Beekeeping Classes, Coaching, and Inspiration
NYC & Hudson Valley
Welcome to Bee Joy
Bee Joy celebrates & encourages a broader understanding of the value of honeybees and other pollinators, with passion toward nurturing nature for a greater good. Founder Grai St. Clair Rice's focus is on helping to create loving, confident, and educated beekeepers through classes, coaching, writing and public presentations. Bee Joy strives to encourage a healthy environment by developing a greater understanding amongst the public at large on ways to create land management practices and planting concepts for a landscape abuzz with life.
Studying the delicate balance of our natural world cultivates awareness and inspires efforts to preserve & protect Earth's biodiversity.
Celebrating the vibrant relationship between bees & blossoms inspires us to nurture and protect our natural world.
Slowing down and appreciating the gifts of nature - with a touch of joy - transforms our relationship to our surroundings and the health of our planet.
Bee Joy provides intimate learning beekeeping experiences through in-person classes and private coaching for individuals & small groups. Rooted in a natural, organic approach to beekeeping, informed by science, Grai's classes support the unique experience of tending bees - engaging all of your senses, enlivening your intellect, and connecting you to the nurturing of nature. Seasonal beekeeping classes & hands-on workshops are held in New Paltz. Private beekeeping coaching in the Hudson Valley and New York City is available upon request.
Engaged Beekeeping: Beginning Your Journey with Organic Beekeeping
Feb 22-23, 2025 10AM-5PM
This two-day class provides a foundation for a beekeeping practice that is both intelligent and passionate. Practical and scientific knowledge will be explored, as will a philosophical-spiritual approach, that will enhance your connection to Honey bees.
Circle Creative Collective
62 Plains Rd, New Paltz, NY 12561, USA
Preparing for the Fall/Winter Seasons
August dates TBA
Midsummer is a critical time to assess the strength of your colonies as they head towards the lean months. Understand the dynamics of the season and get them strong for winter survival. 4 hour class.
Bee Joy Apiary
540 Springtown Rd, New Paltz, NY 12561, USA
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Beekeeper • Writer • Speaker
Grai St. Clair Rice
Grai St. Clair Rice is an organic beekeeper with 19 years' experience, as well as a writer/artist based in New York. Grai started BeeJoy.org to continue teaching and coaching beekeepers, and consult on landscape plantings for pollinators. She engages the public with visual presentations on beekeeping and gardening for honey bees, and helps broaden the vital knowledge and appreciation of honey bees and other pollinators.
Grai co-founded HoneybeeLives in 2005, as an organization dedicated to encouraging a strong honey bee population by teaching in-depth workshops with an organic, biodynamic approach. Grai is also the founder of the contemporary Ulster County Beekeepers Association, and became a badge-carrying Citizen Pruner in NYC in 2013.