From the Director’s Chair – by Dick Counts - Area 3

Hello from East Texas, good things are happening in our part of Texas. We have a new 16 year-old HONEY QUEEN. Her name is Kellie Lenamond. She hails from Wills Point and is home-schooled, as a junior. She is also taking two junior college courses and plays several string instruments. She is also a graduate of the Collin County Beginners Beekeeping Class. After three years, she has five hives, does all of the bee work and the family uses the honey for cooking. Her homemade bread with honey is mighty good! Taking bees from a barrel got her in the Tyler Morning Telegraph, Houston Chronicle and the Dallas Morning News. Vi Bourns is our Honey Queen Chairperson and has done a beautiful job.
On the bees side, the kind that stings, we have had plenty of rain, but way too much cold to cool weather, on May 17th it was 54 degrees here in Tyler. We need some warm weather before the moisture dries up. Normally we have at least extracted once by now and some years twice. With only two weeks to go it will be mid June before I extract.
The East Texas Beekeepers Association is doing great, we just elected Andrew Bellefeuille as our 2009-2010 President. His first meeting we had 96 in attendance. Our Beginner Class had a total of 18 newbees in attendance, with three of those being scholarship students. Eighteen very excited new beekeepers got their bees on April 25th. Most of the hives already needed supers. With the shortages we experienced with the supply companies, our bees are making a great comeback. Swarm calls and bees in buildings are way up. But so are the beetles.
Our outdoor observation hives are up and running. Last year, I put nucs with 3 to 4 frames on two of them and they made it until a 27 degree day in late March. This year, I have put a 5 frame nucs on 6 of them in an effort to try to overwinter them.
Our meetings are the first Thursday of the month. Come see us!