Welcome to the Transylvania County Beekeepers Association site.
Please join us on September 16th at 6:30 pm to socialize. 7:00 pm our formal meeting will begin with our guest speaker, Lewis Cauble, the Western NC State Apiary Inspector, to talk about the current mite treatments and ApiVar resistance issues. We will be meeting at the same location, the Community Services Building (106 E. Morgan St. Brevard, NC).
August 19, 2025, seventeen people were in attendance. Buddy made a motion to accept the July 15, 2025 minutes as emailed out on July 23, 2025. Mary seconded the motion. All were in favor.
A few members brought in samples of their honey for others to try. All had different flavors and were very good.
Devin Gentry (Transylvania County’s Association President) gave a presentation on preparing your hives for the winter. August is the time to think about winter. “When bees on clover, the flow is over”. Don’t take off too much honey. You need to make sure the bees have plenty of honey for winter. You may need to feed your bees with sugar water to make sure they have enough honey stored for the winter. If your hives are low on stores now, he recommends feeding sugar syrup at a 1:1 ratio through early-mid september. After that you should switch to a thicker 2:1 ratio as you get later in fall. You shouldn’t feed your bees liquid in the winter. Fall syrup is thicker to keep moisture out.
Devin’s preferred winter configuration is usually one deep hive and a medium super on top. Both should be full with mostly honey and some brood. Don’t have a queen excluder on for winter. The queen needs to be able to move up for more honey. Brood is usually in the middle frames. The outside frames in both boxes should have honey.
In August/September a lot of brood starts hatching out. Bob Binnie’s you-tube videos are a good resource.
Now is also a good time to treat for mites. Alcohol or dawn dish soap in an EasyCheck container is a good way to check your mite count. You need about 300 bees (1/2 cup). Powder sugar doesn’t work well for a mite check. Our humidity is too high. 6 mites = 2% infestation. 9 mites = 3% infestation. If apiary has one hive over the mite count, you need to treat all the hives. Devin likes to use Apiguard this time of year for his bee mite treatment.
September is a good time to add about 1/2 a pollen patty. After 7 days check to make sure it is being eaten. The patty can also attract hive beetles if it is not consumed by the bees. Devin is going to try the supplement Apis Biologix (https://www.apisbiologix.com/) as a supplement to prepare his bees for the winter. There are several other supplements that can be added to the sugar water to help the bees be healthy and survive the winter. You may want to also include beetle traps in your hives when feeding. Swiffer “unscented” mop pad refills are also a good way to catch beetles. You can add pieces of it to the corners of the hives.
Need to add the entrance reducers on the hives as soon as your mite treatment is over to keep out mice and prevent robbing. When it starts cooling off, you can also add a shim board and Reflectix thermal bubble roll on top of the inner cover to provide extra insulation for the winter. Devin cuts a slit in the middle of the thermal wrap and adds some sugar, or a winter patty on top of the thermal wrap. Then he can just peek inside to see if they need more food for the winter. If they aren’t eating any of the supplemental food, then he knows they should have plenty of honey.
Spring time you may want to add another deep box if your bees need more room to expand.
Randy had a couple of announcements. There are still a few openings to volunteer at the state’s bee exhibit for the Mountain State Fair, September 5-14 https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090944AFAC22A4F94-57401182-2025/185455551#/. Henderson County Beekeepers association will be having a full-day conference featuring Bob Binnie and other inspiring speakers October 11th. The location has not been confirmed yet. The cost will be around $60 to attend. https://hcbeekeepers.org/
Good luck with your winter preparation!
Hope to see you all at our next meeting, Tuesday, September 16, 2025, 106 E Morgan St. Brevard, NC. 6:30 pm to mingle with others. The official meeting begins at 7 and ends around 8 pm.
On July 15, 2025 there were seven in attendance at the Transylvania County Beekeepers Association. Randy made the motion to approve the June 17, 2025 minutes as emailed out on June 30, 2025. Mary seconded the motion. All were in favor. We discussed the current sourwood flow and different ways to extract it. It is best if the honey is capped to keep out the humidity and to prevent the honey from souring. If some is not capped, you may use fans and dehumidifiers to get out the moisture. Sometimes even capped honey can have a high moisture content. You can use a refractometer to test the moisture content. It is good to have the moisture at 18.6 or lower to keep the honey from fermenting.
Some members in attendance scrape out their plastic foundation frames to extract their honey. Some that have wax frames cut it into squares and squeeze out the honey. An electric honey extractor is a good investment and a lot easier to use, rather than a hand cranked extractor.
Also discussed was what to do after the flow is over. It seems early, but right after you take off your last honey for the season, it is time to treat for mites. Please follow the instructions precisely. Some medicines require the temperatures to be below 85 degrees. Apiguard is what most preferred for the fall/winter treatment. There are natural ways to keep down the mite count. However, it takes a lot of work and time. If you have just a few hives, it may be something worthwhile to look into.
After treating your mites, it will be time to get them ready for the winter to make sure they don’t starve. A 1:1 syrup recipe is a good mixture for feeding. Randy mentioned an email he received from Lewis Cauble. Lewis is looking for anyone interested in being a volunteer at the State Beekeepers booth at the Mountain State Fair in Arden this September. There are still plenty of open slots that need to be filled. Every volunteer gets free admission to the fair and free parking at the fairgrounds. The time slots are for four hours. You may do one time slot, or several. You need to sign up before August 1st. This is the link for more information:
Hope to see everyone at the next August 19, 2025 bee meeting. It may be a sticky one if everyone gets lots of honey.
On June 17, 2025 we had twenty people in attendance at the Transylvania County Beekeeper’s Association meeting. Randy made a motion to accept the 5/20/25 minutes as emailed out on 5/27/25 with the change to correct infected to affected. Sheila seconded the motion. All were in favor. We have $508 to date in the association’s fund. It is $10 per person, $15 per family to join our Association, per calendar year.
The NC State Beekeepers Association is meeting close by this year at Blue Ridge Community College in Hendersonville, NC, July 10-12 https://www.ncbeekeepers.org/calendar/state-meetings/2025-summer-meeting. There will be a lot of information to take in and vendors to visit.
Our speaker for the evening was Carla Robertson. Carla is a member of the Henderson County’s Beekeepers Association https://hcbeekeepers.org/. They meet on the third Monday of the month at 100 Extension Drive located at Jackson Park.
Carla has grown up in the family business of raising bees. The family business is Hoopers Creek Bee Company in Arden, NC. https://hooperscreekbeeco.wordpress.com/ They keep their bees both in FL and NC in order to have a wide selection of bees and honey to offer.
Carla manages Save American Honey Association, which was established this year https://www.ncbeekeepers.org/programs/real-nc-honey. Carla is trying to raise consumer awareness and clear up misunderstandings about real honey and our agriculture bee industry. She wants to show all the hard work that is involved in real honey production.
Some honey being sold is being blended with other syrups such as corn syrup, rice syrup, sugar, or high-fructose corn syrup. Both domestic honey (produced and harvested in the US by American beekeepers) and imported honey may be blended and not real honey. Honey labels can be deceiving. The label may say 100% US Grade A, local and not actually be local honey. Only 60% of the honey has to be from a local bee farm in order to call it local honey. Please check out the u-tube video regarding fake honey: https://youtu.be/G4Z9XqBw3Bw
There are several different tests to analyze honey to tell if it is real honey. Some tests are not real accurate and can easily be falsified. The best test for real honey testing is a DNA test, but it is still not 100%. For instance, if several things are blooming at the same time as the sourwood, the DNA test may not come back to verify sourwood honey even though it may be taken during the sourwood honey flow.
There is currently no policing to keep the honey real. Only when someone contacts the real NC honey program concerned is there follow up into blended, ultra-filtered or adulterated honey. Beekeepers selling their honey can join the certified honey program https://www.ncbeekeepers.org/programs/certified-honey-producer/certified-honey-producer-application There is just a small $25 fee for two years to join. The National Honey Board just passed the USDA definition of what is pure honey. https://honey.com/
Carla ended the meeting with a variety of real honey for participants to sample.
Hope to see you all at our next meeting on July 15th.
Please join us this coming Tuesday, June 17th at the Community Services Building (106 E. Morgan St. Brevard, NC) to hear our guest speaker Carla Robertson. She has a lot of information to share. 6:30 pm to mingle and talk to other club members, with the official meeting starting at 7 pm.
Carla Robertson is a second-generation commercial beekeeper based in Hoopers Creek, NC, where she plays a key role in her family’s business, Hoopers Creek Bee Company. Introduced to beekeeping at a very young age, Carla has developed a deep knowledge of what it takes to sustain a successful beekeeping operation in today’s challenging landscape.
Though based in North Carolina, Carla and her family are also migratory beekeepers, taking their bees to Florida each season to produce nucleus colonies, queens, and packages. In addition to their beekeeping work, Hoopers Creek Bee Company carries a full line of Amish-made beekeeping supplies, supporting both new and experienced beekeepers across the region.
Carla also helps run the Certified Honey Producer Program in North Carolina, which promotes transparency and quality in local honey production. She is the founder of the Save American Honey movement, a national effort to educate consumers on the importance of buying honey directly from U.S. beekeepers. Through open conversations with fellow beekeepers, Carla is shining a light on the growing threat of imported and falsified honey in the market and working to get real U.S. honey back into homes across the country.
Please check your spam folders for meeting reminders. I had several come back as undeliverable for spam filters. Please make sure to add this email address to your email list to avoid spam.
5/20/25 Meeting Minutes:
There were 17 people in attendance. David made a motion to approve the 4/15/25 minutes as emailed out on 4/21/25. Dean seconded the motion. All were in favor.
John Carrico was our guest speaker. John has been a paramedic for 20 years and has been flying with MOMMA as a paramedic for 11 years. His presentation was on anaphylaxis.
1 in 50 people will have an anaphylactic reaction sometime in their life. The word is from Greek; Ana means against; Phylaxis is reaction. It is a severe, potentially life threatening, systemic allergic reaction that usually happens in less than 2 hours. The body reacts to exposure of an antigen.
Benadryl can help with the allergic reaction. Seasonal allergy medicine will not help. You need benadryl.
However, if it is a severe, life threatening reaction, you need to call 911 to get help right away. You will need a shot of epinephrine, if you don’t have an epi pen available. When using an epi pen, you need to keep it in for 2-3 seconds for it to work. Make sure to put your thumb in the right place in order not to jab your thumb instead of your leg or arm when administering the epi pen. An increased heart rate is one side effect of epinephrine; therefore, it may be best to call 911 if you have a history of heart or other medical conditions. After 5-10 minutes, the heart rate will start to go back down to normal.
There is no rhyme or reason for anaphylaxis shock. Someone never allergic can all of the sudden become allergic. The number one anaphylaxis reaction is a food allergy (shellfish, fruits, nuts, etc.). Other causes are insect stings, animal dander, latex, medication.
There are different levels of an anaphylaxis reaction. The first level is a localized reaction. The reaction happens in one spot. Nowhere else on the body reacts to the sting/exposure.
The second level of an anaphylaxis reaction is systemic. Benadryl is a good antidote. One may have hives and itching all over the body. The reaction happens in multiple systems in the body. There are no life threatening symptoms.
The third level is anaphylaxis shock. The body tries to shut down to other antigens in the body. Vasodilation occurs. One becomes pale, sweaty. Blood pressure drops making the person dizzy, light headed and confused. They may feel like they are going to pass out and speak without making sense. Smooth muscles start to swell (throat, mouth, tongue), making it difficult/impossible to breathe. Wheezing and coughing may occur. The GI tract may become affected making one feel sick to their stomach, or have diarrhea due to the fact blood moves away from the digestive tract.
The more exposed one is, the reaction may become more severe. 30 bee stings are more likely to affect someone than 5. More people die from drug allergies (see attached chart).
If you have an allergic reaction, you will probably react again to the same allergen again. If the reaction happens suddenly, you should be more concerned.
When you are stung, it is best to scrape the stinger out using a hive tool, credit card, or finger nails. Then smoke the area to prevent bees from coming after the infected area to sting more. Don’t use tweezers. Tweezers, or squeezing the stinger just squeezes more venom into the sting area. A good beekeeper always keeps benadryl on hand.
All in attendance appreciated John Carrico’s presentation. We learned a great deal about anaphylaxis.
Several different swarms have been caught by those in attendance. The honey flow is sporadic. Good in some places and not so good in others.
Next meeting will be June 17, 2025. 6:30 to 7 pm will be social time. 7-8 pm is the official meeting time.
Bees are buzzing. Please join us on May 20th for the next bee club meeting. We meet at 6:30pm to socialize and catch up on bee news. The official meeting begins at 7:00 pm. Speaker tbd. See you there, 106 E. Morgan St. Brevard, the Community Services Bldg.
4/15/25 Meeting Minutes
There were 13 people in attendance. Randy made a motion to approve the 3/18/25 minutes as emailed out on 3/26/25. Ellis seconded the motion. All were in favor. There was no treasurer report this month.
Dave Ellis caught three swarms in one day. All were at different locations. Be on the lookout for swarms. Dave uses swarm commander to help attract the bees. The location of the swarm boxes are not very high. One was even on the ground. Wait 2-3 days once the bees move into the swarm trap before removing them. Some have found if you put honey in the swarm trap, the bees will more than likely rob the trap and not stay in it.
One member built a Russian Scion to catch swarms. It is an easy method. However, you have to be able to get the swarm right away before they leave. There are a lot of sites on the internet about making one and how they work.
Hive beetles and ants are worse in FL than in our area. Some members use diatomaceous earth and cinnamon to keep ants out, but the rain washes it away, so you have to reapply it.
Rosemary Ennis has a 10 frame shallow box and three supers for sale. It is just the boxes, no frames for around $60-$70. You may email her if you are interested: brdjen4@yahoo.com.
Randy is catching swarms. He doesn’t want anymore bees to take care of. You can email him if you would like one of his swarms: flenviro@gmail.com. If you have too many bees and catch some swarms, please reply to this email with your name and contact information. We can let others know if they are interested and need more bees.
Everyone mentioned how many hives they were managing. Some were just getting back into keeping bees. Most were in agreement that if you were beekeeping for a hobby, 6-8 hives is about the right number. Any more requires a lot of work and time.
Our next meeting will be the third Thursday, May 20th at 6:30 pm to socialize, with the meeting beginning at 7:00 pm. Same place: 106 E. Morgan St. Brevard, NC, The Community Services Building. Hope to see you all in May!
Hope to see you all for our next meeting, on tax day, April 15th. Same place, 106 E Morgan St, Transylvania County Community Services Building, Brevard. You can come early at 6:30 pm to socialize and see how other bees are doing. The official meeting will start at 7 pm and end around 8 pm. We are now meeting on the third Tuesday of the month to have a little more time to socialize. See you soon.
https://www.psu.edu/news/research/story/buzz-me-bees-wearing-itty-bitty-qr-codes-reveal-hive-secrets
WATCH: Experts baffled by mass bee deaths
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/experts-baffled-by-mass-bee-deaths/