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South Carolina Beekeepers Association |
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IN THE NEWS |
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South Carolina Beekeepers to Meet at Clemson University - The summer meeting of the South Carolina Beekeepers will be held at Clemson University, Clemson, SC on 16-18 July 2009. Registration will begin on Thursday, 16 July at 12:00 noon in the Poole Agricultural Center Lobby. (See program for registration details) The meeting will begin at 1:00 in the Poole Agricultural Center Auditorium with session 1 of a 1-day intermediate level beekeeping short course. The course is designed for individuals with beekeeping experience, but everyone is welcome. The short course will break for dinner at 5:00 and session 2 of the short course will begin at 6:30 and end at 8:30 PM. On Friday morning, we will begin with a general session at 8:00 and workshops will be held in the afternoon. We have several out-of-state speakers on the program including Steve Sheppard from Washington State University, Jamie Ellis from the University of Florida, Amanda Ellis from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Gordon Wardell from Tucson, Arizona, Ann Harmon from Flint Hill, Virginia, and Virginia Webb from Clarkesville, Georgia. In addition, we have several speakers from South Carolina who will speak at the meeting. For more details, you will find a meeting program in this newsletter. A barbecue pork/baked chicken dinner is planned for Friday evening at Jimmy Howard’s home in Pendleton. Scheduled activities are the annual horseshoe pitching tourney and a smoker lighting contest. Dinner will be served for $7.00/plate. On Saturday morning, we will have another general session beginning at 8:00 that will include many interesting topics and the meeting will end at noon. We will have a honey show and competition at our summer meeting this year. Bring along a container of your best honey. Please do not place a label on your honey containers. Honey classes will be pint and quart extracted. There will be light and dark classes, so do not be concerned if your honey is dark. A “black jar class” will be included again. This class will be judged on taste only. Small black jars will be provided at the show, so bring a sample of your best tasting honey and take this ribbon home. We are also adding an additional class in the competition, 1 lb. block of beeswax. Honey and beeswax entries should be turned in for the competition from 7:30 - 10:30 on Friday morning. Thanks to June Ponder a member of the Oconee Beekeepers for overseeing this event. And a big thanks to Steve Genta and Clyde McCall for judging the contest entries. Ribbons will be awarded for each category and a best of show ribbon will be included. On-campus housing will be available in the Lightsey Bridge I student apartments for a cost of $18/individual/night. You do not need to make a reservation. Come by our meeting registration desks to process and pay for a room. The dorm will be an apartment arrangement with four beekeepers sharing an apartment. Each beekeeper will have a separate bedroom with one twin bed and all will share a bathroom. Bring your own bed linens and towels or you may pay $15 for a linen packet fee. Bed pillows are not provided so don’t forget to bring a pillow. Meals (breakfast 7-9:30, lunch 11-1:30, dinner 4:30-6:30) are available on campus at the Harcombe Food Court (15 minute walk from the dorm). There is also a food court (open 11AM – 6PM) in the Hendrix Student Center (10 minute walk from the dorm) which is about a 5 minute walk from our meeting site. This is the same building where you can buy the delicious ice cream and famous Clemson blue cheese. Accommodations are available off campus in the Clemson area as follows: Clemson Sleep Inn, $69.99, (864) 653-6000, includes contl bkfst; Clemson Days Inn, $62.99, (864) 653-4411, includes contl. bkfst. Mention that you are attending the South Carolina Beekeepers Convention to get the University rate. You will need to make your reservation by 1 July to get this rate. After that date, rooms may not be available. Our designated parking lot for this meeting is the large parking lot directly behind the Poole Agricultural Center. You will notice that this parking lot has green marked parking spaces which are normally reserved for employees only. Please do not park in other campus parking lots that have green marked parking spaces or you will get a ticket. However, you can park in any commuter parking lot that can be identified by having orange marked spaces. You will need to pick up a hang tag for your vehicle at our registration desk immediately upon your arrival at our registration desk and place it on your vehicle. Let’s continue to make the South Carolina Beekeepers summer meeting a great success; invite some beekeeping friends to come along for an educational vacation. If you have questions about the meeting, please contact Mike Hood, ph. (864) 656-0346, email <mhood@clemson.edu>.
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HOT TOPIC ! |
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“Honey bees are our most beneficial insect and are responsible for pollinating approximately one third of our food in the United States,” said Hood. “Some South Carolina fruits and vegetables that require honey bee pollination include |