Buzzings!
Newsletter of the Los Angeles County Beekeepers Association
October 1, 2012 Volume XII, Issue 9
Mt. Olive Lutheran Church, 3561 Foothill Boulevard, La Crescenta, CA 91214
Next Meeting: November, 2012, 7:00 pm
Topic for November Meeting:
OFFICER ELECTIONS – if you want to volunteer or nominate someone, let us know!
Minutes from the October Meeting: Attendance: 38, 35 members, 3 guests
Contents in Brief:
Announcements
Old Business
New Business
Raffle
Announcements:
2 frame extractor for sale – includes modified wheel for bike or motor attachment (so you don’t have to hand crank) – contact Clyde
Keith Roberts now officially has a honey house in Northridge if anyone ever needs help getting their honey extracted. keith@savethebuzz.com
Nation Honey Board materials available for farmers market folk (leftovers from the fair) – contact Clyde
Beekeeping 101 classes are scheduled 9am first Sunday of the month from April-October (except September) at Bill’s yard located at 12640 N Little Tujunga Road, Lake View Terrace – free for members
American Bee Journal –subscription discount – grab a voucher from Stacy or contact them at 1-888-922-1293 and tell them you’re a LACBA member to get 25% off
Bee Culture subscription discounts – simply contact them at 1-800-289-7668 and let them know you’re a LACBA member to get a discounted subscription
Buzzings – if you’re not getting a copy, let Stacy McKenna know (stacymckenna1@gmail.com) so we can update your information
Don’t forget to grab your nametag and keep it in your glove compartment or such so you have it handy for meetings.
If you want to be listed on our website for honey sales or bee removals, contact Eva Andrews at evaandrews2@gmail.com
OFFICER NOMINATIONS NEEDED – Elections for 2013 officers will be in November
Old Business:
Boeing Bee Fest – The Jensens did a great job helping out at this event, and the organizers provided Tshirts and a disk of pictures as a thank you – Clyde finaly got to deliver the Jensens their shirts and disk of photos this month!
New Business:
Birthdays! Happy birthday to Eva Andrews, Kent Potter, and Doug Noland this month!
CSBA Convention in November
Nov 13-15 at the Morongo Casino in Palm Springs – check the website for registration materials. Must be a CSAB member ($50 for small scale), $90 to register for the convention, room is about $134/night, Research Luncheon is $50, Banquet is $60. There’s also a ladies auxiliary luncheon. King Bee sponsorship has gone up to $250 this year. The CSBA also has research and Right to Farm (lobbying) funds that commercial beekeepers find essential to their issues on a state and national level. The breakout sessions for small scale beekeepers were a hit last year. There was no mention of them at September’s meeting, so Bill Lewis asked why and suddenly there’s a schedule for them – they’ll be on Wed and Thurs
Registration deadline is 10/31/12 and the phone number for the hotel is (888)667-6646, group #1112CSB
LA County Fair – checks are being distributed to folk who volunteered to help reimburse mileage. There are also Certificates of Appreciation listing how many hours each volunteer worked. Next year Clyde can’t work the 200 hours he did this year – he has to phase himself out some. Cyndi Caldera worked over 100 hours this year, and is already volunteering to help Clyde out with that. BASC stepped up a lot this year and helped out a lot more which was great. We had 95 volunteers (50 LACBA, 45 BASC) working a total of 1,945 hours. Based on the hour distributions, 72% of proceeds went to LACBA and 28% went to BASC. There were a lot of people at the fair who got educated about bees, and a lot of beekeepers who got to know each other AND bees better.
We sold most of our honey sticks (6 cases of leftovers were bought at cost by beekeepers for their farmer’s markets) and we could have used more jars and comb honey.
$33,769 gross (down about $5K from last year)
-$1,880 on expenses like water, ice, etc. for the volunteers,
-$5,0000 reimbursed BASC their initial to help purchase honey stock,
-$13,214 on the fair registration, honey stock, labels, containers, etc. for a
$13,675 profit to split with BASC
As in past years, we voted to donate the following proceeds:
Eric Mussen/UCDavis/Cooperative Extension, $1,000
Right to Farm – CSBA, $1,000
Research Fund CSBA, $1,000
Project Apis m., $1,000
Several of our fair volunteers will receive scholarships from the remaining proceeds to go to the convention.
El Rey tried to fill in gaps when Russ had holes in the volunteer schedule. It seemed a lot of folk were switching times or dropping in without notifying Russ – please help us out by working on the hours you told us you were going to volunteer so we don’t have gaps or overbooked periods. Also, sometimes it’s hard to tell who the volunteers were – name tags helped immensely.
Business cards – if you leave some for your farmer’s market/bee removal service, we’ll hand them out to people in your area who are interested.
Bill Lewis thought the new scheduling system Russ implemented this year was GREAT
Lynne Gallagher suggests that next year we allow NO Backward Beekeepers apparel/promotion/ discussion at all in our booth. They aren’t officially affiliated with this effort, and it’s inappropriate for their group to be getting publicity for the work of LACBA and BASC. Clyde did actually ask one person to go home on account of it this year.
HoneyLove – HoneyLove’s intent is education, awareness, and legalization of beekeeping in the City of Los Angeles with strong cooperation from and ties to the Backwards Beekeepers.
Bill’s been getting to know them and thinks they’re doing a great job of raising awareness and making progress for legislation. He recently got to see their yard and inspect some of their hives. Their colonies were small and sometimes queenless. They let Bill test for mites and results were high – plenty to cause crashes, brood were showing impacts already, and he would be surprised if they survived the dearth/winter. He also signed of deformed wing virus (DWV). They were on frames without foundation so the irregular comb building made it hard to inspect them. Bill’s invited them into his yard at the October 7 class to see the behavior of non-feral colonies.
Small Hive Beetle (SHB) – Bill Lewis found some in one of his yards in Bel Aire. He lost 2 of 6 hives. The larvae go to ground so you can kill them there via drenching with GardStar pesticide. Sue Potter asked if chickens would help kill off larvae, but none of our beekeepers have any experience with that (though we figure they couldn’t HURT). Walt asked what kind of trees there were around – Bill says citrus but no dropped fruit, the grounds are regularly tended. If you see any beetles in your hive, Bill recommends setting beetle traps inside – particularly the kind that use CheckMite under corrugated cardboard. Ron Strong hears that getting the hives in full sun helps. Keith has seen them in some of his hives in Beverly Hills. The Jensens have seen them in one of their hives that had mulch underneath it. The larvae thrive in rich soil, so dry, sandy soil underneath your hives can help minimize SHB propagation.
Wax moth – Eva’s got it in some stored boxes. What to do about it? Freezing or application of Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis)helps (Sundance on the BeeSource forums sells Bt, it’s been marketed as Certan or Xentari). Wrapping them in tight plastic can actually encourage the moths as they like a dark, humid spot.
Officers for 2013 –
PRESIDENT: Clyde declines the nomination for another year. He needs to focus more of his time on his business and he wants fresh blood in the position. Jim (our current VP) has had a very rough past 6 months and is doing a LOT of travelling for work, so may not be up for taking the spot
VP – Keith Roberts accepts nomination
Secretary – Stacy McKenna accepts a repeat nomination (and welcomes competition!)
Treasurer – Bill Rathfelder accepts a repeat nomination
The CSBA rotates to VP into the Pres position. It would be great to get our group to the point of being able to do that, having VP be an actual training ground for the top position. It was asked if we need to establish a board of directors to handle nominations/etc. now that the group has grown so much in size? We need to double check the constitution (circa 1980s).
Broodless hive – what do I do? This time of year, combine hives (using the newspaper method) or there are Hawaiian queens available this time of year. Drop a queen cage n the bottom box, in the brood area, and leave them alone for a good 10 days to get her out/established.
Swarms – this time of year they are often Africanized colonies looking for food.
How big should hive openings be in this weather? Due to the dearth of forage this time of year, robbing is a serious issue. Openings should be no more than 1” so the bees can defend themselves, regardless of the heat. Bees can self-regulate the temperature, but fending off robbers is harder.
Raffle!!!
All prizes are donated, so the group spends no money on this endeavor. Thanks to all for helping support our group’s works through this fundraiser!
Sodas leftover from the Fair
Signed copies of member Dan Stradford’s book, The Men's Code of Honor: 66 Principles That Make a Man.
