~~~~~~~~~~ UPCOMING EVENTS ~~~~~~~~~~

UGA / Young Harris Beekeeping Institute

May 10 - 12, 2012

Young Harris College, Young Harris, GA

~~~~~~~~~~ RECENT EVENTS ~~~~~~~~~~

Did you miss the last Tara Beekeepers Monthly Meeting?

Our last membership meeting was held on Monday, 16-Jan-12, at 7:00 PM.

Fred Rossman, 2011 GBA Beekeeper of the Year, very generously made the trek from Moultrie, GA to visit

our club and deliver a fantastic Powerpoint presentation on the Queen Rearing program at Rossman Apiaries.

Among the multitude of amazing facts shared by Fred about their program was that they run about 3,000 miniature

mating nucs containing diminutive components: a feeder, a frame of comb, a frame of foundation, a single "cup"

of bees, and a viable queen cell. Soon after the newly hatched queens make their mating flights and begin to lay

eggs, Rossman employees inspect the queens' health and laying patterns before pulling them for shipment to queen

customers around the United States!  Fred remained after his presentation for the remainder of the meeting; he

was later mobbed by enthusiastic Tara members asking more questions during the refreshments at the end of the

evening.  Thanks for coming to see us, Fred!

Here are the winners of the January door prizes:

* A Rossman shirt set (donated by Rossman Apiaries) was won by Greg Clifton.
* A Rossman hat set (donated by Rossman Apiaries) was won by Gary Hawkins.
* A Queen Excluder set (donated by Tara Beekeepers) was won by Ronnie Brannon.
* A standard, stainless steel Hive Tool (donated by Gary Cooke) was won by Jerry Haygood.
* A red, stainless steel Hive Tool (donated by Buster's Bees) was won by Tom Blocker.
* A bottle of Sweet Honey Wine (Mead) (donated by Philip Quinn) was won by Tony Gable.
* An hand-embroidered Bee Pillow (donated by Jean Haygood) was won by Mary Cahill-Roberts.

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2011 Christmas Party

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A Memorable membership meeting was held on Monday, 21-Nov-11:

Victor Halbgewachs, local side-line beekeeper and decendant of a multi-generational beekeeping family, President of the Bartow Beekeepers club, and owner of Makin' Honey Apiaries (http://www.makinhoney.com/index.html), was our guest speaker.  Using a nice Powerpoint presentation, Victor shared lots of beekeeping tips and insights, as well as the story of his beekeeping family who together managed upwards of 10,000 hives on clover and alphalfa in Nebraska!  Victor traced his family's involvement with honey bees and beekeeping back several hundred years to their German family crest that included bee skeps!  Even his name, pronounced "hal-ghee-woks, " is directly linked to beekeeping; it means "half-wax," which was the historical, customary tax on beekeepers in Germany.  The crowd enthusiastically engaged Victor during and after his presentation.  He also generously donated a half-dozen or so bottles of his tasty, North GA wildflower honey as door prizes.  Thanks for visiting our club, Victor.  Come again soon!

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2011 Evelyn Williams Honey Show

The 2011 Honey Show took place at the November membership meeting.

For details on the entries, read the Honey Show Rules (below). Here are the results: 

HONEY:

Light - Fran Lane, 1st place (Blue ribbon & $25)

Medium (Amber) - Bruce Morgan, 1st place (Blue ribbon & $25)

- Buster Lane, 2nd place (Red ribbon & $15)

- Charlotte Roden, 3rd place (White ribbon & $10)

Dark - Jerry Haygood, 3rd place (White ribbon & $10)

Cut Comb - Charlotte Roden, 1st place (Blue ribbon)

- Buster Lane, 2nd place (Red ribbon)

Honey Frame - Buster Lane, 1st place (Blue ribbon)

Black Jar - Gary Cooke, 1st place (Blue ribbon)

WAX:

Block - Fran Lane, 1st place (Blue ribbon & $25)

Candles - Fran Lane, 3rd place (White ribbon)

OTHER:

Photography - Ronnie Brannon, 1st place (Blue ribbon)

- Charlotte Roden, 2nd place (Red ribbon)

- Fran Lane, 3rd place (White ribbon)

Cookery (Cookies) - Taffee Oakes, 1st place (Blue ribbon)

BEST IN SHOW:

Ronnie Brannon - Photography entry (Gold ribbon & $50)

Honey Show Rules - Nov 2011

Thank you for visiting the Tara Beekeepers Association website.  Please direct any questions or comments to webmaster@tarabeekeepers.org