LLHG 557 - Bee Keeping

Healthy, happy, easy-to-maintain honey bees not only reward their keepers with delicious honey, they provide a wonderful pollination service to neighborhood gardens. Learn how to select, house, and manage these beneficial insects as we look at hive components, costs, assembly, and location; use of a smoker; what to wear when working with bees; when to purchase bees; and from whom; how to install bees into the hive; and how to keep your bees healthy. Along the way we'll discuss bee anatomy and social structure, and provide you with a month-by-month schedule of bee keeping activities. The last class is a field trip to the instructor's apiary and will include discussion and demonstrations on how to manage overwintered bees and setting them up for the Spring season. Special fee covers the text.