LEWIS COUNTY BEEKEEPERS' ASSOCIATION                                                          

Above, youth scholar Emily with mentor William Pittman pose with the hive boxes that Emily assembled & painted.  William is a certified Journeyman Beekeeper through the WASBA Education program.

Adam's mentor is Cody Warren, who began beekeeping in 2013 and now is an avid swarm catcher, top bar hive beekeeper, & LCBA mentor; he maintains LCBA's YouTube Channel. Below, Adam with his bees on hiving day:

Below, Adam sugar-dusts his package bees to knock down mites prior to hiving:

Above, Adam came along on a bee colony carve-out in June and learned how to carve out, pin, and re-home bees. These bees went to LCBA's new club apiary.

Above, Adam with a beautiful frame of honey pulled at LCBA's honey supers removal workshop in July. Adam didn't get honey from his bees - most first year beekeepers do not - but he is learning what to do if his bees produce honey next year.

Adam lifting a full honey super at Mentorship Coordinator Dan Maughan's apiary. A full medium honey super can weigh over 60 pounds!

Above, Youth Scholar Emily answers questions at LCBA's exhibit at the Southwest Washington Fair; below, Adam talking bees with other LCBA volunteers.

Below, Adam, left, examines comb from a hive that absconded from our club apiary with LCBA mentor Rick Battin:

Above, Adam's mentor Cody guides Adam in measuring hardware cloth for his bees' moisture control box; below, Cody and Adam display their completed box that will help Adam's bees over-winter.

Above, Adam and mentor Cody share high points of Adam's beekeeping year; below, Adam with LCBA VP Bob Harris:

Meet LCBA's 2017 Youth Scholars! Above, left, Adam Claridge, a 9th grader from Tenino; middle Rylea Shan Powell, a 6th grader from Centralia; & right, Emily Ecklund, a 7th grader from Centralia. All 3 Youth Scholars are home schooled & submitted great applications. They passed all their tests in LCBA's beginning beekeeping course, January-February, with flying colors. All three got their bees on April 22 & have started their beekeeping adventure.

Above, Rylea assembles hive components at LCBA Vice President Bob Harris's Rose of Sharon Farm workshop. Mentor Gottfried Fritz has been keeping bees for over 55 years - to read some of his migratory beekeeping adventures, see LCBA's February 2017 Newsletter.

Above and below, Rylea Shan hives her new package bees with help from mentor Gottfried as her sisters look on:

Below, Rylea Shan & her bees!

Below, Adam inspects his bees:

Adam & Rylea Shan both volunteered at LCBA's booth at the Spring Youth Fair. Below, Rylea Shan answers children's questions at the honey tasting challenge (can you guess which honey came from carrot blossoms?):

Below, Rylea Shan & Emily at LCBA's May 20 Hive Inspection Workshop:

Above, Rylea Shan with 2017 Youth Scholar Sam at LCBA's July honey supers removal workshop. Sam was able to pull honey from his bees in this, his second year: below, Sam is pictured with his honey, which won an honorable mention in the raw bottled honey category:

Above, Rylea Shan with her blue ribbon cut-comb honey. Rylea's mentor, Gottfried Fritz, gave her a small top bar hive to help her harvest honey in her first year: top bar hive honey cannot be spun & bottled, but it can be produced as cut-comb, above, and as comb honey, for which Rylea won a red ribbon, below:

Below, Rylea holds up a frame from her top bar hive as Gottfried looks on. Mentor Gottfried has been keeping bees for 55+ years and loves sharing his knowledge with our Youth Scholars.

Above, Rylea Shan answers children's questions about LCBA's observation hive at the Fair.

Above, Rylea and Gottfried inspect her Langstroth hive as one of her siblings looks on.

Above, LCBA 2018 Youth Scholars described their experiences as first year beekeepers at LCBA's 9th Annual Holiday Potluck. We're delighted to report that all three students' colonies were alive as of the potluck and that all three want to continue as beekeepers.

Above, Rylea and Gottfried sharing highlights of Rylea's first year in beekeeping at LCBA's 2018 Holiday Potluck; below, Emily and mentor William Pittman speaking at the potluck (photos by Marc Toenyan):

Below, LCBA members Pamela Daudet and Nancy Toenyan at the potluck: Pamela and husband Tom donated this beautiful stained glass bee window for a silent auction to help fund our 2018 Youth Scholarship students, and Nancy had the winning bid. We're thankful to our members for their generous support of our program.