Monthly Meetings are at Centralia College, 701 W. Walnut St., Centralia WA 98531
Centralia, WA 98531
fax: N/A
rick
Hundreds of visitors viewed honey bee behavior in LCBA's observation hive, checked out educational displays, & asked our volunteers questions. On the weekend, visitors tasted 14 different varieties of Lewis County honey. Kids played "Bee Buzz ~ Who's Who in the Hive." Scroll down for pictures & details!
Thanks to the National Honey Board for donating recipe booklets & educational pamphlets about the making of honey!
Above, kids seek the queen in LCBA's observation hive.
LCBA's Observation Hive
Above, queen bee "Wanda Sue" & her retinue starred in the observation hive on Tuesday & Wednesday; below, kids of all ages enjoyed bee-watching through the week. Volunteers took bees home each evening & brought new frames in next morning to avoid stressing bees unduly.
Below, LCBA Volunteer Kent Yates answers a family's questions about bees in the hive:
Below, LCBA President Norm Switzler helps visitors find the queen:
Above, Norm shows queen to a visitor while LCBA volunteer Kevin Reichert, in background, answers questions about bee behavior; below, Kent, Norm, & visitors watch the bees:
Above, LCBA volunteer Mary Jo Christensen with visitors; below, volunteer Dahlia answers questions:
Below, Dahlia's brother & fellow volunteer Alex helps:
Above, Alex, Dahlia, & LCBA member Gordon Bellevue with visitors; below, the hive elicits some smiles:
Above, volunteer Tomme Trikosko answers questions; below, Little Miss Friendly & retinue watch for queen:
Above, LCBA member Gretchen Jones shows her daughter the bees; below, they peer into the hive's side ventilation holes:
Below, LCBA member Sharette Giese & Alesha:
Above, LCBA President Norm Switzler with a fairground bee attracted to the scent of the hive; below, President Norm & Secretary Susanne Weil with observation hive:
Above, sample paper wasp & wild honey bee hive hang above LCBA's observation hive as volunteers Alex (left) & Tomme (right) field visitors' questions.
Below, on Saturday, 8/17, LCBA celebrated National Honey Bee Day with our first ever "People's Choice" honey tasting & judging:
LCBA's Exhibit
Below, a wild honey bee nest found in 2010 by members Kevin & Jeanne Reichert & Grant Inmon was a highlight:
Visitors could see how bees build comb in nature . . .
. . . in contrast with display of a paper wasp nest, below, also courtesy of Kevin, Jeanne, & Grant:
One educational display helped children identify "is it a honey bee ~ or something else," like a wasp, hornet, yellow jacket, or bumble bee?
Below, LCBA's busy exhibit: visitors taste honey while, left, President Norm Switzler helps others find queen in observation hive.
Below, Membership Coordinator Steve Howard shows visitors how a Langstroth hive works: to learn more about LCBA's mentor program, click here.
Below, hive components. At left, a nuc box for transporting a small colony or swarm. Next, the two white boxes are deep hive bodies, designed for long-term bee habitation; the boxes are topped by a telescoping cover for shelter; they sit on a screened bottom board, which provides stability & ventilation. That's a Boardman feeder tucked into the hive entrance, with a bucket feeder right foreground, in front of a division board feeder. At right, the green honey super is topped by a queen excluder, whose bars are spaced to prevent the queen's wider abdomen from getting through: the excluder is normally placed between a deep body & super to prevent a queen from laying eggs in the honey super (you don't want protein in your honey!).
Below, some tools of the beekeeping trade: from left, gloves, hat & veil, sugar-spray bottle - an alternative to the smoker, next on the right; front row, a frame puller, bee brush, & hive tool.
Above, LCBA volunteer Mike Helms answers questions about the Top Bar hive, which allows bees to build comb in the shapes they choose; below, close-up of Top Bar hive, built by LCBA Vice President Dave Gaston: top left, sample frame of comb & capped honey:
Above, gifts from the honey bee hive in Sharette Giese's display; below, Sharette's interactive "parts of the honey bee" board game for children:
LCBA's display also featured photos from our Swarm & Colony Removal "Bee Team," whose members rescued over 50 colonies of honey bees from places where they were not wanted in 2013 alone: for more information about our Bee Team, click here.
Above, LCBA's display included information on challenges to honey bee health: parasitic Varroa destructor and tracheal mites, the gut fungus Nosema ceranae, habitat loss, lack of genetic diversity, & pesticides, particularly neonicotinoids. Below, the August 13 cover of TIME Magazine asks what is killing honey bees: to read the article, click here; to learn more, visit our Bees in the News page.
Honey bees are not the only pollinators at risk: LCBA's exhibit included information about mason bees & bumblebees, thanks to contributions from members Kimo Thielges & Rob Jenkins:
Below, Kimo's mason bee display: to learn more about these great early season pollinators, visit our Mason Bee page.
Below, LCBA's "See the Bees!" sign lured swarms of humans to the Floral Building:
Above, someone seems to enjoy tasting local honey ~ to view photos of our Honey Contests & our children's game, "Bee Buzz ~ Who's Who in the Hive," scroll up & click on the next photo gallery!
Copyright 2012 Lewis County Beekeepers' Association. All rights reserved.
Monthly Meetings are at Centralia College, 701 W. Walnut St., Centralia WA 98531
Centralia, WA 98531
fax: N/A
rick