February BCBC Meeting reminder

We are lucky to host Tom Knaust as a speaker at our February BCBC meeting! He will be discussing the best methods of populating a top bar hive, management techniques, and some pros and cons versus Langstroth hives.

See you at our next meeting!

7:00 pm on Monday, Feb. 4th at Groce United Methodist Church
at 954 Tunnel Rd in Asheville, NC.
Come early at 6:30 for informal mentoring, conversations about your bees, and an opportunity to talk to other beekeepers.

Save the Date! To learn even more about top bar hives, be sure to attend Les Crowder's lecture during the weekend of August 3rd and 4th. This event will be hosted by the Center for Honeybee Research, and you can find more information on Les Crowder's website www.fortheloveofbees.com.

Losing Hives to... ?

Many people have been reporting dead hives this winter, often at a loss as to what exactly went wrong. One club member discovered a dead hive with 30lbs of honey still in it. Another, who keeps two hives every year, also loses two every winter. She thinks her problem is location -- living in town might expose her bees to more pollutants than they can handle.

If you lose hives this winter and just can't figure out why but want to go beyond speculation, a great option is to send a sample of dead bees to:


Bee Disease Diagnosis
Bee Research Laboratory
Bldg. 476 Room 20
Beltsville Agricultural Research Center - East
Beltsville, MD 20705

To prepare the sample, collect about 100 of the sick bees in rubbing alcohol. Let them soak overnight. Drain off the alcohol, then put them in a ziplock bag. Put the bag in a small cardboard box so the samples won't get crushed. Mark the box with your NAME, ADDRESS, & BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM so they know where to send the results.

Best of luck!

Organic Growers School & February Meeting

Spring is coming, and bringing along with it tons of new opportunities for building on our beekeeping knowledge.

Diane, of Honey Bees and Heather Farm, will make her 30-minute Introduction to Pollinators presentation to the Asheville Tree Commission on Tuesday, January 22 around 12:30 at the Public Works Building (161 South Charlotte Street,  Asheville, NC 28801). (The meeting actually starts at 12:00.) If interested in attending, contact Phyllis Stiles (beecityUSA@gmail.com) for a parking pass.

In addition to many exciting topics, the Organic Growers School in Asheville (Sat & Sun, March 9th & 10th) is featuring two sessions on beekeeping, one of which is hosted by our own shining star Debra Roberts:

 

Natural Beekeeping for BEEginners 

Debra Roberts & Mary Beth Gwynn CLASS LIMIT= 25

Come explore natural beekeeping, honeybee basics, hive equipment and tools, start-up costs, what “organic” beekeeping really means, and good stewardship practices. Session tailored for BEEginners with very little to no experience. 

 

The Kenyan Top Bar Hive: Thinking Outside the Box

Tom Knaust

This class will cover best methods for populating a Kenyan top bar hive, managing bees in such a structure, the pros and cons versus a commercial Langstroth hive, and the basics of constructing one yourself.

But why wait until March? We are lucky to host Tom Knaust as a speaker at our February meeting! He will be discussing the best methods of populating a top bar hive, management techniques, and some pros and cons versus Langstroth hives.

Save the Date! To learn even more about top bar hives, be sure to attend Les Crowder's lecture during the weekend of August 3rd and 4th. This event will be hosted by the Center for Honeybee Research, and you can find more information on Les Crowder's website www.fortheloveofbees.com.

See you at our next meeting!

7:00 pm on Monday, Feb. 4th at Groce United Methodist Church
at 954 Tunnel Rd in Asheville, NC.
Come early at 6:30 for informal mentoring, conversations about your bees, and an opportunity to talk to other beekeepers.

2013 Beginner Bee School Opportunities

Henderson County Bee School begins this Monday, January 14.  

McDowell County Bee School begins February 2.

Stay posted for other bee school opportunities! 
Nothing is more fun than learning about beekeeping and honey bees!

BCBC Meeting January 7th

Join us at our January meeting for an open panel discussion on how to help our bees make it through the winter. With the recent warm days, will this winter be unseasonally warm like the last? What steps can we take to help our colonies survive?

7:00 pm on January 7th at Groce United Methodist Church
at 954 Tunnel Rd in Asheville, NC.
Come early at 6:30 for informal mentoring, conversations about your bees,
opportunity to talk to other beekeepers.

The Buzz on the Radio

Friends of Bee City USA:

 

Our local voices for pollinators, Diane Almond and Phyllis Stiles, will be interviewed live on "The Local Thinking" radio show December 8, tomorrow morning, at 11:00 - 12:00. Their hope is to engage more folks in the Bee City USA campaign to make the world safer for pollinators, one city at a time.

If you have time to listen, it's at 95.7 FM -The Choice, and it also will be archived at http://www.thelocalthinking.com/next-show.html.

 

BCBC on facebook

For our members who enjoy
playing on facebook,
be sure to look up
our Buncombe County Beekeepers Chapter
page and hit "like."

Facebook is great place for sharing pictures,
news about bees,
short snippets on beekeeping.