Executive Committee Meeting

Review of by-laws was postponed until April’s meeting. Please bring suggestions for revision.

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 4^th grade.  We need to bring before the club for discussion.

It was decided that OJ would do a presentation on forage plants for bees for the April meeting.  He will also do a beginner beekeeper presentation.  Lucy will publish a list of the plants to be covered.

Honey extracting was tentatively scheduled for the topic for the May meeting.

Vicky talked to chuck Simon and was told that the workshop in FL had already occurred.  He would have hosted the workshop if he had any interest.  We need to contact him early 2016 for future workshops.

No new info on the grants for new beekeepers from the state.

Karen will find info on the bee college in Gainesville, FL.

Gary to e-mail to Karen info on a bee equipment supplier in Crestview.

Attendees: Vicky and Gary Barrow, Lucy and OJ Blount, Karen Brock and Don Helton.

Members Meeting

Lucy opened the meeting with prayer.

Member introductions were made.

Gary announced that he and Vicky are doing bee rescue and had bees for sale.

Karen read the minutes from the previous meeting.

Treasury report:  As of 3/28/15 bank balance was $721.93.

Old business:

Jimmie Winters recommend vented bee suits.  Mann Lake still has sale ongoing. Check catalogs for info.

Randy Shaffer would look into creating a facebook page for QCBA.

We need to submit events and activities for our club to be published in the Stinger.  Need to check deadlines.

South AL Beekeepers Association workshop and Field Day was March 21.  Don Helton and Jimmie Winters found the presentations informative especially about queen rearing, the life cycle of the honeybee and different types of honey.  Lucy and OJ were to speak but left due to others running over time.

New business:

Don Helton talked about using old comb to help catch swarms in a bait hive.

Jimmie Winters stated that bees live in a world of heightened smell; many times what humans smell.

Gary said that bait hives need to be checked for wax moths and that plastic foundation was not as attractive to wax moths.

Lucy distributed the calendar of events to attndees who had not already received one.

We then watched a YouTube video from the NW New Jersey Beekeepers Association of a swarm capture from a tree.  The bees are not aggressive as they do not have a hive to defend and they are full of honey and cannot bend to sting.  Bees do a dance if they have found a location for a new hive.  The queen is in the center of the swarm surrounded by the rest of the bees – usually about half of the old colony but can be up to 2/3 of the colony.  There can be more than 1 queen in the swarm.  Spray the swarm and frames with sugar water.  Add the frames to the box right away.  The queen is usually in the box if the bees start to march into the box.  Bees not captured in the new box will go back to the old hive.

Web site address for NWNJBA is http://nwba.njbeekeepers.org/   Check YouTube under NWNJBA.

Next we watch a JPtheBeeman YouTube video of a swarm retrieval on a car bumper.  While he is moving the bees into a box he is constantly looking for the queen.  If you are lucky enough to find her put her in a queen catcher and place it in the box between frames to attract the bees into the box.  Check YouTube under JPthebeeman.

Gary then showed another JPthebeeman video that showed a trap out from a tree using screen to make a funnel for the bees to get out but not be able to get back in the hive.  This is generally to remove a hive only as you usually do not get the queen to come out.  For a trap out you must add eggs or queen cells for the colony to survive.

Jimmie said that he generally catches his swarms in a tree and you can position the box below the limb, cut the limb and lower into the box.

We then discussed Nathaniel Millender and Chuck Taylor’s hive that had moved into a chicken incubator.  The hive has been there for about 5 years.  They want to use it as a breeding hive and catch the swarms.  We told them to use a box with food grade lemon grass extract to attract the swarm.

When moving a captured swarm, close up in the box for 2 days, feed, move the box to where you want it to be. Do not place in the sun.

We then had a meal of fried fish and chicken, hush puppies, French fries, various side dishes and desert. 

Those present were: OJ and Lucy Blount, Gary and Vicky Barrow, Karen Brock, Joe Blount, Don Helton, John Kilmer, Jimmy Palmer, Daniel Schellenberger, Jimmie Winters, Gary Smith, Linda Mellown, Nathaniel Millender and Chuck Taylor.

Our next meeting will be 4/25.