November 16, 2021 AABA Meeting

Meeting to be held live at Arlington Echo Education Center and via zoom.  In-person means no technical snafus.   We will try to zoom as best as possible.·    Remember to bring in your drivers license for the raptor system. 

We are changing the format this month because we have important club business to conduct.  It is time for the AABA yearly elections.   At this point, if you want this club to grow and thrive, everyone needs to step up to help.    You do not need experience, or be the ultimate bee expert to be involved and help a newer beekeeper.  Sign up to use our listserv so more people see and can respond to questions, comments.  Volunteer to give a 20-30 minute talk at the beginning of the meeting on something you use in your beekeeping.  Who is the next gadget king/queen?   If you are willing to do a longer 1 hour talk, speak to Kim Mehalick.  Let’s all learn from each other.  There is a lot of experience in this association.

6:30 Oxalic Acid: how to apply and properly use
Mark Dykes UMD Bee Squad
The fall/winter is the appropriate time to use one of the most effective phoretic mite treatments. 

7:00   AABA Business:  Ryan Smith AABA President
Financial Report, Elections, Volunteers, Education, Program
Report out on Fall beekeeping interest class  (Debbie Hewitt)
Short Course for New beekeepers (Debbie Hewitt)
Introducing and signup for  New Bee Class (Year 2 and beyond) (Kim Mehalick)

7:20   The Hive as a Superorganism
A Honey Bee Human:  Physiology of a Superorganism
Crystal Lehmanking, EAS Masterbeekeeper

8:20 Q&A:  Led by President Ryan Smith
Last week people were talking in the parking lot until 9:30.  We have to vacate the building  by 9:00, but someone will stay to answer questions until we all go home.

A Honey Bee Human:  Physiology of a Superorganism 
Each of our honey bees is a individual organism, yet the colony also functions like an organism of its own.  Taken as a whole, the biology of a honey bee colony bears an amazing resemblance to that of a warm-blooded mammal – even to the human body.  And beyond just an idea, thinking of the colony this way, as a “superorganism,” can bring clarity to our management decisions in the apiary.  This presentation explores a number of the parallels between a honey bee colony and human physiology.

Crystal Lehmanking, EAS Masterbeekeeper
Although Crystal grew up with several beehives by the orchard at her homeplace in southeastern Pennsylvania, she did not have colonies of her own until her father set her up much later with two nucs and Starting Right with Bees.  By this time she and her husband had a boisterous houseful of boys on their working farm in Somerset County, Maryland, an ideal setting for the apiary.  Having recently retired from her medical practice, she jumped into honey bee biology and has not stopped learning since then, savoring every detail of the bees’ wild beauty and ordered physiology.  Since then her colony count has peaked at just what can be visited in a day, with 10 to 15 hives at five locations. She has also been involved in her local beekeeping club and the Maryland State Beekeepers Association, with the added benefit of the University of Maryland and Beltsville labs within arms reach across the Chesapeake Bay.     In more recent years she has expanded her knowledge base with master beekeeping studies, both at Cornell (2020), and EAS (2021).  She  currently teaches graduate pathophysiology at Salisbury University and keeps very busy on the farm with her husband and grandchildren, a large garden, and music ministry at her neighborhood church.