March 16th, 2021 AABA Meeting

AABA Events
07
Jul 2023

March 16th, 2021 AABA Meeting

Record Keeping for the Backyard Beekeeper

Keeping good records is something we know we should do but don’t always manage to do it. Tracking the health of your hive and the actions you took in previous inspections can help you make the right decision for managing the health and productivity of your bees. Jan will share methods of keeping track, provide brief reviews of some online tools/apps that some folks find helpful, and share sample inspection sheets for attendees to try.

Jan Poston Day is in her eighth year as a beekeeper on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. She is Vice President of the DC Beekeepers Alliance and active in BUMBA.  Jan recently launched a honey and beeswax candle company called Second Story Honey.

Methods of Splitting Hives & Swarm Preparation

During the months of April & May in Maryland we enter the prime time for making splits and capturing swarms. This discussion will cover hive splitting methodologies for creating new hives and preventing swarms. We’ll also discuss swarm response and options for swarms post-recapture.

Charles DeBarber is the Animal Caretaker at Baltimore City’s Filbert Street Garden. At Filbert Street Garden he manages Maryland’s largest community garden beeyard encompassing 25+ hives. He is known as a local “swarm chaser” in the region capturing feral bees each spring.

Zoom meeting Details:
Anne Arundel Beekeepers Association is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: March AABA monthly meeting
Time: Mar 16, 2021 06:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
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Meeting ID: 867 8609 0461
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Meeting ID: 867 8609 0461
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February 16, 2021 AABA Meeting

AABA Events
07
Jul 2023

February 16 AABA Meeting

We are excited to have a wonderful meeting planned.  We will start our meeting with Q&A followed by a nice presentation from Dr. Rebecca Krimins on how to continue your beekeeping education.  Our keynote speaker is the highly entertaining and educating Dr. Sammy Ramsey.

FEB 16, 2021 AGENDA (Zoom Meeting)

6:30pm Q&A with President Ryan Smith
7:00 pm Dr. Rebecca Krimins:  “Are You Maintaining Your Honey Bee Education?”
7:28 pm Drawing for a free signed copy of Bee Optimism: Translational Research Can Rescue Honeybees and Other Pollinators by Dr. Jay Evans.  This gift is offered by the author, who leads the USDA Bee Research Laboratory in Beltsville MD.  Drawing will be done using a random number generator, since we are meeting online.
7:30 pm   Dr. Samuel Ramsey: “Varroa destructor Feeds on Bee Blood and Two Other Alternative Facts”.

Rebecca KriminsDr. Rebecca Krimins:  “Are You Maintaining Your Honey Bee Education?”
Rebecca will speak to AABA members and discuss educational options available to beekeepers that can grow their education and why beekeepers should be using at least one of these mechanisms (and preferably all of these mechanisms) to improve their skill level. Rebecca is the current AABA librarian.

Dr. Rebecca A. Krimins is a resident of Anne Arundel County and became interested in beekeeping while in graduate school.  However, due to time constraints and multiple international moves, she had to push off her pursuit of beekeeping until she settled in Anne Arundel County and became a member of AABA, signing up to take her first short course in 2017.  Since then, she has enjoyed backyard beekeeping with two hives located in Edgewater, Maryland.  During her day job, Rebecca is a veterinary anesthesiologist and Assistant Professor of Radiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Dr. Samuel RamseyDr. Samuel Ramsey: “Varroa destructor Feeds on Bee Blood and Two Other Alternative Facts”.
Dr. Samuel Ramsey  will speak on “Varroa destructor Feeds on Bee Blood and Two Other Alternative Facts”. Varroa destructor feeds exclusively on the hemolymph (or blood) of immature bees. It’s considered to be such an obvious fact that it often goes without citation now in scientific papers. But there is very little if any experimental support for this universally accepted conclusion.  Dr. Ramey’s thesis work, in partnership with the USDA and Project Apis m, has shown that Varroa are actually feeding on a very different tissue, the fat body, leading to a diverse combination of health impacts that have never been fully explained by feeding on hemolymph alone. With a better understanding of how this parasite impacts its host, we can develop novel forms of control and new methods to remediate the health issues common to infected colonies.

 

 

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January 19th, 2021 AABA Meeting

AABA Events
07
Jul 2023

Jan 19th AABA Meeting

Tuesday Jan 19th   –
6:30 Open Discussion, and Q&A  led by President Ryan Smith
7:00 Mike Halbig – My Journey through  Bee Literature
7:30 Did You ever want to try commercial beekeeping?  Fred and Daniel Smith


Fred and Daniel Smith:

Fred and Daniel Smith are 3rd and 4th generation commercial beekeepers in western Maryland.  They operate roughly 600-700 hives doing pollination in WV, VA, MD and DE on crops like blueberries, cherries, apples, watermelons, and cucumbers.  They also pack and produce roughly 2000-3000 pounds of honey every year.  All this is done with Fred working a full-time job and Daniel pursuing a bachelors degree at the University of Maryland and working at the UMD Bee Lab.

 

Mike Halbig:

Mike Halbig has lived in Annapolis for nearly fifty years.  Retiring from the Naval Academy  in 2012, he started beekeeping shortly thereafter under the guidance of Lloyd and Doris Luna, with the AABA Beekeepers.  He’s a lifetime member of EAS and has attended EAS annual meetings in West Chester PA, Newark DE, Hampton VA and Greenville, SC where in 2019 he made his first attempt at the EAS Master Beekeeping Exam (1 for 4).  He’s has worked in Denis vanEngelsdorp’s lab at the University of Maryland and Jay Evans’s lab at the Agricultural Research Service.   His readings in the immense beekeeping literature have been somewhat circuitous and elliptical; tonight he’d like to talk about his favorite books along the way.  He keeps two colonies in his small backyard in downtown historic Annapolis.

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December 15, 2020, AABA Meeting

AABA Events
07
Jul 2023

December 15th is our next AABA meeting.  Remember to set aside the third Tuesday of every month.

6:30 Q and A moderated by President Ryan Smith  all welcome

7:00 David Schultz will offer our Skills demo : Ventilation Boxes

Learn how David Schultz uses Ventilation boxes year round in his hive management.  He will discuss design considerations, and implementation

7:30 Keynote Talk “Honeybee Hive Infrared Thermography”.

In David’s presentation “Honeybee Hive Infrared Thermography” He will explore honeybees through the infrared light spectrum. He will show how the sun and our bees influence the honeybee hive and how we as beekeepers may be causing unintended impact to our colonies. He will also reveal tips and techniques that will help those of you using IR cameras in your apiaries to interpret your images.

 

David Schultz

David began keeping bees with his wife in 2014 and has grown his apiary to over 20 colonies located at his homeyard and several outyards. For the past several years David has been teaching, with his mentor Philip Krista, the Honeybee Outyard Continuing Education group meetings held weekly teaching hands on beekeeping skills and helping to mentor new beekeepers. In 2019 David started his journey to become an EAS Master Beekeeper. David has been active in the Howard County Beekeepers Association and is the past Vice President and current President of the club.

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Tuesday November 17, 2020 AABA Online Meeting

AABA Events
07
Jul 2023

Tuesday November 17
6:30 meeting open discussion begins, all welcome
7:00 Winter Feeding for Bees, Debbie Hewitt
7:30 Observing Honey Bees at Home  Frank Linton, EAS Masterbeekeeper

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83546369592?pwd=dHJVOUF0V0NkUXlONHpVYnFpNlRZQT09

Meeting ID: 835 4636 9592
Passcode: 577983
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Dial by your location
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington D.C)

Meeting ID: 835 4636 9592
Passcode: 577983
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kc4MpDHlB6

Observing Honey Bees at Home
You cannot be a good beekeeper if you don’t know much about bees. And it is hard to learn much about bees when they are hidden away in an opaque wooden box in a far corner of the yard. What to do?

One possibility, one I learned a lot from, and recommend, is to keep a small colony in a glass hive in your house, an observation hive. I kept an observation hive in the room where I spent a lot of time, and every time their tone changed, I took a look.

I saw more in a year than many backyard beekeepers see in a lifetime. And every year is different. In this talk I will show you how to keep bees in an observation hive and provide several examples of the ‘learning opportunities’ that the bees gave me.

Frank Linton, Ed.D, retired artificial intelligence engineer, and Research Associate at Appalachian State U., has kept honey bees since 2005. An EAS-Certified Master Beekeeper, one of his main interests is in finding ways to use remote sensing technologies to monitor and improve honey bee colony health and productivity.

Author of The Observation Hive Handbook, maintainer of the websites thebeepeeker.com and colonymonitoring.com, contributor to beekeeping magazines, invited speaker at beekeeping associations and civic groups, and mentor to new beekeepers, Frank runs a few hives near his urban apartment and invites swarms of honey bees to take up residence on his balcony.

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Introduction to Beekeeping

AABA Events
12
Nov 2020

Are you thinking about having honey bees in your backyard or just interested in bees? Find out what is involved in taking care of honey bees and the time and financial commitment involved. We’ll give an overview of setting up for bees, seasonal management, maintaining healthy bees, and the rewards of keeping bees (not just honey!) that will be covered in greater detail if you take the AABA Short Course.

 

Time: Nov 18, 2020 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89757063870?pwd=WUUya2g5TWk1MVBYOXVWZ2ZJcHJUdz09

Meeting ID: 897 5706 3870
Passcode: 418263
One tap mobile
+13017158592,,89757063870#,,,,,,0#,,418263# US (Washington D.C)
+13126266799,,89757063870#,,,,,,0#,,418263# US (Chicago)

Dial by your location
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington D.C)

Meeting ID: 897 5706 3870
Passcode: 418263
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kc4MpDHlB6

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October 20th, 2020 Online Meeting

AABA Events
20
Oct 2020

AABA October Meeting Agenda  (Check email for meeting information)
October 20, 2020/via Zoom   7 – 9 pm

Introduction

Main Speaker – Cybil Preston, State Apiary Inspector

  • Maryland Beekeeping, Bee Inspection, & What’s New with MD Dept of Agriculture

Business meeting

Treasurer’s report

AABA Bylaws and Constitution
We will vote to approve bylaws using a Zoom poll
(You may only vote if you have paid your dues for 2019 or 2020)

Elections for 2021 Board
Zoom poll for general membership approval 
(You may only vote if you have paid your dues for 2019 or 2020)

[Please consider volunteering for open positions or assisting other positions]

2021 Slate of Candidates

Club Officers

President – Carl Guerci Jr.

Vice-President – Ryan Smith

Treasurer – Dennis Roundy

Secretary – open

Director – Jim Larson

Director – Michael Doyle

Media Editor – Audrey Lee

Club Chairpersons

Webmaster – Gina Jones

Short Course Coordinator – Deborah Hewitt

Program Coordinator – open

Mentor Coordinator – Matt Gill

Club Rentals – Chrissy Perry

Snacks – Deni Estrada-Palma

County Fair Coordinator – Michael Doyle

Librarian – Rebecca Krimins

Photography – Susan Huber, Rebecca Krimins

Door Prize Coordinator – Dwight Fielder

Swarms Coordinator – Carl Guerci Jr.
_______________________________________________________________

Hive management Question/Answer Time
_______________________________________________________________

Upcoming Events 2020

Maryland State Beekeepers Association  [https://www.mdbeekeepers.org/]

November 7, 2020    Fall Meeting via Zoom, Randy Oliver
______________________________________________________________
Upcoming Events 2021
AABA Meetings [via Zoom until further notice]

Tuesday, February 16     7 – 9 pm
[Speakers and topics to be decided – we welcome suggestions]

Tuesday, April 20           7 – 9 pm
Tuesday, June 15          7 – 9 pm
Tuesday, August 17       7 – 9 pm
Tuesday, October 19     7 – 9 pm     ______________________________________________________________

Maryland State Beekeepers Association [https://www.mdbeekeepers.org/]

February 13, 2021    Winter Meeting via Zoom, Dr. Tom Seeley

June 12, 2021        Spring Meeting, Dr. Jaime Ellis

 

2021 Apiary Registration – Remember to register your bees – registration is free.

  • See the Maryland Department of Agriculture website for Apiary Inspection or the AABA minutes at aabees.org for complete information.

 

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AABA Meeting August 18, 2020

AABA Events
10
Aug 2020

Dear Members,
Please join us for the Anne Arundel Beekeepers Association August 18, 2020 meeting, via
Zoom.

The meeting will begin at 7:00 PM with some introductory comments. Our speaker will be
Allen Hayes, Master Beekeeper. He will be discussing preparing for the EAS Master
Beekeeping exam.  This is an opportunity to learn what resources are available to help you
become a better beekeeper.

Following a Q & A for Allen we will have an opportunity for the newer beekeepers to get advice
and ask questions about what they are seeing in their hives.

Once again, the DC Beekeepers Alliance is loaning us their zoom account.  The waiting room
will open at 6:30 PM – Eastern Time, to work out any kinks.

You are invited to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Thank you, your moderator, Carl F. Guerci Jr.

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