Agriculture + Lifestyle

Wilbanks receives GFB Commodity Award

by Jennifer Whittaker
Editor, Georgia Farm Bureau News

Posted on August 31, 2024 12:43 PM

GFB President Tom McCall, left OR right, presents Reg Wilbanks with the 2024 Georgia Farm Bureau Commodity Award during the organization’s annual commodity conference Aug. 9 in Tifton. / Photo by Jennifer Whittaker

Reg Wilbanks, who advocated for beekeepers and the honey industry during the 44 years he served as president of Wilbanks Apiaries, is the 2024 Georgia Farm Bureau (GFB) Commodity Award recipient.

Wilbanks held leadership roles in numerous beekeeping organizations promoting research and policy to protect honeybees from pests and diseases. In the 1970s he collaborated with state legislators to have the honeybee designated Georgia’s state insect.

After graduating from Georgia Southern University, Wilbanks returned to Claxton to work at the family apiary, started by his father, Warren, and grandfather, Guy. The Wilbanks transformed the queen and package bee business, creating an innovative winter-feeding system still widely used by beekeepers. 

The Wilbanks’ operation flourished under Reg’s leadership, reaching a peak of more than 7,000 bee colonies and supplying 60,000 queens and 20,000 package bees to farms across the U.S. growing crops that depend on pollination.  

Wilbanks is a past president of the Georgia Beekeepers Association, the American Bee Breeders Association and the American Beekeeping Federation. He also served on the National Honey Board. 

A longtime Farm Bureau member, Wilbanks chaired the GFB Honeybee Committee for many years and served on the American Farm Bureau Honeybee Committee. He is a past Evans County Farm Bureau president.

Wilbanks’ sons are continuing the family’s beekeeping legacy. Patrick owns and operates Wilbanks Apiaries. Tim owns and operates Heritage Honeybee in Sullivan, Wis.  

Wilbanks  now resides in Pearson, Ga., where his wife, Melissa, is the Atkinson County school superintendent.