Please join us tonight, September 5th, at Meadowbrook Farm for our SVBA Annual Meeting. 

September is our Annual Club Meeting and we will be holding elections for new officers and trustees for 2024.

Please read below for further details about the nominations and elections. There are some important officer positions that need to be filled for next year.

To encourage attendance at this important club meeting, we will be holding a raffle for a chance to win a nuc/bee package.

To receive a raffle ticket you must have an active 2023 SVBA household membership. Each household membership will receive one raffle ticket at entry to the meeting and you must be present at the time of the drawing. Arrangements will be made to deliver the nuc/bee package to the winner next spring. 

There will be an opportunity to renew/join in person at the meeting prior to the raffle or you can join/renew online.

If you are unsure if you have an active 2023 SVBA membership please contact [email protected].

Our Annual Meeting schedule will be structured as follows:

6:00-6:45: Apiary Demo (Weather permitting)
6:45-7:00: Grab a snack and find a seat
7:00-7:15: Call to Order/Club Announcements
7:15-7:30: Annual Budget Report/Vote for Approval
7:30-8:00: Call for Nominations and Club Elections
8:00-8:15: Raffle for Nuc/Bee Package
8:15-9:00: Social time and clean up   

Apiary demo: Jacob will be leading our apiary demo from 6:00-6:45 p.m. He will be performing hive inspections and mite checks to ensure our hives are well-positioned going into the Fall. We kindly ask that anyone wanting to attend bring their protective gear. Safety first! 

SVBA Board Elections

The club will be holding elections for new Officers and Trustees for 2024. The Board is hereby requesting nominations. Nominations can be submitted to any Board member in person or via email or phone. And yes, self-nomination is permitted! 

Active members in good standing are eligible and encouraged to run for any officer position. 

We need nominations for the Secretary, Vice President, and President positions. Becky, Melody, and Dave will be stepping down from these positions at the end of 2023, respectively.

Club members make SVBA strong and we have a fun group. Thank you all for making that possible and for your consideration of actively participating in SVBA as an Officer or Trustee.

2023 Board Members
President: Dave Treiber ([email protected])
Vice President: Melody Granillo ([email protected])
Treasurer: Karen Moulton ([email protected])
Secretary: Becky Miller ([email protected])
Trustee: Tom Bilbro
Trustee: Judy Challoner
Trustee: Linda Diaz
Trustee: Jacob Hodgen
Trustee: Don Koch
Trustee: Jessica Lamb

Please join us next Tuesday night for our August club meeting in person at Meadowbrook Farm.

Our meeting schedule will be loosely structured as follows:

6:00-6:45: Apiary Demo
6:45-7:00: Grab a snack and find a seat
7:00-7:30: Guest speaker presentation
7:30-7:45: Q&A
7:45-8:00: Club Announcements/Grab another snack 
8:00-8:30: Beekeeping 101/Monthly To-Do’s
8:30-9:00: Social time and clean up  

This month’s guest speaker will be Randon Hodges of Double R Honey Farms.

Randon Hodges is the owner of Double R Honey Farms in Yakima. Double R Honey Farms offers central Washington farmers and orchardists pollination services. The company also produces large quantities of different varieties of honey and operates a well-stocked retail store featuring beekeeping supplies, gifts, and honey. Learn more about Randon here.

There will be a brief presentation of the beekeeping To-Do’s for August and a Q&A session. The Blackberry flow is over and the Fireweed flow is tapering off. As you prepare to harvest this summer’s bounty the colony’s bee population will begin to dwindle while the Varroa population begins to spike. What’s a beekeeper to do? This will be a brief presentation to go over the tasks for August and an opportunity to ask any questions or address any concerns you have with your colonies.

Apiary demo: Don and Jacob will be leading our apiary demo from 6:00-6:45 p.m. We kindly ask that anyone wanting to attend bring their protective gear. Safety first!

Please join us Tuesday night for our June club meeting in person at Meadowbrook Farm.

Our meeting schedule will be loosely structured as follows:

6:00-6:45: Apiary Demo
6:45-7:00: Grab a snack and find a seat
7:00-7:30: Guest speaker presentation
7:30-7:45: Q&A
7:45-8:00: Club Announcements/Grab another snack 
8:00-8:30: Beekeeping 101/Monthly To-Do’s
8:30-9:00: Social time and clean up  

This month’s guest speaker will be Randon Hodges of Double R Honey Farms.

Randon Hodges is the owner of Double R Honey Farms in Yakima. Double R Honey Farms offers central Washington farmers and orchardists pollination services. The company also produces large quantities of different varieties of honey and operates a well-stocked retail store featuring beekeeping supplies, gifts, and honey. Learn more about Randon here: http://daveleder.com/2019/05/31/owner-of-double-r-honey-places-welfare-of-bees-above-all-else/

There will be a brief presentation of the beeking To-Do’s for June and a Q&A session. You’ve managed to stave off the swarming instinct, the Blackberry flow is imminent, and the bees are preparing to go into full-on hoarding mode or you’ve just inspected your colonies and have found a bunch of swarm cells and/or no queen. Now what? This will be a brief presentation to go over the tasks for June and an opportunity to ask any questions or address any concerns you have with your colonies.

Apiary demo: Don and Jacob will be leading our apiary demo from 6:00-6:45 p.m. They will be performing hive inspections to check for signs of swarming and counting mites. We will also take the opportunity to find some drones to hand out to those attending so they can practice marking “queens”. We kindly ask that anyone wanting to attend bring their protective gear. Safety first! 

See you Tuesday night for our SVBA May Club Meeting 

May 2nd, 7:00 p.m. at Meadowbrook Farm
The Apiary Demo will start one hour prior to the meeting at 6 p.m.

Please join us on Tuesday night for our May club meeting at Meadowbrook Farm.

Our meeting schedule will be loosely structured as follows:

6:00-6:45: Apiary Demo
6:45-7:00: Grab a snack and find a seat
7:00-8:00 Guest speaker presentation/Q&A
8:00-8:15: Club Announcements/Grab another snack 
8:15-8:30: Monthly To-Do’s/Q&A
8:30-9:00: Social time and clean up    

Apiary Demo

The weather will be cooperating tomorrow and allow us the opportunity to have our first Apiary Demo of the year. Both of our club colonies survived the winter, a success worth celebrating. However, they aren’t out of the woods yet and work will need to be done to ensure their survival. Join Don and Jacob as they perform inspections to determine what each colony may need to grow into a successful honey-hoarding superorganism by the time the blackberry flow is on. Anyone wanting to attend and participate must bring their protective gear. Safety first!   

This month’s guest speaker will be Dr. Nicholas Naeger from the WSU honey bee reseach program.

The title of Dr. Naeger’s talk is “Fungi to the rescue: Using fungi to feed bees and kill Varroa.” and it is sure to be a crowd-pleaser. After all, what beekeeper doesn’t like to hear about new ways to kill Varroa?

Dr. Nick Naeger is an entomologist and geneticist that has been researching honey bees for over half his life.  Before joining the WSU honey bee research program, his doctoral work focused on the genetics of behavior where he documented how networks of genes in the honey bee brain turn on and off foraging or mating behavior. His current research seeks to find innovative ways to improve honey bee health. This includes using fungi to create better bee feed additives and using pathogenic fungi to kill Varroa mites. 

There will be a brief presentation of the beeking To-Do’s for May and a Q&A session. New packages have been installed and overwintered hives are continuing to build up. Now what? This will be a brief presentation to go over the tasks for May and an opportunity to ask any questions.

We will finish the evening with social time, a great opportunity to meet and chat with your fellow local beekeepers!

Please join us next Tuesday night for our April club meetingat Meadowbrook Farm.

Our meeting schedule will be loosely structured as follows:

6:00-6:45: Equipment Garage Sale
6:45-7:00: Grab a snack and find a seat
7:00-8:00 Guest speaker presentation/Q&A
8:00-8:15: Club Announcements/Grab another snack 
8:15-8:30: Monthly To-Do’s/Q&A
8:30-9:00: Social time and clean up     

Equipment Garage Sale

Do you have extra beekeeping equipment and gadgets that you are looking to purge from that cluttered storage space? Bring them to this month’s meeting! We will be opening the doors at 6 pm and have tables set up along the perimeter of the room to allow folks to display equipment they want to sell/trade with other meeting attendees. All we ask is that you refrain from bringing your used frames and comb in order to minimize the potential spread of disease.  

This month’s guest speaker will be Dr. Danny Najera from Green River College.

Danny will be sharing some of the cool research that he has been up to a GRC. If we’re lucky, he may also have some of the Green River College Honeybees 2023 Waggle Dance Calendars available to interested club members 

There will be a brief presentation of the beeking To-Do’s for April and a Q&A session to allow those in attendance an opportunity to ask any burning (stinging?) questions to which they will get multiple conflicting, yet correct, answers.

We will finish the evening with social time, a great opportunity to meet and chat with your fellow local beekeepers!

Please join us Tuesday night for our SVBA club meeting at Meadowbrook Farm.

Our meeting schedule will be loosely structured as follows:

6:45-7:00: Grab a snack and find a seat
7:00-8:00 Guest speaker presentation/Q&A
8:00-8:15: Club Announcements/Grab another snack 
8:15-8:30: Monthly To-Do’s/Q&A
8:30-9:00: Social time and clean up   

Our guests will be Peter and Amy Beth Nolte, the owners and operators of Rainy Day Bees. The title of Peter’s talk is “Contradictions of Swarm Management”.

Peter and Amy Beth manage 150 hives in urban, suburban, and rural areas from Mt Rainier to Monroe. They enjoy using their decade of experience running Rainy Day Bees for educating the public and beekeepers about responsible and effective beekeeping in our many different local environments.

Every beekeeper will encounter and needs to know how to prevent or manage the urge of their bees to swarm, it’s how colonies reproduce. There are many ways to manage this and how a beekeeper decides to do it is largely dependent on the equipment and space available to them as well as their desired outcome for the colony (e.g. increase vs. honey production).

We look forward to learning about what strategies Rainy Day Bees use for swarm management based on where the hive is located and what they are trying to achieve with the colony living inside.

If desired, there will be a brief presentation of To-Do’s for March to maintain your colonies and prepare for the upcoming season and a Q&A session to allow those in attendance an opportunity to ask any burning (stinging?) questions to which they will get multiple conflicting, yet correct, answers to.

We will finish the evening with social time, a great opportunity to meet and chat with your fellow local beekeepers!

Please join us on Tuesday night for our SVBA February meeting at Meadowbrook Farm Interpretive Center in North Bend, WA.

Our meeting schedule is as follows:

6:45-7:00: Grab a snack and find a seat
7:00-7:45: Open Forum – Overwintering
7:45-8:00: Club Announcements
8:00-8:30: Monthly To-Do’s/Q&A (if desired)
8:30-9:00: Social time and clean up   

In lieu of a guest speaker this month we will be having an open forum discussion about overwintering.  It will be a great opportunity for some of our more experienced members to share any tips they have for overwintering colonies in Snoqualmie Valley and the surrounding areas.

If there is time and desire there will be a brief presentation on the monthly To-Do’s for February. 

We will conclude the evening with some social time, a great opportunity to meet and chat with your fellow local beekeepers!

When: 7:00-9:00 p.m. on Tuesday, January 3
Where: Meadowbrook Farm Park, 1711 Boalch Ave NW, North Bend

Join us January 3 for our first meeting of 2023. Please join us in person at Meadowbrook Farm.

Our meeting schedule will be structured as follows:

6:45-7:00: Grab a snack and find a seat
7:00-7:45 Guest speaker presentation/Q&A
7:45-8:00: Club Announcements/Grab another snack 
8:00-8:30: Beekeeping 101/Monthly To-Do’s/Q&A
8:30-9:00: Social time and clean up   

Our guest speaker will be Dave Schiefelbein from Elite Honey and Bee. He will be talking about where nucs, packages and queens come from as photographically documented and through his visits to California over the past decade.

Growing up in rural Minnesota Dave Schiefelbein was rarely indoors. His childhood backyard was cornfields and hay barns. As a young adult, he graduated to climbing remote mountains for his outdoor fix. Documenting those climbs with a camera led to a career in photography where his specialty was creating images that were artistic interpretations of the natural world. Dave loves work that is attached to nature. Beekeeping suits him well. Dave is now a professional beekeeper and bee consultant. Through his company Elite Honey and Bee he sells packages, nucs, and queens. He has 80-100 bee colonies dispersed in backyards throughout the Seattle metropolitan area. He teaches beekeeping classes and sells his raw honey online and at select retail outlets. His photographs and articles related to beekeeping have been published in Europe and the United States including Bee Culture, American Bee Journal, and the Wall Street Journal.

We will finish the evening with a brief presentation about what beekeeping activities you should be doing in January to maintain your hives and prepare for the upcoming season and a Q&A session to allow those in attendance an opportunity to ask any burning (stinging?) questions to which they will get multiple conflicting, yet correct, answers to. It’s also a great opportunity to meet and chat with your fellow local beekeepers!

As always, guests are welcome to attend. Come check out our club!

When: 7:00-9:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 1
Where: Meadowbrook Farm Park, 1711 Boalch Ave NW, North Bend

Craft Fair and Honey Tasting
SVBA will be hosting a craft fair and honey tasting during our November club meeting.

Do you have a beekeeping-related hobby such as making candles, cosmetics, mead, or woodenware? We will have tables available for people to set up and share information about their hobbies. Past craft fairs have been very informal with folks sharing as much or as little information as they like. You are also welcome to sell your items to those attending. If you would like to reserve some table space please contact us at [email protected].

Everyone is also encouraged to bring a few ounces of honey to the November club meeting to share with the group. We will have a tasting table set up so people can enjoy and compare honey with one another. It’s amazing what just a few miles can do to affect the color and taste of honey! The honey need not be limited to only local harvests. If you have some interesting and unique varietals that you’ve collected from other places, then bring those too!

When: 7:00-9:00 p.m. on Tuesday, October 4
Where: Meadowbrook Farm Park, 1711 Boalch Ave NW, North Bend

Our meeting schedule is as follows:
7:00-7:15: Grab a snack and find a seat
7:15-7:30: Club Announcements 
7:30-8:30: Open Forum: Winterbeekeeping
8:30-9:00: Social time and clean up 

This month we will be discussing Winter Beekeeping in Western Washington. The format of this meeting will be a bit different from what we have done previously this year. We will not have any designated presenters. Instead, we will have an open forum to discuss the different things we should do this time of year to prepare and overwinter our hives. We will have some slides to help guide the discussion. It will be a great opportunity for us to share with one another what has and hasn’t worked for overwintering hives, particularly during our wet and cold Western Washington winters.