New Administrator

This update is to inform followers that I, Jeffrey Sidle, have been added to the administrator position for this blog. I will try to keep it up to date for upcoming club events.

MEETING REMINDER: Tonight July 2, 2012 at the Stourbridge Plaza Honesdale, 7:30 pm.

A Note From WCBEEKA President....

Hello everyone, 

I'm happy to announce that we have lined up speakers for meeting on Monday April 2. 

Ed & Mary Kosenski, a husband and wife team of E&M Gold in NJ have agreed to speak.

The program will begin precisely at 7:30 so please be prompt. In the event you are a bit late, please come right in and be seated as quietly as possible. 

The presentation will run until 9:30. It will include some time for Q&A's. 

Mary & Ed have 3 hours of travel time so they plan to leave immediately after their presentation.

We will have coffee, tea & some home made baked goods for the event. 

If you'd like to find out a bit about them in advance, please check out their web site. http://www.emgoldbeekeepers.com/

Depending on how things progress, we may postpone the business meeting until our May meeting.

Hope that everyone can make it!

See you Monday.

Thanks, 

Dolores

Another Season Upon Us....

Hope this post finds everyone and every bee well. There will be a couple more admins added to this page so we can keep on top of it all. It has been very difficult for just one person to do it.

With that BEEing said; a friendly reminder of our upcoming BEE POTLUCK

SATURDAY MARCH 24, 2012
Setup begins at 5:30
Dinner at 6:00

Please contact Dolores Motichka at dmotich@ptd.net to let her know if you are coming and what you will be bringing.

Thanks

QUEEN REARING BOOK

If you are interested here is a link for a out of print book on Queen rearing:

Queen Rearing Simplified by Jay Smith

A permanent link to this book will be in the "Helpful Books" section on the left side of this page.

CONGRATULATIONS!!

We won first prize at the WAYNE COUNTY FAIR this year! Thanks to Dolores, Beth and Elizabeth for all their hard work.

RECENT EVENTS....

Club member Carla Strozzieri arranged to have Sam Comfort, top bar and
warre' hive beekeeper, speak to the club at a recent meeting. Sam operates
Anarchy Apiaries in New York's Hudson Valley.  He looked like an anarchist -
scruffy beard, ragged shorts, straw cowboy hat, no shoes, and a guitar(for
singing songs about insects)- and what he had to say about bees was
revolutionary to many beekeepers.

Sam thinks that today's "problem" with bees stems from "industrializing"
them, rather than respecting the way bees live in the wild. He believes that
bees weren't meant to be trucked cross-country to pollinate mono-crops such
as corn, or almonds. Such crops provide poor nutrition due to lack of
diversity. Mites and other pests are symptoms of compromised colonies.

What to do? Go back to nature starting with smaller cell-sized foundation
which will eventually produce smaller bees.  Sam claims that smaller bees
are more resistant to diseases and pests, forage earlier in the day and
later in the evening, among other benefits. His  goal is "yippie, hippie
stuff." Sam believes "bigger is better" is the philosophy that got bees and
crops in trouble; he'd like to see more people with no more than five or six
beehives in their backyards. Then he could relax with his guitar and go
fishing.

To learn more about top bar hives and Sam's brand of "less-invasive"
beekeeping visit: http://anarchyapiaries.org/hivetools/node/32. One of Sam's
mentors is Dee Lusby of Arizona whose writing appears in the POV section of
beesource.com. To learn more about the warre' hives that Sam discussed,
visit warre.biobees.com. Also, check out "The Complete Idiot's Guide to
Beekeeping" by Dean Stiglitz and Laurie Herboldsheimer. The couple are
owners and operators of Golden Rule Honey, LLC and run treatment-free
beekeeping conferences such as this one,  http://www.beeuntoothers.com/,
where Sam also spoke and sang sans shoes.



*Thanks to Elizabeth Knight for contributing this article


**A permanent link to Sam's website: Anarchy Apiaries will be in the "Helpful Links" section on the left hand column.