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
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
A Special Thank You to Donors:
Donations from Vendors who could not attend:
Mel Disselkoen
Northern Bee Supply
Pierco
Reid’s Apiary & Bee-tique
D.F. Koehnen
Hexabees
BeeSmart
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Simpson’s Bee Supply
Wicwas Press
What is OSBA
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 respective 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 Directors 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
Director
Dwight Wilson
Representative
Mike Soboleski
Tom Rathbun
Director
Representative
Richard Manley
Open
Representative
Tracy Alarcon
Director
Joe Kovaleski
Director
Representative
Dwight Wells
Jason Bosler
Representative
Mike Doseck
Director
Michael Vaughn
Director
Alex Zomchek
Representative
Andrea LIttler
Representative
Karri Brushkotter
Directors
Susan Valentine-Cooper
Director
Representative
Marishka Wile
Kim Flippen
Representative
Open
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OSBA and Honeybee Sustainability
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
Club Education
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 association in the state of Ohio was given its own “A Web-Based Introductory Beekeeping Training Program” DVD for their association library.
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 reservation 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.
Funding for Research, Support for Grants
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 system 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 future 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
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www.wicwas.com
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Glenn Willoughby
6626 Hartwick Pines Road
Reid’s Apiary
&
“Bee-tique
Grayling, MI 49738
989.370.4841
[email protected]
Woodenware*Honey*Queens*Pollination
[email protected]
740.643.2925
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 results of your queen is important — If you bought an Ohio Buckeye Belle Queen in 2014 and feel it was exceptional, 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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Registration
Lunchroom
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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
Awards, Election Results, Business Meeting
2:45—3:15
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 resources 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 nonproductive 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 colonies 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 management of nucleus colonies, including set-up, swarm
control, winter preparations, and wintering.
Phenology for beekeepers: using a biological calendar to predict plant bloom.
Phenology is the study of recurring biological phenomena 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. Participants 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 cottage 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 mechanisms to enhance genetic diversity and the benefits to
colony and population fitness.
Comb honey Production in the Northern Champlain 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 obvious toxic exposure, but bees have long dealt with
naturally occurring toxins in the pollen, nectar and
propolis they collect, as well as toxins generated naturally inside the hive. Minimizing the damage of pesticide 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, including 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 & Cryopreservation
The importation of germplasm from Old World populations to enhance domestic breeding stocks and developing 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 Protect Pollinators and Beekeepers: The presentation
will cover the adverse impact of pesticides on pollinators, and our work to protect bees, and native pollinators 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—[email protected]
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 specialized 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 production business, Vaca Valley Apiaries, in northern
California. Cobey continues to present various aspects of this work nationally and internationally at
numerous conferences, seminars, workshops, and
publishes widely in various trade and professional
journals and book chapters.
Michele [email protected]
Ms. Colopy has nearly 20 of experience in nonprofit
organizations, and has a Master’s degree in Nonprofit Management from The University of Akron.
Her nonprofit experience includes work in the performing 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 [email protected]
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 variety of workshops, webinars, written materials and
electronic resources
John Grafton– [email protected]
John graduated from the Ohio State University (BS
Agriculture Economics1977) then joined the Ohio
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Department of Agriculture retiring in 2008 after
spending 32 years with the apiary inspection program. He started keeping bees in 1964 with a 4-H
project and has had bees ever since. John has received are the Ohio State Beekeepers Association’s
Ohio Beekeeper of the year award and the Exceptional Service Award presented by the Apiary Inspectors 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 beekeeping 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 chickens. Their children Amanda and Clinton live nearby.
Reed Johnson– [email protected]
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 Missoula, Montana at the University of Montana where he
worked with Jerry Bromenshenk. He received his
PhD from the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign where he was in the lab of May Berenbaum.
Lowell Lufkin- [email protected]
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– [email protected]
As a child, Michael spent most of his spare time outdoors, fascinated by the plants and insects and animals living in his suburban New York City environment. He escaped the city by going off to the University 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 difficult, and more expensive. With ever increasing losses, 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 exhausted 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 colonies, 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
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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– [email protected]
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 extension 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 Principles, Backyard Beekeeping, a chapter in The Hive
and the Honey Bee, and Wisdom for Beekeepers.
He is a frequent speaker at state and national meetings and has traveled extensively to observe beekeeping techniques.
James Thompson—[email protected]
Life member of OSBA and EAS, EAS Master beekeeper, and honey judge for the past 40 years.
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Buzzing About
OSBA
4-H
Community
We have funding together to help promote our
next generation of beekeepers. We sponsored
this year’s judge at the
Ohio State Fair.
Awareness
Club
“Save the Honey Bee”
License plate will increase public awareness , and provide funds
for further outreach.
Development
Beekeeper
Need a club in your area? OSBA has a “How
to Start a New Association Guide” Contact your
OSBA Director or Re-
Funding for
OSU Honey Bee
Research
Education
Visit us on the web. Explore our electronic educational pages.
OSBA donation to further studies at The Ohio
State University Beelab.
Beekeeping
Sustainability
OSBA
Master
Educational
Beekeeper
Conferences
Program
Reserve the Date! Oct
31, 2015 for next year’s
Fall Conference .
Webinars/
Podcasts
Specific
programming
reaching into the comfort
of your own home, on
your own schedule.
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Self-paced 30 tiered education program. Get
out of your comfort zone
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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 publications, 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.
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 agricultural needs.
The Buckeye Queen Producers have received financial support from Ohio State Beekeepers Association.
Northern Adapted Sustainable Queens Raised By
the Following Group of Ohio Queen Producers
Joe Kovaleski –
Pres.:[email protected]
Dwight Wells – VP: [email protected]
Peggy Garnes – Sec: [email protected]
Susan Valentine-Cooper – Treas: [email protected]
Rod Pritchard: [email protected]
Tim Arheit: [email protected]
Paul Cline: [email protected]
Dan O’Hanlon: [email protected]
Denny Lamb: [email protected]
Floyd Ostrowski: [email protected]
Tracy Alarcon: [email protected]
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