OCBA Master Beekeeper Geneva Green will share her knowledge of nectar and pollen plants important to honey bees and other pollinators. Geneva works as the Specialty Gardens Crew Chief at UNC-Chapel Hill. She has a background in landscape design and knows which plants feed our bees while beautifying our landscapes.
Honey Bee Swarm – Mecklenburg County
Spring is a time to anticipate swarms and to attempt to adjust hive space and environmental conditions to keep your bees healthy, productive and at home. This month OCBA member, David Fruchtenicht, will help us understand how swarms operate and will discuss approaches to preventing them. He will also share clues about collecting swarms in swarm traps.
David has been keeping bees for 60 years. He modestly claims that he has perfected most of his mistakes. He keeps about 50 hives and has sold honey and beeswax candles at the Durham Farmers Market for many years.
Philip Moore, research scientist and field team leader at Eurofins Agroscience Services, will present “Bee Wary! Internet Based Beekeeping Resources.” Come and learn the good, the bad, and the ugly of beekeeping resources on the web.
OCBA’s Chris Apple, NCSBA Regional Director, awarded Journeyman Beekeeper Certificates to Lisa Vogel, Dawn Rogers and Philip Moore at OCBA’s January membership meeting. Lisa and Dawn are long time OCBA members. Philip is new to North Carolina, but was strongly encouraged to become an active member of OCBA.
Check out the “Who We Are” page for a complete list of OCBA’s Certified, Journeyman and Master Beekeepers.
James Withrow, a doctoral candidate in David Tarpy’s lab at NCSU will be OCBA’s featured speaker in January. He was originally scheduled to speak at our September meeting which was canceled due to Hurricane Florence. His research into queen selection during emergency queen rearing was recently published in PLOS One, an open access, online, peer-reviewed journal. OCBA is fortunate to have access to cutting edge researchers willing to share their findings with local beekeepers.
In his presentation, “Sharing the throne. Establishing honey bee colonies with multiple queens,” James will discuss his current research focused on queen behavior and setting up colonies with multiple queens.