GA Beekeepers Associaton

This weekend we attended the Ga Beekeepers Association Fall Meeting in Rock Spring, Ga.  It was fun to visit with other bee keepers that we only get to see at these meetings that are from other parts of the state.  The main reason to go tho is all the things we learn from the classes with the great speakers.  One of our favorites is Dr. Jamie Ellis from the University of Florida and formerly of the the University of Georgia. 

We got to attend classes on nutrition, nectar bearing trees and plants of Georgia, biology of bees, branding and promotion, and nutrition.  The neatest class was Structural Anatomy of a Honey Bee in 3D given by Dr. Fred Hossler from East Tennesee State University.  He had photographed bees from all angles at a magnification of 10,000 times.  It showed that honey bees have what looks like hair over practically every part of their body, but instead of hair, they are receptors with nerves in them.  The bee's two large compound eyes are made up of over 400 smaller ones that were clearly visible.  A cross section of the stinger clearly showed the hollow inside that Dr. Hossler referred to as a hypodermic needle.  He even showed a picture of an 'antenna cleaner' located on a leg that looked exactly like a teeny tiny comb.  If the bee gets pollen on her antenna, she can 'comb' it off and then place it in the pollen basket on another leg.

Friday was topped off with a low country boil with fresh shrimp brought up from Savannah and prepared deliciously.  There was also a silent auction, a live auction, and door prizes.  Danny won a queen as a door prize which we gave a new home today.  There were competitions for honey, candles, photography, block wax, comb honey and a few more things.  I entered my first photo contest here and was excited to win a red ribbon for second place.  It is the picture at the top of this post, it's a close up of freshly deposited pollen.  Next year we are planning on entering our honey, wax and another photograph.  And congratulations to our friends Mr. and Mrs. Williams who were awarded lifetime memberships to the Beekeepers Association, it was well deserved.  Also, Mrs. Webb of Clarkesville, Ga returned from a worldwide honey competition in France last week where her Sourwood Honey
won 'Best in the World'.  She beat out entries from 32 other countries.  It's great that the best comes from Georgia.