November BCBC, Food and fun!

Our Club’s Annual Potluck

Let’s celebrate our beekeeping year together 

(and before the holiday season gets too busy)

November 5, Monday night at Groce United Methodist Church
954 Tunnel Rd in Asheville, NC

6:30 set up ===Potluck at 7 PM Eat and enjoy!

Bring a dish to share and if you have honey in it, 

then enter it in the Cooking with Honey Contest!  (Details below)

Club provides the drinks, and paper products, flat ware.

Elections, short meeting

Games: Password with your Bee Knowledge, See if we can make you say the bee word on the card you can’t see, with hints from your team!

Sale items: Do you have a bee related item that others would like to buy for the holiday season? Creamed honey, candles, cards, skin care products, raw wax, even HONEY in your cute containers for those of us that don’t have honey! Bring it for set up on a table in the back.

Cooking with Honey Contest.

Two categories: Entrees (anything marinated or basted with honey sauces) and Desserts

Portion out on a paper plate for the judges.  

Submit Title/Card with the recipe/Name underneath, No Names Showing

Prizes:  Brand New Hive Tool, Sugar to Feed your Bees, Full Color Certificate

New Research Suggests Bees Bite!

A new study by researchers from Greek and French universities suggests that bees are able to bite foes that are too small to be stung. The mandibles excrete 2-heptanone during the bite, which acts as a local anaesthetic, which may paralyze the target for up to nine minutes. This might explain bees' ability to "clean" the hive by tossing out predators like varroa mites and wax moths.

Read the article HERE.
Read the study HERE.

Three Great October Bee Events Coming Up!

Three great bee events coming up ... Have a gander:

1. APITHERAPY:  HEALTH AND HEALING WITH PRODUCTS FROM THE HIVE with ROSS CONRAD.

Monday, October 29, 7 - 9 pm, Canon Lounge, Warren Wilson College, $10, for more info call 771-3066. (Flier attached for more information.)

"The honey bee and hive products have historically played a large role in dis-ease care and prevention. Science is finally catching up to what naturalists, herbalists, and acupuncturists have known for years. Learn about harvesting and using Honey, Pollen, Propolis, Royal Jelly, Beeswax and Honey bee Venom for human health."  Ross is fabulous, wrote one of the seminal books on natural beekeeping (before that term was even really used in bee circles) and his mentor was the famous Charles Mraz from Vermont who was a truly epic pioneer in apitherapy (and a gol darn wonderful guy). Beekeepers, herbalists, all kinds of health practitioners, everyone under the sun, moon and stars should come to this amazing event.

2. BEGINNING BEEKEEPING with Diane Almond, her third annual class series at the NC Arboretum! 

Three consecutive classes on Saturday afternoons starting Oct 27 (Nov 3, Nov 10) from 12 noon til 4 with time before and after to visit and look at resources. 12 packed hours (total), but lots of room for individual participation and there will be treats and hands-on stuff during a midway break.  Arboretum members $48; others (get free entrance/parking) @ $58.  Here's the link to register or for more info:  http://www.ncarboretumregistration.org/Backyard-Beekeeping-For-Beginners-a-Three-Part-Class-102712-P954.aspx

Class is 25 students only so please sign up as soon as possible.  And if you have questions for Diane directly, call her at:  828-684-8488.

"I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend this series of classes.  Diane is one of my most favorite bee teachers in the world. She is clear, funny, insightful and will leave you feeling more confident than ever to step into beekeeping.  Class is capped at 25 students only, so sign up soon!," says Debra Roberts.

3.   FILM PREMIERE of BeeSting:  PINK OCTOBER

Friday, October 19, 7:30 pm, White Horse / Black Mountain, $10, For more info, call Lisa at 273-1488.  

BeeSting, a short film, is a lyrical outpouring of creative force, addressing the emotional, physical, and spiritual challenges of breast cancer against a backdrop of the declining bee population and the burgeoning toxicity of The Earth.  BeeSting illustrates the imbalance of the feminine in our culture; both how it manifests inwardly with the disease of our breasts, and outwardly with the pollution of our planet.  Combining shadow puppetry and cinematographic techniques, the story moves between metaphor and realism, blending personal expression, medicine, humor, poetry, and gratitude.  Flier attached for more information.  Award-winning puppeteer Lisa Sturz's courageous journey with cancer informed this wonderful work.

Thanks to Debra Roberts for sharing!

Share the Buzz at Greenlife Grocery

Great News! Bee City USA is the recipient of Greenlife Grocery's Bag Donation Program for October, 2012 
 
Please help us spread the word. During the month of October, for every customer who shops at Greenlife Grocery in Asheville, NC and uses a reusable bag at checkout, Greenlife will donate Five Cents to Bee City USA! This is great way to eat well while raising awareness for urban beekeeping and pollinator habitats.

Greenlife also invites us to educate their customers about the role of pollinators by tabling on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or Monday in October between 4:00 and 7:00. If you'd like to talk to Greenlife customers about beekeeping and pollinators, please contact Dawn Nelson at 845 709-7198 or dawnley1@gmail.com to let her know which weekend day or days in October you're available.

We are proud to partner with Whole Foods/Greenlife Grocery and are thankful for their "Share the Buzz" campaign. Together with our area's beekeepers, we are poised to open the public's eyes a little more to how much each of us can do to save pollinators in urban environments. We do this TOGETHER - Thank you!

October BCBC Meeting

Join us the first Monday of this month
to learn about some of the latest technology
in beekeeping and honey bee research.

Our speaker, Paul Vonk,
is an electrical engineer and a beekeeper in Georgia.
For a sneak peek at some of the tech
he'll be describing, go to http://hivetool.org/.

7:00 pm on October 1 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.

Bob Binnie Speaker on Sept 17th in Henderson County

Bob Binnie will be speaking about commercial beekeeping at the Henderson County Beekeepers' meeting on Monday, Sept. 17th.

Bob is involved with not only honey production but also the selection and propagation of superior bee stock that survive without the use of harsh chemicals. He has provided nucs for research at University of Georgia which were used for IPM Research.

This past spring 500 nucs were available here in our area - many of which were of our local queen stock which are acclimated to our area. Greg Rogers, a friend of Bob's, shared that Bob has 1,000+ hives, and is a creative problem solver who shares information openly. Bob is the past president of the Georgia Beekeepers Association and an informative speaker. Jennifer Berry wrote in Bee Culture Magazine that "Bob is always researching and fine tuning ways to become a better beekeeper."

Henderson County Beekeepers

NEXT MEETING: Sept 17, 2012 7pm ***
Meeting will be at the Mountain Horticultural Corps Research & Extension Center***
2016 Fanning Bridge Road, Fletcher NC

2012 Black Jar Honey Contest

Do you think your honey is the jam? Well then put your honey where your mouth is (and where the judges' mouths are) in this year's second annual Black Jar Honey Contest, sponsored by Asheville's Center for Honeybee Research.


Just sign up, bring your tastiest jar, and collect your first place winner's prize check of $500.00. The deadline for participating is October 31st, and you know your honey is the best so there's no reason to wait! Prove it once and for all, forever!

Rules and Entry Form Here!