The Basics of Beekeeping
This popular beekeeping course will interest the beginner and novice beekeeper as well as those individuals looking for knowledge about bees and the beekeeping industry. A wide range of topics will be explored including equipment, biology, regulations, duties and responsibilities, honey and hive products, pests, and diseases.
The course is comprehensive but also fun and interactive. There will be opportunities for field trips designed to connect you to the bees and the beekeeping community. All field trips require a waiver to be signed.
Come and learn how to responsibly manage honeybee colonies and enjoy the relationship between the bees, their beekeeper, and our environment.
Week 1 – Getting started!
The first class will explore equipment, yard location and regulations, as well as the physical and financial requirements of beekeeping.
Field Trip Sunday March 19th – Spring in the apiary, feeding, medication and health.
Week 2 – Bee biology and Pest Management
Understanding bee biology is fundamental to understanding how the bees and colony work together in your Apiary. Integrated pest management is essential to discourage ants, raccoons, and bears from visiting your bee yard.
Week 3 – Disease management & Hive Products
Identifying, monitoring, treating your bees, as well as record keeping are all part of a larger integrated disease manage program for your apiary. There is more to bees than honey! Together we will explore all the other products a beekeeper can create from a hive.
Week 4 - Honey: Liquid and Comb
From bee to bottle, the story of honey. Harvesting, marketing, labeling and hands on extraction.
Week 5 - Getting your bees and communication
Bees can be captured in swarms, purchased in nucs, or split from an existing hive. We will discuss how to catch a swarm, install a nuc, split a hive and learn the magic of bee communication.
Week 6 - A year in the life of a Beekeeper
From start to finish this class will tie everything together as we explore the month-to-month account of the honeybee colony and the duties and responsibilities of the beekeeper that cares for them.