Speed BEE Talks! (11/07/2026)

Sat, 07 Nov 2026 22:30:00 GMT

Bee Speed Talks

In the past 4 years as a FCKA member and the past year as program chair for the bee club I have had the chance to talk to a lot of members. One of the things that always stands out to me is that we are composed of many talented folks that bring so much to the club. While searching for speakers for the past meetings I kept having the same thought. We have members that can and should give presentations about what they are doing around bees, management, honey, wax and a ton of other things. So, I thought about a format that would allow folks that maybe didn’t have an hour of information to cover, had not done presentations before or wanted to practice a short form presentation with people they knew. Hence, Bee Speed Talks.

This is patterned on “TED Talks” that I and others have listened to in the past. Those are 5 minute talks that famous scientists, researchers, authors, etc give that try to convey big ideas in a short time period to cover the most important thoughts and ideas. We are going to allow 15 minute talks for our members. This will allow us to hear 3 different talks in an hour with a few minutes for questions. Time will be strictly enforced so that we get done on time. We want this to be fun, informative and relevant to our members.

The meeting is November 7th with potluck at 5:30pm followed by a business meeting at 6:30pm and Bee Speed Talks starting promptly at 7pm.

Please sign up for Potluck HERE

Here are the topics and members presenting. Speaker Bios at the bottom.

Robert Phleps - Integrated pest management.

Originally it was a 45 min audience participation talk with me getting answers from the audience on what they do for pest management and then I offer some suggestions. Of course I get in a plug for my produce, The Bee Tunnel as one of the tools available to help in pest management. Since there is only 15 min to talk, I will be asking and answering the questions myself. I will have a few Bee Tunnels to pass around the room for show as well as some flyers about the Bee Tunnel and a flyer outlining my Varroa mite treatment calendar.

Adrian Kreeger - Electronic Hive Monitoring: What We Know, What We Don’t Know, and the Quest to Figure Out What The Bees Are Trying To Tell Us

Wondering what is going on in the hive between inspections has been a question that has plagued beekeepers since beekeeping came into existence. Short of applying a little smoke, removing the lid, and visually looking at the bees and the frames, up until now this mystery has, to a large extent, remained unsolved. The development of electronic hive monitoring tools is now peeling back some of the layers of this mystery and allowing us to gather information on what the bees are doing inside the hive on a continuum between the times when we are doing actual physical inspections. Join us as we do a high-level overview of what is available in the realm of electronic hive monitoring, what this data can actually tell us, and some of the pitfalls and obstacles encountered when collecting and analyzing the data produced by these electronic sensors in and around the hive.

John Rogers- Insulated condensing Hives

I saw a talk on condensing insulated hives after my first winter and went down a long rabbit hole of research and learning around this concept. I currently have 35 HiveIQ’s and the other wooden hives I maintain have been converted to homemade insulated condensing hives year round. I will cover briefly what is a condensing hive, what isn't a condensing hive, what is an insulated hive, and concepts of condensing hive design. I also will cover heat, cold, humidity and CO2 in insulated condensing hives. Lastly I will cover management of condensing hives and how that differs from traditional hives.

Our speakers:

Robert Phelps

I grew up in Charlotte, N.C. and went to East Mecklenburg High School. I raised 4 boys and 2 girls and none of them are currently in prison; I count that as a win!

I have been keeping bees for 11 years as of 2026. I am the inventor of a new beekeeping tool called The Bee Tunnel.

I was licensed by the state of S.C. as a Master Electrician in 1999. I worked 20 years as a field service technician on equipment in federal Banks: Access control systems, vaults and safes, alarm systems, video and audio surveillance and pneumatic tube systems.

For 15 years I worked as a traveling field service technician and consultant in the Intelligent Transportation Systems sector and traveled 48 weeks of the year to one of the cities around the US and Canada that utilized those systems.

All of my successes for the past 26 years are due in part to my wife Ludmila who immigrated to the U.S. from Czechoslovakia and worked as an MRI technologist at the V.A. hospital until her retirement in 2021.I was retired by COVID-19 in 2020 when traveling for work came to a stop.

Adrian Kreeger

Adrian Kreeger has had a lifelong fascination with honey bees. Growing up on a farm that has been handed down by generations of his family since 1762, he witnessed as a child a colony of honey bees living in the walls of an old cabin on the farm near a small stream that forms the headwaters of Mill Creek. Always a farmer at heart, Adrian attended and obtained two agricultural related Bachelor of Science Degrees from North Carolina State University, then stayed on to attend and graduate from the College of Veterinary Medicine at NCSU. He practiced in Randolph County for a short while before returning to Forsyth County and then moved back “home” to the farm in 2004 after the passing of both his parents.

Today, with all of their children grown and on their own, Adrian and his wife, Pam, operate Mill Creek Farm, walking in the footsteps of all the generations before them who have tended this family land.

They sell honey labeled as being produced by The Honey Bees of Mill Creek Farm and their honey jar labels depict a drawing of the bees and the old cabin on the farm, paying homage to the countless generations of honey bees who have called this place home for so many years.

John Rogers

I have spent much of my life between Bethania, where my mother’s family is rooted, and South Georgia/Alabama, where my father’s family is from. I graduated from North Forsyth High School and later attended University of North Carolina at Greensboro, earning a B.A. in Anthropology in 1994. While at UNCG, I worked as a Research Assistant in the Physical Anthropology Lab and participated in archaeological fieldwork in Mexico and forensic recoveries in the area.

For the next 24 years, I worked in a variety of Public Health Infectious Disease programs focused on HIV, STD, and TB prevention and services, including 20 years in Valdosta, Georgia.

In 2018, I returned to Bethania to care for my aging parents so they could remain safely in their home. In 2019, I was elected to serve as a Commissioner for the Town of Bethania, where I also served as Budget Officer. I currently serve as Bethania’s unofficial town beekeeper, maintaining 8–10 town-owned hives. I harvest and bottle the honey, which is sold through the Visitor Center to help support the upkeep of the hives and market the town to visitors.

I began beekeeping in 2022 after helping care for several town hives that had originally been established as a student service project. In 2023, I attended the Forsyth County Beekeepers Association Bee School and started my own apiary. After successfully overwintering nearly all of my first colonies, beekeeping quickly became a major hobby of my life. I now manage between 30 and 50 hives throughout the year, with approximately 40 dedicated to honey production. This year, I harvested approximately 3600 pounds of honey, which was way more than my stated goal of producing 2,000 pounds this year. I currently serve as Program Chair for the club, teach portions of the Bee School curriculum, and mentor new beekeepers. I am a huge believer of insulated condensing hives year round and will talk your head off about them if given the chance.

Forsyth County Beekeepers Association of NC upcoming events

Speed BEE Talks! (11/07/2026)