As beekeepers we give the bees a house, we check in on them periodically, we feed our bee friends through the dearth and bring them water when there’s a dry spell. We hope we’ve done right by them and that they have everything they want and that they will repay us with a harvest of honey.

But are we giving them the best conditions?

That is the question we will ponder that the next meeting of the Leatherstocking Beekeepers’ Association, featuring a presentation on Natural Beekeeping and Cutouts by Bill Kaufman where he will share what he has learned over his many years of examining feral bees from cutouts and what their hives look like.

The next meeting of the Leatherstocking Beekeepers’ Association will be held at 6:30 p.m. with the presentation starting at 7 p.m. on October 22, 2026, in the Louis C. Jones Center at the Fenimore Farm and Country Village (formerly The Farmers’ Museum) at 5775 State Highway 80, Cooperstown.

Up and down the temperature has ranged this year. We turn on our air conditioning but how do the bees handle these heatwaves?

That will be the topic of discussion at this month’s meeting of the Leatherstocking Beekeepers’ Association.

Our usual introductions will be followed by a fishbowl discussion of how bees handle climate control in the ever changing climate of upstate New York and what we can do to help them. That will be followed by the monthly activities.

We will also be holding a sign up for a group purchase of woodenware and a workshop hosted by our own Mike Hoyt to assemble and paint the boxes.

The discussion will be followed by our regular business meeting.

The meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. with discussion starting at 7 p.m., not at the Louis C. Jones Center, but at the newly reopened Research Library next to the Fenimore Art Museum at 5798 State Highway 80, Cooperstown.

We’ll Bee seeing you there!