Today we’d like to introduce you to Holly Bayendor.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Metro Atlanta Beekeepers Association is a decades old non-profit organization. Our mission is to support local beekeepers and educate the community about honey bees and beekeeping.
We begin each year with a Beekeepers Short Course, which educates at least 100 new beekeepers a year. This intensive one-day class includes Master Beekeepers and Entomologists speaking on how to choose equipment, bee biology, and the basics of beekeeping.
For our members we have live hive inspections throughout the season with experienced beekeepers. This is especially helpful for our new beekeepers. We hold the Certification test to encourage beekeepers to become certified through the UGA Master Beekeeper Program in Young Harris, GA.
We also hold Junior Beekeeper Programs throughout the year to introduce children (ages 6-13) to beekeeping. This class is an all-day immersion class, with hands on participation. We even suit the children up and take them into a live bee hive. The also extract honey from a comb and taste local honey.
Our monthly meetings are mix of talks by local beekeepers giving practical and technical advice, and experts and Ph.Ds. bringing us the most recent findings from research in the field.
We try to accommodate as many schools, garden clubs, STEM evenings, as we can when asked to send beekeepers to speak to local students and groups. It’s a great way for us to connect with our community beyond beekeepers. We can advise and encourage non-beekeepers on how they too, can help all of our essential pollinators to survive in the wild, and how everyone can help improve their habitat.
This year our organization created yard-signs as a gift to our current members (of which we now have over 300), and to sell to anyone wishing to post the message: Mosquito Spraying Kills Pollinators! This was so successful, we will likely do more in the future – along the lines of how to help pollinators by sowing wildflower seeds, and not spraying herbicides and similar products.
I am currently the President of Metro Atlanta Beekeepers Association. In the winter of 2009 I watched a documentary on PBS called ‘The Global Decline of the Honey Bee”. It was a two-part documentary that likely changed my life. Always one to be mindful of the environment, when I learned that the essential and mighty pollinator – the honey bee – was in trouble, I felt that I could do my part by provided a safe haven for a bee hive in my back yard, in Roswell, GA.
That January (2010) I attended the Beekeepers Short Course at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. I met Cindy Hodges (who would become my mentor and role model) and many other local beekeepers that day. In June of that year, I obtained my first hive with the help of my then boyfriend (now husband) Jeff McConnell. He helped me build my first hive, and came with me to Lula, GA to acquire my first colony,
In May of 2012, Cindy Hodges – my mentor – encouraged me to take the Certification test offered by the UGA Bee School of Young Harris, I took my test at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. (MABA had been given permission to hold its own testing.)
When Cindy became President of MABA in 2013, she asked me to Chair a new program for the Club: The Junior Beekeeper Program. She and another Master Beekeeper developed the program, and we held but one session our first year. It was a great success. In the following years we would hold two and now four programs, most of which sell-out at 16 children.
January of 2016 – I became President of MABA, but continued to work with the Junior Beekeepers, but now I had fellow Board member Ed Hoehn as Chair of the program.
Now it was my job to welcome new beekeepers to the Short Course, and host our monthly meetings, and try to make it to as many speaking and presenting engagements as I could. At the end of this year (2017) I will hand over my position to Master Beekeeper Julia Mahood, and serve as her Past President for the next two years. I am happy to do so! I am also happy that the club, its members, and hopefully their bees are thriving in Atlanta and in the state.
We all have our ups and downs, some years we lose our bees, other years we are happy to split our hives and share the wealth. We continue to encourage beekeepers to keep on learning, sharing information, encouraging new beekeepers and informing the community.
It’s our goal.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The growth of the Club has been – thankfully – one of steady, upward growth. By this I mean that we have had an influx of new and renewing members that outpaces our expiring memberships and members who simply retire from beekeeping. It seems more people are retiring TO beekeeping, which has been great for us.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Metro Atlanta Beekeepers Association – what should we know?
Metro Atlanta Beekeepers (MABA) is not a business. We are a not-for-profit 501(c) 3 organization. We meet almost monthly at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. We currently enjoy a membership of over 300 people. Our speakers are experts who perform field research and who teach at Universities across the state and the country. We also have many experienced members who give practical advice on beekeeping practices and techniques.
MABA holds a one-day Beekeeping Short Course for new beekeepers every January. We also hold 4 Junior Beekeeping Program for children ages 6-13. We have hive inspections led by experienced beekeepers, for hands-on demonstrations on how to correctly handle and manage bees, and what to look for and expect inside the hive. We hold an annual picnic every September which also serves as our annual fundraiser.
Besides supporting local beekeepers we are heavily committed to creating awareness to the community at large. Our outreach program is extremely important to us as a non-profit, and is part of our mission.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
We welcome all to our meetings who want to meet beekeepers and learn about the art of beekeeping.
We value dedication to the care and concerned handling of bees and careful management of their colonies.
We encourage our members and community to protect all our pollinators, and to continue learning more about our environment and how our bees can survive in it.
Pricing:
- Membership – $30 per year/per individual
- Membership – $45 per year/per family or couple
- Beekeeper Short Course – $105 per person
- Junior Beekeeper Program – $35 per child
- Hive inspections – $15 for non-members, free for members
- Monthly meetings – free to the public
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.metroatlantabeekeepers.org/
- Facebook: Metro Atlanta Beekeepers Association
- Other: https://memberplanet.com/s/mababc/retreatregistration_44
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