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Executive Committee Meeting
Vicky Barrow has gotten new
catalogs from various beekeeping suppliers and they are
available for anyone who wants in the front room with the
other catalogs and publications. She expects to receive more
from additional suppliers.
Vick has been contacted by a
civic group in Opp to see if the club would be interested in
participating in a Kid’s Day Camp. This would occur on
Tuesday, June 9, 10 – 1, for Pre K through 4th
grade. We need to bring before the club for discussion.
Karen Brock introduced the
topic of review of the club by-laws. It was decided that we
needed to review for possible revision. Karen will e-mail a
copy of the AL Beekeeper by-laws to the committee members for
review and suggest possible revisions @ next month’s exec.
meeting.
It was determined that the
current roster needs to be revised. Karen identified those
names whose e-mail was not valid and a decision was made if
they needed to be deleted from the roster. Lucy Blount will
e-mail the current roster Excel file to Karen brock for
revision. Karen will distribute the updated roster to
committee members.
Karen asked if it would be
possible to publish an agenda for future meetings so that
members would know what to expect @ meetings and maybe more
interest would be generated if people were aware of the
scheduled topic. The meeting agenda was decided as follows:
1.
Opening prayer
2.
Minutes from previous meeting
3.
Treasure’s report
4.
Old business
5.
New business
6.
Monthly topic or topics
7.
Open discussion
We then had a discussion about
possible meeting topics. The topics are:
1.
Pests and diseases – John Sansom has a new hive beetle
deterrent to introduce.
2.
Swarm capture
3.
Honey extracting
4.
Plants for bees
5.
Beginner beekeeping, building hives
6.
Queen rearing
7.
Hive inspection
8.
Having a speaker from the county agricultural agency to
discuss cottage food industries. Vicky will contact Covington
county for possibilities
9.
Don Helton said that he had heard the county agent from
Philip Carter from the Crenshaw county do a talk on beekeeping
that was very informative and suggested we try to get him to
speak @ one of our meetings. Karen will try to contact for
possible dates.
10.
Pros and cons
of top bar and standard frame beekeeping methods
The idea that we could have
multiple topics based on beekeeper experienced was discussed.
It was decided that we would
have swarms as the March meeting topic. Gary Barrow will show
a U-tube video of JPBeeman catching a swarm. We will then
have discussion and questions.
Meeting was adjourned due to
time. It was decided that we would meet @ 8:45 instead of 9.
Members Meeting
Lucy opened the meeting with
prayer.
Gary did introductions of the
officers and board members.
Vicky read the minutes from the
January meeting.
Treasury report: As of 2/2/15
bank balance was $721.93.
Old business:
Gary and Karen reported that
the Covington County annual tree sale sold out of trees
quickly.
Randy Shaffer would look into
creating a facebook page for QCBA.
New business:
Check on grant from the Federal
ag. available for beginning beekeepers. It was discussed that
this is just a grant and may not be repeated. We need to keep
checking. Applications were due in January.
We need to submit events and
activities for our club to be published in the Stinger. Need
to check deadlines.
Discussed what issues of the
Stinger are available to whom and how to access.
OJ talked about planting clover
in September. First bushog in August, then plant clovers.
Plant Vitek on fence rows.
Gary talked about pastures that
are cut are like a desert to the bees.
Gary had a sale flier from Mann
Lake. They have the vented bee suit and other things on sale.
Gary said that plastic
foundation had a border that was attractive to hive beetles.
The use of the 5/32” mesh and the lime tray help to eliminate
mites and beetles. Trays should be cleaned every 10 days.
Lucy distributed the calendar
of events to members who had not already received one.
John Sansom talked about a new
Beetle Baffle. Bees drive the beetles down and they cannot
escape lime or a bottle filled with oil. It is available @
John store in Flomaton, AL. He also has other supplies and
nucs for $150 after 4/1. They are 5 frame nucs.
Gary mentioned that Kelly has
pricing by pallet and is trying to be more competitive.
South AL Beekeepers Association
workshop and Field Day is March 21. Don Helton has
applications if anyone is interested.
Vicky will call the Covington
County Extension office and talk to Chuck Simon about what is
available for beekeepers.
Mr. Paul Watson from central
Mississippi presented a slide show about catching a wild
colony of bees from a tree. Paul has been a beekeeper since
1963. Paul explained that he attached a bar above the branch
that the colony was on, cut the branch and lowered the whole
colony into empty brood and supers boxes. He then waited
until dark to move the boxes to a new location. He talked
about how every removal is unique and he has developed
different tools and methods for different removals. He said
that wild hives are usually in sunny spots and on the south
side of trees.
Don Sobczak, a bee inspector
from Knoxville, TN discussed hive inspection outside in the
yard. He said that the local club had an extractor for
members use but that their hives must first pass inspection.
He has the beekeeper do the actual inspection while he
supervises. This way he can do education while doing the
inspection. He has them start with lighting a smoker to ensure
that they do it properly. They are looking for the queen
throughout the whole process. He checks the front of the hive
for Nosema spots. A frame is removed from one end of the box
and placed nearby. The frames are then inspected, working in
order from the end. He is checking for foulbrood, diseases
and pests. He is also looking at the brood pattern and amount
of drone cells. Depending on pattern, queen may need to be
replaced. The characteristics of a queen were discussed. If
foulbrood is found the hive and boxes must be destroyed. He
has found foulbrood to be essentially non-existent. He
recommends nucs instead of packaged bees. Frames must be put
back in the box in the order they were removed. Some
techniques for attracting swarms were discussed – drawn comb,
essential oils and even banging on pans. He recommends only
treating if required for diseases or pests. Do not treat
during a honey flow. Essential oil is good for varroa mites.
Changing products from treatment to treatment is also
recommended.
Neranza Blount gave a
demonstration of encaustics. This is an ancient art that uses
fusing of the medium. The medium she uses is 8 parts bees wax
and 1 part damar, a resin. Temperature of 150’, a natural
bristle brush and an absorbent and rigid painting surface are
critical. If painting with an existing photo the paper must
be absorbent paper. Apply wax medium to photo and apply to
painting surface. Use a heat gun to fuse the photo to the
surface. Apply 2 coats of wax to surface and fuse again.
Scribing can be done if wished to add dimension. A painting
can be done with colored wax. The wax painting will repel
dust and can be polished to add shine. Care must be taken as
the painting can be dented and scratched. Neranza also talked
about dipping water balloons in melted wax to make bowls which
can also be painted.
Daniel Schellenberger discussed
triangulating a wide colony by attracting the bees with sugar
water and then marking them with water colored paint to
determine the approx. distance of the hive and the beeline.
He repeated this along the beeline to reduce the distance to
the hive and to help determine the hive direction. By doing
this from different directions he was able to approximate the
location of the wild colony. He found this method on the web
from a CA eradication process. Swarm traps need to be placed
between 400 & 500 yards from the colony. In this area bees
usually swarm between March 21 and Easter.
We then had a meal of fried
fish, hush puppies, deep fried onion rings and various side
dishes and desert. The meal was thoroughly enjoyed by all.
Some members then went with OJ
to inspect lime trays.
Those present were: OJ and Lucy
Blount, Gary and Vicky Barrow, Karen Brock, Sharon Campbell,
Joe Blount, Don Helton, John Kilmer, Jimmie Palmer, John
Sansom, Daniel, Allison and Nathan Schellenberger, Neranza
Blount, Don Sobczak, Jimmie Winters, Don and Carole Hamilton,
Wayne Miller, Paul Watson, Bill and Kathy Blankenship, Leslie
Watson, Jimmy Palmer, Tammy Chaffee, Gary Smith, Charles and
Jacque Stone, Roy & Joy Wiggins, Jay Wigiam, Randy Shaffer and
Herb Jasper.
Our next meeting will be 3/28.
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