Boston Area Beekeepers Association

Jean Miller | Bees & Beekeeping in Thailand - "Giants, Dwarfs and Some Like Ours: Honey Bee Diversity”
2022-11-03 19:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York)
 The world’s distribution of honey bee species is discussed highlighting Thailand as a hotspot of diversity where four native and one non-native species live. (Apis dorsata, A. florea, A. andreniformis, A. cerana, A.mellifera)
 The three branches of honey bees is defined – Cavity Nesters, Giants, and Dwarfs
 Size comparisons, behavior characteristics, and honey production of the various species is presented.
 “Shimmering” video by the Giants, Apis dosata. Looks like honey bees doing “The Wave”. Very cool!
 How honey hunters obtain honey from feral hives.
 How two species are managed (A. cerana and A. mellifera).
 “Bee trees” – Where several open nesters (A. dorsata) create their colonies on one tree.
 A brief introduction to stingless honey bees (Trigona species)
 A little about Tropilaelaps clareae – Potential threat on the horizon?
 Mites and viruses that affect Thai honey bee species.
 General information about Thai beekeepers and how they manage (or hunt) honey bees, as well as sell hive products.
 Land Leeches! (Not a honey bee but a surprising encounter in Thailand!)
Jean Miller
Beekeeper since 2014.
Cornell University Master Beekeeper since 2021.
Member of following beekeeper organizations:
Northwest New Jersey Beekeepers Association
New Jersey Beekeepers Association
Eastern Apiculture Society
Have traveled twice to Kenya to study beekeeping there with Maryann Frazier of Penn
State. In May/June of 2022, went to Thailand with Dr. Jamie Ellis and Dr. Cameron Jack
(U. of FL) to study beekeeping and the diversity of honey bees in Southeast Asia.
Rutgers University Master Gardener since 2012. Have logged over 1600 volunteer
hours. Well versed in deer resistant plants that provide nectar and pollen for bees.
Was a substitute teacher in the Flemington area for 20 years. Have taught all grade
levels and all core subjects but prefered teaching Math and Science in grades 6 th -12 th
Process Control Manager for Nestle’s Freehold manufacturing facility (in my former life,
that is before motherhood.)
Graduated with high honors from Lehigh University with a BS in Industrial Engineering
(1985)
I’m also an avid life-long naturalist and have visited and hiked in over 50 National Parks.
Also enjoy traveling internationally (Ecuador {Galapagos Islands}, Peru, Iceland, Kenya,
Tanzania, Egypt, China, Mexico, Costa Rica, Thailand…).
To register please email president@bostonbeekeepers.org. This presentation is free to BABA members and $5 to non-members. The zoom link will be sent the evening prior to the presentation. See you there!
You’re a BABA member, so you don’t need to pay to attend this meeting, but you do need RSVP. You can do so with this button:
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2022-10-31 19:00 - 21:00
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As a current BABA Member, this meeting is free to you, but you still need to “purchase” a ticket at no cost with this link:
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Jean Miller | Hive Inspections, When Things Go Wrong!
2022-09-08 19:00 - 21:00
What to look for outside the hive, at entrance and in the hive during an inspection.Presentation addresses the following:
Bears, Raccoons, Skunks
Robbing
Swarming
Bad Temperament
Disease
Queen right (or not)
Evaluating Resources (Nectar/Pollen/Brood)
Small Hive Beetle, Wax Moths and (the dreaded) Varroa Mite… and so much more!
Jean Miller
Beekeeper since 2014.
Cornell University Master Beekeeper since 2021.
Member of following beekeeper organizations:
Northwest New Jersey Beekeepers Association
New Jersey Beekeepers Association
Eastern Apiculture Society
Have traveled twice to Kenya to study beekeeping there with Maryann Frazier of Penn
State. In May/June of 2022, went to Thailand with Dr. Jamie Ellis and Dr. Cameron Jack
(U. of FL) to study beekeeping and the diversity of honey bees in Southeast Asia.
Rutgers University Master Gardener since 2012. Have logged over 1600 volunteer
hours. Well versed in deer resistant plants that provide nectar and pollen for bees.
Was a substitute teacher in the Flemington area for 20 years. Have taught all grade
levels and all core subjects but prefered teaching Math and Science in grades 6 th -12 th
Process Control Manager for Nestle’s Freehold manufacturing facility (in my former life,
that is before motherhood.)
Graduated with high honors from Lehigh University with a BS in Industrial Engineering
(1985)
I’m also an avid life-long naturalist and have visited and hiked in over 50 National Parks.
Also enjoy traveling internationally (Ecuador {Galapagos Islands}, Peru, Iceland, Kenya,
Tanzania, Egypt, China, Mexico, Costa Rica, Thailand…).
To register please email president@bostonbeekeepers.org. This presentation is free to BABA members and $5 to non-members. The zoom link will be sent the evening prior to the presentation. See you there!

Tom Sullivan | Native Bees & How to Provide Them With the Ideal Habitat
2022-08-04 19:00 - 21:00
Tom Sullivan, Masters of Arts in Landscape DesignA life long student of nature and lover of honey and honeybees from an early age, Tom took a winding path to unearth his passion. He has organized community gardens, led teens on wild food hikes, worked on vegetable farms; was an intern at The Rural Education Center in Wilton, NH he helped give birth to Stonyfield Farm Yogurt; he has also led the Olmsted Capital Crew for the Emerald Necklace in Boston in an effort to revive Frederick Law Olmsted’s original designs and his crew won an award from the Friends of Franklin Park, Boston.
Tom is a sustainable landscape designer, land consultant, and educator with special focus on native bees. He designed the first pollinator habitat nursery in Massachusetts at That’s A Plenty Farm in Hadley. A beekeeper in his youth, Tom switched his interest from honeybees to native bees in 2008 after Colony Collapse Disorder emerged as he receiving his master’s degree in sustainable landscape design. It soon became clear how intricately tied whole ecosystem health and human survival is to the well being of pollinators.
Since graduating from the Conway School of Landscape Design in 2008 he had given over fifty talks in venues such as:
New England Wildflower Society
Nasami Farm
That’s A Plenty Farm
Permaculture Convergence
Berkshire Botanic Garden
Mass Horticultural Society
The Bee Project
Monadnock Beekeepers Association
Hitchcock Center for the Environment
Northeast Organic Farmers Assoc. Conference
Doing business as “Pollinators Welcome” Tom also gives workshops on nesting, foraging and life cycles of native bees. Tom’s focus is now on designing pollinator habitat as examples how beautiful and diverse habitat gardens and mini-meadows can become. His design at the John Zon Community Center in Greenfield attracts many people and is a shiny public example of his design abilities. This year, the pollinator habitat garden in on the Greenfield Garden Club Tour on July 9 th .

Colin McCallum-Cook | Planting for Pollinators: Bee-friendly Gardening in the Northeast
2022-07-07 19:00 - 21:00
Colin McCallum-Cook is a horticulturalist at the Arnold Arboretum, where he cares for the oak, viburnum, juniper, hornbeam, mountain laurel, and corkwood collections. He is also responsible for managing some of the Arboretum’s wilder, naturalized landscapes such as Bussey Brook, the Rockery, and the Hunnewell Meadow.Colin has a long experience in stewarding natural and anthropogenic landscapes—particularly grasslands—as a farmer, field researcher, and botanist. Prior to joining the horticulture team at Arnold Arboretum, he managed the Meadow Garden at Longwood Gardens as a land stewardship technician. His professional interests include invasive species control, environmental restoration, invertebrate conservation, and fire ecology.
To register please email president@bostonbeekeepers.org
Free to BABA members, $5 for non-members

Julia Mahood | Game of Drones - Drone Congregation Areas
2022-06-09 19:00 - 21:00
Julia Mahood is a Georgia Master Beekeeper who has been keeping bees since 2004. She created the citizen science website MapMyDca.com to gather data on drone congregation areas. Julia was awarded the Georgia Beekeeper of the year in 2018. A graphic artist, she designed the Georgia “Save the honey bee” license plate. She is passionate about education and teaches beekeeping in Georgia prisons and is active in her local and state bee organizations.
The Game of Drones
Honey bee drones are the Rodney Dangerfields of the bee world, they (often) get no respect! Learn all about the amazing drones and their mysterious drone congregation areas (and how to find them using the other kind of drone) at this informative talk.
To register, please email president@bostonbeekeepers.org
Free to BABA members, $5 to non-members

Tour at The Colony in Tyngsboro, MA
2022-05-21 10:30 - 12:00
BABA members will get an exclusive tour through The Colony’s meadery and Rick will talk about his his experience on commercial beekeeping.https://thecolonyma.com/
This event is for BABA members only, to register please email president@bostonbeekeepers.org
You can become a member here: https://bostonbeekeepers.org/members/

Jamie Ellis | Queen Related Issues
2022-05-05 19:00 - 21:00
ECBA and BABA are hosting Jamie Ellis for a zoom presentation to talk about queen related issues.
If you want to register, please email president@bostonbeekeepers.org. Free to BABA members, $5 fee to non-members.

Heather Mattila | Honey Bee Nutrition
2022-04-05 19:00 - 20:30
More information on this presentation to follow.
To register, please email president@bostonbeekeepers.org.
Presentations are free to all BABA members, and $5 to non-members.

MDAR | State of the State - MA Bee Aware Honey Bee Health Survey, USDA-APHIS Honey Bee Health Survey
2022-03-22 19:00 - 21:00
MDAR State of the State: Update on honeybee health in the Commonwealth
Tuesdays 7:00pm – 9:00 pm
Zoom Meeting ID: 870 4431 9225
Passcode: [REDACTED]
Events are NOT recorded

Rich Morris | BroodMinder - Hive Monitoring Devices
2022-03-17 19:00 - 21:00
Please join us for a presentation from BroodMinder about the state of the art in Electronic Beehive Monitoring. The team at BroodMinder has shipped over 24,000 devices since 2017 and has learned a number of lessons during that time. Rich Morris will share those lessons and will discuss how we observe a growing number of colony behaviors such as brood rearing, swarming, and nectar collection and how, with the help of many citizen scientists, we are getting a better understanding of hive dynamics. We will also be discussing BroodMinder’s newest project underway, real-time varroa mite monitoring.All attendees will receive a discount code!
To register please email president@bostonbeekeepers.org
Free to BABA members, $5 to non-members
Watch a video recording of the presentation.

MDAR | State of the State - MA Beekeeping Laws and Regulations, Spring Into Beekeeping
2022-03-15 19:00 - 21:00

Kim Skyrm | Honey Bee Health Update from MA Beekeepers
2022-02-24 19:00 - 20:30
Kim Skyrm, the Chief Apiary Inspector will be talking to our BABA members!
Join the Chief Apiary Inspector, Kim Skyrm, as he shares a summary of the 2021 Apiary Program highlights, inspection data, and trends in the honey bee health for the Commonwealth.

Steve Repasky | Management of Single Brood Management, Swarm Control, and Honey Production
2022-01-20 19:00 - 20:30

Ang Roell | Sustainable Queen Rearing in the Northeast
2022-01-06 19:00 - 21:00
Join our former BABA President and one of BABA’s founders Ang Roell to learn more about her research (in collaboration with Anarchy Apiaries) on the BEST ways raise queens in the Northeast.Learning to rear your own queens is one of many ways to build a generative apiary. This means more bees adapted to where you are and less chemical inputs in your apiary.
To register, please email president@bostonbeekeepers.org
Presentations are free to all BABA members, and $5 to non-members

MDAR | State of the State - Honey Bee Viruses, Pesticides
2021-12-14 19:00 - 21:00

MDAR | State of the State - Inspection Season Data Summary
2021-12-07 19:00 - 21:00

Winterizing Workshop (In-Person & Zoom)
2021-10-30 10:30 - 12:30
The discussion will begin with a quick review of the physiology of a winter hive, and the bees’ strategies for collecting and storing honey. Then we’ll dive right in with a look at:
Wraps, from Bee-Cozies to tar-paper to straw bales and more. Then we’ll look at;
Insulating above the colony, starting with quilt boxes, rigid insulation, shims, spacers and more. The workshop will also touch on;
Feeding sugar, fondant, and pollen patties in late winter/early spring.
We will then watch a quick demo for how to build and position a quilt box. Quilt boxes are becoming a popular and relatively simple way to keep heat from escaping from the top of the hive while also allowing moisture-rich inside air to wick out.
The Zoom presentation will last 40 minutes, but the workshop will continue at Agricultural Hall. Materials and tools for assembling quilt boxes will be available for sale, as will tar-paper used for wrapping . To save a little money, bring an empty medium super and a piece of fabric larger than the box itself.
Again, the video and discussion portion of this workshop is free to BABA members, and $5 for non-members. The in-person quilt box assembly workshop immediately following the Zoom presentation (~11:15) is $10 per person. All needed materials & supplies will be available for sale.
To register, please email president@bostonbeekeepers.org

Landi Simone - Products of the Hive -- Making and Preparing for the Holidays and Beyond
2021-10-21 19:00 - 20:30
Landi Simone, owner of Gooserock Farm LLC, in northern New Jersey, will share her experience as a commercial beekeeper, turning the products of her ~100 hives into premium varietal honeys, artisan honey spreads, beeswax cosmetics and handmade beeswax soaps. Landi will share her tips and tricks for boosting production and honing marketing strategies, as well as recipes and manufacturing techniques she has fine-tuned over the years. This is a perfect and well-timed lecture for anyone thinking of ramping up production, or simply looking for gifting ideas from the products of your hive.
Landi has been an Eastern Apiculture Society Master Beekeeper since 2004, and serves as Chair of the Master Beekeeper Certification Committee for EAS. She is committed to beekeeping education, teaching an annual beekeeping classes for twenty years, and presenting workshops at both EAS and various bee clubs.
Landi’s practical approach to beekeeping stems in part from her background; she is a retired consulting civil engineer with degrees from Columbia University and Rutgers. She finds her second career in apiculture every bit as challenging as engineering — and a lot more fun.
To register, please email president@bostonbeekeepers.org
(free for BABA members, $5 fee for non-members)

Rachael Bonoan - Love That Dirty Water; Why Do Honey Bees Like Dirty Water?
2021-09-16 19:00 - 20:30
Honey bees tend to prefer dirty water to clean water. Dr. Bonoan investigated how honey bees might supplement their floral diet with minerals from “dirty water,” and what this means for honey bee nutrition throughout the year. She will answer “Why do honey bees like dirty water?”, share some tips on giving your bees a safe “dirty” water source, and briefly discuss her research at Providence College.

BABA Potluck!
2021-08-28 10:00 - 14:00
Gather at the Boston Nature Center gazebo at 10am, Saturday, August 28, and bring food/snacks, drink (no C2H6O), your smoker, show & tell items,…
BABA members (and a guest) are free. Non-BABA members may attend, but are encouraged to join ($20).
There will be games and demos, equipment swaps, a smoker contest (to see who can keep theirs smoking longest), and more.

Swarm Management & Hive Splits workshop
2021-04-26 18:30 - 20:00
Join us for an informal discussion and deep dive into managing hives to avoid swarming. One of the best methods to suppress a colony’s urge to swarm is to simply split your hive. Therefore, the methods and mechanics of hive splits will also be discussed in some detail. We’re hoping that everyone will gain the knowledge and confidence to perform at least one type of split.

BABA Lecture Series; Urban Beekeeping at the Museum of Science
2021-04-22 19:00 - 20:00
For our next lecture, this Thursday, April 22, MoS beekeepers Amelia Green (museum horticulturalist) and Cori Brant (invertebrate keeper), will discuss their work and research at the museum, including:
-A look inside the invertebrate lab and Butterfly Garden;
-Beekeeping in the Museum’s rooftop and observation hives;
-Data collection techniques while beekeeping;
-Urban honeybee welfare and habitat enrichment, including;
-Pollinator gardens and three-season nectar sources;
Their research into some of the more than 200 species of plants their bees collected nectar and pollen from;
Beekeepers and citizen science opportunities; and more.
This one-hour lecture begins at 7:00 p.m.

Watch a Package Install, Live!
2021-04-19 14:00 - 15:00
Watch live as Maureen Coello hives a package of bees into a Langstroth; Additionally, Maureen will discuss several hiving techniques, including hot weather vs. cold weather installs. BABA will try to make a recording available for future viewing.

BABA Open House
2021-04-13 18:30 - 19:30

BABA Open House: Meet, Greet and Chat
2021-03-30 18:30 - 19:30
It’s a party!… kind of. Someday soon we’ll all be able to hang out together (!) but, until then, Zoom over to the online social, see some familiar friends and meet new ones, and bring some fun beekeeping stories and a few of those nagging questions we all have. We’re scheduled to end at 7:30 but,… who knows!
TUESDAY, MARCH 30th
6:30-7:30pm, online (NOT at the Boston Nature Center)
For the Zoom link, send an email to Bill or Maureen at president@bostonbeekeepers.org.

D.I.Y Mason Bee House
2021-03-27 10:00 - 11:00
In this speedy workshop (30 min to one hour), you will learn several ways to make a very simple mason bee house, where and how to hang it, and the ideal time of year to watch these industrious bees as they come and go. Mason bees are extraordinary pollinators, even more efficient than honey bees, and unlike honey bees, most mason bee species are native to North America. Mason bee houses can be hung almost anywhere, allowing everyone to be a beekeeper – a mason bee beekeeper.
SATURDAY, MARCH 27th
10 – 11am, online (NOT at the Boston Nature Center)
To register, send an email to Bill or Maureen at president@bostonbeekeepers.org.

The Secret Life of Bees by Nick Dorian
2021-03-26 18:00 - 19:00
BABA & The Trustees present THE SECRET LIVES OF BEES, a lecture by Nick Dorian, native bee expert and Tufts PhD candidate.
You’ve probably heard the saying “Save the bees!” as news reports of global insect declines flood the media. But do you know which bees need saving? Over 4000 species of bees inhabit North America, and most of them don’t live in hives or make honey. In this online lecture, Nick will teach you all about the natural history and conservation of wild bees. Together, we’ll examine closely the varied lifestyles of bees, their habitat needs, and their intricate relationships with flowering plants and other insects. You’ll come away knowing how to identify and support bees in your own backyard and with a newfound appreciation for the secret lives of these charismatic pollinators.
Nick Dorian is an ecologist, an educator, and a naturalist. He is a PhD student at Tufts University where he studies the population ecology of wild bees and runs the Tufts Pollinator Initiative. He can be reached at nicholas.dorian@tufts.edu or on Twitter @bee_searcher. This workshop is co-sponsored by the Boston Area Beekeepers Association.
To register, send an email to Bill or Maureen at president@bostonbeekeepers.org.

Transitioning Our Hives From Deep Winter To High Spring by Ken Warchol
2021-02-18 19:00 - 20:30
Zoom Meet Up – email president@bostonbeekeepers.org by Thursday noon for confirmation email with login code. $5.00 fee for non-members.

Club Meeting - CANCELLED
2019-10-16 19:30 - 21:00
MEETING IS CANCELLEDSORRY FOR THE LATE NOTICE – JOIN US FOR OUR NEXT ONE
Join us for a club meeting where we will discuss beekeeping issues that may be currently affecting you as a local beekeeper, new club events, updates on our club apiaries and the occasional guest speaker. Members attend club meetings for free, for more information see our membership page here.
