Vermont Beekeepers Association

Beekeeping in Vermont

Meet Brooke Decker

Brooke Decker serves as Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Market’s Pollinator Health Specialist and Apiculturist. She is currently the Vice-President of the Apiary Inspectors of America. She has a Master’s of Science Degree in Environmental Science from Antioch University.

Brooke Decker
Pollinator Health Specialist/ State Apiculturist

Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets
116 State Street | Montpelier, Vermont | 05620
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. | 802-272-6688

Vermont Apiary Program

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www.agriculture.vermont.gov

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Meet Bill Mares

Bill Mares has been a journalist, state legislator and high school teacher.

He has authored or co-authored 19 books on a variety of subjects, including beekeeping. He has been a beekeeper for 50 years, and past president of the VBA and the Eastern Apicultural Society. He lives in Burlington.

Vermont Honey Promotion

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Vermont Beekeepers in the Spotlight at Vermont Flower Show

The Vermont Beekeepers Association increased its presence at the March 3-5 Vermont Flower Show, to a full-sized booth and reached a record crowd during the Vermont Nursery and Landscape Association's 20th biennial show. More than 12,700 tickets were sold, despite a Saturday snowstorm that blanketed the state and kept cars off the roads, so VBA's educational mission reached its largest audience in recent years.

Sixteen experienced Vermont beekeeper volunteers organized the Vermont Beekeepers booth exhibit and took on eight shifts over four days to set up, staff and take down the multifaceted educational display.

Representing a wide and distant range of the state's beekeeping, they are Cheryl Achilles and Rob Achilles of Colchester, Bianca Braman of Swanton, Anne Bowers of Enosburg Falls, Dannah Bresser of Essex Junction, Lori Choiniere of Highgate Center, Cheryl Dorschner of Williston, Judith Graves of Essex Junction, Kim Greenwood of Duxbury, Peter Hadeka of Castleton, Heather Peatman of Fletcher, Annette Petrucelli of South Royalton, Richard Roy of Colchester, Sue Shepard of Jericho and Mary Stoddard and Bob Stoddard of Sharon.

The Vermont Beekeepers booth was one of more than a dozen honeybee and wild pollinator related booths, seminars and workshops that echoed this year's bee-related theme of the show's 15,000-square-foot Grand Garden Display. VNLA members and Vermont Certified Horticulturists recreated A.A. Milne's original Hundred-Acre Wood and the homes of Winnie the Pooh and friends. A wild bee tree with a swarm designed by Guinnevere Hand-Boniakowski of Perseid Gardens in Bristol and the colorful hive boxes loaned by Matt Callahan's Hera's Bees apiary in Duxbury were punctuated by sculpted bees and surround-sound buzzing.

Other Vermont bee and pollinator aspects of the show were: author Ross Conrad's workshop "Intro. to Natural Beekeeping" and his Dancing Bee Gardens booth; Spencer Hardy from Vermont Center for Ecosystem Studies discussing his new Vermont Bee Study scientific data; Mike Kiernan's seminar about creating large-scale pollinator habitat and his Bee the Change booth; Author Mike Lizotte's how-to create mini-meadows for good looks and pollinator health as well as his American Meadows booth; and Rebecca Lindenmeyr's demonstrations of distilling herbs and making herb and bee-product salves and her Farm Craft VT booth. Also in the exhibit hall were: Beeline Skin Care, Groennfell Meadery, Peabody Mountain Apiaries, Vermont Beekeeping Supply and Vermont Quilt Bee.

Vermont Nursery and Landscape Association plans its next Vermont Flower Show for March 2025.

- by Cheryl Dorschner

South Bee Yard Workshops

VBA Our South Bee Yard is back in action following the pandemic and you're invited to attend our free in-person beekeeping workshops.

Hosted by Jeffrey Hamelman and Debra Pasho, the workshops will cover a variety of topics. Take a look at our calendar of upcoming events to view the entire list of in-person and online workshops and plan for the rest of the year. Hint: You can easily identify the South Yard workshops by selecting South Bee Yard from the All Locations drop-down search selector. You can also import events into your calendar by selecting iCal Export at the top of the page.

Vermont Removes 2EE authorization for Oxalic Acid Extended (OAE) Use

If you've been following discussions about using OAE with cellulose pads in your hives please read the following from Vermont's State Apiculturist Brooke Decker:

Effective March 21, 2023 the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets has removed the Extended Release Oxalic Acid FIFRA 2(ee) interpretation notice from our website. This was done as a result of a determination by the US EPA on March 21, 2023 that this interpretation was not allowed under the provisions of FIFRA. As a result of this determination, the application of oxalic acid using glycerin treated cellulose pads is no longer considered allowable under the provisions of FIFRA 2(ee). A copy of the letter is available here:

EPA Letter - Extended Release Oxalic Acid FIFRA 2(ee) interpretation (PDF)

All persons who apply pesticides must comply with all label provisions including directions for use, personal protective equipment, disposal instructions and environmental protection statements.

Brooke Decker
Pollinator Health Specialist/ State Apiculturist
Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets
116 State Street | Montpelier, Vermont | 05620
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. | 802-272-6688

Vermont Apiary Program

REQUEST AN INSPECTION

(VBA has removed links on our website to the 2(ee) authorization announcement and, for the time being, our Zoom workshop explaining how to use cellulose pads with oxalic acid.)

EAS MA 2023

Download the brochure or visit the website.

Bee Sample Request

Purdue University’s honey bee research lab is seeking bee samples for genomic analysis and has asked for help getting the word out to beekeepers willing to send honey bee workers for sequencing.

They are working to understand genetic diversity of honey bees across the country. If any beekeepers are interested in participating, please send an email to Isabelle Gilchrist at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to coordinate shipping samples.