by Shirley Acevedo

Nicole Pettibon, our 2009 Texas Honey Queen, is preparing to compete for the American Honey Queen title at the American Beekeeping Federation Convention in Orlando, January 2010! She has submitted her application with her required essay on honey, and the list of 50 events she participated in as Texas Honey Queen. Nicole will be traveling to Orlando from Emmaus Bible College in Iowa, since her classes begin January 7. Rachael Seida (2008 American Honey Queen) and I will meet up with Nicole in Orlando to support by assisting with activities like ironing clothes, coaching regarding the events of the Convention, running errands, etc. On behalf of Texas beekeepers, Nicole, we wish you safe journeys and much success at ABF! We greatly appreciate all you have done over the past year as 2009 Texas Honey Queen. We are honored to have had you represent us. We are proud of you!

And now I would like to introduce our 2010 Texas Honey Queen, Allison Adams of Plano, TX. She will accompany us to learn first-hand the workings of the American Honey Queen Program. Allison’s family will drive to Florida later that week, in time to join in the Saturday convention events, and spend family time in the Orlando area with Allison. We wish Allison and her family an enjoyable time in Florida and Allison a rewarding time at ABF.

The Texas Beekeepers Convention in Tyler began with Kids Learning About Bees on Thursday November 12. A well behaved 428 children came with adults to learn about honey bees and beekeeping. East Texas Beekeepers Association (ETBA) did a wonderful job of manning the numerous tables. Violet Bourns worked tirelessly over several months taking care of the details. Tammy Lenamond and Diane Rapazzo precisely managed the timing of the children’s arrival over the five hours.

Thursday evening’s Bee Buzz had a total of six Honey Queens and one Honey Princess providing delicious food prepared with honey to top off the finger food, tea,and coffee provided by Burlesons Honey, Dadant and Mann Lake. The lovely young ladies were Nicole Pettibon (2009 Texas Honey Queen), Allison Adams (Collin County Honey Queen), Diane Jurchen (American Honey Queen from Iowa), Kellie Lenamond (East Texas Honey Queen), Kaylynn Mansker (Collin County Honey Princess) and Rebekah Jones (Williamson County Honey Queen).

At the opening of the Convention on Friday morning, the Queens and Princess were officially introduced. Nicole Pettibon gave an excellent power point presentation of her year as Texas Honey Queen.

After the morning break, Diane Jurchen, Nicole Pettibon and Kellie Lenamond judged TBA honey contest entries. The Queen’s Luncheon took place at noon on Friday with 72 people present. Texas Honey Queen, Nicole Pettibon, gifted each person with a bright yellow button.
After the six Queens and Princess shared their favorite bee talk experience, everyone looked for a paper skep taped to their chairs to identify the winner of the lovely handmade centerpiece skep which were provided by the ladies of ETBA.
After lunch, the Honey Queens and Princess went to Rice Elementary School for a 30-minute bee talk to 132 fourth graders. The children were seated on the gym floor, and each of the six young women spoke for approx five minutes about an aspect of beekeeping. Buzzy Bear came too, thanks to James Mansker of Nevada, TX. Shelby Kilpatrick wore the bee suit, hat, veil and gloves for the school children!

Next stop for the Honey Queens and Princess: Tyler Rose Garden, to view the beauty of and smell the numerous fragrances of gorgeous roses. Later we watched hot flour tortillas roll off the conveyor belt at Mercado’s, ate dinner and returned to the hotel to dress for the Quiz Bowl.
Past Texas Honey Queens manage the Friday evening Quiz Bowl, where they test the beekeeping knowledge of the Queens and Princesses. This year was no exception; Sarah Paulson Landry (1997/1998 Texas Honey Queen & 1998 American Honey Princess) sent a “Jeopardy” game on a flash drive with her parents (Susan and John Paulson) since she could not be present. Thank you, Sarah and Susan and John! The game was a success and a lot of fun, and we even took questions from the audience which few in the room could answer.

Saturday morning included the Delegates Breakfast and then interviews for Kellie Lenamond and Allison Adams for the 2010 Texas Honey Queen position. Seven beekeepers interviewed the young ladies and deliberated for three hours before making the selection. Those present were Rachael Seida,Violet Bourns, Alan Eynon, Don Angle, Deborah Rankin, Jimmie Oakley (not pictured) and myself.

After a quick lunch, all attended the TBA Business Meeting and then took two hours for rest and relaxation away from the hotel. By 6 pm, everyone was dressed formally for the Banquet.

After a sumptuous prime rib dinner, Nicole Pettibon gave her farewell words and was presented with a certificate of completion of her year as 2009 Texas Honey Queen and a $2000 scholarship check from President, Todd Youngblood for TBA. Again, thank you, Nicole!
Kellie Lenamond, 2009 East Texas Honey Queen, was named 2010 Texas Honey Queen Runner Up and was presented with a beautiful bouquet of a dozen pink roses arranged by Janet Rowe of CCHBA.
Allison Adams was crowned 2010 Texas Honey Queen and was given a lovely sash and a bouquet of red roses also by Janet Rowe. Thank you, Janet, for your fine work.

The six Honey Queens and Princess skillfully helped with the auction by carrying items around the room for all to see and bid. Thank you, Texas Beekeepers, for providing many items for the auction! Thank you, East Texas Beekeepers, for providing the very capable auctioneer. The total income at the auction was $7600! And thank you to Lavada Talbert for taking in the auction items! What a generous and thoughtful association of beekeepers you are! On behalf of the Texas Honey Queen Program, I thank you!
Allison Adams as Texas Honey Queen, looks forward to visiting your area and local club. Over the next year ,she and the Queen Committee will look at possible options to keep the auction entertaining and of reasonable length.
Thank you again for your gracious support of our Texas Honey Queen and Honey Queen Program.
I look forward to receiving your invitation for the Texas Honey Queen to come to your event!

by AP Warne, District 6

Hello Texas Beekeepers,
Well, it has been a very busy year. It seems like every year is busier than the one before and it would seem that next year has to slow down, but it never does. I just want to recap this year with everything that has been going on in my life. I guess to start things out, I’ll go back to January, not because it is the first month of the year, but that is when things really started to change for me. It was on January 7 that I asked my beautiful girlfriend, Simone, to marry me. We had a casual dinner at On the Border and after eating dessert, I leaned over and told Simone that I had one more thing to do and it just walked in. Puzzled, Simone looked at me and then turned around to look at the door. At that moment, I slid out of the booth and dropped to my knee and she gasped as I popped the question. My sister and her best friend delivered balloons and roses and were there to take pictures. Some ladies sitting nearby loudly whispered “HE’S PROPOSING!” and the whole restaurant stopped to watch the event unfold. A week later, I found myself at the ABF Convention in Reno having a good time and spending money on raffle tickets that I should have been saving for my wedding. Well, the ABF raffle is a really big deal and everyone wants to win as prizes ranged from a Montana fishing trip, free nights at the next ABF Convention, laptop computers, to queens and several other great prizes. As luck would have it, my name was drawn, not once but twice. So I made my picks which turned out to be 75 queens and some pollen substitute. What a month to start the year - one new Honey Queen to share in my life and 75 queens to help grow my business. I don’t think I could have asked for a better way to start the year.
I mentioned a year ago that I was attempting to increase my numbers and my dad was just starting his bee business. Well, we found ourselves in need of more bees in preparation of the 75 queens. We found some colonies to buy in April just before my wedding date. Since my wedding was April 17, these bees gave us a boost of excitement and relief. We spent May preparing all the hives for splitting for the 75 queens that we would be receiving.
June rolled around and despite being laid off from IBM, I still consider it a great month. You might think that being laid off would be a disaster at this time in my life, but I think it was more of a blessing in disguise because it gave me the opportunity to introduce my wife to beekeeping and provided the time I needed to prepare for the arrival of my queens. As a mentor for a scholarship student in my association, I was able to teach my student and show my wife the working beehive at the same time. She was hesitant at first, standing 20 feet away to observe. But it only took minutes for the 20 feet to become 5 feet as she peered over the box to look inside. Before the day was done, she was holding a frame covered with bees. She also likes helping out with the extraction process. I think she sampled honey from each frame during the process.

Now my other honey queens were scheduled to arrive soon and when they did, my wife would help give water to the thirsty travelers. I received 25 Hawaiian queens towards the end of June, and the first set of 25 Georgia queens was received around the middle of July. The second set of 25 Georgia queens was received in the first part of August. So the splits were made at three different times and each one went pretty well, for the most part. My dad had to do one of the splits by himself since I took an unexpected trip out of town and the queens were delivered during that time.
We also had a pretty good year with our honey. We pulled about 110 gallons of honey which is more honey than we have every pulled. I know compared to commercial beekeepers, 110 gallons isn’t very much, but we sure think that it is. We started selling at one of those farmer’s market and flea market places and we’ve just been doing great! For me, it has brought a new light of appreciation to our honey. At the start of the event, we pull up and set up the 10 x 10 tent and HONEY sign. Then we set up three tables. Mom quickly covers them with her honey bee table cloths. Dad and I start setting out the honey and then the chairs. In a matter of 15 minutes or less, we are set up and selling honey. It is just as easy and fast with the tear down. In fact, the appreciation comes at the end of the day when we see exhausted vendors trying to clean up as we pull away. As they are pushing and urging people to buy their stuff, we just let our honey sell itself. There is no need to do any pushing, as honey has a way of pulling buyers in. We usually have this much to say for each sell, “Yes it is our honey” and “Yes it is local honey”. I think we work half as hard at this event each month as those around us and I am willing say the payoff may be better as well. Of course, the beekeepers hard work comes in June and July in the 100 degree days.
I mentioned in my last Director’s Report that I wanted to get out and visit the other associations in my area. I was able to attend Metro Beekeepers on two occasions this year, but missed the Red River Valley Beekeepers meeting. I will try harder this year to get out that way for at least one of their meetings. I found that the Metro Beekeepers had a good attendance and I was encouraged to see that many of them were new to beekeeping. They are being faced with the same problems that other beekeepers are, mites and beetles. I was able to share a little bit about what I know with them and they had some good questions. Our Texas Honey Queen, Nicole Pettibon, attended one of the meetings with my wife and I. She raised an interest in a Honey Queen program there as she shared her experience.

In closing, I would like to thank all those beekeepers who made it to this year’s TBA Convention in Tyler. I feel that it was a great success and I am looking forward to the next one in Kerrville. I would like to congratulate Allison Adams as our new Texas Honey Queen and wish Nicole Pettibon good luck at the ABF Convention. I know that these two young women will represent Texas beekeepers very well.

See you in the beeyard,
AP Warne, AP’s Apiaries - Anna, Texas