Fall Conference—November 1, 2014 Tolles Career & Technical Center

7877 US Highway 42 S., Plain City, OH 43064

OSBA Supporting Beekeeping

Education in Ohio

for over 100 years

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Cover photo courtesy of

Nina Bagley

Photo won Best of Show at the

Ohio State Fair.

Vendors at the OSBA Fall Conference:

BEEpothecary

Betterbee

Bee Culture

Blue Sky Bee Supply

Brushy Mountain Bee Farm (PA location)

Dadant

Huron City Bee Company

Mann Lake

Mel Disselkoen

Northern Bee Supply

Pierco

Reid’s Apiary & Bee-tique

Simpson’s Bee Supply

Wicwas Press

A Special Thank You to Donors:

Donations from Vendors who could not attend:

D.F. Koehnen

Hexabees

BeeSmart

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OSBA is a non-profit organization with a mission to promote beekeeping in the state of Ohio. OSBA has a

Board of Directors made up of 23 voting members. Eighteen of these members represent each of the nine

regions of Ohio. They are the people who represent the membership and your region in all votes taken by

the OSBA board regarding business of OSBA. You need to get to know your representatives.

The duties of the Director as listed by the Constitution:

The elected director will work with the beekeepers and local beekeeping associations and clubs in their re-

spective regions to promote and implement the purposes of the OSBA within their regions. The Directors

shall work to foster cooperation and collaboration between the local beekeeping associations and clubs in

their respective regions. The directors shall have such other duties as assigned by the president or the

board of directors. The directors shall attend all board of directors meetings with right of voice and vote on

any matter brought before the board of directors. The directors shall report regularly to the Board of Direc-

tors regarding activities within their region.

The duties of the Appointed Representatives as listed by the Constitution:

The Regional Representative(s) nominated and confirmed pursuant to Article XI, A. & B. shall have voice

and vote as full members of the Board of Directors. They shall serve a 1 year term commencing with the

date of the first Board of Directors’ meeting in January and concluding on December 31st of the same year.

Director

Tom Rathbun

Representative

Open

Director

Dwight Wilson

Representative

Mike Soboleski

Director

Dwight Wells

Representative

Mike Doseck

Director

Alex Zomchek

Representative

Karri Brushkotter

Director

Richard Manley

Representative

Tracy Alarcon

Director

Joe Kovaleski

Representative

Jason Bosler

Director

Michael Vaughn

Representative

Andrea LIttler

Director

Marishka Wile

Representative

Open

Directors

Susan Valentine-Cooper

Representative

Kim Flippen

What is OSBA

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OSBA and Honeybee Sustainability

To better help associations provided this training to beekeepers, in 2013, OSBA

gave each club their own copy for FREE! That’s right, every beekeeping associ-

ation in the state of Ohio was given its own “A Web-Based Introductory Beekeep-

ing Training Program” DVD for their association library.

Club Education

Club Development Does your club want to grow its membership? Promote your meetings and events, for free, on the OSBA

website. Just go to www.ohiostatebeekeepers.org and click on the Events tab. It’s that simple!

Hundreds of people visit the OSBA Tent at the Ohio State Fair. Each year, local associations promote their

club and provide beekeeping information at tables in our tent. Why miss out? Club and Vendor Table res-

ervation information will be in the January issue of Ohio Beekeeping The Newsletter of OSBA.

Do you lack a club in your area? OSBA assists new club start-ups. Contact a Director or Representative

today and find out how to start a club.

Beekeeper Education Our website and Facebook page are loaded with great information on sustainable beekeeping practices.

Videos, Best Management Practices, Newsletters, Classifieds, Recipes….and much more. Visit the sites

today!

www.ohiostatebeekeepers.org

https://www.facebook.com/#!/OhioStateBeekeepers

Honeybee research in Ohio received a financial boost with a donation by OSBA to further studies at The

Ohio State University. The OSBA funding will be used for an ongoing study that is comparing the foraging

opportunities for honeybees in both rural and urban environments within Ohio. In addition, the OSBA funding

will support the work of Eric Percel, an agricultural engineering student, who is developing a mechanical sys-

tem for improving hive ventilation.

OSBA has partnered with Pollinator Stewardship Council to seek out grants for increased pollinator habitat,

and we will continue to look for ways to partner with other like-minded associations to help promote the fu-

ture of the honeybee.

OSBA is continuing to monitor the progress of the Save The Honeybee license plate. Funds from the sale of

this plate will help us further support sustainable programs and research

Funding for Research, Support for Grants

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www.wicwas.com

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Reid’s Apiary

&

“Bee-tique

reidapiary@bright.net

740.643.2925

Glenn Willoughby

6626 Hartwick Pines Road

Grayling, MI 49738

989.370.4841

gwilloughby.northernbee@hotmail.com

Woodenware*Honey*Queens*Pollination

Stahlman Apiaries–

We are not just selling queen bees - we are working with you to improve what we sell.

Stahlman Apiaries has developed a line of queens with an Ohio heritage. This effort dates back to the 2007

OSBA Queen Project and includes queens shared by beekeepers are interest in improving Ohio queen stock.

By purchasing an Ohio Buckeye Belle Queen, you participated in a stock improvement program. Sharing the re-

sults of your queen is important — If you bought an Ohio Buckeye Belle Queen in 2014 and feel it was excep-

tional, you can join our effort to improve native Ohio queen stock.

We are now selecting 2014 queens for 2015 queen production. The most important characteristic of a queen is

her ability to produce a colony that can survive an Ohio winter. Ohio bee hives are challenged with a number of

weather conditions and other issues including mites, but the bottom line is your hive alive and doing well in the

spring.

Our breeding stock bees are not treated with chemicals, or given supplements, and are managed so “Mother

Nature” plays a role in helping us decide which queens we will continue to use in our breeding program. You,

the beekeeper, are the harshest judge. We hope will share your experiences of the queens you buy from us and

if not satisfied let us know.

We sold out in 2014 and were proud to serve you. Production numbers will always be limited. Contact Dana

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Lunchroom

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Registration

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Room 2

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OSBA Fall Conference 2014 Program

Tolles Career & Technical Center

Note: Bold letters after the Session Description indicate Master Beekeeper Category.

Stop by the OSBA for details

Honey Judging will be ongoing throughout the conference— stop by and watch!

8:00 a.m.-9:00 a.m.

Registration

Coffee and Doughnuts, Visit the Vendors

8:45—9:30

President’s Welcome and OSBA Business

Auditorium

9:30—9:45 Visit the Vendors

Session 1

9:45—10:45

Auditorium: Sue Cobey: Rearing Quality Queen H

Room 1: Michael Palmer: Nucleus Colonies in the Sustainable Apiaries E

Room 2: Denise Ellsworth: Phenology for Beekeepers I

Room 3: Lowell Lufkin: Marketing and Labeling for Beekeepers G

10:45– 11:00—Visit the Vendors

Session 2

11:00 Noon

Auditorium: Sue Cobey: The Benefits of Being Promiscuous H

Room 1: Michael Palmer: Comb Honey Production C

Room 2: Denise Ellsworth: Gardening for Pollinators F

Room 3: Reed Johnson: Honey Bee Toxicology I

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Lunch

Noon-1:15

1:15-1:30—Visit the Vendors

Session 3

1:30 – 2:30

Auditorium: Sue Cobey: Honeybee Germplasm Importation/Cryopreservation H

Room 1: Michael Palmer: Wintering Bees in the North E

Room 2: Dr Tew and John Grafton: Practical Disease Recognition and Control A

Room 3: Michele Colopy: Pollinator Stewardship Council: Working to Protect Pollinators O

Visit the Vendors 2:30—2:45

Q&A With Expert Panel in the Auditorium 2:45—3:15

Awards, Election Results, Business Meeting 3:15—4:15

Please remember to fill out the OSBA Fall 2014 Evaluation Forms and place them in the

boxes by the exit doors

Have a safe drive home and we’ll see you at the

OSBA Fall Conference on October 31st in Plain City

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Session Descriptions

Breakout Session I

Rearing High Quality Queens & Drones The basic concepts of rearing of high quality queens and drones in the face of increasing challenges. The Sustainable Apiary We all lose bees in the winter, and replacing those dead colonies can be expensive. Expensive in pounds, if we have to go to the package bee and nuc dealers for our new bees, or expensive in bee re-sources and/or lost honey production if we have to divide our best colonies in the spring. I suggest we use the brood and bee resources in our non-productive colonies to make mid-summer nuclei, which are over-wintered, becoming our replacement bees, come spring. I then take it one step further, by showing how we can use over-wintered nucleus colo-nies as the brood source for making additional nuclei, and for creating strong cell builders for raising the quality queen stock we need in our apiaries. The presentation includes theory, history, and man-agement of nucleus colonies, including set-up, swarm control, winter preparations, and wintering. Phenology for beekeepers: using a biological calen-dar to predict plant bloom. Phenology is the study of recurring biological phe-nomena and their relationship to weather and climate. Bird migration, hunting and gathering seasons, blooming of wildflowers and trees, and the seasonal appearance of insects are examples of phenological events that have been recorded for centuries. Partici-pants will learn how to track bloom time of local plants using a web-based biological calendar, and how to customize this calendar for bee-specific plants. Honey Production and Labeling: A look at Food Regulation: Beekeepers and honey production within Ohio’s Food Safety regulatory framework; how honey is not a cot-tage food and not a food processing establishment. Proper labeling of honey for retail sale.

Breakout Session II

The Benefits of Being Promiscuous A review of honey bee mating biology, the mecha-nisms to enhance genetic diversity and the benefits to colony and population fitness.

Comb honey Production in the Northern Cham-plain Valley This is a basic primer on cut comb honey production. I talk about colony set-up, management on the flow, and harvesting and packaging the finished product. Honey Bee Toxicology: Honeybees are exposed to many toxic compounds. Pesticides are the most ob-vious toxic exposure, but bees have long dealt with naturally occurring toxins in the pollen, nectar and propolis they collect, as well as toxins generated nat-urally inside the hive. Minimizing the damage of pes-ticide exposure requires a holistic understanding to the diversity of toxic compounds to which bees are exposed. Gardening for Pollinators: Gardeners play a vital role in the development and conservation of habitat that benefits pollinators, in-cluding bees, birds and butterflies. This session will focus on the practical steps gardeners can take to create or enhance habitat, including plant selection and simple design elements. By creating a patchwork of garden spaces that provide food and shelter for pollinators, gardeners can positively impact the health and survival of these important creatures.

Breakout Session III Honey Bee Germplasm Importation & Cryopreser-vation The importation of germplasm from Old World popu-lations to enhance domestic breeding stocks and de-veloping a germplasm repository. Keeping Bees in Frozen North America I present my annual colony management, in a climate where the bees can be buried under snow for months at a time, with no opportunity for winter cleansing flights. Pollinator Stewardship Council– Our work to Pro-tect Pollinators and Beekeepers: The presentation will cover the adverse impact of pesticides on pollina-tors, and our work to protect bees, and native pollina-tors vital to a sustainable and affordable food supply. Disease Recognition and Control The name says it all!

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Meet the OSBA Fall Conference Speakers

Sue Cobey—scobey@mac.com Susan Cobey, an acknowledged world expert in the field of honey bee breeding, maintains the New World Carniolan Closed Population Breeding Program, in its 34th generation. She coordinates the Washington State University collaborative stock improvement and maintenance program, partnering with the California queen producers with a focus on introgression of germplasm from Old World European honey bees. This project includes re-introducing Caucasian bees and the establishment of the world’s first germplasm repository. Cobey also runs Honey Bee Insemination Service, perfecting, teaching and promoting the spe-cialized technique of instrumental. Her background is both commercial and academic, managing several bee research labs, including University of CA, Davis, The Ohio State University, and the USDA Honey Bee Lab., Baton Rouge, as well as in commercial queen production in FL. and CA. She also ran a queen pro-duction business, Vaca Valley Apiaries, in northern California. Cobey continues to present various as-pects of this work nationally and internationally at numerous conferences, seminars, workshops, and publishes widely in various trade and professional journals and book chapters. Michele Colopy- progdirector@pollinatorstewardship.org Ms. Colopy has nearly 20 of experience in nonprofit organizations, and has a Master’s degree in Non-profit Management from The University of Akron. Her nonprofit experience includes work in the per-forming arts, housing and homelessness, foreclosure prevention, community development, and health and wellness. Her father was a beekeeper in Ohio. She keeps hives in the city, and has replaced her crabgrass front yard with pollinator flowers for food and habitat for her bees and native pollinators. Denise Ellsworth-ellsworth.2@osu.edu Denise directs the honey bee and native pollinator education program through the OSU Department of Entomology on the OARDC campus in Wooster. In this outreach position, Denise supports and teaches beekeepers, farmers, and gardeners through a varie-ty of workshops, webinars, written materials and electronic resources John Grafton– johngrafton654@gmail.com John graduated from the Ohio State University (BS Agriculture Economics1977) then joined the Ohio

Department of Agriculture retiring in 2008 after spending 32 years with the apiary inspection pro-gram. He started keeping bees in 1964 with a 4-H project and has had bees ever since. John has re-ceived are the Ohio State Beekeepers Association’s Ohio Beekeeper of the year award and the Excep-tional Service Award presented by the Apiary Inspec-tors of America. John has held various offices in OSBA and is an OSBA Past President. Following his retirement John spent four years as an Agricultural Education Instructor with the Edison Local School District in Richmond, OH. He also teaches beekeep-ing classes and lectures across the state to local beekeeping organizations. He recently worked with Dr James Tew to develop a series of videos for the beginning beekeeper that may be viewed on the OSBA web site. John and his wife Katie reside on a small farm near Bloomingdale, OH in Jefferson County where they also raise beef cattle and chick-ens. Their children Amanda and Clinton live nearby. Reed Johnson– johnson.5005@osu.edu Reed is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Entomology at the Ohio State University. He starting his Honey Bee research in his home town of Missou-la, Montana at the University of Montana where he worked with Jerry Bromenshenk. He received his PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he was in the lab of May Beren-baum. Lowell Lufkin- LLufkin@agri.ohio.gov Lowell has a Masters of Public Health from OSU, College of Medicine and Public Health. He has worked for the Fulton County, Marion County and Newark County Health Departments before working for the ODA Division of Food Safety. He is currently the FDA Contract Coordinator Michael Palmer– mpalmer@together.net As a child, Michael spent most of his spare time out-doors, fascinated by the plants and insects and ani-mals living in his suburban New York City environ-ment. He escaped the city by going off to the Univer-sity of Vermont, where he fell in love with Vermont, his future wife, and eventually the little bugs we all hold so dear. The first colonies of honey bees arrived in 1974 a package bees, and over the following twenty odd years, he built French Hill Apiaries into a farm of

(Continued on page 16)

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nearly a thousand colonies. About 1990, Acarine mites and then Varroa mites arrived in his bees. The result was not pretty. Beekeeping became more diffi-cult, and more expensive. With ever increasing loss-es, the wisdom of buying in replacement bees came into question. Splitting strong colonies reduced the honey crop, and pollinating the local apple orchards caused the whole operation to fall apart with failing colonies, broken equipment, and one thoroughly ex-hausted and frustrated beekeeper. In 1998, Mike raised a few queens, and wintered them in nucleus colonies. The results changed his beekeeping forever. Not only did the bees winter more successfully and store larger surplus honey crops, the fun level rose to new heights, far above the clouds. Believing that quality should always trump quantity, he made a decision to cut back on the total number of production colonies in the apiary, and focus on raising the best queens possible. With a thousand nucleus colonies of various configurations to help support the seven hundred honey producing colo-nies, French Hill Apiaries produces, on average, some twelve hundred queens and thirty to forty tons of honey annually. Michael lives in St. Albans, Vermont, with his wife Lesley, a cow named meat, and Betty Boop their

Blue Tick hound. When no helping his crew manage the honey production colonies, or spending countless hours in the queen rearing apiaries, Mike travels the country, teaching sustainable beekeeping to anyone who will listen. Jim Tew– tewbee2@gmail.com Dr. James E. Tew is the beekeeping specialist for the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, Auburn University and emeritus professor, The Ohio State University. Jim has taught classes, provided exten-sion services, and conducted applied research on honey bees and honey bee behavior - specifically pollination behavior. Additionally, he continues to contribute monthly articles for national beekeeping publications and has authored: Beekeeping Princi-ples, Backyard Beekeeping, a chapter in The Hive and the Honey Bee, and Wisdom for Beekeepers. He is a frequent speaker at state and national meet-ings and has traveled extensively to observe bee-keeping techniques. James Thompson—honeyjudge1@yahoo.com Life member of OSBA and EAS, EAS Master bee-keeper, and honey judge for the past 40 years.

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Buzzing About

OSBA

OSBA

Educational

Conferences

Reserve the Date! Oct

31, 2015 for next year’s

Fall Conference .

Beekeeping

Sustainability

Master

Beekeeper

Program

Self-paced 30 tiered ed-

ucation program. Get

out of your comfort zone

Club

Development

Need a club in your ar-

ea? OSBA has a “How

to Start a New Associa-

tion Guide” Contact your

OSBA Director or Re-Funding for

OSU Honey Bee

Research

OSBA donation to fur-

ther studies at The Ohio

State University Beelab.

Beekeeper

Education

Visit us on the web. Ex-

plore our electronic edu-

cational pages.

4-H

We have funding togeth-

er to help promote our

next generation of bee-

keepers. We sponsored

this year’s judge at the

Ohio State Fair.

Webinars/

Podcasts

Specific programming

reaching into the comfort

of your own home, on

your own schedule.

Community

Awareness

“Save the Honey Bee”

License plate will in-

crease public aware-

ness , and provide funds

for further outreach.

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BUCKEYE QUEEN PRODUCERS

The Buckeye Queen Producers Cooperative was formed to provide education and research to raise and promote Ohio queen honey bees which are well suited to local climate, ecology and sustainable agri-cultural needs. The Buckeye Queen Producers have received finan-cial support from Ohio State Beekeepers Associa-tion. Northern Adapted Sustainable Queens Raised By the Following Group of Ohio Queen Producers Joe Kovaleski –

Pres.:josephkovaleski@sbcglobal.net

Dwight Wells – VP: dwells85@woh.rr.com

Peggy Garnes – Sec: pgarnes001@neo.rr.com

Susan Valentine-Cooper – Treas: svc@nwcs.com

Rod Pritchard: cobapresident@hotmail.com

Tim Arheit: tarheit@honeyrunapiaries.com

Paul Cline: dpcline@frontier.com

Dan O’Hanlon: danno1800@gmail.com

Denny Lamb: dennislamb@centurylink.net

Floyd Ostrowski: floyd@ostrowski.com

Tracy Alarcon: tntalarcon@juno.com

Ohio State Beekeepers Association 2015 Membership Form

Ohio State Beekeepers Association is a non-profit organization supporting people who have an interest in honeybees

and beekeeping. You do not need to be a beekeeper or live in Ohio to join OSBA. Membership includes on-going

activities of the association to promote honeybees and beekeeping, voting in annual elections, discounts on publica-

tions, and an annual subscription to Ohio Beekeeping.

For new memberships and renewals, send checks payable to OSBA with this completed form to:

Floyd Ostrowski, OSBA Secretary

3321 Buckhaven Dr.

Richfield, OH 44286

Name: ____________________________________________________________________

Address: _____________________________________________________________________

City: _________________ State: ___ Zip: ______________ County: ____________________

Phone: (__ _) ______-___________ Email Address (Print neatly) _______________________________

Name of Local Bee Association: ____________________________________

$15.00 for 1 year senior/student membership

$20.00 for 1 year individual membership

$25.00 for 1 year family membership

$200.00 for a lifetime membership

I want to receive the newsletter by email only (no hardcopy)

A year membership is based on the calendar year, January through December.