By JOLENE CRAIG
Ohio Correspondent

PARKERSBURG, W.Va. — Novice beekeepers and those who want to start a hive attended the Mid-Ohio Valley Beekeeper’s Assoc. Honeybee Expo and Beekeeping School at the West Virginia University campus at Parkersburg on Jan. 31.

“We had 193 people show up this year from Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky,” said Teresa Wagoner, committee member of the association. “We keep growing and growing every year.”

This was the sixth year for the expo, which included speakers, workshops and vendors, said committee member Peter Snellman.
“We really have a full-day conference to help people learn about bees and what it takes to be a beekeeper,” Wagoner said.
Workshops included subjects such as insurance for beekeepers, rules and regulations, swarming and honey production and diseases and how to treat them.

“We’re trying to encourage people to take up beekeeping and we want them to know what it takes,” Wagoner said.

Along with knowledge, the expo offered supplies through roughly a dozen vendors.  “This is a teaching (event), but in order to allow people to start their own hives, they need to be able to purchase what they need,” Snellman said. “This allows them to get the items they need to start hives without having to pay large shipping costs.”

Margaret Reid, owner of Reid’s Apiary in Willow Wood, Ohio, was on hand at the expo to offer advice as well as books and supplies to those in attendance.

“We have had hives for a long time and the bees have been very good to us,” Reid said. “One day I realized I had a lot of bee items I didn’t use, and we decided to open the Bee-tique.”

While she offers bee-related knick-knacks and books on beekeeping, she also sold handmade hives. “We have Amish neighbors who make our supplies,” Reid said. “Everything is handmade and of high quality.”

Marilyn Schroeder of Parkersburg purchased a book from Reid in hopes of learning what happened to her first hive five years ago.

“I don’t know what I did wrong, but I want to figure it out so I can keep a new hive going,” Schroeder said.

She has attended two of the expos sponsored by WVU Extension Services. “These seminars are all about networking,” she said. “The beekeepers’ community is a lot like the hive – we help out each other.”

Wade Stiltner, apiary inspector with the West Virginia Department of Agriculture, added no beekeeper is more important than another.
“The person with two hives is just as important as the person with 200 hives,” he said.

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) as a topic was tossed around casual conversations at the expo and all involved said it was not a problem in the Mid-Ohio Valley and into Kentucky.

“I have 100 hives in Kentucky and haven’t seen any evidence of CCD,” Stiltner said. “Every single bee I’ve lost, I can tell exactly why.”

Reid said every bee or hive she has lost in the past few years has been because of weather.

“I’ve lost a few and it breaks my heart, but it’s because they don’t stay in the hive when it warms up on winter days, and they don’t make it back in time to warm it back up,” Reid said. “I’ve not seen any CCD.”