Welcome to the Back Yard Beekeepers Association

Save the date for these upcoming events 

Did you miss Bee School?  That’s ok!  You still have time before the season starts.  Watch Digital Bee School and bring your questions to one of our many workshops!  Register Today!

3/9 Wannabees Meeting – If there are bee-loving kids in your household, join us for this month’s Wannabees Meeting!  We’ll be painting and prepping for new bees to arrive!

3/16 – Package Installation Workshop – Please join New Bees/Special Topics host, Charles O’Donnell for an in-person live demonstration – installing packages of bees in their new hives.

Bee arrivals, even when ordered, are unpredictable.  We are planning our package installation workshop for this morning but please keep a close eye on this website and your email for any updates.  Be sure to register for the best chance at receiving any last minute details.

3/19 – New Bee Fundamentals/Special Topics – Please join us for our seasonally relevant Q&A session.  The first hour is geared toward newer beekeepers while the second hour is geared for those with a little more experience.  All experience levels are welcome to join one or both sessions.  This meeting is held virtually each month via Zoom.

3/23 – First Hive Inspection – Please join us as we conduct our first inspection on the bees we installed last week!

3/26 – March Regular Meeting – Kirk Webster – 20 Years of Commercial Beekeeping Without Treatment of Any Kind –

Kirk Webster is a long-time treatment-free beekeeper and bee breeder who maintains his bees and his homestead in the Middlebury area of the Champlain Valley, Vermont. Kirk’s roots in organic farming gave him the principles and ideals that have driven his beekeeping practices. Kirk is a writer, educator, and visionary . His life’s work is focused on maintaining and promoting connections to nature and complex ecological relationships in an ever increasingly industrial world. Through his inspiration and generous sharing, the knowledge that he has acquired and the beekeeping systems that he has developed have become the backbone of many successful small beekeeping operations.

Kirk runs most of his treatment-free beekeeping operation alone. He makes much of his own equipment, including pressed wax foundation from his bees’ clean, recycled wax. His bee genetics are in high demand and he maintains a waiting list for his nucleus colonies and queens.

The Vermont bees live in stationary locations and create their harvestable surplus honey in the summer, mostly from linden trees, clover, and alfalfa.

Please note that while our workshops are for members only, our monthly meetings are free & open to the public!  Please register, join us, & bring a friend!

About Us
The mission of BYBA is to provide our membership with a forum for sharing knowledge and mutual interests in beekeeping, and to educate and promote the benefits of beekeeping to the public.
Welcome to the Back Yard Beekeepers Association. With over 250 members, our association has grown to become one of the Nation’s largest regional clubs for beekeeping hobbyists. Some of our members are just getting started as beekeepers, and some have enjoyed this hobby for years. All share an interest in the wonderful and remarkable world of the honey bee.
The purpose of the BYBA is to provide our membership with interesting and practical information about honey bees and the “how-to’s” of beekeeping. The club also provides the general public with educational programs about honey bees and the benefits of bees and beekeeping in our communities.
The BYBA is a 501(c)3 non-profit, charitable organization.

March Regular Meeting Tuesday, 3/26/24 @ 7 PM

Kirk Webster – 20 Years of Commercial Beekeeping Without Treatment of Any Kind

Kirk is the owner and operator of Champlain Valley Bees & Queens in Middlebury, Vermont. He is well known for producing strong Russian Queens and nucs, as well as honey. His apiary is Kirk’s only source of income.

 

Kirk uses the natural processes active in nature to maintain his hives with- out treatment for mites and other pests or pathogens – his apiary has been treatment free since 2002. Each year Kirk maintains about 300 colonies that he uses for honey production, around 400 baby nucs, and he tries to provide for sale of an additional 400-500 treatment-free nucs of Russian heritage that have been tested by over- wintering them in Vermont. The bees and queens he produces are highly sought after and prized for their enhanced ability to survive both varroa and the weather extremes we have here in the Northeast.

 

Kirk is also a writer and has written many articles and essays, many of which can be viewed on a website at kirkwebster.com. Kirk uses this website to share his beekeeping knowledge and experiences, explore the issues he thinks are most important – “without interference, editing or censorship” – and to allow him to pull together into one place all the things he has written since 2005.

 

PLEASE NOTE: THIS MEETING IS IN PERSON AND OUR SPEAKER WILL BE HERE LIVE.  Please join us at 7 PM to allow time to socialize and chat with other members of the club.  Our speaker presentation will begin at 7:30 PM.  

While our workshops are exclusive to our membership, we welcome the public to join us for our monthly Regular Meetings.  We hope that you will join us in-person for Kirk’s presentation.

Our general membership meetings are held on the last Tuesday of most months at 7:30 PM at the Norfield Church in Weston, CT.
Please see our Calendar of Events for details.

64 Norfield Rd
Weston, CT 06883

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