Southern Maryland Beekeepers Grow Community Through Education and Stewardship

LEONARDTOWN, Md. — Inside a meeting room at the Leonardtown Library, a group of Southern Maryland residents gathered to learn the basics of beekeeping, a practice local advocates say is vital to agriculture, the environment and individual fulfillment.

The session was part of the Association of Southern Maryland Beekeepers (ASMB) Beginner Beekeeper 101 course, a multi-week program designed to introduce residents to the fundamentals of hive management, bee health and pollinator conservation.

The nonprofit organization works across St. Mary’s, Calvert and Charles counties to support beekeepers while educating the public about the role honey bees play in local and regional ecosystems.

A Mission Rooted In Education And Community

Diane Wellons, president of the association, described ASMB as a long-standing, volunteer-driven organization focused on education and engagement, operating across the tri-county region since 1976 and recently formalized as a nonprofit.

Wellons explained that the organization’s primary mission is to train new beekeepers through structured programs, including boot camps and its Beginner Beekeeper 101 course, where volunteers guide participants through the fundamentals of hive management, equipment use and cost expectations.

“We are an education organization, and for the last five weeks, about 20 volunteers have been teaching a brand-new generation of beekeepers here in Southern Maryland,” Wellons said. “This is the deep dive into beekeeping here in Southern Maryland — what do you need to know, what kind of equipment you need and how much is it going to cost.”

The training model combines lecture-based instruction with hands-on breakout sessions, allowing participants to interact directly with equipment, try on protective gear and better understand the inner workings of a hive.

ASMB leaders say their mission is twofold: to help beekeepers succeed and to ensure the broader community understands the importance of pollinators.

According to ASMB materials, the group “offers support to beekeepers and education to the public about the mighty honey bee,” helping members develop new skills while promoting environmental stewardship across the region.

ASMB membership is open to anyone interested, regardless of experience level, and meetings are held throughout the year across the tri-county area, often featuring guest speakers and hands-on demonstrations.

Learning By Doing

The Beginner Beekeeper 101 course combines classroom instruction with hands-on experience, culminating in an apiary field day where participants suit up and work directly with bees.

The program covers everything from hive setup and sourcing bees to pest management and seasonal care strategies.

Participants gain exposure to Integrated Pest Management practices and common threats to hive health, including mites and disease — challenges that experienced beekeepers say are part of the learning curve.

The program is designed as both an entry point and a foundation for long-term involvement, with mentorship opportunities available for those continuing in the craft.

Wellons emphasized that the mentorship is a critical component of the program, with new beekeepers paired with experienced members for ongoing, hands-on training in local apiaries, often on a weekly basis.

“If you’re interested in being one of my apprentices, you show up in my yard three hours a week, and I teach you beekeeping hands-on in a controlled environment,” Wellons said. “The nice part about beekeeping in Southern Maryland is that you’re not alone.”

The hands-on learning approach is designed to improve success in beekeeping, particularly in response to high colony loss rates nationwide, where roughly half of managed hives fail each year.

“More than 50% of the managed colonies in the country die every single year,” Wellons said. “We’re changing that statistic here in Southern Maryland.”

Wellons also highlighted the organization’s strong community culture, describing it as welcoming and collaborative, with members from diverse professional backgrounds who support one another throughout the learning process.

More Than A Hobby

While beekeeping is often seen as a niche hobby, ASMB members describe it as a gateway into environmental stewardship, agriculture and community engagement.

Billy Burroughs described himself as both an association member and a success story from the ASMB’s training program. He said the class he once took is what first drew him into beekeeping and ultimately helped him build a sustainable family business.

“I’ve been beekeeping for four years, and this class is what I took that got me interested in beekeeping,” Burroughs said.

Burroughs explained that the course was previously offered through the College of Southern Maryland, but this year marks the first time the association has organized and presented the class on its own across multiple locations, while also adding a new field day component that gives participants direct hands-on experience in an apiary.

“This is the first year that we’re doing it on our own, and we made some changes to the course content,” Burroughs said. “We never had the field day before this.”

Burroughs said he originally learned about the program through the group’s outreach booth at a county fair, where the association promoted classes and engaged visitors with live bees and educational displays. At the time, he was looking for a new agricultural income stream to diversify his farm.

“They were promoting the class at the fair, and that’s how I found out about it,” Burroughs said. “I was looking for something different to add to my farm operation, something that I could leave as a legacy to my kids.”

The course helped Burroughs determine whether beekeeping could be viable within his farm operation, and he credited Wellons with helping him make that decision, saying her presentation and willingness to serve as a mentor gave him confidence that beekeeping could work on a commercial and practical level.

“Diane was the one that pushed me over the edge,” Burroughs said. “She was willing to be my mentor as well.”

The mentorship made a difference for Burroughs, and he said beyond standard classroom learning, being paired with active beekeepers set him up for success.

Burroughs said his family now runs Bees & Beans, a business built around hive products and his daughter’s coffee roasting operation, and that the venture has been both sustainable and profitable while helping preserve the family farm as agricultural land.

“It’s been great. We’ve been able to profit from it,” Burroughs said.

Burroughs explained that selling products at farmers markets also created opportunities to educate the public about bee health and the environmental role of honey bees. The range of products that he sells extend beyond honey, including wax, propolis and pollen, which can be sold raw or used to make value-added products such as lip balms, creams, throat sprays and food wraps.

“We take bees with us in an observation hive to every market, weather permitting, and we’re able to talk about bees there at the market,” Burroughs said. “Most people just think of honey when they think about bees. They don’t always recognize all the other things the bees provide.”

Why Beekeeping Matters

The work of local beekeepers connects to a much larger environmental picture.

Honey bees play a critical role in pollinating crops and supporting food systems, with roughly 35% of global food crops relying on pollination to some degree, according to national research.

However, bee populations have faced ongoing challenges in recent decades, including disease, habitat loss, pesticide exposure and climate-related stressors.

Allan Storm, seasonal apiary inspector for the Maryland Department of Agriculture, described the association’s Beginner Beekeeper 101 course as part of a broader annual effort in Southern Maryland to introduce new and prospective beekeepers to the basics of hive management, seasonal care and bee health.

Storm said his role in the class is to provide education on pests, diseases and best management practices, particularly threats such as the varroa mite that directly affect managed honey bee colonies.

“We’re here for the education part for what comes to pests and diseases,” Storm said. “The most important part is understanding varroa mite, or Varroa destructor.”

Storm said other pests discussed in class include small hive beetles and wax moths, but emphasized that varroa remains the primary concern for most beekeepers trying to keep colonies healthy. He underscored the importance of honey bees in Maryland agriculture, noting that they provide pollination services for a range of crops.

“Honey bees are extremely important and are used for a lot of services in Maryland when it comes to pollination services,” Storm said. “Your watermelons, your pumpkins, your cucumbers, apple trees, things like that are used a lot of times for honey bees and for pollination.”

Storm said managed honey bees suffered an estimated 62% loss rate in 2024 among surveyed commercial beekeepers.

“A lot of that is due to what we think is the varroa mite, and therefore the transmission of the viruses that the varroa mite transfers to the honey bees,” Storm said. “Classes like this help people understand the treatments needed to keep bees healthy.”

Storm also highlighted the regulatory side of beekeeping in Maryland, noting that residents are required to register their bees within 30 days and that the Department of Agriculture provides guidance on laws, rules and inspection resources. He said interest in beekeeping remains high across Maryland, with many county and regional associations or clubs seeing high demand for classes.

“Each club usually has an average of over 50 individuals that are looking to become a beekeeper,” Storm said.

Mentorship, according to Storm, remains one of the most effective ways to improve success, as new beekeepers tend to do better when they can shadow an experienced beekeeper rather than trying to manage colonies on their own.

“Beekeepers are a lot more successful if they work with a mentor instead of just trying to go on their own,” Storm said.

The ASMB classes and networking opportunities help strengthen the beekeeping community, and Storm praised Maryland’s beekeeping community as particularly strong with their education. He said that the state has active associations, experienced master beekeepers and a culture that helps new beekeepers access reliable information.

For the public, Storm said one of the simplest ways to support local beekeeping is to buy honey from local producers, both to support those operations and to know where the product came from.

“Buy local honey from a local beekeeper,” Storm said. “You know where your honey has come from, you know it has not been adulterated, and you’re supporting that beekeeper.”

Building The Next Generation Of Beekeepers

ASMB leaders said one of their biggest goals is growing interest among younger residents and first-time beekeepers. Classes, outreach programs and public events are all designed to make beekeeping approachable — and to replace the fear around bees with an understanding.

Joseph Myers, an association member, described the ASMB’s annual Beekeeping 101 course as an introductory program designed for people who are either seriously considering beekeeping or simply curious and looking to better understand what the practice involves.

“We arm them with the different facets of beekeeping, such as equipment, what it’s going to cost to get into beekeeping, the ups and downs of beekeeping,” Myers said. “We talk about the differences of hives and how you can be a backyard beekeeper or a larger operation.”

Myers said that the educational value of the program extends beyond prospective beekeepers, saying the public can also benefit by learning more about the effects of pesticides, invasive pests such as varroa mites and small hive beetles, and the broader challenges facing bee health.

“When we are more transparent with the public on these different issues that impact bees, they’re better educated at the end of the day,” Myers said.

The association’s meetings are open to the public every other month, providing another avenue for residents to ask questions and seek guidance on issues such as swarms, pesticide use and protecting bees in residential or agricultural settings.

“Every other month we have an association meeting, a club meeting, and that’s open to the public,” Myers said. “It offers a platform for the public, should they have a question to bring to the association.”

Myers said one of the group’s goals is to make bees less intimidating to the public by offering transparency and context, helping people understand that while bees may sting in defense, they are not simply aggressors and play an important role in the environment.

For many involved, the reward goes beyond honey production. It’s about connection — to the environment, to agriculture and to each other.

The organization is also preparing to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2026, marking decades of education, mentorship and community engagement in Southern Maryland. 

The anniversary celebration will be June 13, at the Charles County Fairgrounds. The event starts at 8 a.m., and that day there will be a meeting with guest speakers and an Improve Your Bee Knowledge presentation.

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