Welcome All Beekeeping Enthusiasts

Welcome to the Treasure Valley Beekeepers Club of Idaho. 

The Treasure Valley Beekeepers Club provides a great opportunity for everyone with an interest in bees to come & gather great resources and knowledge about the honeybee. Practical knowledge, workshops and demonstrations are provided throughout the year. At every meeting, we discuss important bee topics, along with a Q & A with experienced beekeepers. Everyone is welcome! To become a club member, come to any meeting to sign up. Dues are $10.00/yr or $15.00 for a family/yr. If you can't make our next meeting; you can download, print, fill out and mail in our registration form.  The mailing address is located on the form.
 PictureIf you're on this page because you've got a swarm hangin' in a tree and you don't want 'em, CLICK THE BUTTON and help will be just a quick call away.

2015_tvbc_registration_form.pdf
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Club Meetings

Regular meetings continue at the IOA Hall on July 21, 2015.

We meet the third Tuesday of most every month (unless we have a field trip) at 6:30 pm, in Boise at:

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IOA Hall
401 Brazil St. (off Sunrise Rim, near Vista and I-84)
Boise
 Please bring your own drinks.
                               Map

Foothills Learning Center

The TVBC has partnered with the Foothills Learning Center to provide educational opportunities about the Apis Mellifera (honey bees) for the public. We have a beeyard on the grounds used for the Honey Bee Apprentice Program taught each year for new beekeepers. Please visit their website for all classes available at the Foothills Learning Center
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Join Us On Facebook

YOUR TVBC OFFICERS

President/(Queen Bee) – Karla Kimball

Vice-President – Joyce Gebhardt

Treasurer/Keeper of the Envelope – Rena
Alexander

Secretary/Working Drone – Ken Sonnen

Past-President ("Booted" Drone) – Chad
Dickinson

Committee Positions: Volunteers (no vote necessary)
Web Queen Chair – MJ Oresik 
         Web Chair Drone - Chad Dickinson

Community Education Chair - Joe Leckie
Plans Club education - Bug Days, Western Idaho
Fair, community appearances by Club members, etc.

Special Projects – Carole Kanizar & Steve Sweet
Foothills Learning Center Activities, National Honey
Bee Day, the occasional "Drink the Kool-Aid"
Sessions ;^) and the Hobbyist Session of the Idaho
Honey Industry Association Annual Meeting.

CONTACT US

__ [email protected]

Treasure Valley Beekeepers Club
PO Box 5066
Boise, ID 83705-0066

Upcoming Classes

Please see our Education page.

Need Hive Components Fast?

Mike Morrison has a list of equipment that you can purchase locally and avoid shipping charges. Please see the following list for what he has available and his contact info:
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What Should a Beekeeper be Doing Now?

July

Unless you're near a commercial crop or at higher elevations, the summer nectar dearth begins about mid-July (maybe July 1st this year in the Treasure Valley).  At this time we should be thinking about nest consolidation and honey harvest.

  • In late summer we crowd the bees.  We begin this in earnest in August along with mite treatments, but for now don't leave extra supers on colonies light on stores.  Also, avoid having extra supers on colonies as the nectar flow tapers off as this leads to half-filled frames --an inconvenience at harvest time.
  • As usual, keep an eye out for colony health.  Any colony not keeping up with the others in the bee yard needs to be inspected to make sure the queen is laying and healthy.
  • Requeen any colony with undesirable characteristics such as poor production, European foulbrood (not AFB), poor brood pattern, mean temper, etc.
  • Queenless hives are a real problem and need to be either requeened with a nuc or retired.  Typically, queenless hives have an abundance of pollen stored in multiple frames (no brood to feed).  This condition typically is followed by the development of laying workers.  Signs of laying workers are multiple eggs per cell, eggs on the side of cells (opposed to one egg centered on the bottom), and drone brood development in worker cells.  If requeening, always place the nuc in the top brood box and to one side (easier to defend).  You may want to reverse brood boxes first as there may be fewer bees in the lower box (again, easier to defend).  If you retire the hive, shake the bees out and share the frames with other hives - the workers will perceive the eggs as foreign and unwanted and will eat them.  After the drones hatch from the elongated worker cells, the workers will cut the cells back to their regular length.
  • Keep on the lookout for American foulbrood as robbing season is imminent and AFB infected colonies make easy targets.  AFB is highly infectious and early detection is important for disease control.
  • Remove and extract supers.  Honey removed in late July will have less moisture content than honey in June, so you do not have to be as judicious about making sure that all cells are capped.  Moreover, in late season the nectar flow can end, and the bees will be unable to cap the honey cells even though they are ready (sufficiently dehydrated).  As a general rule you can always check the moisture content and ripeness of honey in a given frame by shaking the horizontal frame hard, downward and seeing if nectar falls out.  If a shower of nectar falls out, then that frame was not ready.
  • Be prepared to do the most important treatments of the year for your hive in early August: Varroa mite management treatments, and reducing hives down to winter configuration.



The above information was excerpted from the Oregon State Beekeepers Association webpage, found at: http://www.orsba.org/htdocs/home.php (June 2, 2012). The Treasure Valley Beekeepers Club extends a special thanks to Todd Balsiger, Forest Grove, OR for permission to post this information.
Last Updated: 06/28/15