West Cluster Bee Cafe

March 16

10:00 - 1:00pm

Bee Genetics and Record Keeping

Thea Vierling has been a beekeeper since 2008. She’s been very involved in SCBA as a former treasurer, co-founder of the cluster groups, instrumental in becoming a non-profit organization and education coordinator of SCBA. In her “former” life she was a high school biology teacher, former peace corps volunteer in the Philippines teaching biology. She loves talking about the bees and has led many hive dives. She has had Lang hives, top bar hives and also a Cathedral hive.

Thea will be our speaker and address the queen’s survival genes, the drones who carry the genes, the worker bees who express the genes! Here are some questions to think about:

1. Can a virgin queen mate with the drones in the own hive?
2. What is the “mating sign”? 
3. What are some signs of a well mated queen! 
4. Should you blame the swarm catcher if there’s no queen? 
5. On what days in the queens development should you be very careful to check for the queen?
6. What is the queen color for 2024? 

I’m from East cluster; you’re all from West cluster. Who is famous for saying:

“East is East and West is West and ne’re the t’wain shall meet”!

I’m looking forward to meeting all of you! Bring your sense of humor!