Welcome

The Nevada County Beekeepers Association is a diverse group of professionals and hobbyist, 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 refreshments, brief business discussion, raffle and a great program.

Become A Member!

President's Message - March

On March 27th we are hosting a film The Pollinators at the Nevada Theater. This film has won multiple awards and is currently being screened all over the world. The following is from Director, Peter Nelson:
"The Pollinators is a cinematic journey around the United States following migratory beekeepers and their truckloads of honey bees as they pollinate the flowers that become the fruits, nuts and vegetables we all eat. The many challenges the beekeepers and their bees face en route reveal flaws to our simplified chemically dependent agriculture system. We talk to farmers, scientists, chefs and academics along the way to give a broad perspective about the threats to honey bees, what it means to our food security and how we can improve it."

It is a big undertaking to host a film and we need your help to make it happen. I still need a few volunteers to help collect and sell tickets at the door and to help clean up afterwards. Please let me know as soon as possible if you are able to help out.

You are a member of a club that has a mandate to help educate people in the community about bees and beekeeping. Volunteering at events like these is an important part of that mandate.

Happy Beekeeping!

Pura Vida life - relax and enjoy!
Amy Hustead

Bee Bits - March

What an entirely different start to the year than last season! Unlike during the continual downpour
that suffered through last February, I’m forced to hand-water the seeds that I’ve planted in my garden.

The current Drought Monitor
(https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?CA) shows us as “abnormally dry.” We Californians are accustomed to seesaws in the weather, but we could sure have used another wet year to recharge our ground water.

The foothills have been good to our bees so far, with them enjoying very nice pollen and nectar flows, and I expect manzanita to kick in soon. If this trend continues, prepare for swarming pressure. Make sure that there is plenty of drawn comb immediately above the broodnest for the queen to utilize. You may wish to proactively split your stronger hives once you see a lot of drones.

Down in the Valley, almonds came quickly into full bloom this week. I’ve been down at the U.C. Nickels experimental orchard in Arbuckle, running an experiment.

These experimental station is where the majority of almond research for the U.S. has taken place, and I’ve been fortunate enough to supply hives for pollination to them for over three decades. I get to speak with a variety of researchers there each season.

...see full article and photos 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 regular 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 on this website right here.