Bee Club Basics Book

The first in a series of books to help beekeepers. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Bee Club Basics Book

Ten years ago, Missouri had a total of 6 bee clubs, volunteers in major metropolitan areas helping primarily sideliner and commercial beekeepers. It was also about the time most bee hives in the US died, the result of what we now know was a combination of pesticides, pests and pathogens, poor nutrition and poor management.

Fast forward to 2015, when our state beekeeping association was holding discussions about the needs of Missouri beekeepers. The number of new bee clubs had just started to expand, including the one I started in Rolla but there weren’t resources to help those clubs.

Now there are.

I wrote “Bee Club Basics” for those who are starting, and want to start, an educational non-profit bee club. There are more than 50 now in Missouri, some struggling more than others for help with monthly discussion topics, speakers and the basics, such as how to make their meetings welcoming.

I have started over a dozen educational non-profits since 1979 and have a master’s degree in management. There are a lot of management books on the market; this is not a typical one. I facilitated the club planning process by having forms and check lists to guide the club managing group. Include suggestions for beginning beekeeping as well as experienced beekeeping discussion topics and even included coloring pages for the kids who may make club meetings.

The paperback book is available through Amazon to cut down on duplication and shipping costs. It will also make it easier for me to update the book.

In addition to helpful check lists, the book and the 2-hour lecture “Tips on Running a Bee Club” qualify for Journeyman Level credit in the Great Plains Master Beekeeping program through the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. That means the information shared is state of the art best management practices and qualifies for 2.25 how to be a mentor and 2.26 how to be an effective communicator.

On a personal note, this is my first book in print, a goal I have had for a number of years. There are two more books in the works for this set, all designed to address current beekeeping issues.

I hope this books helps us all continue to share information, experiences and fun in a club meeting setting.

One of our secrets to being welcoming, a cup of coffee! (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

At the October 1`9, 2019 Missouri State Beekeepers Association fall conference where I had the first “Tips on Running a Bee Club” session, one of the questions was how to “get people to come back.”

First, provide good, relevant content. Discuss what beekeepers should be doing now and what may be coming up in the next couple of months.

Secondly, have people who welcome attendees to the meeting. We have greeters who are responsible for signing people up for the email list and for showing them the coffee pot.

Ah, yes, the coffee pot, the symbol of hospitality. We have a “social hour” from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. prior to the meeting, where people can stop by and discuss their particular issues one on one if they don’t want to discuss them in open session. Several people have noted that time period at our local bee club meetings sound like “a party.”

And that may be the biggest secret, making it an enjoyable time for everyone involved!

Charlotte

Beekeeping Magazine Gifts

Two of the current beekeeping magazines available, both excellent sources of updated information. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Beekeeping Magazine Gifts

The beekeeping community is lucky to have two long-standing magazines that keep beekeepers up to date on new developments.

Bee Culture Magazine, out of Ohio, will be under new editorial leadership in 2020. Editor Jerry Hayes is following in Kim Flotum’s footsteps, offering beekeepers a round robin of upcoming event information across the country as well as a variety of feature stories. The A.I. Root company publication also has BEEKeeping, Your First Three Years focused on beginning beekeepers. I haven’t seen BEEKeeping but based on their other publication it would be safe to say it will be a very helpful resource for beginning beekeepers.

The other beekeeping magazine is American Bee Journal, published by Dadant in Illinois. Editor Eugene Makovac focuses on both native and honey bees as well as some pollinator planting information. I wrote several bee plant articles for the publication earlier this year, something I was glad to do to increasing beekeeper’s awareness of how to feed their bees naturally. I suspect Eugene had his eye more on the recipe for making Chicory roots into coffee, something we had discussed previously.

If I had to choose one, which one would it be?

When I was starting to keep bees, I found Bee Culture to have articles that I could more easily follow and understand. When I passed the 5th year, I graduated to better understanding articles in American Bee Journal. I get both publications and tend to catch up on reading over winter so pardon me if I don’t quite correctly identify the source of a particular bit of information. Knowing the new information is what is important.

If you are a member of Missouri State Beekeeping Association $10 a year, you can get a discounted American Bee Journal subscription. Nice way to bundle both into a gift!

The bottom line is as beekeepers we have to stay on top the current research and recommendations. The day of doing what grandpa did are long gone.

Here are links to their subscription pages:

Bee Culture $25/yr

American Bee Journal $28/yr

American Bee Journal discounted subscription with MSBA membership: $23.80 plus $10 membership.

And starting next year, beekeepers will have an excellent third resource, Two Million Blossoms from Dr. Kirsten Traynor. You can get a sneak preview of the kinds of beekeeping-related articles she plans to have with this one in the inaugural edition from University of Minnesota’s Dr. Marla Spivak on the role of propolis in the hive.

This grand new quarterly magazine will launch January 2020. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Two Million Blossoms offers a hard copy subscription for $35/yr and a digital subscription for $20. I am among the contributing writers to this edition with an article on how to use cardboard instead of chemicals to start a new flower garden.

The nice thing about giving magazines is that it’s a gift that keeps on giving.

Charlotte

Native Bees Houses

Native bee houses wintering over in my storage shed. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Native Bees Houses

One of my favorite Christmas gifts is to give the gift of native bees. Native bees are not only excellent pollinators but if you don’t use chemicals where you live, chances are you can easily attract native bees by putting up native bee houses.

To give native bees give the gift of a native bee house. Native bee houses are available at most home and garden centers. Some are as simple as a group of hollow bamboo sticks in a container to the more fancy bee houses with a variety of nesting spots. Either way, native bee homes will attract native pollinators and help improve the health of your garden.

This is my first native bee house which has been remodeled a number of times since I first got it. If you look closely, you can see where the native bees hatched out of the bamboo pieces while others are currently sealed with occupants. I have made a number of covers to keep the bamboo sticks dry. Most recently, I wrapped the bee house with wire.

My first native bee house still has tenants even after all these years. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Once I get the bee houses, I make a chicken wire mesh that goes over the front to protect the native bees from birds and other predators.

This is my most recent native bee house with a variety of accommodations for pollinators. See the clear sealed holes? That’s a sure sign of Cellophane Bees, also called Plasterer Bees and Polyester Bees. They are about the same size as a honey bee.

There are a number of other sealed holes, a sure sign of residents. The ones with mud are mason bees.

A variety of native bees are nesting in this bee house. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins0

I have 8 native bee houses in my Missouri limestone hillside garden that I bring into my storage shed in the fall to protect the bees through winter.

This was my last bee house to store. You can’t see it well in the photo, the top entrance has a paper wasp nest, one of the better fruit tree pollinators. Some of the bamboo tubes with smaller holes show they were used last season while sealed ones have native bees that hopefully will hatch this coming spring.

A well-used native bee house with native bee residents. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

These will get placed outside in early spring when temperatures are more than 55F.

If you are handy with a drill, you can also make your own bee houses; this one is for mason bees. You want the depth to be at least 6 inches long with 5/16” diameter holes in a non-treated wood block. This was made from three 2x4 untreated blocks.

This was a Christmas gift from one of my professional colleagues. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Regardless of what kind of native bee house you give, download this guide to Missouri native bees and include it with your gift so the recipient can identify what tenants they have: https://www.stlzoo.org/files/9413/3303/3161/MO_Bee_Guide_w_boarder.pdf

You can also add a little glass bee ornament so that you don’t have to wait until spring to have a bee.

I love putting out my bee houses and periodically checking the residency through the growing season. They are wonderful gifts that will truly keep on giving!

Charlotte

Heart Pillow Gift

This heart pillow was a gift from one of our January 2018 beginning beekeeper students.

Heart Pillow Gift

During our January 24, 2018 beginning beekeeping class, one of the students snuck this little heart pillow under my arm and said thank you for all you've done to set up the class.

Turns out Jesse made the pillows for all of the class instructors out of fabrics from a favorite skirt of her mothers, which makes the re-purposing sweet. The button is from one of her mom's coats and Jesse said the button reminded her of the shape of bees.

I was so busy with the class I didn't notice the second, smaller heart until I got home and pulled the pillow out of the bag.

True to form, my little yellow cat Shirley Honey was batting the pillow around within minutes of finding it on the sofa so I now have to find a safe place to keep it unless its to become the latest cat play toy.

Thanks, Jesse, good luck with your bees!

Charlotte

My Honeybee Stockings

Honeybee stockings that hung on the first two hives I had when I first started beekeeping.

My Honeybee Stockings

The first year I started beekeeping, I had two hives I named after my mother and grandmother. It was fun to sit and watch the bees going in and out, and I would have learned faster if a mentor had been available which is why years later I started a local bee club to support students from my beekeeping classes, at their request.

As it was, I had read a ton of books before starting, was attending a beekeeping club run by a commercial honey producer and, at times, found my beekeeping technique preferences at odds with his recommendations.

Killing my queen bees every year, for example. But I don't keep the colonies for honey-production, I would say, I just want them around for pollination. You still should kill your queens off every year and replace them, he would say.

Well that didn't happen, and now 7 years later it still doesn't happen unless I inadvertently squish her somehow. Even most of the older, slower-laying queens get to live out their lives in my hives or nucs and, in most cases, the worker bees know when it's time to literally grow a new one.

This first year in beekeeping, though, everything was so new and exciting. I can still remember the thrill of the daily discoveries - still have some of those today. And as the year wrapped up, I literally wrapped the two hives in styrofoam to help insulate them from the cold winds that hit my limestone hillside. It was suggested I could try roofing insulation but I liked the idea of the styrofoam better, especially against the cold winds.

One morning a couple of days before Christmas, an old truck stopped in front of my house and a man knocked on my door to ask if I wanted the "refrigerators" in the garden hauled off. It took me a minute to realize he meant my nicely-insulated honeybee hives!

Inspired to add to the neighborhood holiday decor and make sure others didn't think I had abandoned refrigerators in my garden, I made fleece Christmas stockings for each of the hives. They hung on the front where everyone could see them, six little booties for each of the colony queens.

The green honeybee stockings were hung on Mildred hive, named after my mother.

The red honeybee stockings were hung on the front of Gertrude hive, named for my grandmother.

I almost forgot about the stockings until spring, when one of the neighbor boys was riding by on his bicycle and he asked if Santa had found the stockings hanging from the hives. Looking into those young blue eyes, I said "yes, he did, and he took the little jar of honey I left out for him, too." The neighbor nodded and rode off on his bike, hopefully another year of believing still ahead of him.

My hives today are colorful and wrapped in black insulated material to still provide a wind break.

I have more colonies now. They are painted to look like houses and have a black insulated wrap around the middle so they don't look like abandoned apartment refrigerators. Those first bee stockings hang on my den fireplace mantle, a wonderful reminder of the awe, and excitement, of getting into beekeeping, and the promise of the new adventures ahead.

From my hives to yours, Merry Christmas!

Charlotte

A Gift of Honey

A gift of raw, strained honey from my bee buddy David. Thanks, David!

A Gift of Honey

One of the best gifts you can give a beekeeper is a bottle of honey, preferably from your own hives but a bottle of real honey nevertheless.

No two bottles of honey are the same, nor will they taste the same so giving honey is similar to gifting a bottle of wine. The soil terroir, what plants are available, weather conditions - all contribute to the unique taste of honey. It can also vary by time of year harvested and even by honey color.

As beekeeping friends, it's always a treat to have a honey jar gifted. My bee buddy David gave me a little honey bear of his 2016 honey harvest, raw strained honey with no other modifications. It's just like the bees made it.

The back of David's honey bear so that I will know where the honey came from - his apiary.

In 2015, I was part of a Missouri State Beekeepers Association team working successfully with Missouri's Legislature to update the state's honey bottling law. Previously, honey was lumped in with jams and jellies, requiring beekeepers to invest in $30,000 commercial kitchens to be able to bottle honey for sale.

With the changes in Missouri's honey bottling laws, beekeepers can now bottle the honey in their kitchens and add labels with the honey source prior to sales. No need to build, or use, commercial kitchens. As beekeepers, we are not making the honey, as one does with jams and jellies. All beekeepers are doing is bottling what bees have made.

Sorry, this bottle of honey is not for sale. It was a gift and I fully intend to enjoy it over cold winter days.

Thank you, David, and please thank your bees. This honey looks more like Grade A+!

Charlotte

The Honey Makers Book by Gail Gibbons

This charming children's book easily explains the role of bees in our ecosystems.

The Honey Makers Book by Gail Gibbons

If you are looking for a bee book for a child, the Honey Makers by Gail Gibbons is an excellent choice.

The colorful paperback book has charming illustrations of bees and beekeeping. The explanations are simply clear, and the concepts cover the basics from the role of bees in pollination to the various places they live.

One of the pages in Gail Gibbons "The Honey Makers" showing the various bee homes.

Even if the gift recipient is young and can't read, the illustrations convey the relationship bees have to flowers.

When my brothers were growing up, they loved well-illustrated books and would make their own stories based on the drawings and pictures.

Our grandmother, who worked at a used book store in California, would send us wonderful books for Christmas gifts. After the furor of unwrapping presents, we would all settle down to leaf through books together, each one an invitation to a new place or adventure.

A forager bee visits a flower in Gail Gibbon's "The Honey Maker" color illustrations.

To further personalize, add a little jar of your honey and a gift card inviting the child to an apiary visit next spring. Children are the future of beekeeping. The earlier we can get them engaged, the better we will all "bee"!

Do you have a favorite children's beekeeping book?

Charlotte

Prospective Beekeeper Gift

One of the beekeeping books I recommend to new beekeepers.

The wife of my step nephew contacted me a few weeks before his birthday. She had bought him a bee hive and wanted to know where to find bees for his birthday gift.

He had never kept bees before so I suggested she instead add a good beekeeping book to his beekeeping gifts first and donated one of my favorites, Diana Sammataro and Alphonse Avitabile's The Beekeeper's Handbook, fourth edition.

I picked up a copy from Bluebird Gardens' supply for Rolla Bee Club students and added a card about our next meeting date. Getting to know other beekeepers and learning about local conditions is a critical part of being a successful beekeeper.

Adding a gift tag and Bluebird Gardens gifts label completed the beekeeping book gift-wrapping.

Once gift-wrapped, it was just a matter of adding a gift tag, ribbon and label, and getting it delivered before the birthday candles were lit.

Happy birthday, Nathan!

Charlotte

Bee Happy Sign

My office door used to have a message board so people visiting could easily track me down. Until I came in and found this charming sign hanging in its place.

There really is something happy about happy bees.

There also is something very happy about working with someone kind enough to leave me this sign.

Hard not to start one's day with a smile, or two.

Thanks, Nikki!

Charlotte

Showing Off Gift Bee Slippers

Why didn't I think of that, of course I can model my new gift honeybee slippers!

Here they are again, such sweet little faces:

According to my beekeeping friend Cheryl, who gave these to me for Christmas and was reticent to divulge the price, she ordered them from Amazon. They are called "Bumble Bee Slippers." $22 a pair.

To me, priceless!

Charlotte

Slip on These Bees!

My beekeeping friend Cheryl surprised me with these charming bee slippers. I don't know how she knew but when I'm alone, I tend to putter around the house in slippers, especially on gloomy, overcast weekend mornings.

I can easily cheer up when I start my day with a quick visit to see my honeybee girls, their work day starting as soon as the sun hits their bee hives.

Seeing these slippers waiting for me are a close second!

Thanks, Cheryl!

Charlotte

2015 Missouri Honeybee Calendar

My beekeeping friend Eugene Makovec photographed and produced this lovely 10x14 inch 2015 honeybee calendar. It's a beautiful tribute to his father and a delightful way to celebrate bees, and beekeeping.

Here's a sneak peak at some of the pages, an excellent buy for $10 each:

Nice gift idea for beekeepers, and bee lovers on your gift list!

Charlotte

Sweet Little Bee Socks

One of my 2014 Christmas gifts was a charming pair of very soft bee socks. Not only are they very warm but they include little rubber circles on the bottom so I can safely wear them around the house without slipping.

Great to stay warm either with bee socks or bee quilts. Now the question is, are these honeybees or bumble bees?

Charlotte