Author Archives: Robert

About Robert

Robert got his interested in bees and beekeeping from a 6th grade science class field trip to a local museum. He kept bees through his junior high school, high school, and college years. He graduated from the University of Kansas with a Liberal Arts degree and major in a foreign language-German. He found out during his last semester of college that he was only 3 credits away from earning a minor in Biology after having taken such courses as Zoology, Botany, Human Anatomy & Physiology, and even Plant Geography besides the requisites. In 2003 and 2004, as well as 2005, he attended the Dr. Marion Ellis’s Midwest Master Beekeeping courses. He took the queen-rearing course taught by Dr. Marla Spivak and Gary Reuter while in Lincoln, NE in 2005. He has been rearing queens by grafting larvae from his own stock ever since. The American Beekeeping Federation held their national meeting in Kansas City in January 2003 where Robert attended his first national conference and became a member of the ABF. He attended several other ABF meetings and has been at national speaker, giving presentations at Louisville, KY, Sacramento, CA, Reno, NV, and Galveston, TX. His topics included beeswax soap-making and queen rearing and also mead-making. He has been rearing his own queens for the last 11 years. “Attending the national meetings puts things in a bigger world perspective. I come away with better ideas. I also love running into the authors of all those great articles in both Bee Culture and The American Bee Journal.” Since 2005, after an invitation from Katherine Kelly Robert has become involved with the urban agricultural farm movement in Kansas City, taking care of the hives as a volunteer at a local nonprofit organization, dedicated to community gardening, and teaching people about growing food in the city. This involvement has given him contacts and ways to expand the locations of several of his bee yards in suburban and urban settings. Robert has been providing financial leadership, serving as Treasurer for the Northeastern Kansas Beekeepers' as well as the Kansas Honey Producers' Associations for over 10 years.

NEKBA

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Good Beekeeping – Good Fellowship

SINCE 1948

Exploring the wonderful world of beekeeping together.

NORTHEASTERN KANSAS BEEKEEPERS’ ASSOCIATION

(A regional association or club)

Visit our website at nekba.org

The Northeastern Kansas Beekeepers Club is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to assisting current and future beekeepers of Northeastern Kansas, as well as promoting public awareness of the benefits, necessity, and value of the honeybee.

Membership Information
   
  Membership is open to anyone who is interested in bees or bee culture. Dues are $15.00 per calendar year (December 31 – December 31) for the first in the family joining. (Members joining after 1st October receive membership till the end of the following year.) Those joining in June or later in the year may pay $7.50 for 1/2 year. Additional members of that family wanting voting privileges shall be assessed dues at $1.00 per year. Youth memberships (18 years of age and younger) are $7.50 per year. New memberships and renewals should be submitted to the Treasurer.The association is a not-for-profit IRC 501(c)5 agricultural-educational organization; run by dedicated volunteers; supported primarily by membership dues (subscriptions). The IRC status means that the association is a tax-exempt organization. While donations are always welcome, they are not tax deductible as a charitable contribution but membership dues and subscriptions may be deductible as ordinary and necessary business expenses.The Bee Buzzer, our monthly newsletter, is the official publication of the Northeastern Kansas Beekeepers’ Association, Inc. and is published monthly. Commercial ads are accepted in the newsletter for a fee, non-commercial ads by paid-up members are accepted free for charge.

The association library is free to all members. Books may be checked out at meetings and kept for a period of 30 days. The honey bee publications, The American Bee Journal, or Bee Culture, as well as The Speedy Bee can be subscribed through the Treasurer. The ABJ through association membership is offered at a 25% discount. 

The Association meets each month on the first Sunday at 2:30 p.m. except during the months of May, July, August, and October when the meetings will be held the first Monday of the month. The association is a non-profit organization; elected officers serve without pay. Everyone is invited to attend the meeting. Check The Buzzer each month for the actual date, time, and location.

Interested in becoming a member of NEKBA? Membership is only $15 annually (January to December) and includes a member subscription to The Bee Buzzer Newsletter. Help support honey bees and the world of local beekeeping.

For more information or questions about the club, please contact the any of the club officers; or write or send an inquiry to the editor, NEKBA, Attn Joli Winer, 19201 S Clare Rd, Spring HIll, KS 66083, or email me, club Treasurer.

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For more information contact Joli Winer at 913-856-8356 or joli@heartlandhoney.com

Visit our website at nekba.org

Charlotte Ann’s Honey & Granola Cereal Recipe

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The inspiration for this page came from my mother, Charlotte Ann, who has been making this cereal since I was in my teens.  Honey and grains are a natural fit.

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Soap Making

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Making Soap with Beeswax

There are basically 4 processes to making soap:

  1. Cold-Process (traditional saponification involving a chemical reaction between an acid (fats) and a base
  2. Hand-milling (grated cold-process)
  3. Melt & Pour (melted glycerin)
  4. The ‘cooking’ method. Becky Tipton, my mentor, has been working on a Hot-Process soap production. I’ll have more on that process at a later date.

The process I use in my out-line below is the traditional cold-process method.

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Honey bees teach young people to be patient, gentle, and good stewards of the natural world.

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Honey bees are superb teachers when trying to instill an environmental awareness and conservation ethic in young people. In learning about the importance of honey bee pollination, they realize how living things depend on other living things and that, while a few insects are pests, many are essential to our survival. Honey bees teach young people to be patient and gentle. Hastiness and carelessness have painful consequences, a lesson honey bees can teach you at a young age if you keep them. Honey bees are superb teachers.

—Dr. Marion Ellis