Beekeepers of Gilmer County please attend this month’s meeting on Oct 9th. It is important for the following reasons:

1. Since Russell’s health does not permit him to continue as president we need to consider an interim president to serve out the remainder of his term until 2025.

2. We would like to make nominations at this meeting and elect those persons at the November meeting. There have been several people who have shown interest in filling those slots of President & VP. Susan Wells was elected as an interim VP and is willing to continue until a new VP is voted in.

3. If YOU are interested in serving the club and its members please let me know so that you can be put on the slate.

4. November’s meeting will be devoted to working on priorities for 2024 including membership inclusion, committee participation and education so be thinking about what topics you would like to see discussed by speakers next year, training needs. Remember what YOU put in the club is what YOU get out of the club.

Recent research shows that flies are a surprisingly important group of pollinators.  They are present in most ecosystems and they tend to circulate earlier in the season than many of our bees.   Flies visit flowers to sip on nectar and end up moving pollen resulting in pollination.  Some plants, like skunk cabbage, give off odors that attract the flies.  Did you know that flies are the primary pollinators of chocolate?  

Telling the difference between bees and flies is not difficult but does take some practice.  Flies have two wings while bees have four.  That is tricky to see as the insects are flying in the garden.  Look at the insect's face.  Bees usually have prominent antennae while a fly's antennae are shorter and not as noticeable.  Fly eyes tend to dominate their faces while the compound eyes of bees are more separated.  Fly bodies may have some hair but flies are not nearly as hairy as most bees.  The Census Insect Counting & Identification Guide is a great resource to learn to differentiate between these two types of pollinators. 

GBA - 2023 GBA Fall Conference and UGA Beekeeper Certification Testing (gabeekeeping.com)