Bianca Braman is the Vice President of the VBA board of directors.
Born and raised in the Adirondacks, Bianca is an adventurous person who loves to spend much of her time outside.
After an education in Communications and years of working indoors, she discovered a fierce interest in honeybees.
She was an active member of the Champlain Valley Beekeepers Association of New York before she attended a lecture given to the club by Michael Palmer. Impressed by his depth of knowledge, Bianca asked if she could visit Palmer's operation - and she did. She volunteered at French Hill Apiaries in 2018, before getting a full time job offer from another commercial beekeeper. When she asked Mike for a reference, he told her that she should work for him instead.
Bianca has continued to work with Mike for the last six seasons. Mike taught her how to graft and she has developed a thorough understanding of his queen rearing methodology.
In 2021, Bianca became a partner in Vermont Bees LLC and now brings her knowledge of bees to bear on her own beekeeping operation of over 300 colonies.
In 2022, Bianca was accepted to the Education on the Production and Insemination of Queen Bees (EPIQ) Program at Penn State. In 2023, she was one of 6 people selected from the EPIQ Program to train in instrumental insemination techniques with world renowned bee breeder, Sue Cobey.
Bianca's work with bees has been featured in Adirondack Life Magazine and Inside The Hive TV. She was also invited to speak about her experience as a woman in beekeeping at Columbia University in 2020.
