January 2019 Meeting
President, Denise Budde reviewed 2018. We had a great year with a lot of knowledgeable speakers.
January Gail Foster - Pollinators and the upcoming Honeybee Festival.
February Sophia Price - GA Beekeeping Association
March Derick Forester of Forester Farms and Apiary
April Ann Brown from the Wild Ones spoke about native bees.
May Linda Tillman, President of GA Beekeepers – Extracting honey
June Kendra Stallings
August Derick Forester – Mighty Mite Killer Heater
September Denise Budde – Mites
October Gail Forester – Flowers to feed honeybees
November Sophia Price – Amazing Propolis
December Christmas Party
During the November meeting Beth Pelham, the Assistant Principal at Gilbert Elementary School, spoke about a grant the school has applied for: The Bee Cause Project. Tonight, Denise Budde, informed us that the school did not receive the grant, but they are classified as highly qualified for the grant. A company from Canada agreed to give the school a mini grant that includes a set of teaching frames. The teaching frames are like a real hive and students can pull out the wooden frames and see what is going on inside the hive. They were also given a beekeeper lab book and more pollinator goodies. The group voted to be mentors to Gilbert Elementary.
The new 2019 officers were elected. From left to right Sandy Coontz - Secretary, Mike Thornberry - President, Larry Little - Vice President, Steve Wilson – Treasurer
Mike Thornberry introduced himself and gave his ideas for the group. He would like to end each meeting with a question/answer discussion on ideas of what we should be looking for and doing with our hives until the next meeting.
Ideas from the group were:
If you have a warm enough day to investigate the hive - the queen should be laying eggs. The queen may begin laying eggs to start the colony toward the next year’s growth anytime after the winter solstice.
Keep an eye on how much feed is on your combs. Bees will be going through their food right now. Between now and March most bees die of starvation.
We would also like to welcome our newest member Brian Harding.
Hope to see you at the next meeting! Remember to bring a friend and a question for discussion!