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THE CARROLL BEE February 2012 |
PRESIDENT RICH BOGER’S MESSAGE
It is time to renew your membership to the Carroll County Beekeepers Association if you have not done so yet. The annual membership fee is $15.00 and the lifetime membership fee is $150.00. I also want to remind you that you must register your honeybees with the Maryland State Department of Agriculture – it’s as easy as filling out a registration form and mailing it in. If you need a form, let me know. I’ll see that you get one.
The Education Committee met on Saturday, January 28th, to organize the Beekeeping Basics Spring Short Course. We’ve got the class schedule and most of the instructors chosen; however, there are still a couple of spots to be filled. (Teaching others is an opportunity for you to learn, as well, so please consider helping out.) The openings left to fill are on Wednesday, March 14th, Fall and Winter Management (50 minutes) and Wednesday, March 21st, Apiary Location (15 to 20 minutes).
The Short Course Field Day is scheduled for Saturday, March 10th, from 9 a.m. to 12 noon. We need helpers for the honey extraction demo and equipment assembly.
Short Course fliers will be available at the February meeting. If you know anyone interested in the course or in beekeeping, plan to pick one up for them. Or if you know a place that would let you post one, take one. The course is right around the corner, so start spreading the word!
I would like to see all CCBA involved in CCBA activities throughout the year. A great way to be involved is by serving on a committee. There will be committee sign-up sheets at the February meeting. Please look over the duties of the different committees and sign up for those committees that appeal to you.
Roxane Papagiannopoulos has stepped down as CCBA secretary. Her business is doing very well and consuming much of her time. I want to thank her for a job well done. I will miss her as secretary. This leaves the CCBA secretary position open; nominations will be accepted and an election will take place at the February meeting.
Come join us at our meetings at Bear Branch Nature Center at 7:30 p.m. on the 3rd Wednesday of the month. Our February speaker will be Master Beekeeper Allen Hayes, who will speak on Spring Management.
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February 15h MEETING AGENDA
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WHAT SHOULD I BE DOING WITH MY BEES? Winter is still here, but we have had plenty of nice days. This winter you should have had the opportunity to take a look in your hives to see how the bees are doing. The cluster should be near or at the top of the upper frames. Inspect to see if the frames next to the cluster have any honey stores – if not, you can move any frames with honey next to the cluster. If all honey stores are used up, you need to emergency feed with sugar directly on the top of the frames or use fondant. When the nights begin staying in the mid to upper forties, you can start to feed 2:1 sugar syrup. Once the nights stay in the fifties, you can switch to 1:1 sugar syrup. Once you start feeding, you must continue feeding until the bees are able to bring in their own pollen and nectar. Check the entrance to be sure dead bees are not blocking it; keep their entrance clear. Get your equipment ready for spring. I hope we have an early spring that is not too wet. If so, you will probably have to feed. Keep your eyes open for sugar sales. If we have an early spring, and your bees over-wintered well, get ready for a population explosion. Don’t wait until the last minute – be prepared. Be sure to come to the February meeting to hear Allen Hayes speak on Spring Management. |
Rich Boger
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January 2012 CCBA Meeting Notes The January meeting promised honey tasting and a lecture on bee-friendly plants, so it was well attended. New business consisted of Rich Boger asking if anyone was interested in becoming the CCBA secretary. Roxanne’s business success has left too little time for her to both run her business and be the CCBA secretary. The scheduled speaker on bee-friendly plants was unable to attend; however, we were pleasantly surprised when one of our visitors volunteered to provide an extemporaneous presentation. Ms. Felica Chapline, horticulturist and Master Gardener as well as the Residence Gardener for the Ambassador’s estate in Washington, D.C., took the floor. She recommended the Bee-Bee Tree (Tetradium danielii), also known as Chinese Evodia, as an ideal nectar source for bees as it blooms in late July and August, just as the main nectar sources in Carroll County are dwindling. Ms. Chapline described Chinese Evodia as growing like an azalea with soft wood that, with shearing, will become bushy. More importantly, bees love the blossoms. Chinese Evodia is not native to the US, but it is considered non-invasive due to the way the seeds must be germinated. Evodia seedlings may be available locally. Another recommended plant was Phalecia (Phacelia dubia), which is a native that blooms in August and is bee-friendly. Phalecia grows like a grass, is about nine inches tall and seeds are available from Shumway Gardens in Pennsylvania. Ms. Chapline also gave us a quick lecture on spraying blossoms to protect the pollen and cautioned beekeepers to never use Sevin dust. We greatly appreciated Felica’s interesting and informative off-the-cuff presentation. The rest of the evening was sampling honey from four of our beekeepers: Rich Boger, Allen Hayes, Lori Titus and Jim Arnold. A lot of honey was sold, as well. (My wife came home with a jar of delicious soybean honey.) Alan Hayes had several distinctive honeys to taste and was kept busy explaining how a beekeeper determines the kind of honey that is in the hive. The Spring Short Course will begin at the end of February, and as part of the course we will have a panel discussion featuring some of our new beekeepers. If you would like to share your experiences and answer questions from class participants on the evening of Wednesday, March 28, please contact Rich Boger, Kristi Denning or Jim Arnold. Another good CCBA meeting! Fred Sypher
CCBA Joins Grassroots Efforts to Protect Maryland Honey When we backyard beekeepers speak of honey, we mean, well, honey—that tasty amber stuff produced by honeybees. Buy honey from us, and you’re buying honey straight from the bees. But in the market at large, a jar labeled “honey” may be funny-honey, a mixture of honey and . . . something else. Because of this threat to the honey market, Maryland beekeepers spent the morning of February 2nd in Annapolis discussing honey and beekeeping with state legislators, urging them to support the bill entitled “Maryland Standard of Identity for Honey,” which was introduced by Delegate Kathy Afzali (District 4A). There are twenty-eight delegates now sponsoring the bill and the Maryland State Beekeepers Association (MSBA) is optimistic that it will pass, helped in no small part by the MSBA’s well-planned and well-executed grass roots lobbying session. Several beekeeping organizations from around Maryland set up displays in the House of Delegates building where, for three hours, we welcomed legislators, staff, and visitors, briefed them on the importance of bees and beekeepers to Maryland agriculture and encouraged the legislators to support the bill, the purpose of which is to establish a standard which clearly defines what may be labeled as honey. If a food product does not conform to the standard, it must be clearly labeled as to what it contains. Steve McDaniel, Alan Hayes and I established ourselves as “Guard Bees” at the door, where we greeted visitors, handed them information and quickly explained our mission and the purpose of the bill (Steve kept trying to extract a $50 entrance fee but was unsuccessful). We then encouraged them to talk with our experts, look at the displays, sample the honey and enjoy the baked goods. It was gratifying to hear so many visitors tell us of a relative or friend who keeps or used to keep bees. Everyone who came in was interested and encouraging. There was a lot of “button-holing” going on and Representative Kathy Afzali worked the room tirelessly. It was a great example of how concerned citizens can participate in and influence the legislative process, and Carroll County beekeepers were in the middle of the action. Fred Sypher |
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Please consider mentoring new beekeepers from the Short Course whether you started keeping bees recently or many years ago. You are a valuable asset to the club, and to new beekeepers, and we’d like you to help them as they start their own beekeeping adventure. Those of you with less experience can tap into the knowledge and experience of older CCBA members as you mentor the newer people – a win-win situation for everyone! Sign up as a mentor at the meeting, or call Rich Boger at 410-970-1455/e-mail Chris Gunther at cgunther1@comcast.net. |
The magazine Bee Culture is now available at the Carroll County Public library: http://library.carr.org/
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To help keep costs down, and keep The Carroll Bee green, please sign up for e-mail delivery of the newsletter. Also, please share your beekeeping experiences with the club by submitting articles each month to Stella Fouts at mfouts@carr.org. Contact Rich Boger at 410-970-1455. Upcoming CCBA events can be viewed at http://thecarrollbee.org/2011/04/14/2011-ccba-events/. Sign up to help out with one or more of the events by contacting Events Chairman Brad Criddle at bradsbees@comcast.net or 410-751-9220. |
EVENTS
UPCOMING EVENTS
February 15th 7:30 p.m. CCBA general meeting at Bear Branch Nature Center. Master Beekeeper Allen Hayes will speak on Spring Management. We plan to nominate and elect a new secretary. There will also be sign-up sheets at the meeting for those people interested in serving on any of the 2012 Committees.
February 18th 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. MSBA Winter Meeting at Howard county Fair Grounds will feature Dr. Dennis vanEngelsdorp, who recently joined UMD and would like to connect with Maryland beekeepers. This meeting is open to the general public.
February 22nd 7:00 p.m. Eldersburg library . Master Beekeeper Allen Hayes to present To Beekeep, or Not to Beekeep: That is the Question.
CCBA Committee Tasks
Education Committee
- Educate the public about the importance of honeybees to our food production.
- Provide information to the editor of The Carroll Bee, the CCBA’s website manager and the Public Relations Chairman.
- Organize the spring and fall Short Course.
- Assure that there is a place with necessary materials and equipment for the spring and fall short courses.
- Select instructors and speakers for the short courses.
- Select educational material for the short courses.
Public Relations Committee
- Encourage people to become beekeepers.
- Explore ways to increase membership.
- Keep the CCBA website up-to-date.
- Provide information to the editor of The Carroll Bee.
- Advertise CCBA events.
- Create and distribute fliers.
Mentorship Committee
- Educate beekeepers in the sound methods and practices of beekeeping.
- Assist new beekeepers to get their private apiaries underway.
- Find and coordinate members who want to be mentors.
- Ensure that anyone who wants a mentor has one.
- Coordinate Bear Branch Apiary for use by mentors and the Scientific Committee.
- Find volunteers for Bear Branch’s Meet the Beekeeper.
- Write articles for publication in The Carroll Bee.
- Provide information about open hive demonstrations to the editor of The Carroll Bee, the CCBA website manager, the Events chairman and the Public Relations chairman.
Scientific Committee
- Keep CCBA members informed of new methods of successful beekeeping.
- Find members willing to make hives available for research.
- Try different methods of integrated pest management and keep data.
- Write articles for publication in The Carroll Bee.
- Keep data of flower blooms around the county.
- Provide information to the editor of The Carroll Bee, the CCBA website manager, the Events chairman and the Public Relations chairman.
Events Committee
- Promote the use of honey and other bee products or activities for which honey bees are by nature capable.
- Coordinate the CCBA Bear Branch Honey Festival, Westminster Fall Fest and the Carroll County 4-H Fair.
- Research other events in which CCBA can participate.
- Coordinate volunteer staffing of events.
- 5. Provide information to the editor of The Carroll Bee, the CCBA website manager and the Public Relations chairman.
Fundraiser Committee
- Explore ways of fundraising.
- Raise funds.
- Coordinate fundraisers with the Events chairman.
- Provide information to the editor of The Carroll Bee, the CCBA website manager and the Public Relations chairman.
Correction In the November issue, I wrote that Steve McDaniel was especially emphatic about entering honey products at the Frederick County Fair next September. That was incorrect. Bill Troup was the person who encouraged us to enter the Frederick County Fair next September. Also, I erroneously wrote that CCBA won the “Best Club Showing” at the Maryland State Fair. That was incorrect. CCBA won “Best Club Showing” at the Maryland State Beekeepers Association annual honey show, not the State Fair. I regret the errors. ~ Fred Sypher
In light of all the evils honeybees face these days—tracheal mites, varroa mites, colony collapse disorder and more—gardeners can significantly help out by planting flowers and trees whose pollen and nectar nourish bees. Here are some good choices, loosely categorized by type.
- Flowers Aster, blanket flower, blue mist, California poppy, Cape mallow, catmint, coreopsis, cosmos, dusty miller, species geraniums, globe thistle, goldenrod, honeysuckle, licorice mint, mallow, marigold, penstemon, single and semidouble roses, Russian sage, and sea holly.
Herbs Basil, borage, chives, garlic chives, lavender, mint, rosemary, sage, thyme.
Vegetables Bean, cucumber, eggplant, melon, pepper, squash, sunflower, tomato.
Trees Consider planting a tree that flowers. One Linden tree or Tulip Poplar tree will provide more nectar than a half-acre of the plants listed above. For the most part, honeybees make their living from spring tree blooms.
According to University of California research, gardens with 10 or more species of attractive plants draw the largest number of bees. And plants that attract honeybees also feed native bees, butterflies and sometimes hummingbirds. Finally, it goes without saying that bee gardens should be kept free of pesticides.
Snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis) Celebrated as a sign of spring, snowdrops can form impressive carpets of white in areas where they are native or have been naturalised. Snowdrops also herald the first honeybees leaving their cluster to go forth and gather nectar, which means spring can’t be far behind. (Picture taken February 7, 2012.)
The American Bee Journal is now on the magazine rack at the Westminster branch of the Carroll County Public Library. The current copy must remain at the branch, but previous copies may be checked out.
Stella Fouts, editor
CCBA 2011 BOARD OF DIRECTORS
President Rich Boger beebeyond@rock.com
Vice President Fred Sypher frsy4@starpower.net
Past President Chris Gunter cgunther1@comcast.net
Treasurer Jody King kingbees@starpower.net
Secretary
The Carroll Bee editor Stella Fouts mfouts@carr.org
