Buzzingz!
Newsletter of the Los Angeles County Beekeepers Association
December 2011 Volume X1, Issue 11
Mt. Olive Lutheran Church, 3561 Foothill Boulevard, La Crescenta, CA 91214
Next Meeting: January 9, 2012, 7:00 pm
No Minutes from the Holiday Dinner:
Our great appreciation, again, goes to Doug Noland for the delicious meal he prepared for us all. Thanks, too, for the tasty additions – hors d’oeuvres, desserts, etc. - brought by our club members. We also thank Pickwick Gardens for the lovely facilities. And, of course, the hidden workers, those who helped organize and coordinate, not to mention donating raffle prizes, deserve a round of applause. It was lovely for all of us with our guests to get together and have time to socialize.
In addition to a tasty meal in lovely surroundings we also had a lively raffle and some well deserved awards, as well as a presentation by a local student of entymology.
Clyde announced that our Golden Hive Tool winner for 2011 was… Red & Ann Bennett. Red and Ann have been in the honey business since 1978, starting with a roadside stand (with all that barbed wire!!!) to sell their Piru Canyon honey, and evolving into the Bennett’s Honey Farm where many local apiarists have their honey and wax processed and packaged for retail sales. Red and Ann are setting up to retire (yeah, we’ve heard beekeepers say that before…) but they’ve continued their tradition of integrity by making sure their most cherished and valuable employees have been set up with the facility’s new owners, and the crew came along to the dinner to help celebrate over 3 decades of quality and excellence in the honey industry.
Our speaker for the evening was Occidental student Elaine Westcott discussing her international observations on the cultural differences in beekeeping between the United States, France, England, and even Down Under in New Zealand. She dazzled us with pictures of apiaries where keepers never felt the need to don veils or gloves for their basic inspections - oh, to live in the land of the gentle bees! – and where gustatory boutiques sold honeys like fine wine or cheese. If only she’d been able to bring samples. Many thanks to Mary Landau for arranging our speaker!
Program for January: Reports from our members who attended the State Bee Convention.
Note From the Secretary:
Dues for 2012 membership are now due. Many of you paid at the banquet – thank you! If you have not paid 2012 dues by February 15, you will be removed from the mailing lists. To find out when you last paid dues, you can reach me at stacymckenna1@gmail.com or at the meetings.
Also, I will be printing up a membership directory after February 15. If you do not wish your information to be included, please let me know. If you have a digital photo I can include in the directory, please send me a copy. Directories should be available at the March meeting.
