Monday, December 28, 2015

HCBA 2016 Bee School Begins



Well here we go again...Looking forward to a great new year of bee talk.

Members are welcome to come and enjoy the good company of beekeeps and meet our new class members.

The 2016 beekeepers school will be held at the Willimanset Heights Improvement League (WHIL) 118 Mount Vernon Road, Chicopee, MA, 01013 from 7 – 9 on two Thursday evenings each month, beginning January 7, 2016.  Please arrive before
 7:00 p.m.  Class starts promptly at 7:00.

January 7


Introduction to Hampden County Beekeepers Association



                                              Speaker: HCBA – Board of Directors

Topic 1 & 2

Introduction to Beekeeping



                                              Speaker: Ken Warchol – Worcester

Monday, December 21, 2015

Bee Culture Magazine New Release



Bee Culture Magazine is proud to announce the launch of their brand new beginner’s magazine entitled BEEkeeping Your First Three Years.
A quarterly, newsstand-only offering, the very first issue has articles aimed specifically at brand new, and not quite so brand new beekeepers looking for solid, factual and reliable beekeeping information from sources that they can trust.
“It’s a big day for the Root Company, and for Bee Culture magazine,” said Brad Root, President of Root Candles, publisher of both BEEkeeping and Bee Culture magazines“There hasn’t been a regular, new magazine produced for beginning beekeepers since A.I. Root came out with Gleanings In Bee Culture, more than 140 years ago, and that was aimed directly at the expanding population of brand new and inexperienced beekeepers” he said. “This was the first audience A. I. had, and it’s good to see that tradition return.”
“We’re excited to have another title out there helping beekeepers do what they love doing, better”, exclaimed Rex Mason, CEO of Root Candles. “We know how much work it took our Publications Department to make this happen, and the finished product is something we are all proud of.”
The first issue features Roy Hendrickson on Successful Beekeeping, Buzz Phillis on Finding Beeyards, Ann Harman on What To Do And Why, and, Finding Answers, Kim Flottum on 10 Rules, Les Crowder on Top Bar Hives, Toni Burnham on Urban Beekeeping, New Products, Jim Tew on Beekeeping Equipment and Getting Bees by Phil Craft, and regional reports by Jennifer Berry, Dewey Caron and others.
Available nationwide in TSC Farm stores, Barnes & Noble, Hastings and Books-A-Million Bookstores, and hundreds of independent book stores all over the map, the new Quarterly will arrive on Newsstands the week of December 21, and remain available (unless sold out) until the end of March.
Future issues will focus on using individual pieces of equipment, examining hives, seasonal plants in the various regions of the U.S. and especially seasonal management no matter where you live, and so much, much more to enable new, inexperienced beekeepers be successful and enjoy their endeavor.
“It’s been a challenge to get this up and going, but when that first issue came yesterday, it was all worth it,” said Kim Flottum, Editor. “Our crew took up my challenge of doing even more for the beekeeping community, and I think we’ve exceeded even my wishes. It’s a terrific magazine!”

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

The Weeks before Christmas



It can Bee a busy time for us all.

Just remember to get your membership dues for 2016 to your dedicated secretary.


Tuesday, December 8, 2015

HCBA Christmas Party!

Well it's almost here!

December 11.2015

Our Annual Christmas Party

Hope to see you there!

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Manuka Honey from New Zealand



Something delicious this way comes.

Manuka

The biography of an extraordinary honey

Cliff Van Eaton

Not so long ago, in a small island nation in the South Pacific, beekeepers produced a most peculiar honey. It was much darker than the clover honey everyone put on their toast in the morning, and it tasted very different. In fact, the honey was a problem: it was hard to get out of the combs, and even harder for beekeepers to sell.
Today that honey, manuka from New Zealand, is known around the world. It fetches high prices, and beekeepers do everything in their power to produce as much of it as possible. Wound dressings containing manuka honey are used in leading hospitals, and it has saved the lives of patients infected with disease-causing bacteria that are resistant to standard antibiotic drugs. In so doing it has forced the medical profession to rethink its position on the therapeutic properties of natural products.
Manuka: The biography of an extraordinary honey chronicles the remarkable ‘rags-to-riches’ story of manuka honey, as seen through the eyes of a New Zealand beekeeping specialist who watched it unfold from the very beginning. It’s a great tale of science, in which an inquisitive university lecturer found something totally unexpected in a product everyone had written off. It’s also an entertaining account of the way that seemingly simple discovery caught the international media’s attention, helping enterprising New Zealanders to develop manuka honey-based products and take them all around the globe.
But above all else it’s a story of hope for the future, sounding a note of optimism in a world that for good reason feels saddened and sometimes even afraid about the future of the special relationship we humans have always had with those marvellous creatures, the honey bees.

Finalist - 2015 Royal Society of New Zealand Science Book Prize

"Manuka honey is a uniquely New Zealand product, valued here and internationally for its rich taste and therapeutic properties. In this delightful and surprising book Cliff Van Eaton tells the captivating story of the science behind the discovery of the antibiotic effects of manuka honey, with a focus on the scientists and beekeepers who have brought this product to the world." ~Judges' comments

****Silver Medalist at the World Beekeeping Awards 2015****

Always on the look out for a new honey in the world.