This is a picture of a queen bee with a few of her subjects at the beginning of a new hive. A Lincoln County en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beekeeping, Danny Byrd, and his son James visited the Washington Kiwanis Club today on invitation by host Kerry McAvoy, Sr., to tell the club of his experience as a
beekeeper for the last eight years, during which time he has also established himself as an expert brick mason. Mr. Byrd brought parts of his beekeeping equipment which he explained to the club. He said that his beekeeping hobby has been so profitable through the sale of honey that he plans to pursue it full time. He noted that he has spent more than $15,000 the last year on beekeeping equipment but that the production of a large number of hives can be measured in tons. He explained how the human prepares the precisely-made boxes so that the bees will return to them each day during their long flights looking for nectar. He said that a bee can travel up to two miles and that a box of 12,000 bees can pollinate 6,000 acres of plants. In response to a question from Steve Blackmon concerning the death of the queen bee, he explained how the drones of the hive will make a new queen.
Earlier in the program, which had begun with the standard patriotic song, pledge to the flag, and a prayer; and followed by a delicious meal of fish, mashed potatoes, black-eyed peas, tossed salad, and peach cobbler, the club president, Sherry Hudson, had announced that Harris Blackmon had accepted appointment to the Board of Directors for the remainder of this year. In addition, Louise Maynard, chair of the tour of homes committee, reported on the success of the tour earlier this month and presented to the club a check for $5,000 as its share of the profits. She said that $1,800 will be kept for the operation of the tour's website until next year's tour. Gale Seibert introduced her mother as a future resident of Washington and a possible club member. Also, as a part of his "Kiwanis Minute", Bob Simmons urged officers and members to sign up for the annual Kiwanis conventions, the Kiwanis Georgia District in Brasstown Bald, Young Harris, GA, July 31 thru August 2, and Kiwanis International Convention in Nashville, TN, June 25 thru 28.
Did you know that your nephew Jim, was going to raise honey bees? He got together the items necessary to build the hives, cleaned off a space in the back-back yard at Mama's - but thankfully, it was a never-finished project. I think that would have unnerved Mama a bit to walk in her back-yard with bees (there was probably a little zoning issue there too!)
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