Wilson County Beekeepers

Meeting Minutes – Monday, 2 May 2016

Carey Mitchell, President of the Wilson County Beekeepers Association welcomed a small group of 62 members, guests, and visitors to the May 2, 2016 meeting at the Ward Ag Center.  The April minutes as posted in the last newsletter were approved.

Old Business Discussed:

• Carey thanked everyone that helped with Farm Day, which was a huge success. Margaret Cantrell, Chair added the list of folks that worked the venue:  Traci Richcreek, David Thompson, WT Nolen, Jessica Dodds, Joe and Pat Carter, Eric Meador, Randy Randall, and Peggy Scholes.
• Paula Rogers was thanked for representing WCBA at the Master Gardener’s Spring Festival and donated a couple of brochure holders
• T-shirt sign-up is at the back table…along with the Swarm List.
• Footwear was delivered to New Leash on Life last month. They are still collecting footwear during the month of May.
• Field Day is set for Saturday, May 21 with a weather alternate date of May 28. Jim Murff will host the Lebanon location at 836 Maple Hill Road, Andy & Julie Harper will host the Watertown location at 1931 Shop Springs Road, and Sterling Earhart is hosting the Mt. Juliet one at 560 Carver Lane.  Directions for each location is in your membership book, but printed copies were available for those without their book.  Start time is 9:00 am and everyone MUST wear a veil.  Carey discussed cleanliness…please be sure your bee suit/jacket is clean or freshly laundered, don’t wear your old gloves…either opt for no gloves or use latex/nitrile, if you are bringing your smoker for lighting demonstrations, don’t bring it into the bee yard, and don’t bring your hive tool.

New Business Discussed:                                                              

• The proposal that was listed in the newsletter was brought to the member’s attention for vote along with an additional purchase. The proposal read as follows:    We (Wilson County Beekeepers) will donate two (2) hat/veil combos for First Responders to the surrounding counties with a minimum of three (3) WCBA members (Cannon, Davidson, DeKalb, Macon, Overton, Putnam, Rutherford, Smith, Sumner, Trousdale, and Williamson.  (a total of 22)   Plus….We (Wilson County Beekeepers) will donate one (1) hat/veil combo for each fire station in the county and one for the shift supervisor’s vehicle (a total of 23).   This brings the total purchase of forty-five (45) hat/veil combos at a cost of $16.00 each from Rossman Apiaries plus shipping.  The total cost of the proposal is $744.42 with shipping.  The above purchase will be a one-time purchase, single offer to the counties mentioned.

The clean-up company has not made a direct donation to WCBA, but two private donations have been made in the amount of $360.00 for the cause.

After discussion, the membership greatly approved of the proposal and now that we have a full count of the number of hat/veil combos to purchase, Petra can go to Rossman to see if we can get a price reduction due to numbers purchased.

• Petra discussed the up-coming picnic. The date is set for Monday, June 6 at 7:00 pm.  RSVP’s will need to be in by June 4.  The club will provide the barbeque, cold drinks and coffee.    We will be collecting for New Leash on Life.  (Wish List was at the back table and will be in the next newsletter).  Each family is asked to bring a covered dish and a dessert.  Also, volunteers were asked to bring 2 gallons each of sweet tea, unsweet tea, and lemonade.

• We will also be raffling off a whole country ham (which Petra will have sliced) with all proceeds going to New Leash on Life at the picnic. Have to be present to win and tickets will be $1.00 each.

• Jessica Dodds brought up the topic of checking with the State about having ‘Save the Bees’ specialty tags available. She has been in touch with legislation about getting a packet on all particulars, but initially, there will be a need for 1,000 pre-ordered plates.  She will keep us informed on the project.

Fred’s Monthly To Do List:

• Inspect Hive…is it queen right, swarm cells, congestion?
• Supers need to be on the hive
• When supers are on, there should be NO syrup feeding or chemical treatment
• Read—–Read—-Read

Joel Hausser from Greeneville, TN had a demonstration presentation on hive beetle traps and a PowerPoint presentation on planting wildflowers for bee forage  (he will be forwarding the slideshow to be put on the website for those that might have missed it)

Kelcie Meador, our librarian, announced that she is moving us forward and the library will be going digital.  Please be sure to get all library material returned promptly so we can get an accurate account of what we have.

Announcements:

May 21—Field Day (alternate May 28)

May 23—Extracting Workshop

June 6—Picnic

Carey and Fred handed out door prizes at the end of the evening to these lucky winners:  Marcus Bigbie, Earl Stoffel, Clara Vantrease, JD Vantrease, and Julia Harper

Meeting adjourned around 8:25 for refreshments and fellowship.

Respectfully submitted:  Petra Mitchell, Secretary/Treasurer—Wilson County Beekeepers Association, May 3, 2016