How it all started

Ms. Judy Buehler was a member of the Colonial Beekeepers as were many others from Williamsburg. The drive was not always conducive to going to meetings. Someone sent out an email in the Colonial Beekeepers that it would be great if we had a group up in Williamsburg. So, she started to have people come to her house. There were about 20 members back then. Judy first noted it in her calendar as February 20, 2017.

Meetings were at 5:30 on the 3rd Monday of each month. The main decision was where to meet. At first, they met at King of Glory Church. It was very loose discussions of what people were going through. Herschel Walker tended to take over the meetings with a lot of thoughts for the future, but he and Judy ran the meetings. Judy tried to get more structure rather than discussing the same things every time. Somewhere along the line Judy agreed to be president. Usually there were about eight at the early meetings.

In 2018, Judy received a compliance letter from the county demanding she remove her beehives which she had in her backyard for over 7 years. A neighbor had apparently complained to the county and her beehives (2) were voluntarily removed. Michael Garvin in 2019 (acting as a new club president), petitioned the James City County Board of Supervisors for a hearing to rewrite the law as it was then. Since the law did not specify whether or not bees could be kept in residential neighborhoods, it was deemed not allowed. Mr. Garvin met with board members on several occasions outlining the specifics of allowing residential beekeeping. The proposal was made, and the Viginia State Beekeeper Keith Tignor was in attendance as were several members of WAB. The new law was established legalizing residential beekeeping in September 2019!