For local folks, the 2013 Audubon Beekeeping School is coming up soon on Saturday, March 2nd. This annual event will be held at the Henderson County Extension Office and Expo Center, which is a great facility for events like this. It’s a wonderful way for anyone who is interested to learn a bit more about bees and beekeeping, as well as to rub elbows with local area beekeepers like yours truly.
honeybee on buckwheat flower
My wife and I attended the program last year, and had a lovely time while we learned. The school offers sessions for beginner, intermediate and advanced beekeepers, as well as a track called Beyond The Hive that features sessions on candle making, cooking with honey, and other uses for honey and bee products around the home. Several vendors were setup on site as well, including displays from Walter T Kelley and Dadant & Sons, which offered a chance for us beekeepers to do some shopping!
The keynote speaker this year will be Stephanie Tarwater, and the programs will begin at 8:45am and conclude at 3:00pm. Topics on the program are:
Beginners — “Equipment Assembly” by Larry Stone; “Beekeeping 101” by Jan Powell; “Install Package Bees/Splits” by Paul Stone and “First Year Management” by LV Dugger.
Intermediate — “Swarm Control” by Kent Williams; “Pests and Disease” by Stephanie Tarwater; “Backyard Beekeeping” by Brian Stiff” and “Honeycomb Production” by Ernest Cornett.
Advanced — “Pests and Disease” by Stephanie Tarwater; “Grafting Queens” by John Pace; “Other Ways of Raising Queens” by Jim Hazelrigg” and “Working With Bees” by Joe Taylor.
Beyond The Hive — “Cooking With Honey” by Amanda Hardy; “Nectar and Pollen Sources” by Jan Powell and “Herbs and Honey” by Betsy Stone.
Pre-registration fee is $15 until February 22, 2013, and includes lunch. Registration at the door will be $20. For a registration form, contact Jan Powell at 860-2942.
Kudos to those of you who keep bees. our city ordinances don’t permit it. Our yards are too small and the hives would be too close to neighboring houses. I don’t think I would keep them anyway. I’m too afraid of being stung, and I suspect that harvesting the honey would be a sticky mess. I do buy locally produced honey, which supports local beekeepers. did you know that honey from China is (sometimes, usually, always?) watered down with cheap sugar water?