December 00-January 01

Next Meeting is: Tuesday, January 23, 2001 6:00pm Cafeteria of Falls Church High School 7521 Jaguar Trail Falls Church, Virginia 22042-7597
President Brenda Kiessling 703-938-9389 Vice-Pres. Paul Diehl 703-525-9009 Editor Chris Reed 703-534-2117 Treasurer Bennie Liles 703-671-1010 Secretary Pearl Liles 703-671-1010

The January 23, 2001, meeting will begin early and will include a potluck dinner. Dishes will be accepted at 5:30 p.m. and proceedings will begin at 6:00 p.m. If Fairfax County Schools are closed the day of the meeting because of snow, the meeting will be postponed. Beverages, plates, plastic flatware and cups will be provided. The guest speaker at the meeting, Ann Harman, will talk about cooking with honey.

Kevin Lunsford of Silver Hill Bee Farm in Bealeton, Virginia was the guest speaker at the November 28, 2000, meeting. Kevin, the vice president of the Northern Piedmont Beekeepers Association, has an operation he describes as a big hobby with a little over a hundred colonies in honey production. He produces and sells extracted honey, chunk honey, flavored honey, nuts in honey and skin cream. His unusual product line includes honey flavored with raspberries, strawberries or blueberries as well as jars of walnuts or pecans in honey. He notes that there are important State Health Department regulations you must comply with when selling some food products to the public. He recommends following recipes in the Ball Company blue book to facilitate approval by regulatory agencies. Candles have never been a very successful product for him primarily because of problems transporting the candles. Instead of making candles, he uses his beeswax to make skin cream out of beeswax, vitamin E, aloe and baby oil. Kevins skin cream rivals honey in his sales volume. He sold 250 bottles of skin cream in four days at the last Washington Flower and Garden Show, enough to pay for his booth at the show. Kevin has found that chunk honey in pint jars sell well too, especially to immigrants. He cuts the comb out of supers as soon as the supers are removed from the hives. Combs are then cut into chunks and put into pint jars promptly to minimize potential wax moth damage. A pound of extracted honey fills the remainder of the space in the jar. Kevin markets his products at craft fairs and farmers markets where he has found the best aid to sales is an observation hive (his favorite is one sold by BetterBee, Inc.) Kevin advises beekeepers to package their product in a variety of containers to increase sales. Surprisingly, even a piece of ribbon tied around the container will increase sales. Almost all of his labels are made on a home computer and include his web site address in addition to the required net weight and producers name and address. The web site is Guest Speaker Kevin Lunsford beginning to produce sales for him over the Internet. Kevin

Jan 23, 2001 BANV meeting Feb 23 25, 2001 Spring Home and Garden Show March 7, 2001 BANV Special Event March 27, 2001 BANV meeting Aug 5 - 11, 2001 EAS meeting in Cape Cod, MA 2002 EAS meeting in Ithaca, NY 2003 EAS meeting in Brunswick, ME

Upcoming Events

believes to make money selling honey you have to buy your supplies in large quantities to keep costs low but sell your honey retail, one bear at a time to maximize profits. Newcomers at the meeting included Marvin Ward and Ernie Miner. Treasurer Bennie Liles reported the club had $1148.92 in the bank. Paul Diehl briefly described a talk he gave to students at Taylor Elementary School, and Pat Haskell described the talk she and Brenda Kiessling gave at a private school in Middleburg, Virginia. The school in Middleburg would welcome hives on their property for their science curriculum if any beekeeper is looking for a place to keep a few hives. John Ferree brought photos of the EAS meeting, bee-equipment catalogs, a small hive beetle in a vial, and he gave an impromptu talk on winter hive management. John advises checking hives for sufficient stores (by weight) and feeding sugar syrup (two parts sugar, one part water) if starvation threatens the hive. Dane Hannum announced that he is taking orders for package bees and queens. Please give Dane your name, phone number and number of packages wanted if you are interested in bees delivered around the first of April. Ernie Miner lives in Maryland but attended the BANV meeting to talk about beekeeping in Azerbaijan and to solicit help for a beekeeper from the former Soviet republic that wants to visit the U.S. in February to learn about commercial queen rearing. Ernie is trying to raise money through donations to pay the airfare Edwin Dillon Shows his Bee Jewelry Box Hand for the Azerbaijan beekeeper. BANV responded crafted from Walnut and American Chestnut by donating one hundred dollars from the treasury to Ernie Miner to pay for the Azerbaijan beekeepers airfare. In addition, both the clubs half of the 50-50 game and the half won by Tony Meyer were donated to Ernie Miner for the same purpose. During the month the Azerbaijan beekeeper is in the U.S., Ernie plans to show him all aspects of American beekeeping.

Special Event March 7, 2001: BANV members will get an opportunity to meet the beekeeper

from Azerbaijan and learn about beekeeping in Azerbaijan at a special event planned for Wednesday, March 7, 2001 at Kathy Hesleps place in Castleton, Virginia. Kathy will provide more information on this special event at the January meeting.

Wanted: Person with calligraphy skills to help with club related project. Contact Brenda Kiessling for more information.

Four-frame electric extractor, $150 or best offer. For more information contact Digger ODell at 703 8938235. Free Beeway section supers while they last. For more information contact Jerry Thomas at 540 8692731.

FOR SALE

5830 Piedmont Drive Alexandria, VA 22310-1853