[HarryVanderpool]

36th Annual Meeting of the Western Apicultural Society
September 17-20, Missoula, Montana
This is Not your Grandfather’s Bee Conference!
Montana is another large western state, as was New Mexico. It is home to some of the nation's best known National Parks, including Glacier Nationa Park and Yellowstone National Park (Grizzly Bears and Old Faithful Geyser).
For more info go to:
http://ucanr.edu/sites/was2/

 

[HarryVanderpool]

This year's conference is composed of three sections:

• The 2nd International Workshop on Hive and Bee Monitoring on Wednesday, September 17,

• WAS Conference Speakers, Thursday and Friday, September 18 and 19,

• Saturday Morning Workshops covering a variety of practical topics of interest to beekeepers and geared especially for those folks who cannot get away to attend the earlier events.




The 2nd International Workshop on Hive and Bee Monitoring involves several speakers from far distant parts -- New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Italy etc. It kicks off the "Week of the Bee" at the University of Montana in Missoula and contains a candy shop of technological goodies for all those so inclined.




Keynote speaker on Thursday of the WAS conference is our own Dr. Eric Mussen, now retired from UC-Davis but still the bee guru of choice for half the world. He'll be talking about what has changed in beekeeping during his professional lifetime. You know him - entertaining, informative, plain spoken and easy for anyone to understand, be they beginner beekeepers or ones with decades of experience.




The Friday keynote is something different, and something of enormous interest to all of us. G. Philip Hughes, Senior Director of the White House Writers Group of Washington, D.C.; Former Ambassador and White House National Security Aide for Presidents Robert Reagan and George H.W. Bush, will address the neonicotinoid pesticides and bees debate, giving a play-by-play of how this issue has been and is being played out. He will highlight the issues being ignored, misstated or oversimplified along the way by the media and politicians. He will also address the role of journalists in ‘muddying’ rather than clarifying the waters, as well as the recent involvement of the White House in honey bee and pollinator health and protection.

 

[rniles]

Interesting info about the upcoming WAS conference from Fran Bach of WAS ([email protected])

"First items of interest here are about the up-coming Western Apicultural Society (WAS) conference at the University of Montana in Missoula.


G. PHILIP HUGHES PRESENTATION

The Friday keynote is something different, and something of enormous interest to all of us. G. Philip Hughes, Senior Director of the White House Writers Group of Washington, D.C.; Former Ambassador and White House National Security Aide for Presidents Robert Reagan and George H.W. Bush, will address the neonicotinoid pesticides and bees debate, giving a play-by-play of how this issue has been and is being played out. He will highlight the issues being ignored, misstated or oversimplified along the way by the media and politicians. He will also address the role of journalists in ‘muddying’ rather than clarifying the waters, as well as the recent involvement of the White House in honey bee and pollinator health and protection."

in a second email from Fran Bach,

"Interest is high, as expected, in the announcement of G. Philip Hughes as a speaker and there have been questions about how a White House Writers Group guy has the expertise to speak to us on neonics.

No, Hughes isn't a scientist. That's not the point. What he will tell us is what information was originally given to the Press Corps, and what they did with it to get us to the point of pure confusion we are currently seeing. That he does know about, and how political and personal motivation can persuade a journalist to 'bend' the information to suit a particular purpose.

When I started as a journalist, the basic rule was, "The facts, Ma'am, just the facts." The journalist was expected to portray both sides of a question faithfully, equally, without judgment and to maintain sound sources for his/her information. "Everybody knows" was a big red flag and we were expected to hit the research trail right now, because such a declaration meant only that someone hadn't done their homework. One doesn't see a lot of that attitude today. I am anticipating a stimulating presentation from Mr. Hughes."


You can find the 37th Annual WAS conference program at: http://ucanr.edu/sites/was2/files/194500.pdf

 

[HarryVanderpool]

Thursday, the first day of the WAS conference.

Under the theme "The Path of Discovery to the Future", keynote speaker is Dr. Eric Mussen, recently retired from the University of California, Davis, who will look at the vast number of changes in beekeeping over the three decades of his work as Extension Apiarist at UC Davis. Eric is one of the best-known and most highly respected apiculture scientists in North America, a reputation drawn in part by his tremendous facility for explaining complicated science in terms anyone can understand.

Following the break, Bee Girl Sarah Red-Laird and American Honey Princess Elena Hoffman will talk about educational outreach for kids. Sarah is already something of a phenom in this area, and teamed with Elena, you can expect some great ideas for teaching kids about bees.

The University of Montana has one of the most highly accredited online beekeeping course out there. Roger McClean of the School of Extended & Lifelong Learning (SELL) will tell you about it, winding up the morning with a discussion of honey bee virology and diseases by MSU virologist Michelle Flenniken and doctoral student Laura Brutscher, who is conducting her research on a Project Apis m.-Costco Fellowship. Laura was chosen as the first recipient of the $50,000, three-year Fellowship last fall.

The post-lunch segment of the program goes international, with Provincial Apiculturist Medhat Nasr of Alberta, Canada giving an overview of honeybee health north of the border. Robert McCreery of Northern Ireland and David McMillan of New Zealand will follow suit with highlights from their home territories. McCreery's group, Dromore Beekeepers, is conducting a hive monitoring project under funding from Northern Ireland Environment, with comparative data expected to help set future directions in bee breeding and management. Betta Bee, McMillan's company, doesn't want to bring in outside queens, but are limited by the genetics of the bees on their two islands, so they have developed some advanced methods for screening breeder queens, etc.

Winding up the day are Research Manager Dick Rogers of the Bayer Bee Care Center in North Carolina and Jerry Hayes, Monsanto's Beeologics Bee Health Lead, describing the involvement of these two large companies in improving bee health and ultimately, agricultural and human health. The day's speakers, moderated by Bee Culture's Kim Flottum, then form a panel for discussion of the most critical issues in beekeeping today.

Without missing a beat, we then move from the conference theatre to the University Oval, weather permitting, for the Kyra Jean Williams Farm to College Feastival, where you get to sample the localest munchables around. The program connects local food producers and farmers with university food services and celebrates the work of local organic farmer and businesswoman Kyra Jean Williams, who died of injuries sustained in a car accident in August 2013. The dinner is listed on your registration form and it's a DEAL!!!

Following dinner, there are choices for your evening's entertainment.

For the 'younger" (up to 40-ish?) crowd, Sarah Red-Laird and Zac Browning host the "Next Generation Beekeepers Summit" at the Stensrud Building downtown. Live music starts at 8 as they hand out Big Dipper’s Lavender Honey ice cream and Bayern Brewing’s Summer Bock (made with Montana honey). After some time to unwind and kick up your heels, the hosts will open discussion on current beekeeper issues from a young generation of beekeepers who don't remember the good old days before mites invaded.

The rest of us get to join the square dancing on the UM Oval, or move over to the Payne Family Native American Center at the other end of the Oval for the annual Bee Buzz Social. Don't say there isn't lots to do!

 

[HarryVanderpool]

The 2014 conference is history, and an enormous success - four intense, information-packed days of presentations, dinner events, workshops and the first Missoula Honey Harvest Festival. Thank you to everyone involved for attending, for your help, your support, and your patience when there were glitches. It is pretty hard to put on an event of this size and calibre without a few bits going awry, but in the end they came together fine.
Special thanks go to our 2014 President, Dr. Jerry Bromenshenk for all his efforts in a difficult year for him. His wife took ill in April, just as the main organizing load kicked in so we were late off the mark. However, the quality and quantity of this year's offering were such that it was hard to resist a trip to Missoula, Montana. The workshops and Honey Festival were firsts and judged well worth doing again. Comments I have heard about the workshops were enthusiastic, though perhaps there were too many choices - "it was hard to choose and no matter what, one missed a lot of other good ones". I haven't heard many comments about the Honey Festival other than "it turned out well" so hopefully there will be more coming. I had to leave about 2:30 and it looked very busy at that point.
The International Workshop surprised us. Being so technical, we expected a relatively small group would attend that day. Not so. The vast majority of registrants were there for the entire program! This speaks highly of our beekeepers' interest in and ability to follow new developments in beekeeping. International visitors came from Italy, Northern Ireland, New Zealand, Australia and Canada, as speakers, workshop leaders, and as participants, adding much to the unofficial as well as the official program.
Not to be outdone, the University too added immensely to the "Week of the Bee". Dean Roger Maclean and his staff at SELL (School of Extended and Lifelong Learning) went out of their way to make us welcome and made details of the Online Master Beekeeping Course available individually and collectively. The Culinary School and the Farm to College program outdid themselves with the "Feastival" dinner outdoors on the Oval - lamb, pork, wonderful salads and desserts, all made with local produce - and providing coffee and baked goods for the conference breaks.
Vendors were at a disadvantage with the lateness of plans but those that made it to Missoula provided yet another important aspect of the conference. Thank you for your participation. Expect to hear from us much sooner for 2015.

From all of us at the core of WAS, thank you all. It was a week to remember!