Author Archives: John Chesnut

Queens and Splits in Early Spring

Central Coast Beekeeper Alliance Meeting
Thursday, March 9th
Santa Margarita Community Hall

Swarms!

February Beekeeping Alliance meeting, February 9th at the Santa Margarita Community Hall.
Social Hour begins at 5:30, program at 6:30

We will host a panel discussion with Swarm Catching pros. We will be providing tips and guidance for our coming swarm season: managing swarms in your own colony, trapping the ones that escape, capturing free-flying swarms.



2023 Beekeepers Kick-off

Thursday, January 12th
Santa Margarita Community Hall
Social Hour begins 5:30, Program 6:30
9610 Murphy Ave (cross of “I” St)
Santa Margarita, Ca
Jeremy Rose’s Nucleus hives (2022 image).

Abundant Rains will push a Spring honeyflow for the record books. Time to shake out the cobwebs. This is an important meeting for **both** eager Newbees and folks with established colonies.

On Tap:
Jeremy Rose (California Bee Company) on Spring nucleus colonies from his apiary. Jeremy will be taking orders for April delivery.
Thomas John McCall (Sierra Honey Farms) will be offering sign up for his spring Nucs.
Early Spring management and build up of your overwintered colonies.

Tim Ball on Swarm Lures and a proposed co-op buy of honey jars.
Equipment and Gear show and tell.

Crafts Day

Some pix from our annual Crafts Day. Lovely warm sunny afternoon before the rains came.
Sue brought complete supplies for her “Pine Cone Bees” complete with Ukrainian Maple seed wings, and cast beeswax ornaments in Sugar cookie molds.
The Balloon mold votive candle shells were a huge hit with the kids.
Mindy supervised the “Lip Balm” mix with recipes for Coconut, Shea butter, and Cocoa mixes.
Crafts Day marks our end-of-season wrap up, we will meet again for the spring kick-off in January.
Dip candles were run by Mike Lindsey and Judy Neuhauser.

Honey straws
Balloon Votives
Sue’s Pine Cone Bees and her “Hexagon Box”


Mike L. cleaning wax

2022 Autumn Newsletter

Our Autumn Newsletter, courtesy of editor Ryan Alaniz.

August 2022 Newsletter

Full Newsletter in PDF format linked below >>>

Apiary Visit, August 23

Mike Lindsey leads a workshop on Varroa Mite monitoring and management on Tuesday, August 23, starting at 6 PM, at the Paso Bamboo Farm, 5590 North River Rd, Paso Robles, Ca.

Mike will teach mite sampling techniques to assess colony parasitism.
Mike will demonstrate major Varroa management tools and techniques.

We will be opening hives to sample the colonies, bring your suit and veil.

July Newsletter

Ryan Alaniz has stepped up to edit a monthly newsletter for the Beekeepers Alliance on an ongoing basis. Hat tip to Ryan for his contributions.
The July issue in .pdf format available here for download.

Summer Apiary Visit


Tuesday, June 28th starting at 6:30 PM
Kathy Longacre’s Apiary – 6440 Corral de Piedra Rd (near Edna x Price Canyon)

DW Schoenthal presents on “Public Space Swarms”

(Photo by DW Schoenthal, Removing a chimney swarm using a “throne”)

DW Schoenthal leads a very active and successful swarm management practice in the Sacramento, Ca region.  
DW will present his lecture, Public Space Swarms, via a Zoom link on
Tuesday, March 1st, starting at 6:30 PM. We will host a round-robbin warm-up starting at 6 PM. Hope to see lots of smiling faces.

Time: Mar 1, 2022 Starting 06:00 PM 

Join Central Coast Beekeepers’ Zoom “Public Space Swarms”

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86501857363?pwd=b3IyeFNKcTZtdngwL1ljVm5aVnc5dz09