On Sunday May 31, Joe Heider and Laurene Kiel grafted from a survivor hive/cut-out (Sept.5, 2014, and wintered on a small cluster) in her apiary. Poor conditions, torrential rains followed by several cold days, complicated both the grafting and the success rate. Laurene used a Cloake Board method, due to limited resources, wherein two frames of brood and 2 frames of honey/pollen were placed on top of the graft donor hive, nurse bees moved up into this super and the Cloake b

Joann M Dunlevey, a Food Safety Specialist, from the Ohio Department of Agriculture was at our meeting on Tuesday discussing honey labeling laws. She spoke about the requirements of the labels, as well as what processes were acceptible to do at home, in a commercial kitchen etc. She spoke about requirements for infused honey (this needs to be done in a commercial kitchen). As well as what qualifies as a cottage industry product. More information about labels can be found o

Over the weekend we had our annual split workshop. We had approximately 30 people in attendance. Jeff op Many new members attended and we talked about general hive inspection in addition to splits. Some had questions about what to do with their weak hives, and others had very strong hives that needed split. As usual, there were many opinions on how to address both these situations. The weather held out just long enough. A heavy rain rolled in about 12:30 abruptly ending