"Honey... I'm Home!" (now what?!)
EVENT DESCRIPTION:
Honey Harvesting: extracting, bottling, and then what?
Many of us are excited about tasting and selling the fruits of our bees’ labors. But it’s also work for the beekeeper. MCBA mega-volunteer Maureen Jais-Mick will cover the basics of harvesting, extracting, bottling, and the not-so-fun steps of clean up, wax melting, and post-extraction frame handling and storage.
Honey Labeling: It is the LAW
Want to sell your honey? Federal and Maryland state law set minimum requirements for your honey label. Like bees taking orientation flights, the rules are moving targets. MCBA vice president Eric Malcolm will help us decipher the less than straight forward requirements for what goes on the outside and inside of your honey bottle. He will also explain Maryland Department of Health's "Guidelines for Honey Bottling", as part of MCBA's recommended best practices for sharing your honey.
Honey Show: Be a Winner!
Is your honey Blue Ribbon quality? Make it so by entering it in a show! To put your best jar forward, you need to understand the judging criteria and the tips and tricks to strutting your hard won harvest. Master Beekeeper and honey judge Kara Eisen will give you important insights to becoming a winner.
DAY: Wednesday, July 14, 2021 (2nd Wednesday of every month)
PARTICIPATE TO LEARN: Important Honey Essentials
AGENDA:
| 7:00.pm.ET | SEASONAL BEEKEEPING Q&A Seeing something you don’t understand or can’t identify in your hive? This is the place to ask and share. |
| 7:30.pm.ET | CLUB SPEAKERS |
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES
Maureen Jais-Mick, former MCBA Secretary: I took the short course in 2013 and have been keeping from two to five hives in my backyard ever since. In 2016, I completed an 18-month internship with the Sustainable Honeybee Program in Loudoun County. I retired from working in mental health in 2016, and now volunteer at Bethesda Cares, The Smithsonian (American Indian Museum), National Park Service (Cedar Hill) and in the archives of my former employer, Saint Elizabeths Hospital. My hobby is large format photography and exploring with Ike, my yellow lab (who is also a MCBA member – check his directory listing).
Eric Malcolm, Vice President (2021) I started my adventures in beekeeping with the Beginner Beekeeping Course in early 2017 while I was a stay at home dad. I ordered my first packages while completing the course and got right to work immersing myself in beekeeping. I am the owner of Backyard Apiaries, an apiary management service providing hive consultation and management services to private clients and work at the vanEngelsdorp Bee Lab at UMD and Bee Informed Partnership coordinating Fundraising, Operations, and Communications. A little over a year ago I developed an allergy to honey bee venom, so if you see me in the bee yard, I have a full suit and leather gloves on, but the thought of giving up beekeeping never crossed my mind. I love people, meeting beekeepers, and talking/learning about bees. My non-beekeeping hobbies include anything in nature, foraging, playing music, and going on adventures with my wife, Kelly, and daughter, Eden.
Karla Eisen. Aside from her day job (based in Montgomery County, Maryland,) with the help of her husband she runs a small sideline honey bee farm, The Backyard Farm (Click this link for a calendar full of honey shows!) in the remaining semi-rural areas on the outskirts of Northern Virginia. Inspired early on in her beekeeping to honor the craft and participate in honey shows, she is frequently found judging or otherwise helping out honey shows. She has trained as a honey show judge in both the American and Welsh inspired system and currently serves on the Eastern Apicultural Society (EAS) Honey Show Advisory Committee. She runs a small not for profit the ApiSolutions Consortium (link) which promotes excellence in honey and hive products, and provides great resources, including videos, on its website. (click the link for great tips and tricks!). Karla teaches beginning beekeepers as part of the Virginia Beekeeping Teaching Consortium and received her EAS master beekeeper certification in 2015 on the first try.