More Photos - June 21st Field Day

Janet Kessel took a lot of photos at the Field day. Here is a slide show of her photos. Thanks Janet.

Beekeeping Field Day 6-21-08

Many AMBA members attended the beekeeping field day held at Camp Hickory in Accident, MD on saturday June 21st. Camp Hickory is tucked away in the woods behind the North Garrett High School and the North Garrett Middle School currently under construction. Its an environmental education center for all ages of students. The class room was very nice, you'll notice all of the taxiderminy around the room. It was just a short walk to the filed site. Before the meeting even began a swarm was captured right by the building. We very much appreciate the work that the Garrett county club did to set up the meeting and it gave us a good opportunity to meet members of the Garrett county club. We invitd them to our palnned Honey feast which will be held August 8th. WV Apiarist George Clutter gave a presentation and discussed many of the support programs for beekeepers that WV has implemented. Bob Noel gave a presentation about the formic acid research that he and Dr Amrine had been doing. The wetaher was very nice and it was a very field day event. Oh and the chicken lunch was exceptional.

June Meeting - Guest Speaker Toni Burnham

At our June meeting, Toni Burnham, beekeeper and author of the City Bees blog (citybees.blogspot.com) gave us an outstanding presentation about her experiences in beekeeping in the Washington DC area. We sincerely appreciated her driving up to Cumberland for the meeting. She keeps hives on her rooftop in DC and at several other locations. Her City Bees blog is a record of her experiences as she learned beekeeping, expanded to other locations, and began speaking to other groups about beekeeping. In addition to her rooftop, she has astutely found private, protected locations for beekeeping in an urban setting including a monastery and a public park. In short she is a case study of what beekeepers go through in learning beekeeping, expanding, and then trying to share the knowledge by mentoring others. Her City Bees blog is how she has documented and passes on what she has learned. She described the wide range of bee friendly plantings in range of her residence. She also brought a large selection of her soaps that she has made and she very graciously gave our members samples. It was an exceptional lesson in overcoming any potential obstacles that might have prevented beekeeping in her setting. Her spirit of giving, and her willingness to share her beekeeping experiences, are key indicators of her success. We sincerely appreciated her visit and presentation.