2026 Swarm Call List

Want to be a volunteer swarm catcher in 2026? Register for  MABA’s Swarm Call List. Each spring, MABA members who which to volunteer to chase/catch swarms can request to be added to the club’s swarm call list.  You will indicate how high you are willing to climb to retrieve a swarm and where you live. The swarm list manager will make the call based on queue order, location, and preferences. Swarm calls come in at all hours. If you are on the swarm list, you may be called at any time. Being on the swarm list does not guarantee that…

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2026 Meeting Speakers

MABA has an amazing line-up of guest speakers planned for 2026. Mark your calendars and join us!Our meetings are held at Peachtree Road United Methodist Church in third-floor classroom C302 on the 2nd Monday of each month, except September and December when we hold our annual fall honey show/pot luck and holiday party respectively.NOTE: February's meeting will be held in the church's first floor Heritage Hall.Meetings begin with a mentoring session at 6:30 p.m., followed by a featured speaker at 7 p.m. Topics range from the latest findings in honey bee research to hive management, honey, beeswax, and other hive…

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February 2026 MABA Meeting: Kamon Reynolds

On Monday, February 9,  MABA will welcome Kamon Reynolds as our featured speaker. Kamon is the co-founder of the North American Honey Bee Expo (NAHBE), one of the largest honey bee expositions in the world. He started keeping bees as a teenager, and to this day, his favorite work is maintaining healthy hives and talking shop with fellow beekeepers. He and his wife of 14 years, Laurel Reynolds, co-run the Expo and all their beekeeping operations, specializing in quality bee genetics, pure Tennessee honey, and honey bee education. Together, they have filmed hundreds of educational videos to help new and…

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Beeswax Luminary Workshop

On Tuesday, October 27, 5-7 pm, MABA and Room & Board will present a Beeswax Luminary-Making Workshop. This event, led by Master Beekeeper Deb DeWitt, focuses on creating a variation of the traditional candle — a beeswax luminary bowl. These handcrafted luminaries are not only beautiful keepsakes but also emit a sweet honey scent and a tranquil glow.This MABA-sponsored event will be held at Room & Board's Westside Provisions District location at 1170 Howell Mill Rd NW, Atlanta, GA 30318. All workshop materials will be provided. Hors d'œuvres, beer and wine will be served. The workshop is FREE, but enrollment…

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November 2026 MABA Meeting

At MABA’s Monday, November 9 meeting, we will welcome Jeff Horchoff as our speaker. His topic will be "The Many Hats of a Beekeeper." Bees have been Jeff’s passion or over 20 years, but that passion was never fully realized until he 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 he began seeing bees in a different light, a marvel of God’s creation. Jeff had every intention of becoming a monk. As the fledgling Abbee Honey Operation at St.…

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October 2026 MABA Meeting

At our October 12 meeting, MABA will welcome Randy McCaffrey (AKA: 628 Dirt Rooster). His topic will be: "Recognizable Patterns in Honey Bee Behavior." Randy  has 31 years as a contractor and structural claims specialist.  At the age of forty he developed a fascination with honey bees.  He discovered beekeeping after assisting his brother who is also a beekeeper, with the live removal (cut out) of a bee hive in an old furniture warehouse.  In 2010 armed with his knowledge of construction and his newfound fascination with bees he began removing and relocating feral bee colonies from commercial and residential…

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July 2026 MABA Meeting

12B Our speaker will be beekeeper Nathalie B of Bee Mindful Honey Farms (Driftwood, Texas). With close to 400 colonies and 15 years expertise in Beekeeping Education and Professional Beekeeping Services, Nathalie B. is an internationally recognized speaker and advocate for Treatment-Free, sustainable beekeeping. She is best known for promoting Horizontal Top-Bar Hives as a simple, affordable, accessible, and easy-to-manage option for backyard beekeepers. She optimized and redesigned existing plans to create a global standard for Top-Bar Hive designs, allowing cross-country interchangeability of hives and comb for suppliers and customers. She invented the Flex Hive, an internationally acclaimed Langstroth-to-Top-Bar adapter,…

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June 2026 MABA Meeting

12BOur speaker will be beekeeper Sam Comfort of Anarchy Apiaries.Our meetings are held at our new Westside Provisions District meeting space (1170 Howell Mill Road, Atlanta, Georgia 30318; corner of Howell Mill Road and 14th Street). Park in the WSPD parking deck (validated parking), and follow the MABA signs. The new meeting space is a former retail space (Unit P12B) located on the ground-floor level of the building three doors down from the Flower Child restaurant, and directly across the street from Shake Shack.  MABA meets on the 2nd Monday of each month, except September and December when we hold…

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May 2026 MABA Meeting

On Monday, May 11, our speaker will be Tucka Bee, a small scale commercial beekeeper,  queen breeder, and candle maker, and owner of Tucka Bee, LLC. Tucka manages about 300 colonies in south Florida. Our meetings are held at our new Westside Provisions District meeting space (1170 Howell Mill Road, Atlanta, Georgia 30318; corner of Howell Mill Road and 14th Street). Park in the WSPD parking deck (validated parking), and follow the MABA signs. The new meeting space is a former restaurant space (Unit P10A) located on the ground-floor level of the building immediately next door to the Flower Child restaurant,…

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2026 UGA Certified Beekeeper Testing

On Saturday, May 2, MABA will offer UGA Certified Beekeeper testing. The Certified Beekeeper level is the first step of a four-step program in UGA’s Master Beekeeping program. MABA has been authorized by UGA to administer the exam here in Atlanta. To test at this level you must have at least one year's hands-on experience keeping honey bees. The official text for the program is the 2007 edition of First Lessons in Beekeeping, by Keith Delaplane, which is available for purchase from numerous online sources and at MABA meetings. The exam consists of a written and a practical portion, requiring approximately 2 hours to…

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