Mike Palmer bought his first two packages of bees from FW Jones Company of Quebec in 1974. They cost $10.50 delivered. Neither colony made it through the first winter, but he kept trying and built up to 200 hives by 1981.In 1982, Mike got a job managing the bees owned by Chazy Orchards in Chazy, New York and did so until 1986. Then he convinced Chazy to sell their bees to him, so at that time, he had more than 600 colonies.Mike began raising his own queens in 1998 and has been doing so ever since. Today, Mike raises about 1200 queens and manages over 1000 colonies, with some 600-700 production colonies, and hundreds of nucleus colonies.He has lectured on his methods of beekeeping all over the world.
TOPIC: Update on Honey Bees from the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) Honey Bee Colonies Honey Production and Prices Cost of Pollination
Bonnie Is the Senior Agricultural Program Team Leader for the Cornell Cooperative Extension
Scott McArt
Scott McArt is an assistant professor of pollinator health at the Cornell Department of Entomology. Before starting at Cornell in 2014, he completed his Masters at the University of Alaska, PhD at Cornell and a postdoc at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Major current research projects include: 1) Assessing pesticide risk to bees across different landscape and agricultural contexts, 2) Evaluating the relative importance of pesticides, pathogens and other factors on colony performance, and 3) Understanding pathogen transmission in complex plant-pollinator networks. Current extension efforts include the NYS beekeeper tech team, training veterinarians on honey bee diseases as part of the new Veterinary Feed Directive and advising growers on pest control practices that minimize risk to bees.
Pat Bono
Pat started beekeeping in 1976 and has volunteered in all aspects of beekeeping over the years. She is the founder and president of NY Bee Wellness, Inc, (NYBeeWellness.org) a grassroots educational non-profit, which has trained over 1500 beekeepers in New York and surrounding states, through intensive train the trainer workshops on honey bee disease. The organization conducts state wide surveys twice a year, and has a youtube channel with lecture and tutorials. Organizer for the Rochester Beekeepers/ Master Beekeeper certification from the University of Montana.An advocate for pure local honey, her small scale apiary, Seaway Trail Honey, has won numerous awards and distinctions, such as being served at President Obama’s 2013 Inaugural Luncheon in Washington DC.Currently on the NYS Apiary Industry Advisory Committee. Pat likes to stay informed and help others. She is also a registered nurse.
Peter Borst
Peter L Borst has worked in the beekeeping industry since his first job working as beekeeper’s helper in Wolcott NY, in 1974. In the late 1970s he helped run a beekeeping supply store in the San Diego area, where he served beekeepers of all levels of expertise. In addition to selling equipment and supplies, he was able to get an especially broad viewpoint of their problems and concerns.Among other things, Peter was Senior Apiarist at Cornell’s Dyce Lab for Honey Bee Research for seven years. He was an apiary inspector for New York State from 2006 to 2008. He is currently employed at Cornell doing biomedical research and is Vice President of the Finger Lakes Bee Club.Peter is a regular contributor to the American Bee Journal, writing on topics as diverse as beekeeping technique, the composition and value of pollen for bees, and the history of bee breeding. He enjoys presenting on these topics for venues ranging from local elementary schools to the American Beekeeping Federation annual conference (2015).
Bee Hive Thermal Industries- Lynn Williams
In April we heard a presentation from Lynn at Bee Hive Thermal Industries regarding their Mighty Mite Killer and their Winter Warmer systems. More information regarding the design, implementation, and purchase opportunities can be found at their website: https://www.beehivethermalindustries.com/
Bonnie Collins
In December we welcomed Bonnie Collins from the Cornell Cooperative Extension. Bonnie is the Farm Business Management Resource Educator and spoke to the membership about the ways you can take your hobby to the business level and when the most appropriate time would be to make that move.
Paul Cappy
Paul Cappy, NYS Apiculturist, was able to join us for our October meeting. Paul discussed wintering techniques including using a foam inner cover (panel) with four vent holes. He said a northern NY beekeeper has done well using this cover in the past. Paul also talked about NYS laws concerning moving beehives in and out of state and offered to have nucleus sellers call for an inspection before distributing nucs next spring.
Dr. Thomas Seeley
On April 12th the club welcomed Dr. Thomas D. Seeley as our first guest speaker. Dr. Seeley is a Professor in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior at Cornell University, where he teaches courses in animal behavior and does research on the functional organization of honey bee colonies.He grew up in Ithaca, New York. He began keeping and studying bees while a high school student, when he brought home a swarm of bees in a wooden box. He went away to college at Dartmouth in 1970, but he returned to Ithaca each summer to work at the Dyce Laboratory for Honey Bee Studies at Cornell University, where he learned the craft of beekeeping and began probing the inner workings of the honey bee colony. Thoroughly intrigued by the smooth functioning of bee colonies, he went on to graduate school at Harvard University where he studied under two ant men (Drs. Bert Hölldobler and Edward O. Wilson), began his research on bees in earnest, and earned his Ph.D. in 1978. After teaching at Yale for six years, he worked his way home to Ithaca/Cornell in 1986, where he has been ever since. In recognition of his scientific work, he has received the Senior Scientist Prize of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, and been elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.His research focuses on the internal organization of honey bee colonies and has been summarized in three books: Honeybee Ecology (1985, Princeton University Press), The Wisdom of the Hive (1995, Harvard University Press), and Honeybee Democracy (2010, Princeton University Press).