Vermont Beekeepers Association - VBA 2023 Summer Meeting

The 2023 summer meeting of the Vermont Beekeepers Association will be held on Saturday, August 12 at the Barrett Memorial Hall in Strafford, VT.

Directions from most places: I-89 Vermont Exit 2, take Rt. 132 East for about 6.5 miles. Barrett Memorial Hall is located at the junction of Rt. 132 and the Justin Morrill Memorial Highway in Strafford. See the location picture below. If you’re using GPS or mapping apps, the physical address is 248 VT Rte 132, S. Strafford, VT.

Here’s a synopsis of the day’s topics:

Update from the State Apiculturist
Beekeeper Recognition (there were some excellent nominations)
Business meeting where, among other things, we need to discuss and vote on the proposed 2023-2024 VBA budget. We also need to discuss and vote on the proposed slate of officers for the VBA Board of Directors for the coming year.
Update on the upcoming statewide honey promotion campaign funded by a Federal grant.
If you’re a new beekeeper or new to the VBA, we’ll have some time to meet and greet during the morning break where you can meet other beekeepers and even get help informally with some of your burning questions.
Our keynote speaker, Lincoln Sennett, co-owner of Swan's Honey in Albion, Maine, will present two interesting topics: “Nuc booster lift” method for boosting honey production, and Mite mitigation using oxalic acid in conjunction with a swarm split method.
The Vermont Bee Lab has been busy during the past year, and we’ll hear an update on their multi-faceted efforts on our behalf.
There will be two concurrent workshops in the afternoon
- One focuses on recognizing and preventing American Foulbrood. There will be some irradiated and sealed (safe) AFB frames to view up close.
- There will be another session discussing the latest updates on why and how to wrap hives for winter. There will be hands-on demo.
As always there will be a fund-raising raffle that helps to support VBA’s advocacy work on behalf of beekeepers and beekeeping in Vermont. We’ll also have a raffle item that is not only practical and handy but will be a first-of-its-kind-at-a-VBA-meeting item. If you can bring an item or items for the raffle, we’d greatly appreciate that. (If you would like to let us know what you are donating for the raffle you may do so here.)

Please register for this meeting on the VBA website.

Registration is free for VBA members, $15 for all others interested in attending.

Check-in will start at 8:30 A.M. The meeting will start promptly at 9:00 A.M. The meeting is planned to end at around 3:30 P.M.

Barrett Memorial Hall is a two-level building. The meeting will be held on the upper level.

Accommodations:

There is a handicap drop-off area on the Rt. 132 end of Barrett Hall as shown in the photo below. There is handicap parking on the opposite end of the building for those with handicap placards.
There is a lift (open elevator) to the upper level adjacent to the handicap drop-off area.
There will be American sign language interpreters during the meeting.

Lunch will be in the downstairs room. This will be a brown bag lunch meeting. There are no lunch spots or sandwich shops in or near Strafford so be sure to bring your own lunch.

The VBA will provide coffee, tea, and ice water. There will be pastries during the morning break.

The Barrett Hall people require that no food or drinks will be allowed in the main, upstairs meeting room.

Betterbee will be at the meeting and will bring your orders to save shipping. You can either phone your order to them or order online and choose the “Pickup at show, Barrett Memorial Hall” option.