Adam first got interested in bees in about 1980 with his grandfather, who kept bees in West Berkshire, Vermont. Back then, you could buy a package with a queen from the Sears catalog for $30.

Adam began to explore top bar hives in 2009 and became the largest urban beekeeper in Halifax, Nova Scotia with just 20 hives in 2013.

Adam returned to Vermont and started Vermont Bees with his father, Bruce, in 2015. In order to educate himself more deeply, Adam decided to take a full time position with world-renowned beekeeper, Michael Palmer of French Hill Apiaries in St Albans in 2017.

Adam worked alongside Palmer for seven seasons and applied his experience with the master to the development of Vermont Bees.

Adam has spoken on the subject of bees and beekeeping in Canada and has been featured in radio and print media on the subject. His written work has appeared in Bee Culture Magazine.

Born and raised in the Adirondacks, Bianca is an adventurous person who loves to spend much of her time outside.

After an education in Communications and years of working indoors, she discovered a fierce interest in honeybees. She was an active member of the Champlain Valley Beekeepers Association of New York before she attended a lecture given to the club by Michael Palmer of Vermont. Impressed by his depth of knowledge, Bianca asked if she could visit - and she did. She volunteered at French Hill Apiaries and met Adam there in 2018, before getting a full time job offer from another commercial beekeeper. When she asked Mike for a reference, he told her that she should work for him instead.

Bianca continued to work with Mike for the next six seasons. Mike taught her how to graft and over the years, she developed a deep understanding of his queen rearing methodology.

By 2019, Bianca was helping with bee work at Vermont Bees as well. She continued to do so more and more in 2020, and became a partner in the business in 2021.

In 2022, Bianca was accepted to the Education on the Production and Insemination of Queen Bees (EPIQ) Program at Penn State. In 2023, she was selected to train in instrumental insemination techniques with Sue Cobey.

Bianca has been featured in Adirondack Life Magazine and has spoken about her experience in bees at Columbia University in 2020 and at the Apiscandia Beekeeping Conference in Sweden in 2024.

Bruce received his first bees as a surprise, when his father, Foster, brought him the equipment for a couple of hives and informed him “You’ve got bees comin’”. That was somewhere around 1989.

Since then, Bruce has kept bees in Cabot, Vermont and then later in the Hardwick and Morrisville areas as a hobbyist, before starting Vermont Bees with Adam in 2015. He has enjoyed swarm trapping, collecting wild colonies from trees and buildings and he’s helped a number of other beekeepers get started along the way.

An avid deer hunter like his father, Bruce loves to be outside in the Vermont landscape.

Referring to the bees, he often tells his son, “If your grandfather was still around, he’d be pretty tickled to see all of this.”