Photo: Memphis Bell McNeil (c) 2016

In 2009 Susanne Weil’s husband attended a single beekeeping seminar, came home and declared they were getting bees. Weil, of Onalaska, said she was a little surprised by the declaration but was quickly sold on the idea.

“We have a garden, and my husband wanted bees to pollinate our garden and orchard,” Weil said. “We saw an immediate difference. We never had such an amazing garden. Even our wind-pollinated plants did better. It’s a win-win.”

Weil is one of several speakers who will take part in the fall installment of Gardening For Everyone, which will take place Saturday, in Washington Hall on the Centralia College campus. Secretary of the Lewis County Beekeepers Association and the Washington State Beekeeper Association, Weil will give a special presentation on “Getting Started in Beekeeping.” Just like bees and gardens, Weil said the LCBA’s participation in Gardening for Everyone is an easy fit.

“Gardening for Everyone and beekeepers are a natural marriage,” Weil said. “It’s a symbiotic relationship between gardeners and beekeepers. What we do really supports each other.”

The Lewis County Master Gardener program-sponsored Gardening For Everyone takes place in the fall and spring each year and provides free workshops on a variety of garden related topics. It is one of the many educational opportunities the Master Gardener Program offers to the public throughout the year. The fall session of Gardening for Everyone will provide workshops on everything from ornamental pruning and companion gardening to seed saving and using natural plant dyes. Weil said the LCBA has participated in Gardening for Everyone many times and she personally enjoys attending the events.

“Gardening for Everyone is a good opportunity,” Weil said. “I’m often surprised more people don’t go to it. You have a lot of expertise available all in one place.”

Beekeeper Susanne Weil checks one of the frames inside her hive on Saturday afternoon at her home in Onalaska.

Weil’s presentation on behalf of the LCBA is a precursor to the association’s upcoming basic beekeeping course, which will be held over six Saturdays from Jan. 21 to Feb. 25 as a Continuing Education course at Centralia College. The course focuses on region-specific information about what your first year may be like as a beekeeper in Southwest Washington.

“Beekeeping is animal husbandry,” Weil said. “People are always looking for the quick and easy way to keep bees but you have to take the time to learn how they work to be successful.”

Weil said in Eastern Washington beekeepers need to know how to care for bees in a dry climate with colder winters. In Western Washington, it is the moisture more than temperatures in wintertime that can kill a colony.

“There are things beekeepers can do this time of year to get their bees ready to fare better in the moist weather,” Weil said.

Another issue beginning beekeepers must understand is how to react to different weather patterns. In the past few years, Southwest Washington has seen strange stop and start springtime weather, which means beekeepers can’t rely on consistent forage systems and must help their bees adapt.

“When the first bloom starts the bees come charging outdoors saying ‘woo hoo, let’s eat. Let’s reproduce,’” Weil said. “If the weather then turns cold, the beekeeper is going to have to give those bees an indication to go back inside.”

Written by Carrina Stanton for The Chronicle ~ September 8, 2016.

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