The “High Country” of North Carolina was home to the 2010 Eastern Apicultural Society (EAS) Meeting August 2-6.  This year’s conference was held at Appalachian State University in Boone.  Meg Ribotto, PAm administrative assistant, managed a booth at the EAS Trade Show event where we distributed outreach and educational materials and promoted our most recent project, Best Management Practices (BMPs) in the form of brochures to beekeepers.  Christi Heintz, PAm’s Executive Director, spoke to more than 60 EAS member’s on “Best Management Practices for Beekeeper’s Pollinating Agricultural Crops” with an emphasis on California’s almond crop and the need for honey bees as a pollinator.  Another speaker was PAm’s own Board Member, Dave Mendes.  Dave’s presentation was a very detailed account of a year’s view from a beekeeper entitled “Tales from a Migratory Pollinator”.  Both Christi’s and Dave’s topics complimented each other and reinforced the message that sound management practices make for healthy honey bees for almond pollination.

The organizers of EAS did an outstanding job of putting together speakers, apiary visits to learn about hive inspections, sampling, queen rearing and record keeping.  Microscopy lab clinics were held to see honey bee anatomy, hands-on genetic analyses and tests for diseases.  Social events were held on campus including “The Hive Carry” rodeo.  We are proud to announce that Board Member, Dave Mendes and his team of four, was this year’s EAS winner.  Congratulations Dave!  Mark your calendars for 2011 EAS to be held July 25-29th at the Crowne Plaza in Providence, Rhode Island.