Sonoma County Beekeepers Association

10/15/2026

Education is important to us. Here at SCBA we love sharing our passion and knowledge of honey bees, pollinators, and habitat with our community.

We provide educational opportunities to members on sustainable beekeeping and creating habitat.

We also love going out to our community, to local festivals, events, and to classrooms, bringing the world of pollinators to youth and their families. Providing fun and educational experiences they will remember.

If you would like to see us at an event in the future, or your kids classroom, email [email protected].

10/03/2026

Holidays are right around the corner. And what is the holidays without Sees Chocolate??

This year you can get your Sees Chocolates and Support Sonoma County Beekeepers at the same time!

Visit our Sweet Bees Sees Store and your chocolates for the Holidays

https://www.yumraising.com/store/winter-2026-sweet-bees-of-sonoma-county-3dc0/ShaCar10190

10/02/2026

Native Bees of Sonoma County ~

North America has over 4,000 different species of BEES, with 1,600 different species of BEES in California. That is 40% of North Americas native bees are found here in California due to our diverse environments.

Here is Sonoma County we can find many of these native bees including bumble bees, carpenter bees, sweat bees, mining bees, leaf cutter bees, mason bees, and so many more.

It is a joy to live in an area that can provide nourishment for so many different species. It our job to protect them and help them thrive.

10/01/2026

10/01/2026

Join SCBA's Gardening for Bees for a special gardening class -
Intro to Gardening: Fall and Winter Series with local expert, Susan Bontempo

This 2 day class is Thursday October 1st and Thursday October 8 from 5:30-7:30

Each class is $25 or $40, and free for SCBA Members

Thursday October 1, 5:30-7:30
Preparing the garden for the fall and winter season:
- Nurture Soil Health: cover crops, compost, feeding organically, and the benefits of Mulch
- Plant selection: Right plant right place, How to plant,
- Fall & Winter Watering: Keeping water on site, and how to water during the winter months
Fall Maintenance for Spring success:

- Pruning, cleaning up, and winding the garden down for the winter

Thursday October 8, 5:30-7:30
Review of Class #1

Pest management:

- The principles of Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
- Resources for pest identification
- How and when to use pesticides
- Managing common seasonal pests:
Snails, slug, Rats, gophers, moles, raccoons, Weeds

Location Michael Ellis School
3641 Stony Point Rd, Santa Rosa

https://sonomabees.org/event-6859673?fbclid=IwdGRjcAUqsxlleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBwZG9mBWZkaWQWUPfDynqRIcRNAx873AkMcbmIjyRqJ3NydGMGYXBwX2lkCjY2Mjg1NjgzNzkAAR6V168cR6UXjtgjo9ivO0-E4sYrB0oQph1Y5F7w75OSzH4hB34onsH_rOuPKw_aem_QruLahJ4r9JvvHD6TUJkxQ

09/28/2026

Fall is a great time for the garden and enhancing your pollinator habitat. When you add new plants in the fall, just before they go dormant for the winter, they will then be able to focus their energy on their roots, getting established, and ready to flourish in the spring.

As you are preparing your garden, do not clean up too much. Those old stems from sunflowers and other native plants make perfect places for native bees, like mason bees, and leaf cutter bees, to overwinter their eggs.

While most bumble bees will die off during the winter, the mated queens will go to ground to overwinter, emerging again in the spring.
Other ground dwelling bees will have eggs in tunnels under the soil and leaves.

Leaving the leaves protect many of next years pollinators.

Pictured here is a Maximilian Sunflower, a tall herbaceous perennial that returns every year. It blooms in the fall and produces dozens of gorgeous yellow flowers, that pollinators love, down each stem.

09/12/2026

Come out and see us today at Prickett's Nursery, Healdsburg for their customer appreciation celebrations

We have lots of materials on bees and our observation hive is on display.

Don’t have today? You will find us tomorrow at the Sebastopol Grange for Celebrate Sonoma Apples, 1-4.