Smoker Signals Coming this month…
Volume 1, Number 9
October 2011
COBA Board Meeting October 10, 2011 at 7:00 pm Rothenbuhler Bee Lab, OSU Waterman Farms, 2501 Carmack Rd Columbus, OH 43210
President’s Corner: Preparing for Winter
All members are invited to attend.
Winter is not far off and I was reminded the other day that Christmas is only 90 days away. March is approximately 150 days away. There is still time to take some measures to help your bees through the winter. Beekeepers need to help bees short of food to store enough to make it through the winter. The standard fall practices are also all important to help your bees survive through the winter: 1) provide a good wind break, 2) slope the bottom board to the front of the hive for rain and melted snow from running into the hive, 3) provide for good upper ventilation, 4) make sure your queen is strong and healthy (has laid a good brood pattern and has produced a good number of young bees to carry the hive thru the winter), 5) make sure that winter stores are equal to 60 lbs of honey, and 6) don’t forget those mouse guards. Mice love the dry interior of bee hives during cold weather. (continued on page 2)
COBA All members Meeting, Wednesday October 19, 6:15 p.m, Franklin Park Conservatory . Elections and Bee Dollar Auction
contributed by Dana Stahlman
Some of you may feel as if the honey bee season is over, but I am sure we will have a few days in October to enjoy visiting with our bees. If you were unable to attend our bee yard meetings during September, you missed a lot. Chris Warren and Dwight Wells shared many ideas on how to overwinter bees.
Annual COBA Bee Dollar Auction
Inside this issue:
Presidents Corner (cont.)
2
Jim Tew retirement party
3
Fall Banquet
4
OSBA meeting notice
4
Don’t miss our All Members Meeting on Wednesday, October 19, 2011, at 6:15 pm at the Franklin Park Conservatory. Elections for the Board of Trustees will be held. (There are three positions open.) And we will have our…..
Annual Bee Dollar Auction will occur after the Election and Business Meeting is concluded This is one highlight of our Beekeeping Year. We hope to see everyone there.
Help Those In Need: Honey Donations Requested to Help Stock Our Local Food Pantries Your generosity is greatly appreciated, more than you will ever know. We have the opportunity to donate our Local Honey to our Local Food Pantry. There will be a collection box for the honey at our COBA general meeting on Wednesday, October 19. If you’d like to participate, bring honey to donate, from one bottle up to as many as you want to give. The food pantry would like the honey to be bottled, and will accept any ’retail’ size bottle. Please label the bottles, including a notice that it is local honey.
Please be generous. The winter is going to be long and hard. Let’s use our honey to aid those who desperately need our help. Thank you for your support.
Page 2
Check out the new flavor of Velvet Ice Cream, Honey Caramel.
The carton features a picture of our COBA Treasurer, Barry Conrad.
Smoker
President’s Corner (continued) Management Techniques on the Web Site, contributed by Master Beekeeper Class: Check the COBA web site periodically, because I am going to ask the individuals involved in the Master Beekeepers class to contribute information about management techniques to our Web Site. It is important for our prospective Master Beekeeper to share their knowledge with other beekeepers. All of us benefit from the expertise of our group members. My vision for COBA is that it will provide its members with advanced beekeeping education, and will set an example of beekeeping education for other clubs. Beginning bee school is not enough. It gets you started. Learning continues long after those beginning classes are over. Upcoming Elections: Elections for members of the board of trustees are coming up. I am not endorsing any member for any of the three positions available. COBA is blessed with having three great trustees and the individuals who indicated a desire to also serve on the board would make excellent trustees as well. This is what makes an organization like COBA strong. Leadership is developed over a period of time and any member is eligible to run for any office. Our constitution calls for all offices to be two year terms. Because this constitution was passed by the COBA membership last year, the current trustees up for election had only a one year term. The three highest vote getters at the October 19th meeting will serve two year terms. Officers of COBA and three trustees will be elected for two year terms in the 2012 Fall meeting. Award-Worthy Beekeepers: I will be awarding four COBA members with the monthly “President’s Award” in October. At our November meeting, which will be the Fall Banquet, the 2011 COBA Beekeeper of the Year will be announced. I do not want to detract from that special award. This year’s award winners so far include: January - Carmen Conrad, February – Barb Bloetscher, March – Gertrude Rasor, April – Susan Hamrick, May – John Carmony, June – Dan Wampler, July – Mike Jones, August – Dwight Wells, September – surprise, October – surprise, November – surprise, December – surprise. It has never been a hard job to find someone to recognize. The real problem is how to recognize all those COBA members who are making contributions. If I am overlooking anyone that you feel should be recognized, please let me know. I have avoided providing awards to COBA officers because they are elected to do a job for COBA, and I plan on continuing this practice in the future.
Volume 1, Number 9
Page 3
You Are Invited to the….. Retirement Party for Jim Tew & Sherry Ferrell When : Sunday, October 23, 1:00 – 4:00 pm Where: The A. I. Root Conference Room, 623 W. Liberty Street, Medina, OH What: Munchies, drinks, cake, a little music, some historic photos (Imagine Jim in a polyester leisure suit) To Do: Come and visit, mix and mingle, visit with Jim, Sherry, beekeepers, friends and anybody connected with the beekeeping community in Ohio for a few hours. And bring your Jim and Sherry Stories to share for the Open Mike, all afternoon! Cost: FREE!!! RSVP: Please, so we have an idea of how much munchies, drinks and cake to provide. PLEASE contact Kim Flottum by Oct 15 at: Kim.Flottum@gmail.com. Let him know how many will be arriving in your car, from your association or just you.
SPONSORED BY BEE CULTURE MAGAZINE PUBLISHED BY THE A. I. ROOT COMPANY.
COBA Officers President Dana Stahlman stahlmanapiaries@aol.com Vice President Terry Eddy facilitymanagementsupport@ hotmail.com Secretary Gail Walter gailwalter@columbus.rr.com Treasurer Barry Conrad barry@hiveandhoney.com One-Year Trustees Pat Chamberlain jimpat28@sbcglobal.net Mike Hatter mike.hatter@yahoo.com Joy Voorhees voorhees3@ameritech.net Two-Year Trustees Nina Bagley ninabagley@me.com John George jkgeorge1@roadrunner.com Dan Wampler poppawamp@hotmail.com
Fall Banquet for COBA Hold the Date: The Fall Banquet for COBA will be held on Wednesday, November 16, 2011, at 6:00 pm at Der Dutchman. We hope that all our members of COBA can attend. Please look for further information about the banquet on the Web Site.
OSBA Fall Conference Agenda Ohio Department of Agriculture
Saturday, November 5, 2011
8995 East Main St.
8:00 to 3:30
Reynoldsburg, OHIO
Cost: $10.00 members; $20 nonmembers
8:00 to 9:00 registration and coffee 9:00 Welcome and Election of Officers 9:30 Dana Stahlman, Beekeepers Hall of Fame Announcements 10:00 Keynote, Dr. James Tew 11:00 Break out session 11:45 to 1:00 lunch (can be purchased on site for $8.00) 1:00 Break out session 1:45 Chance to visit vendors 2:00 Break out session 3:00 Closing Remarks and Election results
COBA is one of the sponsors of this conference and we would like a good turnout of COBA members.