Bristol County Bee School

The cost is $45 and it includes a textbook, handouts and a 1-year membership to Bristol County Beekeepers Association. Please note that the 1-year membership is for an individual, a couple or a family, depending on how you want to sign up. Each “entity” is entitled to one vote. This is the course you should take if you are even thinking about keeping bees, or if you have tried it and want to know more about it.

Subjects will include the biology of honeybees, how to acquire your first bees, buying or building a beehive, plants for the bees, diseases and how to treat them, queens, extracting and bottling honey. A review of what to do for all four seasons will give you an idea of what is involved. There will be lots of time for questions and answers, and a chance to talk to people that have just started as well as those veterans with 100 hives that can talk about tons of honey.

Around April, boxes containing three pounds of bees and one queen will arrive in this area from Georgia. If you have never weighed a bee, that amounts to about 10,000 bees. New (and old) beekeepers will stop by and claim their new bees.

Other beekeepers (some from this area) can supply bees in nucs. If you want to join us in getting some bees to keep, bee school would be a great idea.

Here is the Beginning Beekeeping Course Syllabus for 2009. Use this syllabus as a guide. Actual subjects may be presented in a different order. In the event of a "weather condition" it is incumbent upon the students to contact the Bee School leader to verify if class will be held. If we're really good we'll have the information on the web page, but the primary route is a phone call. The class will be made up on the dates listed.

The Bee School will start on February 18, 2009. It runs for 6 Wednesdays, from 7 to 9 p.m., and will finish April 8, which includes 2 dates for cancellation due to a weather event. All classes will be at the Bristol County Agricultural High School in Room 108.

PLEASE NOTE:
For the first meeting ONLY, i.e. February 18, please arrive around 6:30. This will allow time for registration and handouts and more time for Class Bee Talk. For subsequent meetings arriving for 7 p.m. will work out fine.

Month/Date	Class Title
February 18	Introduction to beekeeping
February 25	Woodenware
March 4	Spring and Summer mgmt.
March 11	Fall and Winter mgmt.
March 18	Pests and Diseases
March 25	Beekeeping Techniques
April 1	Rain/Snow date
April 8	Rain/Snow date