President | Arthur Kubogamell | president@gilroybeekeepers.org |
Vice President | Curt Cotner | vp@gilroybeekeepers.org |
Secretary |
Chris Burnett | secretary@gilroybeekeepers.org |
Treasurer | Mike Kurtz | treasurer@gilroybeekeepers.org |
Communications | James Haskell | commdir@gilroybeekeepers.org |
Board Member | Roark Diters | diters@verizon.net |
Board Member | Steve Mink | stevejmink@gmail.com |
Member Survey
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Members Content
Recordings
Videos of General Meeting presentations, and other members-only content, click here.
Board of Directors
Members
Club Business
Documents
Recent Posts
- Santa Cruz County Fair
- Becoming a Beekeeper – Free Class in October!
- Extraction Party
- Generous Donation by Bob Weseloh and Family
- Santa Cruz County Fair
- August Meetings
- Scenes From the June General Meeting
- General Meeting
- Extraction Party
- Scouts at the Apiary
- Website Resources
- Earth Day at Spreckle’s Hill
- Storms hit beekeepers, but honey outlook’s sweet
- Earth Day
- Nucs!
- Swarm Class
- Checkerboarding
- Peggi
- Videos
- 2023 Classes
Equipment
Current GBA Members can reserve club equipment.
Member Directory
This content is restricted.
Members
GBA members have access to:
- Members-only Content - including past meeting recordings and speakers.
- Forum - Ask questions, search for previous comments, and coordinate events and planning in the GBA Forum.
- Equipment Reservations - access to the club extractors.
How to Log In
- Use the email you registered with.
- First time logging in? Forgot your password? Request a password reset if it's the first time you've logged in, or if you're unsure of your password. Here's how:
- Click below to login.
- Click on "Lost your password?".
- Enter the email address you used when you created your membership to GBA.
- You will receive an email with a password reset link.

- NOTE: this is not the old "members only" password. This is your private password that you can set. The old "members only" password is no longer used!
Click here to log in.
Membership
Here are some of the exciting things coming for our members in 2023:
- More in-person meetings. It will be great to see each other in person!
- Classes. We plan to have a four-course series “Getting Through the First Year”, and a free, introductory “Becoming a Beekeeper” classes. Click here for details.
- Social Hive Dives. We meet at a member’s apiary, work with the bees, and hang out and share some food and drink. It’s a great opportunity to ask questions and get some hands-on experience. See the Calendar for more information.
- Nucs. Club members are first in line for Nucs from the club apiary. This will be an easy way to get a healthy, established colony at a good price.
- Club Apiary. Thanks to Steve Mink's efforts, GBA has a club apiary just south of Gilroy. We will be having regular events and classes here, as well as raising Nucs.
- Mutual support and mentor visits.
Join us! Please become a GBA member!
NOTE: we have a 3 month "grace period". If you registered after Oct 1, then you are registered for the next calendar year. For example, if you registered after Oct 1, 2022, then you are registered for all of 2023.
MEMBERSHIP REGISTRATION
Create or renew a GBA membership
Please tell us more about how we can help and support you. Please take our short survey here.
Members only – general and mid meeting presentations
As a member of the Gilroy Beekeepers Association, you have access to this Members Only page.
Come back to see video presentations of guest presenters or GBA member presentations you may have missed or wish to see again.
RECORDINGS 2020-2021
At the request of guest presenters, please do not share these videos with non-members.
GUEST PRESENTERS:
Bee Banking – Ellen Topizhofer (June 2021)
What’s in My Pollen – Dr. Kirsten Traynor (May 2021)
Treatment-free Varroa Control – Ross Conrad (Apr 2021)
The Game of Drones – Julia Mahood (Mar 2021)
Methods for Re-queening Hives – Zac Lamas (Feb 2021)
Miticides affecting Honey Bee Queens – Dr. Liz Walsh (Jan 2021)
Swarm Essentials – Stephen Repasky (Dec 2020)
Bees as Seeds – Melanie Kirby (Nov 2020)
Beez Kneez – Kristy Allen (Oct 2020)
GBA MEMBER PRESENTATIONS:
Mid-year hive maintenance (member hives courtesy Steve, Chris & Chris) June 2021
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Preparing your hive for honey (discussion with Sara & Arthur) May 2021 – Part 2 of 2
Preparing your hive for honey (slideshow – courtesy Jamie) May 2021 – Part 1 of 2
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How’s our hive? New colonies (nucs, bee packages) and existing bee colonies – Sara & Arthur (Apr 2021) – Part 2 of 2
How’s our hive? New colonies (nucs, bee packages) and existing bee colonies – Sara & Arthur (Apr 2021) – Part 1 of 2
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Re-queening and hive Splitting – Sara & Arthur (Feb 2021)
Parasitic Mite Syndrome – Arthur (Nov 2020)
Assessing the Health of Your Hive – Arthur (Jun 2020)
Members Recordings
2023 General Meetings
August General Meeting
- Discussion of dearth and how to minimize the stress on your hives.
- Q&A
April General Meeting
Presentation by Christine McDonald with Russian River Apiaries, about Social Media and Beekeeping.
March
Presentation on Queen Rearing by Melanie Kirby.
The bees found Melanie Kirby in the jungles of South America in 1997 and have since taken her around the globe introducing her to the broader fields of agroecology, conscilience research, and whole systems thinking.
After working for 8 years for several commercial beekeeping and queen producing operations, she established Zia Queenbees Farm & Field Institute in 2005 in the the southern Rockies of northern New Mexico- her home state- where she is also a registered tribal member of Tortugas Pueblo. ZQB specializes in regionally-adapted and conscientiously bred bees, applied farm research, pollination services, exquisite hive products, and outreach.
After being in the field for 20 years, Melanie returned to academia to pursue a graduate degree from Washington State University and now works as the Extension Educator at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM where she helped to establish the Land-Grant Ag extension department’s Thunder Bee & Pollinator programs.
Melanie serves on several boards including the NM Beekeepers Association, Western Apicultural Society of North America, American Beekeeping Federation, and Ecdysis. She also serves as a co-cooordinator for the national Managed Pollinator Protection Program working group and is the founder and lead facilitator of the Adaptive Bee Breeders Alliance. She is a writer, artist, National Geographic Explorer and Storytelling Fellow as well as a NM Coalition to Enhance Working Lands Fellow.
February
Stephanie Elle gave a presentation on making your own skin care products using beeswax and other natural ingredients.
2023 Board Meetings
August
March
Presentations
Introduction to Beekeeping
Introduction to Beekeeping Class, at the Morgan Hill Library Saturday, Feb 25th.
A survey of getting started beekeeping. Necessary equipment, costs, how to get bees, etc.
2022 General Meetings
Guest Presenter Recordings 2020-2021
At the request of guest presenters, please do not share these videos with non-members.