Club meetings are free and open to the public. Below is the upcoming schedule — check back as it is updated frequently.
Meetings (usually) take place on the 2nd Wednesday of the month. They take place at the Kalamazoo Nature Center, 7000 North Westnedge Ave. Kalamazoo, MI at 6:30 pm (although May’s has an earlier start.)
Next meeting is on: Wed., May 8th at 6:00 pm (HALF HOUR EARLIER)
Dr. Larry Connor* will discuss using queens to build / rebuild an apiary — support hives, evaluating the queen status (missing, egg, larva, pupa, young, newly-mated, one year old, grand old lady, drone layer, dead, etc.), banking queens, managing queens in your new package colonies, followed by Q&A. Dr. Connor is one of the world’s bee experts; we’re lucky to have him here in SW Michigan.
He’ll have plenty of bee books for sale (his and the many authors he carries); you may also bring your books from home and get his autograph.
Dr. Connor is featured from 6 – 7:30, followed by …
APIARY SAFETY: Yep, this might be the talk that saves your life, presented by Donovan Bredenkamp, a beekeeping EMT who will share CRITICAL safety tips — in a brief, 20-30 minute overview.
* Lawrence Connor was born in Kalamazoo and earned his doctorate in honey-bee pollination of crops at Michigan State University. He has worked as Extension Bee Specialist at The Ohio State University, President of Genetic Systems, Inc. (which produced tens of thousands of instrumentally inseminated queens honey bees as well as the Starline and Midnite breeding stock), and now owns and operates Wicwas Press, specializing in publication of quality bee books. He relocated (from Connecticut) back to Michigan in April 2007 to continue growth of his publishing and writing activities. He has edited and published over two dozen books and recently written: Increase Essentials, Bee Sex Essentials, Queen Rearing Essentials, Bee-sentials: A Field Guide, Swarm Essentials (with Steve Repasky), Honey Bee Biology and Beekeeping (with Dewey Caron), Increase Essentials Second Edition and Mating Biology of honey bees (with G. and N. Koeniger and J. Ellis).
Connor is a frequent contributor to The American Bee Journal and to Bee Culture Magazine. He travels extensively and lectures on a wide range of subjects concerning honey bees, bee breeding, pollination and colony management.
For further information consult the website: www.wicwas.com.