Smoker Signals Coming this month… COBA Board Meeting February 13, at 7:00 pm Rothenbuhler Bee Lab, OSU Waterman Farms, 2501 Carmack Rd Columbus, OH 43210 All members are invited to attend. COBA All members Meeting, Wednesday February 15, 6:15 pm, Franklin Park Conservatory . Presentation at 7:00 pm by Ron Hoops, Topic: Early Spring Management
Inside this issue:
Volume 2, Number 2
February 2012
Upcoming Member’s Meeting February 15, 2012 The COBA Members meeting will be held on Wednesday, February 15, 2012 at 6:15 p.m. at the Franklin Park Conservatory. The roundtable discussion, led by Dwight Wells, begins at 6:15. At 7:00, Ron Hoopes, Ohio State Beekeeper Association Beekeeper of the year in 2011, will present on Early Spring Bee management. Members who have not yet paid 2012 COBA dues (still $10) are asked to bring cash or check to the meeting.
Wooster Tri-County Beekeepers Worshop Contributed by Susan Valentine-Cooper
Tri-County Beekeepers' Association Inc., 2012 Spring Beekeeping Workshop will be held on Friday evening, March 2, and all day Saturday, March 3, 2012 in Wooster, Ohio. This workshop is packed with useful information about all aspects of beekeeping—everything from what the new beekeeper needs to the latest information that a well-seasoned beekeeper expects. The speakers are hand picked to bring you the information that you expect from a conference that draws from five states and two countries. There is less than a month remaining before the TCBA Spring Workshop, but February 18th is the last day to pre-register. So please don’t wait—register today. Wooster is the largest one-day beekeeping seminar in the United States with 985 attendees last year! Register directly NOW at http://www.tricountybeekeepers.org/ -OR-
Honey Bee Trivia
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Tri-County 3 Workshop New Features of the 2012 conference Community Education Committee
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Board members 4
Plan to attend with your fellow COBA members on our bus trip to the conference on Saturday, March 3. Contact Sue Valentine-Cooper, your official bus trip coordinator, at svc@nwcs.com, or call 614-596-3600 and sign up for the COBA Bus Trip! For a $70.00 all-inclusive fee, you will be pre-registered for the conference at the Tri-County discount rate. You will be driven to the workshop and back on a comfortable charter bus, and your hot lunch will be provided at the conference. There will be snacks and drinks on the bus, which also has restroom facilities. The bus has plenty of room for any purchases you make at the conference. We guarantee more bee talk on the bus than there is inside a hive! We leave from Gahanna, Ohio at 6:15 AM sharp on Saturday March 3, and return after the last session ends - usually arrive back to parking around 7:00PM. Your vehicle will be secure in a fenced parking lot while we are away. The deadline for registering for the bus trip has been extended to Feb 16th. Please bring your check (payable to COBA) to Susan at the Feb 15th COBA Members meeting, or mail your check to: Susan Valentine-Cooper, 2653 Northwest Blvd, Columbus, OH 43221. I need to RECEIVE your check by the 16th so we can confirm the bus and pay Tri-County. Questions? Call or email me at svc@nwcs.com, or call 614-596-3600. We've recently had a few cancellations so If we don't have enough riders to cover the cost of the bus, we will return your check. If we get enough riders to hire the bus, there may be a limited number of late registration seats available, however, the cost will be $85 for late registration. See you in Wooster!!
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Honey Bee Trivia
Smoker contributed by Dan Wampler
Contributed by Dan Wampler
For information about bee biology, the following website is excellent. While it pertains to bumblebees, much of the information is also relevant to honey bees: http://www.bumblebee.org. The book The Buzz about Bees by Jurgen Tautz is great reading. While it doesn’t talk about how to keep bees, it provides excellent insight into many aspects of the honey bee’s life. Scientific name: Apis mellifera Castes in colony: 3 (queen, worker and drone) Eggs laid in a day: 1,500-2,000 Size of eggs: 1/16 inch (1.6 mm) Egg to adult queen: 16 days Egg to adult worker: 21 days Egg to adult drone: 24 days Drone cell size: 4 per lineal inch of comb Worker cell size: 5 per lineal inch of comb Size of adult worker: 1/2 inch (1.2cm) Size of adult queen: 3/4 inch (1.5 times a worker) Temp of hive: 93-95 degrees Fahrenheit Temp of winter cluster: 85 degrees Fahrenheit Bees per colony: 45,000–70,000 Bees per pound: 4,000-6,000 Lifespan of queen: up to 5 years Lifespan of drone: 3 months or unit mated Lifespan on worker (summer): 45 days Lifespan of worker (winter): 4 to 6 months Flight speed: 12 mph Wing beat: 400-500 cycles/second Visits to fill honey stomach: 1,000 flowers Weight of 1 gallon of honey: 12 pounds One cell of honey represents: life’s work of 60 bees Nectar required for 1 lb. of honey: 10 pounds Distance flown for 1 lb of honey: 55,000 miles Honey required to make 1 lb. of beeswax: 10 pounds Pollen gathered per hive per year: 66 pounds Water vapor produced from consuming 10 lbs of honey: 1 gal
Volume 1, Number 9
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Changes to Wooster Tri-County Conference This Year The annual Tri-County Annual Spring Beekeeping Workshop in Wooster begins on the evening of March 2nd, and ends in the late afternoon of March 3, 2012, at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, 1680 Madison Ave., Wooster, Ohio 44691. The Tri-County Beekeeper’s Association is proud to host what is believed to be the largest one day beekeeping workshop in the United States. We had 989 attendees at the 2011 workshop and plans are well underway for making 2012’s the largest and best ever. The following is a brief preview of a few changes in the workshop this year. More details are available on the Tri-County website of http:// www.tricountybeekeepers.org/Spring_Worshop_5LEI.html. One change is in the hosting of the workshop itself. Dr. James E. Tew and Sherry Ferrell, of the OSU Extension Services, both retired from OSU Extension this summer and are no longer involved in planning the Workshop. Ohio beekeepers join together in wishing them great enjoyment as they open new chapters in their lives. With their departure, other Tri-County members have increased their involvement to plan the workshop. In response to feedback by those attending last year, there will be an increased number of choices of breakout sessions this year. Instead of a morning keynote address, an additional morning round of breakout sessions has been added. This will hopefully allow you to tailor your workshop experience to better fit your needs by providing a larger selection of topics to choose from. This year we will give attendees the option of pre-registering on-line via a secure website. This will make it more convenient, safe and accurate to pre-register. You won’t have to mail the form, check or credit card information to us. This will also greatly reduce the labor involved in keeping track of all the registrations. We will still give you the old-fashioned way of mailing in the form, but we really hope that everyone will consider the on-line option. A new attraction this year is the new OSU Pollinatorium which will be available for tours. This new facility exhibits information about the various pollinators in nature; of course, this includes our favorite pollinator. It is nearby on the campus and can be found by following the signage provided. And finally, this is not a change, but don’t miss the opportunity to meet with all the local and many national equipment vendors at the workshop. If you place an order over the phone, a few weeks before the workshop, many vendors will bring the order to the meeting for free, saving you on shipping costs. Thanks to COBA member Dan Wampler for providing this information.
Community Education Committee Report Contributed by Dan Wampler
There are 14 members on the Community Education Committee, and 25 members have indicated they are willing to respond to a request for a speaker. Many thanks to these COBA volunteers who are getting the word out to the public about the importance of bees and beekeeping. The community education Committee responded to numerous requests for speakers in 2011, many of which came about through personal contacts with COBA members. Our speakers earned bee dollars for their efforts, provided that they reported their presentation. This is a reminder that bee dollars are given to any member who gives or assists with a presentation, talk, demonstration, etc. There is one bee dollar earned per hour of time spent, including preparation, travel, presentation, and clean-up time. Training aids will be listed on the COBA web site along with the power point presentations now available for use. Sign up today and join the 25 speakers on our list. We need speakers available for daytime talks. Typical audiences include preschools and schools, senior centers and groups, libraries, home schooling groups, garden clubs, etc. Please contact Dan Wampler if interested: poppawamp@hotmail.com
COBA Officers President Terry Eddy facilitymanagementsupport@ hotmail.com Vice President [vacant] Past President Dana Stahlman stahlmanapiaries@aol.com Secretary Gail Walter gailwalter@columbus.rr.com Treasurer Barry Conrad barry@hiveandhoney.com Trustees through 2012 Nina Bagley ninabagley@me.com John George jkgeorge1@roadrunner.com Dan Wampler poppawamp@hotmail.com Trustees through 2013 Scott Taylor scott@beehavenacres.com Rod Pritchard rpritchard@coaaa.org Dwight Wells dwells85@woh.rr.com
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