1st Meeting in 2026 is Thursday, January 8th

A quick reminder about our January meeting this coming Thursday, January 8, from 6:30--9:00 p.m., in the Rotary Room of the Bennington Free Library (upstairs). The library is located at 101 Silver Street in Bennington, and on-street parking is available.

This month's meeting will feature a talk by John Letourneau: "Winter: A Time to relax and stress out!". In addition, Mike Feranandez from the Vermont Veterans Home Farm Project will be joining us, to meet and greet folks and talk a bit about the project he is working on and how bees
fit into their plan. Please find the agenda packet attached.

The first half-hour of the meeting will be a potluck dinner: while it's not required that you bring anything, we encourage you to bring a dish to share with the group, as well as a cup, flatware and a plate/bowl for yourself, if possible, to cut down on waste (there is a kitchen sink where you can wash your dishes before bringing them home). At the conclusion of the meeting, there will be a raffle of donated items: should you wish to donate raffle items, please bring them (items need not be directly related to honeybees or beekeeping). Raffle tickets will be sold during the potluck dinner ($2 each or $10 for 6), and during the raffle, stubs will be drawn until all items have been claimed. Any 2026 dues-paid Club member who brings one or more items to donate to the raffle will be given one free raffle ticket.

While the potluck begins at 6:30, the Library building's doors will be locked at 7 pm. If you intend to arrive after 7, you will need to notify someone who is at the meeting to come downstairs and let you in.

Best Regards,
Bennington Beekeepers' Club

  Beekeeping introductory course 

The Bennington County Beekeepers’ Club is offering an Introduction to Beekeeping course six Thursday nights: January 29th through March 5th; 7-8:30 PM. Later in the spring there will be a visit to a bee yard.

 The course will cover honeybee biology and health, pests and diseases, hive management, and how to get started setting up your own bee yard and basic beekeeping principles. 

The cost of the course is $25 per person, which includes a one-year family membership in the Bennington County Beekeepers’ Club. 

Attendees will need to purchase or locate the textbook on their own. 

Classes will take place in-person at the Bennington Free Library on Silver St. in Bennington. 

To sign up, or for more information: benningtonbees@gmail.com or call 802.442.5783 (Melany)

Vermont Women in Beekeeping

The Path Forward Meeting 2026

Sunday February 8, 2026
10 am - 4:30 pm
UVM Davis Center Frank Livak Room, 417
590 Main St, Burlington, VT 05401

It's been almost a full year since the Women in Beekeeping group formed and we are looking for your help in planning what is next! Join VBA, VBL and our moderator Patty Houston for a day of strategic planning, group discussions, and breakout sessions as we discuss the work of the group to date and make plans for the road ahead. Enjoy a catered lunch with fellow women in the community as we work together to plan the future of Vermont Women in Beekeeping.

Space is limited so sign up early to save your spot! 

 

VBA Winter Meeting

Saturday, January 31st, 2026

Champlain Valley Union High School

Hinesburg, VT

8am - 4pm

Join us for the Vermont Beekeepers Association’s annual Winter Meeting!

Admission is free for members and $15 for non-members (register ahead of time or pay at the door). Registration opens December 23rd on the VBA website.

We’re excited to welcome Landi Simone—Certified Master Beekeeper, educator, and highly regarded speaker from New Jersey—presenting Reading the Frames and Advanced Tips and Tricks as our keynote speaker.

Enjoy a full day of workshops for all skill levels such as:

·  Horizontal Hives: Avoid heavy lifting by keeping bees in horizontal hives — Andrew Munkres & Jason Morin

·  Building Woodenware: Learn how to make your own woodenware — Mike Palmer

·  Beginner Beekeeping Blunders: A humorous look at common beekeeping mistakes — Landi Simone

·  Easy Honey Ferments: Jun (honey kombucha), fire cider, and garlic honey—an amazing sensory experience — Bianca Braman

·  Microscopy Workshop: Learn how to identify Nosema in your bees — Sydney Miller

·  Mite Control Workshop: Learn how to conduct a mite wash and watch demonstrations of popular control methods — Andrew Munkres & Bianca Braman

·  Beekeeping Business Talk: Learn the ins and outs of running a beekeeping business — Janice Merceri

We’ll also hold our Annual Honey Show—please bring a jar of honey to enter! More details to follow.

The following vendors will also be attending:
- Betterbee (Orders placed before January 29th can be delivered to the meeting to save on shipping)
- Beekeeper Relief Fund
- Slovenian Beekeeping
- Vermont Bee Lab
- White Mountain Apiary

It will be a full day of learning, sharing, and sweet community—don’t miss it!

Champlain Valley Union High School
369 CVU Rd
Hinesburg, VT  05461

End-of-Year Summary, Short Course Announcement, January Meeting Save-the-Date, and Officer Position Open

The Bennington County Beekeepers are looking forward to a new year. We ended 2025 with new and old friends. We had a great series of training in the early spring, we hosted the Vermont Beekeepers' Association Summer Meeting in the summer, and ended the year with a wonderful get together. Most folks had a good year and bees are put to bed for winter.

Want to review the basics?: We will be offering our beginners' Short Course again this year, January 29 through March 12, 2026. If your dues are paid through 2026, please simply respond to this e-mail to let us know that you are interested. If your membership is not current for 2026, the course costs $25.00 and includes 2026 membership; you may also respond to this message to indicate your interest.

Please be aware that, while we run our annual Short Course, there will be no regular Club meeting in February. The March meeting will coincide with the last session of the Short Course, on Products of the Hive, and all Club members are warmly invited to attend and welcome the new beekeeper "graduates" into our club. Ahead of the April meeting, where we hold officer elections, please consider whether you would like to step up as a candidate for an officer position. In particular, the secretary position will be vacant effective at the April meeting.

More urgently, please save the date for our January meeting, which will be on the second Thursday of the month (potluck starts at 6:30, meeting from 7-9), at the Bennington Free Library, where Jeff Battaglini will be discussing and demonstrating mead-making.

We would like to encourage you to attend the January meeting to let us know how you are doing, if your bees are well, and if you have any questions or suggestions for the club.

Best Regards,
John, Mel, Jim, Jeanne, Erin, & Peggy

 Beekeeping introductory course 

The Bennington County Beekeepers’ Club is offering an Introduction to Beekeeping course six Thursday nights: January 29th through March 5th; 7-8:30 PM. Later in the spring there will be a visit to a bee yard.

 The course will cover honeybee biology and health, pests and diseases, hive management, and how to get started setting up your own bee yard and basic beekeeping principles. 

The cost of the course is $25 per person, which includes a one-year family membership in the Bennington County Beekeepers’ Club. 

Attendees will need to purchase or locate the textbook on their own. 

Classes will take place in-person at the Bennington Free Library on Silver St. in Bennington. 

To sign up, or for more information: benningtonbees@gmail.com or call 802.442.5783 (Melany)

 Kirk Webster at the Mini Isley

November 13th at 6pm

Come to the Mini Ilsley at 30 Main Street in Middlebury to listen to Vermont beekeeper Kirk Webster talk about his book, Many Best Kept Secrets: A Wonderful and Unusual Life Around Honey Bees.

Many Best Kept Secrets is the story of local beekeeper Kirk Webster's lifetime lived in close association with honey bees and the land that sustained them. It is a book about bees, yes-but more deeply, it's about mentorship, memory, discovery, loss, and the pursuit of a meaningful life. It follows a trajectory from suburban alienation to rural immersion; from stumbling first steps on a school farm to a resilient apiary built with homemade tools and hard-won knowledge. It's also a clear-eyed account of how small-scale, nature-oriented farming and beekeeping can succeed-when the work is guided by observation, patience, humility, and respect for systems older and wiser than ourselves. Kirk Webster, a beekeeper with 50 years experience tending Addison County's pollinators, was profiled in Bill McKibben's unforgettable memoir, Oil and Honey, his account of two necessary and mutually reinforcing sides of the global climate fight: the local and the global.

Entrance is free.