Los Angeles County Beekeepers Association

December 3, 2012 (6:00 Social Hour / 7:00 Dinner)

LACBA Annual Holiday Dinner
at Pickwick Gardens
1001 Riverside Drive
Burbank, CA 91506
http://www.pickwickgardensconferencecenter.com/location/

We held our annual LACBA Holiday Dinner on Monday, December 3rd, 2012 from 6-10pm at the lovely Pickwick Gardens in Burbank, CA.

LACBA Secretary, Stacey McKenna was our gracious host and organizer of the event.

LABCA President, Clyde Steese, galantly performed the duties of Master of Ceremonies.

Once again, our delicious dinner was provided by Outback Catering (LACBA Member, Doug Noland). Potluck appetizers and desserts were brought by LACBA members.

The evening's festivities:

LACBA member and beekeeper, Dr. Clive Segil, regailed us with tales of his trip to Italy and the time he spent with Luca Bonizzoni, the very famous premier beekeeper of Italy. Mr. Bonizzoni is the past president of the Italian Beekeepers Association. He is a long-time beekeeper with over 600 hives located outside of Milan, Italy. Dr. Segil's informative video provided us a glimpse into the world of Italian beekeeing. The Italians don't have the problems with aggressive bees as we do here in Southern California. They have, however, experienced a dramatic loss of honeybees and had a drastic drop in honey production. By this look at bees and beekeepers around the world we can truly see how we are part of the global communiity of beekeeping and how we can learn from each other and share useful information about honey bees and beekeeping. Thank you, Clive, for this wonderful presentation.

The Golden Hive Tool award (our President's choice of someone who has shown great dedication to the club and thereby improved people's experience of beekeeping) was awarded to Bill Rathfelder. Bill has been the LACBA treasurer for over six years, has volunteered at the LA County Fair Bee Booth for over ten years, goes to almonds every year with his fellow beekeepers, began keeping bees decades ago and has been interested in beekeeping for over fifty years. Bill is a beekeeper's treasure - always willing to share his experience and knowledge with new and long-time beekeepers. Congratulations, Bill on receiving this award. And, thank you!

Raffle!!! tickets sold for $1/each or 6 for $5. Members renewing for 2012 received 5 free tickets. Thank you to everyone who brought gifts for the raffle table. We had homemade jams, wines, gardening baskets, honey glasses, honey cups, honey pots, honey bee whirley gigs, honey bee scrunchies, a bee jacket from Mann Lake, a Cannon printer, and many more fabulous gifts!

Thank you to everyone who helped make this a lovely evening. And thank you to the many beekeepers and bee enthusiasts who realize, nurture, and share their knowledge of the importance of bees in our lives. Many Bee Blessings to all this holiday season!!

Our next LACBA meeting will be Monday, January 7, 2013 at 7:00pm! Hope to see you there!