Officers & Board of Directors - Colorado Professional Beekeeping Association

CPBA Officers

Lyle Johnston

President

Lyle Johnston is from Salida, Colorado, and has been keeping bees his entire life. His grandfather was one of the first livelihood-based beekeepers in Colorado. Lyle has been a leading officer in a number of beekeeping organizations over the years, at both regional and national levels. In the past, he has managed hives in 10 different states, but Colorado has always been his home where he has one of the largest beekeeping operations in the state. Lyle maintains an active involvement with beekeeping issues and is always interested to help beekeepers who are engaged on the many different levels of the industry.

Mike Andree

Vice President

Mike Andree operates a commercial beekeeping operation out of Salida, Colorado where he and his wife Jamie run 800 colonies for honey production. In the winter he helps to place more than 60,000 colonies for almond pollination in California. Mike began honey bee work in 2006 for the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture at Penn State University as a Research Technician. There, he assisted with various honey bee surveillance projects in conjunction with the USDA Bee Research Lab in Beltsville, Maryland. Mike was one of the first members of the Bee Informed Partnership formed in 2011. He worked in Honey bee research for 7 years. Mike has developed and furthered his love for beekeeping through working alongside beekeepers in the field as well as through his beekeeping wife Jamie.

Jacy Johnston Eylar

Secretary / Treasurer

Jacy Johnston Eylar is a fourth-generation Colorado heritage beekeeper. After finishing college, Jacy decided that she wanted to continue with the 107-year-old family tradition of beekeeping. In 2005 with her sister, Jamie, Jacy founded Beeyond The Hive which sells dozens of honey products at locations across Colorado. The CPBA officers are very appreciative to have Jacy’s business skills and dedication as Secretary/Treasurer.

CPBA Board of Directors

Al Summers

Al Summers serves as Communications Director for the CPBA. He is originally from Southern California where he grew up around beekeepers and beekeeping. Al’s neighbor was the County Bee Inspector. He worked for commercial beekeepers as a teenager processing and packing honey and beeswax before acquiring his first beehives in 1963. He has studied Entomology and Apiology in college at both undergraduate and graduate levels. After military service and college, Al moved to Colorado and he resumed (got new hives) beekeeping in 1983. He has been a member of several beekeeping organizations, including the Colorado Beekeepers Association, the American Beekeeping Federation, the American Association of Professional Apiculturists, the International Bee Research Association, and the Japan Beekeeping Association.

Danny Culhane

Danny Culhane is from another heritage beekeeping family in Colorado and has been beekeeping all of his life. The Culhane family has been selling honey continuously on the Western Slope starting with Danny’s father, Vernon, in 1925. Vernon bought Honeyville in 1986 from the Mayer family who started it in 1918 in California and relocated to Durango in 1953. Danny and his wife Sheree have built the Honeyville business into a regionally famous source for honey and many honey-related products. Nowadays, Danny and Sheree operate Honeyville with their son Kevin, the third generation of beekeeping Culhanes. Danny, Sheree, and Kevin remain dedicated to informing and educating the general public about the wonderful products and benefits we derive from the honey bee.

Hellen Jones

Hellen Jones and her husband Tom have been beekeeping in Eastern Colorado for over 55 years. Tom and Hellen regularly attend craft shows where they sell their honey and bee products. Hellen was the Secretary for the Colorado Beekeepers Association for over 13 continuous years and was responsible for the overall fiscal and organizational operations, and she never missed a meeting!. The CPBA Directors are pleased to have Hellen as one of our members — as not only a resource of knowledge and organizational experience but also as part of the institutional memory of beekeeping in Colorado.

Bob Todd

Bob Todd is a lifelong Colorado beekeeper. He started beekeeping in the 1960s and has operated a comb honey operation in Boulder County for many years. He studied entomology at CSU in the 1960s and has always been interested in helping and mentoring new Colorado beekeepers to give them a solid foundation on which to develop their beekeeping skills and knowledge.