Wilson County Beekeepers

Meeting Minutes  – Monday, 5 November 2018

On Monday, October 5, Wilson County Beekeepers met at the Ward Ag Center with a group of 70 members and guests.  Carey Mitchell, President called the meeting to order.  The minutes of the October meeting as posted in the past newsletter were approved.

Old Business Discussed:

• Carey thanked everyone that voted in the TBA election. He was voted the new Executive Vice President, Petra remains on as Treasurer, and Jessica Dodds was elected as our Middle TN Regional Vice President. She also was elected the ‘Beekeeper of the Year”.  Congratulations were given to JD Vantrease for his multiple blue ribbons with his honey in the TBA Honey Show and Petra, for her soap.
• TBA Conference was October 12 & 13. Several of the Scholarship winners said they had a good time and there were some interesting programs.  Carey announced that the Keynote Speaker for the 2019 Conference is going to be Dr. Leo Sharashkin and he is currently working on completing the schedule for the event.
• The Short Course was a huge success. We had 24 newbees in attendance and a lot of interest was shown.  Thanks to the mentors that came out…Philip Chapman, Allen & Jennifer Ferguson, Mark Goodrich, David Thompson, Leonard Walker, and Sterling Earhart.  Also ‘thanks’ to Phillip, Peggy Scholes, and Becky Owens who helped with the desserts.  Plus, Petra did a great job of feeding us each night.
• At the end of the last meeting, Ernie Calabria donated 2 quarts of honey back to the association as part of his Scholarship payback. We are selling them for $22.00 per quart.

New Business Discussed: 

• This coming year, the Honey Convention will be in Knoxville. It was scheduled to be at Fountainhead College, but with their closing last week, a new venue will have to be attained and further details will be announced.  They have offered each TBA Club a one-day scholarship, so if you are planning on attending, let Petra know and we will be drawing at the February meeting.  Go to honeyconvention.com to get details about who will be speaking and the classes offered.
• Petra discussed the December 3 Christmas Dinner…WCBA will be providing the ham and turkey plus all of the drinks. Volunteers were asked to cook turkeys.  Also we had two volunteers bringing rolls and butter.  Each family is asked to bring a covered dish, a dessert, and a wrapped gift for exchange for each attendee with a value to $10.00.  RSVP’s need to be made by December 1 so we can be sure there are sufficient seats set up.
• Last year WCBA gave a $250.00 donation to Pollinator Stewardship Council. Discussion about this brought on a vote with only one descent the we do the same for this year.
• As no one wanted to add their name to the hat, the officer slate was announced:

President—Carey Mitchell

Vice President—Jessica Dodds

Secretary/Treasurer—Petra Mitchell

Delegates:  Candice Thompson, Dale McCleskey, Briana Kruse

Alternates:  Margaret Cantrell, Philip Chapman, David Thompson

The unanimous vote put these officers in place for 2019

• Ballots for the Christmas Charity were distributed and the winner for December was Wounded Warrior Project and for the June Picnic we will be collecting for New Leash on Life.

Monthly To-Do List—Carey provided in Jessica’s absence

• Feeding continues as long as the bees can use the sugar syrup.
• I recommend putting on mouse guards and making sure the entrance reducer is attached at this time
• Do nothing(This is a popular choice for many “treatment-free” beekeepers). It allows you to determine if you have smart and strong bees. If you left enough honey for your bees to make it through the winter according to the relative size of the cluster, you might very well be fine to just let the bees be bees. The idea here is that if the bees have a good home to live in, they should be able to survive on their own, without the intervention of humans.
• READ*READ*READ

Jessica’s book picks this fall:   Cooking with Honey, Honey Crafting and The Beekeeper’s Bible has great stuff in the back.

Trevor Qualls was to be our speaker for the evening, but had to rush his mom to St. Thomas in the morning, as she may have suffered a heart attack.  Our thoughts are with the Qualls family for Gail to make a speedy recovery.  In his absence, Carey educated us on methods of emergency feeding, including Sugar Mountain Camp and how to combine weak hives with strong hives using the newspaper method.

Announcements:

• December 1—RSVP’s due for Christmas Dinner
• December 3—Christmas Dinner—remember your covered dish and dessert plus your wrapped gifts for exchange.

Carey and Jessica handed out door prizes at the end of the meeting to: Abigail Siemans (bee brush), JD Vantrease (t-shirt), Les Burton (Mites of the Honeybee), Jared Brasel (honey candy), Peggy Scholes (bee necklace), Ronnie Woodard (lighter), Karla Clark (hive tool), Philip Chapman (Honeybee t-shirt), and Billy Springer (Mann Lake hat).

The meeting adjourned at 8:15 for refreshments and fellowship.

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Respectfully submitted:  Petra Mitchell, Secretary/Treasurer
Wilson County Beekeepers Association
November 6, 2018

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