ATTENTION ALL BEEKEEPERS: Please mark your calendar and join us at the VSBA Spring Beekeeping conference. We will host several of the Nation's top beekeeping experts as our guest speakers. Their dynamic presentations will provide a glimpse into current honeybee research projects underway across the country as well as provide tips and methods so we can improve our current beekeeping operations. Their presentations will be of interest to every level of beekeeper from our first/second year members to the beekeeping experts we all consult at our local clubs.

The continued success of these annual VSBA conferences depends on your participation and involvement. Together, we can achieve sustainable apiaries as we strive to communicate best practices and lessons learned shared among our membership.

Bring your family, friends, invite a neighbor, or a colleague and join us March 23-24 for another fun and friendly opportunity to "TALK Bee's" with the experts.

Frank S. Walker
VSBA President

We should have registration information available on the site soon!

On Monday, October 24, VSBA is sponsoring a FREE, one night seminar to provide an overview of the type of questions beekeepers should be familiar with if they are interested in taking the written test for the Qualified or Certified level for the Virginia Master Beekeeper Program. These tests will be given at the VSBA Fall meeting on Friday evening and Saturday afternoon after the VSBA meeting adjourns, whichever best suits your schedule.

The training seminar will provide an overview of the type of test questions beekeepers should expect to see at each level of testing and where the best study material is available.

The Qualified and Certified Testing review will be held at:

Northampton Community Center
http://www.hampton.gov/parks/north_hampton_cc.html
1435-A Todds Lane
Hampton, Virginia 23666
(757) 825-4805

SCHEDULE [Monday, Oct 24]:
6:00 - 7:00 pm for the Qualified review.
7:15 - 8:45 pm for the Certified review.

The building closes promptly at 9 pm. To speed up the process, all questions will be answered outside the room by the beekeepers who took the Certified testing a few weeks ago.

All questions can be addressed by contacting:
Frank S. Walker
VSBA President
(757)641-5933

The Department of Health will conduct suppression sprays in reponse to increased mosquito populations following Hurricanes Irene and Lee. It is anticipated this will be night time aerial application of the pesticide dibrom. The earliest possible date that spray activities could start would be next Monday evening (Sept. 12th), barring unforeseen weather events that can affect the spray schedule. They are not spraying sparsely populated rural areas. Also, their spray block boundaries typically do not extend more than a half mile in any direction from the most populated areas within each town. Check with local authorities for specific dates and times for mosquito spray in your area.

The proposed list of spray areas includes the following towns and cities within the following counties:

• Sussex County – Towns of  Stony Creek, Waverly and Wakefield;
• Surry County – Town of Dendron; Isle of Wight – Towns of Zuni, Windsor and the eastern suburbs of Franklin City;
• Southampton County – Towns of Courtland, Boykins and the western suburbs of Franklin City;
• City of Franklin and;City of Suffolk [the areas targeted in Suffolk include the town of Whaleyville and the densely populated regions within the town of Suffolk and extending north on either side of the Nansemond River].   

This list is only a “proposed list” as some sites may be removed from the target list if mosquitoes are not found to be a problem there).  At this point, they will not be adding any towns or cities to this list.

Sincerely,

Keith Tignor
Office of Plant Industry Services
Virginia Dept. of Agriculture & Consumer Services
P.O. Box 1163
Richmond, VA 23218

We have started to secure speakers and vendors for the Fall meeting. In addition, the registration form is now available. Sign up now to get the early bird discount! For more information click here.

In addition, the Fall Newsletter has gone out. As usual, there is a lot of good stuff for Virginia Beekeepers - it has been added to our newsletter collection.

Despite the events of the past few days, we have managed to get the official registration form for the first round of MBP testing onto the site (click here). Again, we expect this Certified Level Master Beekeeper testing day to fill up quickly (only 25 slots available), so get your information in the mail as soon as you have a moment. We hope you, your family and your bees are recovering from Irene!!!

We have set the date for the first Certified Level Master Beekeeper testing in Virginia for September 24! The seating is limited, so sign up quickly. The full information about the test and the curriculum can be found by clicking here. On this Saturday, we will have both the practical (hands on) and written testing. We do plan to hold the written testing (for both the Qualified and Certified levels) at the state meeting in November - the practical testing for that round will be scheduled at a later date.

This is the first step of many in implementing the Master Beekeeper Program for Virginia. This will round out the first sets of Certified and Qualified beekeepers in our ranks. Next year, we plan to outline the necessary steps for the final level of Master Beekeeper. Expect more news about these certifications in the future.

One of the many goals of the current VSBA executive committee has long been to energize or 'awaken' a Master Beekeeper's program in Virginia. The number of beekeepers in Virginia is rising at an incredible rate. People are interested (and maybe even concerned) about the plight of the Honey Bee. To that effect, many folks are trying their hands at a honey bee hive or two. The rewards are too numerous to mention, but this increased interest has led to a correspondingly increased interest in more knowledge. How can I better manage my hives? What can I do to help both the hives in my backyard as well as the general well being of honey bees in Virginia?

We have heard the call and are trying to answer it. Today, we are proposing a multi-tiered Master Beekeeping Program (MBP) for Virginia. We are using the experiences from existing MBP's (in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, for example) as well as several other beekeeping experts in Virginia. New beekeepers are joining our ranks at an encouraging rate. They yearn for knowledge and advice. We hope that this program will both help these new beekeepers as well as add to the already considerable knowledge of our current pool of experienced beekeepers.

Check out the new Master Beekeeping tab and give us your feedback!

Now that the truly hot weather has set in, we have a bit more time to work on the website! There are several more things in the works, but the primary changes implemented today include a new look and a few more plugins. This is 100% based on the feedback we received from the initial roll-out this past Spring. One of the primary comments focused on usability : it was not very user friendly to have to scroll down (past our large beekeeping images) just to view the content on the pages. To that effect, we have implemented a new 'look & feel', which will hopefully resolve this issue.

We have also added a few more user capabilities, to allow our membership to customize their own experience on the site and to use the Like functionality from Facebook. If you like an article or page, please click the Like button so that your friends can come to the site and learn about our great organization and the Honey Bee! There's a lot more coming. Unfortunately, when the bees need tending, the site upgrades can be slow to come. But, when the temperatures rise above 100 degrees, the health of the beekeeper/webmaster is at risk, so he has more time to work on the site (instead of spending every waking moment bothering his bees!)

In closing, be sure to check out our new slideshow of the pictures taken at the recent State Meeting. Of even more importance, take note of the updated Events page, which will be our new source of information for the VSBA Fall State Meeting.

Pam Jewett-Bullock took several pictures at the June meeting! We have created a slide-show here! There are great pictures of the organizers, some of our vendors and the actual presentations.

The Fall State Meeting has been scheduled. Based on the huge success of the Spring/Summer meeting, you will not want to miss this one. We are currently working on the program and will update you here the moment it is finalized. More information to come soon on registration.

VSBA Fall Meeting
When: Saturday November 5, 2011
Where: Blue Ridge Community College
1 College Lane,
Weyers Cave, VA 24486
Hosted by: Shenandoah Valley Beekeepers Association