Wilson County Beekeepers

Meeting Minutes – Monday, 3 April 2023

Wilson County Beekeepers’ president Carey Mitchell called the April 3, 2023 meeting to order at the Ward Ag Center with 72 members and guests in attendance.  The minutes of the March meeting were approved with the checkbook balance reported at $xxxx.  Our current membership count stands at 178.

Old Business Discussed:

• Final opportunity to place a bid on the extractor. We will make the announcement at the end of the meeting as to who the winner is.
• Jessica is still looking for volunteers for Farm Day—May 9 and 10^th
• The memorial books were delivered to the Lebanon and Mt. Juliet Public libraries

New Business Discussed:                                                             

• The Queen Rearing class with Kent Williams is scheduled for Saturday, May 9 in Mt. Juliet. This is for those that have already signed up.  All 40 seats are taken.  Be sure to bring your clean protective gear, your lunch, and a lawn chair.  Water will be available.  If we have rain, we will reschedule for May 13^th.  The address is 560 Carver Lane in Mt. Juliet.  Start time is 10:00 am and should finish up around 2:00 pm.
• Field Day is Saturday, May 20 with the rain date being May 27^th. It will be at the same location as the Queen Rearing Class.  Clean protective gear is required.
• If there are any questions regarding either events, please contact Sterling at 615-477-1688

Leonard’s Monthly To-Do

• Put honey supers on your hives in early April. You can put on multiple boxes of drawn comb, but only at a time if using foundation
• Strong hives can use a lot of honey stores in April. Keep check and feed, if you need.  Remove honey supers first.  Feeding with honey supers on will contaminate your honey with syrup
• Check for diseases and mites
• Packages do better if comb is available
• Check for swarming problems. If you find a queen cell, split the hive or watch for swarms.  Recheck every 14 days.

What’s blooming (at our house) that the bees are working:

• Apples
• Box elder
• Crabapples
• Creeping Charlie
• Dandelion
• False Nettle
• Flowering Quince
• Hellebores
• Henbit
• Pears
• Pussy Willow
• Redbud
• Russian Olive
• Spicebush

Program:  Dru Sousan from Honeytree Meadery was our speaker for the evening with an excellent program on mead and how they run their operation.  He also had samples, which everyone seemed to enjoy.

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Announcements: 

• May 1—Extracting Honey—Carey Mitchell
• May 6—Queen Rearing Class with Kent Williams—for those that preregistered
• May 9 & 10—Farm Day
• May 13—Queen Rearing Class (rain day)
• May 20—Field Day at Sterling’s
• May 27—Field Day (rain day)

The winner of the Extractor is Sean O’Sullivan with a bid of $200.00.  Proceeds will be forwarded to the original owner, Brenda Aiken

Door Prizes:

• Bottom board (donated by Peter Zook)—Stephen Aud
• Sedum:  Jerry Wilson, Allen Ferguson, Laurie Karr, Diane Leu
• Queen Catcher—Freddie Stroupe
• Hive Tool—Jeremy Spires
• Honey Candy—Sterling Earhart
• Aloe Plant (donated by Daniel Klapach)—Duane Ackley
• 2023 Bee Culture Calendar—Theresa Hall
• J-Hook Hive Tool—Norma Jean Stroupe
• Lighter—Tammy Eckel
• TBA Mug and Decal—Russ Davis
• 10 frame Metal Queen Excluder (donated by Laurie Karr)—Karla Clark

The meeting adjourned at 8:38 for refreshments & fellowship.

The Club’s current checkbook balance is $xxxx

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Respectfully submitted:  Petra Mitchell, Secretary/Treasurer
Wilson County Beekeepers Association
April 4, 2023

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