ABA March 2017 Field Day
The Appalachian Beekeepers Association of Georgia held a hands-on field day at Dancing Meadows Farm in Jasper, GA on Sat, March 11th.

We had a great crowd of about 16 adults and 4 children on a cool morning to pick up some pointers on installing new packages, making hive splits, learning how to mark your queen and many other general beekeeping topics. The day was cool with some occasional sun peaking out and only three or four bee minor sting incidents.

Everyone also was treated to hot coffee and teas, various morning eats including donuts, muffins and a delicious fruit tray.

At Dancing Meadows Farm where our hosts, Bill & Cheryl Norris, not only have a small apiary of hives, but they also raise and breed alpacas and grow a variety of produce they offer for sale at the Jasper Farmer’s Market during season.

ABA Monthly Meeting review
March 2017
We had a great turnout for the March 9th beekeepers meeting with about 22 members and newbees in attendance. Out speaker, Julia Mahood, provided us with an excellent presentation on “Splits, Nucs & Swarms”. She discussed how to recognize the signs of swarming; some methods of swarm prevention (if you have recognized the signs in time); described various methods of splitting hives including making nucs; methods and equipment for attracting and capturing hives, all very useful and practical information. Some of which I put into use the next day when I applied the walk-away split method of splitting a hive. (Photo: Bud Champlin, Julia Mahood, Bill Norris)