In This Issue:
- Letter from our President
- Letter From the Vice President
- Letter from the Secretary
- Last Chance to Participate in US Beekeeping Survey
- Alabama Department of Agriculture Update
- Upcoming Educational Events
- Alabama Master Beekeepers Annual Conference
- 2026 Young Beekeeper Scholarship Application
- Bee Venom, Lyme Disease and Staying Safe
Letter from our President
Greetings to our beekeeping family.
I hope everyone is having a wonderful spring with your bees. It is one of our busiest times of the year. Controlling swarms, keeping up with equipment, adding supers, realizing you were not as ready as you thought …and much more. It seems like we went from “When will the year start” to “Oh no! That was a fast start”. It seems like the swarms have been wide open from South to North Alabama all at once from what I have seen people posting about. Bees have been building FAST so give it your best to prevent your colonies from swarming in whatever way works best for you. Don’t ever forget that a swarming hive is not a productive hive.
Good luck to everyone this season. We’re excited that it is setting up to be a great year across the entire state.
Hal Hendrix
President ABA
Letter From the Vice President
HAPPY SPRING MY FELLOW BEEKEEPRS!
So much going on it seems that my bees have hit the air FLYING! Spring is here and WOW how the ladies are brooding up! My colonies and nucs are looking GREAT!
I was thrilled to bee inspected by our new apiary inspectors, Inspector Salem and Inspector Henson! We are so BLESSED by these new inspectors! It was a BEEUTIFUL DAY and we only found 0,1 & 2 mites, in 3 colonies
GOALS!
Our Confrence planning is coming along nicely with lots of new things coming this year!
Praying y’all’s day, week and months are full of love, joy and plenty of BEES! Hope you’re ready for the nectar flow!
YA’LL BEE BLESSED!
Allyson A. Andrews
Letter from the Secretary
Andrea Riley is a kindergarten teacher at Grantswood Community School in Irondale, Alabama. Grantswood feeds into Shades Valley High School. She gets about twenty kids per year, and she changes their lives. She has been teaching beekeeping to five year olds for four years. She says, “It is so important to get kids familiar with agriculture.”
The kids work the bees. Andrea lights the smoker and hands it to them, and they pull frames and inspect the hives. So far, in four years, no one has been stung. When they harvest honey, they label it “Mrs. Riley’s Rise and Shine Honey” and at the bottom of the label, it reads “Harvested by Mrs. Riley’s Little Worker Bees.” She has one parent volunteer, Adam Crandall,who comes on Fridays to help her out.
Unfortunately, at the end of February this year, there was a catastrophe. Andrea believes it was an accident, but it resulted in the destruction of the outdoor classroom and of all three beehives. Someone was clearing land adjacent to the school, and they cut down trees that landed on the
hives and surrounding area. Thankfully there were no students or teachers in the outdoor
classroom at the time. A first grade teacher who was outside and noticed the trees falling alerted Andrea to the disaster.
“It was disheartening,” Andrea said. “Kids were crying; it was terrible.”
She said she’s asked the local government to help her find out who the contractor was that was doing the work, but to no avail. She spent her own money to buy new boxes to replace the broken ones, and Jimmy Carmack of Pure Alabama Honey donated two packages of bees paid for by Jefferson County Farmers Federation to replace two of the dead hives.
The kindergarteners lost a Flow hive, a hive with three deeps, and a hive with two deeps with what Andrea estimates to be about five gallons of honey, and they’ll have to rebuild. This year her class won’t get to harvest much honey. If anyone has equipment or resources they’d like to donate or help out in any way Andrea’s email is ariley@jefcoed.com.
Amy Seiber, Secretary
Links to learn more about Andrea and her class:
Show 1102 – Kindergarten Beekeepers – Simply Southern TV
Beginner Beekeepers Worth the Buzz – Alabama Farmers Federation
Andrea’s Instagram Account
US Beekeeping Survey Open till April 30
Alabama Department of Agriculture Update
If you are selling nucs you must have a state health certificate. We will inspect the hives for varroa that you are splitting from and look at your brood in the nucs. Why are we doing this? The past few years more people are selling nucs loaded with varroa and sick bees. It’s very unfortunate that some people are doing this because it’s just down-right wrong. Beekeepers spend their hard-earned money and expect to get healthy nucs that they deserve. This is why the state now requires certification to sell nucs.
Please treat for varroa and most especially if you are selling nucs. If you don’t want to treat your own bees for varroa you MUST still treat any nucs you plan to sell. We are also checking for Africanized genetics by testing drone pupae. We are doing our best to control Africanized genetics in our state so we appreciate your cooperation.
On some great news we recently hired two more state apiary inspectors. Adler Salem and Stephany Henson. Adler will be based in Auburn area and Stephany in the Birmingham area. You can contact Adler at (334) 850-7758 or adler.salem@agi.alabama.gov and Stephany at (334) 850-7757 or stephany.henson@agi.alabama.gov.
If you would like to schedule an inspection or have any questions, please reach out to us.
Phillip Carter, Apiary Inspector
Plant Protection Division
AL Dept of Agriculture and Industries
1445 Federal Drive
Montgomery, AL 36107-1123
334 414-1666
phillip.carter@agi.alabama.gov
Upcoming Educational Events
Alabama Master Beekeepers Annual Conference
Candidates and Masters:
The Alabama Master Beekeepers Program will hold annual classes and testing July 23-25, 2026 at the Clanton Conference and Performing Arts Center in Clanton, Alabama. Please visit the Master Beekeeper Program tab on the ABA website for more information.
2026 Young Beekeeper Scholarship Application
Time is ticking! There are still two months before the first deadline for Alabama’s Young Beekeeper Scholarship application. We hope you’ve shared this info with any students from non beekeeping families you have met who show an interest in beekeeping.
- Student must submit an essay to their local beekeeping club with the application form signed by students and parents no later than June 15.
- The local club assigns mentors, signs additional papers and mails in the essay and completed application form by July 15.
- Winners are announced in August and essays are published in the August ABA Stinger.
- Student attends Fall Conference where the presentation is made and equipment collected. Bees are furnished the following spring.
Bee Venom, Lyme Disease and Staying Safe
Ticks don’t buzz but there’s a lot of buzz about this summer’s predicted tick population and it doesn’t bode well for anyone who works or plays outdoors. With the expected population increase comes a greater risk of getting Lyme disease and Pfizer is waiting in the wings with another unproved vaccine to experiment on the masses.
The risk certainly includes beekeepers, however word is getting out that we have a built-in advantage. Ellie Lobel was the first person to stumble on this. She was quite literally waiting to die of Lymes when a horrific event saved her life and she has been educating people about the connection between bee stings and Lymes for more than ten years. You may learn about it from this BBC Article or This Video.
While none of us relish the idea of multiple bee stings for any reason, and all of us abhor chemical pesticides that could harm our bees, there are some ways to protect your property, your apiary, and your people from the risk of this awful disease.
Keep a tidy yard. Ticks prefer shady areas with overgrown foliage. Mowing, keeping things trimmed and debris free keeps your living area less hospitable for them.
If you must wade through brush or tall grass – use a walking stick to bump everything in your path. This will knock ticks waiting to grab your clothing to the ground. An insecticide on your clothing is also a deterrent. Phillip Carter, our southeast Alabama Apiary Inspector, uses a deet product while wearing snake boots in these situations.
When you do have to be in risky areas, throw your clothing in the washer or dryer immediately when coming in from the outdoors. Have someone check your skin and run a fine-tooth comb through your hair and over your scalp.
Plant things that ticks hate. Aromatic and bitter plants like marigolds, rosemary, lavender, garlic, catnip and lemongrass repel them.
If you plant a garden, a fence is a fine thing. Ticks cling to various wildlife species; birds, deer, rabbits, skunks, stray dogs, cats, and other critters that like to wander around and/or munch on your vegetables while carrying unwelcome hitchhikers.
Learn to recognize nests and burn the eggs in case you find any.
Any cedar based product like Cedarcide is good for eco-friendly pest control.
TARGET tick carrying mice with Toilet Roll Tubes. Yes, it uses Permethrin. Watch the video before passing judgment.
Lymes is no joke and many people have suffered for years with a range of debilitating symptoms before being diagnosed. Thank the Lord there is a “Pound of Cure” for those who suffer with it, a cure readily at our disposal, but most are not so lucky. An “Ounce of Prevention” is a much better way to go.
Stay safe out there, Friends!
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