Treatment Free Bee Keeping

MAY 09, 2018 GUEST SPEAKER IS BILL CASTRO!

Bill Castro of Bee Friendly Apiary in Baltimore will speak about Treatment Free Beekeeping.
The Bee Friendly Apiary believes in good stewardship for bees. By using Russian honey bees and selecting from bee colonies with strong natural characteristics that keep them healthy, they successfully raises a domesticated strain of bees that have adapted to the Baltimore region and the challenges that are present. This helps to eliminate the need for conventional apiary interventions like medications and treatments.
Bill believes the bees are our mentors. He lets the bees show him what they need him to provide for them. By having a firm understanding about the special needs of bees, we can use the natural abilities bees possess in order to help keep them strong and healthy.

Bill's Background, in his own words:

I was born and raised in San Diego, California in 1969. My experience with keeping bees started in 1977. I was raised on what is today called a half acre urban homestead. My mother raised me to appreciate nature and animals with a yard filled with dogs, cats, chickens, ducks, geese, rabbits, parrots, pigeons, guinea pigs, rats, turtles, and many other small animals. As a kid I raised and sold mice to pet stores. As I grew into adulthood and started to move across the country with my wife, I kept bees as a backyard hobby in Colorado for 10 years using only feral swarm stock. I was immediately interested in keeping my bees using natural methods. My wife was deployed to Maryland in 2008 and we moved to Annapolis, where I restarted my apiary, now called Bee Friendly Apiary, at the home we rented. In 2010 we purchased our current home and I immediately expanded the apiary to include removals of honeybees from buildings, retrieving swarms, and lecturing about the importance of honeybees and all pollinators. Over the years living here in Maryland, I have grown the apiary from 4 colonies to about 100 by raising my own queens and colonies from russian and feral based stock.  I strive to keep the bees as naturally as possible.