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Message from the President
Updated 6/15/22
WE NEED A BIG SHOW OUT THIS NEXT MEETING PLEASE!!! FIND OUT WHY DOWN BELOW! I KNOW LIFE GETS IN THE WAY, but lets give a great show out to our speaker this month. It will be worth your time!
This last meeting was a hit! We had one of our very own master beekeepers, Marlin Athearn give us a talk on a very valuable approach to beekeeping! I want to give him a big shout out and a huge thanks for doing a talk on “Being a Hive Detective”. He helped us to understand many things that may not be apparent when looking in our beehives, and what to do about it – an important skill to anyone keeping bees at any level – from looking at the brood pattern, to even what the hive smells like. It takes years of practice to operate at the level at which Marlin is mastering. We had a day in the bee yard this past month that Larry Hirt was most gracious to host at his home with the best darn tootin’ blueberry cobbler this side of the Mason Dixon Line. I look forward to another DITBY again in the near future.
There were 29 people present in the meeting.
The meeting was brought to order at 6:32 and adjourned at 8:18
There was no old business to discuss.
There were two new items in discussed in our May meeting:
Bee College – a motion was made to purchase a ticket for a member of the club in good standing Vetaley Stashenko – a motion was made to pay for Vetaley’s stay from the club funds during his time in Deland as he talks for our next meeting, June 22, 2022; as he will be traveling and does not need lodging accommodations, we will give him a gas stipend for taking time to show up and speak for our club.
Speaking of Vetaley, I need you all to do your best to make it to this next meeting! We have a great speaker with incredible value for beekeepers of all levels. Dr. Stashenko will be speaking on apitherapy, the practice of using honey bees and bee related products from the hive for beekeepers to add other services to their already existing clientele. He will guide us down a new avenue to our western culture that will be opened up for exploration by giving us valuable insights from his medical background and time as a university professor. He will be bringing a partner with him as he is traveling with a commercial beekeeper so we will have two experts in their respective fields speaking on honey bee related topics. Let’s show them an incredibly warm welcome and bless him with a huge crowd! Please bring your friends and reach out to that tentative, future beekeeper you always hear say “Oh I always wished I could get into beekeeping, I just never got around to it…” THIS IS THE MEETING TO PUSH THEM INTO THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF KEEPING BEES! Let’s grow our club!!!
I am so excited for this next meeting!
Lastly, the club voted to fund a ticket for bee college this next round.
Location: 4750 Collegiate Drive, Panama City, FL 32405
Time: August 12 – 13, 2022 (Friday and Saturday)
Details: The purchase of a ticket to Bee College is being awarded to a club member in good standing; they must be a new member – less than 2 consecutive years as a member to the club. The recipient of the ticket must arrange their own transportation and lodging. Given the short amount of time between now and the meeting before Bee College, you must be at the June and July meeting (please make sure you are signed in). Time is too short to create an objective rubric and execute the measuring of those requirements within a reasonable amount of time to award a member of the club the ticket; so, it will have to be a drawing at the July meeting. We will draw a name of those that have shown up to this next week’s meeting, and conduct a drawing at the July meeting of those who are serious about the possibility of Bee College. If you are interested in being part of the drawing or have questions, comments or concerns, please email me at NicholasJay@kairosdeland.com or call me at (386)295-6459.
Again, let’s have a great show out this next Wednesday at the Agriculture Center at the Volusia County Fairgrounds at 6:30PM for Dr. Vetaley Stashenko, PhD, Naturopath Dr. & RN.
Respectfully,
Nick “The Bee Pimp” Johnston
President 2022 – Volusia County Beekeepers Kairos Landscaping & Bee Pimp Apiaries Deland FL
(386)295-6459