The guest speaker for the July member’s meeting was Nick Delphia. Nick is the president of the Beekeepers Guild of Southeastern Virginia. His presentation was titled ” Elevating the Standards of Beekeeping”.
The Guild was established as a 501.3c nonprofit organization in 2009. The Guild was established to promote education amongst members and the general public on the importance of honeybees and other pollinators. Additional goals of the organization are to promote sustainable beekeeping through continuing education, mentoring of new beekeepers and explaining the dangers involved with the overuse of pesticides . In addition to their Mentoring program, the Guild has developed what they refer to as a “Nucleus” program. This Nucleus program raises their own “survivor stock” of bees to maintain and increase the local supply of bees. This allows them to discourage the import of bees from outside our area. Additional services provided by the Guild include swarm removal and relocation, pollination services as well as beginner beekeeping classes.
If you are interested in more information and interesting facts about bee biology and behavior, you can find the Guild online at www.BeeKeepersGuild.org. The Virginia Honey Bee Festival will be held this year at the Norfolk Botanical Garden from 10am until 4pm on Aug 20th. According to Nick, “the honeybee is a sweet deal and so is the Honey Bee Festival!”