The Orange County Beekeepers Association monthly program on April 10 will feature Erin Evans, a past President of the Maine State Beekeepers Association and Past Chairman of the Eastern Apicultural Society (EAS). 

A Certified Master Beekeeper from Portland, Maine, Erin will share timely information on swarm management and prevention with a focus on small and mid-scale sustainable beekeeping practices.

Erin’s apiary management program centers around following the bees’ own habits and behaviors and working with those systems to enhance apiary and colony level health. She teaches queen rearing, swarm management, natural mite control and sustainable harvesting to create a management plan that reduces or eliminates the need for chemical inputs in the hive while maximizing colony strength.

This meeting will be in-person at the Orange County offices of the NC Cooperative Extension —  1020 US Highway 70 West in Hillsborough – and the program will be available online. A link will be provided soon.

Just a reminder that our schedule is: potluck appetizers and desserts at 6 pm, Hive Talk at 6:30 pm, and our program at 7 pm with a short business update afterward.

A self-proclaimed “gadgety beekeeper,” Erin is fluent in several colony styles which inform a unique perspective on equipment management decisions. She utilizes a wide variety of hive styles in her operation, including several year-round observation hives, Warre hives, AŽ (Slovenian) hives, 8-frame, and traditional 10-frame Langstroth hives, and others.

Erin is the recipient of three Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education grant awards demonstrating increased colony survival through utilization of local northern raised queens. She currently manages a mid-size apiary of approximately 70 colonies as a sideline to her fulltime job as an accountant.