Our Beekeper

Fred Putnam. Jr. is our beekeeper. He’s a Vermont Certified Beekeeper. Beekeeper certification in Vermont is a program to ensure that a beekeeper has basic knowledge and competencies to improve the survival of honey bee colonies.

Fred is responsible for all aspects of our field and honey house operations: tending and maintaining the health of our honey bee colonies, winter hive preparations, winter colony checks, extracting and jarring honey, educational workshops, and dozens of other related tasks.

Fred grew up on a dairy farm. From an early age, he was an integral part of the farm operations from milking and tending the cows to planting and harvesting field crops with his Dad and younger brother. He was also the primary gardener during his teen years and that continues today.

He was active in 4-H. His main 4-H projects were dairy, gardening, and tractor operations. He and his brother also tapped maple trees on the farm and boiled the sap to make maple syrup for family use. Maple production in the Putnam family started with his paternal grandparents. Several of his family members carry on the maple tradition today making large quantities of maple syrup.

Fred stayed connected with the family farm operations hands-on through frequent weekend visits for many years until his Dad retired from farming.

After graduating from college, Fred was hired as a Soil Scientist by the U.S.D.A. Forest Service on the Green Mountain National Forest in Vermont. A few years later, he was able to participate in a year-long intensive continuing education program that moved him into a new role as an Outdoor Recreation Specialist (campground, trail system, and Wilderness Management) still in Vermont. Almost 20 years later, after another 3-year continuing education effort, he was hired as a Safety and Occupational Health Specialist for both the Green Mountain and Finger Lakes National Forests (the Finger Lakes N.F. is in central New York state) a role he filled for almost 10 years.

After leaving the National Forest jobs, Fred was planning to return to the maple business – an endeavor that was and still is dear to his heart. The search for a suitable property took along time. In the meantime, he was asked if had ever considered beekeeping. After all this time associated with agricultural endeavors, the answer was, “No!” He didn’t know a thing about bees or beekeeping!

Long story made short; Fred and his wife and business partner began an intensive effort to learn about keeping bees. He finds the learning process to be exciting. That learning continues today. He also learned the honey bees are incredibly sensitive to a large number of adversities including pesticides, weather, insect parasites, viruses, and nearby human land management practices. He found that keeping honey bee colonies alive and healthy is very challenging.

Thanks to Zoom and other online platforms as well as in-person meetings and workshops, Fred is able to learn directly from cutting-edge researchers and beekeeping practitioners about advances in beekeeping. Fred puts this new information to use in his practice. While many beekeepers suffer high rate of colony loss, Fred’s overwinter survival rate and colony health has been very good. In keeping with his life-long history of animal and plant husbandry, that is his number one priority.

Over the years, the initial hobby became a small business that is now dba Country Blossoms Honey. Fred also conducts educational workshops for others through the Vermont Beekeepers Association and his local county club, the Addison County Beekeepers Association, to help others be successful at beekeeping.

With honey production, location, like real estate, is everything. The flavor of the honey produced depends solely on what’s growing withing a couple of miles of an apiary (an apiary is the place where a group of hives is kept) and that is beyond the control of beekeeper Fred!

Country Blossoms™ Honey is very fortunate to be in a northern hardwoods vegetation community interspersed with upland fields and openings growing lots of native vegetation. The flavor of the honey that comes from the nectar of flowering plants near our apiaries is outstanding. It’s beekeeper Fred’s job to make sure that this great flavor and the healthful properties unique to honey are not harmed in any way as the honey is brought from hive to jar. After tasting the results, we think he has succeeded at that!

Honey is an agricultural commodity - an agricultural “specialty crop” like vegetables, apples, berries, sweet corn, and maple syrup. When you ask Fred what he likes most about beekeeping, he’ll tell you, “After spending a large part of my life growing and tending animals and crops, it feels really good to be back to the challenge of tending critters and producing an agricultural food commodity – honey!”

Vermont Beekepers Association
Southern Adirondack Beekeepers Association
New Hampshire Beekepers Association
South Western Ohio Beekepers Association