Smoker Signals Coming this month… COBA Board Meeting September 12 2011 at 7:00 pm Rothenbuler Lab, OSU Waterman Farms, 2501 Carmack Rd Columbus, OH 43210 All members are invited to attend. COBA All members Meeting, jointly with EAST COBA, Thursday September 15, 2011, at Jacksontown Methodist Church
Inside this issue:
Volume 1, Number 8
September 2011
President’s Corner: Political Action to Help Bees Contributed by Dana Stahlman
Don’t forget this month is National Honey Month. Share your thoughts regarding honey and honey bees with your friends and neighbors. I was invited by Dan Wampler as his guest to the Fairfield County "State of the County's Agriculture" Breakfast. What a great way to begin September! This is what “political action” is all about. This event was hosted by Fairfield County Farm Bureau, Fairfield Soil and Water Conservation District, Lancaster/Fairfield Chamber of Commerce and the Ohio State University Extension. COBA represents Central Ohio and I am sure there are counties adjacent to Franklin County that do similar things. If you are aware of any such events, please contact either Sue Daly or myself. It is a great opportunity to meet those individuals who have a direct effect on how beekeepers and their honey bees are viewed by the agriculture community and political leaders. I have found that COBA has a number of individuals with important contacts with some very influential people. For example, in August I was personally introduced to Mayor Michael Coleman of Columbus and today was introduced to several Fairfield county elected officials, including the sheriff and two county commissioners. I was able to set up contacts with Michael Bailey from the Ohio Department of Agriculture and Travis Markwood, president of the Lancaster/Fairfield Chamber of Commerce.
Presidents Corner (cont.)
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Also present at today’s meeting was Steve Hirsh (the president of the Ohio Farm Bureau), a state representative, and most of the Fairfield County political office holders and staff members. We were able to let these people know that we were beekeepers and we wanted to work with them. How many times do we as beekeepers let “political action” opportunities like this get by us?
Getting Bees Ready for Winter
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continued on page 2
September COBA Members Meeting The September COBA members meeting will be held on Thursday, September 15, 2011, jointly with EAST COBA, at 6:30. Location: East Central Ohio Beekeepers Association, Jacksontown Methodist Church 9350 Jacksontown Road, 43030. This is a different date and location than for our typical member’s meetings. Speaker: Kim Flottum, Editor of Bee Culture Magazine Directions: take 70 East. Take exit 132, Route 13 North. Turn left at the bottom of the ramp onto Route 13. Go one mile. The United Methodist Church is on the left just before the traffic signal. Travel time and distance from the intersection of Interstate 270 and Interstate 70:
COBA Officers President Page 2 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
Smoker
President’s Corner (continued) Upcoming Elections: On another note, I am so thankful for all the hard work put forth on behalf of COBA and beekeeping this year by the many volunteers. This has been a hard year for me and I appreciate each and every one of you. Elections are coming up, and consistent with the democratic process, I would like to encourage you to run for one of the trustee positions up for election this year – not because anyone is not doing their job, but because COBA always wants to be open to new blood and new ideas. If a current trustee is not reelected, I will take advantage of their dedication and seek their wise council by adding them to the president’s advisory group. The three trustees up for election have all done a fine job. But I am not going to endorse anyone for an office either now or in the future. I have always maintained that we are family and I consider all of you friends. COBA is unique -- We do not have a good “old boys club” running our organization where new people are basically made to feel they do not have enough beekeeping experience to be a club leader. COBA is developing a number of future leaders who will and be able to take over when I step down as president or replace any officer when the time comes.
Joy Voorhees voorhees3@ameritech.net
If you want to run for one of the offices available this year, contact John Gesner at : gesnerj@ohiohealth.com to be put on the ballot.
Two-Year Trustees Nina Bagley ninabagley@me.com
Support Those In Need
John George jkgeorge1@roadrunner.com Dan Wampler poppawamp@hotmail.com
Your Opportunity to help Recently several COBA members met with a local Food Pantry and arranged a way that beekeepers can directly help people in need. The Food Pantry has agreed to accept our donations of local honey. We will have a collection box at our September and October COBA general meetings. If you’d like to participate, bring honey to donate, from one bottle up to as many as you want to give. The honey must be bottled, any ’retail’ size bottle accepted, and labeled as local honey. So 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.
Getting Hives Ready for Winter: Feeding your Bees contributed by Joy Voorhees
Tis the season to prepare for winter! Now is the time to make sure your bees have enough stores to get through the upcoming cold winter months. Your hives should weigh about 50 pounds or more. If they don’t, you need to start feeding now. Also this is a great time to feed a protein supplement to encourage brood production. The more brood now, the more bees you will have in the winter cluster, the more likely they are to make it through the winter. There are several products out there including mega bee patties (these are in short supply right now but is one of the better kinds of pollen substitutes). If you need to feed, you can feed sugar syrup at 1:1 ratio (4 # sugar to 2 qt of water) until it gets down close to freezing at night. Once the temperatures drop below freezing, you will need to feed sugar patties. You can purchase sugar (fondant) patties or make your own. If you decide to buy fondant patties, it is highly recommended to buy Dawn Fondant , part #00071746, at Corbett Bakery at 3675 Paragon Rd near Roberts Rd, (614)771-1123. Other brands of fondants tend to dry out very quickly and the bees aren’t able to use it. To make your own, the recipe is: 5 oz water, 2 Tablespoons Honey B Healthy (if you have some), 2 pounds powder sugar and 5 oz high fructose corn syrup (karo). For more information, ask one of the beekeepers at the Wednesday night Fun in the BeeYard meetings or the monthly COBA meeting.