York County Beekeepers Association

MSBA Annual Meeting and Conference Bucksport Middle School on Saturday, October 21st 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM  Hosted by Tri-County Beekeepers Club Speakers at this year’s conference are Paul Kelly, manager of the Honey Bee Research Centre at the University of Guelph, Ontario; Sierra Shaw, a food preparation inspector for the Department of Agriculture; and Maine State Apiarist Jennifer Lund will present the “State of the State” address. The Annual Meeting is a full day of learning, camaraderie and fun.

YCBA sponsored the April 2023 MSBA webinar featuring Karen Thurlow on the topic of “Queen Rearing for Small Apiaries with Little Effort and Cost”. Click HERE to watch the recording for free.

Joe Barberi hosted about 20 YCBA members on the first blue sky day in more than a week. Joe opened four colonies, and while primarily inspecting for brood pattern, larvae development and finding the queen, answered questions and gave tips on: splits, swarm prevention, bee behavior, sting treatments, queen genetics, ventilation holes, and using a queen excluder to prevent a re-swarming. Everyone had lots of opportunity for close up looks at beautifully filled frames of very cooperative bees. Thanks go

YCBA members participated in several ‘off season’ outreach and educational events including staffing the MSBA table at the Maine Agricultural and Forest Products Show in January in Augusta. In March, YCBA members participated in the Department of Ag’s ‘Agriculture in the Classroom’ program by reading this year’s book pick, Honey Bee-The Busy Life of Apis Mellifera to students at Hollis Elementary School and Wells Elementary School. In April, the third graders at Shapleigh Memorial School in Waterboro were a terrific

About 30 members gathered on December 12th to celebrate another year of beekeeping with a pot luck dinner, raffles, recognition of YCBA’s newest Master Beekeepers, and election of officers. Joe Barberi, Lynne Gobeil, and Kevin McDonnell achieved their Master Beekeeper certifications with Lynne Lincourt only one test away from earning hers. The raffles featured many beautiful bee related items including two 5-year Beeing Apis calendars donated by YCBA cartoonist Rob Hull. Newly elected to the executive board were Valerie Cole

York County Beekeepers held its first annual Smoker Contest at the August Open Hive at Sandie Hamel’s apiary. Six members participated in the contest using a variety of fuels from traditional pine sprills and newspaper, to custom mixes. Everyone was a winner, especially Valerie Cole whose smoker using traditional materials lasted through the open hive and potluck lunch (about 3 1/2 hours), and Joe Barberi whose ‘Marly Bomb’ lasted a total of 9 hours and 10 minutes. About 20 YCBA

We had a good turnout for this event, about 30 members. Vice President Joe Barberi brought all the woodenware for this demonstration and described the process for making nucs and splits. He showed how to use the Snelgrove board (also known as a double screen board). Joe also demonstrated his own invention, the “Snelly” which improves on the Snelgrove by redirecting heat and air flow within the split.

Volunteer Coordinator Primary responsibility to recruit/manage other volunteers to sign up for bringing snacks, being the sign-in greeters, and other tasks as needed. Time commitment- 0-1 hour per month

In February, YCBA members were surveyed on important beekeeping books they would like to see in local libraries. The top rated books were purchased and YCBA President Beth Goodwin recently met with Cindy Appleby, Head Librarian at Wells Public Library and presented four titles on behalf of the club. The books are available at Wells Public Library and through Maine’s Interlibrary Loan service.

Links to both the April 6th webinar and the April/May issue of The Beeline will be posted on MSBA’s website, and on the MSBA Facebook page. On April 6th at 7pm, Karen Thurlow will walk us through two consecutive spring brood cycles as bees are gearing up for peak population in her zoom presentation titled “The next 42 days with your colonies”. For those interested in joining MSBA, membership dues are $15 for an Individual membership and $22.50 for a