As the Organic Beekeepers yahoo.com discussion group has now grown in members, we have put together our first meeting for an American Beekeepers Association, for beekeepers into organic beekeeping, to come together to associate for clean sustainable beekeeping with no treatments. Meeting to be held in Oracle, Arizona at the YMCA Triangle Y Ranch Camp and Retreat Center 15 February through 17 February 2008. The meeting will start Friday afternoon with Friday Night Hello’s/Dinner, run all day Saturday, and through Sunday afternoon with keynote presentations, general sessions, breakout sessions, hands-on workshops, with six catered meals. Dinner for Friday night Hello’s will also have speakers, along with Saturday night dinner. Vendors welcomed. The fee for meeting includes: choice of accommodations in cabins (dormitory style 6 bunks 2 singles per cabin in 4-5 cabin groupings) for as low as $80 per person dependent upon participation, or 2 lodges with 7 rooms that hold up to 4 people ($155pp sgl, $145pp dbl, $135 pp 3-4), six catered meals, and no fee for attending meetings since meeting room(s) are free relative to booking of accommodations. Also, no fee for vendors other then normal lodging costs for meeting/catered meals.

For more information see: http: //www.tucsonymca.org/site/c.grLOK1PJLqF/b.691235/k.D62C/Retreat.htm or visit Organic Beekeepers at http://group.yahoo.com/group/organicbeekeepers/ or contact Dee Lusby for information/registration at: 520-398-2474, Cindy for Program Planning; airline discounts at: 810-329-6641. Joe Waggle for General info: 724-694-5756, Scot McPherson for General info: 563-324-0848.

If you wish to organize and reserve a seminar, please print and read “How to book and Organize a Seminar” available from the seminars link on the main menu of the www.mitegone.com website and then contact Bill at billruzicka@mitegone.com, ph/fax: 1-250-762-8156.

You must book your seminar at least 3 months in advance and before the 15th of each month in order to have your seminar details published here in ABJ. For example: a seminar in October should be
published in the September and October issues and to get it into these issues it must be booked by July 15th. PLEASE THINK AHEAD – BOOK NOW!

Year Round MODESTO CALIFORNIA Practical instruction and courses

Register with: Matt BeekmanTel: 1 (209) 988-2823 Email: mattbeekman@usa.net

Summer 2007 – April 15 – September 30 KELOWNA BRITISH COLUMBIA

Practical instruction, mite recognition, testing, and test result interpretation. Learn how to find resistance and treatment efficacy on the first day of a treatment on 24 test hives before you spend money treating all of your hives. This is a great way to justify a trip to the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia and Alaska cruise.

Year Round - TELECONFERENCE SEMINARS

This one hour question and answer format teleconference is for clubs, groups, or individuals in conference calls.

Register with: Bill Ruzicka Tel/Fax: 1-250-762-8156 Email: billruzicka@mitegone.com

For those who are unable to attend Bill’s seminars, he is revising the web site and the Formic Acid Handbook and Manual of Treatments suitable for personal study or local bee club presentation. Check for revisions before each use. These articles are available free on the Internet by visiting www.mitegone.com. The handbook in tabloid production is available to clubs by mail for $10 USD for 20 copies including postage and it is great to use with teleconference seminars.

The EAS annual conference is proceeded each year by a Short Course (Aug 6-10). Bee colony activities are a prominent feature of the Short Course and the ‘Walk in the Apiary’ workshops are popular features at each conference. Instruction directly in the bee colonies is an excellent way to learn from bee Masters – well worth the registration fee to see and learn from the best mentors available.

The 2007 EAS Short Course will be in a working apiary; most conferences utilize bees moved to the conference site itself. The University of Delaware has had a working apiary since the 1960’s, begun to provide pollination for the varieties of fruit being researched on the University farm. For the last 30 years it has also served as a teaching apiary for the popular undergraduate beekeeping lecture and lab courses.

The UD apiary normally consists of up to 30 colonies and includes a small building that holds smokers and bee items plus empty supers. There is additional storage and extracting facilities in a nearby barn. Each year, the spring beekeeping class establishes package bees, captures a swarm (conveniently hung the night before class in a low hanging black cherry), makes divides as part of swarm control on overwintered colonies and prepares colonies for summer pollination duties.

At the annual Short Course and Conference, EAS has designated Bee Wranglers to be sure colonies are ready for instructors. Wranglers insure all equipment is in place to assist the workshop presenters and to help in “read” of the colonies. This year Bill Troup will be the EAS wrangler, a function he has been doing since the 2000 EAS in Maryland. Bill will have able assistance from DE apiary inspector Bob Mitchell and NC Apiary supervision Don Hopkins.

Bill Troup takes an EAS vacation each summer, now from his half-time MD Apiary Inspector position. Bill is owner/operator of HoneyField Apiaries of western MD. Bill manages 150 colonies in MD with wife Nancy. Both he and Nancy are EAS Master beekeepers, passing the tests at the 1990 Salisbury, MD EAS. Both are very active in training of new beekeepers through the Hagerstown Valley bee club and other county associations in MD. Bill retired from MD Weights and Measures in 2003 and Nancy last year from the Washington County school system, so they can do bees “full time” now.

Bob Mitchell will also be a DE EAS Bee Wrangler this season. Bob started bees in 1972 when he was working alongside his dad on the family farm in Lewes, DE (alongside coastal DE). The farm produced vegetables and pollination was considered necessary, so when Bob found bees available from a recently deceased beekeeper he took them over. He split those colonies which allowed for expansion of their fresh vegetable production. Honey was sold at the farm market, alongside other farm produce.

The second state apiary inspector, who will help wrangle the bees in the University apiary and the hives moved to the EAS Convention site at the University of Delaware Clayton Hall conference center this year, will be Don Hopkins. Don is state apiarist of North Carolina. He supervises a staff of 6 full-time inspectors in North Carolina and is a very active manager, more often in the field performing inspections than supervising from his office. He, like Bill and Bob, brings lots of teaching and beekeeper experience to the EAS attendees.

Both Don and Bob have been active with Partners of Americas in beekeeping development projects. Bob experienced his first Africanized bees in Panama with the award-winning DE-PNA beekeeping project. Don has participated in Partner projects in Haiti and Bolivia, as well as Kazakhstan, with 11 overseas assignments focusing largely on diseases and varroa mites.

Like Bill Troup, both Don and Bob are very active with in-state Short courses and workshops. In addition to their skills in diseases and mites, all three wranglers bring a practical, down-to-earth approach to bee colony management. All are masters at hive inspection. It is a pleasure to merely watch them manipulate a colony and “read” the bees so effortlessly. All three are real beekeeping artists.

These three EAS Bee Wranglers are a great resource to assist EAS Short Course and Conference attendees learn how and why to inspect bee colonies. The extensive bee sessions during the short course and our ‘walk in the apiary” arranged for every workshop period utilizes different experts, who with the assistance of EAS Bee Wranglers, make each bee colony visit an invaluable training experience. EAS is fortunate to have such skilled and highly effective bee wranglers. I and the three Bee Wranglers invite you to come and experience colony inspection from/with the best. EAS will be held August 6-10 at the University of Delaware. See easternapiculture.org website for program details, registration forms and details on the conference and short course.