Tampa Bay Beekeepers Association logo and header

About

Fostering Knowledge and Responsible Beekeeping for Nearly 100 years

The Tampa Bay Beekeepers Association (TBBA) is a beekeeping association for WannaBees, NewBees, Sideliners and Commercial beekeepers in the Greater Tampa Bay Area. Members are from Hillsborough, Pasco, Polk, Manatee, Pinellas Counties in Florida. The TBBA is committed to spreading awareness about honey bees, supporting responsible beekeeping, and building a thriving community of enthusiasts through education and collaboration.

The Tampa Bay Beekeepers appears to have been organized in the mid 1930’s the oldest record we (currently) have found is from a 1936 Tampa Times article. The Hillsborough and Pinellas Beekeepers formed a cooperation and had a meeting with the Florida State Beekeepers Association per a December 3rd, 1920 article.

TBBA’s Board of Directors

Meet the passionate people guiding the Tampa Bay Beekeepers Association forward.

Bert Blackburn

President
Email:
BertBiv@aol.com

Commercial Beekeeper & Beekeeping Supplies dealer since 2010

Bill Clark

Vice President
Email: ClarkBill75@gmail.com

Hobbyist beekeeper since 2016 and woodworker

Bobbie Gebhart

Secretary
Email: TBBAbees@gmail.com

Hobbyist beekeeper since 2021

Rein Verbeek

Treasurer
Email:
PRNL2000@aol.com

Hobbyist Beekeeper since 2014, Content Creator

Angela Rodriguez Diaz

Education Coordinator

Hobbyist Beekeeper, woodworker, and educator in English & Spanish, Proud Veteran

We are a club run by volunteers, we do not have manned phones,
please e-mail if you have questions! our email: TBBAbees@gmail.com

Beekeeping Support for Beginners and Experienced Beekeepers

We pride ourself in teaching about beekeeping, below some stories from members sharing their journey into beekeeping and how we’ve made a difference.

Hello World Featured Image

Luis

Novice Beekeeper

The TBBA field days were a great for me to learn what I needed to to to get started and helped to make my first year of beekeeping a success! I was nervous to get started but having been able to work next to TBBA beekeeper in the associations hives gave me confidence to get started.

Mike

Commercial Beekeeper

The varied monthly speakers are great, I have been keeping bees for a long time, yet every so often you do learn something new from the speakers field of expertise, or new developments.

Jennifer

Sideliner

Joining this association has been a transformative experience for me and assisted me in to reach beyond being a hobbyist and building my own beekeeping, honey and products from the hive small business.

TBBA BYLAWS :

TBBA All Rights Reserved 2025