Membership Benefits

Education
Bee Day

This is a big annual event for our club held in the springtime at Foothills Honey Farm in Colton Oregon. It is a great opportunity for new beekeepers to get a chance to examine a colony with an experienced beekeeper. There are generally 2 sessions out with the bees and then 1-2 educational sessions with a variety of speakers on pertinent beekeeping topics. In addition, we have an auction of many beekeeping and non-beekeeping items that is a fundraiser for our club.


Bee School

Beekeeping For The 1st Year And Beyond: Longtime experienced beekeeper and PMBA member John Rockrohr has been putting on this school for our club at Clackamas Community College each year in February. It typically is over 2 weekends. This is an excellent opportunity for new and experienced beekeepers to learn about the art and science of beekeeping.

Club Apiary 

We have partnered with the Oregon Donkey Sanctuary and have monthly Saturday's at the apiary. Come learn about honey bees at our "Sweet Ass Learning Apiary" at the Oregon Donkey Sanctuary.  This is a great way to get hands-on experience with honeybees. It will usually be on the last Saturday of each month. Sign ups for the sessions will start approximately one month before each one and close the Thursday before. You can sign up on our website HERE. The program is designed for beginning to intermediate beekeepers to learn about hive management strategies for the month. This is a casual, loosely structured gathering intended to provide a learning experience in a relaxed setting.  

Queen Rearing

In late April or early May, PMBA often has a queen rearing class. It usually has 3 sessions. This first is a didactic class going over the basics of queen rearing. The second class is practice grafting and the third is grafting for real. The students will often get 2-3 mature queen cells for their use. Class sizes are limited.


Beekeeping Supplies

As a club, we purchase beekeeping items in large quantities at lower costs and pass those savings on to our members. Examples of things that we typically purchase are:

  • Nucleus Colonies. We generally get these from a local beekeeper in early in April. The cost of a membership and the nuc is often less than the going rate of a nuc alone.

  • Sugar. We buy lots and can usually get it close to half the price you would pay in a store.
  • Queens. We buy in groups of 50 about every 2-3 weeks starting in May though early August. We purchase from Oregon queen breeders and have a variety of choices (Survivor, Italian, Carniolan, Caucasian and VSH)
  • Varroa treatments
  • Protein/pollen patties
  • Woodenware. We typically will get boxes and frames as demand dictates.
Extracting Equipment
The club has extracting equipment including several extractors that are available for loan to members.
Library

We have a very extensive bee library with over 140 books that are available to check out for members.

Mead Classes 

Ever want to learn how to make the world's oldest alcoholic beverage? We have classes in mead making.

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