Wilson County Beekeepers

Meeting Minutes – Monday, 6 July 2020

The July 7, 2020 meeting of the Wilson County Beekeepers Association was called to order by President Carey Mitchell.  We had a small group of 27 attend.   Minutes from the June 2020 meeting were approved as posted in the past newsletter.  The reported checkbook balance is $xxx.

Old Business Discussed:

• As you know, the Wilson County Fair has been cancelled for 2020, but the livestock shows will go on and the Birthing Barn will be live-streamed. More details can be found on the Wilson County Fair’s website
• A reminder, TBA dues will double in January 2021. You can prepay your dues until September to save a few dollars.

New Business Discussed:                                                             

• New short sleeve t-shirts were purchased in white and a bright blue (that was modeled by Carey)

Monthly To-Do per John Benham from NABA: due to Jessica’s absence

• To help prevent robbing reduce entrances and install robbing screens.
• Do your mite counts and treatments now so you can ward off the mite bomb.
• Increase hive ventilation and provide a water source if water is not available to help bees keep the proper hive temperature during the summer heat.
• During honey harvesting make sure to clean up any spills and never leave burr comb that was removed during the inspection near the apiary.
• The extracted frames of comb are extremely valuable! Energy expenditure is high for honey bees when it comes to drawing comb. It takes four to nine pounds of honey to produce one pound of beeswax.
• After harvesting the honey, make sure that there is honey in the brood area by checking the weight of the brood boxes. The bees will need food during the period of reduced or no nectar flow.
• It is possible that you may need to feed some hives. Use caution when feeding if you have multiple hives as it may promote robbing. Do not use feeding stimulates such as Honey B Healthy at this time of year as it may cause robbing.

What’s Blooming at our house:

• Clover
• Magnolias
• Sumac
• Hydrangea
• Bottlebrush Buckeye
• Euonymus
• Vitex
• Milkweed
• Basswood (Linden)
• Catnip
• Bush St. Johns Wort

Program:  Carey had a hands on demonstration on extracting honey.  Copies of his outline can be found on the WCBA website under the ‘Resource’ tab.

Announcements: 

• July 27—Karin Gray, President of the Cookeville club will be discussing propolis
• Al Taylor shared that the Kentucky Queen Breeders have been working with Perdue University and they have bred a mite chewer (formerly known as the ankle biter) queen which is to help with varroa mites. They have been awarded a grant to produce queen cells and sell them for $10 each or $15.00 for two and this will produce an F1 daughter.  Grafted cells will be 48 hours old and will have to be installed in your queenless hive/nuc to be finished.  You will need to provide your phone number for them to contact you and you will need to pick them up when completed.

• No door prizes were handed out at the end of the meeting.

The meeting adjourned at 8:20 pm.

The Club’s current checkbook balance is $xxx

—
Respectfully submitted:  Petra Mitchell, Secretary/Treasurer
Wilson County Beekeepers Association
July 7, 2020

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