March 2019 Newsletter editors: Holly Bayendor & Kathy Bourn PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE What a great conference! Thanks to all of you who drove to Augusta for the meeting. This was our first meeting on the east side of the state in recent memory. Our attendance was about the same as most spring meetings, so we appreciate all of you who drove a long way to get to Augusta. First, we need to thank the city of Augusta, especially Iman Hill. They put together goody bags for each of the keynote speakers. Augusta University worked well with us, and we had particular help from Pam Whitter and Renea Johnson. We had help at the site from student volunteers who are also beekeepers as well as their professors: Donna Wear and Zach Kelehear. The students helped with the lunch service, helped put out directional signs, and stepped up to the plate whenever we asked. Many special thanks to the Augusta area bee clubs. All of the snacks came from the Augusta clubs. The morning snacks and the afternoon cookie break were baked or provided by Augusta beekeepers. In addition, Augusta beekeepers contributed registration help, which really makes a difference in how we get people in the door. Pradeep Bapat, CW Hand, Robert and Dianne Holland (Dianne was working with a smashed thumb!) and David Logue all trained with me and then worked to reg- ister people. In addition, Augusta beekeepers David Logue and Lisa Hogue drove Kim Flottum to and from the conference to the Columbia, SC airport. We are very grateful to our sponsors for this meeting: Dadant and Mann Lake provided cash support. Rossman gave us two full hives and an extractor for auction. And Georgia Bee Removal provided our name tag lanyards. We appreciate all of the vendors who donated items for the door prizes. So much goes on behind the scenes to make the meeting happen. Gina Gallucci chairs the meeting committee and works tirelessly to negotiate with the meeting site, work out the food for our meals, and to arrange sponsors for our meeting, as well as a thousand other things. Holly Bayendor created our program with her graphic skills. Derrick Fowler works with the stu- dent registrants. Harvest Hoffman organized the nametags and designated for each tag the person’s membership and their attendance at the Friday dinner. Bobby Chaisson worked very hard stuffing all the name tags into their holders and attaching the ribbons, which was above and beyond the donation of the lanyards! Jennifer Berry arranged our keynote speakers. Brian Higgins, Gina, Derrick Fowler, Kathy Bourn, and Margaret Hogsed sold raffle tickets. Slade Mercer helped put out the direc- tional signs. Steve Esau did a fabulous job as auctioneer, and was quite funny in the process! Paul Berry worked tirelessly to handle registration problems and wrote checks for speakers, honey show winners, expenses. Thanks to all of you and anyone I left out of this list. The artisan show was replete with both beautiful art items and delicious goodies. Brutz and his crew of judges, secretaries, and stewards worked incredibly hard to cover all of the entries. Forty-three conference registrants entered the contest and entered so many categories that there were 172 entries to be judged. Thankfully, Katie Goodman set up a simple, quick entry process that everyone appreciated. Thanks to everyone involved in the honey show for a great job, well done. Our breakouts were well-attended and included topics for local clubs, continuing education for our honey judges, and really good keynote talks. I appreciate Bob Binnie who stepped in when Jennifer Berry had to cancel because of a family illness. Bob carted equipment all the way from Rabun County and did a great talk on splits and nucs in the spring. My children remind me frequently that I am O L D, so please forgive me if I forgot someone in all of these thanks. The GBA is a volunteer organization and everyone contributes mightily when they help in any way. We are so, so grateful for all of the help and will love to welcome anyone who would like to volunteer to help at the next meeting in the fall back at the Lanier Conference Center in Cumming. Bee well, Linda T Whether to Feed in thisWeather – by Jennifer Berry UGA Bee Lab It’s funny how much I pay attention to the weath- As we’ve been inspecting colonies we’re finding numer- er. I have six weather apps on my phone and probably ous frames of capped brood, and healthy populations of check each several times a day. If you’re a weather junkie workers, which is great! We are also seeing minimal to like myself, then you’re probably a bit dismayed by how no food stores which is not great! We pay close atten- crazy the weather has been as of late. The temperatures tion to food stores this time of year, and so should you. are all over the place: Spring one week, winter the next. If your colony is shy on stores, then you need to start When I started seeing the daffodils in January, and feeding, otherwise they will starve – which is one thing then red maples, Bradford pears, cherries, blueberries, we can absolutely, hands down, prevent from happen- and plums blooming in February, I was excited to see ing. And please, don’t get caught up in the rhetoric that such beauty, but nervous claims “if you feed your because we’re still weeks bees, they will become away before technically, dependent and lazy, we are out of the “frozen” and stop foraging, and woods. April 15th is the become welfare bees.” last frost date for our area. This is absolutely ridic- It will probably be updated ulous! If you’ve ever fed (if it hasn’t already) since bees before and a nec- our winters are getting tar flow started, they much shorter and much immediately ignore the warmer. sugar syrup and switch to the nutritious and However, this week, tem- yummy natural nectar. peratures are dropp ing well below freezing which There are many rea- is concerning. Blossoms sons why bees may are exceptionally tender not have enough food and most cannot handle stored, most of which such cold. They could die, which will end any pollen and has nothing to do with the bees, their genetic makeup, nectar flow the bees have been collecting. If you have being lazy, or otherwise. More likely, it has everything to worked your colonies lately, then you have probably do with poor location, extracting too much honey, badly noticed they have been bringing in loads of pollen; this timed swarms, improper management, too much or not triggers the queen to go into overdrive and begin laying enough rain and this rollercoaster, ever changing weath- 100s to 1000s of eggs each day. Once these eggs hatch, er. With all the issues our bees face today, (diseases, pes- they need to be fed. Overwintered honey stores become ticides, mites, lions and tigers and bears), the one thing depleted quickly and any nectar coming in is usually we can make sure of is that they don’t have to face star- consumed. This is a critical time for our bees since they vation! If you’re at all in doubt whether or not your girls may be relying solely on what they have been bringing in (and boys) have enough food, go ahead and feed. It can’t these past few weeks. If that flow stops, and there is no hurt. Here’s a link to an article which goes into more de- food, they will starve. tail about feeding methods and winter hive inspections. Daffodils in January, oh my! GBA 2019 Spring Conference Common Sense Natural Beekeeping – by Kathleen Bourn GBA Newsletter Co-editor That was the message from Kim Flottum, internationally known beekeeper, author, and editor of Bee Culture Magazine. His sessions during the Spring Confer- ence raised the question…what is natural beekeeping. He covered the areas of housing, health, food and management. His first suggestion, start with better bees and go from there. Kim volunteered that he thought if he gave this same talk two years ago he would have been drummed out of the conference. He finds that urban beekeepers are much more receptive to this beekeeping style. When asked about his own honey bee management he said “I aggressively don’t treat.” After his winter travels to conferences around the country, Kim said his Russian bees will be waiting Kim Flottum presenting at the GBA Spring Conference. for him when he gets back to Ohio in May. GBA 2019 Spring Conference GBA Artisan Show Best in Show Winner – by Sheryl Brousseau Sheryl Brousseau President, Ridge Beekeepers Edgefield, SC I was so excited to win Best in Show for my Artwork Related to Beekeeping entry titled “Pollinator’s Paradise,” and that it was by a unanimous judges’ vote! For many years I have expressed my artistic tal- ent through custom cake design, so it was a no-brainer for me to create a work of art using one of my favorite mediums…model- ing chocolate! I used one of the current popular cake decorating techniques, a bas relief method which can be a plain or embossed background combined with a very detailed layering effect, along with my love for making sugar flowers. Most of this piece was hand molded, though I did use a few tools to get the effect I wanted. As a final touch, I brushed on edible gold luster dust to give it a metallic finish.