zealand  Colonies for sale.
• Jaquie Bunse said that Scott also has some local bees for sale.
• After the coffee break, Werner Gysi was the speaker for the evening.  He gave us a great talk. A lot of the information is also available in his book – Harmonic Farming: Bees. Below are some of my notes, which may not be accurate. For more accurate information refer to his book:
  1. Werner went across Canada doing presentations on a Mission to save bees
  2. We pamper the bees too much. Our goal should be to grow strong resilient bees with a strong immune system. Giving bees too many antibiotics and chemicals can encourage bees with weaker immune systems to flourish.
  3. Holistic approach. Is for needs, not wants.
  4. 3 Rs, Respect, Responsibility, Reserves??
  5. Believes in Clean soil, clean seeds = no GMO or insecticides such as Glyphosate and Neonicotinoids.
  6. Don’t put bee hives near GMO crop. Mainly because of the nasty insecticides that will be used on it.
  7. Bee hives need lots of sun. Keep away from wet areas and water.
  8. Don’t open up bee hives below 15 Celsius. Propolis used to seal up the hive will be hard to replace.
  9. Remove all capped brood early in the spring and put in a separate hive.
  10. Mites need 27 to 30 days to grow and it will take longer than that to get a new queen and have her mated. Even if you move capped brood, there will always be a few cells with newly placed eggs and the workers will make those into queen cells.
  11. Queen cups, see page 100 in book.
  12. Second top outside frame will be empty for them to lay drones.
  13. If you have Nosema, you may be in a bad location close to water and not enough sun. Also need good ventilations with openings in both the bottom and top.
  14. Foul brood – burn frames.
• The meeting was adjourned around 9:15 pm.
• The next meeting will be on Tuesday March 12^th at 7:30 pm.