Flathead Beekeepers Club

by Catherine Haug

The Flathead Beekeepers Club is:

A way for local folks who keep bees, are interested in beekeeping, or just interested in bees to connect with each other. They meet monthly:

When: the second Wednesday evening of each mont 6:30 – 7:30 PM.

Where: Glacier Discovery Center, 540 Nucleus Avenue, Columbia Falls, MT (old First citizen’s Bank building; enter through NW door)

Everyone is welcome.

I first learned of this group from the article in the DIL on April 5, 2010: Longtime beekeeper shares sweet bits of hive knowledge.” This group of beekeepers is striving to improve the health of their hives (and avert colony collapse disorder as well as other hive problems) by practicing “regression,” a movement among beekeepers to introduce feral bees’ genetics into their broods by collecting bees from the wild.

Today’s honey bees are highly bred to produce larger bees, but this breeding has also led to health problems. According to the DIL article, this over-breeding can:

“make [the bees] more susceptible to mites and has contributed to higher mortality rates. Regression proponents are coming up with smaller and darker bees genetically adapted to local climates. With Montana’s winters, adaptation is crucial to a long-term sustainable colony.”

For more information

NOTE: the club’s Facebook and Ggoogle-group links have been added to the ‘Gardening and Ag’ links (right hand column) of our home page.

    See also, from the ESP website (The EssentiaList):

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