Hello fellow beekeepers,

I recently had a great trip to Sevierville, Tennessee to attend the Hive Life conference. I’m not sure of the official count, but I heard that there are more than 1700 people in attendance. I really can’t say enough good things about it. The presentations were wonderful, and I thoroughly enjoyed having lunch with beekeepers from all over the United States. I even lunched with a beekeeper who drove from Montréal Canada!

Believe me when I tell you, with that many people attending a conference there were vendors far and wide. It was absolutely the biggest vendor area for beekeeping that I’ve ever seen. I didn’t get to check them all out, kept getting side tracked.

Aside from the presentations, and vendors, there was an amazing honey show with more than 500 entries. One of the honey show judges commented that this honey show is the largest one in North America. With that, A BIG, BIG congratulations go out for a few of our very own Maryland beekeepers who took home ribbons, including Monica Schmitt-Rutledge, Elaine Storm, and Kim Mehalick

As I turn to the calendar, I’m very excited for two upcoming events. One being our February 11 meeting where we will welcome Mike Palmer and Stephen Repasky. Mike is planning to share his secrets for creating brood factories, while Stephen plans to offer timely advice about swarm behavior and strategies as well as single chamber brood management.

Trust me, you don’t want to miss this meeting so I’m looking forward to seeing everyone at the Harford Community College. A big thanks to Mary Laura for getting the speakers and everyone who works to put a meeting like this together.

The second event I’m anxiously awaiting is the blooming of the red maple trees. Red maples (Acer rubrum) are a very early blooming tree & an integral source of early pollen for many pollinators. When folks ask me what they can do to help the bees, an easy answer is plant a Red Maple tree.

I know our Eastern Apiculture Society (EAS) team has been hard at work establishing committees & laying the groundwork for a successful EAS conference in Maryland in 2024. The EAS chairperson and co-chairperson recently toured two facilities in Maryland to determine a conference venue. An official venue selection announcement will be made at our February meeting. Please also put the 2023 EAS Conference in Amherst, Massachusetts on your calendar: maybe I’ll see you there.

Finally, keep an eye on your hives. If we have a pretty day, maybe consider a quick peak to make sure nobody needs any emergency feeding. We’ve come this far through winter; you don’t want to lose a hive now. Hopefully, spring will be here tomorrow.

See you all soon,

Fred Smith

[Return to February 2023 BeeLine newsletter]