Welcome

The Nevada County Beekeepers Association is a diverse group of professionals and hobbiest, men and women, young and old, with a keen interest in promoting the well being of honey bees and their habitat while enjoying their amazing benefits. The NCBA strives to promote education on beekeeping and agriculture by providing the latest news and techniques in these fields.

The club members meet once a month on the first Monday at 7pm and visitors are always welcome. All meetings are held in the Veterans Memorial Building at 255 South Auburn Street, Grass Valley, CA. Entrance is off the back parking lot, in Grass Valley at 7pm. The August meeting is always moved to the County Fair Grounds with a fair booth clean up following by a barbeque social.

Any questions about bees?
Always wanted to get bees?
Questions about honey production?
Have some information to share?
Wondering about pollination in your garden or orchard?
Have some bees or equipment to sell?
Want to meet some great folks?

Join our lively question and answer session starting promptly at 7pm followed by refreshements, brief business discussion, raffle and a great program.

Become A Member!

President's Message - January

Living in a Blue Zone - Pura Vida

This last fall I was lucky enough to spend 7 weeks in Costa Rica. My children were able to attend a Costa Rican school on the Nicoya Peninsula for 4 of those weeks. Costa Rica has been a major tourist destination for many years, and for good reason. This tiny country is home to an abundance of diverse flora and fauna, not to mention the friendly people. During my time in Nicoya (Montezuma, specifically) I was unable to connect with any local beekeepers as beekeeping is not very common in low lying coastal areas. I did observe a lot of bees in the wild, and my home was host to several colonies of native angustula bees! They are very tiny and hard to photograph, but I got some video of them hovering around the entrance of the hive during the heat of the afternoon. I also saw orchid bees, but they too are difficult to photograph.

The Nicoya Peninsula is a Blue Zone. Before I arrived I had never heard of blue zones. The term “blue zone” grew out of research done by a pair of demographers in the early 2000’s and refers to areas of the world where people live much longer than average. There are currently 5 blue zones: Sardinia, Italy; Okinawa, Japan; Icaria, Greece; Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica and (surprisingly) Loma Linda, California. Inhabitants of the blue zone have several common attributes that are said to contribute to their longevity. These are a strong family unit, less smoking, semi-vegetarianism, constant moderate physical activity, social engagement, and legume consumption.

Recent research has called into question the validity of the blue zone research, but my limited experience in the Nicoya Peninsula has taught me to slow down and enjoy life a little bit more. The Costa Ricans have a saying, “Pura Vida” that is used ubiquitously. It’s directly translated as Pure Life, and it describes the way Costa Ricans live. They don’t stress about much, if anything, the way that we do. No worries, no fuss, and no stress, being thankful for what you have and not dwelling on the negative. Maybe that is why they live for so long. So in this new year, my goal is to live a more

Pura Vida life - relax and enjoy!
Amy Hustead

Bee Bits - January

It’s been a fun run around the sun! Each new year gives us a chance to learn more about our bees and beekeeping. Believe it or not, oddball that I am, I couldn’t hep but get up at 4:00 am on Christmas morning to enter field data into Excel to graph out how the varroa infestation rate of bees differs from frame to frame in a hive. Sandy Honigsberg and I tediously collected the data from seven high-mite hives in mid November. Here’s a teaser from one of the hives: (shown below)

...see full article in the current Newsletter

Happy beekeeping!

Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

Club Dues R Due

Dues are $25/yr. (printed mailed newsletter) or $20/yr. (email newsletter).

You can pay dues at the January, 2020 meeting or mail dues to (make check out to NCBA) NCBA C/o Janet Brisson 20693 Dog Bar Road Grass Valley, CA 95949.

You can aslo join or renew membership online right here.