Transylvania County Beekeepers Association

There were 14 in attendance. It is time to renew membership to the Transylvania County Beekeepers Association. $10 for an individual and $15 for a family. The membership will help secure speakers, cover the cost of future bee expos, grow the local association, etc. Currently we have around 20 paid members. If you would like to join the association, you may pay your dues at the next meeting, or mail a check payable to The Transylvania County Beekeepers Association PO Box 92 Brevard, NC 28712. 

You may also want to consider joining the state beekeepers association: https://www.ncbeekeepers.org/membership/join-or-renew-now It is a good resource for more information. The state association has also been assisting beekeepers who lost their apiaries from hurricane Helene. 

The Henderson County Beekeepers Association is also starting their annual beginner’s beekeeping class on January 27th: https://hcbeekeepers.org/education/2021-beginner-beekeeper-education-enrollment-2-2-2-2/

It was also time to vote in the local board. All current officers agreed to continue unless someone else in attendance wanted to take over their office. Randy Austin appointed Sheila Holland to continue serving as Treasurer. Carolyn Thompson seconded the vote. All voted in favor. Sheila Holland nominated Priscilla Tinsley as secretary. Mary Caldwell seconded the vote. All voted in favor. Priscilla Tinsley nominated Dean Klingensmith as vice president. Jim Thmpson seconded the vote. All voted in favor. David Knierim appointed Devin Gentry as president. Dean Klingensmith seconded the vote. All voted in favor. Sheila did mention that this would be her last year as treasurer for members to be thinking about serving next year.

Mary Caldwell asked that we create a list of members who would be willing to share their email and/or phone number to volunteer as mentors and/or be available to answer general questions from other members who may run into something unusual going on in their hives. We will work on getting that available for the future.

Members discussed feeding the bees in the winter. It is important not to go into your hives when we have cold temperatures. The temperature should be at least 50 degrees or above. If it is near 50 degrees, you don’t want to spend too much time in the hive. The bees need a lot of food (frames of honey) stored up for the winter. If they are running low and we have an unusual warm winter day, it is best to feed them some kind of dry food such as a bee patty or dry sugar. It isn’t a good idea to feed sugar water in the water because of moisture building up within the hive. Most members in attendance do not insulate their hives in the winter. They leave it up to the bees to keep it warm inside.

David Ellis had attended a northern conference beekeepers meeting. A lot of the beekeepers were experiencing a 30-40% loss in their bees this year mostly due to droughts. David also shared some bee books he had and some Betterbee catalogs. Reading up about bees on these cold, snowy days can help the local beekeeper.

There are several species of honey bees. There isn’t really a way to keep your bees a one species apiary. They fly around to other hives and mix up the species. Members discussed how it is best to have smaller bee yards in several areas rather than one large bee yard due to bears, disease, etc. 

Meeting adjourned a little after 8 pm. Please mark your calendars for next month’s meeting (first Tuesday of the month), February 4th at 7 pm, Transylvania Community Services Building, 106 E. Morgan St. Brevard. 

bers in attendance do not insulate their hives in the winter. They leave it up to the bees to keep it warm inside.

David Ellis had attended a northern conference beekeepers meeting. A lot of the beekeepers were experiencing a 30-40% loss in their bees this year mostly due to droughts. David also shared some bee books he had and some Betterbee catalogs. Reading up about bees on these cold, snowy days can help the local beekeeper.

There are several species of honey bees. There isn’t really a way to keep your bees a one species apiary. They fly around to other hives and mix up the species. Members discussed how it is best to have smaller bee yards in several areas rather than one large bee yard due to bears, disease, etc. 

Meeting adjourned a little after 8 pm. Please mark your calendars for next month’s meeting (first Tuesday of the month), February 4th at 7 pm, Transylvania Community Services Building, 106 E. Morgan St. Brevard. 

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It’s going to be cold out, but you will warm up fast at our next Transylvania County Bee Keepers meeting. Please join us Tuesday evening at 7 pm, Transylvania County’s Community Services Building, 106 E. Morgan St. Brevard, NC. You don’t have to be a bee keeper. All you need is a little interest in bees. We have a lot of local knowledge to share. Hope to see you this Tuesday evening! We meet most every first Tuesday of the month, usually same time and same place.

Hope everyone is doing ok and are close to being back to normalcy. It has been a difficult time for most with all the storms! FEMA is utilizing our normal meeting location for the next four weeks. Due to everything that has happened in the last month and lack of a meeting facility, we have decided to cancel the November meeting. Hope to see all of you at the next meeting on December 3rd! 

Anyone whose bees were impacted by the storm, loss of colonies, equipment, etc. may go to this link and fill out the form: 

https://forms.gle/bsLQ8uaoiJfjYRnm6

This information is very important. There are resources being made available through the state association NCSBA. The information will help the state determine the resources needed in each county. The cutoff date to file a claim is January 30, 2025. The hive loss payment is $230.00 for the 2024 program year.

Here is some more information that will help if you have been affected by this storm:

Click to access usda-programs-resources-support-beekeepers.pdf

Click to access fsa_elaphoneybeefact_sheet_22.01.pdf

Please check out this link about the new predator to the honey bee, the Yellow-Legged Hornet. The Yellow-Legged Hornet is in addition to the Asian Giant/Murder Hornet that we all know so well, but also may be confusing the Asian Giant to the European Hornet. https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/food-environment/2024/scientists-combat-honeybee-threat-yellow-legged-hornet-spread-us

To Keep your hornets straight. The European “will not” normally kill a honey bee. The Asian Giant “will”. Now there is the Yellow-Legged Hornet that may be even more devastating to our sweet honey bees.

The European has tear drop stripes on its thorax. A head and thorax that are similar in color.

The Asian Giant/Killer on the other hand has straight stripes across its thorax. Its head is lighter in color than their thorax.

This is a good U-Tube video to tell the difference between the European and Asian Giant Hornets. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vz6PDJOZK9s&feature=youtu.be

We had eleven members in attendance. Randy Austin shared his new technique for keeping his smoker going. He uses a toilet paper roll filled with cardboard from Amazon cardboard and three smoker pellets. Amazon doesn’t use any artificial chemicals in their cardboard. See the photo below. Most members stated pine needles are their source for smokers. However, sometimes it is hard to find dry pine needles and keep them smoking. 

There was a question about losing queens at the end of the year. Some reasons may be due to her age and/or repeated exposure to mite treatment medication. A weakened hive due to mites. The queen gets injured or killed during hive inspection. If the queen needs to be replaced, most of the time it will be during the last honey flow, which is the Sourwood flow for our area. 

If you have a hive with a lot of drones in mid October, it’s in trouble and probably won’t make it through the winter. It is best to combine the hive with another one. 

It is the time of year for robbing. You probably want to add your entrance reducers.

It was discussed that sometime in the future the club could get together to share in equipment and purchase mite treatment in bulk for those who only have a few hives and don’t need a lot of medication. 

There are some bee stores around that will rent equipment.

Hope you can make it to our next bee club meeting on October 1st.

We had our last meeting on 8/6/24 at the Community Services Building (106 East Morgan St. Brevard, NC) at 7 pm. Fourteen people were in attendance. We are at the end of the sourwood honey flow. It is time to start thinking about treating and feeding your bees. They need a good store for winter. A lot of bee keepers come up to the mountains for the sourwood flow bringing with them more mites and viruses. You need to recheck and possibly retreat again in the fall for mites. Make sure when you treat your bees to remove the entrance reducer and open it up.

It was discussed that the association has $1,480 that is being held in the County’s Cooperative Extension Master Gardner’s fund which was awarded to the association in a grant. The money is to be used for education purposes. Please be thinking how you would like to see the money be used.

Rosemary and Mary won the mated queen contest. The meeting adjourned a little after 8 pm.

Hope to see you at the next meeting. It will be the first Tuesday of the month, September 3rd, same place, 7 pm.

The Transylvania County Beekeepers Association had to update our email address. Please note the new email address is: tcbeekeepersassoc@gmail.com. If you would like to be added to the group email list, please send and email request with your first and last name. Thank you.

At the end of the next Transylvania County Beekeepers Association meeting (August 6, 2024) there will be a drawing for 2 mated queens. To be entered for the drawing, you may purchase your ticket chances to win at the Bee Cool Bee Supply Store (728 Capps Rd. Pisgah Forest, NC 28768), or at the Transylvania Farmers’ Market (200 East Main St. Brevard, NC 28712) on Saturdays from 9 am to 12 pm. Tickets are $5.00 each or 3 for $10.00. You do not have to be present to win, but we hope you can make the meeting to either learn all about bee keeping, or share your knowledge to assist others.

The TCBA meets on the first Tuesday of every month at 7:00 pm in the Conference Room of the Community Services Building, 106 E Morgan St, Brevard, NC 28712.

Everyone is welcome! There’s no fee to attend. Experienced beekeepers as well as those just starting their beekeeping journey are encouraged to attend.

All meetings will begin with brief updates from the association’s leadership, followed by a special presentation on a specific beekeeping topic. There will be time for general Q&A at the end of each meeting.

Our December 2022 meeting will be at the Brevard Fire Department, 95 W Main St, Brevard, NC 28712 at 7 pm Tuesday, December 6. Please come – we will be electing new officers for 2023!