LEWIS COUNTY BEEKEEPERS' ASSOCIATION                                                          

Monthly Meetings are at Centralia College, 701 W. Walnut St., Centralia WA 98531
Centralia, WA 98531

fax: N/A

rick.battin@gmail.com

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  • 2021 LCBA at the Southwest Washington Fair
  • 2021 Summer Breakout Picnic
  • 2016 LCBA at the Southwest Washington Fair
  • LCBA at the 2015 Southwest Washington Fair
  • August 1 2015 Honey Extraction Workshop
  • July 18 2015 LCBA Honey Supers Removal Workshop
  • Bee Beards at WSU July 11 2015
  • Hive Assembling Workshop, March 21, 2015, Chehalis
  • Honey Extraction Workshop Sept 13 2014, Winlock
  • Fall Management Workshop Sept 6 2014, Winlock
  • Southwest Washington Fair, August 2014
  • Hive Inspection Workshops, June 14 & 21, 2014, Adna & Chehalis
  • Spring Youth Fair, May 3-4
  • Spring Management Workshop, April 26, 2014, Winlock
  • Package Bee Pickup - April 19 2014
  • Hive Assembling Workshops - Feb & April 2014, Chehalis
  • Fall Management III: Sept 14 2013, Packwood
  • Fall Management II: Sept 14, 2013, Randle
  • Fall Management Workshop - Sept 7 2013, Winlock
  • Southwest WA Fair 2013: Exhibit & Observation Hive
  • SW WA Fair 2013 II: Honey Contests
  • SW WA Fair 2013 III: Bee Buzz - Who's Who in the Hive?
  • Summer Potluck 2013
  • Hive Building Workshop - Feb 2013
  • Top Bar Hives - Jan 2013
  • Honey Spinning Workshop ~ Sept 2012

LCBA at the 2015 Southwest Washington Fair

Over 40 LCBA volunteers "talked bees" with hundreds of visitors each day of the Fair.  Our exhibit featured our observation hive, honey judging contest, People's Choice Honey Tasting vote, & lots of demonstration materials & educational displays. 

LCBAs wild hive fascinates visitors

Above, visitors were again fascinated by Kevin & Jeanne Reichert's & Grant Inmon's wild honey bee hive & paper wasp nest display, which helped us show the public the difference between these two!

PLANTING FOR POLLINATORS FOCUS

This year, LCBA partnered with our county Master Gardeners and Noxious Weed Control Board to share a special focus on “Planting for Pollinators.” We gave out 500 Burpee’s Bee and Butterfly Garden seed packets donated by the National Park Service, as well as the Weed Board’s “Bee-utify” seed mix.

Planting for Pollinators display at the Fair

Above, LCBA's "planting for pollinators" display table with free Burpees Bee & Butterfly Garden seeds; below, Lewis County Noxious Weed Board director Bill Wamsley with LCBA volunteer Judy Kalich reviewing noxious invasives to eradicate from one's garden. For more info, click here to visit our Plant for Bees page.

Noxious Weed Board director Bill Wamsley and Judy Kalich

Over the course of the week, more than 40 LCBA volunteers pitched in to share our love of honey bees with Lewis County neighbors, answering questions about honey bee behavior in our observation hive (a magnet for kids of all ages), helping visitors get hands-on to learn how our (bee-less) Langstroth and top bar hives worked, and showing story-boards of swarm captures and carve-outs as we got the word out that a homeowner’s unwanted barn bees can become a new beekeeper’s cared-for colony. We were struck by how concerned the public has become about honey bees, and quite a few signed up for our “how to get started in beekeeping” orientation this September.

LCBA observation hive

Above, LCBA volunteer Cody Warren shows young visitors the queen in the observation hive.

A big THANK YOU goes out to our volunteers who loaned gear & volunteered in our booth. Community Outreach Coordinator Dan Maughan shared the organizing work with secretary Susanne Weil & even got his kids in on the act: they're pictured below on a break on setup day:

LCBA at the Fair

LCBA Langstroth hive demo

Above, to help the public see where beekeepers keep bees, Dan loaned his hand-tooled Langstroth hive (screened bottom board, deep, super, inner cover, telescoping cover, plus sample frames with drawn comb), a well as a home-made nucleus hive box, bottom board, and migratory cover so that people could see the difference.

LCBA Langstroth hive demo

Above, LCBA volunteer Grant Inmon explaining how the Langstroth hive works to a visitor to our exhibit; below, LCBA Mentorship Coordinator Martin Stenzig with a visitor to the Langstroth hive:

LCBA Langstroth hive demo

LCBA top bar hive demo

Above, Gottfried Fritz loaned his top bar hive and wrote detailed explanations of how all its assorted parts worked; Gottfried also brought in a taster of cut-comb honey for visitors to enjoy. Below, Gottfried with visitors:

LCBA top bar hive demo

LCBA Extractor demo at the Fair

Above, Mel Grigorich loaned his classic old hand-crank extractor and stand; Peter Glover & Susanne loaned  hot knife, uncapping fork, uncapping stand, and food grade bucket to round out the "extraction" part of our display.

LCBA normal vs allergic reaction display

Nancy Toenyan made a special display board explaining the difference between normal and genuinely dangerous allergic sting reactions.

LCBA Gifts of the Hive display

Sharette and Tim Giese loaned their display boards of honey bee biology and behavior, as well as their display of actual "Gifts of the Hive" that includes not only honey, but beeswax and jars of pollen and royal jelly in various forms. Art and Debra Sporseen loaned a beautiful sample of wild comb in a jar, along with raw honey from some of that wild comb.

LCBA wild comb display

Dan Maughan loaned his swarm capture bucket and a sample of wild comb woven into a fir tree branch, above.

LCBA wild comb display

  Kevin & Jeanne Reichert & Grant Inmon again loaned the amazing wild hive and paper wasp nest display - above-  that hangs over our exhibit and draws so many people into the Floral Building. Jeanne's story board that explained the process by which Kevin and Grant captured this hive helped volunteers explain it to visitors.

LCBA observation hive

Above, thanks go to LCBA President Norm Switzler, shown above with visitors, who loaned his bees in the observation hive that fascinated literally hundreds of people each day who had never seen honey bees in a hive doing their daily jobs.

LCBA National Honey Board display

Thanks, too, to the National Honey Board, which loaned us all those great honey brochures and recipe cards to give away (above).

Our LCBA members who helped set up and volunteered in the booth, sharing their knowledge of bees and passion for keeping them, made our exhibit a truly energetic draw. Thanks go to (in alphabetical order): Chuck Ament; Rick Battin; Gordon Bellevue; Ron Black; John Blacklaw; Ed Carter and Sue Allen; Debbi Cornell; Pamela Daudet; Gottfried Fritz; Jana and Janelle Girt; Peter Glover; Linda Gorremans; Mel Grigorich; Mike Helms; Steve Howard; Grant and Diane Inmon; Judy Kalich; Jason and Maria Key; Dan Maughan; Linda Newton; Ed Odell; Terrie and Michaela Phillips; Kyle Pratt; Kevin & Jeanne Reichert; Vicki Sloan; Martin Stenzig; Norm Switzler; Kimo Thielges; Jacob Thompson; Nancy Toenyan; Cody and Linnea Warren; Susanne Weil: Doug Williams; Phil Wilson; Walt Wilson. Also, special thanks are due to Mary Jo Christiansen (Master Gardeners) and Bill Wamsley (Noxious Weed Control Board) for help coordinating our displays.

LCBA top bar hive demoAbove, LCBA volunteer Chuck Ament with young visitors to the top bar hive.  Below, LCBA Treasurer Rick Battin answering questions about bees in the observation hive:

LCBA volunteers and visitors at LCBA observation hive

LCBA volunteers and visitors at LCBA observation hive

Above, Rick & friends at the observation hive; below, Queen Bee Michaela & mom Terrie won ribbons for their honey & volunteered in our exhibit:

LCBA 2015 Honey Judging Contest at the Fair

LCBA volunteers and visitors at LCBA observation hive

LCBA volunteers and visitors at LCBA observation hive

Above, LCBA volunteers Mel Grigorich, Linda Gorremans, & Harold Mullins with young visitors to the observation hive.

LCBA's People's Choice Honey Tasting:

LCBAs Peoples Choice Honey Tasting at the Fair

A highlight of LCBA's weekend at the Fair was our People's Choice Honey Tasting exhibit: this drew over 500 visitors, who sampled 21 raw local honeys and marveled at the range of colors & flavors.

LCBAs Peoples Choice Honey Tasting at the Fair

Above, our display before opening on Saturday; below, we got busy fast!

LCBAs Peoples Choice Honey Tasting at the Fair

Above, our busy tasting station; below, LCBA volunteer Mike Helms discussing flavors with tasters:

LCBAs Peoples Choice Honey Tasting at the Fair

Above, LCBA volunteer Mike Helms with visitors. Many had never tasted natural, raw maple, clover, blackberry, wildflower, or fireweed honeys. LCBA Community Outreach Coordinator Dan Maughan even brought a carrot honey that tastes like its floral origin!

Kevin Reichert wins Peoples Choice Tasting 2015

Above, the hands-down top vote-getter was longtime beekeeper & LCBA vice president Kevin Reichert’s honey pulled after his girls had worked marionberries ~ the flavor, many commented, had a wine-like note.

LCBAs Peoples Choice Honey Tasting at the Fair

These honeys inspired many visitors to take the seed packets we’d placed at the end of the tasting line to plant in support of our Lewis County bees.

LCBAs Peoples Choice Honey Tasting at the Fair

Above, LCBA President Norm Switzler talking with some young honey tasters.

LCBA 2015 Honey Judging Contest at the Fair

 Above, honey after judging in the official Fair contest; below, Education Coordinator Peter Glover & Secretary Susanne Weil judging the honey:

LCBA 2015 Honey Judging Contest at the Fair

Below, LCBA member Steve Howard won the Best in Show for his light amber honey:

Steve Howard wins LCBA 2015 Honey Judging Contest

LCBA 2015 Honey Judging Contest at the Fair

Above, LCBA member & 2nd year beekeeperJennifer Reiman took the blue ribbon for her cut comb honey; below, 2015 LCBA Youth Scholarship student Jana Girt displays her first ever spun honey, which won a red:

LCBA 2015 Honey Judging Contest at the Fair

LCBA volunteers and visitors at LCBA observation hive

Above, Jana helps visitors find the queen; below, a young visitor listens to the buzzing of bees in the observation hive's side ventilation portal:

The observation hive is a magnet for kids of all ages!

LCBA volunteers and visitors at LCBA observation hive

Above, LCBA volunteers Harold Mullins & Richelle Johnson with a young visitor.

LCBA observation hive

Above, volunteer Linda Newton shows vistitors how to find the queen; below, LCBA VP Kevin Reichert doing the same:LCBA volunteers and visitors at LCBA observation hive

Above, LCBA volunteer Kyle Pratt with a visitor; below, volunteer Nancy Toenyan:

LCBA volunteers and visitors at LCBA observation hive

Above, volunteers John Blackwell & Linda Newton at the observation hive; below, Gordon Bellevue, Walt Wilson, & Harold Mullins with visitors:

LCBA volunteers and visitors at LCBA observation hive

queen in LCBA observation hive

Above, can you spot the queen?  Below, closeup of queen in observation hive (photo, Richelle Johnson):queen in observation hive by Richelle Johnson

LCBA volunteers and visitors at LCBA observation hive

Above, LCBA volunteer Jacob Thompson with visitors at the observation hive.  Below, one of our youngest visitors, baby Ellie, with her mom Theresa:

LCBA volunteers and visitors at LCBA observation hive


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Monthly Meetings are at Centralia College, 701 W. Walnut St., Centralia WA 98531
Centralia, WA 98531

fax: N/A

rick.battin@gmail.com