Next Meeting Thursday, May 2, 6:30pm at Bennington Free Library

the next meeting of the Bennington Beekeepers' Club will take place Thursday, May 2, from 6:30--9:00 p.m., in the Rotary Room of the Bennington Free Library. The library is located at 101 Silver Street in Bennington, and on-street parking is available.

The topic of Thursday's meeting will be an open discussion on spring colony management, including when to 'swap boxes', how to prevent swarming, and how to best leverage the very rapid gains that healthy overwintered colonies can begin making once the weather warms up. We can also talk about installing new packages and nucs as needed.

The first half-hour of the meeting will be a potluck dinner to encourage mingling among attendees: 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 leaving). 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 dues-paying Club member who brings one or more items to donate to the raffle will be given one free raffle ticket.

While the potluck portion of our meeting begins at 6:30, the Library building's front doors close at 7 pm. If you intend to arrive after 7, you will need to notify someone who is at the meeting to let you in. The Library has specifically asked us not to prop open the building's exterior doors, due to issues they've had in the past with unwanted overnight visitors (human and non-).