8/3/2019 BANV0205

1/5

April 02-May 02Next Meeting is:

Tuesday, May 28, 20027:30pm

Cafeteria, Falls Church High

7521 Jaguar Trail

Falls Church, Virginia 22042

President Alan Fiala 703-790-8044 Treasurer Bennie Liles 703-671-1010

Vice-Pres. Patricia Haskell 703-560-3484 Secretary Pearl Liles 703-671-1010Editor Chris Reed 703-534-2117

The May 28, 2002, meeting will feature a question

and answer session with a panel of some of ourmost experienced beekeepers answering yourquestions. Lots of us like the part of our meetingswhere we can just talk to other beekeepers for

their opinion about whats going on in our hives,how to manage them, and so forth. This exchangeusually takes place before and after the programand during the break with the result that we dontalways get to hear everything that was said. Atthe May meeting were going to give everyone the

opportunity to ask our experts those questions ina more structured setting allowing everyone tohear. Pearl and Bennie Liles, John Ferree, DaneHannum, and perhaps others will participate in apanel chaired by Pat Haskell. Bring your questions on anything to do with beekeeping, honeyand wax production, marketing, and pollination no topics barred! Find out whether or not its

true that if you ask four experienced beekeepers a question, youll get at least six firm opinionsadvocating all sides of the issue.

On March 26, 2002, Alan Fiala began his first meeting as BANV president by welcomingnewcomers Ed Vanderhoeven, George Wagner, Betty Jackson, Paul Powell, Howard Bass and

Cliff Taylor. Regular memberswere encouraged to wear newlymade name-tags to help thenewcomers learn membersnames. A survey for the benefit

of the state apiarist was thenpassed around the meeting roomto assess the number of colonies

lost this winter in NorthernVirginia. Dane Hannum reported

that the Spring Capital Home andGarden Show was the best everfor BANV. Participating bee-keepers sold $5,331 worth ofhoney and other hive productsduring the three day show in

Chantilly. President Alan Fialainitiated a discussion during themeeting about the need for a

Upcoming Events

May 28, 2002 BANV meeting

July 19-20, 2002 VSBA meeting in

Lynchburg, VAAugust 5-9, 2002 EAS meeting in

Ithaca, NY.August 15-18, 2002 Arlington County

FairSeptember 21-23, 2002 Capital Home

and Garden ShowSeptember 24, 2002 BANV meetingNovember 26, 2002 BANV meeting

Our Booth at the Spring Capital Home and Garden Show

8/3/2019 BANV0205

2/5

BANV web page and a study group for master beekeeper certification. John Ferree announcedthat he will head up the BANV booth at the Arlington County Fair again this summer. There wasno treasurers report as our Treasurer, Bennie Liles and our Secretary, Pearl Liles (who wasreported to be seriously ill in the hospital) were absent. Pat Haskell and Marvin Wardgenerously provided abundant refreshments. Lucky Eli Alford won the 50-50 game.

Our guest speaker at the March 2002 meetingwas the award-winning photographer and

Maryland beekeeper Stephen McDaniel. Afreelance photographer since 1975 and EAS-

certified Master Beekeeper, Stephen took us ona tour inside the life of the honey bee colony.He projected beautiful slides of worker beescollecting nectar and pollen on various flowers,bees carrying propolis loads on their legs, the

transfer of nectar from one bee to another,hungry bees sucking up honey from a cell, and atidy worker bee combing the hairs on her back.He has also photographed a drone walking on apersons tongue, queens fighting on the comb,

queens emerging from queen cells, queenspiping, a queen in a swarm cluster and anairborne swarm. Seldom seen close-up photosof new eggs in cells, a larva spinning its cocoon,two larvae in one cell (caused by a layingworker), a pupa shedding its skin and a new

worker bee emerging from its cell were enjoyedby all. Stephen even demonstrated with his slides that bees fold their proboscis (organ forsucking up liquids) under their head when it is not in use; the proboscis is not retracted into thebees head. Other rare color slides included a bee louse, a varroa mite and a laying worker inthe act of laying an egg. Mr. McDaniel revealed a photographers tip; a 50 mm camera lens

used backwards makes a great magnifier for visual work. Finally, our generous guest speakergave away one of his photographs as a door prize. The lucky winner of Mr. McDaniels artwork

was Lloyd Sours.

Photographer Stephen McDaniel

Presidents CornerBy Alan Fiala

The one-day seminar held on April 20, 2002 was the idea of Brenda Kiessling, who was, ofcourse, unable to participate. Special thanks go to Paul Diehl for arranging for the use of

the outdoor lab, Pat Haskell for tending to a myriad of details of advertising, housing, hives,and food, Paul, Pat, and Dane Hannum for providing hives, Betty and Don Jackson for beingad hoc registrars, and Jeff Pokorny and Marvin Ward for being ad hoc general assistants.Everyone who participated was enthusiastic about the program, and wants to have more.There are more short-course programs available, and Pat and I are looking into working

them into our future activities. Next time, though, we will be asking for volunteers to helpus. We are also looking into the possibility of hosting a Virginia State BeekeepersAssociation meet ing before too very long. We can only do that if we have lots of volunteerhelp.

There are lots of activities between our May and September meetings: the Arlington County

Fair, the VSBA meeting in Lynchburg, the EAS meeting at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY,the fall home and garden show and the club picnic. Participate as much as you can! I donot expect to be at our May meeting, but hope to see you at other events this summer.

8/3/2019 BANV0205

3/5

Adventures in Australian BeekeepingBy Brenda Kiessling

G'day. After 7 weeks in the WAY-outback, I am now in a town near the middle of Queenslandcalled Roma where sheep, cattle, oil and gas are the main industries. I hadn't realized that I'd

gotten used to the dust in the streets, on the scrub vegetation, on the red rocks or on thepeople of Mt. Isa, but landing at the Roma Aerodrome was a surprise--it is green, cute, clean

and flat. There are lush fields of crops, pastures for livestock and "Bottle" trees (the trunks areconvex and look like a bottle). The roads here are littered with dead Wallaroos (a dark graysmallish kangaroo), victims of passing vehicles.

Only the week before I left Mt. Isa, I discovered the biggest beekeeper in that town, the kindMr. L. G. who invited me to his apiary. The apiary was in his backyard--although I think someof his twelve colonies are somewhere else--he was a little vague about it. He had justpackaged up a two hundred milliliter sample of honey that he is required to send to the stateevery two years. The honey is checked for disease and then he gets a clean bill of apiary

health. Mr. L. G. obtains a label which goes on the honey sample by paying the state a feerequired for keeping bees. I was curious about the number of colonies in my hosts apiarybecause I had visited another beekeeper the week before who had only one colony and whohad told me that that was the legal limit. In response to my inquiry, Mr. L. G. offered anothervague answer. Mr. L. G. took me out to his dark apiary--all this had to happen after office

hours; it was my only chance, dark or not. Surrounding his backyard apiary was a net formingan arcade perhaps 20 feet long and 8 feet high, open at both ends. There is a story to that. Agirl in his neighborhood got stung a few years ago and the city council came to him and saidthat they understood that bees were important to the environment, but couldn't he dosomething to change their flight path? So he cooked up this camouflage scheme resulting in no

more complaints from neighbors. Mr. L. G. has a log hive in his apiary, home to a colony ofnative Australian sting-less bees. The sting-less bees bite like an ant, Mr. L. G. explained. Iwas naturally very anxious to meet some of these bees. He banged on and shook the log butthe sting-less bees just wouldn't come out. The next day, during lunch time at the office, a jarappeared with two of the sting-less bees in it. They were about four millimeters long, even

smaller than the Australian flies I had encountered. The two sting-less bees are now in

formalin where I hope I can get a better look at them later. American foulbrood and waxmoths worry the local beekeepers most. One beekeeper tapes his supers to keep out waxmoths--says he has had trouble even within a strong colony. Another beekeeper reports he'sonly had wax moth trouble in unused equipment. I think it might be a different moth--the size

he showed me looked smaller than ours.

Bugs, in general, are everywhere. I'm reminded that this is the tropics, or close to it.Cockroaches seem to come alive about sundown when they come into houses--even nice,pretty, upscale houses. Some cockroaches are about 2 inches long, but all of them are dead bymorning with their feet literally up in the air. If you don't sweep your floors every day you get

quite a collection of dead cockroaches in your home. And the flies! In Mt. Isa, small, persistentflies were always present. You can't blow them off. If you do, they settle right back down. Youend up with your whole back and face covered with flies. I was riding my pushbike home in

Mt. Isa one day when the shadows were growing long. My journey was uphill so I was pumpingmy bike and I was a little winded; my mouth was open as I tried to the blow the flies off my

face. I got to thinking of long ago, maybe 1950, when National Geographic magazine had justcome in the mail (and I was lucky enough to get it before my siblings). In the magazine wasan article on Australian aborigines with a black and white photo showing a solemn aborigineface with FLIES on his eyelids, lips and all over his face. I couldn't understand why a personwouldn't just brush off the flies. Then, in the real world, I inhaled a fly! I was trying not to

crash my pushbike while gradually turning blue trying to decide whether to cough up the fly orbreathe. I coughed, the fly came up and there was no crash! Now I know why the aboriginedidn't try to get the flies off his face.

8/3/2019 BANV0205

4/5

Editors Note: Adventures in AustralianBeekeeping was created from E-mailmessages sent by Brenda Kiessling, formerBANV President, between March 3, 2002and May 3, 2002.

Beekeeping Workshop for Beginners, June 1, 2002

A one-day workshop for beginning beekeepers in need of introductory information will takeplace at the Three Lakes Park in Henrico County (400 Saluda Dr., Richmond, VA) on Saturday,June 1, 2002. The workshop, sponsored by the Richmond Beekeepers Association, will coverhoney bee biology and behavior, selection of an apiary site, annual management requirements,and assembly and care of beekeeping equipment. Mark Bennett from Dadant has been invitedto demonstrate and display his company's wares. A bee cage will be set up for afternoon

demonstrations of hive inspection and management. Admission is free; however, the workshopwill be limited to 30 people. Interested persons should contact Bob Stapleton at 804-672-8408or Bert McLaughlin by email at bertmcl@aol.com.

The April 20, 2002, BANV-sponsored seminar presented by the extension services of Virginia

Tech was a big success. Instructors Dr. Rick Fell, Keith Tignor, and Marjorie Browning beganthe seminar by describing Integrated Pest Management and how to best achieve it. Every

disease and pest currently known to affect honeybees was described, along with currenttreatment methods. The afternoon portion of the one-day seminar held at the ArlingtonOutdoor Education Laboratory in Broad Run was devoted to six hands-on laboratory or hivedemonstrations on detecting diseases and discouraging pests. Members of the three localBeekeeping Associations and a couple of members from Richmond filled the class quota of

thirty. All the participants, instructors and students alike, agreed that it was a very worthwhile,information-packed day, held at a very appropriate and beautiful location.

For SaleExtracting Service will bring extractor toyour place and help you extract for a share of

the honey. Call Ken Hood at 703 780-0474.

Attendees of the April 20, 2002 Short Course on Management of Bee Diseases and Pests

8/3/2019 BANV0205

5/5

5830 Piedmont DriveAlexandria, VA 22310-1853