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Monday, August 29, 2011

the BEE show

here's a link to a recent podcast/show regarding our favorite subjects: BEES

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

ECWBA Newsletter - August 2011

September Meeting
The September 10, 2011, meeting is scheduled for Ripon Library in the Silver Creek Room. The meeting start time is 9:30 am. For the September meeting, we will have the beekeeping products bazaar. All members are encouraged to bring in a product derived from anything from the beehive. Whatever you bring in, please be prepared to give a brief description of the product and be ready to answer any questions. Please feel free to share your recipe and techniques for making the product.
Year 2012 and ECWBA
The September meeting will be the last of the meetings for 2011. I am just starting to look toward 2012. If there are any presentation topics you would like to see discussed, please let me know by e-mail, note, phone call, or tell me at a meeting about your ideas. I’ll do my best to put something together about it.
Also, during one of the first two meetings of 2012, the election of both Secretary and President will occur. Both offices require only a small amount of time. Please consider assisting the ECWBA by lending your talents to one of these offices. New leadership in the one of these offices can only strengthen and improve the association.
Tee-Shirts
Andy Krueger is planning some promotional tee-shirts (maybe other attire, too). She is looking for ideas on a logo and/or a motto representative of the ECWBA. Please submit your ideas to her via e-mail at ericandandy@gmail.com. Or you can submit ideas at the September meeting.
Beekeeping Notes
As summer slowly comes to a close, this is the time to think about the honey harvest and plan for harvesting and extracting honey and obtaining honey jars or containers for storing honey. Also, just after the honey harvest in early fall is a good time to treat for Varroa mites. Plan now for what type of treatment you might want to apply if you to choose to treat for mites.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at 715-330-9969. I’m sometimes hard to contact, but leave a message and I’ll call you back. Or contact me via e-mail at jeff.champeau@yahoo.com .

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

bomb sniffing bees

http://science.howstuffworks.com/bomb-sniffing-bees.htm

i came across a july article about bomb sniffing bees in popular science magazine. the picture caught my eye....as it's ROWS and ROWS of bees strapped to a "switch looking" device. it says...."the handheld device is about the size of a dustbuster". the bees are trained to extend their proboscis to feed when they sense leaky explosive compounds. when their tongue breaks the infrared beam.....they set off the alarm.

the article is sure to state in the end that THE BEES ARE RETURNED TO THEIR HIVES after their shift.