Meet Jeff Berta, Owner, Always Summer Herbs. Honeybees - What is Happening, and Our Hope for the Future

Wharton Club of DC Members invited to this Special BCC Rotary Club Event: Networking, Meal & Talk. Attendees will even get a taste of his fabulous honey! All Members & Guests Welcome. RSVP by 9/29

Based in Pennsylvania, Jeff Be jeff rta is a commercial beekeeper, queen breeder, and researcher who will discuss the hope for the future of honeybees. He is part of a contingent of scientists, and like-minded beekeepers who are working towards happy, hardy honeybees.

A fellow Rotarian, Jeff Berta, Owner, launched Always Summer Herbs in Slippery Rock, PA in 1997 providing high quality, unique and fantastically huge flowers and herbs to commercial garden centers. Jeff expanded the business in 2002 with honey production and onto the web (www.alwayssummerherbs.com), retailing raw honey, herb plants, and teas nationwide. Honey and bee nuclei are the fastest growing segments of his business.

Jeff has been awarded US Department of Agriculture Sustainable Agriculture Research Experiment (SARE) grants 7 times (2011-2018) for his work in the Pennsylvania Queen Bee Improvement Project. Jeff and a collection of like-minded beekeepers across the state bred survivor stock crossed with hygienic genetics using chemical-free IPM methods to develop more resilient bee stock.

In 2014 Jeff was appointed a board member, then president of the Heartland Honey Bee Breeders Coop, which specializes in bees that display a new and novel genetic trait: Mite-biting behavior. These bees will protect themselves from the parasitic Varroa mite by chewing the legs off of them, thus killing them. Currently, part of a USDA CARE grant for genetic selection with Purdue and Penn State Universities. Ongoing he is enrolled in the University of Florida for a MS in Entomology and Agroecology. He was featured on the WTAE Channel 4 news and nationally on NPR.

Jeff regularly lectures at local clubs, state and national societies, Home Shows and at the Phipps Conservatory and loves teaching others about growing herbs, brewing teas, and keeping happy, hardy honeybees.

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