York County Beekeepers Association

A handful of beekeepers “met” on Zoom and had a social hour comparing notes, discussing their bees’ feeding habits this winter, and -as always- talking about varroa treatments and timetables. The take-aways: Some hives are voraciously consuming their candyboards while other bees are content to hang out lower in the hive April 28th is the target date for seeing the first dandelions Hive loss is a risk right through April and even into May Varroa treatment is a constant.

Sometimes you just want to talk about bees. Maybe you want to ask questions, compare notes, or just have a lively discussion about what’s going on in your hive. Email just doesn’t cut it – you want that dynamic give-and-take of conversation. Here’s your invitation to join other beekeepers in pop-up Zoom talks. Here are the details: there are no regularly scheduled dates, no pressure, no pre-determined topics. Just a bunch of beekeepers being social. An invitation will arrive in

Beth and Neil Goodwin hosted an Open Hive on 9/8/23 with about 14 members joining for bee talk and an oxalic acid demonstration. The hot and humid weather was not ideal for an OA treatment, but the bees behaved very well until the end. Only four or five of us got stung. Here is a video from that day showing the equipment needed and the steps involved. Enjoy!

Lynne Lincourt, Lynne Gobeil, and Joe Barberi fielded lots of questions and provided great information on bees and beekeeping.  Over in the Agricultural Building, many honeys and products of the hive were submitted for judging. Look at all those ribbons!  

YCBA’s Lynne Gobeil won a prestigious first place prize at the Eastern Apicultural Society Conference in the area of Honey Cookery for her Salted Vanilla Caramels

The York County Beekeepers Association held an open hive on August 19th on a beautiful and sunny day in Kennebunkport.  Jen Lund, our state apiarist, led the open hive with 20 YCBA members in attendance. We were also fortunate to have the MSBA beekeeper of the year and Maine Bee company owner Jason Peters travel down with Jen to participate in the open hive. Jen inspected two full size colonies and one nucleus colony with a focus on the current

Congratulations to YCBA member Paul Douglas who won second place at this event with a cash prize and bragging rights! When Paul got home he made sure to tell the bees. (Photo credit York Woods Tree and Products/Cassie Lewis)

MSBA Annual Meeting and Conference Bucksport Middle School on Saturday, October 21st 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM  Hosted by Tri-County Beekeepers Club Speakers at this year’s conference are Paul Kelly, manager of the Honey Bee Research Centre at the University of Guelph, Ontario; Sierra Shaw, a food preparation inspector for the Department of Agriculture; and Maine State Apiarist Jennifer Lund will present the “State of the State” address. The Annual Meeting is a full day of learning, camaraderie and fun.

YCBA sponsored the April 2023 MSBA webinar featuring Karen Thurlow on the topic of “Queen Rearing for Small Apiaries with Little Effort and Cost”. Click HERE to watch the recording for free.

Joe Barberi hosted about 20 YCBA members on the first blue sky day in more than a week. Joe opened four colonies, and while primarily inspecting for brood pattern, larvae development and finding the queen, answered questions and gave tips on: splits, swarm prevention, bee behavior, sting treatments, queen genetics, ventilation holes, and using a queen excluder to prevent a re-swarming. Everyone had lots of opportunity for close up looks at beautifully filled frames of very cooperative bees. Thanks go