A local beekeeper will speak at our Sippican Woman’s Club meeting on Friday, February 9. We meet at 12:15 pm for finger-foods, tea/coffee and sweets and a time to socialize. A business meeting follows at 1:00 pm. At 1:30 pm, our program on bees will begin.
Nerija Kupryte-Hopkins known as Nettie lives in Rochester with her husband Tom. Nettie has a knack with our Native bees. Nettie learned the art and science of beekeeping from her father in her native country of Lithuania. Nettie’s early learning was embellished in attending the university where she studied agriculture and earned degrees in bees and pollination.
It was years later, after marriage and two children, she landed in Rochester and her skills and interest in bees were rekindled, as she worked with local cranberry growers. Today she not only assists local growers and aspiring beekeepers, she also harvests her own honey and has a “honey house” where she sells natural by-products from her hives — candles, lip balms, creams, elderberry syrup, tinctures, pollen, tea, beeswax and honey. There she offers bee therapy as the sounds and smells of bees are used for calming. A hive has up to 50,000 bees. Nettie and Tom have about 300,000 bees in their on-site hives. A hive contains about 50,000 bees.
Bring your questions re: bees, their predators (ticks and mites), honey (why we should buy local honey not commercial or Chinese, etc.), what flowering plants attract bees, upkeep of hives in winter, feeding in winter months, keeping the hive population in check, etc.
Our meetings are open to the public. We meet at our clubhouse a/k/a “Handy’s Tavern”, 152 Front Street, Marion. Parking is available in the lot across from the Music Hall at the bandstand off Island Wharf Road. Membership is open to any woman whose interests are in the Town of Marion. We normally meet on the second Friday of the month during the months of September to March with an Annual meeting on the last Friday in April. See our website at www.sippicanwomansclub.org.