Kalamazoo Bee Club
How To Make Mead, Saturday, November 7, 7 - 9:30 pm

Guest speaker Ken Schramm is a well known expert and author on the subject of making mead, or honey wine. Mead was a popular beverage a thousand years ago and is still popular today. This program will be presented on Saturday, November 7, from 7 - 9:30 pm at the Kalamazoo Nature Center, located at 7000 N Westnedge Ave, Kalamazoo, one mile south of D Avenue. This is a free program, but donations of $5 - $10 per person will be requested to help offset the cost. No registration is required for this program.

If you are a mead maker, or even if you just dabble a little bit you probably have heard of Ken Schramm. He is the meadmaker who wrote the book on mead making. The book is called "The Compleat Meadmaker" and its a standard that should be on every mead makers bookshelf.

B. Nektar Meadery has teamed up with Ken Schramm to make a signature series of Meads. The first mead in this series is called "Heart of Darkness" and it is to be released in a very limited number of bottles (110) each one signed. If you want to get one of these bottles you are going to have to reserve one. Meadmaker Ken Schramm crafted the Heart of Darkness exclusively from his home grown fruit. This mead represents a true labor of love. Hand-picked and hand-pitted morello cherries were fermented with black currants, red raspberries and Michigan honey from Larry Yates' Sawmill Lake Apiaries. Virtually all of a season's fruit production was used in this inaugural batch, limiting its production to a small number of individually signed and numbered bottles. The Heart of Darkness was free run, unfined and unfiltered, yielding a deep, intense character. It pairs beautifully with grilled meats, bleu cheese, and dark chocolate.

Get more information about Ken Schramm’s book here: The Compleat Meadmaker : Home Production of Honey Wine From Your First Batch to Award-winning Fruit and Herb Variations

Honey Bottling and Labeling, Thursday, October 15, 7 - 9 pm
Kalamazoo Nature Center

Your bees did a great job and now you have honey. What will you do with it? Caroline Abbott will show you how to bottle and label it. She will give suggestions for making other honey-related products. Caroline will also review Michigan Department of Agriculture rules for selling honey. This program will be Thursday, October 15, from 7 - 9 pm at the Kalamazoo Nature Center, located at 7000 N Westnedge Ave, Kalamazoo, one mile south of D Avenue. This is a free activity.

Kalamazoo Bee Club
Monday, June 22, 2009 at 7 pm
Kalamazoo Nature Center (new location)

Double header: two guest speakers, Kim Flottum and Kathy Summers, both with Bee Culture Magazine.

Kim Flottum has been the Editor of Bee Culture magazine for over 20 years, and has written a Beekeeping beginner’s book entitled The Back Yard Beekeeper, and a beekeeping management book on honey production entitled The Honey Handbook. He travels extensively to speak to beekeepers both nationally and internationally,and is the 2009 President of The Eastern Apicultural Society, which meets in New York this summer. He and his wife Kathy Summers live in Medina, Ohio, and have eight colonies in the back yard.

Kathy Summers has been with Bee Culture Magazine and the A.I. Root Company for over 20 years. She does the layout and design of Bee Culture. She is married to Kim Flottum, the editor. Together they keep about eight hives in the backyard and also maintain observation hives at the local library and the Root Candle Store in Medina, Ohio. Kathy is the Vice Chairman of the Eastern Apicultural Society and Editor of the EAS Journal. She has also served as Vice President for the Medina County Beekeepers Association in the past and is past editor of the Ohio State Beekeepers newsletter.

Kathy Summers' presentation is "Everything but the buzz - How to get everything you possibly can out of your beehive: using honey, wax, pollen, propolis and everything else that comes out of your hive, along with suggestions for packaging, marketing and labeling. Gift ideas and money making ideas you can take home and try."

Queen Rearing Course
Connor Tree Farm, 9776 East HJ Ave, Galesburg, MI.
July 17, 18 and 19, 2009

Basic instruction in queen rearing, with emphasis on cell starters, cell finishers and mating nucs. Each student will be taught to graft appropriate-aged larvae and start queen cells. There will be considerable discussion on queen mating, drone production, drone saturation, chemical free beekeeping, local mating schemes, use of survivor stock, basic bee genetics, colony evaluation, and much more. Use of queen cells, virgin queens and 48-hr old cells will be explained. There will be about 18 hours of instruction. Exact start times will be given at registration.

Instructor: Dr. Larry Connor, entomologist. Dr. Connor was in charge of the old Dadant bee breeding program that produced the Starline and Midnite hybrid bees. He is also the author of several books including Bee Sex Essentials and Increase Essentials. Commercial beekeeper Scott Barnes is supporting the program.

Registration fee: $185.00 for the first person, $155 for a second person from the same family or operation. The fee includes all instruction, break materials, a new book by Dr. Connor on queen rearing, and a simple starter kit including grafting frame, grafting bars, grafting tool, cell cups. Motel and meals are not included.

Kalamazoo Bee Club Field Day
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Connor Tree Farm 9776 East HJ Ave, Galesburg, between 33rd and 35th St

All beekeepers are invited to participate in a field day at Connor Tree Farm.

Bring your veils and gloves. Picnic lunch, hives to inspect and beekeepers to visit with. Please bring a dish to pass plus table service and beverages for yourself.

Field Days for May 2009- Get Your Hands In The Hives!

May 2009 activities for the Kalamazoo Bee Club consist of 3 field days. There is no charge. Choose to attend any field days you like. These are informal events where we gather around bee hives with other members of the Kalamazoo Bee Club, look at frames of bees, ask questions and share knowledge.

Each event is expected to last 1 hour. You should bring protective gear - bee suit or veil, gloves and long sleeves at minimum.

You may want look up directions on Mapquest online at www.mapquest.com . Beekeepers will be out at the hives so will be unable to answer the phone to give directions in case you don't find it.

1. Saturday, May 9, 2009 at 1 pm. Vicksburg, Michigan
Richard Brenner, Beekeeper
8588 East U Avenue
Vicksburg, MI

Located on U Avenue east of Vicksburg. First place east of 31st Street between two big rows of pine trees. Lots of parking. Field day starts at 1 pm. Rain date: If it is raining on May 9, come on May 16 at 1 pm instead.

2. Saturday, May 16, 2009 at 10 am. Otsego, Michgan
Dave Van Antwerp, Beekeeper
1972 114th Avenue
Otsego, MI

Located on 114th Avenue north of Otsego. First place west of 19th Street. Yellow farm house. Lots of parking.
Field day starts at 10 am. Rain date: If it is raining on May 16, come on May 23 at 10 am instead.

3. Saturday, May 23, 2009 at 1 pm. Ostemo, Michigan
Wade Lawrence, Beekeeper
10749 West M Avenue
Kalamazoo (Oshtemo), MI

Located on West M Avenue west of Ostemo, north of Mattawan. Lots of parking. Field day starts at 1 pm. Rain date: If it is raining on May 23, come on Sunday, May 24 at 1 pm instead.

Mel Disselkoen Field Days
Nucs, Splits, and On-The-Spot Queen Rearing
May 2, May 9, June 6
Presented by Mel Disselkoen, Master Beekeeper
Location: Richland, Michigan (near Kalamazoo)

Mel Disselkoen, Master Beekeeper, says, "The best bee is the bee that can winter in your area and build up properly in the spring. My program of hive management eliminates the mite problem and maximizes the success of overwintering."

Mel identifies the natural behaviors of the honeybee and then directs those behaviors into a profitable objective. This plan eliminates stress on the honeybee and instead of resisting manipulation, they adapt to management.

Mel says, "My objective is to use the natural behavior of bees to produce profit. I reason that if an overwintered colony would have eight frames of brood one week before natural swarming in my area, I can make 4 two-frame brood splits. I sell three of these splits for income and keep one to build up to be the parent colony and then I can do it all over again the next swarming season. I make my income in the spring and all my work for the year is over except to make sure the nucleus hive (nuc) I kept is building up properly.

A two-frame brood split with adhering bees plus two more shakes of nurse bees from other brood combs and a new queen will equal a three pound package hived a month earlier. This has proven to be very successful and is an excellent alternative to package bees. Now beekeepers in the intermediate states like Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania can be self sufficient and can also supply bees to other beekeepers.

Learn Mel's techniques in special Beekeeping Field Demonstrations scheduled in May and June. This will be hands-on instruction for up to 40 people over several weekends. The location is Richland, Michigan, on the Northeast side of Kalamazoo.

Spring Hive Management
Speaker: Dr. Roger Hoopingarner, MSU
Thursday, April 16, 7 pm – 9 pm
Comstock Community Center

Dr. Roger Hoopingarner is a very entertaining and engaging speaker on honey bees. This presentation provided information of value to new beekeepers and was a helpful refresher for more experienced beekeepers.

Beekeeping School
Everything you want to know about keeping bees but don't know who to ask.
Kalamazoo Bee Club
Sat, Feb 21, 9 am – 3 pm
Comstock Community Center

• What to expect, where hives can be located, who can be a beekeeper
• How to build a hive, components, foundations, new versus used, approximate costs
• Equipment, tools, suits, accessories
• How a honey bee colony operates.
• Establishing a colony: Timing, packages (can be populated earlier), nucleus hives (local bees, come later), dividing
• Swarming instinct: It is a natural phenomenon, how to recognize it, how to manage it for various purposes
• Honey: Trees, plants, and flowers; extraction, comb honey, bottling, granulation
• Bee biology: nectar and pollen, seasonal feeding, water, pest identification, pest management (both chemical and natural)
• Resources: books, web sites, suppliers, mentors

Bee Biology
Kalamazoo Bee Club
Tuesday, January 27, 7 - 9 pm
Comstock Community Center

The Comstock Community Center is located near the intersection of King Highway and East Michigan Street, on the eastern edge of downtown Comstock (map) just east of Sprinkle Road in Comstock Township. The address is 6330 King Highway, Kalamazooo, MI 49048.