Brian Wagstaff

Diana Dickenson – Residential Beekeeping

Residential Beekeeping: Best-practice guidelines for nuisance-free beekeeping in Oregon – Oregon Master Beekeeping program presentation

Honey Removal and Preparation for Show/Market

Dewey Caron PhD – King City OR

Honey removal and preparation for honey show/market and honey tasting/criteria honey judges use in honey judging –

Dawn Beck – Bow, WA

Dawn Beck is a Northwest native living in the Skagit Valley and a retired CPA. She received her Master Beekeeping Certificate from the University of Montana in 2020 and became a Master Beekeeper through Cornell’s challenging program in 2024. 

Dawn serves beekeeping organizations as President or Vice President in three local clubs and is on the board of WASBA.  However, her true love is helping beekeepers learn to overwinter their bees and feel successful.  She is the apiary manager or assistant for three club apiaries and cares for about 40 hives.  Dawn has two grown children and loves spending time with her husband and hiking while travelling or staying close to home with her two dogs)

 This guide covers how things work for Members — from receiving texts to taking action.

What number will text messages come from?

All alerts will be sent from 818-643-3991. Save this number to avoid missing any alerts.

What is a Swarm Alert?

You’ll receive a swarm alert when:

• A new swarm is reported
• You are within range
• You’re available according to your settings
• The elevation is within your allowed threshold

Each alert includes a 5-digit claim code.

Who receives an alert?

The system identifies eligible Members — people whose range, elevation, and availability match the swarm. Alerts are then sent to those Members simultaneously.

How do I claim a swarm?

Reply to the alert with the exact claim code (e.g. 01134).

If it’s still available, the swarm will be assigned to you. You’ll receive a message like:

Congratulations!
SWARM INFO
Name: Alice
Phone: 503-123-4567
Address:
123 Honeybee Ln, Portland, OR

Log in at https://member.swarmreport.org if you need to "Un-claim" the swarm or "Mark as Bad".

 What happens if I text something else?

Only two types of messages are recognized by 818-643-3991:

• Valid claim codes (e.g. 01134)
• Twilio commands like START or STOP

Any other message will be ignored.

How do I control when I get alerts?

• Set your availability schedule (custom day/time windows per week)
• Configure your range in miles to limit alerts to local swarms
• Set a maximum elevation for alerts
• Toggle Do Not Disturb to temporarily stop alerts

After claiming a swarm –

You have two options if you’re unable to collect it:

• Un-claim: Releases the swarm so another Member can take it.
• Mark as Bad: Flags the swarm as unreachable, invalid, or no longer active. This removes it from the system and notifies the admin.

You can find these options by logging into https://member.swarmreport.org and locating the claimed swarm under “Claimed Swarms.”

You only have 24 hours to take action — after that, you will no longer see these options for this swarm.

What happens if I don’t claim a swarm?

Members receive alerts in staggered batches based on recent claim activity. If you’ve recently claimed a swarm, you’ll receive future alerts later than others:

Recent Claims	Delay Before Receiving Alert
0	Immediate
1	10 minutes
2	20 minutes
3	30 minutes
4	40 minutes
5	50 minutes
6+	60 minutes

How is my location used?

Your address is turned into a latitude/longitude point and used to determine if you are in range for a reported swarm. Your exact location is never shared with others.

How do I give feedback?

You can leave feedback in two ways:

• Use the Feedback button found on most pages of the site
• Email us at support@swarmreport.org

How do I leave an association?

Go to your profile and click the red trash icon next to the association. This removes you immediately and stops all alerts from that group.

What does Do Not Disturb do?

It silences all alerts until you turn it off. Ideal for vacations, sick days, or when you’re unavailable.

Judy Scher

Judy has been an urban beekeeper in Eugene, OR for 23 years.  She is a past president of Lane County Beekeepers Association and worked on the Oregon Master Beekeeper planning committee. She is especially fascinated by the biology of honey bees, plays banjo and loves cats. 

• Spring Management – everything you need to know about shepherding your bees towards a successful summer.
• Mid to late spring hive management is an important step in preventing spring starvation, preparing for the expansion of hive population, controlling mites, recognizing swarm preparation, and preventing swarms. This talk takes us up to the major honey flow in June.

Intro by Dewey Caron PhD regarding the PNW Honey Bee Survey

Dead Colony Forensics by Dewey M. Caron

Mandy Shaw

Mandy is a longtime beekeeper who maintains a number of different hives with an emphasis on bee health and nutrition. She is a former PUB President, podcaster, and owner of Bella Beek (beekeeping suits, veils, and supplies).

References:

Homepage

Brian Fackler also gave his Yellowjackets presentation

Cornell University Master Beekeeper

Washington State Master Beekeeper

Please join us for an informal get together for coffee, tea and lots of talk about bees. No formal agenda. You do not have to be a member to attend. We’ve reserved a large table and will have a new game available to play!
New beekeepers come with your questions! Seasoned beekeepers come with answers!
Saturday September 27th: Gather and Blather @11:00 AM –12:30PM
Location:

The Paladins League
Map
https://maps.app.goo.gl/BfA4xdkMxmQ69ms1A?g_st=ic
4765 NE Fremont Street
Portland, OR 97213
https://www.thepaladinsleague.com/
Menu is here
https://www.thepaladinsleague.com/our-menu

Dead Bees Don’t Make Honey

with Theresa Martin

Theresa Martin comes to us from Williamsburg, Kentucky. She is a Cornell University Master Beekeeper, author, and founder of Little Wolf Nature Preserve. With six years of experience managing 20–25 colonies, she has achieved high survival rates and strong production by following the model of how bees survive in the wild, employing integrated pest management, and providing high support yet low intervention. Theresa serves as President of the Whitley County Beekeepers Association and sits on the Board of Directors for the Kentucky State Beekeepers Association. Previously, she worked in IT and operations management at Fidelity Investments and Procter & Gamble.

link to recording (coming shortly)

Resources

Mite Numbers Lower in Dispersed Colonies
Nolan, M.P. IV & Delaplane, K.S. (2017). Distance between honey bee Apis mellifera colonies regulates populations of Varroa destructor at a landscape scale.
Apidologie 48: 8-16.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13592-016-0443-9

Winter Management Hesbach, W. (2016, Oct 21).
https://www.beeculture.com/winter-management/

Condensing Colony Hesbach, W.
https://bluetoad.com/publication/?i=646365&article id=3579902&view=articleBrowser

Darwinian Black Box
Blacquière, T., Boot, W., Calis, J. et al. (2019).
Darwinian black box selection for resistance to settled invasive Varroa destructor parasites in honey bees. Biol Invasions 21, 2519-2528.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10530-019-02001-0#citeas

Varroa IMP Practices Compared
Cameron J Jack, James D Ellis, Integrated Pest Management Control of Varroa destructor (Acari: Varroidae), the Most Damaging Pest of (Apis mellifera L. (Hymenoptera: Apidae)Colonies, Journal of Insect Science, Volume 21, Issue 5, September 2021, 6,
https://doi.org/10.1093/jisesa/ieab058

BIP Best Management Practices Kulhanek, K. et al. (2021). Survey-derived best management practices for backyard beekeepers improve colony health and reduce mortality
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7810333/

The Lives of Bees – The Untold Story of the Honey Bee in the Wild by Thomas D. Seeley
https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691166766/the-lives-of-bees

Bee Informed Partnership
www.beeinformed.org

Honey Bee Health Coalition
https://honeybeehealthcoalition.org/https://honeybeehealthcoalition.org/

Bee Immune Systems
http://scientificbeekeeping.com/sick-bees-part-3-the-bee-immune-system/

Propolis Envelope
Cynthia R L Hodges, C. R. et al. (2019, April). Textured Hive Interiors Increase Honey Bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae) Propolis-Hoarding Behavior, Journal of Economic Entomology,
Volume 112, Issue 2, April 2019, Pages 986-990,
https://doi.org/10.1093/jee/toy363

Hive Spacing
Dynes, T.L., Berry J.A., Delaplane K.S., Brosi, B.J., & de Roode, J.C. (2019). Reduced density and visually complex apiaries reduce parasite load and promote honey production and overwintering survival in honey bees. PLoS ONE 14(5): e0216286
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0216286

Management Practices Improves Survival and Productivity
Underwood, R.M., Lawrence, B.L., Turley, N.E. et al. A longitudinal experiment demonstrates that honey bee colonies managed
organically are as healthy and productive as those managed conventionally. Sci Rep 13, 6072 (2023).
ps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-32824-w

Swarming Benefits, Hive Size
Loftus JC, Smith ML, Seeley TD. (2016, Mar 11). How Honey Bee Colonies Survive in the Wild: Testing the Importance of Small Nests and Frequent Swarming.
PLoS One. 11(3):e0150362. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0150362.
PMID: 26968000; PMCID: PMC4788434.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4788434/?fbclid=IwAR2A2x-3usF2t8hgWmU5aRgg-DQd57eHm86xVA68t-B10m2v4REEpseotro

Broodminder T2SM Temperature Sensor
https://broodminder.com/products/broodminder-t2-internal-hive-monitor

Honey Better for Bees than Syrup
Bugarova V, Godocikova J, Bucekova M, Brodschneider R, Majtan J. (2021). Effects of the Carbohydrate Sources Nectar, Sucrose and Invert Sugar on Antibacterial Activity of Honey and Bee-Processed Syrups. Antibiotics. 10(8):985.
https://www.mdpi.com/2079-6382/10/8/985

Swarm Cell Eggs Larger
Yu L, Shi X, He X, Zeng Z, Yan W, Wu X. (2022 May 23). High-Quality Queens Produce High-Quality Offspring Queens. Insects,
13(5):486. doi:10.3390/insects13050486. PMID: 35621820; PMCID: PMC9146148.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9146148/

• August 2025 Presentation
• July 2025 Presentation
• June 2025 Presentation
• May 2025 Presentation
• SwarmReport.org FAQ