The CCBA Bee Yard at CCCC
The Chatham County Beekeepers’ Association has built, nurtures, and maintains a bee yard on the Central Carolina Community College educational farm grounds in Pittsboro. The bee yard is home to standard Langstroth and horizontal hives. They are used to educate and mentor beekeepers with all ranges of experience.
Field Days are a special opportunity to be mentored while enjoying the camaraderie and generosity of fellow beekeepers. Our field days are open to the general public, as well as our members. We encourage everyone to experience these unique opportunities to experience honeybees up close.
We highly recommend wearing a veil and/or bee jacket, as well as a long-sleeved shirt and long pants to reduce the chance of stings. Each field day begins with a brief talk on bee management for that time of year and an open question/answer forum. We generally open up each hive and demonstrate use of the smoker, handling frames, identifying the queen, workers, drones and various stages of bee development. We also demonstrate how to test for varroa mites and discuss treatment. The field day is open to the public and generally lasts 2 hours or so.
View a slide show of our photo gallery here.
2024 FIELD DAY schedule
Generally, the third Saturday of each month. Depending on the weather, the time of day (and maybe adjusted date) will be set closer to the actual scheduled date.
- March 16 – 1:30 pm
- April 20 – 10:00am
- May 18 – 9:00am
- June 15 – 9:00am
- July 20 – 9:00am
- August 17 – 9:00am
- Sept 21 – 9:00am
- Oct 19 – 9:30am
VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES
Since its establishment several years ago, our CCCC bee yard has thrived beyond our wildest dreams, while providing a great learning environment for our newly minted beekeepers from our Beekeeping Schools. Lori Hawkins will be heading up the CCCC Bee Yard Committee this year, supported by a crew that includes master and journeymen beekeepers.
Serving on the committee is a wonderful way of learning more and gaining hands-on experience while enjoying your fellow beekeepers! Contact Lori for more information.
CCCC bee yard committee contact information
Lori Hawkins, group leader: lorithawkins@gmail.com
Other committee members include: David Jones, Phil Uptmor, Mimi Gussow, Pat Weisbrodt, and Nina Moore
Click here for directions to the CCCC campus (the student farm is on your left as you come in the main entrance off of Hwy 64).
