Clarksville Montgomery County Beekeeping Association - Monthly Meeting Minutes
Date: 2 April 2022
Officers Present: President Roger Stewart, Vice-President Billie Zeveney, Secretary Mike Sutton, Treasurer Max Stewart, Webmaster Christine O’Meara.
Meeting called to order by the presiding officer, President Roger Stewart at 10:05am
Members present/Guests introduced: 32 people present (see sign in sheet)
Seven new beekeepers introduced themselves.
Approval of Treasurer Report: Treasurer Report prepared by Billie Zeveney was read aloud by Mike Sutton. Motion to accept the minutes were seconded and approved by majority.
Approval of Minutes: Minutes were read aloud. Motion to accept the minutes were seconded and approved by majority.
Ironwood Dental continues to support the club with monetary contributions. Owner wanted to help a local non-profit group in the Clarksville area and selected us. The club is considering how best to recognize and thank Ironwood Dental for their support.
Roger Stewart and Mike Sutton discussed attending the TBA conference. TBA has announced each club can apply for up to $400 for use as speaker fees, hive grant or new equipment. Basically, anything we want that would assist our club’s educational goals. The Regional North Middle VP plans to attend our May business meeting to discuss options and opportunities available to us. To this end, our webmaster, Christine O’Meara has volunteered to be our representative at TBA. And our VP has volunteered to serve as a director on the TBA board. We still need one more volunteer to serve as director and assistant directors for both of our primaries.
Mike Sutton brought his Colorado Bee Vacuum to the meeting for anyone interested in seeing how it was constructed. He also brought a pair of lighted and adjustable magnifier glasses (1x to 3.5x lens included) available on Amazon $19 for anyone to try as they might be useful for seeing eggs in the bottom of a cell or for grafting queens.
Old Business:
- Immaculate Conception School, located at 1901 Madison St, in Clarksville is hosting an Environmental Fair on April 21 from 1:00-2:30pm. Club representatives Mike Sutton and Jordan Clarke have volunteered to set up a table with training and educational materials. Rosalie Pechinpaugh volunteered to assist if either of the two primaries are unable to attend.
- Earth Day Celebration on Saturday, April 23 from 9:00am-12:00pm at Clarksville Gas & Water, located at 2215 Maison St. Our group will need to bring their own table and easy-up. Club representatives ??? and ??? have volunteered to set up a table with training and educational materials.
- At Home Beekeeping Series, the last Tuesday of each month from 6:30-7:30pm. Next is April 26.
New Business:
- Kent Williams’ Bee School hosted by the Lake Barkley Beekeepers Association will be April 28th, 29thand 30th. The class is only one day long from 9am-4pm at 580 KY-385 in Wingo KY 42088. Our President Roger Stewart has attended this class before and highly recommends it as it has hands-on opportunities to work an active established hive.
- Bee Informed website survey is now available for submitting colony loss information. A link was posted to our fb page.
- The UT 2022 Master-beekeeping Class dates and locations dates and locations for 2022 Master Beekeeping Program link posted to our fb page. Note these are the basic class and are required to attend their advanced class when it comes out.
- Sign ups sheet for the swarm list was made available.
Topic and Speaker:
Roger Stewart discussed the many uses of a double screened board as known as a Snelgrove board.
James Lenske talked about food grade buckets with lids that have seals. Best place to buy might by Bills Wholesale but shop around. Inspector classes should start up again soon. Rotate brood boxes to put the queen in the bottom to avoid downward pressure which triggers swarming. We still have some chilly night ahead of us. Hives are building up population. Wait for warmer weather after mid-April to begin grafting queens and doing splits. His colonies suffered 50% losses this year, but that’s without mite treatments.
Upcoming meetings and events:
- 16 April Youth Hive Inspections (weather permitting)
- 7 May Monthly Meeting 10am at Public Library
- 21 May Youth Hive Inspections (weather permitting)
- 10 June Monthly Meeting 10am at Public Library
- 18 June Youth Hive Inspections (weather permitting)
Meeting adjourned by the President at 11:15am
Respectfully submitted by Mike Sutton, CMCBA Secretary
