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The Delaware Beekeepers Association is holding courses teaching aspiring beekeepers how to properly take care of bees - and its importance.
“The Beekeeping 101 [course] is a time when we as beekeepers, are teaching the actual person who, maybe beekeeping already or they may be thinking about it,” said Carla Lowe, the President of the Delaware Beekeepers Association, “So, they take this course to find out what exactly it is they would be doing as a beekeeper.”
Lowe says they recently held that first 101 class in the series.
“First course went awesome. I believe we had about 36 people there. Some of our members are families, so they might have their spouse, or maybe an older child that might be in the beekeeping with them, but it went fabulous. We actually ran over in time because we had a lot of questions.”
Lowe notes the next course in the series will be aimed as bit more at experienced beekeepers who are trying to better their skills at beekeeping.
“These courses, the Beekeeping 201, are for beekeepers who have been successful for a year, maybe 2. Maybe even 3. And they want to find out a little bit more, like more advanced how to deal with the pest. Maybe some proactive things they can do,” Lowe said.
Lowe notes the best time to get started with beekeeping is now - before the spring.
“If you're thinking about keeping bees, from experience, I would say you need to prepare in the wintertime or even a year ahead of time. As Delaware beekeepers, we do have mentoring, or what we call the buddy system,” said Lowe. “A lot of our beekeepers allow beekeepers or people who are interested in beekeeping to come and have the experience of working in a bee yard.”
And if you are thinking of getting started, Lowe says that honeybees are the best kind of bee to work with.
“Honeybees are the only bee that actually provides enough honey for humans to actually use it,” she said. “We always make sure our bees have enough honey to survive on through the winter, and then we take the excess.”
Lowe adds she’s excited to give people a chance to get a taste of what beekeeping is all about through these courses.
“Beekeeping is not a hobby anymore. It’s a lot of work and it costs a lot of money. So, we give that opportunity for them, usually the people that have been to several of the monthly meetings in their county, so they have an idea of what it's all about.”
If you want to get better at beekeeping or just want to learn more about bees, visits delawarebeekeepers.com for more info. The next class in this set of courses is Beekeeping 201 on February 22nd at St. John’s Reserve.