Wilson County Beekeepers

Meeting Minutes – Monday, 3 July 2017

A small group of Wilson County Beekeepers Association members and guests (31) was welcomed by President Carey Mitchell at the Ward Ag Center on July 3, 2017.  The minutes from the June meeting was approved with the checkbook balance being reported at $9,464.57.  This amount represents the full payment of the recently purchased t-shirts.

As no business was conducted at the Picnic in June, old business relates back to May.

Old Business Discussed:

• Thanks to Jessica Dodds and the volunteers that worked Farm Day on May 10 and 11.  (Doug Bowes, Joe & Pat Carter, Joan Giltner, Jim Murff, Dale McCleskey, Traci Richcreek, Julie Rouse, Peggy Scholes, David Thompson, and Ron Yearwood, plus three FFA students from Wilson Central…Rachel Boudreau, Kaleigh Crabtree, and Macee Zaffiro)
• A big thanks to Sterling Earhart and Jim Murff who opened their yards for Field Day on Saturday, May 20.  Both locations were well attended.
• T-shirt are in.  We didn’t have enough orders for the orange shirts, but the gray and blue were ordered.  There are a few extra sizes of each color for those that didn’t get a chance to order.  Shirts are $10.00 each.
• The June picnic was a lot of fun with a delicious spread with a wide variety of food.  As always, the dessert table was full!!  Congrats to Ernie Calabria who was this year’s Beginner Beekeeper Scholarship recipient which netted him $250.00.  Newbees…be sure to check out the requirements in the back of your membership book, and maybe you could be one of the recipients next year.  Through your generosity, we were able to give New Leash on Life a total of $438.00 in monetary donations ($53.00 from the Ham Raffle that was won by David Walker), plus there were items donated that will help the center.

New Business Discussed:

• The Fair Schedule is available at the back of the table.
• Looking for basket stuffings for the raffle basket at the fair…any bee related items or honey/wax products
• Bears for honey donations are available.  Only pick up bears if you intend to donate back to the club…not for personal use.
• Looking for frames for extracting demonstrations.  Need 10 total
• Scholarship/Hive Grant recipients…don’t forget your obligation to donate honey back to the club
• Jars for fair entries ONLY…$1.00 each.

Margaret had her July To Do List:

• Check honey stores in new hives.  Feed if no/very little honey stores
• Check honey stores and take off capped honey
• Process supers within 2 days
• Keep weeds down around the hives and make sure you have adequate ventilation
• Don’t get greedy by taking off too much honey
• Donate honey to the fair
• Read—check out materials from our library

Lynda Rizzardi from Maryville, TN (President of the Knox County Beekeepers Assn) was on hand to help us get our entries ready for the fair.  She had an excellent parallel of honey to diamonds…the 5 c’s (Carat, Clarity, Color, Cut, Cost)

Announcements:

• July 31—Fair Review—Final meeting before the fair

Carey and Margaret handed out the evening’s door prizes, (some from Lynda) to:  Jennifer Ferguson, Donel King, Kelcie Meador, Preston Poteete, Russ Davis, Jake Balentine, Karla Clark, Jonnie Meador, Leonard Walker, Helen Vose, Allen Ferguson, Ernie Calabria, and Timmi Balentine

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Respectfully submitted:  Petra Mitchell, Secretary/Treasurer
Wilson County Beekeepers Association
July 5, 2017

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