General Meeting (May 2018)

The Capital Regional Beekeepers Association (CRBA) meets on the second Thursday of every month.

This meeting usually starts with a beginner’s corner 30 minutes before the regular club proceedings start around 7pm.

Agenda

• 6:30pm – New Beekeeper Corner (lower meeting room) – Don L
• 6:30pm – Intermediate beekeepers’ discussion (upper hall) – Bob L
• 7:00pm – Main meeting (upper hall)
  • Managing queens and splits – Heinz K – Stage area
  • Top bar hives – Tara B & Peter D – Entrance way and outside
  • Bee nutrition – Barry D – Lower level
  • Members will move between the three venues every 20 minutes to learn something new
• 8:00pm – Club business
  • Confirmation of First Vice President – Bill F
  • What’s in bloom – Nairn H
  • Swarm committee – Michelle M/Bill F
  • What to do in June – Larry L
  • Just so you know – All
• 8:30pm – Social: Coffee, tea and treats
• 9:00pm – Close

Minutes

Bill Fosdick, president, called the meeting to order at 7:10pm.

Bill gave an overview of what the members could expect at this evenings meeting. There will be 3 stations:

• Station One – on the stage – Heinz will be speaking to the members about queens and splits. He explained how he sets up his splits.
• Station Two – at the entrance of the hall – Tara and Peter will be speaking to the members about the difference of the Top Bar hives and the Warre hives and the Langstroth hive.
• Station Three – downstairs – Barry will be speaking to the members about nutrition that bees need to develop into a strong hive. He will be explaining how he developed his feeding regime.

Each one of these sessions was to be 20 minutes and then members would go onto another session.

General meeting commenced with Bill letting the members know that Carolyn Hissen is building the map and there are 5 areas where members can sign up.

Don Lambert has kindly volunteered to be the 1st Vice President of the Association.

Swarm season is upon us. Jody is mentoring Kimberley and Michelle to take over the  swarm committee.  In the last 2 weeks there have been 9 swarms.

May 29th is the “Day of the Honeybee” – there will be a celebration on the front lawns of the Legislature from 11am to 2pm.  Stan Reist has volunteered to provide approx 50 dummy bee hives.

Quadra Day – Greg Davidson – Saturday, May 12th

Barry Denluck spoke to the members about the BCHPA Conference in October 26, 27 and 28th that the CRBA is hosting. Web site is up and running,  Jeff is finalizing the speakers. He will need 20 volunteers to help organize and run this conference.

What to do in May in the hive – Larry Lindahl started with one of his down to earth stories. He mentioned that it is now swarm season, so check your hives for swarm cells, check the mite count, harvest the first honey, check the condition of your queen, most of all give them room, add boxes.

Just so you know:

Paul Petersen informed the members that he will be having queens coming in and they will be for sale.

Blaine Hardie also has queens for sale. 250-746-4389

Meeting adjourned at 9:08pm for refreshments.