The late Bill Mares, beloved, longtime beekeeper and beekeeping educator
THE VERMONT BEEKEEPING MUSEUM and DISCOVERY CENTER, Inc. (VBMDC) is now a reality.
This organization was established to honor the late, beloved, longtime beekeeper and beekeeping educator Bill Mares and bring to fruition his desire to develop a Vermont Beekeeping Museum.
During late 2024 and throughout 2025, a Formation Committee evolved into a Working Group and finally, once we were incorporated, an official Board of Directors. During this time, we created a Mission Statement and filed Articles of Incorporation and other documents with the Vermont Secretary of State. We also filed for and received from the Internal Revenue Service our Employer Identification Number and tax-exempt status as a 501(c)(3) organization.
Subsequently, the Board of Directors has adopted a set of By-Laws and a Governance, Ethics, and Conduct Policy.
We are now a 501(c)(3) non-profit Vermont corporation independent of the Vermont Beekeepers Association. However, we maintain a close working relationship with the VBA, and Andrew Munkres is the designated liaison from the VBA to the VBMDC.
The VBMDC Board of Directors envisions that we will:
1. Create displays and informational material for public access.
2. Collect and interpret historic and contemporary items related to Vermont beekeeping and promote beekeeping as integral to Vermont agriculture and tourism.
3. Create interactive educational exhibits on honey bees and beekeeping.
4. Have a place to display these items.
We are at the point where we are looking for a physical location to display what we anticipate will be a significant collection of donated and loaned beekeeping-related items. We also need to begin compiling a list of these potential items for the collection.
We have two requests:
1. We are looking for historic Vermont beekeeping museum display items such as skeps, boxes, frames, related woodenware, smokers, hive tools, beekeeping clothing, gloves, extracting equipment, bottling equipment, jars and labels, bottles, and bulk containers. We are also interested in beekeeping documents, photographs, records, meeting minutes, journals, books, published information, or awards will be appreciated as well as Vermont beekeeping ephemera. We are especially interested in items with documentation, authentication, or personal knowledge of the background of the item.
If you are willing to donate or loan items, please send a list describing each item, its provenance and history, owner(s), and any photographs so we can review the items for possible use in our display once we have a physical facility.
2. We are also looking for a place to display our anticipated collection of Vermont beekeeping objects and archives, on the past, present, and future of beekeeping in Vermont. Ideally, this facility will be in an easily accessible and highly visible location with room for visitors and space to store our collection items. Preference will be given to a location that is available either for a few years or for a longer duration as we develop our exhibits. We’d like to receive both direct offers of a location as well as suggestions about who we might contact to discuss a potential location.
We sincerely appreciate your efforts to search out and offer to donate any items as well as suggestions for a physical location.
Responses to these requests may be directed to:
Ross Conrad, Chair, VBMDC
dancingbhoney@gmail.com
(802) 349-4279
Sincerely,
VBMDC Board of Directors
Ross Conrad, Chair
Jon Mathewson, Vice Chair
Fred Putnam, Recording Secretary
Dave Edwards, Treasurer
Chris Hadsel, Director at Large