September 2016
Nelson County Beekeepers nelsconcountybeekeepers@gmail.com
What’s The Buzz
Volume 2, Issue 9
Meeting
Our special guest for this evening’s meeting is Kevin Hale. He and his wife were with us in the spring and imparted a great deal of good information on how to achieve a spring honey harvest.
POT LUCK – SOUP COOK-OFF Officers
(sorry not chili). Don't forget the sides or those great desserts.
President-Doug Brink Vice President-David Donathan Secretary-Pat Swartz Treasurer & Editor-Susan Zhunga
GUEST ARE ALWAYS WELCOME Bring a beekeeping friend, or someone you think might like to get started. We need to spread the word.
Hospitality-Debbie Ritchie Newsletter Publisher– Georganne Collins Inside this issue:
Robbie Smith County Extension Agent for Horticulture
State Fair Winners & Volunteers
2
Meeting Minutes
3
September Beekeeping Calendar
4
Native Plant Order Form
4
Info from Tammy Horn Porter’s BeeLines'
6
Elections for 2017
7
Page 2 CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WINNERS – AND THANK YOU TO THE VOLUNTEERS Also thank you so much to Gene for organizing the volunteers that help at the Fair Honey Booth. As always a good time was had by all. Those that came and helped out were: David and April Donathan, Ricky Humphrey (need to get Another atta-boy to our 5 members who brought home ribbons in Honey – Wax – Inventions – Baked Goods. Mike Mabry - #1 Black Jar – for the best in taste. Bernie Roach - 1st Place Light Honey (1 lb Jar) Bernie Roach - 1st Place Light Honey (2 lb Jar) Gene Englert - 1st Place Amber Honey (1 lb Jar) Gene Englert - 1st Place Dark Amber Honey (2 lb Jar) Ernie Sharp - 2nd Place Light Honey (1 lb Jar) Darrell Hester - 1st Place for Bees Wax (1 lb)
you a shirt), Steve Hutchins, Dom Bounadonna, Benny and Marg Hite, Gene Englert, Susan Zhunga.
BEEKEEPING ITEMS FOR SALE If any member has beekeeping items for sale, list them in the newsletter and/or bring them to the meeting. We can do some bartering after the regular meetings are over. Good time to save some money on necessary items. David Donathan - Is selling a Kelley Bee Top Bar hive for $75. Will bring to the club meeting. Gene Englert - is selling Hive Beetle Vacuum's made to order ask for pricing. Gene also has other equipment he is looking to sell and will bring to the meeting. The Club - has NCB T-Shirts $11.00 Hooded Sweatshirts $23.00
Darrell Hester - 3rd Place for Winter Heater Box
Janet Brown - is selling NCB Hats and Visors for $10.00. The club gets $2.00 from each sale.
Gene Englert - 3rd Place for Baked Goods
Larry Marks - is selling the Marks' Frames for $12.00 for a set of three frames. Comes with instructions.
Page 3
Nelson County Beekeepers Minutes Nelson County Bee Club August 18, 2016 Attendance: ? the secretary forgot to count, sorry. Tonight’s meeting was a web-in-r by Dr. Lawrence Connor of Kalamazoo, Michigan. He has a PHD in pollinators from Michigan State and has been keeping bees since childhood. Here are some of the tips that he gave us: 1. Keep notes and photos and always make a plan 2. Location of your bee yard should be dry (in all weather) and easy to get to, in a sunny location, protected from the wind, and have access to fresh, clean water. Give the bees some salt every once in a while. 3. Hive beetles like humidity above 50%, so ventilate. 4. Bee forage needs to be diversified and free of pesticides. 5. Workers, queens and drones all have unique nutritional needs. 6. Honey should be at 18.6 or lower in moisture content. 7. The best queens are local queens. 8. Holding queens in a queen bank is bad for queens. 9. He likes Russians, VSH-Legchores ???, and Minnesota Hygienic bees. After his talk, there was a question and answer period. Doug reminded everyone that elections are coming up and we need officers, the September meeting will be a soup cook-off with no chili. Pat Swartz Secretary
Financial Statment As Of 6/30/16 Start
$2799.21
Expense
706.85
Income
631.00
Balance
$2723.36
Treasurer Report Susan Zhunga
Page 4 September Beekeeping Calendar What’s Happening Inside The Hive? Brood rearing begins to taper off and drone brood has disappeared. Often, a second honey flow comes in September. Goldenrod, JoePye Weed (Bonset), Iron Weed and Aster bloom at this time. With a good location and good weather conditions, the beekeeper can make a significant crop. Have an empty super on the hive to take advantage of this possibility. Your experience from previous years will tell you whether bees can make a late season crop in your area. Beekeeper Chores: Put those mite treatments on! Hot September weather may keep you from putting the Apicure gel packs (for varroa). Wait until daytime temperatures are regularly below 85o. Beekeepers often face a September dilemma. Another option is the Oxalic Acid Treatment, which has worked very well for most. If you wait until late September, the varroa mites may be out of control and the hive lost. The best approach is to monitor your varroa numbers through late
summer. That information will allow you to make an informed decision. The last weeks of warm weather are the time to assess which hives are ready for winter. There is still time to feed syrup to those without sufficient stored honey and to unite the weakest hives with stronger hives. Observations and Ideas: Late summer and early fall is yellow jacket season. These wasps are often confused with honey bees by non-beekeepers. If your neighbors have yellow jackets disrupting their picnics, they may blame you. Show them the differences : yellow jackets have less hair than the fuzzy bees, are slightly smaller, live underground, and are interested in many foods like meat that bees don’t care for. Yellow jacket nests die when winter comes. Only the queens survive, hibernate through the winter, and start new nests alone in spring.
Native Plants Order Form All of the plants listed on the next page are available for order through our club from the University of Kentucky Horticulture Club. This club is made up of students interested in horticulture and the money is used to fund educational trips in the U.S. and abroad.
All plants are native plants to Kentucky and most are excellent pollinator friendly plants. If you would like to order please let Robbie Smith know the name and quantity of the plants you wish to purchase via email at Robsmith@uky.edu and we will pick them up and have them available at the October meeting.
Page 5 Agastache foeniculum- Anise hyssop
$3.00
Asclepias incarnata- swamp milkweed, white form -
$3.00
Aster macrophyllus- Big leaved aster-
$3.00
Aster novae-angliae New England aster
$3.00
Coreopsis lanceolata-Lanceleaf coreopsis
$3.00
Coreopsis tripteris- Tall coreopsis
$3.00
Echinacea purpurea – Purple coneflower
$3.00
Echinacea tennesseensis- Tennessee coneflower
$3.00
Eupatorium fistulosum –Joe pye weed
$3.00
Eupatorium coelestinum-mistflower
$3.00
Lobelia siphilitica- Great blue lobelia
$3.00
Lobelia cardinalis- Cardinal flower
$3.00
Monarda fistulosa- Wild bergamot
$3.00
Penstemon digitalis –Foxglove beardtongue
$3.00
Penstemon tubaeflorus-Tube beardtongue
$3.00
Physostegia virginiana-Obedient plant
$3.00
Pycnanthemum virginianum –Mountain mint
$3.00
Pycnanthemum tenuifolium-Slender mountain mint
$3.00
Ratibida pinnata - Yellow coneflower
$3.00
Silene regia- Royal catchfly-
$3.00
Silphium perfoliatum- Cup plant -
$3.00
Solidago caesia- Bluestemmed Goldenrod
$3.00
Solidago juncea- Early Goldenrod-
$3.00
Solidago ohioensis- Ohio goldenrod
$3.00
Solidago riddellii-Riddell’s Goldenrod
$3.00
Solidago speciosa – Showy goldenrod
$3.00
Verbesina alternifolia- Wingstem
$3.00
Vernonia fasciculata- Common ironweed-
$3.00
Veronicastrum virginicum-Culver’s root
$3.00
Verbena hastata -Blue vervain
$5.00
Verbena stricta- Hoary Vervain
$3.00
Page 6 INFO FROM TAMMY HORN PORTER'S—SEPTEMBER BEELINES American and European foulbrood diagnostic kits. These kits can be bought at both Dadant & Sons and Kelley Beekeeping for about $15. Having several kits in your beekeeper “first aid kit” may save your apiary from devastating losses, as well as give you timely information. Look at the dates before you buy. This is an opportunity for our industry to work with As of January 1 2017, beekeepers will no longer be veterinarians, since quite a able to purchase antibiotics few veterinarians do not over the counter. Because of know much about bee diseases. Further, to write a the fear of bacterial resistance and over-reliance Veterinary Feed Directive, a on antibiotics, the Food and veterinarian must go to the beehive, examine bee health Drug Administration has ruled that antibiotics used to records, and check the hive. e vet cannot just phone in a treat bee diseases must be prescription. e protocol set ordered by a veterinarian through a prescription, or by by state and federal authorities calls for a a Veterinarian Feed Directive. Beekeepers will no Veterinary Client Patient Relationship (VCPR) before a longer be able to diagnose and treat diseases requiring prescription can be issued via a VFD, and the VFD antibiotics, without a cannot exceed six months. A licensed veterinarian. few veterinarians have Beekeepers will need to reached out to me to over become more vigilant in their services, primarily in their hive management Lexington. I will start practices, checking more compiling a list of those who frequently for bacterial want to work with diseases such as European beekeepers and will publish foulbrood, and especially them in the December American foulbrood. You BeeLines. should also stock up on In the hive, queen bees are laying the worker bees that will form the winter cluster and will carry the colony through the winter. It is important that you care for these future “winter” bees. The longer Varroa mites are on them, the more viruses the Varroa mites will vector as the colonies go into winter.
Need winter feed or other supplies for your bees? Bardstown Mills located at 1393 Withrow Ct, Bardstown, KY 40004 (502) 348 - 3949 They are a local business that will be happy to help in any way that they can. Just call or stop in and be sure to tell them that you are a member of the Nelson County Beekeepers. If they don't have the items on hand, they will try and get it for you as soon as possible.
DON’T FORGET TO JOIN US ON FACE BOOK!!
Page 7 ELECTIONS FOR 2017
Please submit names for the October meeting. Fellow members please consider doing your part to keep the club running as great as it has been. You will get all the help and support that you need.
to the editor of the newsletter.
Openings for the upcoming years elections are as follows;
Treasurer – To received dues and monies from fund raisers. Keep an accurate account of all monies received. Bring all monies to the Extension Office for depositing. Assure that the treasurers accounting and the Extension Office are in balance.
President – To run meetings. Insure programs are on track. Assist committees assigned to programs, fund raisers, and education.
Education – To assist in setting programs for each month. To promote education either through classes or other outreach programs.
Vice President – To run meetings when the President is absent. To assist President with committees assigned to programs, fund raisers, and education.
Hospitality Chair To assign food programs. Food set up, and clean up. To assure that supples (paper plates etc) are available, if not in stock, replenish supples as needed. Assign people to help and/or take over if you are absent.
Secretary – To take notes of both the Steering Meeting and the Members meeting. To record in your notes the attendance and the names of any new members. To insure that the notes are forwarded
Volunteers/nominees for these position will be taken at any time before the November election/ nominations. Please give
your Name, Position Chosen, to our current President Doug Brink, or Extension Office Representative Robbie
UP COMING EVENTS November is Road Clean Up Fund Raiser Month We will try and get a date set for close to the end of the month. We will be looking for volunteers for a Friday evening with a rain date of Saturday morning. It usually only takes 1 to 1 1/2 hours if we get at least 6 people to help. The club gets $200 for the work. It's a great fund raiser for us to help pay for the programs that we offer. Thank you in advance Doug Brink President
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Bardstown KY 40004
317 S Third St
Nelson County
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