NEKBA Bee Funday

Join us for a day of beekeeping education and hands-on workshops! Featuring expert guest speakers, an open teaching apiary, and value-added talks. Enjoy lunch and honey ice cream!

GENERAL ADMISSION

Adult $50 fee

Children (3 - 14) $15 fee

NEKBA 2026 FUNDAY
Saturday, June 6th
8:00 AM - 5:00 PM CDT

Douglas County Fairgrounds
2120 Harper St.
Lawrence, KS 66046

🏨 Hotel Group Rate: We have reserved a block of rooms at Holiday Inn Express for Friday and Saturday nights, $139 per night. The hotel is located at 3411 S. Iowa St, Lawrence. Telephone number is 785-749-7555. The World Cup teams and visitors will be in the Kansas City area, including Lawrence, during this time frame so hotels may book up earlier or prices may be increased so we encourage you to make your plans earlier than usual this year. If you call in the code is Bee Keepers Meeting. 

🚙 Parking your RV or travel trailers will be allowed on the Douglas County Fairgrounds. There are sixteen sites that have electricity (30 amps & 50 amps each), NO water, parked on gravel, and the cost is $15 per night. There are eight sites that do NOT have electricity or water, parked on dirt/grass and there is no cost for these sites. You will need to make reservations for the sites. Contact Paige Vannicola at pvannicola@dgcoks.gov and provide her your arrival date and departure date. She will send you an electronic invoice that will need to be paid by credit card. If you have questions for Paige, she can also be reached by telephone at 785-832-5296.

EVENING PRESENTATION& DINNER

"Beekeeping in Jordan" – Prof. Mohammed

Additional $20 fee

Highlighting local beekeeping practices, key challenges, and the importance of honey bees in Jordanian agriculture. She will also discuss bee products (including honey, pollen, propolis, royal jelly, and beeswax), their importance, and practical methods for producing them.

NEW IN 2026: Interactive Sessions

Our interactive sessions are designed to help you grow your beekeeping skills with hands-on learning and real conversation. These aren’t just lectures, you’ll have the chance to ask questions, share experiences, and work through real-world hive situations alongside experienced beekeepers.

Key Note Address –

"Critical Thinking" - David Burns

Final Thoughts -

"Collective Intelligence in Honey Bees, and the Honey Bee Dance Language" - Dr. David Peck

Presentations –

• Honey Bee Nutrition:  When & What to Feed Your Bees - David Burns

• Varroa Mite Biology - Dr. David Peck

• Honey Bee Microscopy – Dr. Judy Wu-Smart

• Bee-Friendly Policy & Advocacy Training for Beekeepers – Dr. Judy Wu-Smart

• Hive Necropsies and What Stories the Dead Tell – Dr. Judy Wu-Smart

• Overview of the American Honey Institute and Their Testing Programs Underway – Brian P. McCornack, PhD 

Our local, NEKBA experienced beekeepers will present on:

• Beeswax Cappings to Candles – Joli Winer & Cecil Sweeney

• Make It and Take It Soap Making – Joli Winer.  An interactive session of making soap and taking home the soap you made.  Class size is limited to 25 so register early!

• Catching Free Bees & Successful Swarm Trapping – Tim Gogolski.  This presentation will discuss why you should consider catching swarms.  You will learn how to catch swarms, build your own swarm trap and how to move swarms into their new home.  The advantages to swarm trap monitoring will be discussed.

• Making Smoked Honey & Honey and Cheese Tasting – Mark Suckow.  In this class I will demonstrate the method I use to smoke honey.  There is much more to honey than its sweet taste especially when paired with the right cheese.  We will also pair a few local honeys with local cheese.  You will be able to evaluate the different flavor profiles, aromas, and textures of the cheese and how you feel the honey enhances the flavor of the cheese.

• The Beekeepers First Year – Jess Popp.  Jess will cover what to expect during your first year of beekeeping.

• Using Technology in Your Beekeeping Practice – Matt Brandes.  This presentation will review the various ways you can use technology to enhance your beekeeping practice.

• Creamed Honey Workshop – Buck Bradley.  This hands-on class guides you through the simple yet precise process of turning liquid honey into rich, velvety creamed honey your customers – or family – will love.  You’ll learn the basic of crystallization, step–by-step techniques, common pitfalls, and how to achieve a consistently smooth texture without expensive equipment.  Whether you’re a beekeeper looking to add a high-quality, value-added product to your line-up or a honey enthusiast eager to try something new, this class will give you the confidence to create a premium spreadable honey with ease.  

• Grow With It:  Plants to Feed the Bees – Jo Patrick.  Learn about nectar and pollen sources for honey bees in NE KS and Western MO.  This session will be of benefit to both novice and seasoned gardeners.  Jo will share what she has learned about food sources for honey bees and will provide resources you can use.

• Making Splits – Kristi Sanderson.  An interactive session on making splits.

HANDS ON INTERACTIVE SESSIONS

• Inspecting Your Hive and how to Accomplish It All In 12 Minutes – David Burns

In addition to learning how to inspect your hive, will include mite sampling, lighting a smoker, and hive tool manipulation for new beekeepers. Items to bring: veil, bee jacket, smoker (if you want to practice.)

• Soap Making – Joli Winer

  • limited to 25 participants

  • Age Limit: 12+ under 18 must have a PAID adult to accompany them

• Making Splits – Kristi Sanderson

• Varroa Mite Biology - Dr. David Peck will provide an interactive session on How to Apply All Sorts of Miticides, using dummy versions of many miticides to demonstrate applying treatments in either live or dummy hives.

• Troubleshooting Hive Problems & Dealing with Troubled Queens - Dr. Judy Wu-Smart

OUR SPEAKERS:

David Burns David started beekeeping in the early 1990s and started a beekeeping business several years later. In 2006 David began blogging and uploading beekeeping videos to YouTube. His YouTube channel has grown to around 154,000 subscribers. He also produces a weekly beekeeping podcast.In 2020 David & Sheri were approached by Rockridge press to write the book “Backyard Beekeeping: Everything You Need to Know to Start Your First Hive.” He has produced a suite of online beekeeping courses that have become very popular among new beekeepers.David produces queens, nucs and packages. To make sure beekeepers had the best and latest scientific information on bees and beekeeping, David became a Certified Master Beekeeper through the Eastern Apicultural Society (2010). He also writes a weekly column for Bee Culture Magazine.

David Peck

Since 2024 Dr. Peck has served as the Academic Advisor for the Eastern Apicultural Society's Certified Master Beekeeper program. David researches honey bee behavior and the evolutionary host-parasite relationship between bees and Varroa mites. Since completing his doctoral work in Cornell’s Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Dr. Peck has done field research and consulted to protect bees in both Newfoundland, Canada, and Anosy, Madagascar. He left Cornell to move to Greenwich, New York, where he now works for Betterbee. Dr. Peck develops and teaches classes on beekeeping and bee biology, bridges the gap between cutting-edge bee science and the beekeeping industry, and conducts research to improve our understanding of bee biology and to help keep honey bees healthy.

Prof. Amal Abdallah Mohammed is a Professor of Apiculture at Al-Balqa Applied University (BAU), Jordan, with extensive experience in teaching and research in honey bee biology, health, and sustainable beekeeping management. She previously served as the Dean of the Faculty of Agricultural Technology and is currently the Dean of Scientific Research and Innovation at BAU. Prof. Mohammed has received support for and contributed to several international projects focused on sustainable agriculture, research development, and innovation. She has been invited as a keynote speaker at numerous scientific conferences and professional events across several Arab countries, sharing expertise in apiculture, pollinator health, and the importance of bees for food security and ecosystem sustainability. She is currently a Visiting Research Scholar at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln Bee Lab, hosted by Dr. Judy Wu-Smart, where she is engaged in research collaboration and outreach activities related to honey bee health and management.

Dr. Judy Wu-Smart (Associate Professor and Extension Specialist) has directed the University of Nebraska–Lincoln Bee Lab since 2015, where she leads a pollinator health program focused on identifying key stressors affecting bee health, including pests, diseases, and pesticide exposure. Her team also emphasizes community engagement, improving science literacy around pollinator and farm-to-table issues, and developing policy and advocacy training that empowers stakeholders to engage effectively in decision-making processes that support the beekeeping industry and pollinator conservation efforts. Learn more about programs and training opportunities at the UNL Bee Lab (https://beelab.unl.edu/) and Great Plains Master Beekeeping (https://gpmb.unl.edu/) websites, or follow the lab on Facebook.

Brian P. McCornack, PhD – is a professor and department head of entomology in Kansas State University's College of Agriculture, a co-director of engagement of the Institute for Digital Agriculture and Advanced Analytics (ID3A), and leads the American Honey Institute's honey testing program. His research and extension programs focus on insect sampling methodologies, ecosystem services and integrated pest and pollinator management strategies. He integrates remote sensing technologies and autonomous systems to improve insect monitoring and management using computer vision and machine learning. McCornack also develops web-based decision support tools and digital delivery methods to support real-time decisions and technology adoption.

Joli Winer & Cecil Sweeney – Joli Winer and Cecil Sweeney were both beekeepers when they met at an EAS meeting 39 years ago. They were married 3 months later! Joli only married Cecil because he had a Dadant 6/12 electric extractor and Joli only had a 4-frame hand extractor. They are from Spring Hill Kansas and sell their honey at the Overland Park Farmers Market and the Brookside Farmers Market.  They make a lot of value-added products to sell at their markets, and they love sharing their knowledge with others. They have been officers in both the Kansas Honey Producers Association and the Northeastern Beekeepers Association (NEKBA) and the Midwestern Beekeepers Association. They make a lot of beeswax candles – dipped and poured. Joli has been a soapmaker for 20 years.

Joli enjoys all aspects of beekeeping, except kneeling down and bending over. She has been a beekeeper since 1972 when she worked for a queen breeder in California. She and her husband currently have about 175 hives and sell honey at two farmers markets. They sell at the Overland Park Farmers Market and the Brookside Farmers Market. They make a lot of value-added products to sell at their markets. Creamed honey, comb honey, beeswax wraps, beeswax candles, lip balms, cold-process soaps, lotion bars and pet balms to name a few. They are always happy to share recipes and tips on how to make these products. She has made cold-process soap for about 20 years.