This month will feature the Centre County Beekeepers. The Centre County Beekeepers are a fairly young group as that goes. It was first established in the early 1990's by a gentleman named Joel Caldwell. Joel ran about 90 hives as I remember around the County. Ron Coldwell and Richard and Regina Walker were also active in the original group as I recall. We were a few of the charter members and we would meet on Sunday afternoons in someone's bee yard and inside on Wednesday evenings in the early spring and fall when the weather did not permit getting in the bees. The club has continued to meet and makes it a major part of every meeting to open the boxes and talk about what we are seeing and sharing our knowledge and experiences.

There are currently about thirty members in the group and many are new beekeepers like our new President Alex Novak who installed his first two packages last spring and has eagerly learned the craft with his wife Katie. Alex recently visited a beekeeping museum in Slovenia and returned with some great memories, pictures and souvenirs for the group. Sylvia Feldman is our Secretary/Treasurer and has been a beekeeper for a number of years. I look for some new and exciting changes coming to our club with these two "driving the train". I have already heard of many great ideas and I look forward to seeing them expand our horizons. We also have a unique character in our club that always adds many ideas and offers an immeasurable amount of experience. He is well known around the State and is an inspector for the PDA, Craig Cella.

We have in the past sponsored a booth at the local fall festival as well as participating in the Arbor Day activities in Bellefonte. Our recent claim to fame is the videoing of a Happy Valley Queen emerging from her cell in one of my yards. This video can be watched on the MAAREC site and is a really good video thanks to Sylvia's quick thinking. Our group was happy to host the 2008 picnic at Craig and Charlene's farm and looked forward to sharing the day with our fellow beekeepers around the State.

That about covers our club for now but watch out for us in the future as we are growing in numbers and enthusiasm.

Warren Miller

Centre County Beekeepers' Assoc.
Richard J. Shimmel
507 Arc Rd.
PO Box 65
Wallaceton, PA 16876
(814) 342-5167
Email: drone@gotmc.net

Warren Miller
Email: superbee22@hotmail.com