Allegany County fair 2008

Here is a picture from the Allegany County fair.

Some of you were able to see the "bee" at the August meeting / Honey Feast. The donated honey and wax figures brought $100 for the 4-H scholarship fund at the bake sale auction Tuesday evening.

A special thanks goes out to all who took the time to display some of their products and for those who came out and talked with the people about beekeeping. Thanks goes out to Harry Mallow for providing the observation hive each evening.

Honey Feast

Our meeting this month focused on foods and snacks that are made with honey. Members brought in their dishes and recipes. We discussed the recipes and then enjoyed the snacks. I provided some brief information about fall treatments that I had received from the Brushy Mountain
enewsletter. Perhaps this "Honey Feast " will become an annual event that coincides with the annual honey harvest time frame.

July Meeting

Several members were traveling to the Heartland Bee Association meeting in Huntington, WV this month. Mike Burkett provided the group with a demonstration of some honey extracting equipment.

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.

Late Night Visitor

I had a late night visitor to my small bee yard. Hopefully, you won't have this problem. I'm thankful for the PA Game Commission for their quick response. It could have been much worse.

Thursday evening, a bear happened into my bee yard after consuming my neighbor's bird feeders. Lucky for me, he had a bit of a full belly. Still you can see the damage done.

I called PA Game Commission by noon on Friday and registered my damage. An officer from the Game Commission called to investigate my complaint at 2:30 PM. By 4:30 PM, the same day, he dropped off the following baited trap.

The trap door was closed Saturday morning when I woke up and a 300 pound, male black bear made the misstake of thinking those doughnuts were a quicker meal than busting into the bee hives. He earned a free trip to the Ohiopyle area. There's a good chance he might be back. This time he will learn about electricity.

I was very impressed with the effectiveness of the PA Game Commission and how quickly they resonded. When everyone else was enjoying a nice holiday weekend, at least two people were on the clock and doing there job very well. Thanks guys!