The Colorado State Beekeepers Association was initially organized in Denver in 1880 by J.L. Peabody, E. Milleson and Olive Wright and was incorporated as the Colorado State Beekeepers’ Association in 1888. The CSBA is the oldest and most widely recognized beekeeping organization in Colorado. Like beekeeping itself, which has changed little since the invention of the Langstroth hive, those colorful stacks of wooden boxes spied in fields and off roadways, the CSBA is one of the oldest organizations of any kind in the state. It also serves to unify Regional and Local Beekeeping Associations and Clubs.
KT Thompson is currently the CSBA’s Treasurer and director of the Master Beekeeping Program that started a few years ago under the CSBA’s banner. She expects about 80-100 beekeepers will meet in Rifle this weekend.
KT: In the Silt and Rifle area there are some really big leaders in the beekeeping community that have been a good resource for us, and helped us make sure that we have hives for the in-apiary hands-on portion in the afternoon every year. They have been leaders in the organization far beyond that for many years. So we are really happy to come up and visit and get together with everybody and learn something new this year.
2025 has been an especially cruel year. In recent years overall colony losses, or hives that don’t survive from one summer to the next, have hovered around 50 percent. Experts estimate this year could reach new lows with 60%-70% losses. Stressors such as poor nutrition, mite infestations, viral diseases, and possible pesticide exposure are suspected.
KT: We had some pretty nasty colony losses nationwide last winter, and as you said, there’s a lot to beekeeping. The more you learn about beekeeping, the more your skills as a beekeeper are going to develop, the more you are going to have in your pocket so that you can recognize situations and have a method to manage things when you see them - or at least know who to call or where to look it up.
Beekeeping has been a popular pastime in Carbondale. At this weekend’s get together two well known experts will share knowledge. The first is an entomologist from the University of Florida.
KT: We're really happy to have Dr. Jamie Ellis come to Colorado and get to hear from him in person. He's going to tell us about worker bees and what they do as they go through their lifecycle, their jobs in the hive shift, and we're going to learn about that. And then he's going to talk to us about recognizing and addressing queen events so that we are adding not just to our knowledge of the two of the three types of bees in a colony, but also, what can we do with that knowledge, and how can we apply it in our beekeeping on a regular basis?
Dr. Dewy Caron taught at Oregon State and is the Academic Advisor to Colorado’s Master Beekeeping program.
KT: He titles his presentation, “How might bees celebrate Flag Day and Father's Day.” But it's more about the types of bees in the colony and how their genetics work, on a level that beekeepers can look at what's going on in their colonies and think about what's going on in beekeeping now, and what can we do with this information.
Bees have a fascinating life cycle, as a closer look at the short but complicated life of a worker bee demonstrates.
KT: Most of the bees in the colony are worker bees. And worker bees, when they first start off and they're young, they have differnt glands that produce royal jelly htat they feed to the queen and to the the brood the babies in the nest. As they develop, those glands change.they also have wax glands where they make beeswax. Those develop and go through changes during their lifetime. So as those different glands and other parts of their bodies change, as they grow and mature, they go through different jobs and different roles in the colony until they finally are old enough to go fly and forage and gather nectar and pollen for the colony.
All of this in just 3 to 6 weeks, the lifespan of a worker bee in Summer.
The morning talks will transition to a more active afternoon with the opportunity to visit a local bee yard for more learning and hands-on demonstrations.
KT: What a great opportunity to learn hive inspection from such an animal husbandry master as Dr. Jamie Ellis. We'll also have plenty of other experts and really experienced beekeepers there that will be opening hives and doing different demonstrations. Then we'll have some rodeo events like lighting your smoker and drone marking. We'll have a little competition just to see who's brought their skills, brought their A-game to the meeting this year.
KT thinks this year’s meeting will appeal to those just beginning with bees as well as beekeepers with more skills, and even experts will pick up new information. And as she reminds us, knowledge is power.
KT: One of the things that I have heard repeatedly is the more you learn about your bees, the better chance your bees have of survival. And I see that really regularly. People who take the time and invest some brain cells in learning about their bees tend to have a lot more success than folks who put them in a box and hope they figure it out.
The Colorado State Beekeepers meeting starts buzzing Friday afternoon with a social event from 4 to 9 p.m. in the North Hall at the Garfield County Fairgrounds on Railroad Avenue in Rifle. To find out more, go to coloradobeekeepers.org.
