First of all, I hope you read the meeting announcement. Starting this Saturday, meetings are 12 to 1:30; meet and greet at 11:30.
I was doing oxalic acid treatments this week with one of our beekeepers. You should all be doing them. Reserve one of the two machines with Debbie Klumpf. 503-801-0959
In addition to the OA treatment, we took off the lid and foam in the vent boxes to take a peak at the bees. Three of the six hives were dead. Two of those had the bees gone. One had two inches of dead bees in the bottom box which blocked the entrance. All of them had plenty of honey.
The foam was soaked on the top and damp on the bottom. None of us have found this to be the case with our vent boxes. I have to think it was because the foam did not fill the box to the lid, there was nothing on top of the outside of the box to provide additional insulation, and the boxes were not wrapped.
So check your hives. Clean out dead bees at the entrance. Check your vent boxes. Put something on the lid. Double foil insulation available at Rosenbergs works. Some of my hives have a Goodwill bath rug that I put in a plastic bag to keep it dry. If you have wet foam, get it out of there and dry it out. I wonder if putting it in the dryer would be okay. Wrap your hives. It's still January. There's time to save the colonies if you treat. Feed if necessary. Best is Rick Stelzig's recipe for sugar bricks that have megabee and vinegar in them. I have small packages of megabee you could buy. I'll bring them to the meeting. See the forum that explains that.
Come to the meeting on Saturday at 11:30. If the rain stops enough for you to peak under the foam in your vent boxes, do it. Bring your concerns to the meeting.
See you there and then!