I will send you some ideas if you will send me some of Ester's chicken and dumplings.
We split our meetings into two parts. Announcements first and then everyone introduces themselves and tells where they are from or shares how their hives did over winter, how much honey did you extract if any, etc. Then we take 15 minutes for a short subject. Sometimes the short subject is our scholarship recipients telling about their first year in beekeeping. It has also been on How to install a package, preparing for winter, spring feeding, and so forth. The last 45 minutes is usually a presentation on a topic that requires more details. Making splits and requeening, how to make creamed or infused honey, preparing your honey for the fair, cooking with honey, etc. Q and A is always encouraged.
We always have door prizes. I greet members at the door, get them to sign in, and hand them a raffle ticket. Door prizes are anything someone wants to share. Could be seedlings, farm fresh eggs, jam, unused honey bear bottles, etc.
We almost always have coffee supplied by the club and treats that someone wants to bring and share.
Our December meeting(always very popular) consists of an auction to fund the scholarship program and a Christmas cookie exchange. Members bring in items with a beekeeping theme to be auctioned off. We have had everything from homemade baby quilts to bundles of Bee magazines. Last year the auction started with two jars of canned beets! You know that beets brought in about $18 each! Crazy! Beets?
In March we have a beginners Beekeeping Class(es). We charge for this. The cost covers a one year membership to the club, a work note book, light breakfast, lunch, a guest speaker brought in and the rest is usually taught by seasoned club members. This year we are using Dr. Dewey Carons
Honey Bee Biology and Beekeeping. Each attendee will get a copy of his book and he is our guest speaker.
In June we hold an event that is a full day of more advanced activities. We have several guest speakers with club members filling in the gaps on various topics. There are several events going on simultaneously at the fair grounds. We bring in the local honey queen to talk and demonstrate about cooking with honey. There are extracting demos, catching swarms, doing a split, making mead, bee bread making, pollen traps and collecting, how to inspect a hive or finding the queen, ways to utilize you wax, etc. On hand are about 8 live hives so that folks can actually go through a hive. This year's big guest speaker is going to be Tom Seeley
Honeybee Democracy. Local suppliers are invited to bring in supplies to sell. We have a copy of Bee Culture magazine for everyone plus supply catalogs from the bigger companies for those that would like them. We have brought in WicWas Press to sell beekeeping books. Again, there is a light breakfast, lunch, coffee and tea and during the afternoon break homemade honey ice cream. The ice cream is always a huge hit. It's refreshing after a long day. Again, the club hosts a silent auction with items donated by members. Our scholarship program is the recipient. We close with door prizes donated by big suppliers. They donate things like feeders, hive tools, t shirts, hats, books, etc. The big giveaway is an assembled hive with bees. Only new folks are eligible to win that.
For beginning beekeeping and the big event in June, we ask attendees to fill out comment cards. A comment card, in June, makes one eligible for a door prize.
Whew! Hope that helps.
