July 2013 Meeting Agenda

COME JOIN US FOR OUR JULY MEETING!!

Below you can find our agenda so you can prepare questions, bring items for the auction, bring food to share with your fellow members, and find out how you can win the honey, beeswax, and photo contest in September!!

Alamo Area Beekeepers Association

Next meeting:  Tuesday July 16, 2013 at 6:30 p.m.

At Helotes Independent Baptist Church

15335 Orange Tower Road

Helotes, TX 78023Map to location

MEETING AGENDA

Ø  President’s Welcome & Visitors Intro by Rick Fink (5 min)

Ø  Approval of the May 2013 meeting minutes (5 min)

Ø Treasurer & Membership Report, Richard Trevino (5 min)

Ø  Presentation – Rick Fink – Techniques, Equipment and Issues – Collection of bees from swarms, buildings

Ø  2013 Youth Scholarship Program – Hive Update from the Scholarship     Winners (2 minutes per Scholarship Recipient)

Ø Program intermission & potluck dinner

Ø AABA September 2013 Meeting-Honey, Beeswax and Picture Contest

Ø  Texas Beekeepers Summer Clinic – June 1, 2013 – Attendee Report

Ø AABA Newsletter – Blog Format – Mind Your OWN Bee’s Wax - Mimi Stricker (5 min)

Ø Question & Answer Session

Meeting Agenda – submitted by Don Fraser

Action Items:

R. Fink – review final agenda and action items; mail to both AABA and non-AABA members; reminder to members regarding pot-luck.  The AABA will provide the meat dish with members asked to bring side dish-vegetables, dessert, salads etc.

R. Fink – Discussion of Swarm and Beehive collection.  Topic to include techniques and equipment used to collect swarms. Issues and techniques associated with collection of established hives in buildings and other structures.  Discussion to include responsibilities of the home owner and beekeeper.  Additional topics to include: how to hive the swarms (and keep them in the hive); combining two different colonies of hives to improve the strength of a hive; hive health issues associated with swarm collection when introducing swarms to established healthy hives in your apiary; questions to ask the homeowner with respect to prior attempts to kill hives in buildings or trees with insecticides and risks associated with the potential for insecticides in honey and beeswax comb collected during extractions.  Discussion may also include legal issues that need to be addressed regarding extractions of bees from homes and other structures.

Action Item - AABA Bee Scholarship Winners - List of recipients (see below).  Expectations for scholarship winners – take care of the bees, work with mentors, come to AABA meetings and provide a 1-2 min overview of their beekeeping activities.  The use of pictures, poster boards etc is encouraged.  Parents are encouraged to help their children with their 1-2 minute presentations; it is a great opportunity to learn presentation skills before a friendly and supportive audience.

The list of scholarship recipients include:

Parents	Children
Vonda and Curtis Bell	Nathan, Joshua and Alex (family award)
Laura Day	Jacob Boubel
Jenni Wilson	Nathan Wilson
Richard Lynn and Joni Lea Huber	Brenton Huber
Kelli and Stephen McKinney	Mayce, Ryland, Cadyn and Eyslie (family award)
Michael and Sue Laprise	Luke Laprise
Ricka Mueller	Abby Mueller
Mimi and Thadd Stricker	Chloe

Action Item - Mimi Stricker – print out 3-4 copies of the newsletter/blog for distribution at the meeting; discuss the type of things that the blog will contain e.g. meeting schedule, agenda of AABA meetings and events, interesting stories that relate to beekeeping from AABA members and state, national beekeeping organizations; links to beekeeping-related articles on bee health, marketing of products and services.  Remind AABA members how to access the blog web site.

Blog: Mind Your OWN Bee's Wax
Post: Alamo Area Beekeeper's July 2013 Newsletter
Link: http://aabanewsletter.blogspot.com/2013/07/alamo-area-beekeepers-july-2013.html

Action Item – TBD – 5 minute overview of events at the June 2013 TBA Meeting. 

TBA Summer Clinic http://www.texasbeekeepers.org/

Thursday, 16 May 2013 20:13 | Date: Saturday, June 1, 2013 Registration: begins at 10:30am Cost: $15 adults, $8 children (includes lunch) RSVP to Jimmy Oakley at info@wcaba.org by May 28, 2013 Location: Walker Honey Farm / Dancing Bee Winery 8060 E US Hwy 190, Rogers, TX 76569 o     Agenda : Walker Honey Farm and Dancing Bee Winery Tour o     Apiary Tour – hive inspections o     Palletized Langstroth Hives: hive treatments (protein, sucrose, Eos etc) o     Kenyan Top-bar hives used in Swaziland Beekeeper Training Program o     Honey Production Facility – extracting, comb storage, equipment: box dipping, standard operating equipment used at WHF o     Wine Production – fermentation, bottling and aging

2013 Events

Jan 15	Meeting *
Feb 2	Bottling Party 9am-1pm Pearsall, TX
Feb 2	AABA San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo Booth Set-up
Feb 7-24	San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo Come meet us at our booth
March 19	Meeting *
April 13	Field Day  Majestic Ranch, Boerne TX
May 21	Meeting *
July 16	Meeting *
Sep 17	Meeting * Honey, wax and photo contests
Nov 19	Meeting * Thanksgiving Dinner

Bi-monthly meetings are held 7-9 PM on the 3rd Tuesday 
of the ODD numbered months (Jan-March-May-July-Sept-Nov)
at Helotes Independent Baptist Church 15335 Bandera Rd
Helotes, TX 78023