Member introductions were made.

Gary called the meeting to order.

Karen read the minutes from the May meeting.

Treasury report:  As of 5/29/15 bank balance was $814.93.

Old business:

Seed from Tractor supply did not germinate very well.

Kids Day Camp in Opp was attended by 65 kids.  They were broken up into 2 groups.  The kids were very attentive and ask a lot of questions.  They wanted to extract some honey and were fascinated by the bees. 

New business:

Bee escapes were discussed.  Standard escape takes about 3 days for bees to be out of the super.  OJ showed his new escape on a stand with mesh below that allows bees to escape.  When supers are removed keep inside with the top and bottom covered until the honey is extracted.

Ways for Randy to remove a swarm from a hunting platform were discussed.

Waxed can be cleaned by filtering thru t-shirt fabric twice.

Do not refrigerate honey.  Freeze capped honey to destroy any pest larvae.  A gallon of honey weighs approx. 12 lbs.  The varying prices for honey were discussed.

WCNI in Andalusia wants someone to do a beekeeping spot on the radio. Gary will contact.

Karen read from the Stinger the details of the AL Beekeepers Annual meeting. Karen was asked to send e-mails with meeting details.

Terry discussed how he got his bees thru the Al adult beekeepers program.  We have not heard if it will be offered again this year.

It was noted that hive bodies can be dipped in wax instead of painting.

OJ discussed the splits that he made.  He put in hive bodies with top bars and no supers so that the bees would concentrate on drawing comb.  He has windows in the back to check progress.  He is now using 1/8” hardware cloth instead of the 5/32” screen.

Queen excluders will help prevent bees from propalize the screen on the inner covers.

Honey label requirements were questioned.   Vicky will obtain the info.

We then had a meal of bar-b-qued ribs, various side dishes and desert. 

Those present were: OJ and Lucy Blount, Gary and Vicky Barrow, Karen Brock, Sharon Campbell, John Kilmer, Terry Pickard, Dirk Price, Randy Shaffer, and Jimmie Winters.

Our next meeting will be 7/25.