Meetings
UF/IFAS, Stefani Road
Second Tuesday, 7:00 p.m. The bees are not in the building.
Escambia & Santa Rosa counties
Bees, neighbors, and the second Tuesday.
Escarosa is the club for people keeping honey bees in the western Panhandle, for anyone about to start, and for neighbors who will never own a hive and still want to help bees and butterflies.
- When
- Second Tuesday, 7:00 p.m.
- Where
- Cantonment extension office
- Who
- Keepers and neighbors
Who it’s for
A hive is welcome. It is not the price of admission.
Starting out
A checklist, Florida registration, and the local nectar year.
Already keeping
Mites, beetles, a summer dearth, and someone who has already made the mistake.
No hive, still useful
Plant, mow less, and ease off pesticides and herbicides.
A swarm, or a jar
Bees in the oak, or honey for the show and the fair tasting.
Why the club exists
Two counties, one meeting, a lot of humidity.
Escarosa started in 1984, when Malcolm “Doc” Bullard got local keepers into one room. The City of Pensacola gives the club a site for a club apiary on Jerry Maygarden Road. That yard is where Citizen Scientist programs and hands-on training happen.
This is gallberry, palmetto, wildflower, and Chinese tallow country. It is not the Apalachicola tupelo belt.
Next meeting
Second Tuesday, 7:00 p.m.
UF/IFAS Escambia County Extension, 3740 Stefani Road, Cantonment. Visitors walk in. No suit — the bees are not in the building.
Out in public
A honey show, a tasting, and the fair.
The club judges honey on an October Saturday and spends fair week at the Pensacola Interstate Fair. In Building 3 the public tastes local beekeepers’ honey and votes for a favorite.
About the association
A room full of people who have already opened a hive in this weather.
Escarosa Beekeepers Association is a volunteer nonprofit for Escambia and Santa Rosa counties. Malcolm “Doc” Bullard started it in 1984. The room includes people with hives, people about to get them, and people who will never keep bees.
Since 1984
Doc Bullard started the club when almost nobody here kept bees.
Malcolm “Doc” Bullard is the founder the club names, and 1984 is the year it counts. He retired from the Navy at Ellyson Field in 1977, took up honey bees, and ran the family farm, Golden Harvest. His obituary later called him a co-founder and dated the association to 1987. We keep the club’s year. He served as president twice.
- 1984
Doc gets Escambia and Santa Rosa keepers into one association and teaches the people who show up.
- Wednesdays
An older Florida State Beekeepers roster puts the meeting at the Ensley Masonic Lodge on North Palafox, on the second Wednesday. Sylvia Bullard, Doc’s wife, is listed as secretary and treasurer.
- 2015
The association incorporates in Florida on January 2. That May, Doc is still at an open-hive workshop with his son Morgan. He dies at home in Pensacola on October 12, at 84.
- 2016
The club and Pensacola International Airport put hives on airport land. The yard the club keeps now is on Jerry Maygarden Road — the secret bee yard in west Pensacola.
- Now
Second Tuesday, 7:00 p.m., at the UF/IFAS office in Cantonment. Training stays at the secret bee yard.
What we actually do
- Meet on the second Tuesday so questions have a deadline.
- Help a new beekeeper get a first hive that has a chance in July.
- Keep a club apiary on a City of Pensacola site for Citizen Scientist programs and hands-on training.
- Teach at workshops, the honey show, the Interstate Fair, and the People’s Choice tasting.
- Welcome people who help by planting, mowing less, and using fewer pesticides and herbicides.
What we don’t do
- We don’t sell queens, packages, or equipment on this site.
- We are not a pest-control company and we don’t guarantee a same-day swarm pickup.
- We don’t speak for UF/IFAS. We meet in their building.
- We don’t list officers’ home phones here.
Two places
The classroom is in Cantonment. The hives are with the city.
Club apiary
Jerry Maygarden Road
Citizen Scientist programs and hands-on training. Bring a suit. Not a drop-in.
The standing appointment
Second Tuesday. Seven o’clock. Cantonment.
The next one is the second Tuesday. UF/IFAS Escambia County Extension, 3740 Stefani Road, Cantonment, FL 32533. Visitors walk in.
Coming up
Your first night
- Arrive a few minutes early. The room is the extension classroom.
- You do not need a suit. The bees are not in the building.
- Hands-on training is a different day, at the club apiary on Jerry Maygarden Road. That day does need a suit.
- Walking in is free. Kids can come with a parent.
Finding the building
UF/IFAS Escambia County Extension
3740 Stefani Road
Cantonment, FL 32533
North of I-10, off Highway 29. The extension phone will not reach a club officer after hours.
Learning the local year
The Panhandle does not follow a northern beekeeping book.
Mild winters, a real spring flow, a mean summer, and a fall flower season. The dated honey flows are on the plants page.
Before you order bees
0 of 8
Saved on this device only. Tick what you’ve actually done.
With the lid off
The first open hive is at the club apiary.
The club apiary is on Jerry Maygarden Road in Pensacola, on a site the City of Pensacola provides. Come to a Tuesday meeting first and say you want a training day.
Florida makes you register
Every person with honey bee colonies has to register with FDACS. The registration number is marked on each hive. FDACS registration.
Nectar and the yard
What blooms here, and when the honey moves.
Western Panhandle dates, not a statewide average and not the tupelo river. Gallberry and palmetto are the spring crop. Neighbors without hives can still help by planting, mowing less, and spraying less.
When the nectar moves
Gallberry
Late April – early June. The main surplus in these two counties.
Saw palmetto
May – June. Overlaps gallberry. A honey of its own.
Chinese tallow
June, sometimes early July. Heavy where the trees already stand. Do not plant more.
Summer gap
July – mid-August. A dearth for most managed yards.
Fall flowers
Late August – November. Goldenrod, Spanish needles, asters. Winter bees, sometimes a little honey.
Plants that earn a place
Through the year
The meeting is steady. Everything else gets announced.
If a date matters, hear it twice: once in the room, once on Facebook.
- 01 Meeting
Second Tuesday, 7:00 p.m., extension office, Cantonment. Visitors walk in.
- 02 Hands-on training
Club apiary, Jerry Maygarden Road. Bring your own suit. Announced at meetings. Not a drop-in.
- 03 Citizen Scientist
Same apiary. Ask at a Tuesday meeting if you want to take part.
- 04 Honey show
A Saturday morning in October at 3740 Stefani Rd. Unlabeled jar if you want it judged. Watching is free.
- 05 Interstate Fair
Fair week, usually October. Honeybee exhibit. The People’s Choice tasting is in Building 3.
- 06 People’s Choice
During the fair, Building 3. The public tastes local beekeepers’ honey and votes for a favorite. Fair admission is the fair’s ticket.
Two tables for honey
The judged show is jars and a score sheet in Cantonment. The People’s Choice tasting is spoons and a ballot in Building 3 at the Pensacola Interstate Fair. If this page and Facebook disagree, Facebook is right.
Outside links
Florida first, then the two counties.
These are the pages the club actually points people toward.
Florida, first
FDACS beekeeper registration
Required if you keep colonies in Florida.
FDACS apiary inspection
Inspectors and pests of regulatory concern.
Florida Honey Bee Plants
The north-Florida bloom table. Tupelo on that map is not the crop here.
Attracting native bees
Clumps, a long bloom season, and no insecticide on open flowers.
UF/IFAS Escambia County
The meeting host. Their phone is not the bee club.
Escarosa on Facebook
Where date changes and swarm posts actually land.
Come by
Tell us what you walked in with.
There is no message form on this page. The meeting and the Facebook page are staffed by actual members.
The room
Second Tuesday of every month
7:00–8:30 p.m. Central
UF/IFAS Escambia County Extension
3740 Stefani Rd
Cantonment, FL 32533
Write the club
Date changes, workshop fees, and swarm posts live on Facebook.