VBA 2024-25 Board of Directors

 Congratulations to the people elected to the VBA Board of Directors at the July 13, 2024, VBA summer meeting. We look forward to another very productive year.

Our thanks to the Franklin County Beekeepers Club for their help with this meeting!

Bee Practical Award

The American Beekeeping Federation (ABF) is offering an award for up to $2,000 to a beekeeper with a practical beekeeping idea that is relevant to other beekeepers. The $2,000 will be split in the case more than one awardee is chosen. We are looking to fund one or more individuals that have developed a practical beekeeping practice OR have a practical beekeeping idea that needs funding to be developed.

Please download the attached document for all the details and feel free to pass on to others.  For questions, you may also reach out to Garett Slater.

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Assistant Professor and Honey Bee Extension Entomologist
Department of Entomology
Texas A&M 

Gov. Veto is Overridden

H.706 to Become Law

Late this afternoon the Vermont House and Senate overrode Governor Phil Scott's veto of H.706 - a law the Vermont Beekeepers Association supported to protect Vermont pollinators. The senate overrode the veto on roll call: Yeas = 21, Nays = 8 while the house roll call results showed Yeas = 102, Nays = 43 (97 of 145 to Pass). Details

The Vermont Beekeepers Association thanks the legislators who voted for this important legislation and the VBA members and others in the community who helped make this happen. 

H.706 Veto Override Alert

On World Bee Day, Gov. Scott vetoes bill that would restrict bee-killing pesticide

From the Pollinatoir Working Group:

Montpelier, VT – Today, on World Bee Day, Gov. Phil Scott today vetoed legislation meant to protect bees and other pollinators from a widely-used neuorotoxic pesticide. The bill (H.706) would  eliminate most uses of neonicotinoid pesticides (neonics) in Vermont, which have been associated with alarming losses of managed and wild bee populations.

Neonic insecticides are used on almost all corn grown and much of the soybean grown in Vermont. They’re also sprayed on apple trees, other fruits and vegetables, and ornamental plants. 

A comprehensive 2020 study from Cornell University found that neonic-treated seeds were more costly and yielded no substantial benefit to farmers in terms of crop yields for corn and soybeans. In Quebec, where neonics have been banned on field crops since 2019, farmers have adjusted well to using other alternative seed treatments, and many are using no pesticide treatment on seeds at all and finding no loss in yield.

While neonics provide little benefit to most farmers, they can cause substantial harm. Since their introduction in the mid-1990s, neonics have made U.S. agriculture48-times more harmfulto insects and been linked with massive losses of bees. Over the most recent five-year period for which data are available, Vermont beekeepers lost an average 53% of their hives every year. These losses of managed bees provide insight into the losses occurring each year in Vermont’s 300+ species of wild bees, which undergird ecosystems and are also important crop pollinators. 

Read more …

UBeeO Workshop with Vermont Bee Lab

Join the Vermont Bee Lab to learn about UBeeO, a novel way to measure hygienic behavior in bees! In this workshop, we will demonstrate how to perform UBeeO assays and witness high-scoring colonies in the field. We will discuss guidelines for reliable testing in the Northeast and hear from Vermont queen producers about their experience using UBeeO in their selection programs.

Two workshop dates are available, June 8 at Hundred Acre Wood Apiaries with Jack Rath and June 15 at French Hill Apiaries with Mike Palmer. Registration for either workshop is free and is required.

Just Got Your Nucs Or Bee Packages?—Now What??

Mid-spring is the time of year when many new beekeepers in Vermont pick up their first nucleus colonies or packages of bees.  If you are one of those just starting out, hopefully you did your homework over the winter and have a pretty good idea of what to do next. You may have read some reference materials, attended a class, and participated in VBA webinars.  Maybe you purchased a book that you can refer to from time to time.  (By the way, the VBA has an excellent list of references designed specifically for new beekeepers under the “Resources” tab on this website.)  But uncertainty or just a lack of confidence may arise about the next task in your bee yard. It’s not uncommon.  Beekeeping may not be rocket science, but it isn’t simple either.  There’s much to learn in the first few years and the VBA is here to help!

Read more …

H.706 Update

As many of you know, the Pollinator Protection Act, H706 has passed the Vermont House 112-29. It was taken up by the Senate Agriculture committee, and UVM Bee Lab director Samantha Alger and VBA past president Andrew Munkres both testified in support of the bill among others.  Last week the bill passed out of the Senate Agriculture committee 4-1 with a couple of changes from the House version.  Today the bill went to Senate appropriations and passed out of that committee this afternoon 6-0.

Read more …