Rick Coor, immediate past president of the NC State Beekeepers Association, will join us Nov. 13 to expand our knowledge and awareness of queen rearing and the NCSBA Born and Bred Queen Rearing Program.

Rick, a seasoned queen-rearing beekeeper with over 16 years of experience, established the NCSBA’s Born and Bred queen rearing program in 2017. The program aims to establish an in-state supply of honey bees and queens. A North Carolina Master Beekeeper, he authored the Born and Bred manual and serves as the program chairman.

Join us on Nov. 13 at 6 pm for a potluck of appetizers and desserts. There will be a Hive Talk from 6:15-6:45 pm followed by Rick’s talk and then a business meeting to elect officers for 2026. Please consider bringing a homemade item (eggs, produce, etc) for our club raffle. As usual, our meeting will be at the N.C. Cooperative Extension Center at 1020 US-70 in Hillsborough.

Rick purchased his first bees in 1974 from the Sears and Roebuck Catalog and enjoyed beekeeping for three years as a teenager. He returned to beekeeping in 2004 and began raising and selling queens in 2006.

As a long-time member of the NCSBA Board of Directors, Rick served as President from 2015-2018 and from 2023-2025. During his tenure as President, he initiated the NCSBA’s Apiculture Science Initiative with the goal of building a new honey bee research lab at NCSU and an endowment for a distinguished professorship in apiculture at NCSU.

Rick was a key member of the team that lobbied the NC General Assembly for the funds to build the new research lab and successfully spearheaded the effort to establish the endowed professorship.