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GREG TRAVIS/Ledger & Times
Don Hopkins, right, of Snow Camp, N.C., uses a capping scratcher Tuesday to pull out drone pupae in order to find varroa mites in a bee colony while Will Hicks, left, looks on. The men are participating the Eastern Apicultural Society of North America meeting this week at Murray State University. Each summer, the EAS holds its annual conference in one of the 22-member states. |
Campus buzzing with beekeepers
By TOM BERRY
Staff Writer
Murray State University is hosting a gathering of beekeepers from across the eastern United States this week in an effort to teach more about the business and increase production of bees vital to the nation's agricultural economy.
Phil Craft, an apiarist with the Kentucky Department of Agriculture's Division of Producer Services and manager of the Eastern Apiculturalist Society's program in Kentucky, said the event is intended to be a learning experience for small-scale and part-time beekeepers.
“This is the largest gathering of non-commercial beekeepers in the United States, although we do have a few commercial beekeepers here,” Craft said. “But most of the people here are at least part-time. It's all about the education of our small and part-time beekeepers. It gives them an opportunity to get together and learn from each other.”
Kent Williams, of Wingo, Ky., president of the state EAS group and a master beekeeper, was primarily responsible for the conference coming to Murray for the first time this year. Williams raises as many as 300 hives at his farm in Graves County and a site in Mississippi.
“This is the first time I've held this position as a kind of conference coordinator so I'm learning a lot,” Williams said.
Williams said his interest in bees began years ago as kind of a hobby, but it grew from there.
For complete story, see today's Ledger & Times
Story created Aug 06, 2008 - 11:16:10 EDT.
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