Please join us at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday 11th May at the Montgomery County Health and Human Services Building at 210 Pepper St., Christiansburg when  Virginia Tech entomology emeritus professor Dr. Richard Fell will discuss honey bee diseases and pests.

Virginia Tech honey bee researcher Rick Fell

We will have our monthly beekeeper raffle and a “what should you be doing with your hives this month” discussion.

Please consider bringing a snack or drink to share.

Please join us at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday 13th April at the Montgomery County Health and Human Services Building at 210 Pepper St., Christiansburg when Judge O’Hanlon from West Virginia will talk about producing queens and hardy  survivor stock.

Dan O’Hanlon has been a beekeeper & queen producer in West Virginia for many decades.  He is an officer in his local bee club and the founder of the West Virginia Queen Producers, an organization dedicated to supporting local queen producers.  Dan led the effort to pass the first bill in the nation granting beekeepers immunity from civil liability.  Dan was selected as the 2011 Beekeeper of the Year by the WV Beekeepers Association.

We will have our monthly beekeeper raffle and a “what should you be doing with your hives this month” discussion.

Please consider bringing a snack or drink to share.

Please join us at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday 9th February at the Montgomery County Health and Human Services Building at 210 Pepper St., Christiansburg when NRVBA members Richard Reid, Jim Hill, Glenn Buss and Jerry Borger will show us various aspects of woodenware construction, including how to make and assemble your own bee keeping equipment.  They will review the check list of basic beekeeping equipment needs.

We will have our monthly beekeeper raffle and a “what should you be doing with your hives this month” discussion, and discuss new wording for our bylaws.

Please consider bringing a snack or drink to share.

Please join us at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday 10th November at the Montgomery County Health and Human Services Building at 210 Pepper St., Christiansburg  when Dr  Marcel Durieux will give a talk “From ‘appropriate technology’ to ‘balanced beekeeping’: a history of the top bar hive.”

Top bar hives have recently become popular in the western world, but the system has a very long history and in fact revolutionized beekeeping by allowing management and inspection for the first time. In this talk, Dr Durieux gives an overview of the history of the top bar hive, touching on items as diverse as other hive systems in use prior to the invention of the movable-comb hive, top bar hive use in Greece in the 1600s, the development of the Kenya top bar hive for African beekeeping, and the current interest in the system as a part of “balanced beekeeping”.

Marcel Durieux MD, PhD is professor of anesthesiology at the University of Virginia, and a backyard beekeeper with an interest in bee biology. Much of his academic research focuses on improving outcomes after surgery. Another part of his professional work involves teaching in developing countries, which has led to an ongoing collaboration with beekeepers in Rwanda. Prof. Durieux has published several articles in our beekeeping journals.

We will also have our monthly beekeeper raffle and a “what should you be doing with your hives this month” discussion.

Please consider bringing a snack or drink to share.

Please join us at the next meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday October 13th at the Montgomery County Health and Human Services Building at 210 Pepper St., Christiansburg  when   member and NRVBA Secretary Sue Hossack will give directions for making creamed honey.

We will also have a tasting of members’ honey so bring a jar or two to share!

The equipment raffle will be held and we will be discussing what we should be doing to help the bees prepare for winter.

Please consider bringing a drink or snack to share. 

Please join us at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday September 8th  at the Montgomery County Health and Human Services Building at 210 Pepper St., Christiansburg  when long-time member and past-president Mark Chorba will talk about “The AZ Hive- Beekeeping from another point of view”

The AZ hive is an old way of the beekeepers of Slovenia (Mark’s ancestral home). This hive originated there in the mountains and valleys of Slovenia and has been preserved till today.  Not so readily available it is however being brought into America by a few people who want a different way to keep bees.  The Langstroth is however still superior. These AZ hives are built to fit into a “bee house” and are grouped together closely, brightly painted and easy to work.  They don’t come apart like Langstroths or other hives . The hive sits in the exterior wall of the house with the front facing out. It has a door on the back (inside the house) and once opened, the frames of bees slide out to be inspected. Honey is stored above and is removed the same way. No more lifting heavy hives or supers. Any bees that fly out can go out through the window and return to the hive in the front.

Mark reports that he does  have one of these hives, but is waiting until next spring to set it up properly and to add bees and get a better assessment.

We will also have our monthly beekeeper raffle and a “what should you be doing with your hives this month” discussion.

Please consider bringing a snack or drink to share.