Event Info – Camping – Speakers – Vendors – Honey Contest – Honey Swap – Silent Auction – Chance Drawing

Camping & Accommodations

$20 / night for Dry Camping
No generators during the day.

Reserve a Camping Space - coming soon

2025 PCBA BeeCurious Speaker Conference & Makers Market

Pathfinder Park Event Center
Address: 6655 CO-115
Florence, CO 81226
Phone: (719) 276-7399

Saturday, March 29th, 2025 • Starts at 8 am

Early bird tickets are on sale Jan 18th-Feb 5th and are $10 OFF for this limited time.

Speaker Event will include: Professional speakers, vendors, silent auction, chance drawing, food trucks on-site selling coffee, breakfast and lunch.

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Speaker Line Up

7:30 – 8:00 am – Registration/Check-in

8:00 – 8:10 – Welcome 

8:10 – 8:55 – Don Hall: The Do Not’s of Beekeeping

8:55 – 9:05 – Q&A with Don Hall

9:05 – 9:50 – Jim Massucci: Managing for Honey Presentation 

9:50 – 10:00 – Q&A with Jim Massucci

10:00 – 10:15 – Break (15 mins)

10:15 – 11:00 – Randy Oliver: Mite Treatment with Sponge Method

11:00 – 11:10 – Q&A with Randy Oliver

11:10 – 12:10 pm – Jeff Horchoff: Beekeeper for the Monks 

12:10 – 12:30 – Q&A with Jeff Horchoff

12:30 – 1:15 – Lunch (shortened to 45)

1:15 – 2:00 – Bryan Zavada: The Flexible Use of Resource Colonies in My Apiary

2:00 – 2:10 – Q&A with Bryan Zavada

2:10 – 2:55 – Frederick Dunn: The Amazing Honey Bee, A Closer Look

2:55 – 3:10 – Q&A with Frederick Dunn

3:10 – 3:55 – Thomas Seeley: Colony Thirst 

3:55 – 4:10 – Q&A with Thomas Seeley

4:10 – 4:40 – KT Thompson: Honey Judging & Master Beekeeping 

4:40 – 4:50 – Q&A with KT Thompson

Don Hall

Don Hall

The Do Not’s of Beekeeping
Don’s fascination with honey bees began as a child on the banks of the Brazos River in TX. With 18 years of beekeeping experience, he has dedicated himself to honey bee removal across several states and helping hundreds of people start their beekeeping journeys each year. For the past nine years, Don and his wife Wendy have operated Burley Bees in Canon City, CO, producing local honey and raising bees along the Arkansas River. Their passion extends to extracting feral colonies to diversify and strengthen their apiaries using local feral genetics. Don and Wendy are proud members of the Colorado beekeeping community and are continually inspired by the diverse people brought together by this shared interest.
Jim Massucci

Jim Massucci

Managing for Honey
Jim is local to the St. Louis area and is both a honeybee researcher and a sideliner. As a honeybee researcher, Jim ran some of the largest field trials ever to develop a new varroa-control product. He recently retired to focus full time on his honeybee business where he is up to ~200 production hives and 70 nucs. He has written about his transition to a full beekeeper in BeeCulture magazine and has contributed to The American Bee Journal as well. He continues to consult and run field trials for Greenlight Biosciences in their effort to bring an RNAi-based varroa control product to the market.
Randy Oliver

Randy Oliver

Mite Treatment with Sponge Method
There are reasons why honey bees do the things they do. Randy, as a biologist, looks to understand those reasons, and shares his research findings, and practical knowledge gained from 60 years of beekeeping, at ScientificBeekeeping.com, so that beekeepers can make their own informed management decisions.
Jeff Horchoff

Jeff Horchoff

Beekeeper for the Monks
As a beekeeper for over 40 years, my journey, like all beekeepers, has had many peaks and valleys, but the one consistent aspect throughout both the good times and not so good times, is that bees have never ceased to amaze me. It is this wonder of the bee that continues drawing me along the road I am traveling with them, learning about both myself and the bees as I go. And now, I find myself the lone beekeeper/ bee wrangler for a group of Benedictine monks at St. Joseph Abbey tending their flock of 150 or so bee hives while keeping supplied the stock of honey to their Gift Shop from the efforts of their bees. What a blessing it is to have been placed here by God to do His work.
Bryan Zavada

Bryan Zavada

The Flexible Use of Resource Colonies in My Apiary
Bryan Zavada has been keeping bees since 2014. Bryan manages approximately seventy five colonies around the Denver metro area.  He and his wife, Jennifer, run a small beekeeping business called Flower Street Farm in Lakewood, Colorado.  They sell honey and products of the hive at two local farmer’s markets and local events, provide education, hive consultation, colony management, nucs, queens and education to both beekeepers and non-beekeepers.  A former educator, Bryan has been active in several local clubs, and is currently Vice President of the Colorado State Beekeeping Association and the lead for the Sustainability Committee.
Frederick Dunn

Frederick Dunn

The Amazing Honey Bee, A Closer Look
Fred is a Cornell University Certified Master Beekeeper. He documents honey bee behavior through video and macro images. His apiary of 43 colonies is located in Northwestern Pennsylvania. Fred shares about honey bees via social media as The Way To Bee.
Thomas Seeley

Thomas Seeley

Colony Thirst
Thomas D. Seeley is the Horace White Professor Emeritus in Biology at Cornell University. His research focuses on the behavior, social life, and ecology of honey bees. He has been an avid beekeeper since he was 16, hence for more than 50 years. He is the author of six books on honey bees, including Honeybee Democracy (2010), and Following the Wild Bees (2016), The Lives of Bees: The Untold Story of Honey Bees in the Wild (2019), and a new book titled Piping Hot Bees & Boisterous Buzz-Runners (2024).
KT Thompason

KT Thompason

Honey Judging & Master Beekeeper
KT grew up farming in Eastern Colorado, is currently the chemistry professor at Northeastern Junior College in Sterling, CO, & has taught beekeeping classes and workshops on a variety of topics (including her nutritional research). She is past president of the Eastern Colorado Beekeepers and currently serves as the Colorado State Beekeepers Association Treasurer & Master Beekeeping Program Director. KT has superintended the CSBA Big Money Honey contest for 4 consecutive years and is currently working to add some honey judge training to Colorado that will benefit those that administer and judge contests as well as those that are interested in competing in honey contests.
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VENDORS

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Bee Curious Makers Market
- Vendor Info -

Saturday, March 29 · 8am – 6pm MDT
Pathfinder Park Event Center
6655 CO-115, Florence, Colorado

This year it will be an outside event. For a minimal fee of $65 per booth we will allow 50 vendors from all over the state to come in and join us. We would perfer handmade, local product, such as woodworking, crafts, art, candles, baked goods, soaps, and natural products. Of course, we would love to see Honey!! You will be resposible to bring your own table, chairs and tents. It will be approx a 10×10 space per vendor. We ask that you donate one small gift for our hourly drawing. (Please include your business card.) This should be a very fun event!! The promotion for this event will be through Facebook, CSU Extension and Fremont County Extension offices. However , we also rely on you to promote the event through your own personal social media pages and share our flyers. Set up will be 7 am the morning of March 29th. Once you have purchased your ticket you will see an email from one of the committee chairs soon there after with more details! Hope to see ya there! Once you sign up we can not refund your money! All proceeds go toward education to the public.

********************RAIN or SHINE****************

 

Honey Contest

Please download the entry form, print, and bring along with your entry.

Extracted Honey Criteria
Beeswax Criteria
Chunk Comb Criteria
Honey Frame Criteria
Granulated / Creamed Criteria
Section Comb Criteria
Judging Standards
Contest Entry Form

Honey Swap

Silent Auction

Thanks to our GENEROUS donors–you can look forward to a trove of items to bid to buy during our Silent Auction.
Proceeds go towards our unique PCBA Scholarship Funds.

Steve Gibson Memorial Chance Drawing

Another favorite event is our abundant Chance Drawings–and wait till you see the amazing items up for grabs!
Proceeds go towards our unique PCBA Scholarship Funds.

About Steve Gibson
PCBA Steve Gibson Memorial Youth Scholarship
PCBA Youth AG Scholarship

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