Bee alive beekeeping conference & expo September 23 & 24, 2023
Beekeepers Together, Make Beekeeping Better
What to Expect
Enjoy a weekend of all things beekeeping!
Relax and enjoy captivating talks from some of the best speakers in the beekeeping world. Shop with awesome vendors that will have just about anything you may want or need. Exciting Q&A round table discussions and up close and personal chats with industry leaders and other beekeepers from across the U.S.
Join the amazing honey show to see if your products have what it takes to win.
Just 25 miles north of New Orleans, nestled in a region of Louisiana called "The Northshore", Slidell is a great place for lots of shopping and great food choices.
Follow our Facebook page for live updates: Bee Alive Beekeeping Conference & Expo
THE HARBOR CENTER
100 HARBOR CENTER BLVD.
SLIDELL,LA 70461
Our Speakers
Bob Binnie
Randy McCaffrey (628 Dirt Rooster)
Cory Stevens
Bob Binnie is a commercial beekeeper and honey packer located in the southern Appalachian Mountains of northeast Georgia and for over thirty years has been doing business under the name of Blue Ridge Honey Company in Lakemont, Georgia.
Bob initially became involved with migratory commercial beekeeping in Oregon in 1981 and due to operatin
Bob Binnie is a commercial beekeeper and honey packer located in the southern Appalachian Mountains of northeast Georgia and for over thirty years has been doing business under the name of Blue Ridge Honey Company in Lakemont, Georgia.
Bob initially became involved with migratory commercial beekeeping in Oregon in 1981 and due to operating as both a pollinator and honey producer has managed bees in nine states.
Voted 2003 Beekeeper of The Year in Georgia, Bob has also been President of the Georgia Beekeepers Association, the Northeast Georgia Beekeepers Association and the Macon County Beekeepers Association in Franklin, North Carolina.
Cory Stevens
Randy McCaffrey (628 Dirt Rooster)
Cory Stevens
Cory Stevens comes to us from his 27 acre farm in Bloomfield, MO, which he manages for wildlife and pollinator habitat. Cory and his wife Jaime own Stevens Bee Company where they select for mite resistant VSH stock. Cory is the Past President of Missouri State Beekeepers Association. Cory holds a MS degree in entomology from University of
Cory Stevens comes to us from his 27 acre farm in Bloomfield, MO, which he manages for wildlife and pollinator habitat. Cory and his wife Jaime own Stevens Bee Company where they select for mite resistant VSH stock. Cory is the Past President of Missouri State Beekeepers Association. Cory holds a MS degree in entomology from University of Nebraska- Lincoln. He was certified as a Master Beekeeper by EAS in 2013, and trained by Sue Cobey in 2014 to instrumentally inseminate queen bees. He slips bees into random conversation with strangers, and annoys his wife by constantly talking about bees.
Randy McCaffrey (628 Dirt Rooster)
Randy McCaffrey (628 Dirt Rooster)
Randy McCaffrey (628 Dirt Rooster)
Randy McCaffrey has 32 years as a contractor and structural claims specialist. In 2010 at the age of forty he assisted his brother in the removal of a honey bee colony from an old furniture warehouse. This experience began his development of a fascination with honey bees. In 2010 armed with his knowledge of construction and his new found
Randy McCaffrey has 32 years as a contractor and structural claims specialist. In 2010 at the age of forty he assisted his brother in the removal of a honey bee colony from an old furniture warehouse. This experience began his development of a fascination with honey bees. In 2010 armed with his knowledge of construction and his new found fascination with bees he began removing and relocating feral bee colonies from commercial and residential structures along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. As of January of 2023, the number of cut outs (hive removals/relocations) he has done total nearly one thousand and swarm catches total approximately five hundred.
Randy typically keeps forty to fifty colonies of his own but regularly works alongside large commercial beekeeping operations purely for the enjoyment and education to be gained. His family, including himself, his father and his brother, keep approximately two hundred and fifty colonies total. Much of his work with bee removals includes mite load and disease resistance studies in feral or otherwise chemically untreated honey bee colonies. He video records much of his work which he shares through social media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram and TikTok to help educate, entertain, and inspire current and future generations of beekeepers. His work can be found on most large social media platforms under the channel name 628DirtRooster with the tagline “Where Hobby Beekeeping Is a Way Of Life”.
Randy along with his wife Elizabeth are continuing to grow their beekeeping and mentoring business. They recently added a subsidiary named Coastal Grove Bee Works which will focus on mentoring beekeepers, honey sales and a lady’s beekeeping apparel line.
Earl Hoffman
Jeff Horchoff (Mr. Ed )
Randy McCaffrey (628 Dirt Rooster)
Earl Hoffman is a certified EAS Master Beekeeper with 35+ years of beekeeping experience. Earl is a second-generation beekeeper, and together with his wife Carol, they manage a 40-acre farm in Michigan. As side liner beekeepers, they raise queens in Michigan and provide pollination services to a local organic vegetable farm. Earl and Caro
Earl Hoffman is a certified EAS Master Beekeeper with 35+ years of beekeeping experience. Earl is a second-generation beekeeper, and together with his wife Carol, they manage a 40-acre farm in Michigan. As side liner beekeepers, they raise queens in Michigan and provide pollination services to a local organic vegetable farm. Earl and Carol have been working with microbials in their apiary since 2014. They own Essential Honeybees LLC, a South Dakota business, and they collaborate with scientific organizations such as Strong Microbials Inc. to help the advancement of sustainable solutions for beekeeping.
Presetation: The Microbial Shield
Jeff Horchoff (Mr. Ed )
Jeff Horchoff (Mr. Ed )
Jeff Horchoff (Mr. Ed )
Bees have been a passion of mine for over 20 years, but that passion was never fully realized until I became the lone bee wrangler for a group of Benedictine monks at Saint Joseph Abbey in Southeast Louisiana, about 50 miles north of New Orleans. It was there that I began seeing bees in a different light, a marvel of God's creation.
As I
Bees have been a passion of mine for over 20 years, but that passion was never fully realized until I became the lone bee wrangler for a group of Benedictine monks at Saint Joseph Abbey in Southeast Louisiana, about 50 miles north of New Orleans. It was there that I began seeing bees in a different light, a marvel of God's creation.
As I had every intention of becoming a monk, and I spent over 12 years discerning that vocation, the prayer life seeped into my everyday life, and this greatly influenced my beekeeping practices.
As the fledgling Abbee Honey Operation at St. Joseph was just beginning, as well as my Youtube channel about the bees at the abbey, the flood of 2016 hit, causing over 33 million dollars in damage to the abbey and washing away the 30 hives we had .
I had to make the decision, to call it quits or move forward. Well, I chose the harder route and aggressively began building up colonies by doing removals, making splits, and catching swarms. And God blessed the proceedings. We went from zero hives in 2016 to over 200 last year. This year we scaled down to 150 which is where I want to stay.
As I said earlier, I discerned the monastic life for over 12 years, but the vows I took at the end of this September were not religious vows. Instead, they were marriage vows and I married Mona whom I met from my Youtube channel. Thank you Jesus!
- Mr Ed
Blake Shook
Jeff Horchoff (Mr. Ed )
Jeff Horchoff (Mr. Ed )
Blake started his beekeeping journey 20 years ago at 12 years old as a small scale hobby beekeeper. Over the past 2 decades, the business has grown significantly with the help of an incredible team. It is now a migratory commercial beekeeping operation with 10,000 hives, a bulk bee supply company (Desert Creek Bulk Bees) , a honey packi
Blake started his beekeeping journey 20 years ago at 12 years old as a small scale hobby beekeeper. Over the past 2 decades, the business has grown significantly with the help of an incredible team. It is now a migratory commercial beekeeping operation with 10,000 hives, a bulk bee supply company (Desert Creek Bulk Bees) , a honey packing company (Desert Creek Honey), a chain of hobby beekeeping stores (Texas Bee Supply) and a commercial bee supply store (Commercial Bee Supply).
Blake married his high school sweetheart in 2011, and has two beautiful daughters. He also serves on the National Honey Board and on the board of the American Beekeeping Federation.
Travis Ulbrich (Yappy Bee Man)
Travis Ulbrich (Yappy Bee Man)
Travis Ulbrich (Yappy Bee Man)
Yappy Beeman has been in the bee removal buisness and keeping bees for 10 years. His experiences has given him understandings of the bees actions and how they survive in Nature on a different level. Yappy will share with us what he has learned about the mind of the hive as a collective and inspire a deeper understanding of the honeybee.
Jennifer Futrell Evans
Travis Ulbrich (Yappy Bee Man)
Travis Ulbrich (Yappy Bee Man)
Owns Whiskey Trail Bees, LLC with her husband Stanley Evans. Jennifer has a
Master’s Degree in Business Management and is also a Master Beekeeper. From the inception of their
first hive, she was hooked on bees. Growing their apiary led to the development of their small business,
Whiskey Trail Bees. This has allowed her to not only be a beeke
Owns Whiskey Trail Bees, LLC with her husband Stanley Evans. Jennifer has a
Master’s Degree in Business Management and is also a Master Beekeeper. From the inception of their
first hive, she was hooked on bees. Growing their apiary led to the development of their small business,
Whiskey Trail Bees. This has allowed her to not only be a beekeeper but also an educator on all things bees (she will talk to anyone that will listen about the importance of bees and where our food comes from). Jennifer has created a skincare product line based on her belief that nature has many of the things we need. Her products are now in amusement parks, resorts, parks, and their local community stores. She is an advocate for the support of small business in the USA.
Stanley Evans
Travis Ulbrich (Yappy Bee Man)
Dr. Erica Shelley
Is the owner of SJS Machine, LLC an automation, manufacturing, and design
engineering company. Along with his wife Jennifer Futrell Evans he also owns Whiskey Trail Bees. He is a delegate for the Tennessee Beekeepers Association, a founding member of The
Lincoln County Beekeepers Association, and a mentor for Hives for Heros. Stanley was bo
Is the owner of SJS Machine, LLC an automation, manufacturing, and design
engineering company. Along with his wife Jennifer Futrell Evans he also owns Whiskey Trail Bees. He is a delegate for the Tennessee Beekeepers Association, a founding member of The
Lincoln County Beekeepers Association, and a mentor for Hives for Heros. Stanley was born and
raised in the agricultural industry growing up on a dairy farm in Tennessee where they also had
bees and he learned the basics of beekeeping. Stanley is now a Master Beekeeper and along with
beekeeping he has taken his engineering background to develop and create innovative products
for the industry. These include EZ Bee Stand, which adjusts to uneven terrain and makes access
to the hives easier for those with disabilities.
Dr. Erica Shelley
Dr. Erica Shelley
Dr. Erica Shelley
Meet Dr. Erica Shelley, the friendly and dedicated CEO of Best for Bees, hailing from Ontario, Canada, just outside Toronto. With 13 years of beekeeping experience, Erica started beekeeping for the honey. Little did she know what was coming! Best for Bees keeps urban rooftop hives for companies, backyard and rural apiaries, showcasing o
Meet Dr. Erica Shelley, the friendly and dedicated CEO of Best for Bees, hailing from Ontario, Canada, just outside Toronto. With 13 years of beekeeping experience, Erica started beekeeping for the honey. Little did she know what was coming! Best for Bees keeps urban rooftop hives for companies, backyard and rural apiaries, showcasing our commitment to beekeeping across diverse environments.
Notably, Erica is the inventor of ProtectaBEE, an essential beekeeping tool for protecting bees, and she has also pioneered the first bee vectoring system INTO a beehive, ingeniously designed to deliver solutions directly to a beehive. These groundbreaking innovations further reinforce Best for Bees' commitment to bee health and conservation.
Under Erica's leadership, Best for Bees specializes in bee health research, consulting, and product development. The company's innovative approach involves using beekeepers to crowdsource data, collaborating to improve bee health on a larger scale. Best for Bees is set to unveil its groundbreaking BeeSage app in 2024, revolutionizing beekeeping like never before by simplifying beekeeping, even for experts.
Driven by a passion for bees and their well-being, Best for Bees is leading the way in the world's most extensive beekeeping study, examining correlations between weather, mite populations, disease prevalence, and honeybee mortality. By joining Erica and the Best for Bees community, you become part of a collective effort to save the bees and contribute to preserving our bees and the world's ecosystem. Let's make a buzz for a better tomorrow!