NY Non-profit Wins International Award for Bee Outreach

(Rochester, NY) October 5, 2015

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NY Bee Wellness, Inc. (NYBeeWellness.org), a Rochester based 501c3 non-profit organization received the award for promoting honey bee health by providing outreach and education to beekeepers to recognize bee disease.

The awards were issued by the United Kingdom based Vita (Europe) Ltd: the world’s largest dedicated honeybee health company. http://www.vita-europe.com/news/2015-vita-bee-health-initiative-award-winners/

The Vita Bee Initiative Awards highlights the vital work of voluntary beekeeping groups to combat the ongoing health threats to honeybees and publicize good practice for the benefit of other beekeepers.

Winners of the Award will receive trophies and equipment such as microscopes to a value of €250 to help them in maintaining healthy honeybee colonies. Entrants will also receive a limited edition booklet highlighting the best projects. Many projects will also be publicized online for the benefit of beekeeping communities across the world.

NY Bee Wellness, Rochester, NY, USA is a comprehensive Bee Wellness program for new and small-scale beekeepers. It includes workshops, a dedicated website, and surveys, and has trained 100 trainers to teach at the local club level for the benefit of over 1200 beekeepers. The project began with funding from the USDA and honey producers after the loss of the New York state inspection program and is now volunteer-run.”

Jeremy Owen, sales director for Vita (Europe) Ltd, said: “As a honeybee health specialist with distributors across the world, we never cease to be impressed by the resourcefulness of beekeepers in countering the series of health threats that have put honeybee populations at risk in recent years.

“In our travels we have encountered initiatives to promote healthy honeybees and we thought it would be very valuable for these activities to gain a wider audience. We are therefore delighted to announce Vita Bee Initiative Awards recognizing local honeybee health initiatives across the world.”

The most recent workshop held by NY Bee Wellness was on August 22 2015, National Honey Bee Day, the first beekeeping workshop held in years at the Dyce Lab, was given by NY Bee Wellness. The 1 day session included mostly beginner/intermediate level beekeepers from all corners of New York State, and from Connecticut, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. With tutelage of experts in the field of beekeeping, students inspected hives and assessing the health of the colonies. The Cornell University Entomology Department graciously permitted use of Dyce Lab, equipment, and the apiary.

NY Bee Wellness is an educational not-for-profit 501c3, non-membership organization whose mission is to educate new, beginning, and small scale beekeepers, and others interested in honeybees and beekeeping, in honey bee disease recognition, and to provide services and information for beekeepers and the general public on maintaining healthy honey bee colonies in New York and the surrounding region.

NY Bee Wellness originated from a USDA NIFA Beginning Farmers and Ranchers Development grant for the Empire State Honey Producers Association. The author of the grant proposal and Project Director, Pat Bono, initiated the program in response to the large number of new beekeepers entering the challenging vocation of beekeeping.

It is a primarily volunteer run organization and donations are gratefully accepted.

NY Bee Wellness is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Donations are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.