| PRESIDENT’S LETTER KERRY OWEN June 1. 2010 Pickens County Beekeepers will meet Thursday evening June 10th at the Farm Bureau Office on Hwy 178 between Liberty and Pickens. Those who would like to take the practical test should meet before the meeting at 4pm. You must have 1 year of beekeeping experience in order to take the exam. Bring all beekeeping protective clothing smokers and anything you need to work bees. I have 647 beehives certified by the Farm Service Agency and located in Pickens County we will tour some of the yards close to the Farm Bureau office for your exam I hope it will be fun as well as rewarding for you. • 4pm Practical Field Test • 6pm Refreshments & Fun Time • 7pm Club discussion and business • 7:30 Dr. Calhoun will Discuss Health Benefits of Honey • 8:30 Raffle & Door Prizes (bring money for raffle must sell more for giveaway) State News South Carolina Beekeepers will meet July 15-17 at Clemson University all are encouraged to attend. Our club could win an award for attendance and the meeting will be very important to your beekeeping skills. • SCBA State Fair Booth Rules • Boy Scouts and Bees • Fund Raising • Grant Committee Report I have to agree with others that the May meeting was possibly the best meeting we’ve had because of the social time allowed not to mention - the attendance was outstanding. What do you think about a social night at Michaels Pizza in Easley on July 8th at 7pm? We have plenty of money and could afford to do it out of our funds, naturally we would only pay for pizza and non-alcoholic beverages. I know for sure it would be fun and we can discuss it at our meeting so think about it. When it’s this rainy remember to only pull capped honey frames and leave the uncapped behind. The bees will eventually cap it hopefully with sourwood, we do have sourwood trees scattered around us and they will be blooming soon. Hopefully the rain will give us a break and we will make a few more pounds of honey. This is also a time of swarming (yes there is a second swarm season). I think overall the honeyflow has been pretty good maybe the best I’ve seen for Clover and Vetch but others such as persimmon was affected by hard rains. The blooms fell off way to fast. Since we had very few swarms in the early spring be prepared for late swarms. Bee well, Kerry |
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