Club meetings are on the first Thursday of each month at 7:30pm. Meetings are held at the Legion Log Cabin in San Anselmo, CA (20 Veterans Place).
September 7, 2017: Kate Frey, co-author of The Bee-Friendly Garden, “Bee Friendly Gardening”
October 5, 2017: Gro Amdam, Professor, Arizona State University, “Vaccinating Honey Bees: Concept, Data, Feasibility”
November 2, 2017: Janet Brisson, Owner, Country Rubes, “Small Hive Beetles”
December 7, 2017: Gene Brandi, President, American Beekeeping Federation, “Beekeeping from a Commercial Perspective” Gene will be speaking about his business and generally describe how they manage their bees for honey production and crop pollination; describe some of the difficulties they face with pesticides, mites, etc., and discuss some of the challenges and opportunities they face today. He also plans to talk about some of the political issues that impede progress in pollinator protection from pesticides, and the fact that Federal, State, and local policies are not always “bee friendly,”
January 4, 2018: Marin Beekeepers “Panel Discussion: Community Breeding.” Members will discuss different ways they have helped to increase locally sourced bees from reported 42% to 85+% in last 8 years. Panelists include Volker Ackermann, Jennifer Berry, Roy Crumrine, Richard Hyde, Bonnie Morse, Cynthia Perry and David Peterson.
Methods discussed will include different ways to split, queen cell builders / nuc production, swarm bait hives, and bee sharing programs. There will be plenty of time for Q&A to help you plan your bee increase strategy for 2018!
February 1, 2018: Mace Vaughn, Pollinator Program Co-Director, Xerxes Society for Invertebrate Conservation, Pollinator Conservation Policy: Past Successes and a Hopeful Future. In this presentation, Mace will provide background on Federal and California state-level policies that are currently in place to support pollinators, from native bees to honey bees to monarch butterflies. He will give an overview of the policy successes and what led to that success, much of which was a result of lobbying to the USDA and lawmakers by a diverse coalition of groups and individuals interested in pollinator conservation. He also will share an update on what he sees ahead for pollinators in the next Farm Bill.
March 1, 2018: Leo Sharaskin, editor, Keeping Bees with a Smile, “Natural and Practical Beekeeping,” will be discussing concepts for natural beekeeping. Leo is contributor to American Bee Journal, The Beekeepers Quarterly (UK), and Acres USA, and speaks internationally on sustainable beekeeping, organic growing, and Earth-friendly living. He holds a PhD in Forestry from the University of Missouri and a Master’s in Natural Resources from Indiana University. Author of world-renowned research in sustainable agriculture, he lives with his wife and four children on a forest homestead in the Ozarks in southern Missouri where they raise bees in a variety of low-maintenance, easy-to-build horizontal hives.
Books will be available for $35 at the meeting.
author of Honeybee Democracy and The Wisdom of the Hive
April 5, 2018: Samuel Ramsey, Doctoral Student, University of Maryland, “Varroa Feed on Hemolymph and 2 Other Alternative Facts.” Varroa destructor feed exclusively on the hemolymph of adult and immature bees. It’s considered to be such an obvious fact that it often goes without citation now in scientific papers. But there is very little if any experimental support for this universally accepted conclusion. My project, in partnership with the USDA and Project Apis m, has shown that Varroa are actually feeding on a very different tissue, the fat body, leading to a diverse host of pathologies that have never been explained by the hemolymph model. With a better understanding of how this parasite impacts its host we can develop novel forms of control and new methods to remediate the health issues common to infected colonies.
May 3, 2018: Tamara Wolfson, “Medicine from the beehive.” This presentation offers a brief overview of how honeybees and plant medicine have come together to create a dynamic synergy of healing products produced within the beehive. We will touch upon the fascinating history, mythology and symbolism of the hive, explore how the honeybee is an extraordinary benefit to our environment and examine specifically, the medicinal uses of the six bee medicines; pollen, royal jelly, venom, honey, propolis, and beeswax.
Tamara Wolfson, LAc is an osteo-acupuncturist, apitherapist, herbalist and educator with over 25 years of clinical experience practicing natural medicine. Tamara is the founder of LadyBee Botanicals, a comprehensive line of over a hundred original, natural, and organic herbal formulations utilizing Western, Ayurvedic and Chinese herbs, apitherapy tonics, and bee medicine based body care products. Tamara is also the founder of HealtHIVE, an online resource of NCCAOM, California CEU, and Florida CEU certified natural medicine courses which are also available for the general public.
Her Websites:
tamarawolfson.com
ladybeebotanicals.com
healthive.com
June 7, 2018: Marin Beekeepers “Gadgets and Gizmos”
July: No meeting. Marin County Fair June 30 – July 5. Heidrun Meadery Tour Info & Tix, July 13
August: Potluck. Date TBA.