Monthly Meeting Notes - August 17, 2021
Apple Grove Beekeepers Association
Meeting Minutes
8-17-2021
Slade called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. (5 members and 2 guests were present)
Linda announced that John Beers sent an email on August 5, 2021 stating he was resigning from his position as Treasurer. Jeff Maurer had expressed that he would be willing to take over the Treasurer duties during our July meeting. A meeting between John and Jeff had not taken place prior to tonight, therefore a Treasurer report was not presented.
James Maitland motioned to nominate Jeff Maurer as our new Treasurer. Chip Carpenter seconded the motion and all who were present were in favor.
Although there was a small group, our meeting was good. We had two guests join us. Jim is from Shannon Hill and has been a beekeeper in the past. He is looking forward to getting back into beekeeping now that he is retired. John currently lives in Midlothian, but bought property off of Yanceyville Road. He and his wife are interested in getting into beekeeping and are looking forward to learning more. They are considering growing a field of lavender and if they do not get into beekeeping, perhaps they can have someone keep bees on their property. We welcomed Jim and John and thanked them for joining us. We look forward to seeing them again!
Slade stated that he met with Ben and Logan from Louisa County High School and he discussed the Solar Farm project with them. They are very excited about it and want to participate in it with us as a combined effort. From a management standpoint, Ben and Logan are willing to take the lead and manage it and then our club can help and also use it. Or, vice versa. Ben and Logan will make a list of questions that they have and will submit them to Slade. Two questions were 1. Can a shed of sorts be placed on the property and 2. Who would manage crop rotation, planting wildflowers, etc. Would the Solar company take on this or provide the seeds and/or supply funds to have it done. Ben and Logan also told Slade that we are welcome to use their Apiary at the school for classes. Slade commented that they have a very nice Apiary and an observation hive that would be great for instructional purposes.
Linda said that Mat Lewis has been representing the club at the Mineral Farmer’s Market at Dennis Conrad’s booth. Mat has obtained a list of names of folks interested in a beekeeping class.
Slade and Karen Hart set up a booth at the Louisa County Ag Fair to represent the club. Slade and Karen worked on Friday and Saturday and Linda and Chip helped out on Saturday as well. A lot of flyers were given to folks who were interested and about 12 names and email addresses were taken for folks interested in a beekeeping class. We will be working on getting an introductory class together by Fall.
Linda stated that she and Karen talked during the Ag Fair and Karen has the knowledge and is willing to help us with our Face Book account.
Our meeting tonight was open discussion. We talked to our guests to get to know them and answered questions they had. This led to discussions about rendering wax, mites, diseases, bears, treatments vs. non-treatments, where to buy supplies, etc. We had a nice meeting with good discussion.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:45 p.m.
Minutes Submitted by:
Linda Carpenter
Secretary
