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I've been keeping this blog for all of my beekeeping years and I am beginning my 19th year of beekeeping in April 2024. Now there are more than 1300 posts on this blog. Please use the search bar below to search the blog for other posts on a subject in which you are interested. You can also click on the "label" at the end of a post and all posts with that label will show up. At the very bottom of this page is a list of all the labels I've used.

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I began this blog to chronicle my beekeeping experiences. I have read lots of beekeeping books, but nothing takes the place of either hands-on experience with an experienced beekeeper or good pictures of the process. I want people to have a clearer picture of what to expect in their beekeeping so I post pictures and write about my beekeeping saga here.Master Beekeeper Enjoy with me as I learn and grow as a beekeeper.

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Monday, September 12, 2011

In the Red at GBA

GBA was an interesting meeting. I had fun seeing beekeeping friends from all over the state. I enjoyed the connections.

Amazingly they didn't ask for an evaluation of the meeting, which may reflect a money issue or may mean they don't want feedback. I desperately wanted to give feedback - they didn't have a timer for the speakers so the speakers often ran over or were short of time; the speakers could have been more stimulating in their topics; there was no food except for snacks at the breaks - I would have gladly paid for dinner with my registration; they didn't supply the agenda ahead of time on their webpage - maybe they knew the speakers' topics and didn't want to share ahead of time???

I heard three good speakers - Keith Delaplane, Kim Flottum and a woman from Locust Grove, Kathy Henderson, who isn't a beekeeper but is a fabulous gardener and talked about plants for bees. I went to a workshop with Kim Flottum on marketing varietal and artisanal honey which was top-notch.


















Above is Keith, talking about the CAP grant and what they are learning. He reiterated what I have heard him say many times that he himself has only seen one case of CCD in all these years. His CAP grant is looking at bee decline and the many contributing factors.

Below is Kim Flottum, editor of Bee Culture, who is talking about marketing honey. I loved his perspective which was find something to make your honey unique. For example, he described how he has three pines in his front yard - one of which has been struck by lightning. He can call his honey "Broken Tree Honey" and everyone in his area knows where the honey location is!

Note:  Feedback I would have loved the opportunity to give - for the first 15 minutes of Kim's talk there was a mother with small children playing games in the back of the room.  They were not quiet and very distracting - why were they not asked to play somewhere else before the workshop started?  They were not there to hear the workshop, but were playing in there before the workshop began.


























Our Metro Atlanta club had this display for our club entry in the honey show. It had to include 16 pounds of honey. The background cut from wood by my friend, Jay, is our MABA logo, and my friend, Jerry, cut the honeycomb hexagons that rotate and form the stand on which the honey, wax, etc. sits.
























I entered light honey, medium honey, chunk honey, a photo of the bees, and the quilted bag that I made (in the photo above) into the honey contest. My light and medium didn't place, but my chunk honey came home with a red ribbon as did the quilted bag and the photo - three red ribbons for me in the event.

Earlier post on talks I've heard with Kim Flottum can be found here
Earlier posts on talks from Keith Delaplane are here and here 

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