AT LAST! I can relax for a while. The Workshop was held on March 1, 2008 and was a great success. We had 69 people attending and had Bar-B-Cued chicken and home made pork and beans using bacon strips. Delicious!

The day started off with my not having the schedule, so we just went ahead and winged it with our tongues in our cheeks until my wife could print some copies and bring them 45 miles to get us back on time. Dr. Jamie Ellis, Entomology Dept. University of Florida at Gainesville, FL, was supposed to give a group power point talk on African Bees and How to Cope at 11:15 to noon, but he suggested that he could give it at the beginning so as to delay the actual start of classroom instruction. By the time he finished, we had the schedule in hand and proceeded without a hitch.

Dr. Ellis then commenced to give his regular class on Colony Collapse Disease. He and all the speakers had to give their presentations 6 times that day.

Dr. Amanda Ellis heads the FDACS-DPI researching Varroa control and her subject was on Pests and diseases. Mr. Doug Corbin, our state apiary inspector of Northwest Florida talked on Florida’s Compliance Agreement.

The above classes were inside classrooms. The rest of the classes were outside and consisted of Mr. Laurence Cutts on Queen Rearing, Elmore Herman and Randy Hamann showed how to do splits and equalizing hives, and Walter Miller, who also cooked the pork and beans, showed how to look for pests and diseases in the hive.

The classes were about 40 minutes long and the participants had 10 minutes between classes. The comment I received most was that they liked the way they could stretch their legs between classes and that the classes were not so long as to get to be boring.

We also had an area set aside so the people could bring their unwanted equipment and buy, sell, trade, or give away. There was no equipment that went back home with the same person. That, I would say, was a very successful event.

You remember that this workshop was jointly sponsored by the Baldwin County Beekeepers Association of Robertsdale, AL, and North Escambia Bee Association of Molino, FL. We will have another committee meeting next month and decide whether to have another one next year and to ask for volunteers to form a new workshop committee. I’ll keep you posted as to the results of that meeting.

Now is the time to be checking for pollen and nectar in your hives. Pull all supplemental feed from the hives and add a super. Also check your hive bodies and replace as needed. The bees will be going great guns in just a very very short time. Here in NW FL, the Ti-ti is blooming and so are the pear trees along with sundry other blooming plants. HAPPY HONEY FLOW!