The Bluff Creek Bee Club: Year 2

This blog has been fairly quiet for a while, but the Bluff Creek Bee Club has been (forgive the pun--I can't help it) abuzz with activity!

Last fall, we extracted 44 pints of honey from our two hives, leaving plenty for our colonies to live off through the winter.

After Steve's neighbor's bees cleaned all the remaining honey off our wax, some of us made beeswax candles (with additional wax supplied by Ebert Honey Co.). We sold our candles and the last jars of honey at the annual Flyway auction to benefit literature about the environment!    

In December 2013, our fearless leader Steve Pett retired from ISU and stepped down as coordinator of the BCBC. I, Stefanie Trout, have taken over as the coordinator, but the BCBC has continued to be a collective effort that relies upon the hard work of all of our members!

On February 15, 2014, several of us gathered in David's garage to assemble new supers to replace those we borrowed from Arvin. The effort was organized by Hive Master Nick Youds.

On Saturday, March 6, our mentor Arvin Foell of the Central Iowa Beekeepers Association checked on our hives and found that our first two colonies had not survived the winter--Iowa's coldest winter in 35 years.

An emergency meeting of the BCBC yesterday (Thursday, March 13) resulted in the decision to order two new packages of bees and a schedule of early spring events:

Saturday, March 15 - We will visit the Casey Land to memorialize our first two colonies--BC-Blue13 and BC-Green13. We will clean out the hives in preparation for our new bees. We'll meet in the parking lot behind LA at noon.

Tuesday, March 18 - A few beeclubbers will head out to Amana Colonies to pick up two new hives we had ordered when we thought our bees would survive and might need to divide themselves. These new hives will be used as instructional tools this year and will be on hand next spring should our 2014 bees weather the winter well and need to divide themselves.

Wednesday, March 19 - We will meet at 10:30 at David's to put a second coat of paint on our hand-assembled supers. Later that day, we will make art out of our dead bees, so that the future members of the BCBC will always remember the struggle of our first year and the way we persevered through tough times.

Saturday, April 12 - A few beeclubers will head out to the Central Iowa Beekeeper's Annual Auction at 10:00 am in Perry, Iowa.

Sunday, April 13 - BCBC Session I, a class for new members of the bee club to learn the fundamentals of beekeeping. (All returning members are welcome to attend if they would like a brush-up.) The class will be taught by the third-years in the MFA program.We'll meet 10:30-12:30 in LA2.

Saturday, April 19 - BCBC Session II, a class for all members of the bee club to discuss the specifics of our 2014 beekeeping. We will devise a schedule for checking up on the bees throughout the summer.

Saturday, April 26 - Potential date of bee release, weather pending.

2014 promises to be an exciting year for the Bluff Creek Bee Club! Be sure to check out the Casey Land's Facebook page for more photos of the BCBC in action.

(Beeclubbers, make sure to post updates about when you go out to the hives on this blog. You can share photos here and/or on the Casey Facebook page. Please let me know if you are not a "Content Contributor" on the Facebook page, and I will make you one. Posting photos to your personal page is great for sharing with your immediate friends and family, but we would like to share our experience with a broader audience. Thanks!)