Spilling the Honey. Editors: Gina Gallucci and Linda Tillman

Spilling th Hony GBA Monthly Nwslttr Editors: Gina Gallucci and Linda Tillman January 2014 Photo by Brutz English. Bkpr in photo is Wayn Hughs of Upson County, GA This is th covr photo of th GBA Facbook pag. Hav you visitd? Th pag run by Brutz English is full of hlpful posts and information. Bar oftn posts - you can, too! Plas us th Facbook pag as a way to shar information about bs and bkping. Hr's a link to th pag. Mssag from th Prsidnt Happy Nw Yar to all. I hop vryon had a wondrful holiday sason and you r rady to mov on to 2014. (Oops! it s too lat, w r alrady in it!) I would lik to ddicat this yar to th nw mmbr: thos who may not b mmbrs yt or thos who hav just joind our association. A potntial nw mmbr may vry wll b an xprincd Gorgia bkpr. As I hav movd about th stat sinc Sptmbr, I m finding that w hav so many bkprs in Gorgia that thy can t all b countd. I rcntly had a mting with Mr. David Williams, Th Suprvisor of Bhiv Inspctors for th Gorgia Dpartmnt of Agricultur. H assurd m that thr ar wll ovr 2,000 bkprs in our stat. Hobbyist, part timrs and commrcial apiaris ar

GBA January 2014 Nwslttr Pag Two in almost vry county throughout th stat. But whn you look on our Club map on th wbsit, thr ar many aras that don t rflct any activity. As far as currnt mmbrship, w hav a littl mor than 300 mmbrs in th Gorgia Bkprs Association. That is lss than 15% of th bkprs in our stat. What hav w bn doing wrong? Our Spring Mting is nxt month and sadly w only xpct about 100 mmbrs to attnd. W now hav four rgional Dirctors, and I hav askd thm to canvas thir aras and bat th bushs to round up ths wayward folk and bring thm in to th colony. Club Prsidnts, w rally nd you to mak it a priority to ncourag your club mmbrs to join GBA as wll. Dus ar only $15 for th yar. Do things that ncourag mmbrship in GBA. Hav a raffl to arn mony to snd a mmbr or two to Young Harris to bcom crtifid. Th tuition is only about $150. And thn ncourag thos bkprs to join GBA. Bkping classs for th public crtainly work to gain local club mmbrship, so continu th ncouragmnt and ncourag th participants to join GBA. B crativ. W ar looking at our administrativ practics at th Stat Lvl sarching for improvmnts and bouncing around nw idas that may mak a diffrnc. W ar looking hard at th spakr program and intnding to bring in quality spakrs at our stat mtings. W ar sarching for th bst mting sits to ncourag stat bkprs to attnd our two annual mtings. Why join GBA, you may ask? Thr is powr in numbrs. I am attnding th Amrican B Fdration annual mting this month in Baton Roug, LA. And Mary Cahill-Robrts is attnding th EAS Mting this summr. Whn w go to national mtings, w ar rprsnting our stat and our GBA mmbrship. It maks a big diffrnc whn somon is rprsnting 2000 bkprs rathr than 200. It maks th sam diffrnc whn w visit our own stat Agricultur Dpt or talk with a Stat Rprsntativ about GMO products, Hony and such. W can mak a diffrnc. On th local lvl, w rcntly took on on particular city in cntral Gorgia whn thy trid to ban bkping within th city limits. About 30 of us showd up for th City Council mting. Aftr w said our pic, th Mayor xcusd us. As w wr all laving, h was quit surprisd that thr wr that many bkprs prsnt whn h askd somon, Ar all thos popl bkprs? Th powr of many changd th law. Lt s all work togthr to mak th Gorgia Bkprs Association a tru rprsntation of all Bkprs in our wondrful stat. So Each on, gt On! Bar Klly Prsidnt, Gorgia bkprs Association

GBA January 2014 Nwslttr Pag Thr nd of a Qun or th workr bing matd. Th Cap B also will tak ovr a convntional Europan or Asian bs colony if availabl. On Tusday, Novmbr 19th Dr. Jami Ellis, Univrsity of Florida Associat Profssor of Entomology, gav an intrsting talk about th status of th bs to th Hart of Gorgia Bkprs Association. Dr. Ellis is a UGA graduat and studid undr Dr. Kith Dlaplan. Dr. Ellis statd that about 10% of our hivs hav two working quns. H wnt on to say that whn w do a qun sarch, that w stop looking aftr finding th first qun. If w continud our sarch to all th frams and hiv body, w will somtim find th scond qun. Th possibility that a hiv might hav a spar qun is somthing to think about whn you nd a qun in a hurry. Dr. Ellis also dscribd th Cap B (a subspcis of th Apis Mllifra known as Apis Milifra Capnsisi) found only in th southrn tip of Africa. W should hop that thy stay in South Africa. W may somtims hav a hiv with a fw laying workrs, but th Cap b workr's biology and gg laying ability is quit surprising. Cap workr bs can lay both workrs and drons without th Dr. Ellis travls to South Africa and brings back dad Cap Bs. Ths dad Cap Bs ar studid to dtrmin mthods to radily idntifying this b sub spci. W do not nd this Cap B to xpand to othr parts of th world. Dr. Ellis ncouragd th mmbrs of th club to visit his informativ vido sit for mor information about othr aspcts of bkping. Evryon njoyd his prsntation. Contributd by John Wingfild Not: Dr. Jami Ellis will b a spakr at th GBA Spring Mting in Columbus, GA on Fbruary 8, 2014. Anothr faturd spakr at th Columbus mting will b Billy Davis, notd bkpr and tachr from Virginia. Th program should b vry good - plan to com and bring a fllow bkpr who isn't yt a mmbr of GBA to har ths fin spakrs.

GBA January 2014 Nwslttr Pag Four Nctar Managmnt by Stvn Pag Nctar managmnt or chckrboarding is a simpl two manipulation mthod to prvnt swarming and incras hony production. It was dvlopd by Walt Wright in Tnnss in th 1990s. I hav usd nctar managmnt for a fw yars and hav had som good rsults with th tchniqu. It s asy, ffctiv and not tim consuming. I hav had numrous hivs produc mor than 100 pounds of hony pr yar whn th avrag yild in my ara is 50 pounds pr yar. Rquird Equipmnt A hiv consisting of a dp with th clustr and a shallow supr of cappd hony abov. Two shallow suprs of mpty drawn comb ar rquird also. Nctar managmnt rquirs drawn comb as th colony will not mak wax until latr in th spring. Timing Th first manipulation is don ight to nin wks bfor appl trs blossom. For my ara 35 mils southwst of Atlanta th dat would b about Fbruary first. Th scond manipulation is prformd in lat April or arly May. Th First Manipulation Th wathr is not much concrn bcaus th clustr is not disturbd. About Fbruary first (for my location) opn up th hiv and rmov fiv frams of cappd hony. Insrt in th supr fiv frams of mpty drawn comb altrnating mpty and full frams. Using th fiv frams of hony rmovd add a scond supr altrnating th frams again. Th frams should altrnat both horizontally and vrtically. Simply put, if th bottom supr lft sid fram is mpty thn th nxt supr lft sid fram will b full. A third supr of mpty drawn comb is placd on top thn clos up th hiv. Prtty confusing... Th graphics on th following pag will hlp. Each rctangl rprsnts a fram in th hiv. Th dp supr on th bottom is rprsntd by th tallr rctangls. Think of this as if you ar looking thru th front of th suprs at th nd of th frams. Th colors rprsnt th contnts of ach fram. This xampl uss tn fram quipmnt. Yllow cappd hony Whit mpty drawn comb Grn polln Brown - brood Walt Wright, whos work is dscribd in Stv s articl, has writtn many articls for B Cultur and Amrican B Journal. His articls includ Nctar managmnt and can b found at this link. http://www.bsourc.com/point-of-viw/walt-wright/ To viw th articls, click on th titls on th lft blow Walt s nam. On of his articls Is It Congstion http://www.bsourc.com/point-of-viw/walt-wright/is-it-congstion/

GBA January 2014 Nwslttr Pag 5 Blow you'll s th hiv bfor th first manipulation. Th clustr is in th dp and th qun has startd to lay ggs. Th shallow abov is full of cappd hony. Blow you'll s th hiv aftr th first manipulation. Th dp was not touchd. Th supr of hony is now sprad out into two suprs with frams of mpty drawn comb sprating th frams of hony. A supr of mpty drawn comb is placd on top. Th hony frams altrnat both horizontially and vrtically. Th two suprs look lik a chckrboard. Prior to th main nctar flow add suprs as rquird so thr is always mpty comb for th foragrs to stor nctar. Why dos this work? Th hony cap has bn opnd up allowing th qun to lay mor ggs as th colony prpars for spring. Th foragrs can collct and stor all th nctar thy can find and not fill up all th mpty comb. Th workrs ar unabl to backfill th brood nst to shut down qun laying in prparation to swarm. As swarm sason arrivs th colony is unabl to achiv all th goals rquird to swarm and thir goal changs to collct nctar and mak hony for th coming wintr. Th scond manipulation In lat April or arly May, mov th shallow supr just abov th dp which is full of cappd brood to th bottom of th hiv. Walt Wright wrot a 61 pag Nctar Managmnt manuscript which may b purchasd for $8. It is a PDF fil. If you hav a PayPal account, snd th mail addrss associatd with th account to waltwright_@hotmail.com (not th undrscor) and Roy (Roy is Walt s son-in-law) will snd you an invoic from his PayPal account (it is NOT associatd with that mail, so plas do not snd a paymnt thr). If you do not hav a PayPal account you can mail a chck or mony ordr for $8.00 U.S. (prsonal chck is OK, w ar trusting souls) to Roy A. Ksmodl, P.O. Box 338, Ardmor, TN 38449. B sur to rqust an lctronic copy and provid an mail addrss you wish it snt to.

GBA January 2014 Nwslttr Pag Six Bfor th scond Aftr th scond manipulation. manipulation. Cindy B: Th bs thmslvs ar all that rally mattr. Th shallow supr is now on th bottom and will b usd to stor polln aftr th brood mrgs. Th polln will b usd to rais th bs in th fall. Th bottom supr full of polln Th hiv on Nov. first. Th bottom shallow supr is mpty and will protct th clustr from drafts during th wintr. Finally on Fbruary 1, whn it s tim to prform th first manipulation again all th rquird suprs ar on th hiv. Th dp is placd on th bottom. Th bottom mpty shallow supr is usd with th hony supr to chckrboard th hony. Th top supr stays on top. You could vn sparat th two frams of hony in th top supr...

GBA January2014 Nwslttr Pag Svn YllaWood in your b yard? By Bruc Morgan In Dcmbr B Cultur magazin was an articl about a prson who usd tratd wood hiv stands and wondrd if th tratd wood might b causing qun problms, losing colonis and so on. I hav had similar problms in th last fw yars. I startd in 2006 with a fw colonis and I placd thm on tratd 2 X 4 hiv stands tratd with th grn prsrvativ. Svral yars ago my building supply startd slling th YllaWood tratd wood and I hav addd mor hiv stands with it. Was this whn I startd having problms? Or was it my managmnt skills? Aftr rading th articl in B Cultur, I did a quick sarch on th Intrnt for YllaWood and within minuts I found this statmnt: "Do not us prsrvd wood undr circumstancs whn th prsrvativ may bcom a componnt of food, animal fd, or bhivs." Thr dos not sm to b a problm with th grn tratmnt of wood for hivs, sinc th b supply companis hav bn slling it, and bkprs hav bn using it for yars to prsrv all hiv componnts. All of my hivs ar mad from long lasting cyprss wood with scrnd bottom boards sitting on th hiv stands. I do know I will b liminating th hiv stands that wr mad out of th YllaWood tratmnt. photo of Bruc Morgan's hiv stands mad of YllaWood Rx non utitur aculo! This Latin phras translats a Th king has no sting. It was usd by Louis XII of Franc in 1506, apparing on his brastplat, which was dgd with goldn bs and bhivs. (Takn from THE SHAMANIC WAY OF THE OF THE BEES. )

GBA January 2014 Nwslttr Pag Eight Marybth Klly s Bhiv Cookis 4 T hony 1 gg batn 1 taspn vanilla 16 oz. shrddd coconut 8 oz. walnuts coarsly choppd 8 oz. dats choppd 2 Tplain flour. Mix togthr th gg, hony & vanilla. Bat until wll blndd and stir in th coconut and nuts. Coat th dats with th flour and add to th mixtur. Drop tablspoonfuls onto a grasd baking sht (or parchmnt papr covrd baking sht). Bak at 325 for 13 minuts or until slightly brown. Maks approx. 30 cookis. Stv Esau, MABA mmbr, shot this photo of his systm for wighing his hivs Club of th Month Tara Bkprs Association Our club mts in Forst Park nar th Atlanta Farmrs markt. Th club has a lot of activ mmbrs who rach out and hlp othr popl in othr clubs. W offr a yar round ducation program to our mmbrs, a b school in Octobr and last yar w startd a kid s bkping class. Our mmbrship is a mixd group of popl who hav had ovr 30 yars of xprinc and popl with lss than 1 yar of xprinc. Th oldr folks ar always willing to listn and lnd a hand to anyon who nds hlp. I rally njoy our club and th camaradri of all of our mmbrs. W stay aftr our mtings to drink coff or a soda and chat about our bs. W hav mmbrs who giv talks to othr clubs bcaus of thir vast knowldg of bkping. This givs othr clubs in th ara a chanc to mt our mmbrs and also larn. I am spcially proud of our officrs and dirctors as thy ar vry activ in our club and othr clubs around th ara. It is vry asy to b prsidnt of a club whn vryon pitchs in to do th work. It is vry nic whn th officrs ar always willing to do somthing. Tara Bkprs is a club that has bn around a long tim, spun off from th Mtro Atlanta club way back whn. Th club has had mmbrs that srvd in various positions

GBA January 2014 Nwslttr Pag nin of th Gorgia Bkprs Association. A fw clubs hav spun off of th Tara club. Bkping is contagious and whn you gt stung th numbrs kind of swll up! I think for our club, tchnology is th biggst hurdl to pass. Sinc som of mmbrs ar oldr thy ar unfamiliar with th computr and th Intrnt. I am mor comfortabl, but fl lss familiar with smart phons, ipads and tablts. My son pluggd our blu ray into th TV th othr day just lik a computr and w wr, to say th last, flabbrgastd. Th Tara Club has a wbsit, but our wbmastr is 20 yars old. H says it is so asy to tak car of but, it sms lik cracking safs to m. I tll our club mmbrs to gt thir grandchildrn or tnag nighbors to hlp thm out. Fran Lan is th Vic-Prsidnt of th club and sh has movd our nwslttr into mail dlivry which works for vryon xcpt 3 popl, sinc thy do not hav computrs. Email allows us to b abl to communicat mor rapidly whn thr is a problm or a chang in location. Our annual May picnic this yar was raind out so w movd it to Octobr. W communicatd with a lot of mmbrs by mail. That was rally nw and xciting for us! Tara is a grat club to blong to and th popl ar rally ddicatd to ducation of th bkpr and th public. Mary Cahill-Robrts Prsidnt, Tara Bkprs www.tarabkprs.org Survy: Last month w askd (to hlp th Board) about th location of our spring and fall mtings. Only 27 popl out of th ovr 300 who gt our nwslttr rspondd. Thos powrful voics fll out this way: 75% wantd th Spring mting to b in th sam location vry yar and th Fall mting to b in a diffrnt location from th spring mting, but also to b in th sam plac ach yar. 25% of you wantd th mtings to occur all ovr th stat in diffrnt locations. Two popl suggstd that th spring mting b in th sam plac ach yar and th fall mting b in diffrnt locations. Of cours, 27 is only 9% of our GBA mmbrship, so plas participat in our survys if you want your voic to count! This month w ar curious about smokr ful. Plas giv us your input: Just Click Hr Thanks to Rodny Garnr for this ida As w work in GBA to incras our mmbrship, on of our goals is to mak our list of clubs and club prsidnts currnt and up to dat. W don't hav a complt list of th Gorgia b clubs on our wbsit and w would lik to fix this. Many officrs chang at th bginning of a calndar yar. To hlp us gt vry b club listd on th GBA wbsit, plas snd th nam of your b club, its location (city or county), your club's wbsit addrss if you hav on and th nam and contact information of your b club prsidnt Snd this information to: Andy Baily.

GBA Nwslttr January 2014 Pag 10 Com to th GBA Spring Mting Fbruary 7-8 in Columbus, GA Th Chattahooch Vally Bkprs Association is xcitd to wlcom th Gorgia Bkprs Association to Columbus for th Spring Mting on Fbruary 7-8. W hop you will plan to spnd a littl tim in our town whil you r hr. Th mting is going to tak plac at our hom mting location, Oxbow Madows Environmntal Cntr, a division of Columbus Stat Univrsity. Along with th indoor obsrvation hiv, w kp svral outdoor hivs right outsid th door, bhind a scrn wall, allowing th gnral public to gt safly up clos and prsonal with our girls. Oxbow also kps snaks, alligators, turtls and othr rptils, nativ to th ara, on display. It is an activ wtland ara, opn to th public. An intrsting thing to not, Oxbow was built about 10 yars ago, dirctly on top of th old Columbus Landfill (Garbag Dump). Bcaus of that, you will s mthan gas vnts in th ground in svral locations. Across th strt from Oxbow is th National Infantry Musum. It an xprinc you do not want to miss. If you ar a golfr, thr is a bautiful public golf cours nxt door to Oxbow, also built on top of th old Columbus Landfill. Columbus is also hom to th National Civil War Naval Musum. In addition to housing Confdrat Ironclad Warships that wr rmovd from th bottom of th Chattahooch Rivr in downtown Columbus, many othr Confdrat and Union artifacts ar on display. Th musum houss th largst collction of Amrican, Union and Confdrat flags in this country. Columbus also boasts th longst urban whitwatr rafting cours in th country. Th cours runs from North Columbus for two and a half mils, nding in th middl of downtown. An old bridg joining Columbus and Phnix City, Alabama has bn convrtd to a pdstrian bridg, allowing spctators to stand almost dirctly ovr th nd of th whitwatr cours. If th wathr is warm, you might b abl to purchas a rafting trip down our whitwatr cours. W hav an xtraordinary Softball complx in Columbus which was built for th Atlanta Olympics a fw yars back. Th Softball Olympic comptition was hld hr at this complx. Downtown Columbus has som rally grat LOCAL rstaurants, on of which is th Cannon Brw Pub, whr you can purchas local br, brwd right on th prmiss. Furthr north in Columbus ar th hug shopping cntrs which mak Columbus a

GBA Nwslttr January 2014 Pag Elvn popular rgional shopping hub. Evry national rstaurant chain in th country can b found thr among all th hug national rtailrs. In short, thr is a lot to s and do in Columbus whil you r hr. W v vn arrangd a spcial rat at th Hampton Inn, nxt door to th National Infantry Musum, so you can stay as long as you lik. Our club is xcitd to hav you hr! If w can hlp you in any way, plas call us or visit out wbsit. Paul Brry, Prsidnt Chattahooch Vally Bkprs Association Vic-Prsidnt of th GBA A Word from Mary Cahill-Robrts What dos that man? For m, it mans working for th organization to mak it bttr. I hav had th plasur to srv on th GBA board for 3 yars. I hav srvd twic as scrtary and now this yar I am Vic-Prsidnt. I do a lot of work bhind th scns to support th Prsidnt and othr board mmbrs. My main job, ovr th past two yars has bn to hlp organiz th GBA ducational mtings. Most popl don t undrstand th amount of work it taks to b abl to gt popl togthr to ducat a group ovr a on or two day vnt. I didn t until I startd doing th job. How do you gt spakrs to mt th many nds of our group? W hav vry nw bkprs and w hav vry old bkprs. W hav bkprs with on or two hivs and w hav bkprs with hundrds of hivs. As a bkpr with a fw hivs, I can us my hiv tool to kill a fw hiv btls. Howvr, somon with mor than 20 hivs, not so much. You would b out in th byard for hours just killing th btls, not rally doing anything ls. So it is a ral challng to organiz th mtings. Som popl say that th mtings ar only for th commrcial bkprs and othrs say that th mtings ar only for th hobbyist!! Imagin how to fix that? W hav listnd to th commnts from our attnds and hav brought in svral popl who spak throughout th country and hav an acadmic background. W hav includd popl to giv som basic bkping instruction and intrmdiat instructors. W will hav a smallr but mor focusd vndor group. W ar hoping to fatur a young artist who will hav various artistic bkping itms for viw and sal. Rossman Apiaris will b a vndor so call ion your ordr ahad and pick it up at th Fbruary mting to sav dlivry chargs. W also ar offring som grat raffl prizs. I hop you njoy th Fbruary mting and larn somthing nw thr. At our GBA mtings, I lov gtting to know nw popl, sing old frinds, larning somthing from our spakrs, sing nw bkping gadgts, looking hopfully at my raffl tickts and ovrall immrsing myslf in B Talk!!

Dar Aunt B, I always want my bs to b full and happy through th wintr, so I fd thm lik Jnnifr Brry told m to. This yar, bcaus I was a littl worrid about thm, I lft an xtra supr of hony on ach hiv. Ar thr risks to laving too much hony on th hiv? Plas rassur m, Worrid About Wight Watchrs Photo by Linda Tillman, July 2012 Dar Worrid, Th bst food for th bs to hav availabl to thm in wintr is thir own hony. Bravo! You hav fd thm wll. Th natural food producd by th bs is th right ph for thm whil sugar syrup has a ph that is just right for th growth of som b pathogns, so laving th bs thir own hony is th gratst holiday gift you can giv to thm. Th bs trat thir hony lik you might food stord in your own pantry. It's food storag so you don't run in and at vrything in sight, right? Th bs look at thir hony as back-up for mting thir nds, so just bcaus it is thr, thy won't ncssarily gobbl it up unlss thy nd it. "I lov working with big flavors lik chils and smok. Hony is prfct fo softning th dgs, mllowing thm out a bit. I put it in vrything vinaigrtts, soups, stocks, salsas, so I m always on th hunt for grat hony." Bobby Flay I hav oftn opnd hivs in th spring to find hony still in th frams that thy did not nd to surviv th wintr. Good job! l unti r h t Aunt B tog idg. d n l fr y. B inr in ty n Contributd by Eddi Minch o cial a h t p n p s o c cu of to 1 closd vs a r o t l t l in mal ttr nd bu Stor s u h B t ft d. y wi id Hon stick so ombin n a p c com lly 1 1/4 oughly c a t gif ybth K thor c i a n d by Mar s k ma ontribut s i h C T ds. a r b

GBA Nwslttr January 2014 Upcoming B Evnts: January 18, 2014 Mtro Atlanta Bkprs Short Cours, Atlanta Botanical Gardn. 8:30-4:30 $95 If you know somon who'd lik a good start in bkping, suggst our short cours. Information, click hr. Or giv it to somon you lov for a holiday prsnt! Pag Thirtn January 25, 2014 8:00-4:00 Lak Country Bkprs Association Bkping Short Cours. Hancock Extnsion Srvic, 12534 Augusta Hwy, Sparta, GA $40 for pr-rgistration, $10 ach additional prson. Childrn undr 18 with paying adult ar fr. Includs lunch and a txtbook. Rgistration contact Bruc Morgan 478-357-4029 rbmorgan@hughs.nt January 25, 2014 8:00-4:00. Cowta Bkprs Association: Introduction to Bkping Cours. Cowta Extnsion Offic, 255 Pin Rd, Nwnan, GA 30263 $50 pr-rgistration, $10 ach additional prson. An introduction to bkping, topics includ hony b biology, functions of a colony, assmbling a b hiv and much mor. Rgistration: www.cowtabkprs.org Fbruary 7-8, 2014 GBA Spring Mting at Oxbow Madows Environmntal Larning Cntr, 3535 South Lumpkin Road, Columbus, GA 31903 Th hotl is th Hampton Inn on Lumpkin Road in Columbus. Th room rat for th mting is $83 a night. Mak your rsrvations now. Th Final Buzz This issu is filld with itms snt to us by YOU, our radrs, th bkprs of th Gorgia Bkprs Association. Our dadlin ach month is th 25th of th month. Plas snd us th holiday gift of your articl, photo, b jok, rcip, bauty scrt, favorit b pom or quot - w lov it all. Your ditors, Gina and Linda