BeeLines ● August 2016 ● 1

August 2016State Apiarist Dr. Tammy Horn Potter ● Kentucky Department of Agriculture, Ryan F. Quarles, Commissioner

BeeLines

At least, give this swarm credit for gathering on a contrasting background.

Beekeeper Joe Kovaleski provides us this moment.

By Elizabeth Easton (Izzy) ForbesBowling Green High School “Bee Lords” mentor

Dr. Tammy Horn Potter asked Elizabeth to share insight into what it is like to start a bee project.

When we first started the hive in 2012, the high school principal at the time said, ‘If having a bee hive changes the high school experience of even one student for the better, or gets someone involved that might not otherwise have been, then it’s worth having it.’ I agree with that completely.

It’s been so awesome (and often hilarious) suiting up high school kids and introducing them to the inner workings of a

“So awesome (and often hilarious)” to operate a high school bee project

Honey Booth is where it’s happeningfor State Fair beekeeper volunteers!

By Dr. Tammy Horn Potter

The Honey Booth is a perennially popular exhibit with the general public at the Kentucky State Fair. Not only do we have an opportunity to sell this year’s honey, we can raise funds for KSBA to sponsor the good work it does throughout the year, including bringing the Honey Princess to Kentucky, distributing newsletters and sponsoring schools.

Below is a tentative schedule of member organizations working a full day or a half-day. Thursday 18 - Bluegrass B. A. Friday 19 - Bluegrass B. A. Saturday 20 - Oldham County B. A. Sunday 21 - Shelby County B. A. Monday 22 - Allen County B. A. Tuesday 23 - Capitol City B. A. (morning); Nelson County B. A. (afternoon) Wednesday 24 - Mammoth Cave B. A. Green River Swarm Catchers Thursday 25 - Grayson County B. A. Friday 26 - Audubon B. A. (Henderson County) Saturday 27 - Green River B. A. Sunday 28 - Oldham County B. A.

Issue

State Apiarist’s Report:

See STATE, page 4See BOWLING GREEN, page 2

BeeLines ● August 2016 ● 2

bee hive, or teaching them to extract honey, and then staff the sales booth during lunch time.

I think it’s key to have the support of the administration. To start, he or she should be involved in picking a site for the hive. High school campuses are busy — lots of practice fields, extracurricular activities, and other commitments. Make sure the hives are out of harm’s way, and not some place they might be a nuisance.

Further support comes in the form of getting access to a room to extract honey, getting kids out of class to go do an inspection, setting up for a honey sale in the school lobby/cafeteria, and tweeting out information about the project or honey sale. The principal at BGHS has been beyond helpful.

I should also mention that Walter T. Kelley Co. of Clarkson donated (per my written request) a Kentucky Special hive, smoker, hive tool, and some protective gear to get us started. A pitch to the Allen County and Warren County beekeepers associations got us some bees ( John Benham nuc) and more protective clothing.

Since we’ve been selling honey, we now have our own line item in the budget, so we’ve acquired a bucket and strainer, Varroa treatment, paint, and bottles for future honey harvests. Just last week, the science teacher and I extracted

two supers off the hive, and we will have another sale soon. We may have enough for an uncapping station and extractor!

Student involvement doesn’t have to come just from students who want to look inside the hive. The shop teacher built a second hive with his shop students and it was painted by the art department. I purchased the proper kind of paint, gave the students the parameters (i.e., don't paint the inside!) and they took it from there. It turned out so great. I’m also really thankful for the science teacher, who has developed an interest in learning about the bees. I wish I’d had her as a contact from the beginning.

I acquired more bees from John Benham and we installed the new bees last May 24. They're coming along.

This would be my other piece of advice: If there is a beekeeper serving as mentor, he or she will need a go-to person and contact at the school to maintain student involvement and organize inspections and other bee-related events.

As I’m sure you can tell, it is a labor of love for me. I really love being involved with this project.

Staley Hensley Bruni. (Photos: Izzy Forbes) Beekeeper Education Events:● Aug. 5-6: Honey and Beekeeping Expo, Jenny

Wiley State Resort Park, Wilkinson-Stumbo Convention Center, Prestonsburg, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. EDT. The gathering will feature beginning and advanced beekeeping seminars from quality beekeeping experts, park staff member Trinity Shepherd said. Local honey sales are planned. Beekeepers wanting to sell their honey may rent a booth for $25, Shepherd said. Kelley Beekeeping and Dadant & Sons will sell supplies. Admission is $5.

Trinity Shepherd, (606) 889-1790 or trinity.shepherd@ky.gov.

● Aug. 18-28: Kentucky State Fair, Louisville.

● Aug. 18: Interactive Q-and-A with Dr. Larry Connor. Sponsored by Nelson County Beekeepers Association. 6:30 p.m. EDT at the Extension office, 317 South Third St., Bardstown. Please have your questions written on cards to be collected at the door in advance of the one-hour big-screen video conference call. Open to all beekeepers, not just members. Dr. Connor wrote Queen Rearing Essential, Increase Essential, and Bee Sex Essential, and is a contributor to Bee Culture and the American Bee Journal magazines.

Non-club members please RSVP to Robbie Smith at the Nelson County Extension Office, (502) 348-9204)

● Aug. 19-21: Butterfly and Native Plants Weekend hosted by The Garden Club of Kentucky, Inc., at Kentucky Dam Village State Resort Park, Gilbertsville (see page 3).

BOWLING GREEN . . . from page 1

BeeLines ● August 2016 ● 3

Christine Brinkman of St. Francis Elementary Academy, Goshen, has installed an observation hive, thanks to a $1,500 grant from The Bee Cause Project, a non-profit started by Ted Dennard, founder of Savannah Bee Co.

The grant provides the hive, feeding apparatus, cover, and information.

Brinkman’s program will also receive Epipens (important to have at a hive site) from Mylan Co., makers of the automatic epinephrine injector. The company offers by qualifying educators four Epipens, training videos and support.

Brinkman suggests interested educators begin work now on proposals for grant years 2017 or 2018, because it can take a while to obtain approval from administrations.

More on the grant program:www.thebeecause.org.Mylan’s Epipen website: www.epipen4schools.com.

Christine Brinkman with the St. Francis Elementary Academy’s demonstration hive and its cover. (photo by Tammy Horn Potter)

Two weekends of fun and learning about native plants, butterflies and other pollinators will be held Aug. 19-21 at Kentucky Dam Village State Resort Park, Gilbertsville, and Sept. 9-11 at Jenny Wiley State Resort Park, Prestonsburg.

The weekends are sponsored by The Garden Club of Kentucky, Inc. and the Kentucky Department of Parks.

Both parks will have Kids’ Days on Fridays, featuring guided walks and an evening activity. Saturday features workshops on monarch Waystations, photography in the garden (at Kentucky Dam Village only), mason bees, hummingbirds, and bluebirds. The Jenny Wiley workshop will also hold sessions on honey harvesting, fall management, wax products, and other popular beekeeping topics.

Native plants and trees will be available at both parks, as well as dedications of the new park waystations.

Joann reports that, working with Elaine Walker and Ron Vanover to partner with the Kentucky Department of Parks, the team so far has 10 of the 49 parks certified through MonarchWatch, and more are on the way to certification.

Sharing pollination needs

Kentucky Garden Club leaders Joanna Kirby and Linda Porter have made it their mission to create a more hospitable habitat for butterflies, which have a place alongside honeybees, hummingbirds, and others as pollinators.

Between the efforts of both women, the number of official monarch Waystations in the Commonwealth has increased from 32 to well over 350, the Club notes on its website.

Monarch butterflies need nectar from some of the same plants from which honey bees gather nectar. It is especially critical for monarchs, since they are migrating through central Kentucky in late summer when not much else is blooming.

Butterflies, honey bees, and other bees profit from the similar habitat plantings, said Dr. Tammy Horn Potter, Kentucky state apiarist. “I am trying to make the message about the need for more pollinator habitat a cohesive one,” she said.

Kentucky Garden Club’s Joanna Kirby: kirbys50@hotmail.com.

Kentucky Garden Club leaders Joanna Kirby and Linda Porter dedicate a Waystation created by the Boone County Garden Club. (photo courtesy The Garden Club of Kentucky, Inc., website gardenclubky.org.)

Two pollinator get-acquainted weekends upcoming

Goshen school places grant- funded observation hive

BeeLines ● August 2016 ● 4

Bud Spath has agreed to be the assistant superintendent of the Bees and Honey exhibit (thank you!). The Bees and Honey judge is Ginni Mitchell, who studied under Dr. Marion Ellis at the University of Nebraska. She judges honey shows in Kansas, Illinois, and Iowa; this is her first time to judge in Kentucky.

For the Honey Culinary Showcase, Jill True and her team will be judging. American Honey Princess Tabitha Mansker will arrive Aug. 18 and depart Aug. 24.

KSBA members who want to sell honey should plan to bring it Sunday, Aug. 14. After that, members may bring honey to sell

at the State Fair, but it will not be accepted after 6 p.m.

The KSBA honey booth managers will be Ray Tucker (KSBA president) the first week and Rick Sutton (KSBA president-elect) the second week, with Jacob Osborne (KSBA vice president) and former honey booth manager Tana Peers (KSBA sergeant-at-arms) pitching in as needed.

* * *Kudos to the organizers of Heartland Apiculture

Society, namely Dr. Tom Webster and John Benham, but also Doug Potter (maker of the observation hive and official schlepper of equipment), Debbie Seib (treasurer), and all the speakers and vendors present. I think we all had a good

time and learned a lot and made new friendships. The place for HAS 2017 will be Evansville, Indiana, so we will do this again next year!

We held a queen production group, just to gauge interest and be in

a position to execute if Dr. Greg Hunt’s USDA grant to distribute “mite-biter” queens is funded. No word yet on that funding, but I have

to tell you, it did my heart good to see 20 folks show up at 7 a.m. on a Saturday to consider starting the Kentucky Queen Breeders Association. We will have another meeting at the fall Kentucky State Beekeepers Association meet, which will be Nov. 5 at Jenny Wiley State Park.

State Apiarist’s Report . . . from page 1

State Apiarist’s August schedule

* * *We will also have the final Pollinator Protection

Plan Public Forum at Jenny Wiley on Nov. 5, but in the meantime, since I’m headed to Murray anyway, I thought I would make myself available to discuss the Plan on Sept. 23. Perhaps we will reach more growers in the region.

* * *If you have already taken honey off your hives, it is a good

time to treat for Varroa mites. There is a good guide to Varroa mite management at http://honeybeehealthcoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/HBHC-Guide_Varroa-Interactive-PDF.

Please note that it is as important to sample your bees after treating for Varroa mites as it is before. You need to determine if your method of treatment is successful or not, and sampling is the only way to determine this. The guide discusses the sugar shake method and the alcohol wash method.

KDA honey bee website: kyagr.com/statevet/honeybees.html

* * *Teachers and youth group leaders interested in the Honey

Bee-Bot Challenge can learn more and download materials at the 4-H Ag Innovators Experience website. This challenge asks kids to build bee-bots (instead of robots) that fly over the landscape and bring back pollen.

4-H.org/Resource-Library/Promotional-Toolkits/ Toolkits/Ag-Innovators-Experience.dwn.

Joe Kovaleski and Dorothey Morgan, Lake Cumberland Beekeepers Association, hold a grafting frame with queen cells at the recent Heartland get-together. (Photo by Tammy Horn Potter)

BeeLines ● August 2016 ● 5

The Boone County School District’s #Boone2020 Campaign is a project-based learning experience, a hands-on exploration of real-world problems and challenges in which students acquire deeper knowledge of a particular subject or problem. In this unit, Conner Middle School students learned about the challenges facing honey bees by building and maintaining hives.

HEBRON – Visit Conner Middle School and you might discover an unusual sight – students working on the roof.

They’re not replacing shingles, mind you. Instead, these students are tending to bee hives.

Seventh-grade teacher Julia Hansel is leading the students to learning in an innovative, effective way.

Solving problems hands-onHansel is teaching a unit entitled “A Plea for

Bees,” in which her students learn about bees and the Colony Collapse Disorder facing them.

To introduce the unit, Hansel brought food that honey bees pollinate, amounting to nearly one-third of what we eat.

Originally published at: cincinnati.com/story/news/local/hebron/ 2016/02/07/innovative-learning-project-takes-bee-crisis/79972976/

Boone Co.students take on bee crisis

By Josh BlairFirst published on cincinnati.com, February 2016. Used by permission.

Students assemble a bee hive frame.

(photo provided)

Then came the hands-on experience: Students wrote letters to the community explaining their project.

They measured the rooftop, recorded temperatures, and noted locations of sunshine and shade; then built scale models.

Taking it to the roof

Finally a winning design prevailed, and two bee hives, along with some flowers that honey bees favor, adorned the school roof.

Additionally, Hansel’s class created picture books for local elementary students. These books described the plight of bees and outlined steps everyone can take to help.

The beauty of this project is in how it encompassed multiple subjects: science, math, engineering, art, writing, social studies and more. “They learned a lot about anatomy, bee production, why it’s important and what we can do to help them,” Hansel said.

BeeLines ● August 2016 ● 6

Retired teacher Eddie Price and his sidekick “Little Miss Grubby Toes” are ready to come to a town or school near you!

A very precocious Miss Grubby Toes gets into all kinds of adventures because she doesn’t like to wear her shoes. Unfortunately, she steps on a honey bee, and this leads to a whole new world of discovery for her, both in her book and in front of the audiences she and Eddie meet.

Eddie presents the educational part of the program, including a PowerPoint slide show and a small quiz on bees. Eddie told BeeLines about his educational field efforts:

* * *The program varies for different age groups. I do not get into too much depth with the preschool and kindergarten classes, but first and second graders have surprised me on what they can learn. I often present “How to Write, Publish, and Market a Children’s Book” to upper grades — even as high as grades 9-12 — and end up doing the puppet show and doing the PowerPoint and wowing them with bee facts. Even aspiring adult writers come away learning about bees.

When possible, I get the libraries or schools to produce a local beekeeper to do the “educating.” At the Marshall

When “Little Miss Grubby Toes Steps on a Bee” ... Educator, sidekick teach bee discoveries

County Public Library, Annie Broyles of the Lake Barkley Beekeepers Association, Paducah, brought equipment and educational charts, and played right along with teaching Little Miss Grubby Toes.

Basically, I do a reading of the book. In big assemblies, I have it on thumb drive for the big screen. Then we sing a song to wake up a cranky Little Miss Grubby Toes. The puppet show runs about 10 minutes. Then I have a beekeeper take over, or I bring up the PowerPoint slideshow, extolling the virtues of bees and sharing some insights on how they live and work.

In many instances, the librarians or classrooms have a coloring time — simple sheets for the little ones, more complex for the older kids. There is also a word puzzle and quiz.

No distance is too far, if I can be provided reasonable compensation, mileage, and a place to stay — even if over 400 miles away. I can do multiple programs during a day for different levels. Some school systems have had me over two or three days, visiting elementary, middle, and high schools to present a combination of children’s, writing, and historical programs.

I am a retired high school history teacher and love getting back into the classroom. I do like to sign copies of the book and can make classroom sets available at discount prices. Little Miss Grubby Toes Steps on a Bee! can be ordered from Amazon; I also sign, inscribe and ship copies.

Eddie Price’s Facebook page: facebook.com/eddieprice.1954Eddie Price with Clarkson Honeyfest Director Mary Kay Franklin, left, and Dr. Tammy Horn Potter at Kelley Company’s Field Day 2016.

BeeLines ● August 2016 ● 7

Youth Loans — FACT SHEET 2014 Farm Bill (March 2014) — United States Department of Agriculture, Farm Service Agency

OVERVIEW The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) makes operating loans of up to $5,000 to eligible individual youths ages 10 to 20 to finance income-producing, agriculture-related projects.

The project must be of modest size, educational, and initiated, developed and carried out by youths participating in 4-H Clubs, FFA, or a similar organization.

The project must be an organized and supervised program of work. It must be planned and operated with the assistance of the organization advisor, produce sufficient income to repay the loan, and provide the youth with practical business and educational experience in agriculture-related skills.

WHO MAY BORROW

To qualify for a loan, the applicant must:

■ Comply with FSA’s general eligibility requirements;

■ Conduct a modest income-producing project in a supervised program of work.

HOW LOAN FUNDS MAY BE USED These loans can finance many kinds of income-

producing agricultural projects. The loan funds may be used to:

■ Buy livestock, seed, equipment and supplies; ■ Buy, rent or repair needed tools and

equipment; ■ Pay operating expenses for the project.

FSA has project funds to lend to young beekeepers

A young beekeeper who wants to start an income-producing, agriculture-related project may qualify for an FSA loan to help get started. Here are their rules:

WHAT DETAILS TO KNOW To apply, the applicant must submit completed

plans and budgets signed by the project advisor and parent or guardian along with the FSA application for loan assistance.

These loans:

■ Have a maximum loan amount of $5,000 (total principal balance owed at any one time cannot exceed this amount);

■ Have an interest rate which is determined periodically, based on the cost of money to the federal government (after the loan is made, the interest rate for that loan will not change);

■ Will be secured, in addition to promissory notes, by liens on the products produced for sale and on property, including livestock, equipment and fixtures purchased with loan funds;

■ Have a repayment schedule which varies depending on the type of project for which the loan is made (for example, if it involves raising livestock or crops, the loan is paid when the animals or produce are normally sold).

To apply or find out more, visit your local USDA Service Center. A listing of centers and more information about youth and other loan programs are available on the FSA website at www.fsa.usda.gov.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination against its customers, employees, and applicants for employment on the bases of race, color, national origin, age, disability, sex, gender identity, religion, reprisal, and where applicable, political beliefs, marital status, familial or parental status, sexual orientation, or all or part of an individual’s income is derived from any public assistance program, or protected genetic information in employment or in any program or activity conducted or funded by the Department. (Not all prohibited bases will apply to all programs and/or employment activities.) USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.