AABA May 16th, 2023 Meeting

AABA Events, Club Business
09
May 2023

AABA May 16th, 2023 Meeting

Join us for our May AABA Meeting! It will be held Tuesday, May 16th, 2023 from 6:30-8:40 PM at Arlington Echo.

6:30   Hive Dive (weather permitting) // Q and A inside
7:00   Club Business
7:10   Skills Demo on walk-away and even splits
7:30   Break
7:45   Dr. Natalie Steinhauer: Bee Informed Partnership (BIP) Best Management Practices

BIP Best Management Practices

The Bee Informed Partnership (BIP) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to help beekeepers keep healthier bees.  BIP works with beekeepers throughout the industry, from small-scale hobbyists to commercial beekeepers.  BIP conducts monitoring programs to document the health of colonies throughout the country, as well as research projects to investigate factors likely to impact honey bee health. In this presentation, Dr. Steinhauer will present the most impactful results from BIP surveillance programs, distilled with the lessons learned from Field Specialists through their years of experience working with commercial beekeepers. In short: this is the BIP list of actionable recommendations to improve your management practices.

Bio:
Dr Steinhauer is an entomologist specialized in questions related to honey bee health. Originally fromDr. Nathalie Steinhauer Belgium where she completed a Master in Biology, and following a Master Research in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation from Imperial College London (UK), she graduated from University of Maryland Honey Bee Lab and, since 2018, has acted as the Research Coordinator for the Bee Informed Partnership. BIP is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving honey bee health, by bridging the gap between science and stakeholders, contributing to, and promoting research on honey bee health and beekeeping management practices. In particular, Nathalie has collaborated in the production and analysis of BIP’s Loss and Management Surveys (2013-present), and several other monitoring programs organized by BIP and UMD. She is a self-described R-enthusiast, and beekeeper since 2009.

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April 18th General Meeting

AABA Events
11
Apr 2023

6:30 Hive Dive if weather permits (bring your veil) or Q and A
7:15 Club Business
7:30 Break
7:45 Cody Ray: Moving to Sustainability: Making Splits

Making splits is essential as a beekeeper to use to maintain your hives, create brood breaks to reduce varroa levels, and allow you to procreate from your favorite queens.

Learn how Cody makes splits in his yard.

 

 

Brent “Cody” Ray was born in Arizona but grew up on military bases around the world. Cody joined the Army in 2007, where he met his wife, Michelle, and they married in 2009. An eclectic, he has Associate Degrees in Russian Studies from the Defense Language Institute and Intelligence Studies from Cochise Community College. However, he self-avowedly admits he just can’t choose a major for his Bachelor’s Degree. In 2020, after touring a friend’s apiary, Cody and his wife decided to add bees to their 1/4-acre urban homestead because gardens, berries, dogs, cats, rats, rabbits, and children just weren’t enough. Adding bees was a decision that blessed their lives immediately, helping Cody overcome deployment-related stress. Growing from 2 hives to 20, the only thing he admits to knowing is “not all that much,” but he is excited to talk bees and help anyone he can be a better beekeeper.

 
Cody Ray with a Swarm
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March 21st, 2023 Meeting

AABA Events
15
Mar 2023

Join us for our March AABA Meeting! It will be held Tuesday, March 21st, 2023 from 6:30-8:40 PM at Arlington Echo.

6:30   Q and A and club business, (too cold to do a hive dive).  Led by President Susan Beury 
6:45   Liz Mehalick: Beekeeper Injury Prevention
7:15   Break
7:30   Charles Kyler: Swarm Traps and Swarm Prevention

Liz Mehalick: Beekeeper Injury Prevention
Due to the nature of beekeeping, injury risk factors such as heavy lifting, high degrees of manual materials handling, twisting, and awkward positioning are commonplace. This presentation will stray away from the bees, and towards the health and safety of their human beekeepers. Liz will be applying her expertise on body mechanics and ergonomics to present on injury prevention in beekeeping. She will discuss ways to maintain beekeeper wellness when working with equipment by delving into injury prevention best practices and tips for working ergonomically.

Liz Mehalick, MS, ATC, CSCS, CEASll
Liz Mehalick is an athletic trainer that joined CIP Solutions as an injury prevention specialist inLiz Mehalick 2022. She is contracted with the nation’s largest utility company, Exelon, providing injury prevention, ergonomics, and health and wellness strategies to both field and office employees.

Liz graduated from Boston University in May 2021, earning her master’s degree in athletic training. Prior to her graduate studies, Liz completed her bachelor’s degree in kinesiology at the University of Maryland, College Park. Liz’s previous athletic training experience includes employment at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore and clinical rotations at Indiana State University, Harvard University, and Simmons University working with Division I collegiates.

Charles Kyler:  Swarm Traps and Swarm Prevention
Tis the season to get your swarm traps ready.  With this year’s interesting weather, buckle up, it will be a swarmy spring.  Charles will speak to swarm prevention and building swarm traps for our yards.  This is a timely talk for all of us.

Charles Kyler Bee Bio
A resident of Howard County, Charles started beekeeping in 2017 after he and his wife completed a beginners course.  Before completing the course, he took over management of a nature center’s observation hive and outside support hives.  

As an avid woodworker, he has made all of his equipment and has taught classes on the subject.  From the two packages he started with, his apiary count rose to four and then up to 40 hives. Charles Kyler

Charles uses traps to catch swarms, as well as using them for swarm removals.  Last year while doing an “intro yard” class, he had to switch gears to teaching a swarm class to catching a swarm, as a swarm landed on a fence post behind him.  What catching that swarm, another started to land two posts down.

He has caught swarms in Maryland as well as in Arizona, including Africanized colonies.  His passion for bees includes sharing his beekeeping knowledge and wordworking skills with others.  He is a longtime member of an an online bee wooden ware builders group that now numbers over 19,000 members world wide.

Charles has dabbled with queen rearing and even traveled to Arizona with a queen in his pocket.  He and his wife won Grand Champion at the Howard County Fair in 2019 for their creamed honey filled chocolates.  They started selling their honey in 2020.

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June 21st, 2022 AABA Meeting

AABA Events
31
May 2022

AABA May Meeting
Arlington Echo Nature Center Millersville MD
 
6:30 Hive dive and/or general Q and A discussion
Please bring your veil and protective gear if you are going on the hive dive.   This will be weather dependent.  There will always be beekeepers in the room to answer your questions.

7:00 Valerie Wampler on how to render wax

7:30 Valerie Wampler on Native bees and their importance.

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April 19th, 2022 AABA Meeting

AABA Events
03
Apr 2022

AABA Meeting on April 19, 2022
This will be an in person meeting at the Arlington Echo Nature Center, Millersville MD.

6:30 President Ryan Smith, open hive dive at Arlington Echo  *** Bring your veils
7:00 David Clark, Skill :  How to wire wax foundation properly
7:30 Russell Sprangel    Raising queens using grafting

Russell Sprangel is the current Vice President of Howard County Beekeepers and the past President and VP of Carroll County Beekeepers.  He is very active in Carrol County over his five years as a beekeeper attending every meeting and almost every outreach event.  These events are  to educate the community on the benefits of beekeeping and supporting all pollinators.  He teaches during the beekeeping calendar in the clubs training Apiary, all any aspects of beekeeping students ask for.  Early in his second year of beekeeping he decided that queen rearing could not be the black magic everyone said, and you should not need 10 years of experience to do it.  So, with a little book learning, and no formal instruction, he jumped in to find what the fuss was about.  Turns out it is magical, but in a good way, and can be one of the most rewarding aspects of beekeeping even on the small backyard scale.

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