HOME PAGE OF THE OGLETHORPE COUNTY BEE CLUB
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Welcome to the Oglethorpe County Bee Club. Names have meaning and carry with them expectations. Our unimaginative name was deliberately choosen. Trying to manage honey bees necessarily makes one humble if you are not already there, and we think our name accurately describes us as an informal group of neighbors. Many of us are members of the Georgia Beekeepers Association and the Eastern Piedmont Beekeepers Association hosted by the University of Georgia Bee Lab at the Horticulture Farm outside somewhat distant Watkinsville, but our focus is more local. It is first to make us beekeepers and then beekeepers of our county neighbors.
We are here to especially help beginning beekeepers. Beekeeping is a unique mixture of tradition, experiment, and outright guesswork in managing social insects with minds of their own. One must first rely on others for bees, for advice and help in handling them, and for processing of the honey. The vagaries of weather and of insect behavior can be daunting. There are substantial costs in equipment and time. Frustration can take its toll before personally enjoying the pleasures and rewards of beekeeping. And the rewards are many, whether measured in number of hours simply enjoying watching the bees or in the number of gallons of honey or pounds of wax or pollen.
We hope to help others as we continue to be helped by our beekeeping friends. We think it not too unrealistic a goal to provide a local one-stop source for starter colonies and the knowledge of how to make them thrive. These pages detail our history and what we are doing and what we are learning. We hope you will find them of interest and will consider joining our club. We will be pleased to meet you.
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Renewal and New Memberships for 2012
Please consider becoming a member or renewing your membership for 2012. Print the membership form and mail it or bring it to a meeting. Dues are only $12 a year, or $1 for each of the months remaining in the year.
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21 November Monthly Meeting
Our guest speaker was Linda Tillman who talked about Low-Tech Beekeeping. The following is taken from her blog:
Linda now has hives at her home and maintains hives at two community gardens. To keep records of her beekeeping experiences, Linda started an Internet blog in April 2006 when she installed her first nucs (www.beekeeperlinda.com). She writes about her beekeeping learning experiences, her mistakes and her successes. On her blog she demonstrates her passion for natural beekeeping, using no poisons and foundationless frames, among other natural beekeeping practices. She has made and posted videos on basic beekeeping skills such as inspecting a hive, harvesting honey without an extractor, using a simple solar wax melter, and other topics. She posts frequently on her blog which is visited by people from all over the world, gets about 750 visits a day in busy season, and has almost 1000 subscribers.
When she is not enjoying her sideline interest in beekeeping, Linda has a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Vanderbilt University and is in private practice in midtown Atlanta. She also teaches in Emory's Department of Rehabilitative Medicine where she trains doctoral students in physical therapy to communicate well with their patients.
Linda uses only 8-frame medium boxes. This is for interchangeability, lower weight and more honey. The only downside is that one must start with package bees rather than nucs because nucs always use deep boxes.
She does not use foundation except for a narrow strip so that only 1/2 to 3/4 inch is exposed. In this respect the setup is very much like a top-bar hive. She had extensive comments about the wax tubes that are used to cement the strip into the foundation and has a video on how to use them properly. Linda also recommends replacing comb every year. Linda also demonstrated a very inexpensive solar wax melter and how to melt and purify wax.
There were plenty of other tips, including the use of Sonny-Mel beetle traps and robber/migratory screens. Of interest was her use of bee drapes to limit the exposure of frames when one is examining a colony. Use flour sack towels over those frames not being worked. They have a very tight weave that prevents entanglement of the bees and greatly reduces stress on the colony.
A delightful and very informative evening. Check out her blog and videos for more details.
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Photos by Glenn Galau © 2011
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17 October 2011 Monthly Meeting
Our speaker for the evening was Bob Binnie of the Blue Ridge Honey Company of Lakemont GA. In addition to managing a thousand colonies in northeast and southern Georgia and western North Carolina, Bob has been President of the Georgia State Beekeepers Association, a member of its Board of Directors, President of the Northeast GA. Mountain Beekeepers Association, and in 2003 he was awarded the Georgia State Beekeeper of the Year by the Georgia State Beekeepers Association.
We were delighted that he returned for another visit, the first being in 2009 when the Club was just organizing. In recognition of all the many things he has done for the Club, and frankly for also being a heck of a nice guy, he was recently awarded an Honorary Membership in the Club and after his talk Carol Williamson presented him with a framed certificate in recognition of this honor. We were pleased that his wife Suzette joined us for the evening.
It was a very informal presentation, which he opened by reading a passage from Fifty Years among the Bees by C.C. Miller (reissued in paperback by Dover Publications). Bob noted that beekeeping is 50% science and 50% art. To be successful, one must have an inventive mind to meet its challenges. The bees always keep you thinking.
Bob said the beekeeper's year starts in August when there is active management to ensure survival of the colony and its making the highest number of bees early in the year for maximum honey production. A lot more was said and discussion was extensive.
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Photo by Glenn Galau © 2011
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19 September 2011 Monthly Meeting
Our speaker for the evening was Dan Harris of Booger Hill Bee Company of Danielsville and Marietta. From the company webpage comes the following biography: "A decade ago I returned to school at the University of Georgia to work on a degree in horticulture. In the process, I took an elective 'Bee Biology and Management' and was bitten by the bug ... figuratively and literally. In addition to the apiary and bee outyards [of the company], I also organized a comprehensive annual training program that gives the aspiring beekeeper the fundamentals needed to establish and maintain a colony of honey bees."
Dan talked about Varroa mite; how to check for them and how to treat for them.
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The Club's Entry in the State Honey Show at the Georgia Beekeepers Association Fall Meeting
The Georgia Beekeepers Association held its fall meeting on September 10-12, 2011 at the Henry County Extension Office in McDonough, GA.
The high point of the event for our members at the meeting was The Club's entry in the State Honey Show's category of 'Local Club Display'. Contributors to the display included Betty Ward, Carol Williamson, Don Williamson, Wanda O'Callaghan, Patrick Phelps, Gregg Hudson, Duncan Gannon, and Gray. Although the Display may look somewhat small, rest assured a lot of work went into its design and construction and we thank our members for representing our Club in such a fantastic style. Shown below are (top) Wanda and Betty and (bottom) Gray and Carol. Gray is holding the tangible fruits of The Club's efforts, an Award of Merit. One more recognition of our Club and its impact on local beekeeping. Thanks to all who were involved!
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15 August 2011 Monthly Meeting
Our speaker for the evening was Wanda O'Callaghan. Wanda is a charter member of the Oglethorpe County Bee Club and has hosted many workshops with her hives in which we learned the basics of beekeeping. She is also the first of our members to become a Certified Master Beekeeper.
Wanda spoke about her recent extended visit to Honeypie Hives and Herbals in a presentation entitled "Can Beekeeping be a Business?" This summer Wanda spent 2 weeks with her niece's family in Prince Edward County, Ontario, Canada. The family has over 70 honeybee hives. Wanda explained how this family of four has become self-supporting with their business of beekeeping over the last ten years.
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18 July 2011 Monthly Meeting
Damon Wallace was our guest speaker. He is a native of Georgia, and a graduate of the University of Georgia as an Agricultural Engineer, living in Opelika, Alabama for the past 20 years. He has been active in beekeeping for the past 9 years. His beekeeping leadership roles include the Founding Vice President of his local beekeeping association, President of that club, Board of Directors Member of the Alabama Beekeeping Association, current Vice President of the Alabama Beekeepers Association, Master Beekeeper - University of Georgia / Young Harris College Bee Institute, and is a Certified Welsh Honey Judge. Damon loves to talk any honey bee topic to anyone or any group for as long as the folks hang around. He produces extracted honey, comb honey, candles and beeswax based cosmetics for distribution at special agriculture related events, as well from the homeplace back door.
He showed us how to make a skin cream from beeswax, olive oil, water, borax, Vitamin E and Tea Tree Oil. It was indeed an entertaining and informative evening.
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Photos by Glenn Galau © 2011
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20 June 2011 Monthly Meeting
Our guest speaker was J. Keith Fielder. Keith was one of our first guest speakers back on 15 February 2010. Keith Fielder is County Coordinator and Agent, Putnam County Cooperative Extension. He has held several offices in the Georgia Beekeepeer's Association; presently he is the Middle District Director of the Association.
The program concentrated on the biology of the honeybee, which must be understood in order to avoid many problems beekeepers have.
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Photo by Glenn Galau © 2011
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16 May 2011 Monthly Meeting
Our speaker was Robert Brewer, Jr. He is the County Coordinator of the Towns County Extension Office in Hiawassee, and has been a beekeeper since 1991. Robert was a co-founder of the annual Young Harris-UGA Beekeeping Institute and coordinates the Georgia Master Beekeeper Program. He is also a Certified International Honey Judge. He was recently awarded the 2010 Georgia Beekeeper of the Year by the Georgia Beekeepers Association. Please see his bio for more information.
Robert gave a detailed explanation of honey shows, how they are judged and how to prepare entries. There are a wide variety of categories from honey, to chunk and cut comb, frames, wax, to candles and more, each with their own set of rules for submission and judging.
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18 April 2011 Monthly Meeting
Our guest speaker was John Newman, a long-time member of the Eastern Piedmont Beekeepers Association who often gives talks and demonstrations to local schools and organizations. John has been keeping bees for over 23 years and usually breaks even in doing it! His bees have been chemical free for ten years. He related how he manages hives for maximum honey production and showed us his demonstration hive. The hive was fascinating in its construction and was the hit of the evening.
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21 March 2011 Monthly Meeting
Bill Owens of Owens Apiary and Georgia Bee Removal, and presently the webmaster of the Georgia Beekeepers Association, talked about Africanized Honey Bees in Georgia. The first Africanized colony was discovered in Albany in October 2010. Subsequent surveys and interviews by the State Agriculture Department found two additional colonies. Bill said it was just a matter of time before much of Georgia will have Africanized bees. He emphasized that there is a huge difference in the behavior of Africanized and Nonafricanized colonies, one which is easily recognized. Bill suggested several changes in how beekeepers handle swarms and colonies that will help protect beekeepers, family and neighbors and will also slow the northern advance of Africanized bees.
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Please contact Glenn Galau at glenn@ocbeeclub.org for requests directed to local beekeepers.
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