November 2021

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Christine Kurtz is a seasoned and experienced beekeeper with over a decade long work with bees, using a sustainable, treatment free and all-natural management style. Long time Sonoma County Ca resident, she is familiar with the ebbs and flows of the seasons and the cycle of the local honeybee. A strong believer in supporting locally adapted stock of bees, helping beekeepers become better beekeepers and help each other restock and share their bees as well as creating small queen rearing groups. She is a social entrepreneur that helped create localized communities within the Sonoma County Beekeepers’ Association to facilitate education, connection between beekeepers, sharing of resources and involvement in local schools and events. She is an environmental activist determined to share the strong messages bees have for us all especially with the challenges we face with our environment. In her 2013 term as President of Sonoma County Beekeepers’ Association, and tenure within the SCBA Board of Director - she spearheaded efforts that lead to the 2013 North Bay Leadership Award - “Paint the Community Green” for outstanding work in the non-profit area, earning her bee association with Special Congressional Recognition, California State Legislature Recognition and Sonoma County Board of Supervisor Honor and Acknowledgment. She was a part of the panel at UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center that defined the “Honey Wheel”. Christine was honored in 2014 with “Most Valuable Beekeeper” within the Sonoma County Beekeepers’ Association and also the start of her Honey Bee Consulting Business. She travels all over Sonoma, Napa and Marin County helping people with their bees. In 2015 after a yearlong study of Permaculture she got her Permaculture Certificate concentrating on water management on her property to lower the impact of this precious resource to use to maintain a large organic garden. With her lives her husband of 30 years, 15 chickens, a goat, 2 dogs, and an ebb and flow of between 10 and 25 hives. Her stationary hives are in Petaluma, California in a semi coastal climate with long periods of dearth which often leaves the honey in the hive till Fall to make sure bees have enough of their own food to survive winter before any is harvested. Believing in lifelong learning, Christine is furthering her education about honey bees with Queen Rearing, continuing her studies in Permaculture and is currently in the Master Beekeepers Program at UC Davis about to start a research project on entombed pollen.