clever uses for beeswax

http://lifehacker.com/5860003/use-beeswax-to-condition-and-polish-wooden-cutting-boards-and-furniture

ECWBA Newsletter - December 2011

Winter has settled in with cold weather and even some snow already this year.  Hopefully, you ensured that your beehives were well provisioned with honey for the winter and you have prepared your hives to survive the cold.  Before Christmas and the holiday season come around, I thought I would update you with a few things happening with the ECWBA.

1.  This past year, 2011, went rather well.  Thank-you to everybody that was involved in making the past year a success.  We had some good guest speakers at our meetings speaking on various topics.  I would like to dedicate next year, 2012, to topics regarding queens.  This would include the various ways of raising queens, evaluating queens for purchase, and exploring the establishment of a local queen breeding program.  If you have any specific queen-related topics you would like discussed, please let me know.

2.  At the January, 2012, meeting, the offices of president and secretary, are up for election.  The current secretary, Andy Krueger, has been doing an excellent job.  I can’t comment much about the president of this organization!!!  Here’s an opportunity to become involved as a volunteer in an organization serving fellow beekeepers.  Please think about running for one of these offices.  If you would like more information, please get in touch with ECWBA president, Jeff Champeau.

3. At the July and September meetings, the ECWBA established a committee for sponsoring a beginning beekeepers class.  This is not a permanent committee – once the class is done, the committee will be terminated.  The committee is moving forward with a class scheduled to start Thursday, January 26, 2012, and run for four consecutive weeks.  Please encourage any new beekeepers that you know to sign up for the class.  Notices will be sent out once the details are finalized – and watch for ads in local shopper newspapers.

4.  Some of the meeting dates and places for early 2012 have been scheduled in already.  Here’s what developed so far:
Saturday, January 21, 2012, Ripon Public Library, 9:30 to 11:00 am.
Saturday, February 18, 2012, place to be determined, Fond du Lac, 9:30 to 11:00 am.
Saturday, March 17, 2012, Ripon Public Library, 9:30 to 11:00 am.
May and/or June, 2012 (another field day???)
July and September meetings to be determined.

5.  The Ledgeview Nature Center located in the Chilton, WI, area has contacted the ECWBA looking for a beekeeper.  More specifically, the center is looking for a beekeeper to mentor one of their naturalists in the management of two beehives and an observation hive.  For more information, please contact Stephanie at the nature center at telephone 920-849-7094.

On behalf of the East Central Wisconsin Beekeepers Association, I would like wish all of you, your families and friends, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

Sincerely,

Jeff Champeau
ECWBA President

think like a bee presentation....go for a listen!

"Think Like a Bee"

When you sit down at your holiday table, thank a bee. A third of the food on your plate is made possible by these pollinators, whose numbers are being decimated by disease and colony collapse disorder. But the bees have a champion in Marla Spivak, a University of Minnesota researcher and MacArthur "Genius" who thinks like a bee. Her intuitive approach — combined with scientific method — has given the world tremendous insight into these fascinating insects. Marla will show host Majora Carter (no newbie herself — Majora is an urban beekeeper) the secrets she's beginning to uncover about the lives of bees. Marla's work explores how bees can help themselves become more resistant to modern-day threats — and how bees can help us humans to be more resilient and to build healthier communities.

http://www.thepromisedland.org/episode/15-marla-spivak

Sleek Urban Hive Lets You Keep Bees in the Comfort of Your Apartment - http://pulse.me/s/30NrM

Most of the honey sold in chain stores across the country doesn't meet international quality standards for the sweet stuff, according to a Food Safety News analysis released this week.

One of the nation's leading melissopalynologists analyzed more than 60 jugs, jars and plastic bears of honey in 10 states and the District of Columbia for pollen content, Food Safety News said. He found that pollen was frequently filtered out of products labeled "honey."

"The removal of these microscopic particles from deep within a flower would make the nectar flunk the quality standards set by most of the world's food safety agencies," the report says. "Without pollen there is no way to determine whether the honey came from legitimate and safe sources."

Among the findings:

• No pollen was found in 76 percent of samples from grocery stores including TOP Food, Safeway, Giant Eagle, QFC, Kroger, Metro Market, Harris Teeter, A&P, Stop & Shop and King Soopers.

• No pollen was found in 100 percent of samples from drugstores including Walgreens, Rite-Aid and CVS Pharmacy.

• The anticipated amount of pollen was found in samples bought at farmers markets, co-ops and stores like PCC and Trader Joe's.

Why does it matter where your honey comes from? An earlier Food Safety News investigation found that at least a third of all the honey consumed in the United States was likely smuggled from China and could be tainted with illegal antibiotics and heavy metals.

Foreign honey also puts a squeeze on American beekeepers, who have been lobbying for years for an enforceable national standard to prevent foreign honey from flooding the market.

The Food and Drug Administration does not have a standard of identity for honey like it does for milk or other products, a spokesman said.

The lack of regulation is what enables potentially unsafe honey is able to make its way into the country, Andrew Schneider, author of the Food and Safety News report.

"Where there's no pollen, there's no way for authorities to confirm where the honey came from, so it's easy to smuggle illicit honey into the country," he said.

from the original:  http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2011/11/09/most-honey-sold-in-u-s-grocery-stores-not-worthy-of-its-name/