Beekeepers Take Cue from Bees and Work Together
The Back Yard Beekeepers Association (BYBA) will make Emmanuel Episcopal Church a buzzing hive of activity for four consecutive Mondays in January.
We are thrilled to be holding Bee School in this beautiful setting alongside so many like-minded people. It is expected that the course will not only attract aspiring beekeepers who will be given valuable basic information and advice, but also individuals who are working to support pollinators.
The School will take place at the Emmanuel Episcopal Church at 285 Lyons Plains Road in Weston on Jan. 8, 15, 22 and 29 with a snow date of Feb. 5. The cost will be $60 for the instruction which includes one year membership to BYBA. For those who are already members, the cost will be $30. The class will run from 7 to 9 p.m. on those nights.
The school will be led by Andy Hatt who has kept bees for over 35 years. He is a certified Master Beekeeper through Cornell University and is also involved with the Cornell University School of Agriculture, teaching the opening class to Bee School undergraduates.
The sessions will be co-hosted by David Blocher and Chris Rountos. Rountos, who taught last year’s Package Installation & First Hive Inspection Workshops, is excited to be joining the Bee School team this year. Blocher is an Eastern Apiculture Society certified Master Beekeeper with long experience with honey bees. Videographer Robin Hodgkins will be filming each class so that recordings can be made available for students a few days after class.
Bee School is just one part of a network of supports which are so essential for new beekeepers today. Hobbyist beekeepers nationally suffer nearly 60% losses annually due to a variety of threats to honey bees. But 95% of hobbyist beekeepers do not belong to any club or association where they can share information and techniques. Bee School students are on the right track.
After their basic instruction, they will make contact with an experienced mentor, who is available for advice and guidance. Bee School grads will have access to multiple local workshops in one of our Back Yard Beekeepers Association bee yards. They will also be invited to participate in monthly New Bee Zoom meetings on seasonal topics, and attend our regular monthly meetings, which feature regional and nationally known speakers. Largely because of these supports, Back Yard Beekeepers typically have a much higher success rate than the national average.
The takeaway is that they will be joining a large network of seasoned beekeepers. The Bee School curriculum will help them make better beekeeping decisions early on by making the students aware of equipment options, techniques for ordering and installing bees, and protecting them against threats. They will start ahead of the game and we want to stay right with them to support their success. They will be working together, taking our cues from the bees in a hive.
Instructors and mentors will share the wonder they feel each time they open a colony of bees. How are honey bees able to construct thousands of perfect hexagons using wax they produce from their own bodies, without an oral or written language, in almost complete darkness?
It takes one’s breath away just to think about it. They have the largest brain of any insect, and possess several traits that make them such valuable pollinators. Honey bees are the only organism on earth other than people where individuals can communicate to each other how to find a source of food. Through her dance, a worker bee can communicate what kind of food she has discovered, how far away it is, and in what direction it can be found. This is one reason why they are such excellent pollinators. We discuss the dance of the honey bee in Bee School and so much more.
Visit the website to learn more about Bee School and to register, https://backyardbeekeepers.com/ Contact Paula Wolf at paulawolf@email.com for more information.
